This morning I went to the desk and talked to the travel agent and front desk woman about an orphanage we could volunteer at and also which islands to go to. I had some more banana bread and pb for lunch. We decided to book a Twin Island Escapade trip together which would take us to South Sea and Bounty Islands. Then Abby, Colin, and I decided to walk into Namaka town which was just down from out hotel. One our journey down there, we stopped at the University-called Fiji National University (FNU). This is one of 3 universities (means college in the States, however here college means high school) in Fiji total. We past security and walked into the campus---a female student approached us and began walking us around, showing us classrooms and the library and then security came to tell us that we needed to check in with the President of the University to walk around. So we headed back to meet him and then his receptionist gave us a full tour--we saw more classrooms, library, aviation school, cafeteria--got some fruit cake from a bake sale--mmm delicious! The University was similar to a much smaller college and concentrated on Tourism/Hospitality majors. These students wore uniforms--dark blue skirts, white blouses with a tie--very formal and professional looking--the students said they wore them to prepare for the business world and they also wore them to do on job training in the towns. Students classes were an hour long and the students said they took 6 classes a trimester. At this campus, they were taking classes like micro, macro, cooking classes, and hospitality classes.
We left the University and continued to walk down town. We checked some restaurants and shops along the way. Then we decided to take the public bus and get a little further down the street. The public bus cost 1.15 fijian dollars, had no windows and a very old school bus. The bus polluted a lot and traveled rather slowly, with all the potholes and drop-offs it had. There were about 20 Fijians on the bus with us. We got off at the McDonalds stop (the one McDonalds in this town) to check it out. Everything was the same similarly price. After leaving McDonalds (Called Mac Donalds here), we walked down the street and spotted the Treasure House Children's Home. We wanted to volunteer so we checked the visiting hours and we were just on time for one to begin so we walked into the house, met the 3 nanny's in charge whom welcomed us for the next few hours. We were told 20 children lived here from the age of 2 weeks to 18 years old. The younger kids were there now--preschool and younger because the rest were at school. The kids were just getting up from their naps so we helped with snack time (cookies and milk) and then played outdoors with them. There were about 7 of them--they started to open fairly quickly to us. I played on the trampoline with a few of them, gave piggyback rides, played ball and jump rope, read a book, and got chased a lot today. They all just wanted to be played with. Two other volunteers from Norway came about an hour after we did--they had been there a week already with the kids and had 2 months to go. They told us that the kids don't get attached and leave up a wall because they have seen so many volunteers come in and out but they are always loving. Sure right, because I got many hugs that day! We played for another hour and a half. It was so rewarding to be able to give the kids some attention. Some of them got upset if I shared my attention between two of them though. I didn't know it was possible just to walk into an orphanage and volunteers such as we did, but we were openly welcomed. The house we entered had a living room with two cribs and babies inside and a kitchen.
At first I was kind of skeptical of getting to close to, getting or giving them something. One little boy had a skin rash/disease--it made me feel awful but I had to try and stay clear of him for safety reasons. Abby, Colin, and I really enjoyed ourselves and were beaming when we left. It made me feel good and I enjoyed every minute of this experience!
After the orphanage we decided to walk down into Nadi (said like Nandi) Town. It was only 20 minutes. We stopped at a local gas station and got some ice cream to cool us down and then continued on. Nadi town was much like a Chinatown---bunch of shops selling the same things, lots of clothing and shoe stores though, very pushy and invasive owners though. They are constantly trying to get you to walk in their store and buy anything. I didn't like this town at all--made me very uncomfortable because people would follow us around and try to sell us things even after we walked away. Then were markets selling the same things for cheaper down the street. Here we could barter for lower prices though. We walked up and down the main road and then decided to head back to town. We took another bus home---costing .70 Fijian cents this time. We got back to the University stop at 6:30PM and then walked back to the hotel. We stopped at the bakery next to the hotel and got some cinnamon rolls for the morning. We passed about 6 groups of guys playing Rugby at this time too. I stopped for a minute or two too teach but I had no clue what was going on.
Once we got back to the room, we all showered and put together some dinner---I had a pb and j which I grilled under an iron---hahahaha just using my resources and some banana bread. We played some cards---more Egyptian Ratscrew and BS, the no name game (all face cards game--dont know name), but we all got pretty tired quickly. Today was a great cultural experience day---I enjoyed the majority of what didn't creep me out!
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