Macaulay Prize Winner 2011

Rebecca Norfolk was the 2011 recipient of the Macaulay Scholarship, and used it towards her trip to Fiji. This is the report of her experience.

After working outside of school hours for two years and with the great help of GDST's Old Girl's Association, I was able to have the most amazing, rewarding experience in Fiji, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. 

Global Vision International is a non-profit volunteering organisation, where anyone can volunteer on numerous projects around the world. After a lot of research around many different organisations and projects, I finally decided on teaching in the Yasawa Islands in Fiji with GVI. Getting there involved an 11 hour flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong, and then another 11 hour flight to Nadi, Fiji. Travelling alone, I was slightly overwhelmed (and extremely tiered), but managed to make my way to the hostel nearby. The next morning, I went to meet the rest of the volunteers, and the staff, who would take us to our base, on a small island called Nanuya Lai Lai, which is in the Yasawa group of islands, about 5 hours away from the mainland by ferry.

We lived in extremely basic conditions, which for me, made the experience even better. We were living in paradise, why did we need electricity or the Internet? We could manage without an oven, you get used to the spiders and the rats are actually quite friendly... the fleas were a bit of a pain though... It always sounds much worse when you re-tell it, but living amongst people who become like family, on a tropical island on the beach, living with locals who are essentially a tribe, it really couldn't have been any better. Being accepted into their community was a truly unique experience, for which I was very grateful. Our weekends consisted of walking round to the other side of the island to an even more beautiful beach (you can walk round Nanuya Lai Lai in about 1 hour), sunbathing, playing cards, playing volleyball, swimming in the Blue Laggon caves, lying in the hammocks, and getting involved in the kava circles. A kava circle is not, unfortunately, a circle of people drinking sparkling wine. Kava is a muddy brown liquid made from the root of a plant (presumably a kava plant?), and it is a Fijian tradition to drink it. Moses ,Tai, and Lice [Leeday]- the three Fijians who worked closely with us, would offer us Kava in a coconut shell. To receive it, we had to clap once, and after drinking it, clap three times. There were other customs that sometimes came into play, for instance if the chief of the village came to join us, we would never ever speak without being spoken to (especially if you are a girl), and never wear anything on your head, as heads are sacred. The effect of Kava- I'm not entirely sure of, all I know is that when I had it, my throat felt a bit numb and I felt very calm. Other than that it was just a liquid that tasted a bit muddy.

Our weekdays however had a much stricter routine. We would be up by 7 am, or 6.30 if you were on breakfast duty, which involved collecting water, and making porridge. After breakfast we would all go off on our separate projects. We had a Marine team who helped protect the marine life, construction team who did various things such as install water tanks on other islands and fix school toilets. Then there was the education team, and we would get the speed boat to school every morning at 8 am. I loved the boat rides, we would speed through little islands towards Nacula, the island the school was on. On a Monday, we would have assembly in the morning, and then begin class. After school, we would go back to base, do some lesson planning and general preparing, cook dinner, eat and be in bed by about 8.30.

So why were we needed? Ratu Meli Memorial School on Nacula Island was one of the poorest schools in Fiji. The children were noticeably the most undernourished and academically behind children in the Yasawa Islands. The issue is, is that children on the mainland have access to better resources, and have a more diverse upbringing, their parents being able to speak fluent English and the level of poverty is much lower. Children who live on the island, did not grow up with parents who speak English, or who encourage them to do so. The Fijian curriculum is entirely in English, and therefore, not being able to understand much English causes huge problems in their ability. Many of the children were 2 or 3 years behind where they should be. Most of the children boarded at the school, living in very small dormitories, and very few changes of clothes. The village behind the school was a culmination of small shacks with tin roofs, and the extent of the poverty in the Yasawas was very clear on Nacula Island. Our job was to encourage reading, and bring more interactive methods of learning into the school, and made sure that sport, arts and crafts and music was included on their timetables.

I did two weeks of one-to-one teaching with the children who needed extra help, and then 4 weeks with my own class. I had Class Four, a class of 16 8-9 year olds. They were a lovely class with many children who really enjoyed learning and would help each other. They were also extremely loud and playful, but luckily I had learnt enough Fijian to control them, sometimes to their surprise. The word 'Kua' means stop, which I had to say fairly often. They were extremely competitive, so I included competitions in practically every class to keep them focused. For the first week with them, I was assisting their Fijian teacher, Mr Meli, before he went away for a week and I was left on my own. (!) The first class I taught completely alone, I did utterly mess up. Monday morning is maths time, and I was following the lesson plan given to me by Mr Meli, and that day we were learning multiplication grids. It wasn't until the lesson had finished, and the children had done all the work, that I realised I had taught them something completely incorrect. So the next day I re-taught them the whole thing. It was quite embarrassing.

I felt very proud working with GVI in the school. The project at Ratu Meli school had only been running for a year when I got there, and in that time they had changed the attitude of the teachers, they introduced sports, arts and crafts and music, they ensured that there is always a volunteer in each classroom, and that each child aged 7 and above always has a book that they are reading in their free time. I found it quite amusing, that in the staff room, there were posters telling the teachers to remember to come into school on time every day, and to remember their responsibilities and not go home for no reason in the middle of the day. They introduced house point systems, where the children would gain points for being on time, behaving in class, the usual things, but also to remember to bring in their own toilet paper, and to leave their machetes at home. We had a rota for the volunteers to take turns with who gets to have a chat with the headmaster about the way he does things. The headmaster was not a very nice man, and didn't take his job seriously. I had the pleasure of having to basically tell him off for leaving his used shaving razors on the school field- (no one wears shoes in Fiji). We soon realised he only listened to complaints when they came from a male volunteer. Charming.

My time in Fiji is a time I will always remember, and honestly, I desperately want to go back. GVI has opened up so many opportunities for me, and I am in the midst of planning to work for them, hopefully in Fiji, or if not Mexico or South Africa! This does mean I'm putting my university plans on hold, but this is an opportunity I really can't say no to. Id like to end by saying Venaka Vaka Levu, Vina Du Riki Old Girl's Association, (thank you very much in Fijian and Yasawan), for awarding me the Macaulay bursary.