It is a little bit warmer here in Fiji than in New Zealand. 31 degrees Celsius and sweltering. Winter is coming in Fiji. It will be cooler in the coming months. 20 degrees would be nice. We arrived at the Singh family our hosts for the coming 2 month. Andrea and I each have our own room with A fan and until now mosquito free. I went with our host to explore the neighborhood. It is nice to hear that although he has retired, he still has dreams. Dreaming about beautiful quiet spots on this earth, and wanting to stay there. Coming back I sat at the dining table while our hostess was preparing a meal. Some nice curries were being served with flatbread.

After a good night’s rest and a good breakfast, we learned how time management works here. Fijian time is apparently a business concept and we must act like that. So it took some time before we were picked up for an introduction at the volunteering organization.

The introduction was held in Nadi town with five volunteers. We had a nice Chinese lunch and did some shopping. I exchanged my New Zealand dollars into Fijian dollars and bought a sulu. A sulu as part of my uniform at the school.

It was a long day we were exhausted when we returned home. We rested a bit and start dining late.

Again a great tasteful meal has been served. The food tastes so good due to its simplicity and herbs and ingredients from the garden! It is Hindu food, but oh how delicious.

There are a number of things that I want to lose during my stay, one is losing weight. I hope that this healthy and tasty food does not bring too much disturbance in achieving my goal 🙂 Currently my pants are actually a bit larger and I like to keep it that way!

30th of April ! My first day of school

After a good breakfast and a lunch package prepared (roti with eggplant and chicken again jummie) we went to Namaka public school. We did not do an actual preparation which is not compulsory for summer school. We do not know which starting point is used to give “lesson” actually we do not know what we are going to do there.

Think of 20 volunteers, 120 children, no lesson or activity plan. That will be a party. After the morning prayer I could go to a random class and make myself useful. Well that’s what I did. With the volunteers there, 2 young girls of around 20, agreed what we were going to do. Reading, nursing class, writing, math and sports. They also make everyone teacher here in Fiji haha. I would take the reading and writing lessons for my account.

Soon, very quickly, in a “blink of an eye” I felt the feeling coming up, which I have hidden away 7 years ago. A feeling in my heart that makes me who I am and what I am and actually want to be.

I have a rich past in volunteering with children. For all sorts of reasons stopped including my thought that I was too old for it.

Now after only a single moment I felt like an inspiration source to others, to children!!! And that fills that piece of soul which was empty. Later Andrea joined us and a few other volunteers. Andrea took over the writing class and god, I had a proud feeling. I saw what it was about to “inspire learning”. And not only for the children but also for the young adults I’ve worked with!