Fiji - Day 4 - Getting our learning on!

It was an early start this morning with mother nature greeting us. There was a light drizzle that turned into a downpour with winds that made breakfast entertaining, as the hotel staff had to keep rearranging the breakfast buffet and omelet station to stay out of the rain.  

After breakfast, we boarded the bus to head toward the Ratu Navula College (high school) where we were going to spend the afternoon. Once arriving at the school, we met the assistant principal who gave a brief overview of the school, the students, and how their educational system works.  The students had an opportunity to ask questions before heading for a morning "tea" prepared by the culinary students at the school.

After our "tea," the students were then dropped off in age-appropriate classes to spend some time seeing firsthand how the classrooms work.  They all seemed to enjoy the time meeting the Fijian students and participating in classes.  Some even brought their classwork to us leaders to look over.  As leaders, we were very proud of our students today.  

One thing that struck us as unusual is that some teachers just do not show up to school if they have other things that need to be done, i.e. the rugby team was preparing for a match tomorrow, and another had some stuff to do in the community.  It seems they do not have a substitute teacher system in place for these occasions.  So, while the students were in classes, the leaders also had the opportunity to go into classrooms without teachers and work with students. 

After class, we had a nice lunch prepared for us again by the culinary students and then it was time to say our goodbyes to our new friends and head to our new home for the remainder of our time in Fiji.




Looking forward to our trip to Mystery Island tomorrow.