The following post features student writing.
On my day as group leader, I (Kaelin), Livvy, and Alex were stationed at the kitchen. All day we helped prepare meals for the group, as well as afternoon tea. Some of the dishes, to which we contributed by peeling and cutting various fresh fruits, included a fried eggplant-tuna-coconut milk concoction, pumpkin and cabbage soup, steak, and different types of potato salads including curried. We often took breaks to play with the local kids. Some of the favorite moments of my group’s day were getting to know the ladies we were helping. Working seamlessly and quickly without any semblance of a recipe, our cooking instructors introduced us to vegetables we had never seen and the ways to carefully cut seeds out of a pumpkin without cutting ourselves. Tata and Bubu treated us as and literally called us their own daughters and sons. We also received some Fijian names. As Kaelin, I have become Kali. Livvy became Livia, and Alex was Leone. That has become his name now, actually. I found it so impressive that these women do all of this every day. Cooking big meals for their big families, carrying it dish by dish to their homes, and washing all the plates and cutlery in a couple basins out in the grass. It seemed completely like a job, and a hard one. Overall, my group and the rest of us had a very good (and delicious) Friday. We ended the day with charades down in the boys’ house by the beach, ready for the weekend ahead.
It has been a very eventful weekend. During the time I (Clem) was group leader we started off by taking an hour in a half bus ride to Welagi to enjoy a sunny afternoon watching the Fiji rugby finals. We purchased Fijian lunches at the metal stands surrounding the field. We had the traditional Fijian meal roti, which is a flour-like tortilla wrapped with potatoes, curry dressing, carrots and beef or chicken. The rest of the afternoon consisted of watching rugby and going to the local supermarket to gather food for the proceding week. On Sunday we spent the morning helping prepare lunch and cleaning dishes. We also played Contact and a few card games. At 1:30 we left for Paradise on a truck and spent half an hour on a dirt road. When we arrived we had a great time jumping in the ocean and playing volleyball in the pool. We then went for a boat ride fishing excursion but unfortunately didn’t end up catching any fish. However we enjoyed a lovely double rainbow and beautiful scenery of the surrounding mountains and palm trees. We then ended the night with a fun game of Mafia and highs and lows.