DAILY ROUTINE

Apologies about the hiatus in posting. I have become accustomed to Fiji time and attitudes of: mmmyes, it will get done...or maybe not. I believe that my mother's main concern about me coming to Fiji has come true. That is, excluding the ohter concern of my mother's which was to avoid bringing home any local Fijian boyfriends - at any cost.

It's not that nothing's been happening. In fact, a lot has happened. I spend about 2 hours a day debriefing with the whole household at the end of each working day and I've been away on heaps of weekend trips.

There's also been Diwali where we all dressed up in Salwar Kameez (apologies about incorrect spelling) and went to Emily's teacher's house for an amazing Diwali lunch:



It also sounded like a warzone on Diwali night with fireworks being set off across the whole of Fiji. There was even a fireworks display in the middle of our street. This was courtesy of our neighbours who probably spent hundreds of Fijian dollars on explosives. We also dabbled in a bit of pyrotechnics ourselves. In fact, I've never set off fireworks and just HAD to live up to my ancestors invention of gunpowder and fireworks. Seeing as everyone here thinks I'm from China and they stare at me in disbelief when I tell them I'm from Australia, it was completely warranted that I set off a ridiculous amount of fireworks to live up to my stereotype.

Au dau vuli vosa Vakaviti e na Moniti. Au a sega ni rawa ni vosa Vakaviti baleta, au sa exceptionally embarrassed to try.

I also finally found Nemo...but maybe I'll leave that for another post.

Finally, before I get on with the main story, I've discovered that everything grows mould here. Even my milo. You know how milo gets spilled on the rim of the tin when you spoon more than the recommended heaped teaspoon amount into your cup? Well, those little bits of milo that have been left behind on the rim of the tin have actually managed to grow mould. It's also a wonder that my stomach isn't more upset when I proceed with eating my fried noodles despite discovering that the oyster sauce that I had poured into it actually had a layer of mould growing on its surface.

Anyway, I thought I'd go into detail about my daily routine at school:

Lauren and I catch the bus to school. Sometimes we run into Kelvin or Peni who are students at the school. Other times, we run into Meg who's the other volunteer pharmacist at the hospital across the road from the school. Most of the time it's pouring down with rain and if I'm lucky, Viliame will walk up the driveway with an umbrella to cover me on my walk from the road, down the driveway and into the school.

We say "Yadra" to Mrs Wright who is usually sweeping the front assembly area or is in the office tapping away at the typewriter. "Tina" is usually there sitting with Mrs Wright and greets us with her slurred "Good Morning!".

We walk down the corridor to our double doors to the therapy room. As it has been raining heavily recently, Lauren and I like to guess which part of the room contains either a flood or a waterfall. I usually guess that the left side of the room is flooded and Lauren will predict a waterfall on the right side of the room. Most of the time, we are both correct.

Following the discovery of a flooded therapy room (which also happens to be a perfect example of what not to do to maintain OH&S standards), I unlock the cupboard to take out the aeroguard. While Lauren sprays herself with aeroguard, I busy myself with lighting a mosquito coil. "Sarah" will ALWAYS walk over to us and ask "This, the what?" which Lauren in all her Speech Pathology glory will correct her: "What is this for?". And EVERYTIME we will have to explain to her that the can is called "Aeroguard" and it "helps keep the mozzies away".

Now, everyone is exceptionally protective of their possessions at school. This also includes the mop which is desperately needed to mop the many puddles on the therapy room floor. It's extremely annoying that there is no mop at school and so the room stays flooded until Aunty Una gets to school (about 2 hours later) to mop the floor.

Student "Mary" will arrive on the first trip of the school bus. Sometimes she puts her hands over our eyes to play "Guess who?". She makes a good effort, but it's so easy to tell that it's her because of the way she holds her hemiplegic (weak) hand over my eyes. She then asks: "Today is who?". Which Lauren then corrects her: "Who is exercising today?". Which Mary then replies: "Today, me? Me and who?". Everytime she asks this, I tell her to read the timetable (because I think it's a very important skill to know how to read a timetable). Slowly, she reads out all the names that I have listed for the day. If her name is listed, she'll hiss out an excited "yessssss!" and run to her classroom.

From there, the day rolls on but with varying events depending on what day it is.