SIGATOKA GAMES

Last week our school attended the annual National Special School Games in Sigatoka ("Sing-a-toka"). Sigatoka is at the central southish of Viti Levu, just over half way to Nadi from Suva.

The school games are organised for all special schools across Fiji. They have athletics, seated sports such as table cricket and junior games which consists of games like throwing balls at targets, bouncing balls to each other etc. And of course, no Fijian sports meet would be complete without a rugby and soccer competition.

Our school has been preparing for the Sigatoka games since term 3 started in September. It has consumed the school. Every afternoon was dedicated to sports, if it wasn't raining. Teachers pulled themselves out of their own classes to organise things for the school games. School work was being left by the wayside as sports took precedence. It's like the whole world stopped to ensure that the games ran smoothly.

What I haven't been entirely impressed with is the fact that those who are not able to walk by themselves or require mobility aids (frames and wheelchairs) will usually sit outside with nothing to do for the whole afternoon. There were some table sports organised for those who were actually going to Sigatoka, but if for thsoe who weren't going to Sigatoka AND for those who needed assistance with walking or moving, then they were left to sit on the sidelines to watch the others prepare. I believe that the idea of whole school involvement needs refinement.

So, when I should've been observing how the school runs sports, I took it upon myself to see those who were left out for 1:1 therapy. Anyway, that's another story.

Last week, we headed off on a bus together to Sigatoka:



We had packed away our belongings for three days, food and drink to feed the entire school for 3 days, sports uniforms and sports equipment. Unlike Australia where your school camp provides all the amenities for you, the children were to bring their own named plate and cup. You also need to bring all of your bedding which usually includes a Fijian pandanus mat, a sleeping bag or sheet and pillow. There aren't any facilities dedicated to school camps, so instead, we stay in a village called Volivoli. We also had to bring customary gifts for the village that we were staying.

When we arrived, the children had to quickly change into their Bula shirts to wear for the schools' parade.



They marched together into the stadium and were sat down in the harsh Sigatoka sunlight. Apparently the meaning of Sigatoka is something along the lines of "the place where the Sun stays for a long time". Today, its presence was felt strongly, and children began to become agitated and uncomfortable. We were requested to sit for the entire duration of the speeches - many of which were long and not quite aimed at the children who were to be partaking in the sports. In addition to this the speakers, as they commonly are in Fiji, were about 20 decibels too loud and so everything became incoherent and muffled. Maybe they knew that half of the population were hearing impaired. Eventually, everyone slowly drifted towards the shade of the spectator stands. Then, each school was invited to perform a dance in front of all of the participating schools.














Now, I think my Dad will be quite frightened at the next mini-story. The children all saw that I had my camera. They don't usually get access to luxury items and technology is so expensive in Fiji things like cameras are a novelty. I made the mistake of allowing one of the older students to take photos with my camera and of course ALL of the children wanted to have a go. There was a bit of snatching and lense touching going on so I quickly tucked it away after scolding those who had started to snatch.

Being at this camp made me realise how badly behaved these children are. There is a lot of hitting, punching and pinching going on between students. Some adults don't really set good examples either. They especially like to play around with other people's possessions without asking. They were all very intrigued with my foam mattress because there are none like them in Fiji. A lot of them tried to deface my mat by writing their name by digging their nails into my foam mat. I was right there when they were doing it as well, so apparently they thought that this was completely acceptable behaviour.

There are plenty of taddletales and getting the children to say sorry to each other is like squeezing blood out of stone. One of the children who wanted my camera got a bit hissy that I wouldn't let her have a go. She proceeded to jump on me and eventually managed to hit me. The normal "punishment" for discipline would be a flick in the ear or a pinch on the arm. Following this, the child would normally run away and forget about what had happened. Instead, I had to chase her around until she would be still, stood her in front of me and demanded that she apologise. She tried walking away but I kept following her, not wanting to grab her or hold her against her will. She eventually started crying and stopped and then cried at me. Oh, I also forgot to mention that this girl is hearing impaired and I found it incredibly difficult to sign to her that she had not been nice and had to say sorry. Finally, she signed to me that she was sorry and ran away to her big sister.

Dinner was served and just like we had done in the villages on the cross island walk, we sat down on the ground in the centre of the hall to nourish ourselves with energy for the sports meet ahead. As always, when staying at a village, we were required to partake in a sevusevu ceremony. The ceremony, as usual, was presented in Fijian. My Fijian is nowhere near fluent at the moment. However, this time, the teachers had to interpret it into sign language. My sign language is also not fluent, but I had much more understanding of what was being said in the speech. The village chief welcomed us and thanked us for the gifts we had brought to his village. He wished us luck for the upcoming games and then the customary kava consuming commenced.

The children were asked to perform their dance for the villagers. One of the teachers, who happens to be hearing impaired was in charge of putting on the music for the dancing. She knew which track it was and right on cue, put it on accordingly. Being hearing impaired, she felt for the wind in front of the speakers to make sure it was on. What she didn't realise though, was that when she had moved back to her original seated position, she had knocked the tape player and skipped it to a different track. Of course, she hadn't noticed and watched as she wondered why everyone had stopped dancing. After a quick shuffling of tracks by one of the non hearing-impaired teachers, the music was back on and the dancing continued:

Then it was time for a wash and time for bed. Teachers were invited outside to drink kava. My night was filled with tossing and turning and trying to find a comfortable position on the concrete surface. Unfortunately, my foam mat didn't provide the cushioning that I needed for my bony hips. Finally, when I thought that I had assumed a comfortable position, the mosquitos started buzzing around my head and biting every bit of exposed skin that I had. Of course, it had to be stinking hot in the hall, so sleeping under a my sauna sleeping bag became a voided option. As soon as I had nodded off, the teachers returned from their drinking session, and shortly, the room filled with snores of the teachers, magnified by their numbed, floppy throats.



As it seems with all villages, the rooster was our wake up call as we groggily rolled over and removed ourselves from our sleeping positions. The children packed away their sleeping things and filled up with a two course breakfast. Weetbix, followed by bread, pie, cake and longloaf.



We headed out for a day of games and athletics. They had races for 25 metres, 50 metres and 100 metres. They held the 400 and 800 metres in the middle of the day when the sun was at its most severe. Unfortunately, they had a number of children collapsing at the finishing line becuase they had been overheated and dehydrated. The juniors were taken to Sigatoka special school to participate in the Pacific Juniour Games (whose acronym was PGS and I'm not entirely sure how that ended up passing into print). Again, the heat got the better of the children as they tried their best to stay focussed on the games in the sun.

The teachers also had a relay race which I participated in. I saw the Hilton Teachers gathering at the marshalling area. No one had really notified me that it was going ahead, but I had a feeling that gathering teachers must have meant marshalling for the teachers relay. Luckily I've learnt to hone my observing skills a bit as they were indeed marshalling and pulled me into the line when they saw me. In the relay was Bella, the Australian Gap volunteer, Teacher Alisi, the transition teacher, myself, and Luisa, one of the students' carers and school cook.

There were 3 false starts to our race. I think all of the teachers competing were incredibly nervous. Most of them couldn't remember the last time that they ran and the rest of them weren't even sure if they still had the motor ability to coordinate a run at all. As a general rule, the phlegmatic nature of a Fijian is to avoid running at all costs. As for myself, I hadn't sprinted in a while and could feel the adrenaline almost emanating out of my body. Thank god for the flight or fight response.

The race started for the fourth time after the teachers finally started at the right time. Bella ran first and bolted towards teacher Alisi. Bella, being quite fast was one of the first to make the baton exchange. Then Teacher Alisi ran as fast as she possibly could towards me. She had been a runner in the past and managed to maintain the lead that Bella had set. From the stands I could hear the students yelling: "Go Alisi Go! Go Alisi Go! GO ALISI GO!". The baton was handed over to me. All the adrenaline whooshed down to my legs and them on propelling myself along as fast as humanly possible. As I rounded the bend, I could see that there wasn't anyone around me anymore. Faintly, I could here the students yelling "GO AMANDA GO! GO AMANDA GO! GO AMANDA GO!". I ran even faster as I came towards Luisa. I yelled out after her to run as fast as she could. As she ran off, a manly looking woman was catching up behind her. Luisa ran as hard and as fast as she possibly could, but the manly woman caught up with her and beat her at the finish line. Later, I discovered that the manly woman was not a woman, but was in fact, a manly man.

Anyway, we were very happy with the way the team had run and gave each other high fives and hugs for doing so well. I returned back to the spectators stand to give all the children high fives. They were all incredibly impressed at how fast I could run. Those who were most impressed were the teenage boys. I think my respect levels just went up a few notches in their eyes.