Breaking the Bubble

I am working on writing more... ENJOY!

Most Westerns have an idealized version of what characteristics make up Fiji and how it fits into the scheme of all the countries in the world. I have to admit, due to my laziness I have let the idealized imagine of Fiji stand through my writings and photos but… no longer! Fiji is more than a postcard perfect image of a beach, sand, resorts, and tanned beauties dancing in the sunshine. It is extremely complex and multilayered. It plays host to multiple ethnicities and unlike places akin to the US (where we claim to be multicultural but truly share a homogeneous culture) these differences are a large part of what makes Fiji so diverse. With hurdles like multiculturalism and living life on a tiny island, come other challenges that have had the salt of colonialism rubbed into their preexisting wounds.


History lesson:
The islands of Fiji are home to many different ethnic ancestries. Originally inhabited thousands of years ago by natives who sailed their way through the South Pacific from Southeast Asia, these ancestors dropped off descendents on many different islands including Samoa, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, etc (there are TONS of island countries in the South Pacific). Eventually making their way to Fiji, different groups inhabited different regions of the island nation. This influenced the different ethnic groups of native Fijians and is the reason there are MANY dialects of the Fijian language as well as many varying details in rituals/customs. Following colonialism by the British, sugar cane farming was introduced to the country. Because the British felt the native Fijians were “unable”/”too lazy” to work (due to their laid back culture), they brought over indentured servants from India to work in the British sugar cane plantations. Indentured servants became the new politically correct term for slavery once slavery was outlawed in Britain and all of its colonies. It was overly cheap labor based on exploitation and broken promises. This practice, which happened for over 40 years, brought a huge influx of Indians into the country. Because the British practiced the concept of divide and conquer, they went out of their way to enforce policies that divided the two main ethnic groups. This divide ensured the two groups would not gang together to turn over British rule while increasing racial tension and hatred. Once the British gave the colony its freedom, the ethnic tension remained and created huge barriers for the countries journey toward peace. So far there have been multiple coup d’états including the two most recent being in 2000 and 2006. These coups were produced from the desire for change. Depending on which coup you are specifically referring to, the change desired can either be good or bad. In the most recent coup, what most people consider the “people’s charter” coup was a military takeover of the former government due to the racist policies it was enforcing throughout the country. The population is roughly divided 50/50 on ethnic lines with almost half of the population being Fijian and the other half Indo-Fijian (or of Indian ancestry). These ethnic lines also dictate religious lines and facilitate religious intolerance as well. The three main religions found here are sects of Christanity (roughly 50% of the population), Hinduism (roughly 35% of the population), and Islam (roughly 15% of the population). Ethnically, the three religions are divided so that almost all Fijians are Christians and the Indo-Fijians are either Hindus or Muslims. (Please keep in mind that these numbers are very rough estimates based off of actual statistics calculated by the Fijian census bureau)


Poverty:
Poverty has many factors globally and Fiji proves no exception. In most eyes, poverty can seem like a straight forward concept but in actuality the word poverty is a blanket term that encompasses many different types of issues that can sometimes seem unrelated. Not all poverty has to do with just being hungry. In fact, Fiji would be able to feed itself even if it were to be cut off from the global market completely (a trick most countries would never be able to pull off, no matter how much magic they used). Due to cultural networking and familial support systems, most people don’t go hungry. So you might be asking yourself… what does poverty really look like in Fiji? The inability to provide basic needs other than just food also defines elements of poverty. Poverty of accessibility, poverty of opportunity, poverty of freedoms, poverty of land, poverty of the mind and so on, label different types of poverty that can be just as debilitating as the inability to feed yourself or your family. One of the biggest contributors to poverty is in conjunction to land leases. Native Fijians generally own most of the land in Fiji causing large problems for anyone who is not a chief. The chiefs reside over all of the rights of different pieces of land. They then allow their people to live on their land. Let’s pretend one day you wake-up as a native Fijian and decide to move from your village to let’s say the urban city so your kid can go to school, you will have no place to build a house. You then move into a squatters settlement, or more appropriately deemed “informal living settlements”, which is simply defined as ‘unused’ land and thus free for people to use to live on illegally. These settlements, because they are unofficial and thus recognized by no one, typically don’t have running water or electricity and are built on the land that no one else wants to develop… also known as landfills, hazardous areas, or lands prone to natural disasters. Because you have little to no money (due to the fact that you moved from a small village maybe from an outer island or up in the mountains), you can’t build a house with traditional materials or hire a contractor so you’re forced to build a one room home out of whatever material you can find. The city is overcrowded with people in your exact situation and you have just as much luck as them to find one of the few jobs that are available. You’re uneducated because the government doesn’t regulate schools and you grew up in a rural village with a school that most of the world would call a joke (hence the reason you want to move to the city so your kid doesn’t have the same situation thrust on them). The money you make from working odd jobs adds up to the cost of your child’s school, bus fare, uniforms, and books… thank goodness you have one kid, because if you had two, they would probably have to attend school on alternate days so they could share the one uniform you have and only use one persons worth of bus fare (a very common thing among the impoverished trying to send their kids to school). Don’t even get yourself thinking about the health hazards caused by your living conditions. With a lack of money, your kids aren’t inoculated and if they get sick… getting to the doctor is going to be hard considering that the kid spent your bus fare money to get to school that morning. And all of that is if you are an indigenous or native Fijian… if you are an Indo-Fijian you automatically leave the starting gate of life 10 seconds late with 50 less cents in your pocket (figuratively speak, of course). And poverty doesn’t end there. The inability to access work, no matter who you are, is stifling. The most likely characteristic of someone who is unemployed in Fiji? Having a college education. Seems backward, right? If you have a university degree you are expecting to work a more skilled job for a higher salary and because of that, no one wants you. They don’t have a challenging enough job for you or the salary to pay you. With an economy dictated by the IMF, World Bank, and Western world’s standards it’s difficult to change the country’s economy so that its people prosper.


The good news is…
At the end of the day, you live in Fiji. It’s ecologically beautiful, the weather is nice, there is lots of sunshine, and life is relatively simple. And above everything else, you’re happy. It’s funny to think that statistically the happiest places on earth are typically the poorest, most underdeveloped and undernourished nations… is it because they don’t have the capacity or ‘standards’ to realize what they are ‘missing out on’ or is it because they’ve found some secret happiness to life that we can’t find because we are all too busy paving our own material path in pursuit of the always indefinable and unachievable ‘happiness’? Just some food for thought—

I am heading to the island of Beqa (pronounced Benga) for the week to spend time living in a rural village. I am really excited to get out of the hustle and bustle dirt of the city for some relaxing down time with the nations only fire walkers while also getting to practice my Fijian language skills, snorkel, and play in a waterfall. There will be plenty of pictures, don’t worry!

Love. Sarah

Newspaper

Hey all!

So... Fiji is extremely small and thanks to that, as American students, we get a lot of exposure. Last week I spent everyday in a youth forum designed to promote peace building for a more unified multicultural Fiji. Is was really interesting and gave me an entirely new perspective on the Fiji culture as well as a unique view of the youth. People from the Fiji Times, which is the main newspaper, came and took photos for an article they were writing about the conference and guess whose photo was put in the paper?!? If you guessed me, you're right :) GOOD JOB!

Here is the link: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=145104

And if you think that is funny, wait until you see the actual newspaper... my photo is half of an entire page. Now I can't go anywhere without people staring at me and asking me if I'm "that girl from the paper". Going out this past weekend was made very interesting thanks to the article and the unwanted extra attention.

I thought you all might like to know. I will try and update this sooner rather than later with some cool stuff I have been doing... like I said before, because Fiji is so small and we are unique, we get a lot of exposure which has allowed us to do a lot of really cool things and I can't wait to share the long list of things with everyone!

Miss you all!!
Love. Sarah

I Love My Host Family

“There’s no combination of words I can put on the back of a postcard, no song that I can sing but I can try for your heart. These dreams, they are made out of real things… like a shoe box of photographs with sepia-toned loving.” Better Together by Jack Johnson

I don’t write on my blog for one simple reason… I am doing other stuff instead. Fiji is incredible and there is something to do every free second of the day. If you’ve facebook stalked any of my pictures, you will quickly learn how in love I am with Fiji and my life here. The pictures do a great job of describing what I have been doing and what it looks like here but due to many requests to keep writing my blog, I will write about a few things going on in my life.


QUICK BACKGROUND:

I live in Suva which is on the west side of the largest island that makes up the Fiji Island nation and go to school at the University of the South Pacific. Although there are many students from all over the pacific that go there, I have class with the three other girls on my program in a secluded hut at the back of the campus. We have our own classes because we have specialized subject matters that we study. Lecturers come in every day and debrief us on different aspects of Fiji including the history, language, economy, political situation, religion, identity, gender relations, customs, etc. In the afternoon we have Fijian language class and then the rest of the day we have free. Typically I go to a coffee place down town and we sit together and work on language homework or do our long readings to prepare for the next day’s classes. I am not going to lie, after studying we typically go to happy hour at our favorite bar where we have befriended all the bartenders. Then make it home for dinner and then typically go back out. Some weekend we travel to different islands and thus far we have visited the cities of: Labasa, Savusavu, Nadi, Lautoka, and Levuka, which are all on various islands. I love the other three girls in my class and our three teachers (Mrs. Quiliho, Faira, and Mrs. Taubere)... because of the unique dynamic of everyone being female, the semester has been especially helpful due to our gender intensified interactions.


HOST FAMILY:

I have the BEST host family. The other three girls like their home-stays but it is unanimous that mine is by far the best. Although they start out really shy (like ALL Fijians), once they warmed up to me everything fell into place perfectly. My host dad, Tui, works for his father’s business which is sort of like an accounting firm for other businesses. My host mom, Kata, works with Tui but from what I have seen… really she just takes care of the kids, which leads me to my host sisters. I have two little sisters, Tia, who is 5, and Emily, who is only 2. Tia goes to kindergarten for half of the day while Emily stays home with Kata. Although it has been suggested that Emily go to preschool, Kata has explained the impossibility of that situation to me. Due to Emily’s badass nature (envision a SUPER sassy version of me as a child), inability to communicate in any language other than her own made-up one, and overall authoritative demeanor, my host parents don’t want to subject the teachers and other students to her destructive nature. I have been able to reassure them though… relating to Emily, I have let them know that children like her, although seemingly difficult as children, typically grow up to run companies and governments. The two little girls are one of the best parts of my day, greeting me EVERY morning with a running and yelling hug into my arms and every evening with the same affection. I play with them, read them stories, and have even taken Tia on a “sister date” into town to get milkshakes and see a movie. I have definitely integrated myself into my host family and feel like they are a true extension of my own family, not just a group of people that have given me a place to live. My host family actually functions much differently in real life than how they are supposed to on paper. My host mom is more like a big sister, making Tui (my host dad) more like my brother-in-law and the two little girls are like my nieces. Funny thing, its not just me that thinks that way… because of the unique way I look people in Fiji actually think I am related to Kata and Tia because I look so much like them. They live with Tui’s parents, in the bottom floor of their house. It’s a locked off portion so really it’s more like an apartment in the lower part of the house. I have my own room with a dresser and mirror with an incredible view. Our house sits on top of a hill that overlooks the ocean so sunrise is a pretty incredible site.

I have been able to participate in a few fun activities with my family thus far:

CHURCH- With two little kids, the hilarity of every ‘normal’ activity gets amplified. Take church for instances… I went with them to Palm Sunday to watch Tia perform in the children’s production. Tia did NOT want to be on stage and decided to stand in the far back corner still, frightened and not singing. But because I had woken up after only 4 hours of sleep still drunk I MADE sure she saw me and MADE sure I got pictures of her cute little self standing up there with all the other kids. Emily, of course, was ban from performing with the other children but instead decided to yell my name out in the middle of church because she was sitting far away from me. By the end of the production, due to my overexcited disposition emulating from my sweaty pores, Tia was reassured and eventually made it to the front of the stage to sing and dance along with the other kids. At the end of church, Tia and Emily yelled and ran over to me and hand-in-hand I walked back to the car with my two little sisters. After this interaction, I was no longer some girl living in their house but their sister which was further confirmed later that evening. Kata asked Tia to pray for all the people in their immediate family and Tia said “Mommy, Daddy, Sarah, and Emily.”

BIRTHDAY PARTY- In fiji, when the oldest child in a family turns 21 it’s a BFD. Kata’s niece was turning 21 years old which put everyone in the family in charge of something. Kata’s job was to emcee the entire production which included speeches, a slide show, the presentation of the key (it’s a Fijian tradition to present the birthday person with a huge key that says happy birthday on it which symbolizes their freedom from the house), and cutting the cake. Everyone in the entire family comes, donates money to the party process, and gives gifts. This particular party, for Sarah, was themed “green and yellow” so my family decided to get clothes made in the same pattern so everyone would know we were all together… much to my surprise, this included me! I got to go to the party, sit with the important people up front and wear a dress that matched the other people in my family. I spent the entire night dancing and laughing and getting to know my extended family. AND, I got to get to Kata and Tui so much better because this was not a kid inclusive event so the little ones stayed home with Tui’s mom.

VACATION- Over Easter weekend, I went on vacation with my host family to the West side of the island that we live on. It was about a 4 hour car ride to the beautiful Denarau Island. Although I had previously visited it with my class to observe how “touristy” it is, I was really excited to return with my Fijian family and see what it was like to vacation with them in a very Western destination. The entire weekend was a blast! I brought my friend Emma (she is on the SIT program with me) along for the weekend and we both felt 100% like part of the family. Friday night we cooked dinner for everyone and sat outside with the extended family members who live in the west and drank and shared stories. The next days we went to the pool, laid out, hung out with my family, drank (my family really likes drinking and partying), and just talking about all things Fijian. I learned SO much about the intricacies of Fijian culture and customs. It may seem like a pretty straight forward place of paradise but the truth is, Fiji is extremely diverse and rich with culture and customs that seem to get more complicated and intricate the more we learn about them. By the end of the weekend, Emma was my families adopted daughter and we both decided that we had never smiled or laughed so much in one weekend in our entire lives.



Fiji is rich with so many different cultures and heritages and histories that I wish I had the patience to type out and share with everyone. I will try and write more often, I promise, in those blogs I will include different aspects of the culture as well as what I am doing, eating, seeing, etc.

Until next time!
Love.
Sarah