Fiji

Whilst Alice was back in England preparing for her teacher training interview,which led her to get a place at teacher training in Wandsworth, Ross was settling into life in Fiji.

The time in Fiji has been a complete contrast to the previous 6 months travelling in almost every possible way. Working in a local NGO as the only non-fijian has afforded me a great insight not only into a very different kind of working environment but also a real glimpse of rural village life on visits to project sites, which would have been impossible to gain as a tourist. At times the pace of work and the impact of 'Fiji time' caused frustration but it was really rewarding to work with people who really cared about making a difference to the communities in which they were working and also to see the impact of this work in the fundamentals of community life, such as food and water supply,transport and education.

Through the projects I have been able to see the huge variety that makes up Fiji ranging from coral farming on a desert island paradise to ensuring a school has a reliable water supply in the old colonial capital Levuka, to visiting a fijian community in the interior, which required a 5 hour journey in the back of a truck, followed by a two hour walk just to reach it.

Fijians are also the friendliest and happiest people I have met all year. Everywhere I have been I have been greeted by cheerful cries of 'bula' and welcomed around the kava bowl as guest of honour. This traditional fijian drink, known to locals as grog, is made from a pepper plant, is mildly narcotic, looks like muddy water and makes your tongue go furry though unlike alcohol significant quantities are needed for any real effect.

'Home life' too has been different. I have been living in a guesthouse with a few other volunteers, most significantly younger than me, and while at first this took a bit of getting used to, by the end I was enjoying alternate nights of partying and playing poker, reflecting (when I had the chance) with some amusement that while I was happily regressing to my university lifestyle, yet more of my friends at home were getting married and having babies.

Alice arrived in Fiji 3 weeks ago, via a whistlestop tour of Hong Kong and Sydney. En route to Hong Kong, she experienced the modern day silk route, travelling from Zurich with a plane full of fashion and material traders. This was further emphasized by a forced emergency landing in Urumqi (China), itself a former Silk Road city. This stop carried with it a deep sense of irony, as this would have been our first destination in China, had we been able to get the visa in Bishkek. At least one of us now has a Chinese immigration stamp.

We had an amazing Christmas with an indian family on a sugar cane farm in northwest Fiji. Christmas dinner was goat curry, freshly slaughtered on Christmas morning. We are now heading off to Tokyo to meet Rowland, Yoshi and Milly to celebrate New Years. We are just hoping we will be able to adjust to the cold weather!