Sonia's School

We went this morning to visit Sonia's school. I'd like to have Elle visit a school in each of the countries we visit, so Sonia's seemed like the obvious choice in Fiji. Sonia goes to the only Indian school on Taveuni. Fiji's Indian population is very large as Indians were brought over by the English in the 1800's, as laborers. They now consider themselves Indo-Fijian, but more Fijian than Indian. Her school is a public one, and open to anyone who wants to attend. It is taught in English and Hindi. There are 400 kids that go to school here, K-8. We met with the Head Master and the teacher of Sonia's class. The kids swarmed us, I don't think they get many tourists there! They especially loved Liam. Babies are truly special in Fiji.

The picture of the bottles is from the yard directly adjacent to the school. They are all beer bottles. They seemed very incongruent with the elementary school setting. I joked with three older boys and said to them quite seriously "did you do that?" They thought that was quite funny and laughed about it for awhile. I did notice in the 3rd grade classroom that two huge posters were hung, one for alcohol and one for tobacco, condemning their usage and detailing their destruction. When I did ask seriously about them, I was told that the person next door collected them to be recycled in order to earn money.

Elle was pretty quiet and shy during the school visit. Later, I asked her what she thought about the school and she said she liked her own school much better. When I asked why, she said, "they had no rug to sit on". And, it's true, the rooms were pretty spartan. I, too, was struck by the barren-ness of the rooms. They had nice desks and chairs, and a chalkboard in each room, but that was about it. There was almost no artwork in any classrooms, no books on shelves, little in the way of organization and no rugs. But, it was clean, the kids seemed happy to be there, and happy to be learning. There was age-appropriate material on each blackboard. The only computers I saw were in the Head Masters office and with one teacher. There was no library at all. The school has grown so much in recent years that the 5th/6th grades now operate out in the yard, under an aluminum awning.

I think it was a bit of a shock to Elle, and we talked tonight about how fortunate she was to go to such a nice school. And then, she told me, "but mom, Sonia loves her school too." And, she does.