Fiji schools run on a calendar year with three terms separated by 2 week breaks. The winter break came at the end of August. Since I had been running the Homework Camp, albeit sporadically because the children often are not assigned homework, one of the women in the village suggested that I continue working with the kids on their break. Perhaps a math camp. I didn’t want to push anything academic while the kids were on break but rather plan activities that were more like a summer camp: fun and games.
One day, I lead a “boot camp” style exercise class where we organized “circuit stations” of the basic old-fashioned calisthenics: jumping jacks, windwmills, pushups, etc. I had kids from ages 2-15 and it was a hoot watching them run from station to station as fast and furious as they could to perform each exercise as if they were in a race against each other or time. No such rules had been established, however. There was lots of screaming and laughing. Not sure this is what the moms had in mind but it was fun.
Other days, we ran obstacle course type races or other competitive games. One day, the boys taught me how to play rugby. Granted, it was touch rugby and I thought I was doing OK but after a short break, the boys said, “now Tevita, you sit here on this log and watch the next game.” Maybe I wasn’t doing as well as I thought. But after a few minutes I realized they sat me out because they wanted to play real rugby – full-on tackle – and were obviously protecting me. A few days later, we played soccer – or football as they call it in most places outside the U.S. – and I scored the winning goal for my team. Looking back, it seemed too easy and I wonder did they let me get a clear shot…
Fijian kids, especially the boys, are very athletic and play rugby or soccer just about every day after school. There are no video games in my Fiji village and life is lived mostly outdoors. Kids play outside every day, even in the rain, just running around doing who knows what but usually there is a ball involved. Girls play hopscotch quite often, cutting the pattern out in the dirt with a rock much like we did as kids drawing it on the blacktop road with a white stone. Some days, I look around and think this could be Cedarcroft Road in the 1970’s (where/when I grew up).
One morning, as we stood around waiting for more kids to gather so we could organize an activity, one boy came walking out from behind a house with a mongoose on a leash! The creature had gotten a vine of some sort tangled in its tail and the boy had gotten hold of it. Obviously, it was trying to get loose and run away but it looked as if the boy was walking the thing like a dog. The other kids taunted the poor creature by throwing rocks and sticks at it and alternately approaching it and jumping back as it hissed at them. I told them this “game” was not wise and we should let him go.
Suddenly, the mongoose got free of the vine and ran to the shelter of the nearest tree which had a wide shallow hole near its base – an indention in the truck. So while it tried to hide in there, I’m afraid it felt just as trapped with all the kids standing around waiting to see its next move. Some continued to throw sticks and rocks despite my protest and warnings. I kept a safe distance. One of the older boys tried to coax it out with prods from a stick. The thing hunkered down further and hissed. Out of nowhere, one of the village dogs came running up and, seeing his opportunity in the cornered mongoose, reached in and chomped the thing in his jaws and then shook it violently. The ordeal thus ended – not well for the poor mongoose.
The dog dropped the dead mongoose and moved on as quickly as it had come and one of the boys picked up the carcass with a scarf and taunted the younger kids with it – many of whom had been earlier tossing rocks and sticks at the live creature. Turn about is fair play? Most of the kids squealed and ran, a few of the younger ones cried. With some effort, I finally got the whole scene to shift toward playing a game of volleyball. The dead mongoose was tossed into the stream.
On the last day of the break, I took the kids on a picnic to the beach. This has to go down as one of the most fun days I’ve had here so far. Despite living so close to the coast, people in my village don’t go to the beach. In general, even for villages that are right on the beach, Fijian people use the ocean for fishing and other practical purposes. Spending a day at the beach in recreation is a novelty – something for tourists (and Peace Corp Volunteers ;) The kids packed their lunches, a van was arranged and off we went. Watching them on this beach was pure joy: they jumped and screamed in the waves, played “Jaws”, buried each other (and me) in the sand…
At one point, a large log of driftwood made its way toward shore with the incoming tide and when it came within reach, the kids used it as a raft to ride the waves in until it beached. Then, as a team, they rolled the big thing up past the surf and took turns posing on it for pictures. Despite my sunburn (especially my head), this was an ideal Fiji day and there has been much talk about doing it again at the next break in December.
