Thanksgiving #Fijistyle

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I am happy to report that I survived my high-intensity Chief Guest training week and I am now free to sit at this computer all day and write like a crazy person without interruption.  I decided before Chief Guest stint #2 that if I was going to have to give speeches here then I should at least make them interesting.  I tried being terrified and awkward and it wasn't all that much fun.  So, I decided to make all of my remaining speeches in Fiji memorable.  Speech #2 was an impassioned motivational speech about the history and future of early childhood education in Fiji (I left out the part about the van down by the river). Speech #3 was the most fun because I had lost my ability to behave well by then and I went with a more aggressive anti-graduation speech. I also decided to add lots of extra words to my speeches since that's what everyone here does.  So I threw in as much hyperbole as possible. They were a lot more fun to give, and I wish I could report that the audiences loved them.  But the truth is that the audience response was exactly the same.  I've decided that long ago people here learned the survival skill of sitting and looking attentive while not listening to anything the speaker says. Otherwise, how would one survive in this place?  In fact, in speech #3 my whole point was about how we always talk about children's value pointing at some future date... how we always have to say that young children are our future, that we spend all of this time and energy on teaching them stuff now so that they can be smart and successful later... contribute to society eventually... you get it. Then I told them that was a bunch of crap and that we should value children for who they are now, and what they can do right now.  That their right-now is just as important as their tomorrow... They already contribute to society! They already have value!  See, this is good stuff! I thought it was a darn good speech!  Then, this is the best part, the school owner got up after me and said he was thankful for my wonderful comments about how young children are our future. Ha!  It's like when we tell little kids "Don't hit your friends." or "Don't pick your nose." and all they hear is "hit" and "pick your nose".  It was just excellent.

We're at the point now with this BEd project that we can see the end, but all of the things we have been avoiding because they are time consuming and really boring now have to be done.  By the 5:30 tonight my head finally exploded and we had to call it a day.  I decided since it was Thanksgiving I should celebrate.  So I did my first touristy thing in Fiji.  I took a cab to a really fancy resort and had a really expensive dinner, on me.  And, guess what I found?  All the white people in Fiji. Turns out they don't really catch the bus and hang out in downtown Lautoka.  And, suddenly, there were all of these happy hotel-people trying to meet my every need. Major mind-shift. I actually spent a lot of dinner just processing all of it. So much to think about.

However, here are the required food-pics because, WOW!

Open-faced seafood lasagna

And Thanksgiving pie #Fijistyle.  I wish you could know about the amount of caramel and bananas that were hiding underneath this whipped cream.  

Then I watched the sunset and walked along the ocean and listened to a lot of drunk Australians celebrating at the bar. It was pretty great.  

Oh yeah, and the cab driver asked me out on the way home.  I think he was hoping to score a U.S. visa. It was pretty awesome. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  

You are all a gift in my life!  Much love!

On being Chief Guest

Turns out November is when schools close for summer in Fiji.  They take a break for all of December and a lot of January and then come back for the new school year. That means last week began the mad rush for end of the year school events.  And everyone here does a HUGE graduation ceremony for all of the grades (as far as I can understand), but especially Kindergarten.  This has led to my newest adventures in Fiji, being invited as "Chief Guest" at Kindergarten graduation ceremonies.  I attended my first last Friday and I all can say is "wow!"  After events like these I feel like we are just so boring in the U.S.   Kindergarten graduations in Fiji include the following:

• A Master of Ceremonies 
• Much dancing
• Lots of speeches
• Soooo many people (parents, grandparents, aunties, cousin-uncles, etc...)
• Much food
• A minimum of 2 hours to get through all of the above
• AND a Chief Guest (who has to give a big speech)

How cool is that title anyway?! Chief Guest. FNU faculty spend most of the month of November stuck as the "Chief Guest" at these events because there are a million kindergartens in Fiji.  So imagine their pleasure when they realized I was coming in November. Not only could they pawn this job off on me, but they could do it guilt-free because it's an essential part of my cultural experience.  I am scheduled to be Chief Guest at three events this week.  I finally talked Sangeeta into limiting my commitments after that so we can actually complete writing the Bachelors degree before I leave.  

So, Friday I was Chief Guest at the Andrew's Kindergarten Graduation ceremony.  It is an especially large kindergarten (remember that means preschool), with 100 kids.  You do the math when considering how many adults come attached to a single kid, and you will understand how intimidating it was to be their Chief Guest. By the way, Sangeeta sent me to do this alone and I will forever hold a grudge. It all began with my grand entrance after everyone was seated.  They escorted me to my Chief Guest seat of  honor directly in front of everyone - almost 100 kids in front, and the rest of the million people behind. Then, the MC, in this big radio-voice spoken over a fuzzy and extremely loud speaker system, introduced the lady who garlanded me (is that a word?)... you know, placed the garland on me.  Now, why would anyone, let alone EVERYONE, want to take a picture of the American Chief Guest sitting in her chair wearing a garland and sweating at their 5 year old's graduation? (Well that's what it felt like was happening anyway.) It was surreal. The Kindergarten teacher then gave the loudest and fuzziest and most phenomenal introduction of me I shall ever receive in my lifetime! (We had met only once before, which made it even more amazing) I wish I could do it justice. I honestly thought about asking her for a copy because not even at my funeral will anyone ever say such eloquent things about me, and I just need someone else to know all of the words she said. They really like using words in the English language creatively here.  She said things like "The greatness of your heart will shine glorious light into our souls." and, "We will cherish this moment of joy and beauty as we benefit from your unmatched wisdom." I'm not exaggerating. The woman had a thesaurus with her when she wrote this.  And it went on for a long time! Seems like all this would have acted as some sort of confidence boost, but it had a dramatically different effect.  

Then I had to stand up and say stuff.  I have no idea what I said. But it was, I think, surprisingly short.  At least that's the impression I got when I sat down and glanced at the ladies on the stage with me. Then the Head Teacher gave a speech and the Kindergarten teacher gave a speech and then we all moved off of the stage to another seat of honor, with snacks and drinks just for me, to watch the kid's performances.  At least this part felt like familiar territory.  Adorable small children all dressed up on a stage like this.

 With their parents all fighting to get to the front to do this.

And so much chaos in between, with costume changes and children crying and children getting lost, etc...  Each kid was in at least 2 dance performances, so there were plenty of photo opportunities.  In between performances they split the kids into groups of 25 and had them come up on stage and get their certificate, which was handed to them by the Chief Guest, of course.  These are not great pictures, but you get the idea. Interesting cultural insight the Head Teacher shared with me.  When it is a child's first performance here it's a very important event, so their parents put these really fancy and long fabric trains attached to the child (so that they can barely walk) and then right in the middle of the performance someone in the family has to go up on stage and remove the thing and kiss the child, and then they go sit down.  So the first couple of dances had as many adults doing this at different times as they had kids dancing.  And, a favorite thing happened at the end.  They were doing this final dance and people started getting up and giving kids stuff as they sang and danced.  Like candy and more large amounts of fabric, and other various things.  The Head Teacher explained that when you are doing an especially great job of performing this is what people do.  Talk about an interactive audience!

Then they escorted me out through the middle of the crowd, so they could all get a good look at me, on our way to a really fancy tea in honor of...  me, where all of teachers from the primary school sat and watched me eat Indian snacks. Then, mercifully, it was over. I am praying that these next events are much smaller and less dramatic!  Most Kindergartens have 50 kids tops, so I'll be okay, right?