Fly on the Wall

                … That’s what I’ve felt like for the past few days here while doing my observations. The only differences are that this fly is not inconspicuous. Instead, I’m like a huge, obvious fly that very noticeably stands out no matter where it goes.

                So far, I’ve visited six schools. Of these six schools, 2 were Catholic, 2 were Muslim, and 1 was Buddhist… and they are all a part of the public school system! (Just imagine how much the uniforms vary from one school to the next!) At each school, I’ve been given a schedule to observe various Reading and Math classes. Then, I go into the class (after knocking on the door and waiting for the teacher’s permission to enter. I’ve learned that it’s rude to just walk in on your own accord.), introduce myself – but only if the teacher wants me to, and then sit back. The teacher then goes about their normal lesson as I take notes very… conspicuously while trying to be inconspicuous. #tallwhitegirlinfiji

                Some interesting things that have happened during my observations:

1.       I’m treated like royalty. The Ministry of Education called each of these schools ahead of time to inform them of my visit. Because of this, I’ve been served lunch, have been willingly driven around by school personnel, have had headmasters brag about their schools, and have had teachers apologize for their lesson plans as if I actually cared. Yesterday, I spoke to the entire staff at a secondary school (which had to be 50+ teachers!) as I sat between the Principal and Vice Principal at the head of the table. Apparently, the teachers were very concerned/worried/interested in understanding my ministry business, to which I shared, “I’m from the U.S.A. I’m just here to observe so that I can see how schools in Fiji are similar and different from schools in America. I’m learning a lot and am hoping that I can make it a fair trade by sharing some resources and ideas to help you, too. Thank you for having me.” Needless to say, they were extremely relieved to hear this as they were expecting a big observation from the Ministry itself! In addition, I just received an e-mail from the Ministry telling me that they’re very interested in meeting with me early next week and to hearing my frank assessments of the schools here. (Who am I to judge?!) Moral of the story: I guess you could say that they think that I'm kind of a big deal here. The size of my head has only grown a little bit and I’ll only expect a small amount of this treatment when I return home.

2.       I’m constantly being asked if I’m a “Miss” or a “Mrs.” The manager at a school yesterday even grabbed my hand, checked for a ring, and then cried out, “Oh, thank God! Don’t ever put a ring on this finger! It will give you great headaches!” I laughed very hard at that one.

3.       I was observing in Class 2 yesterday when the teacher started talking about lenses. I’ve noticed that not many people here wear glasses, but at this particular point in time, I happened to be wearing mine so that I could see what the teacher was writing on the board. When she started talking about lenses in “spectacles” and how “old people wear them” or “people that have bad eye problems,” I suddenly changed from being a huge, obvious fly on the wall (even more obvious as I was in a Muslim school!) to a huge, obvious alien that had just crash landed from another planet. I swear 32 pairs of eyes (spectacle-less eyes at that!) turned to stare at me, the foreigner wearing glasses. I’m sure that each student was thinking, “What’s wrong with HER eyes?” AWESOME.

                Random other things to note: I'm currently working on my SCUBA certification which is both exciting and terrifying, I got the team to play Psychology the other night which they found to be hilarious (shout out to CNU volleyball days!), and that we've been going to see movies every Tuesday night here as they cost the equivalent of about $2 in the U.S. I guess you could say that I'm having fun and, apparently, becoming a whole new person... or fly... or alien... After all, who would have EVER thought that I would watch movies this often? Or, more realistically, ever get SCUBA certified? Don't worry, though... I'm not planning on becoming a professional... ever. I hope you appreciated that comment as much as I enjoyed writing it. You're welcome.