Projects Abroad Volunteer Programs in Fiji

In July I started out on my first volunteer trip abroad, by travelling across the world to the South Pacific island of Fiji. Although I was initially apprehensive about travelling this far, I soon felt relaxed as I had a precise itinerary telling me which flight to catch and when. This had been arranged by the Projects Abroad travel team prior to my departure. As I arrived 24 hours later, I was greeted by two members of the Projects Abroad team who sorted out my visa there and then and arranged for a one night stay at a local host family. Here I met Kristina, the first local Fijian I had contact with. Straight away she was a hopeful indication towards the welcoming nature of the rest of the nation who I was yet to meet. The following morning, she woke up with me in the early hours and took me to the bus stop where we waiting, until the bus arrived. Here I started the four hour journey across the island to Suva, the countries capital city. Stepping off the bus I heard my name being called by Karishma, Projects Abroad staff member and friendly face. Karishma began my orientation around the surrounding areas and took me to my host home to meet my family.

With hugs and kisses my new "Auntie" and "Uncle" welcomed me into their family. They gave me a warm welcome party where I was quickly introduced to their Indian culture of using my hands when eating the warm roti and curry. This was a daily staple for my time in Fiji. The location of the house was close enough to school that I could walk, and a bus ride away from the capital. I shared a room with my Austrian roommate, as well as projects abroad being kind enough to allocate the same house to me and my travel friend from home. The house had everything I would need for my month. One important aspect of Fijian culture is that they like to make you feel comfortable, this includes feeding you three times your normal intake of food, which made me feel extremely comfortable.

I quickly got stuck into my project at a local primary school where I taught English to children from ages 5 to 16. I worked with slow readers and managed to graduate 14 children from my class, who now have the gift of reading. After a week in my placement staff members quickly asked me to cover their craft classes and P.E which gave me a taster of other areas of the curriculum. The most memorable lesson I taught was dance to 50 sixteen year olds. As a stereo player was non-existent, I played songs such as “Jai Ho” from my iPhone and improvised a Bollywood dance lesson. I think the smiles all around indicated the success. Staff from the school also invited me to social activities such as volleyball and cava sessions, which allowed me to really feel part of the team.

After a rainy first weekend in Suva, I quickly made myself known to other volunteers so that I could get in on their social plans! Following the advice to save the paradise island until the last weekend, I travelled to Safari Lodge in Nananu-I-Ri for the first trip away. Here I could snorkel and relax on the beach and think about the previous week. Every Thursday all volunteers would meet for a social meal and a workshop, followed by the weekly trip to Delaines, an Irish bar I where would stay and dance until closing time. Every week I asked for karaoke, which was granted on my leaving social. The final weekend I went to Leleuvia, the paradise island that dreams are made of. The serene coastlines and stunning white sands felt unreal as the electric blue fish darted around my feet. I looked out onto the sunset and felt had one of those moments where I appreciated the natural beauty of this part of the world. It was the perfect location for my last few days of my perfect trip.

To the Fijian people I thank them, for their generous nature despite having few material items. I thank them for being so friendly and happy, and having their priorities in the right order by watching out and helping each other. If I could give anybody considering volunteering with projects abroad, I would suggest they grab the opportunity with both hands and do not let go!

I had never traveled abroad before in my life, but this summer I decided to volunteer through Projects Abroad in Fiji. I had the opportunity to work at a school for special needs students while I was there for one month. The experience was absolutely amazing, the best experience of my life! Projects Abroad was also an amazing organization to work through. They are extremely supportive from the very first time you express interest in volunteering abroad. I wasn't positive where I wanted to go, but after talking multiple times with one of the Projects Abroad staff members via email I decided on Fiji. She was very honest about the advantages and disadvantages of each place. I decided on Fiji because the majority of the population speaks English. When I arrived in Fiji one of the staff members picked me up from the airport, brought me and introduced me to the host family I was living with, and then took me around the town to orient me to where I was living. The next day a staff member took me to my volunteer placement at the school and helped assist me in determining what I would do at the school and what my schedule would be. It was extremely helpful to have this to get started and oriented. The rest of the trip you are on your own, but the office is always close to your home location and you can stop by anytime. The staff members in the office gave me their personal cell phones and assured me to not hesitate to call at ANY time. This was also very reassuring. Every week the staff will put on a workshop for all the volunteers at the office so that all the volunteers can get together and learn about some things that would be helpful to use in our volunteer placements. We also had a social one night every week where all the volunteers go out for dinner together. It is not required that you do this, if you wanted to stay by yourself the whole trip you could, but I did not. My favorite times were getting together with all the other volunteers and getting to know such a diverse crowd. We worked Monday through Friday, although my placement was very lenient and would allow us days off if we wanted, and then we had the weekends off to do whatever we pleased. I would typically travel with other volunteers. My host family was awesome, I absolutely loved them. I had a host dad, mom, and brother who I am still in communication with via Facebook. One other volunteer also lived in the same home as I did and traveled to the same school with me. I would definitely recommend Projects Abroad, especially for the first time volunteering abroad, they are very good and quick about orienting you and helping you fit right in to the culture. The only thing I didn't like about projects abroad was the price. It was a very expensive trip and a large portion of the money went to the Projects Abroad organization itself. My host family did not get paid as much as I expected, especially considering they provided us with all of our meals, laundry, and living. Its a good organization to support, the money is helping the organization expand across the world, but it was overall a pretty expensive trip. But if I had the opportunity to do it again I would in a heartbeat!

well what else can i say? i just had the best time of my life so that after 2 month back home i just had to come back to fiji. the mentality n culture of fijians is just outstanding and i dont regret one single moment. the smile of the kids just brightens up your day and you meet awesome people from around the world. you just feel at home right away. you are welcomed with a bula and a big smile which warmth up your heart. you get to know the everyday life and additionally you can travel to the most beautiful beaches you can imagine. white sand, crytal clear water and best of it: you have it all to yourself! i cant wait to be back.... for my 4th time ;)

The best experience that I had in Fiji was living with my host family, I had the best time with them, they were always accomadating and lovely towards me. I was based in a muslim primary school and my overall experience there today was not that good. Although the school was lovely and the teachers and children were all friendly I felt a little out of place and felt like the teachers didn't really know what to do with me. I think that projects abroad staff should check on students more then just 3 times in 3 months and that was in the first month). Projects abroad staff are very nice and are usually on hand if you have any problems, although I found if I had a problem I would turn to my family as my first port of call. As they were there all the time and obviously they live there, and some of the staff aren't from Fiji.

With the social scene volunteers are usually very friendly and there is a social every week, although sometimes not adapting to everyones budgets which was a problem.

When comparing my experience to others that were with me at the same time, the school I was placed in was probably the worst of the schools, as the majority that I talked too, they were very involved with lessons and even taking lessons, whereas I never got the chance to, or asked too. Which was a little dissapointing But overall it was a worthwhile experience and i did have a good relationship with the children and my teacher so it made the experience great for me.

I’m not sure where to begin explaining my wonderful time spent teaching in Fiji. I’ll start by explaining who I am and why I chose Fiji and Projects Abroad.

My name is Aaron; I am from the United States of America, and I graduated from a local University just weeks before my departure to Fiji. I came across Projects Abroad after searching through countless volunteer organizations and found that Projects Abroad went above and beyond in helping me organize my trip (in such a small time frame might I add – just 3-4 weeks from my registration to arrival).

Why Fiji? Why not?! I was informed that Fiji was a new location for the organization and though that added some level of anxiety to the journey, the idea of teaching in a far-corner of the world intrigued me. As it turns out, I was one of the very first volunteers to arrive in Nadi, Fiji with Projects Abroad.

I began teaching at Andrew’s Primary School in Fiji just 3 hours after my plane landed…by choice! I worked with a handful of children, one-on-one, developing their reading, speaking, and writing skills for two days there (which was the tail-end of a “summer school” type program). After that program ended, I was placed at Nadi Christian Academy where I remained for the duration of my stay in Fiji.

I lived on the same street as Nadi Christian Academy (NCA) with a widow (Anna), her son (Wilson), and her daughter (Tina). I also had several roommates from all over the world there – one from the U.S., one from England, and one from Canada. Anna was an amazing cook and her children were very lively and a pleasure to be around. I really enjoyed my stay there and did not feel homesick at all.

I arrived at NCA to find that it had recently been devastated by a flood. The bottom floor of the two-story complex was completely destroyed by the rising waters. Many desks, books, utensils, and teaching materials were ruined. With only 3 Fijian teachers for Kindergarten through 8th grade (yes, only 3 teachers!), the school was very appreciative of my services. Though I had no formal training as a teacher back home, I immediately took to the students at the school – as did they to me. I was instantly given the title “Master Eroni” or “Master Aaron” as the English translation and was assigned to teach grades 7 and 8 English. Ultimately, however, I agreed to teach all subjects because of the poor state of the school and lack of teachers.

I began by telling the students about myself: where I am from, what I do for fun, what my family is like, and why I came to teach them. They were very enthusiastic about my presence and asked loads of questions. After that, I formulated a curriculum for the class and even created an “incentive” chart in which the students would earn stickers by completing homework assignments or earning better than 90% on exams. I recommend doing this if you teach anywhere because the kids absolutely loved it!

Nearly every student had some basic understanding of the English language (though to varying degrees – some did not speak it at all and some spoke it perfectly). I will elaborate a bit on my English lessons to give an idea of what a typical day included.

I gave the students homework every night. Usually I would combine their scripture lessons with their English lessons by having them write an essay (after classroom instruction) about a given spiritual topic. This worked very well. Also, the students could expect at least 2 or 3 vocabulary exams from me each week. When introducing the vocabulary I often played a game with them such as hangman.

My favorite exercise for introducing a new, large vocabulary word worked like this: I wrote the word across the blackboard (ex: “EXECUTION”), then had the students use the letters of the word to find as many smaller words as they could in 5 minutes (ex: “CUT” “TON” “TIN” “CUTE” etc.). After that, I would help them learn how to pluralize those words by asking if the plural form of each word should be made by adding an “s” or an “es” to the end of the word (ex: “CUTS” vs. “CUTES”). Finally, I would explain the whole word – “EXECUTION” – by giving the definition and several examples of how to use it in a sentence. Then, the word “EXECUTION” was added to vocabulary list for the exam. Other topics included: direct vs. indirect quotations, use of pronouns, pronunciation, use of commas, writing creative fictional stories, detailing a hypothesis, writing a 5 paragraph essay, how to support an argument with quotations, etc.

Outside of the classroom I taught the whole school (about 150 students) how to play ultimate frisbee and kickball. They had never heard of either of these sports before so it was challenging to explain the rules but they were very interested in learning. I particularly enjoyed this time spent with the kids because my degree is in exercise physiology. During lunch and recess we would often play games and share jokes in the school yard. This was a great way to get to know the students. We became very close over the course of my placement.

On my last day of teaching, my students threw a surprise party for me! We had cookies and juice and they even gave me a few souvenirs to take home (a stuffed animal, several bracelets, a t-shirt, and notes that read “Do not open until you get home” on the outside). Ultimately, I promised the students and my host family that I would return to Fiji in 2-3 years. I fully intend to keep that promise.

Overall, the Projects Abroad Fiji experience changed my life. It offers so many things for the volunteer; you learn from the students, you learn from the other volunteers who are from all walks of life, you learn from your host family, you can learn a new language, you teach others about yourself and most importantly, you learn a ton about yourself by living with and helping others. Not to mention the amazing excursions you can do in your free time for very cheap! For these reasons and many more, I highly recommend the volunteer experience in Fiji to anyone interested in traveling with Projects Abroad.

My stay with Projects Abroad in Fiji changed my life, it changed me, changed my outlook on life and made it clear to me what I want to spend my life doing.
From the first moment I came across the Projects Abroad website and I signed up with them, They were so friendly and there to answer even the most stupidest questions I had for them. They put me in contact with the Country Assistant Manager in my destination Country (Fiji) and she told me everything that was going on and got me so excited for my trip. The attention, help and advice before I went away was absolutely 100%.
Even though I was a little delayed getting through immigration in Fiji a staff member was still there to meet me and was as happy and welcoming to me as if I were her own daughter coming home from abroad.
My host family were more incredible than I could have asked for or ever, ever imagined. They were Welcoming, they were friendly, open, funny and so interesting. They had so much to tell me and from my first night there, they were teasing me and calling me their daughter. From my fellow volunteers I heard they were also happy with their families which makes me feel like Projects Abroad have done well in choosing their host families. Saying that, everyone i Fiji is fantastic.
I usually set my alarm for about half six so that I could be showered and dressed and have my packed lunch ready and be out of the house by half past seven. My host mami would always be up and ready to wish me well for the day. The food I ate was delicious! I am vegetarian and the family were very open to cater for me and always asked me if I wanted to assist them to the Supermarket.
My school was fantastic and the teachers were also very understanding and it was clear that they respected the Organisation as well as the individual volunteers. All though it is Projects Abroad policy that the volunteers were there to assist the teachers, there would be staff situations that came up, where you as the volunteer would have to take the class alone, sometimes only an hour, but also sometimes for the whole day. This as you can imagine, can be very challenging but also incredibly rewarding. Work can sometimes be hard as it is in your own Country but when you're 1000's of miles in an unfamiliar place, where no one speaks your language it is ten times more daunting! Personally, I wouldn't of had my work any other way.. it kept me on my toes, it kept me determined and focused. There is no lies in the eyes of your class when they say 'Thank you teacher!'.. you know they genuinely mean it.
The Country Assistant Manager would come into the School and also to my home every now and again to check up if things were running well and keep notes on anything I had to say and would be very open to support any ideas that I wanted to bring to the School independently.
The team was really great at making sure all the volunteers kept in touch. Each volunteer got a contact list with everyone's numbers on it and at times I found this very helpful and convenient! At least once a week we would set a place and time where everyone could get together for dinner and drinks.
I have to admit that not all of it was paradise. Sometimes the staff members weren't so great,and sometimes I felt that they should be more efficient with things, especially considering the amount of money I paid to be there. For instance it was very frustrating when you and some fellow volunteers needed to go the office to get some teaching materials, check emails or reporting something of yours had been stolen, then to turn up and to find it being locked with no staff members answering their phones.
I think personally the only thing I would have done differently was brought more back up money, as when my credit card got blocked, I had nothing until my mother managed to wire me something across. Definitely something to remember for next time!
Excluding the minor downsides that occurred throughout my time there, I have to say that overall I was happy with the Organisation and would recommend it to anyone and everyone, whatever age you are! I got so involved with the local people that if the staff couldn't help me with something, one of the local people I'd met would! The advantage of Projects Abroad having a higher price for your placement is that you really have to work for it, whether that's getting a job, or also doing fundraising alongside it.
With its ups and its downs, I think Projects Abroad is brilliant and definitely have the volunteers at heart. They will pick up and work hard on any suggestions of improvement the volunteers come forward with. All in all I felt safe and well looked after and I am looking forward to my next placement with them.