Can’t wait to go back one day!

I completed the 1 month expedition with Think Pacific last year and I honestly can’t put into words how much I wish I could hop on a plane and go back!

My team lived in Nadrala Village, where we were welcomed with open arms (and lots of grog!) into their community. From day one we were thrown in at the deep end of Fijian culture, living without home comforts, eating traditional food, and trying our hand at learning some Fijian – but our amazing Leaders/lovely family meant that we settled in and adapted quickly. We were lucky enough to have six kids in our family, which meant that we were always entertained and kept busy once we’d come home from school.

Teaching in the schools was really rewarding, when taking pupils out of their classes for one-on-one help, it was easy to see how easily they could slip through the net and fall behind in their school system, and how much they benefitted from new styles of teaching. Also, pretty much all of the kids had never played or even seen any other sports apart from Rugby and Netball, so when we introduced P.E lessons they were beyond excited. I’m not sporty whatsoever, so I was really worried about this aspect of the trip, but I actually ended up really enjoying it! I wasn’t the most aethletic (to put it lightly!) on the team, but it didn’t matter because we were all there to help each other out and team sports at the end of the day was more of a laugh than anything else!

On the first day at school I had my 20th birthday, and despite being so far away from home and my family, I had the best time. The team organised a surprise party, and the village put on a huge celebration for me despite only knowing me for three days at that point! It was just the best, most-humbling experience I could have asked for. And even now, almost a year on I still think about it and wish I could go back one day.