Fiji Pre-Trip

Pre Trip Days:

Our first few days of Pre-Trip were a mix of learning and prep for our GSL trip! For the first few days of our prep we were in the lab and studied things like waterborne illness, Fiji's environment, and issues surrounding lack of water around the world. We all did presentations about sicknesses that stem from dirty water, and did a lot of experiments in the labs. For one we dripped water on a sloped box of sand to simulate the formation of rivers. It was interesting to see how the water carved different paths. For another, we filtered different materials from each other with different methods. The first box had marbles and coins, which we used our hands for, the second had poppy seeds and salt, which we filtered through water, and the third had sand and cloves, which we used a colander for. 

In the next few days we focused on the GSL aspect of our trip and learned dances, Fijian language, and more about the culture. We all did presentations about an aspect of Fijian culture and discussed the similarities and differences between life at home and life in Fiji. All of us are super excited to have this experience, but are all a little worried about leaving our homes for a whole month. We also watched a documentary about four Americans who lived in Guatemala for two months on one dollar per day and had an opportunity to interview one of the people that went on the trip. This documentary allowed us to gain perspective on how life changing it can be to go out of  your comfort zone and live a different lifestyle.