Wilson Blog 23

Wilson Blog 23

 

After almost a month of life here in Nanuku everyone has found their place, both in the village and in their household. For me my “chores” often consist of cooking, hanging up laundry, and my favorite- walking the kids to school in the morning. Every school day after eating breakfast with my Nene and brothers, they put on their uniforms, and we set out for school. From my house the walk is only about five minutes of an uphill walk before we reach the school gate, and from there all the kids who board at the school swarm us and ask about our day, always wanting to show off new handshakes or clapping games they have learned. At first the walks truly did feel like a chore, but now I sometimes walk extra slow just so that I can get a few more minutes of conversation with the twins about their lives, and I think that development has embodied my growth as a person here in Nanuku.

The first time I walked them to school awkward silence filled the space. I was still unsure how I could connect with these people, and it felt weird being surrounded by people I had never seen before. I kept trying to think of interesting questions, but the little talk we did have was all just small talk about breakfast and life in Fiji. The next day after remembering one of my friend’s words of advice to take advantage of opportunities, I decided to try again, this time with a few questions prepped. I asked about the exams they were taking and the rugby tournament that I kept hearing whispers about in school. It felt like the conversation was a little bit forced but at least it was something. They told me about how the school year was structured and explained that each trimester had two exam weeks which consisted of an entire week of projects and tests like finals week at Lakeside. The next day I asked them about how they received the water that they used every day, which was our homework, and I started learning more and more about life and culture here. They explained that all the water they use comes from a dam that was set up by volunteers from the village, and when I acted surprised that people from the village would do unpaid labor, they explained that everything including houses, churches, piping, and electrical had all been set up by volunteers. To me that shows the kindness and unselfishness that is Nanuku. As my brother told me “No one can get rich here unless everyone is rich because they would just give all their money to others”.

The next day when I dropped the twins off, we installed a handshake that has now become part of the ritual of dropping them off. After debuting it at the school in front of all their friends, everyone else quickly became jealous and I was suddenly flooded with requests for secret handshakes which is apparently the kid’s favorite way to show affection. The handshake addition quickly turned dropping the kids off from a ten minute endeavor to a 20 minute one, simply because I have so many different intricate handshakes with all the kids. Since then, walking the kids to school has felt very much like walking with my best friends. We make jokes, talk about our plans for the day, and discuss the previous days’ rugby games.

With only a few days left I am taking advantage of every opportunity to talk to people here and to play with the school kids for what might be the last time.








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