Fiji's Future

In the summer of 2014 I had the opportunity, for 15 days, to travel to the island of Taveuni, which is located in the island chain of Fiji in the deep south pacific. On this trip I experienced so many positive things that I will treasure for the rest of my life. As with most people you associate the islands of Fiji and tropical paradise with big fancy hotels and restaurants but what I experienced was so much better. Yes, the island was a paradise of beauty but in a totally different way, this island had none of those things. I had the opportunity to associate with the locals, as you would say, on a different level other than as a tourist. I did not stay in fancy hotels, take tours with a guide, or eat gourmet foods. I stayed in a small house, explored on my own the island culture, ate, drank, associated with some very special people and experienced their true culture on a more intimate level. The image you see above has a special place in my heart and I want to share one of the stories from this wonderful place. I found out one day that there was a school a few miles away from where I was staying and with the help of one of my friends Patrick, one of the cool local Fijians, I was given permission to visit the school and photograph. The experience at the school changed the way I look at schools. What I am going to tell you may seem unbelievable but it is the truth. This particular school had 140 students from the ages of 6 years to 14 years. One head master (Principal) and 5 teachers. The students were all required to wear a school uniform. The campus consisted of 5 open air buildings and all the students walked to school. As I walked around with the head master he informed me of how they operated and what they had to financially operate with. One interesting fact was the budget of what they had to operate on, $56,000 Fijian, at the time it converted to around $24,000 USD. This paid for the teacher’s income, school operations and the student supply’s, which was around $250 Fijian per student. He showed me around the buildings and he took me into one building which was their library.  The library consisted of around 40-60 books, all very dilapidated from the climate, on one broken book shelf. This is what they had to use and they used them to the very best of their ability. This really took me back and made me think very hard of how our school systems operate. Most of their support, besides the Fijian government, came from what grants or donations they received from New Zealand or Japan, which they were very grateful for. One of the countries had just donated a bunch of dental hygiene kits to the school.  The kids were walking around with toothbrushes hanging out of their mouths, this was so cool. This visit gave me a lot to think about, it was humbling and amazed me what people can make use of and become from it.