{"id":2679,"date":"2011-07-21T16:43:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T04:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auip.wordpress.com\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2011-07-21T16:43:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T04:43:01","slug":"field-notes-fijian-village-homestay-big-hit-with-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/field-notes-fijian-village-homestay-big-hit-with-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Notes: Fijian village homestay big hit with students"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the Fiji program<\/a> students spend a day and a night in Votua Village. For the time that they are in the village they are allocated a host family who they stay with and participate in village life with. Evaluations always show this experience to be a program highlight and the SUNY-Brockport program this year was no exception.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Firstly the students were welcomed to the village with a Sevusevu (kava ceremony)<\/a>. This is always the first ceremony that is conducted when two groups meet and it acts to open up the path for further interaction, the kava is pictured right. After the Sevusevu students met the families they were to stay with and went to their respective homes to have lunch and settle in. The afternoon was spent participating in various activities. Some students and their families went to a provincial rugby game final, others helped dig the lovo pit for the dinner that night, others went on a \u2018short walk\u2019 (it ended up being quite long!) to the village\u2019s plantation\u00a0 and some had the opportunity to help fish for that nights dinner. Pictured left is Shiri with some of the local children who befriended her.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The dinner that night was a traditional lovo<\/a>, which isa fire made on a pit in the ground lined with heat-resistant stones (sometimes referred to as an earth oven). \u00a0When the stones are hot, food, wrapped in (banana) leaves, is placed in the pit, covered with soil and left to cook before being exhumed and eaten. Dishes cooked this way include\u00a0palusami, which are parcels of\u00a0taro leaves saturated with\u00a0coconut\u00a0milk, onions, meat and fish.<\/p>\n

After the meal the villagers performed a meke<\/a> for the group, pictured right. This is a traditional style of Fijian dance that is generally performed at celebrations and festivals. In return the group were asked to perform a song and dance from America. The group sang \u2018going to the ball game\u2019 and the American national anthem followed by dancing to DJ Casper\u2019s Cha Cha Slide to great amusement of the villagers. Kava and conversation flowed all night with some students not making it to bed till after 2am!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Comments from their time in the village included; \u2018 It was such a touching experience, I had fun and bonded with everyone I encountered\u2019 and \u2018It was really neat how welcoming everyone in the village was towards us\u2019 and \u2018This opportunity has been unbelievable and I highly appreciate this family sharing their home, culture and way of life with us\u2019.<\/p>\n

It was a cultural, educational and, most importantly, a fun experience that the group got a lot out of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of the Fiji program students spend a day and a night in Votua Village. For the time that they are in the village they are allocated a host family who they stay with and participate in village life with. Evaluations always show this experience to be a program highlight and the SUNY-Brockport program this year was no exception….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-field-notes","category-fiji"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}