Lessons in Fiji

Making a garden.
Crossing the river as we go to the village of Nasivi.
Some of the people who live in Nasivi. We have taught health, fitness, and business here.

Every Sunday evening the entire team gets together for a meeting in which we go through the weekly calendar. Team leaders briefly discuss their projects for the week and we each select the projects that we will work on each day. In every single one of these meetings I am amazed at how much is going on during the week. I have to pick and choose the projects I will be working on because there are so many that I would like to be doing. I love to see our large, full wall calendar because it is a good visual representation of all that we are doing. We are busy here in Fiji-teaching, working, walking, eating, learning, and having fun!

I have spent a lot of time working with the fitness classes, and have come to really love them. High blood pressure and diabetes are major health problems among the people of Fiji, a lot of which can be attributed to diet and the lack of aerobic exercise. Most of the women here are extremely strong and hard workers in their homes, but they have no concept of aerobic exercise. Our goal has been to teach them the importance of exercise and help them to start a regular program for themselves.

Many of the women we work with are excited to be part of the program. They enjoy what we are doing and look forward to it. Although they are a little shy, many of them have begun to come out of their shells and really actively participate. Within the last couple of weeks we have made some great improvements. We have started to have a few women keep track of their weekly exercise, which is one of the things we have asked them to do. They have been so excited to turn in their forms, showing their accomplishments. We have also had a couple of groups begin to get together on their own to either do the exercises we have shown them or to go walking. We still have a long way to go in getting a regular exercise routine down, but we are seeing improvements.

Exciting things are happening here in Fiji! We each hope that we are making a difference in the lives of the people here as we come to serve and love those we are working with. The Fijians are wonderful people who are daily teaching us life lessons that we will never forget. We have come to teach, but really we are the ones being taught.