Scotch College

A humbling, revealing experience in Fiji

Words: Mr Stephen Ritchie – Teacher-In-Charge

Hammering, sawing, wiping the sweat from our brows in the tropical heat – this was the reality for students and staff during a recent trip to Fiji under the auspices of Habitat for Humanity’s ‘Global Village’ initiative.

While our colleagues were preparing themselves for Christmas festivities, a team of 14 builders flew to Fiji to construct a house for a family living in Dravuni village, an isolated settlement of 60 on the west coast of Viti Levu. The group, led by Stephen Ritchie and Grant Watson, comprised 10 boys from Scotch, one from Xavier and one intrepid girl from PLC.

The ‘Global Village’ project organises affordable housing by coordinating volunteer labour from all around the world to build domestic dwellings in places of need. From this initiative it hopes to consolidate family identity and reinforce communities. While much of the labour comes from the volunteers, each family member is encouraged to work alongside the team, investing ‘sweat equity’ in the outcome.

Apart from paying their own way on the trip, students raised additional funds of more than $1,000 each as a donation towards the building materials used in the project. In many countries, this relatively modest amount is sufficient to build a small three-room dwelling for a small family.

After a sleepless overnight flight to Nadi, the team rested as guests of a local farm owner near the town. The next day we flew to Nasauri and bussed the final leg to Dravuni – only to get hopelessly bogged in the final kilometre of rough track. By the time we eventually saw the building site, we felt we had truly travelled across the world.

Upon arrival, it was clear that we were not only guests of the family with whom we were building, but that we were guests of the entire village. Dravuni is a tiny village by the sea at the end of a dirt track in the most idyllic setting of palms and mangroves. It consists of small cottages connected by communal pathways with no through traffic possible from the outside world. The accommodation of our group of 14 meant that we were billeted across three local households with whom we fast became friends. The welcome and the hospitality that we experienced were quite humbling in the circumstances.

Work each day began early at 5.15am and continued until 10am. Work resumed between 3pm and 6pm. This break was a concession to our pale, unacclimatised selves, as we tried to survive the midday tropical humidity. Each day a tropical downpour dumped about 100mm of rain onto the muddy worksite – almost on cue. Students learned to handle tools with some skill, and the enthusiasm generated between them and the local helpers was quite infectious as we reached the final stages of our stay. By the end, we had almost completed the construction of the three-room dwelling, but time and the weather took its toll leaving the roof to be constructed by the able villagers.

For our all group members, the hospitality and communal intimacy that we shared as guests of an entire village was an extremely humbling, revealing experience. GS