Week 4

2/24/14

USP has 12 member countries as apart of the school, so a lot of the students don’t come from the Fijian Islands. With students from Tonga, Samoa, and even reaching up to the Marshall Islands, there is a diverse community within our classrooms. A lot of the lectures are centered around discussion and the professors are curious to know about what things are like in everyone’s countries. I thought it was funny though when one of my professors had already acknowledged the presence of four international students in his classroom, but then proceed to ask the question, “Well you all come from a Village, am I correct?” Right as he said it the Norwegian, two Canadians and I simultaneously start shaking our heads “no”. A neighborhood? Maybe. A community? Yea, sure. But a village? No.

 

I’ve already started learning a lot about Fijian culture in one of my Resource Conservation classes. One of the first things that interested me was the Fijian recycling practices. At Chapman we have high tech trash and recycling bins to help compact the waste, whereas here it’s hard to even find a trash can- let alone a recycling bin. From the moment we got to the country I noticed the lack of trashcans. When you go for food there’s nowhere to throw your waste away, because someone is expected to come pick it up after you. I think it’s a part of Fijian hospitality. Unfortunately though this is affecting their country in a terrible way. Walking along the beaches in the city or even around campus you can look down and see piles of trash washed up on shore. In the country areas, they burn what trash they do manage to collect. It’s sad that a country that relies so heavily on it’s land treats it so poorly. But what can they do? Without proper funding from the government and time to further develop the country, it’s going to stay this way.

 

Lower campus beachfront

But when you look closer…

We had a student committee come talk to us about joining their recycling program; one that has only been on campus for a couple of years. Their program focuses on three parts; awareness, educating the community how to recycle, and then actually taking the waste to separate facilities. As of now, people use both cans for the same reasons- if even at all. One student said he doesn’t bother to recycle because he knows all the waste will go to the same place in the end. This forms a vicious cycle where students don’t bother recycling because they don’t think the waste gets separated, but then the waste doesn’t get separated because people don’t bother to recycle.

 

The heart of this problem? Believe it or not is Fiji’s education system. In primary school, students here are taught to not throw their trash away. When they leave the lunch table they are told to leave all of their trash for someone else to pick up. Why? I have absolutely no idea. It’s exactly the opposite of what we do in the States. One of my professors said his kids come home from school and refuse to clean up their own messes because that’s what their headmasters teach them. One student posed this question in class “If we did start to teach the children how to clean up after themselves and recycle, would it even work? Would they continue this later in their lives” The students who did respond didn’t think so- the idea seemed stupid to them. But all I could think was ‘yes, it would absolutely work!’. Growing up that’s what I was taught and still to this day I continue to carry out those practices.

 

My super eventful week learning about Fiji’s trash problem was cut short though when a cyclone rolled through on Thursday, cancelling classes for the rest of the week. The rain started on Wednesday, and it was so bad I wasn’t even able to make it to class. Since our AC is still broken our windows have been open to let in air, which caused water to start pooling up in our kitchen and living room. It was so humid this even continued once we shut the windows. I’ve learned that Northfaces are only good for the little sprinkle that we get almost everyday in Seattle, not for a Fijian downpour.

 

Outside the apartments

Friday, when the weather was supposed to be the worst, it was actually sunny enough that I did a little homework lying out in the grass. Apparently the worst of the cyclone had missed us. And by Sunday, we made our first trip to the USP pool.