Our Children of the Pacific Program is one of our most popular programs.  Participants receive up to 40 hours of community service and integrate themselves into the lifestyle of the Fijian villages where they live and work. Service work is focused on education – from tutoring students, providing homework help, organizing fun extra-curricular activities, art classes and more – as well as construction projects upgrading school and village facilities. This program is popular with students who are looking for a real life- changing experience in an amazing culture.

Day 1 - Tuesday
Depart the USA
All of Rustic Pathways scheduled group flights to Fiji depart from Los Angeles.  Our carrier is Air Pacific – Fiji’s national airline.  The flight each week is non-stop to Nadi International Airport and is escorted by a Rustic Pathways Flight Leader. The flight departs LAX in the evening and takes about 10 hours.  During your flight take the time to get to know other students, get some sleep in preparation for your arrival in the South Pacific, relax with a movie or two and start to settle into the easy-going and friendly nature of the Fijian’s and their legendary hospitality.
    
Day 2 – Wednesday
In Transit
Today is “lost” as you cross the international dateline, but don’t worry too much… you will get it back on your way home!

Day 03 – Thursday
Bula!  Welcome to Fiji! 
You will immediately be greeted by our Rustic Pathways staff and transported to our beautiful Rustic Pathways Base House.  Here you will enjoy a tropical breakfast with your new staff and new friends.  You will receive an orientation about the week ahead of you while you overlook sugarcane fields that seem to fall into the ocean.  You will be given enough time to relax and unwind while getting to know your new friends. 

Travel into the Highlands-No time to waste!
After breakfast you will drive about one hour to the small town of Sigatoka where you will spend some time visiting the markets and getting an initial taste of the Fijian culture. Many of the village members whom Rustic Pathways has relationships with sell goods and produce in Sigatoka.  The villagers are always excited to introduce themselves to our students and help them purchase items of food, clothing and other supplies in preparation for the journey into the Highlands.
 
From Sigatoka your group will drive into the Nasouri Highlands.  Due to the remote locations you visit, travel will be by truck or four wheel drive vehicle. Your first nights stay is at the rustic retreat of Nubulevu and the journey normally takes about two hours with several opportunities to stop along the way for photos and a chance to say “Bula” to the locals that you pass along the way. Late in the afternoon our group will arrive at Nubulevu.  During your stay here you will sleep in traditional thatched huts or bures.  As part of your initial orientation, you will be taught many aspects of Fijian protocols and expectations of behavior.  
    
Day 04 – Friday
Full day of Service with a Smile   
After breakfast and orientation to the educational service projects you will undertake n this program, your group will assemble and depart for Wouosi Primary School.  Here you will participate at the local kindergarten and primary school classes.  You will have ample opportunity to put your skills to use as you facilitate art, music and English classes throughout the morning.   In the afternoon, you will participate in sport programs or a construction project for the school site.

You will return to Nubulevu in the late afternoon.  Located on the banks of a picturesque river and overlooking a lush valley, Nubulevu offers abundant opportunities to relax, swim, play volleyball and soak in the warm Fijian hospitality.  Enjoy this time with your group and your staff leaders after the hard work and activities in Wouosi.

Day 05 - Saturday     
The Village of Nasivikoso – a taste of the real Fiji!  
This morning you will travel to the village of Nasivikoso, your home for the next four nights.  This morning you will take part in a formal sevusevu ceremony, welcoming you into your new village. As part of the morning welcome, you will also be introduced to your adoptive Fijian family and will be briefed on the community service projects you will undertake during your time in the village. The project may include teaching in the village kindergarten and rehabbing its facilities, working on the family farm with your momo (father), doing repair work to local bures, building pathways throughout the village and more. Your interaction with the people and the projects you contribute to, continue to facilitate a wonderful brotherhood between the Fijian people and Rustic Pathways’ students, a relationship that has been growing for over a decade.
 
This evening is a night of fun, laughs and social gathering. Your group will learn local dances, put together a skit and put on a small show for the village. This always ends up being a very entertaining evening with much humor and frivolity!
    
Day 06 – Sunday
The Village of Nasivikoso –  A Day of Celebration and Feasting!  
Sunday is a very ceremonial day in the Fijian culture. Fiji’s native people are predominantly Christian and Sunday’s are observed as a day of rest. Today your family will dress you up in traditional Fijian clothing and then, as a member of your adoptive family, you head to the village church – an enthralling opportunity to experience first hand a Fijian church service. This is a wonderful occasion where the whole village gathers – elders, parents, teenagers and young children alike – for a morning of singing and respectful thanks for the wonderful environment in which they live. After church, the villagers prepare a massive feast for lunch. It is impossible to not get caught up in the pure enthusiasm and open delight these people show towards each other and their surroundings. Imagine yourself sitting under the shade of a large tree, your village surrounded by towering hills of lush greenery. You’re watching a peaceful river flow beside you and you’re listening to the continual chatter and laughter of energetic children. Everyone treats you like a best friend. The entire scene makes you think that no one, including yourself, should have a care in the world. This is a place that is very easy to get used to and one that is incredibly hard to leave.
    
Day 07 – Monday
Wouosi School and Village Activities
Over the next few days you will be involved with local development projects around the village and education and tutoring projects at the Wouosi Primary School.  Your Fijian friends are always around to lend a helping hand and their involvement makes the days all the more enjoyable.

In the late afternoon you can enjoy fun and games with our weekly volleyball tournament. The villagers and the students both get a kick out of the weekly village vs. Rustic Pathways student challenges. It is always a close contest.  After volleyball you will then head to a local farm and help out planting and picking cassava, the native potato, and the main staple food in Fiji.  You will learn all the local techniques about how to grow good cassava. The evening will be spent participating in an art or music class for the village youth. This too is a truly humorous experience.
    
Day 08 – Tuesday
Family Time and Community Service  
Today you will spend the morning with your family helping out with family chores and other necessary jobs that are performed as part of your family’s everyday life. This is another side of village life and one that traditional tourist’s fail to have the opportunity to share in. Traditionally, each family clan or matagali is responsible for a particular aspect of the running of the village.  Through your direct involvement you will gain a greater understanding of exactly how the village functions in a communal sense and the degree to which responsibility and industry is necessary to maintain harmonious conditions within each family and within the village as a whole. You will meet up with the rest of the group for lunch and then you will spend the afternoon working on service projects.

During some evenings you will help conduct English lessons for the adults and children of Nasivikoso. This is a fun time where you get to show the villagers your teaching abilities that you practiced in the school and of course share some laughs along the way.

Day 07 – Wednesday
Depart Nasivikoso arrive at Manasa’s Place
Today will conclude the planned community service projects your group has been working on during their stay in Nasivikoso.   Needless to say your final goodbye can be extremely emotional.  In the morning you will have your final sevusevu with your family. This is where gifts are presented and final words are spoken. The village then performs a traditional farewell ceremony followed by you and your group performing your newly learnt spear dance or meke.  
 
Many of our past students have formed strong relationships within the community and continue to communicate with their host families after they have returned to their homes in the USA.  Students often return to Fiji after their first summer as close family friends. The Fijian children are amazing and the excitement you see in their smiling faces and hear in their laughter is contagious. Their humble surroundings coupled with their unbridled passion for life leads many students to take a good look at their own lives and reevaluate their priorities.

In the afternoon, you will have a choice to go by truck or foot to Manasa’s Place.  The hike is two hours long and passes by a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole.  It is so serine and beautiful it is worth every drop of sweat getting there.   Here you can swim and enjoy the large variety of local fruits that grow in the Fijian bush while basking in the sunlight.
    
Your final night you will spend at Manasa’s Place, which has been a part of the Rustic community for several years. This will give you some time to reflect on your experience in the Nasouri Highlands. 
 
Day 10 - Thursday     
Farewell to the Nasouri Highlands and Return to Nadi!
You depart Manasa’s early in the morning and spend today in Nadi town shopping for any final gifts or souvenirs.  If you are departing to the USA tonight, after a final meal with your group, you travel to the airport and bid Fiji farewell (until next year perhaps).  You will be escorted to LAX by a Rustic Pathways Flight Leader.  For those students who are continuing to another Rustic Pathways program you will commence your next program this morning. 

It is important to highlight that a considerable amount of time is dedicated to cultural interaction on this program. This program exposes you to the generous and compassionate Fijian culture and offers you the opportunity to contribute something meaningful to a community that has very few material conveniences. This happens in the form of time spent with your Fijian family and extensive interaction with the villagers in general. Our day to day schedule is built with these goals in mind and can vary from week to week as we take advantage of other special events and activities in and around our host villages.

 A Special Initiative
As part of our project goals for 2008, Rustic Pathways is endeavoring to help upgrade supplies at the local schools. To help with this we would like to ask each student who participates in this program to bring with them 5-10 books that are suitable reading for students aged between 6 and 14. These books do not have to be new and you may find them simply lying around at home or on your friends’ or neighbors’ book shelves. In addition, any basic school supplies like markers, backpacks, rulers, paper or chalkboard erasers could be put to good use.  If each Rustic Pathways participant is able to help with this, we will greatly expand the variety of books and supplies available for the students of Wouosi and Nasivikoso.

An Important Note about Schedule Changes:
Rustic Pathways reserves the right to change, alter, or amend the daily itinerary for this trip at any time. Changes can be made for various reasons including changes in flight or program schedules, changes in the schedules of various external tours incorporated in our trips, the addition of new activities into a trip, or the substitution of an old activity for a new activity. The itinerary shown here provides a good outline of the anticipated daily schedule for this program. As with any travel program, some changes may occur.

1 - What will the accommodation on this trip be like?
Students will stay in three different locations during this one week program, all of which have no electricity or indoor plumbing.

For the home-stay component, students will stay in pairs with local families. Accommodations are basic. Homes are typically made of concrete or wood and tin. Families may provide a bed or students may sleep in traditional Fijian-style, on straw cushions or a mattress on the floor. Students will have access to flush toilets, but not inside their homes. There is one cold-water shower in the village but most students choose to bathe in the river as the locals do.  There is no electricity.

The two other locations are rustic ‘retreats’ designed for travelers wishing to explore this remote region. Students will share traditional thatched huts, know as ‘bures.’ Inside the bures, students will sleep on the floor atop straw cushioning and hand-woven mats. The first of these retreats has flush toilets and showers. The second has a drop toilet and students can bathe with a swim in the river.  Neither location has electricity.

2 - Will the students be drinking bottled water?  
Students will drink water from the town water supply, which is brought from our Fiji base into the interior with the group.

3 - What kind of food will we be eating?
Students will eat a combination of local Fijian dishes and more western-style dishes. Breakfasts typically include cereal, bread, crackers and fruit. Lunches and dinners range from traditional Fijian feasts of cassava and dalo (root crops similar to potatoes), chicken and fish, to noodles and pastas, curries and vegetables. Peanut butter and jelly is often found as are delicious Fijian pancakes, roti and fruits. We can easily cater for vegetarians.

4 - How many girls and boys are usually on this trip?
On average, our programs in Fiji are 60% female and 40% male.

5 - How does this program connect to other programs?
All programs in Fiji connect easily together. On the final day of each program students will come to our Eco Lodge base in Momi Bay to connect with the staff and students for their next program.  Students connecting to the Children of the Pacific program from New Zealand will be met by their group at the airport and will then travel by truck to their first nights accommodation in the interior of the main island. Students connecting from any of our other countries will join the group on the following day and will spend their first night in Fiji at our Eco Lodge base.

6 - Will there be a flight leader to this country?
A flight leader will accompany students on the group flight to Fiji from Los Angeles. Students will meet their flight leader at the departure gate in Los Angeles. Students joining a program in Fiji from Australia or New Zealand will not be accompanied by a flight leader. Our program staff will greet students when they arrive at the Nadi Airport in Fiji.

7 - How long is the flight to this country?
Fiji is 10 hours by air from Los Angeles. Flights from Australia and New Zealand are 3-4 hours.

8 - Do we need to get visas for this program?
US citizens do not need a visa for entry as a tourist into Fiji. On arrival into Fiji, immigration will issue US citizens with a tourist visa for entry into the county. You do not need to do anything prior to your trip for a visa.

9 - What immunizations do we need to get for this trip?
All Rustic Pathways students are required to have an up-to-date tetanus shot. We suggest Hepatitis A and B and Typhoid vaccinations and recommend that you consult a doctor regarding immunizations for travel to the region. You can find additional information on immunizations for travel from the US Center for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov.

10 - What costs are not included on this trip?
The only items not included in this trip are souvenirs, snacks and small donations that students may opt to contribute. There are few, if any, opportunities to purchase snacks or souvenirs until the final day of the program. Students may choose to give a small donation to the village church at their Sunday offering (anywhere from $0.50 to $5 is appropriate and nothing is required).