My first time working overseas within the voluntary sector was when I went to work in Fiji for Madventurer.

I landed in Nadi and was picked up by my college Mandy who took me to the volunteer house in Suva which is the capital of Fiji and was on the other side of the island. The trip is only 3 hours by mini bus but was a really beautiful trip along the coast of Fiji, I did the trip many times in my 4 months in Fiji .

The volunteer house we had was situated in a good area of Suva close to the university which had a gym where I use to go as much as possible the and national stadium. I had my own room and the volunteers had to share rooms with other volunteers in single sex rooms.

When I arrived their was 3 volunteers in the house who had been their for a while and were staying for another few weeks. My role was to look after the volunteers, pick them up from the airport, sort out any problems they would have, handle the finances, buy food, look after general house matters and generally be their for them and running everything in country.

My first group of volunteers was after a few weeks of being in Fiji. I was in charge of 10 volunteers half were girls and half boys. The volunteers were doing a mixture of rugby, hockey and netball coaching but all were good people and easy to get on with. The volunteers I was in charge all of were all sports coaches which was perfect for me as I got on very well with them all. We had a mixture of coaches doing different sports including rugby, hockey and netball.

Part of my job was to organise the volunteers placements and coaching schedule. During the day the volunteers would go and coach at a number of schools and then go to a club to train in the evening and if they were good enough they would play for them competitively during the weekend.

As I love rugby I got fully involved coaching with the rugby volunteers everyday. We would go to different schools each day and coach the children at the schools. The children would range from 5 - 18 at the different schools. All of the children in Fiji loves rugby and it is played everywhere. In Fiji they play Fiji one touch which is touch rugby but once you are touched or the ball hits the deck it changes sides so it is very fast following and crazy rugby.

The schools we coached at were at different standards but one of the schools we coached at Nailuva was an academy team and were known to be one of the best in Fiji. The guys at the academy had plenty of talent but needed coaching on the basics. One of the things you found in Fijian rugby is that they have plenty of talent but lack the organisation compared to countries such as England etc. Auckland Grammar school which is known as one of the top schools for rugby came out to Fiji to play the top schools there. They played Nailuva academy and the atmosphere was brilliant. The whole school had turned out to watch and the banks were packed with kids and supporters watching. Auckland grammar also did their own hacker which was pretty amazing to see. Auckland grammar use the tours as away of scouting out local talent and offering them scholarships at their schools, the likes of Lumu had come through this system from Tonga and when you ask all the boys at the academy who they want to play for its not Fiji its New Zealand.

As well as coaching schools and academy teams myself and the volunteers would coach adult teams including the Fijian army team. We use to coach them once a week doing fitness work and would start at 6am coaching them. They were very fit as most Fijians are and we would have to go to the barracks each week to coach them and of course we would get involved with the fitness as well.

We also coached an adult village team about 30 mins outside of Suva as well which was a real highlight for me coaching rugby out in Fiji. The team had very little equitpment and we would bring the tackle bags and balls each week. Their pitch was very bumpy with pot holes everywhere and the posts were made out of bamboo and totally bent. The guys at the village were so appreciative of the help they were giving them and whilst coaching them at 6pm the village bell would ring and we would always have to stop what we were doing and come together in a circle and hold hands and do a prey. This would also be repeated after the session had finished. I am not a religious person at all but doing this was a very bonding experience and was really interesting to gain a real insight into their culture.

At the end of each volunteers 5 week placement we had £100 of the volunteers money to donate to a club or school of their choose. The 3 rugby volunteers that were there decided to give everything to the club that we worked with in the village. What was nice about it was that the volunteer could give the donation themselves and see what they were giving was really making a difference. We donated a load of rugby balls, cones and tackle bags to the club and when they donated them they were so appreciative of the donation it was amazing to see. I am not emotional at all but the response that they gave was quite overwhelming and they told us that in their 40 years existence as a club no one had ever given anything to them and it was so rewarding to see how important it was to be given this equipment, it made me really proud of what I did and the work that I did.

As well as coaching rugby I got involved with playing for a club Lomaviti. The club were just down my road and we use to train about 2 nights a week and play on the weekend. The club were in the top division in Fiji and were known to be one of the best teams in Fiji. Lomoviti had 2 teams the greens and the blacks, I played for the greens. In our team we had a number of very good players. Our hooker was the current hooker for the Fijian national team and our captain was a former 7s player for Fiji and won a gold medal at the commonwealth games in Manchester. We played in the national cup and got to the quarter finals were we meet red rock the national 7 champions but we ended up losing the game. I played scrum half for the team and on my last game against the University of the south pacific I ended up captaining the team.

Games use to be on a Saturday and the pitch we use to play on was dusty to say the least, falling down on it was not nice and getting cuts was very common and they would never heal from one week to the next. Playing rugby in Fiji was one of the highlights of my life and I will never forget the experiences I had playing in Fiji.

Crime was quite common in Fiji and our house got broken into a few times. One of the first times was when a volunteer left a door open in the house and I woke up in the morning to find a load of things gone from the living room and 60 of my dvds which I was not to happy about! One time a volunteer was cooking something in the kitchen and they saw a Fijian come into the house and steal a pair of shoes and run out such was the check of them. One time I will never forget though was at about 12pm at night and I was going to go to bed when I saw a local sneaking around on our balcony. We had a balcony around the majority of the house which had lights on so at night when the outside lights were on and the insides lights were off we could see outside but people could not see inside. The potential thief had climbed up the drain pipe and was sneaking around trying to get into every door or window without any luck as the windows and doors had bars and grill gates on them. When I saw him sneaking around I woke up all the volunteers so they could see what was going on and called the police but by the time the police had come the thief had long go such was the efficiency of the Fijian police force, it was good to know that he could not get into the house although I don't think he would of wanted to considering their was 10 people in their with hockey sticks waiting for him.

As well as coaching rugby all the time we managed to get off and see some of the island. We organised a trip for the volunteers to go to a rural village in the middle of the island through our cook whose village it was. We stayed a weekend in the village and lived as the locals did taking in a fair few Kava ceremonies which were always good. Kava is the local brew in Fiji and looks like muddy water, tastes like muddy water but is a natural relaxing herb which does the opposite to alcohol. When we were invited to Kava ceremonies be it with schools or villages you always had to sit crossed legged with the elders at the front. Kava ceremonies are very common place in Fiji and going to one is always fun.Myself and the volunteers would often do trips to the islands off the main island to the Ysawere islands to get away from the hustle and bustle of the capital. The islands were always beautiful and some of the snorkelling was very good with the clear blue waters and beautiful sands.