Temperature is rising

Today is a really hot day without the sun visible in the sky. Today I tried to open a bank account and that wasn’t so very easy. First I had to go to the bank and get a letter to show at Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority in Suva; I need a TIN-number. To get to that office I had to take a taxi. Then I had to wait for half an hour to talk to an officer. He was very talkable and explained for me that Fiji had improved their taxpaying routines since 2010; they are adopting models overseas. He managed to help me quite fast and when all was done he said: Welcome to Fiji! He was a nice guy! Then I went back to the bank and got my bank account. Now USP can reimburse my administration fee… It took a part of my day but I got some new impressions and I realize how hard it it for a developing country to build up an administration. One of the problems here is that not everyone pays her/his taxes.

Once a month is Pacific Market Day at Campus where they are selling food, handicraft, root crops, books, fruits, jewellery, printed fabrics and much more. We bought some mangos and a small tanoa. Lunch at Govinda’s; a highlight of the day. Their vegetarian Indian food is just fantastic. Gunilla had a coconut to drink; you got it with a straw. Today’s class is partly presentations of the student’s reflections over their group career counseling sessions and partly a discussion about horizon of opportunities and the career wheel. Tomorrow we take of to Beqa; taxi to the bus station, a Sunbeam bus ride for 30 minutes and then 60 minutes on the ocean and then…

Flip-flops

500 meters swimming in the pool; nice! An American pizza at the local pizzeria in the small shopping mall near Campus followed. A Saturday in town that didn’t gave any idea worth a reflection. On Sunday we took the early bus to Pacific Harbor, on the southcoast of Vitu Levu. We had booked a beachfront bure for one night just to come away from Suva. When we arrived from the ice-cold bus; this bus company has airconditioning in their buses and they use them despite the outer temperature… When we arrived to Uprising Beach Resort there were no beachfront bure reserved in our name so we had to take a beachfront villa instead. You can’t live more exclusive in Fiji. What we thought was the best in the villa was the outdoor bathroom; just fantastic! And compared to how most Fijians live their ordinary lifes this is something quite extra ordinary. We had a very nice day in the sun and in the water and the evening ended with a bottle of cooled white wine on the varanda to our villa. That was very good. On Monday it has been raining all day and because the bus shouldn’t arrive until 4:25pm we had to sit under shelter the whole day and that isn’t good at all…all days in Fiji are different and you can never predict how the coming day would look like. This is very interesting but this time not so pleasant.

The mood was low but my brains kept on working. Suddenly it stood very clear how our programme at Malmö University should be changed to better match the demands in the future. Not all new, but a change due to the outcomes we can see every year when we look at our products; our students. A really great part of them can communicate in a professional manner but they are no career guidance counselors in the true professional sence according to what is required by the learning outcomes we are set to guarantee. I mean that good career guidance counselors can see themselves and their own actions and the ones of the help seeker in a whole context that creates meaning for their dialogue. This doesn’t call for talent nor persistence but rather talent, a humble attitude to learning and reading literature, hard work and persistence. I think we lack something here… 

When you are away from your ordinary work and duties it seems like your brains are having a really good time. They are as free as your feet; mine have been dressed in flip-flops now for more than a month and they are really enjoying it. I think just like the feet the brains got more oxygen when not locked up in the ordinary context.

View from the veranda; you can see Beqa Island

The villa

Thinking is one thing and speaking it out is another; I like them both. I think that’s good!

Hibiscus festival

Adi Senikal was really a ¨spectacle”; men dressed in womens clothes were acting in a way that have a great improvement potential. The sound was terrible but people were having a really good time. We have watched the festival every day at television (the festival goes from Friday to next Saturday) and today, the last day; it was coronation of the king and queen of the festival. These were the two persons that regarding the judges opinion should stand out as role models for other adolescents in Fiji. This is a very good idea, though the process of selecting them is a bit special, should I say. But as always; the purpose gains the inventions (this happens to be swenglish).

Yesterday I woke up and Gunilla invited me to breakfast; the whole table was covered by leafs of different size and art. At the top of it was a wonderful bouquet of flowers and a nice breakfast. It was my birthday! A very interesting book about all trees and shrubs of The University of the South Pacific was hiding under a banana leaf. Campus is like a great arboretum. I didn’t know there were so many species of palms…

One of the "ladies"

Food market

I have a reflection that took me a day to clear out. Today when we walked across campus I noticed that the moon was in sight, but the upper part of it was lighted; it looked like a cap. The same moon some nights ago was formed like a cradle, like a U. I have never seen this before. Or perhaps I have but I have never thought of it like I have done today. I have my own explanation. Do you?

Young clear voices

School holidays for two weeks now. Not so many buses in the streets; the society slows down a bit. But the pupils are still active. Near campus is the National arena and around it there are several rugby, football and basket/net ball fields. I have heard a speaker now for two days. The kids classes and schools are competing. In the morning the buses comes down the road packed with expectant kids. They are singing with clear voices. In the afternoon I can hear them yelling; a sound of joy, happiness and excitement. I never hear that sound in Sweden. It seems to me that our Swedish kids are more individualistic and not affected about how their class or school performs in a competition. This is no good! Are we not interested? Do we not care? Are we blasé? Is it only the project “ME” that interests Swedish kids? Or, perhaps I haven’t listened enough back home…?

It’s Hibiscus festival in town the whole week: amusement park, food, gadgets, flowers, lotteries, shows and as the French says “Spectacle”. Here is no alcohol at all. Some have been drinking grogg/cava, but it’s very peaceful except the high sound of music. People are happy; especially the children. Television (Fijione) is broadcasting the competitions called Queen, King, Princess and Prince of the festival where people are presenting different skills or just talks about their cloths and their sponsor. Interesting, very special. We are going to a show this evening “Adi Senikau” where men dressed as women are acting… Let’s see what it gives. It’s sure enjoying and will give us several culture points…

Yesterdays class was good and I felt very warm inside and had a smile on my face when I walked home under a clear shining moon (like a cradle) in the dark evening. My students were after my introduction and lecture acting in the snake form (as a colletive career guidance counselor) with a help seekers difficulty. I was acting as a very active supervisor and took a time out as soon as anything should, due to my considerations, be commented. It was really a good learning experience (in the shadow of Krumboltz’s theory). Really good!

The sound of a fan

Woke up at 3 and could very distinctly hear the sound of a fan in the house.

We had locked the door when we came home last night after a nice dinner with Poonam and Michael at a nice indian restaurant in downtown Suva. We lock the door when we know that no one will enter…It’s perhaps the maid who has forgot to turn the fan off while cleaning the room next to ours.

I couldn’t fall back to sleep and my brain started to reflect; it seem as it has a great workload - I’m dreaming a lot. This reflection is about my knowledge and skills in English: I started learning English in 4^th or 5^th class. We had a disputed teacher! (The explanation is that I was a pupil at the Teachers School, were pupils in class 3-6 were integrated). After that I have studied English in secondary school and in Highschool. My whole first year at the University studying sociology all the literature was in English. But, the lectures were all teaching in Swedish! This was before the PowerPoint time. The lecture was writing on the blackboard or was it on a whiteboard; I don't remember, and the students were copying what the lecturer was writing and saying. I didn’t read all the literature, that’s for sure. The result of this was that I didn’t learn so much English as optimal and that was due to both my own acting and the lecturer’s behavior. After my university studies I have tried occasionally to read novels in English and I have even practiced English at work at the Swedish Immigration board and at the former Växjö University. During my time at the latter I had the opportunity to have a two weeks course in English in Colchester in England. At my present work at Malmö University I have really tried to recover and improve my knowledge and skills in English.

When you are lying in your bed, either asleep or awake your solutions on problems and situations can be very smart and trustworthy. My thoughts about the explanation to my limited knowledge of English fell back to first what the disputed lecturer in class four or five really was teaching and the second to how smart it was to teach a topic from the sociological literature in English in Swedish…

I’m doing the same thing at work. Through my own behavior I contribute to the same acting of my own students as I myself did when I was a student a long time ago. Why do I teach basic counseling skills from Egan’s The skilled helper via Power Point in Swedish? This is not so very smart!

The questions now are: Can I change this? Is it appropriate to help the students over the average line and facilitate for them to be better in English in the long term? Is this way the right for a society where we are talking about lifelong learning and internalization?

The sound of a fan came from next room were a new guest, Tom, has slept this night.

The Milky Way

This weekend we went to an island on the northwest coast of Vitu Levu. To travel in this country is not so easy… Early morning taxi to the bus station. Trying to find the right bus; we didn’t found the bus from the company we were told to take, but we found another. We took Inter-Cities from Suva to Ellington Warfh, a journey on 150 km. Four hours for an Express Bus gives an impression of the quality the roads hold here in Fiji; they are bumpy and the potholes are uncountable. Our kidneys had a really hard time. No announcement of the stops and just occasionally I asked the bus host to tell me when we are to reach Ellington Wharf. He sad: It’s here and we got off the bus. What luck! We were standing at a junction just in a sugarcane plantation. We had by the guidebook seen that it’s only two kilometers to the harbor. So we took a warm walk to the harbor; a harbor? Two shelters and a small jetty and no boat. Some people in one of the shelters, called a restaurant. The woman helped us to call the resort and a boat arrived in 30 minutes. The sun in zenith, a fairly hard wind and wonderful green-blue water. 20 minutes later we reach the sandy beach of Nanuna-I-Ra’s southeastern side. Two people standing at the beach welcomed us. Our beachfront bure was very nice. Not more than 20 meters to the wonderful water and 30 meters to the restaurant. We took a quick bath as quick as we could and it was as warm and nice as in our dreams about the Pacific. Later in the afternoon we did some snorkeling too but it was a disappointment. This place couldn’t compete with Tambua Sands on the Coral Coast. On this little island the electricity must be produced on the island; the resort had a diesel compressor that was working daytime and was put of at 10pm. No lamps mean that you can see the heaven – and we really did. All the stars and the Milky Way were just astonishing. Personal best…! We stayed for two nights. The journey back to Suva was just like as it was coming here except it was Sunday and a lot of people walking on the way to or from church, all properly dressed. I have one reflection concerning the bus ride: the important role of the bus host (or what we can call a person who writes out the tickets and helps people handling their luggage). He has the money and makes all the works with passengers so the driver can concentrate on driving the bus. And that takes sure all his attention because the road looks like they do. Being two personal on the bus makes it safe for them and It’s always to have a working mate to talk with… The bus tickets are filled in by the bus host and a copy is given to the traveller. This copy is to be hand over to the driver when leaving the bus. Is this a control that everyone has paid for the journey and even a control of how the bus host is handling his job? I think so and it is good! I can just compare this Fijian style with the Swedish were we have problems with security on our public transportation to the extent that the Öresundtraffic can’t control the travellers tickets because the train hosts are working alone and due to the security situation. I just ask myself if Fiji should be considered as a more secure society that Sweden and my answer is by no means: “No”. We have made so many so called rationalizations that we have forgot the main purpose of the activity and we have made many people unemployed. In Sweden it seems to be better, in the name of competition, to have people unemployed and dependent on social welfare and on the job centres jobcoaches than to let every individual have a job to go to and by that means have a chance to feel proud to contribute to the good for everybody. This is not good! 

Singh has got everything + Power Point is king

Thirteen lengths in the pool this nice morning, I start enjoying swimming. It’s never to late to adopt a new and healthy habit. A small bit of the moon together with a star (wonder witch one?) is seen in the clear blue sky. The sun is to rise. Lots of mongooses. The grass is soaking wet; it must have been raining. Gunilla is much faster than me. The American student has left for Samoa. This means that we are free to eat white bread today; she left some that we can transform into toast.

This morning I stayed at home to watch some videorecorded dialoges; I have no chance to do this at work because I have no access to a television and because I can’t hear a word from the camera due to the noise around me. The dialogues were quite good. Some closed questions and the paper in the counselors knee… This is not good!

Lunch at the campus café; chicken kebab with frites and a Fijiwater. Preparing for today’s class. Meeting with the woman from the Ministry of Education who is dealing with career counseling issues. My question to her was about how to get access to the schools so my students can do observations of teachers och counselors acting in career guidance matters. I started the meeting and Tima closed it. I had to go to my class. Today nearly all my student attended, only one was missing. She had informed me via internet.

I gave a short and lucid lecture about career development theories. Then I let the students, in two groups, discuss two questions: one about appropriate theories that can help us understand and explain career development among people living in the Pacific och the other about Holland’s theory. They discussed the questions, after a rather long time of silence in one of the groups, and came to concensus in both groups. The final discussion in the whole class was truly interesting. The answer I got after asking them: What is your reflection over this last activity? was: we must be better prepared before the lecture. I was very glad to hear that answer because it proves that my idea of pedagogy has landed in their heads, although at this time… a little bit to late. But, they will perform better next lecture. That’s good!

Well tasting Fijian food and a glass of chilled red wine closed a very interesting day.

It’s not only the fact that Sing’s shop across the street has all you need of breakfast and evening food; he has also got a liquor store. He, I think it is Singh’s son, is the head of this part of the enterprise. He sells cold beer and it is only 50 meters from MQ5. This is good!

My impression is that a great lot of the education here is characterized as mediation pedagogy. From my own office I can hear lectures talking for long periods without interruption. Some rhetorical questions is asked but I see or hear no sign of discussions among the students during class. This is quite a big difference compared to how my collegues and I work at Malmö University. At the career counseling programme in Malmö we have many hours together with our students compared with what I have with my students here. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I’m working with postgraduate students here… The training in practical counseling our students in Sweden gets is far more that they get here. Here there is no chance to be so clever as it is in Sweden. I wish my students in Sweden should realize this and really take advantage of their advantageous situation. I think some of them does but it could be more common! To climbe above the average line ought to be a habit for more students, here and in Sweden. What is my responsibility in this? How could I encourage them? How can I make my teaching more interesting so it generates interest among my students? One thing I know for sure is: it’s not by using Power Point more frequently…

After lunch today Gunilla and I went to the book shop to buy a book about the trees and shrubs of the Pacific. There was a sell out, so we found a kind of story book for primary school: Tali Magimagi: weaving stories. Perhaps this can give me an idea. This is a clear example of Planned Happenstance… That’s good!