Fiji from home

Bula!

We all know the drill. Lockdown, social distancing and cancelled plans. Nobodies doing anything that they expected to be doing. And I never expected to be logging on to a zoom webinar for my first day as a psychology intern with Think Pacific on their virtual internship programme. I had no idea what to expect, but in the first two hours we were told everything that we would be doing over the next four weeks. For the first week we were given 9 modules to work our way through. These covered Think Pacific’s ‘mind set for success’, Fiji’s entire history, from pre-globalised Fiji to its conversion to Christianity, Fijian language, way of life and current context, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Fiji’s national development goals, and a specific module to your internship field. There was a variety to choose from, but I chose global psychology and mental health as my field, as it was an area that interested me, and I felt I could make the greatest impact. I learnt all about attitudes towards mental health in Fiji, as well as the stigma surrounding it. These modules were the best thing I could be doing whilst we all can’t travel, allowing me to soak up Fiji’s culture sat at my desk!

There were three webinars every week, a speaker, an alumni, and culture sessions (also known as Friday fun), as well as Q&A sessions and Monday morning briefings. Speaker sessions gave us insights into interesting topics such as coral reef farming and epigenetics, and alumni sessions gave us ideas and inspiration on how we could use our Think Pacific experience in the future. But the most fun sessions had to the be the culture sessions every Friday. These included lessons in Kava making (the traditional Fijian narcotic drink), dancing the Meke (traditional Fijian dance), cooking a Fijian meal and a Fijian language lesson! These were always a great way to end the week! We also had weekly sessions with a mentor, who guided us through the internship. Virtual coffee meetings were also weekly, and a great way to meet like-minded people from all over the country, and the world! In some meetings there would be prepared questions that everyone would answer and in some the conversation flowed more or less naturally!

Finally came our action project. This was where we could put everything we had learnt into practice and make a difference. There were loads to choose from, which made it a difficult decision! However, I settled on writing weekly articles for the Psychiatric Survivors Association. This involved researching successful mental health campaigns, creating a monthly plan to vary the article topics, creating guides on how to write and publish articles, as well as writing example articles for each topic. I collaborated with a fellow intern which was good fun and allowed us to achieve more than we would have been able to by ourselves. For the last part of the project we had to present on zoom what we had done. We both found this quite awkward to begin with, as we were recording it so wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, but we soon got into the swing of it and submitted everything in time for the final debrief! We learnt what contribution we had made to Fiji’s national development goals and then the webinar ended, and I logged off, marking the end of my virtual journey. It is incredible how much Fiji has impacted me, and how I have impacted Fiji, sat behind my desk 10133 miles away, and although it wasn’t how I intended on spending my summer, I am glad that I have spent it this way.

Vinaka vaka levu!