Mount Gambier university student Lucy Davis flew to Fiji last week to embark on a four-week study tour.
Miss Davis, who is studying to be a primary school teacher at UniSA Mount Gambier Campus, will teach English to underprivileged Fijian children and undertake mental health advocacy workshops.
“They are already learning English, but I am going there to teach them more basic English from an Australian perspective,” she said.
“There are 25 in my group, but I am the only Australian, there are people from Europe and Asia and a lot of the UK in my group that are also doing the same thing.
“I am so excited; I am only going for four weeks but I am excited to do something different.
“I think it will be really good for my study experience and I love to travel so I thought why not, might as well give it a go.
“Especially if I want to move away overseas in the future to have that teaching experience overseas, because then it will be so much easier to get a job when I am finished with my degree, so it is exciting.
“I have not been to Fiji before, I have done a few countries, but not Fiji. I went to Vietnam and Cambodia when I was younger through school and did a similar thing and then decided to do this.”
Miss Davis will live in a Fijian village for 24 days with a host family consisting of parents with three daughters aged twelve, nine and seven.
“They will be my little host sisters and they will take me to school every day and I will be doing pretty much day-to-day life with them Monday to Friday and doing my workshops in the afternoon,” she said.
“We do different things on how we can improve our own mental health as well as supporting people with those mental health issues and doing it in different ways through different things (such as sport and craft).
“On Saturdays they will take me on excursion days, so we will be going to their favourite places and doing their favourite activities.
“Then on Sundays we have rest days, so we go to Church in the morning, do our community lunch with everyone in the village and then in the afternoons we just relax and spend it as we want to.”
Miss Davis will also spend R&R days in a resort with the other university students to regroup, rest and debrief about their experiences.
Miss Davis said learning about different cultures was great life experience and encouraged people to take opportunities if they arose.
“I think for anyone who has the opportunity to do it you should just do it, it is nerve-racking, don’t get me wrong, I am extremely nervous, but it is so wholesome and it is so rewarding in the end,” she said.
“It is going to feel like a long time for people like my family and my partner and that back here, but it is only four weeks and it is four weeks of learning about yourself and about what you can really do.
“I am grateful that I did it and I will be so grateful to be over there because they are such beautiful people overseas, especially in an underprivileged community where I am going to be living.
“When I come back it is back into work, so rather than having the same routine all the time, if there is the opportunity you should always take it.
“That’s what I say to people, if the opportunity comes up, just do it.
“It is a big world out there.”
