A bitter cold winters day. In Fiji.

So last weekend was a scheduled party/ social gathering/ catch up weekend at the Beach House on the Coral Coast. Surfing, reading, beers, sunning, volleyball, pool time and leisure were on the cards. What we got was pissing rain, a capsized boat (in a storm), stepping on cane toads in bare feet in the dark and beers. Luckily we coped. Quite well (thanks to the beers).

The lead up to departure time on Sunday arvo consisted heavily of bragging to our Suva cousins that unlike in dreary Suva it would not be raining in Ba (because it never does of course). Incredibly unfortunately for us it rained the entire 4.5 hour bus journey back to Ba (so much for the burning west), and Ba itself was no exception. As an added surprise we came home to a blackout (the last time it rained in Ba the Vodafone phone and internet service crashed). So much for catching up on over a weeks washing and internets.

With the rain came a slight drop in temperature...

Enter a bitter cold winters Monday morning at BSSE. With a minimum recorded temperature of 18 degrees and a max of 23, combined with constant drizzle BSSE went into semi hibernation mode.  Ski jackets, gangster hoodies, beanies, gloves, track pants under school dresses, boots (socks with sandals for the majority not fortunate enough to own boots) and scarves were not in short supply. In fact every single person at school was rugged up like it was an ice age. However having completed a speech pathology degree with 4 years of critiquing research studies, and being drilled about randomised control trials and sample sizes I must be cautious that I am not generalising here. Thus I am openly declaring I cannot guarantee that what I am reporting on was a representative sample of how the students and teacher at BSSE respond to milder weather, especially considering that less than 50% of the usual number of students attended school (so perhaps I have only witnessed the stronger of the bunch?).

sneaky beanie shot

Ski jacket, hood up

Vitila dons gloves, Caroline ditches uniform all together

There is a proven link between cold and brain shutdown (hibernation) thus all classes were suspended for the day, the TV was switched on and as the students huddled in one classroom the teachers tried to warm themselves in the staffroom with endless cups of steaming hot tea (and endless discussion about the weather, and how much nicer it would be to be rugged up at home).  On top of this school finished early and the entire staff granted themselves an early mark and piled out the school gates 2 hours early to head home where they could access more socks, jumpers, blankets and hot tea.

Through post event discussion with my Suva cousins, and our sista in the north, I have deduced that this phenomenon is not restricted to BSSE or Ba, but the entirety of Fiji enters lock down mode as soon as the thermometer drops below 20.

Oh and boy do they like to talk about it.

 Moce!