Using Music to Teach Wellness

Firstly, I want to apologize for waiting so long between posts. I promise you'll have either two or three posts today to make up for it. Today, I'm going to talk about my teaching assignment. I am posted to Nasikawa Vision College teaching Family Life Education and Music classes. Family Life Education is basically youth wellness, which covers mental, emotional, social, physical, and nutritional health. In Fiji, they teach PEMAC, which is Physical Education, Arts and Crafts, and Music; in order to be certified, you have to take two of the three subjects at university. The certifications here are different and not quite as stringent. My counterpart, who is amazing, took physical education and arts/crafts courses. I am teaching music, because I am the most qualified; however, the agreement with my counterpart is that she must learn or sit in my classes, as well.

I am part of the Community Youth Empowerment Project in Peace Corps Fiji; this means that the other volunteers and I cover sexual and reproductive health, self-esteem, confidence, recreational activities, climate change, parent education, and professional development. If you are one of those that is really into statistics and data like me, I would be happy to share the actual outcomes in an e-maul, but I don't want to bore the rest of my readers.

For those of you that haven't figured it out yet, back home, I am a Music Therapist-Board Certified. This means that I completed, at least, a four-year degree, practicum, 1020 hour internship and passed a board certification exam. I use music to reach, or teach, non-music goals. In Fiji, I do this through to teach the goals Peace Corps has given me. Not everything is music-based that I do, but a lot of it is. I use the creative arts, drama, literature, and other play-based activities to teach wellness. Mostly, I try to model using all the learning styles. My goal is to pass my knowledge onto my counterpart and the other teachers. I also am in the process of designing some behavior management in-services for the teachers. As per the Peace Corps guidelines, I don't work clinically or as a music therapist, but I do use music therapeutically here. It's also about sustainability, I don't want to do something that cannot be continued here when I leave. I use a lot of my training and education to figure out creative ways to meet the goals that I've been assigned.

The students in Fiji, are extremely musical and their learning styles are very aural based. From the time they are born, they are patted on their bums to lull them to sleep. Then they start clapping and patting on the floor to play. After that, they begin to play the Loli drum, which is a large, outdoor drum. I'll have to post a picture, because the loli is very hard to describe... Basically, you hollow out a tree, but leave the ends. The loli drum is played every morning for devotional time and for church. Fiji is incredibly musical and my students react really well to the music-based curriculum's.

Jason and Laura Semprini, PCVs on Vanua Levu, Fiji and I by the Loli drum

In Fiji, many of the topics covered in Family Life Education is "taboo," or "tabu" in Fijian; this is one o the reasons Peace Corps is in the schools. The rates of sexual assault, domestic violence, STI rates, and teen pregnancies is remarkable. If you know of the United Nations Development Index, Fiji always scores high on technology and other requirements, but gender-based violence is high. Thankfully, the government of Fiji noticed a while back and there are several organizations designed to address the issue. I am very impressed by the Fijians who are willing to address this issue. Most of the time, the women are completely on board that I've met and the understand the consequences for not being on board. I am so hopeful!

My community is unique because many of the women and youth work at resorts, which means they are being exposed to western ideals. It's a bittersweet blessing because they long for some of the material needs, but they have to preserve their culture. I tell my students they get the privilege to determine how to mesh these two worlds. Some communities choose not to mesh at all, which is also, totally alright. My job here is not to push western ideals onto the youth, it's to help them learn to think critically about their choices, whatever they may be. I am so empowered myself by seeing my students learn to grasp new concepts and ideas. It gives me so much hope!

Navola Women's Group, International Women's Day, March 8, 2016