Work at the National Trust Headquarters

This week at the National Trust we will be working at the headquarters office writing up our proposal for educational program at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. It is nice to have some time to finally get our ideas down on paper as we spent our first week in Sigatoka and the second at the NT workshop. Today was, however, the first time I felt frustrated by ‘fiji time.’ It is quite difficult to see the lack of organization regarding archiving. After working all day on a potential education program one of the staff members found a past project on the Sand Dunes and gave it to us in an off- hand manner. Also during my internet research for education programs I had come across an article in 2007 written by a British exchange student who had spent 6months recording the oral histories of the surrounding villages. When I asked about these stories the staff were unable to find them. It is frustrating to see these resources being under- utilized or poorly organized, especially when I have overall found the staff very positive and resourceful and full of initiative. Despite this, I am also starting to wish we were here for longer than three weeks. A lot of the projects I am hearing about are very long term and I feel sad leaving before I can seeing many of the projects being put in place.