Fiji is beautiful. You already know this. You learned this around the same time you learned the sky is blue.

Consequently, I won’t tell you what you already know: You should go to Fiji.

How Awesome Is This?

What you may not know, however, is that Fijian children are the coolest people in the Pacific and the best vacation you could ever take is be to a rural Fijian village to volunteer in their school.

Nakavika village is in the Namosi Highlands of Fiji. That probably means diddlysquat to you at the moment, but you should just know that this small village is nestled amongst the mountains in a jungle so amazing you think you’re in Jurassic Park. It’s not even one of those killer jungles with crazy snakes, spiders and dinosaurs; this is like a really cool, relatively harmless jungle.

Some of the Madventure backpackers, Lindsay, and I headed up to the village to help out in their school. In the future, my resume will say I volunteered with children in Fiji. In reality I spent a week playing tag, duck-duck-goose, rugby, soccer, and more with the most energetic crazy little kids I’ve ever met. It was fantastic.

A few things to keep in mind if you decide you want to do this though:

• If you lift one kid in the air, you will have to lift up every kid in the village.
• Same goes for piggyback rides.
• As far as getting there, if you need some financial help from the old parents, saying you’re going to volunteer somewhere sounds much better than saying you want to explore the “culture” of Amsterdam.