In this interview, you’ll hear from Claire Schnefke, a Peace Corps CED (Community Economic Development) volunteer in Fiji. Claire shares what daily life looks like, the work being done, and how service has shaped their personal and professional growth. You’ll learn about housing, cultural differences, project work, language learning, and what it’s like to live and work in a new country. This interview offers a real look into Peace Corps service and what future volunteers can expect.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Social Identity
- Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. What do you do as a Peace Corps CED volunteer in Fiji?
The work of CED volunteers in Fiji varies greatly from village to village as the projects are community-led and tailored to each specific community. During my service, the main project I worked on was with the women’s group. We created a business center that reduced barriers to starting new income-generating activities. The center allows local women to rent hard-to-come-by assets such as an oven, sewing machine, brush cutter, and more.
The project kicked off with a week of skills-based training where women learned how to screen print, sew, make jewelry, and basic business practices. During my time, I also co-led projects such as a nightly afterschool study hall program, a WASH project that repaired the water supply and built bathrooms, and supported the local primary school in digitizing school management, and sometimes as a teacher’s aid.
But the majority of the time is spent learning and teaching through informal education activities. As a Fiji CED volunteer, you will spend a lot of time farming, fishing, cooking, and drinking yagona, the traditional drink of the South Pacific. It is important to remember that these activities are so important to understanding the culture and informing sustainable development.
2. Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and serve in Fiji?
When I applied to the Peace Corps, I knew I wanted to work in the CED sector, but I applied to serve where needed most for the country. Upon learning I was going to Fiji, I quickly tried to learn as much as possible and was so excited. Fiji is one of the friendliest places in the world, making it a great place to move to when you are going to know no one! The culture is so vastly different from the US that it really challenges the way you see the world. I am very grateful to have been placed in Fiji.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. What is your housing like in Fiji?
The community provides the volunteer with an empty house inside the village. All volunteers live alone. I was living in a house owned by teachers who lived and worked at a local school. We were rural but able to take the bus into town or other villages easily.
The house was made out of tin and wood. Lots of gaps allowed for visitors such as small lizards, rats, and even cats! I had reliable electricity, a gas stove, cell service, and a separate bedroom. The house had indoor plumbing, but water only came about half of the time, and I regularly saved water in jerry cans from the outdoor spigots, from rain, or even during the dry season, I would have to carry water up from the river.
Due to the communal nature of Fiji, it is likely you will have lots of guests and spend a lot of time in other houses in the village. I would often have morning tea or lunch with my neighbors.
4. What moments or interactions stand out during your service?
One of the key moments that stood out to me during my time in Fiji was when the village chief died. The funeral was unlike any event I had ever been to before, lasting a full week and filled with tradition. The various tribes took up different roles to execute the funeral properly. Despite only being in Fiji for a short time, the tribe I stayed with fully included me in the events. It was a great honor to join in on the traditional roles during such a serious time.
I spent the week serving food, weaving skirts from leaves, dressing the chiefly proctors in charcoal paint, tying leaves, and watching all the ceremonies. This will forever be one of the most standout weeks of my life, and I will always be touched by the way the community allowed me to be involved.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about living or working in Fiji?
In my village, I felt that in general, everyone was excited about CED work but unsure where exactly to start. With very little structure, it took me a long time to find ways to “get work going.” When anything is possible, it can be hard to find your footing.
I was surprised at how much longer everything took in Fiji. Meetings start super late and last for hours. Tasks that can be done quickly in the US, like going to the bank, take an entire day. Slow turnaround times on confirmations from grants, government support, and NGO training make it difficult to plan in advance. The village can also easily become busy at the last minute, with events such as funerals. During these times, it is all hands on deck; community obligations always come first. Inclement weather can also delay work.
6. What challenges have you faced in your CED work, and how did you respond?
One of the main challenges I faced with CED work is how many possibilities there are; this is also the most exciting part of CED. But at the beginning, facing the vast possibility of anything can be overwhelming. In time, however, certain community priorities and ideas mixed with the availability of outside support and viability of the initiative as a whole start to become clear. By slowly working with counterparts over time, the work needed to be done will start to make a lot of sense.
7. What secondary projects have you worked on during your service?
My main secondary project was creating a nightly after-school study hall program. At 5pm, I would head over to the community hall, ring the village bell, and all the kids would come to work on homework, extra activities, or read books. This was the most fulfilling part of my service, and I was grateful to have an activity every day where I could create a positive impact with the kids. A few women in the village joined each night to help manage all the students.
Before the end of my service, I was able to partner with an NGO that hired a retired teacher to take over the program, ensuring its sustainability. We also did special projects during the study hall program. One such was teaching the kids how to sew hair ties that we then sold at a bookshop in the city, teaching small business skills. We also did a small savings program to teach personal money management.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to future CED volunteers in Fiji?
Start slowly and ask many questions. Life in a rural farming village is likely different from what you are used to, so it won’t make sense to jump into outcomes right away. All volunteers need to take time to fully understand needs and work with local counterparts on designing long-term solutions, which is why you are in your village for so long!
Comparison is inevitable. It can be hard to feel as if you are doing less CED work than your fellow PCVs, but each village and volunteer is in a unique spot, so comparing is illogical.
9. How did Peace Corps training prepare you for service?
In Fiji, the first three months are spent in clusters, living with host families, and going to training every day. This is a great time to make mistakes, ask questions, and soak up as much as possible before you move again to your village, where you will be for the next two years.
Pay attention during training and give yourself time to learn it all. I think the best way to handle PST is to be laid back. You will still be learning your very last week in Fiji, so do not put pressure on yourself to try and figure it all out in the first couple of weeks.
During the next two years, there will be three more training sessions that help you dive deeper into CED. Take advantage of these opportunities to learn from staff and other volunteers about opportunities and what works for them to better connect with their communities.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
10. What would you tell future volunteers to pack—or leave behind?
I would recommend that volunteers not stress too much about packing. Anything you need can be found in the country – people do live here after all, and Fiji has great thrift shops where you can find great items for only $1 USD. But would recommend following the PC provided packing list, which gets updated regularly with volunteer input.
I strongly recommend a Kindle, even for volunteering, living without electricity. The battery life is long, so you can always enjoy reading even during outages. You can download hundreds of books to fill all the slow nights and lazy days during service.
11. How has language learning been for you in Fiji?
Don’t worry about learning the language before you go! Depending on where your village is, the dialect may be totally unique. But once in a country, use as much as you can as possible, and do not be scared to make mistakes. Being able to talk to people in the native language is so fulfilling and always brings about smiles.
Social Identity
12. How has your personal identity shaped your service experience?
The most visible aspects of my identity, that I am a young white woman, came up very often during service. Many women my age in the village are already married and or had kids. It came up often how I was neither unwed or a mother, mostly in a friendly joking manner but occasionally with curiosity or at a very extreme, sympathy.
Communal meals happen all the time in Fiji, especially after meeting, and women are expected to cook and serve the foods. On certain occasions women would ask that I miss meetings important to my role as a volunteer to help cook and always to leave a meeting early to serve food.
In all Fijian villages women are required to wear skirts at all times and in my particularly strict village I was not allowed to tie back my hair in any way. This was very uncomfortable and difficult, especially in the heat. The little changes like this get to you on a deeper level which often left me frustrated.
13. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
Oftentimes, I would be both the only young person and the only woman in a meeting. At times, it was hard to prove to older men in the village that I should be taken seriously as a working professional and not considered a child. They do not always mean it in such a negative way, and I truly felt that people in the village looked at me as if I were one of their own children. But in any situation where parents work with their kids, there is bound to be tension. Unlike other work environments, everyone in a Fijian village is related, so this is a common issue, and I think it is very important to remember that it is not always personal.
Simultaneously, the opposite can be true, and I found that as an American, the community at times gave me an undue amount of trust. When this happened, I always tried to ensure I was working with counterparts who also agreed with the attempted work.
14. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
Women who plan to serve in Fiji should be prepared to live within the strict gender norms. Pack some long skirts and pick your battles. Real change and improvement for women will come from you integrating into the community, respecting their way of living, and then through long-term empowerment projects and personal conversations.
Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
15. If you share content online, how has that shaped your service?
I write and edit a private magazine filled with pictures, stories, and informational snapshots for my friends and family. This has helped me reflect on my own experience and share Fiji’s rich culture with loved ones. The magazine also gives updates on my new life, which I feel helps when I talk on the phone to people back in the states, they already know the basics, so we can jump right into more exciting conversation.
I would strongly recommend some form of storytelling to all volunteers!
16. What final advice would you share with future volunteers?
Laugh when you can and cry if you need to.
I am so excited for you! Your Peace Corps experience will really be the most standout two years of your life and will stay with you forever.
Are you thinking about joining the Peace Corps? If you’re curious about service and ready for something new, apply today. Like Claire, you can live abroad, work with communities, and grow in ways you didn’t expect. Apply to the Peace Corps and take the next step.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Fiji Government.
