Leap of Faith

The best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other. - HH The Dalai Lama

Been a week since I made my great leap and have been as busy as I would wish to be.
Got hooked up with some appalling Aussie tourists my first night in Nadi - made me realise why I hate being an Aussie Tourist (sometimes). We were at a nice small Fijian restaurant opposite my hotel, I ordered kokoda (raw fish marinated in coconut milk, then made up with chilli, onion, coriander - very traditional and very moreish). She ordered prawns vakalolo - prawns wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. She nearly died when she opened her parcel and - DEAR GOD, THE PRAWNS STILL HAD THEIR HEADS AND TAILS ON THEM - well she was finished for the night then. Mossies were biting, her tummy was upset (they had arrived 3 hours earlier), she thought the heat was interacting with her 'medications' (HMMM) and she wanted to go back to the motel. So he stayed on for a bit, finished his meal and totally bored me to tears with his opinion of Fiji and how to fix all their problems. AAARRRHHGGH - let me outta here. They were here for 2 weeks, with no idea where they were going - except to the islands somewhere. Wanted my phone number - did the good old wrong digit trick - and made my escape. But I did give them some nice small resorts to check out on their way to Suva.


Aliti and Treasure House on first morning in town. She is looking so good - has lost 2 front teeth and the new ones are coming through. We always thought the ones which were such rotten stumps were her second teeth, but she is maybe not quite as old as we thought. She is starting to say a few words - there were a clutch of volunteers there, and she had just started saying "Sofie", much to Sofie's delight. Still not sure about school and the logistics - but will follow that up


Met a delightful NZ woman whose husband works in one of the new resorts. They are in the process of adopting a baby girl through TH. Grace is about 12 weeks old and the dearest little thing. Grace's mother gave birth to her in Suva, walked out of the hospital after the birth with Grace in her arms, put her in a carton and stuffed her in a rubbish bin a few bus stops away. Fortunately somebody heard her crying and rescued her. So she ended up at TH, and with now a new loving family on the way. These stories are depressingly commo here. Just in the Fiji Times this morning, was the article on how the current baby boom is under way. This is a result of, I believe, a time during school hols last year when traditionally (??) many young girls end up pregnant. Now, the result - which will mean more abandoned babies.


I have settled into a very comfy 2 bedroom flat in Olosara, a small beachside settlement just down the road from where we lived last time. My hosts downstairs, who own the house, are Sunny and Shareen and their kids. Nice family, good security, great guard dog (now my mate, thank heavens) and already wanting to buy my Suzy if and when I sell it! The best thing, however, is that I have the internet in my apartment, a godsend to continue my work and stay connected. Three days of working in the local net cafe was enough - by after school time it was like the set of a Bollywood movie.
Have made my first visit to a local school - they have an amazing computer lab, with about 20 computers all seemingly in good order and well set up. But, surprise surprise, they have nobody who can teach. They have just scored a Peace Corps worker for 3 hours on a Monday and will do 6 x 30 minute lessons with him - which will be a handful. Anyway, I will go back and talk to the head teacher today and see where I can fit in. He is keen for the small children to have the chance to learn - my dear friend Jane says that any learning at that age is learning, don't be deterred. I was scouring the net yesterday for clues, and there is plenty of online learning games, but nothing much you can download. I doubt that this school has the net. I managed to download some good tools for English literacy, but printing out and then colouring pencils will be another matter. But first things first.
It seems there are several schools with kindly donated computers – mostly from overseas benefactors - but none of them have a teacher. It seems such a shame - but an indication of how disposable computers are in other countries that we can give them away. But we can't give away enough money to sponsor a teacher for a year to teach the whole school. If you could just find the right person...
I am sure there are lots of people out there who would gladly give a few weeks of their time to come here and teach computer, or literacy. Just need to be able to co-ordinate them. HMMMM - another crazy idea to keep the Valagi Loloma awake at night.
I visited Waya and Viwa Islands when I had my trip to the Yasawas last year. They are crying out in the paper today for a teacher and for a nurse. They are something like 70km by open boat to the nearest Clinic - just one nurse is all they want. Pregnant mothers have to take that trip if they want to have proper medical antenatal care - and why should they not be entitled to it.
It has been nice to come back to this town - I feel part of the community and even though I see the same person several times in one trip to town and still forget their name, they are very forgiving. That's because I am the eccentric white woman. I live in hope of somebody directing my ramblings to Bill Gates or James Packer or even somebody not quite so wealthy, but who has a couple of hundred thousand dollars to spare - there is so much could be done here. Scary, really
And I do love the pirated DVD's - more movies to catch here than I ever do at home, all for $3 a pop.
And I have PayPay - if anybody is keen to add a little to the pot.