Suva - Centenary Methodist Church & Deaconess House

Friday 10th March 2017

Today I decided to try and meet some of the people my grandparents knew in Suva. I got a taxi to the bus station and then it was a 4 hour journey to the capital. I recognised a few things along the way,
and it reminded me of Linga as I remembered a few of the things he told us about different places. Other than that I kept myself occupied by watching a few things on my iPad.

After arriving in Suva, I headed to Tappoo City as that's where we came and I remember there being a good food hall there. I ordered food and then attempted to ring the Deaconesses - with no such luck unfortunately!

Luckily after a few more tries I managed to get through and we arranged to meet at Tappoo City in half an hour. I started to get a bit nervous as I had no idea what Meresiana looks like! But eventually she found me and took me to the Centenary Methodist Church, which was just across the street.

Firstly she gave me a sulu, as I had stupidly left mine hanging on my bed at Smugglers! Whilst we were at the stall, another deaconess came and was ecstatic to meet me and told me how much my Nana and Grandad had impacted her life.

This was to be continued as every time Meresiana introduced me to someone they had a different, individual story to tell me about my beloved grandparents and their work for the Methodist church in Fiji. Their teaching methods are still used in primary schools to this day! Which is definitely a legacy to be proud of! The only downside is that quite a few people didn't know they had passed away, so I had to keep telling people that as I went along - I held it together though which surprises me!! Meresiana then showed me a photo album she had with photos in my grandparents house and some of my family members which was pretty special.

We then waited for a bit to meet Levi, who I've actually met before when I was a baby! He also brought pictures to show me, and there's one photo of me with his daughter who is in her early thirties now with two children of her own! Both Levi and Meresiana studied in Birmingham and my grandparents invited them to come and stay with them for Christmas and to come and see Dorset. As soon as I get back to England I'm going to rummage through their old photo albums to see who I can recognise!! (Mum sent me a photo of me and Levi not long after I left Fiji, it's crazy how it's been 22 years since I last saw him!)

We then said goodbye to the Methodist church and headed out to the fruit market. Meresiana kindly got me some pineapple as I said it was my favourite! The market was the biggest I've ever seen - so much food everywhere!

After the market, we got a taxi to the Deaconess house, about a five minute journey from the centre of Suva. When I arrived, I went into the teaching room with the students who are training to become Deaconesses themselves. It was such a whirlwind that unfortunately I can't remember many of their names, but it was pretty spectacular! The reverend and another deaconess also came to say hello, and they were students when my grandparents lived in Suva. I kept it together until prayers when so many beautiful words were said about God, my grandparents and I... embarrassingly I started to cry even though I tried my hardest to keep it together!

They then brought out so much food, I presumed that it was for everyone to share but it was all mainly for me! I've never seen so many sandwiches in my life!! They packed up loads for me to take with me on the coach which was so very kind. Unfortunately, I was restricted to the last bus so it was only a quick visit. After a few more songs and a big goodbye I sadly left them all with the promise of returning! I would love to come back and spend a couple of weeks with everybody and get to know them better, keeping up the relationship between my family and theirs.

Meresiana and one of the trainee Deaconesses (called Joanna so I won't forget that!!) came with me to drop me off at the bus stop. It was a sad goodbye but I know I'll be back so it was more of a see you later!

The journey back was long and I kept falling asleep, the sunsets at 6:30 and then it just goes pitch black so it feels like it's the middle of the night! After getting a taxi back to the hostel I found Emma in her upgraded room before going to sleep.

Pacific Harbour, Suva, Nasautoka and Rakiraki: Whole Hula

Wednesday 1st March 2017

Another early start this morning as we were off to Suva, the capital city of Fiji. We stopped off there to grab some stationary for a school we were going to go to in the afternoon  Linga also showed took us to Tappoo to show us the view of the city and pointed out the tallest building, only 18 stories high!

We then had a mini coach tour around the city, pointing out parliamentary buildings and we stopped off outside the President's house.

After this, we had a 2 hour journey to Nasautoka Village. We had an opening ceremony initially and had to pick a Chief, and Alex took on that role! We all drank Kava and one of the villagers blessed us all.

We then made our way to a local school that was destroyed last year in the cyclone. They have rebuilt half the school but the headteacher kept apologising for all the mess around the school. Most of the children were pretty shy, a few of the younger ones were messing around and kept grinning up at us with a twinkle in their eyes. However the year 5s were much more energetic and we're excited to make conversation with us... especially when we were taking photos! Then, just as we were about to go, a sweet little girl in year one came up to me and showed me her work book and her drawings of fish. She was literally so cute, I could've taken her home! After a manic round of high fives with all the year ones it was back to the house for more food!

The food layout was similar to yesterday, laid out on the floor on a table cloth and a help yourself lay out. It was predominantly vegetarian food but they also had chicken and prawns. It was pretty tasty!

We then got up and stretched out legs for a bit and a had a group photo, before going back in to say goodbye with more Kava and handshakes. We were supposed to go bamboo rafting afterwards, but as they've had a lot of heavy rain the river banks have all caved in and the water is pretty dirty so they decided it was safer not to do it. Which is a shame, but not the end of the world!

We then made our way to the Golden Point resort for our last night with Feejee experience. It was slightly overcast but not too bad so Charis and I decided to go kayaking. It didn't look to rough until we got in the kayaks , mine was super light and our paddles were flat so it made it really hard! I paddled around for a bit but kept getting knocked into rocks, so I gave up and went back to shore. My GoPro had run out of battery as well so I didn't even get any pictures! The water was so warm though, like getting in a hot bath! Unfortunately, there was so much broken coral around that it made it uncomfortable to walk in so we went back and got ready for dinner. I had chicken chow mein and it was sooooo good I could've eaten it all over again! We then chilled out on the deck with a shisha. The sun sets at around 6:30 and it gets so dark so quickly that 9 feels like after midnight so I've been having a few early nights (well going to bed to watch Greys anatomy anyway!)