A new kind of community celebration

from w
A commendable project in Fiji is the community Crime Free Day occasions where the towns in Fiji, one by one, have a gathering for the local people to declare their wish for a stable society. Labasa's special day is yet to come.The Labasa Crime Free Town Committee will now launch the event on June 19. Committee president Parmod Chand said the change was to allow time for schools and other stakeholders to prepare for the event. "We will start the launch with a float procession and everyone is invited to take part," said Mr Chand. He said Nabouwalu would be declared crime free on June 16, Savusavu on the 17th, Labasa 19 and Taveuni on June 23.

Labasa Committee finance chairman Satish Kumar said they needed money to prepare the event. "Naseakula, Tuatua and Delailabasa of Zone Three were the first to collect funds," said Mr Kumar. He said there were six zones and each zone representative was given a receipt book to collect funds for the launch. "We need some funds and donation in kind for catering, preparation of banners, decorations and other related activities. We have planned to cater for all the people present at the Vodafone Subrail Park in Labasa for the launching," said Mr Kumar.

This week it was Navua's turn. On Tuesday Navua town (southwest of Suva had their celebration of a Crime Free Town, a project that is about goodwill between the police and the community, a boost to the morale of police officers as well as an affirmation that Fiji people want a decent society where it is safe to live. It is a commendable project. Navua town is the main trading and shopping center for the people of Serua and Namosi who travel from inland and coastal areas for their needs and other services. It has a very good market beside the river. However Navua often have floods because the land is so low beside the river.

Navua Community Policing committee and Navua Police celebrated the declaration of their district as a Crime Free District. The declaration was held at Vashist Muni Primary School grounds. Exporter of the Year Award winner, Ben’s Trading Company gave a $300 cheque in support of this upcoming declaration. The event involved many school children marching, a vakatunuloa for the officials, policemen on bikes, many people in kalavata shirts, men dressed as warriors. In fact it was like a vanua event but with the purpose of declaring that the people of Serua and Namosi areas want a life where they can feel confident and free of anxiety from crime. About sixteen schools, local communities and community leaders and chiefs from Serua and Namosi Province participated at this historical day for Navua.

I don’t think many tourists actually go into the town area as the main highway by-passes that part of town. Navua town doesn’t get many stories into the Fiji papers. One of our Navua church friends said to me that the celebration was really wonderful and involved thousands of people.

The theme for Navua Crime Free Declaration is Sema Donu mo Vua which connote; ‘one has to link right in order to be fruitful or bear fruit’. This was derived from the word “na vua”-the fruit.

Photos from the Navua event are on the Fiji Police website.

A bus ride to Suva

from w

The journey from Pacific Harbour (Deuba) to Suva is a pleasant drive with changing scenery, banyan trees in fields,vegetable farms, mountains, pandanus trees, trees totally covered with creepers, small rivers, the beautiful Wainidoi area bought by the Australian Dick Smith with a huge plan for redevelopment something like Pacific Harbour in the 70s, the Naboro Prison, (wave a hello to Speight and company?) the Church of the Poor village (though they have excellent food gardens and surely would not be poor), Catholic Missions, past blossoming tulip trees, houses built on swampland, mangroves, Joske’s Thumb, the suburb of Lami, the village of Suvavou, then the sight of highrises of Suva city.

One Sunday afternoon we caught the Qaloa bus at Pacific Harbour.

We expecting a 50 minute ride to Suva, but… this time was a much longer journey. No wonder the bus was almost empty when we boarded it and paid out $3 each.

It was not an express bus at all, as the bus unexpectedly turned right down a rough road where there were numerous small houses and little farms, picked up passengers, and then returned to the highway. Okay, so far so good. After 20 minutes, Navua town was in front us but instead of bypassing the main area, the bus turned and drove past the hospital that always gets flooded, the nicely painted Timothy Memorial Church and past the huddled shops and a Public Convinience – ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ we were informed, funded by Multiethnic Affairs Central. TV antennas with cable shone in the son above tin shacks or brightly painted shops, though the market beside the river looked really tumbledown. Right up along the river and eventually we reached the sea where we could see two islands in the distance, and then past the village of Tonitoni with its dilapidated government quarters, and around the backblocks of Navua, then a sign Tiri Villas – some tourist development that is hidden from view.Tiri – that means mangroves so what is it like I wondered. By this time the bus was really crowded, picking up passengers here and there and it didn’t seem that there were real bus stops at all. They just got on and off anywhere!

We arrived in Suva after at least one and half hours, and walked past a screaming evangelist from the New Methodist Church. As Peceli searched for a taxi to take us to the flat, I was accosted by a mentally challenged woman who persisted in asking questions. She wanted me to buy her cigarettes but I refused. Some peanuts then, she asked. No. I was tired and irritable. Anyway we had got our money’s worth from the bus ride, seen some new countryside, and how the other half live I suppose.
(I will add more pictures after breakfast!)

Timothy and the Navua Methodist Church

from w
I was interested to read several items in the Fiji papers this week concerning a celebration at Navua at the Timothy Methodist Church named after a blind pastor. Peceli and I were involved for several years in the Indian Division of the Methodist Church in Fiji, particularly in Lautoka, Rakiraki and Dilkusha. In my early years in Fiji I was a member of the Dudley church in Suva and sometimes visited Navua to the homes of Dudley High School students.

We knew Timothy well and at one stage he lived with us in Rakiraki, sang and played his music and showed us how he read in Braille. He was such a lovely man, gentle and peaceful. Though Navua is a small town, several church leaders have emerged from this little Methodist Church near the Navua River, such as the Lucas family of course.

I read that our friend Daniel Mastapha and other former Fiji residents have gone back to Fiji for a reunion. The photo is of James Bhagwan and Daniel Mastapha. Many ex-Dudley, Dilkusha, and Lautoka Fiji-Indian Christians have moved overseas to Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Just this weekend I talked with a Fijian friend Loloma Tukei Tali who once worked as a deaconess in the Methodist Church in Fiji and also had stayed with us in Rakiraki one time, working alongside Peceli in visiting the cane-farming families. Loloma and Tom (who is from Vanuatu) now live in Geelong so it is a wonderful friendship renewed.

Timothy Methodist Church in Navua Declared a Circuit
Saturday, July 14, 2007
After 101 years the Timothy Methodist Church in Navua, is to be declared a circuit that will no longer operate under the Dudley Methodist Church, in Suva .

The church part of Methodist Church’s Indian Division, gets its independence tomorrow in a special ceremony and church service led by former church president Reverend Dr Daniel Mustapha, now a resident of Australia. Divisional Superintendent Reverend William Lucas said that it will be a truly great occasion for the church.