So that was Fiji

I have a soft spot for Fiji. It's not a tropical paradise: prone to natural disasters, struggling to develop a stable democratic government, often seemingly chaotic and messy. But somehow it works - a melange of cultures, languages and religions combining to create a sense of energy and hope. I wonder if I'll ever visit it again - I hope so. 

Some highlights from my final days there:

A week spent mostly at the Pacific Theological College, an ecumenical, regional institute sitting by the seashore at the tip of the Suva peninsula. It's  no longer in its heyday - national and denominational colleges have been catching up with it, but it does bring students together from around the Pacific and staff from all over the world. Two days of a Methodist theological forum followed by teaching and conversation. My thanks to Val Ogden for facilitating much of this. Worship on Friday morning was especially enjoyable: a communion service in English led by a German Lutheran and with a formal, Samoan approach to receiving communion. 

Butt Street Wesley Mission. I attended services there on both Sunday's - they use English. The first service was led by a Local preacher - one Sitiveni Rabuka who, as Brigadier Rabuka, led the 1987 coup that sent Fiji into years of constitutional limbo. He's rather chastened now. The following Sunday there was a baptism conducted by our old friend Aquila Yabaki - one of Diane's former colleagues and since his return to Fiji a hero of the movement for constitutional change. There's something constructive about these former enemies being part of the same church. I had coffee with Aquila after the service, caching up on each other's families and friends. The Methodist Church does have some excellent young leadership and you hope they have the opportunity to move things along. 

Coffee and meals out with Winston and Sue. Coffee by the pool of the Grand Pacific Hotel, now restored to its former glory by a business consortium from Papua New Guinea. Two very good meals out. one at an Indian restaurant in downtown Suva, the other in the shabby chic surroundings of the Royal Suva Yacht Club. This could be the setting for a Somerset Maughan short story. Part of the rambling and ramshackle seafront building has been turned into a restaurant ( please mention us on Trip Advisor said the waitress when I praised the chargrilled tuna with spicy rice) while the rest is a reminder of a different age. A glass cabinet is stuffed with silver trophies for yacht races (I wonder: do they still race for them?). A notice board gives the names of the commodore, rear commodore and committee alongside tattered adverts for boats of various sizes. A battered pool table sits in the middle of the floor. As we ate a bright orange lifeboat came alongside and unloaded sackful so of fish. I loved it! 

Winston and Sue kindly drove me to the tiny Nausori airport early on Monday morning. We said our farewells in coffee bar - more fun than Heathrow.