BItesize blogging

A few light-hearted sentences and snippets in a kind of random way for this post I think. 

Since we had all the graduation festivities, campus has been slower and calmer, with farewells to families on the move and the start of preparations for those who'll be arriving for the 2015 academic year. Everywhere you look, some household item is being moved, packed, loaded or unloaded. Dangerous to sit in one place for too long. It reminds me of that Bernard Cribbens number.... 

Nice to see a report in the Fiji Sun of PTC's graduation, mentioning the College's first ever PhD graduate. Massive congratulations go to Dr Edward Kolohai, Anglican Church of Melanesia for his tremendous achievement.

Unlike the household contents, Education by Extension most certainly isn't packing up and going anywhere. 28 unfinished BD courses wink at me from their electronic file and paper folders every day and gradually we're getting to grips with them. Teaching colleagues on the staff here the Revd Dr Gwayaweng Kiki from Papua New Guinea, the Revd Dr Upolu Vaai from Samoa and Dr Richard Davies from New Zealand have all agreed to work on Extension courses in their specialist fields. Big Christmas presents for them! 

New sign-ups for courses by Extension are always welcome and roll in steadily. Latest potential registration for the BD by distance currently resides in Honolulu. Was thinking I'd better take the application forms in person...

Now here's some happy news! 

Graduate Apela and the lovely Jessella from the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa tied the knot in Suva the weekend after graduation and kindly invited pretty much the whole College to celebrate with them; which indeed we did, and felt very blessed to do so. 

                                                       

The wedding cakes were many... 

the table decorations were stunning...

...and as for the dance done by the Bride's father; probably better that photographic evidence isn't available!

Suva welcomed the Prime Minister of India last week and Mailife Fiji reported the following:

'Mr Modi made several announcements.

“We will expand our defence and security cooperation, including assistance in defence training and capacity building. We agreed to identify opportunities to expand our trade and investments and work out a concrete roadmap. We are also prepared to increase cooperation in renewable energy, especially solar and wind energy, and in building capacity to adapt to climate change. In addition, we could share our experience and expertise in disaster management and response,” he said.

India has also agreed to extend Fiji’s credit line up to $70 million and provide visas on arrival for Fijians in India. There is an agreement as well to strengthen defence ties while New Delhi will double annual scholarships awarded to Fijian students.

After singing three MOUs, Mr Modi announced a $US5 million fund to promote small business and village enterprises in Fiji'.

Picky I know, but I'm fairly sure he signed those memoranda of understanding...

PTCEEs administrator Salome and I went on an away day to do some performance reviewing and plan for the future in the department. It was well worth it. Just a change of location helps to renew the mind somehow. 

We didn't go far: just to Pacific Regional Seminary, our Catholic neighbours down the road. They kindly gave us a Conference room to ourselves, use of their lovely small Chapel, and enough food to feed all Suva's Clergy for a week. Here's what 'lunch for two'... looked like.

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Never a day goes by without a good chuckle at something delightful and usually unexpected: like the following encounter. 


Some of the campus children enjoy chatting and walking companionably with me on the three minute commute from home to office and back again. They're curious about the kind of differences my presence presents: woman staying alone in a house; speaking English with a strange (ie. English) accent - that sort of thing. When their parents aren't in earshot, they're very free. One younger neighbour padded silently alongside me in her flips-flops for quite a while the other day wearing a serious face and furrowed brow. All of a sudden, she stopped without warning, swivelled to the right, folded her arms and upped her chin to look directly into my face. I stopped too and waited. 

'Do you sweat?' she enquired. 

'Well, yes - yes I do', I admitted, 'and Fiji's much hotter than the country I come from - England - so I probably sweat a bit more here. What about you?' I asked,  not entirely sure whether I should reciprocate.

'Oh yeah, of course I sweat!' she said, a little dismissively. Perhaps she felt my question was typical of white, perspiring British Methodists who really should know better. 'Bye Reverend Val'. My interrogator closed the exchange. Then off she skipped, to continue investigative journalism elsewhere, I presume.

Though as we all know, lady mission partners never sweat. We only glow...