Posted Oct 26th

It’s been a while since we were able to leave Suva & go to some of Fiji’s more remote areas to reach needy village schools with boxes of library books. We’d therefore really been looking forward to taking 80 boxes of books across to Vanua Levu!

Although this island is Fiji’s second biggest after Viti Levu, it’s significantly less developed & so many of the schools are remote & difficult to reach. We deliberately made the task more challenging by asking the Ministry of Education to give us only the poorest & most in need schools.

We finally came up with a list of 13 secondary schools, 2 primary  schools & one kindergarten. The next step was to contact CDP transport who had offered their help in the past. True to their word, they collected all the boxes from our house & shipped them free of charge to the education offices in Savusavu & Labasa: the 2 towns that would become our regional bases to reach the surrounding rural areas.

Next, we approached Goundar Shipping with a request for a donated cabin on the overnight ferry. We were given a verbal assurance that this ‘should work out’, but then at the time of boarding we found ourselves downgraded to some very uncomfortable seats & it took a further miracle to talk to the onboard information officer & get the cabin we had prayed for!

With transport issues now resolved we had nearly all the pieces in place for our departure but still had no idea about accommodation: where we would stay for 4 days after arriving at Savusavu.

Hot Springs Hotel in Savusavu

Amazingly, one day we were hitch hiking from our house into Suva city centre & were picked up by a 4×4 that made the effort of turning around & coming back for us. After talking for a few minutes about our charity work & our upcoming trip to Vanua Levu, the driver, Michelle, asked us where we would be staying in Savusavu. When we told her that we didn’t have anywhere yet she said that she had left over credit at Hot Springs Hotel & that she’d be happy to give this to us! What a miracle & a big ‘thank you’ to Michelle!

our first school visit...