Forum Archive Index - February 2004

["David & Jill Stevenson" <djstevo@quicksilver.net.nz>]

A little closer to home . Our family lived in Fiji for five years . After a year of wondering why our monthly grocer`s bill was so high at the local chinese shop . ( considering there were four children and two adults in our family)   My wife under cross examination  suggested I join her on her next trip into the heartland . I knew she ran the Vatukoula Relief Society distributing weekly food parcels to poor families .

      My eyes were opened at the homes we visited  and the sheer poverty everywhere. American and other tourists just do not venture into the heart of Viti Levu . All they see are swaying palm trees and the nearest cocktail bar . That is  the Fiji they  know  taking photos of what they are shown not what they seek out.

     I remember one Indian corrugated iron leanto home we visited with the last of our food parcels. The family had six children waiting to open the parcel . My wife ,who is more observant than myself, after a long discussion with the parents as to their  particular needs, asked the parents where the seventh child was . After an embarassed silence Jill looked behind a screen and we found an emaciated starving child . We discovered that in a world of absolute pragmatics the parents,realising they could not feed and clothe all seven children confronted the heartbreaking decision which child to  literally  abandon and starve to death.

    Never again did I question our grocer`s bill nor my wife`s better judgment of priorities.

 

                                      David