Preparing For The Forum

Tuesday was a big day for Vaka 130. We’ve had a lot of excitement leading up to the opening of the Pacific Forum and finally the big night arrived. But first to school. The bus ride was uneventful for all of us but Joyce who observed an incident on the bus to Titikaveka. She stayed at her school all day but the rest of us all had a half  day as we could get ready to go to the forum.

Peter and Trudy got back to the Kiikii in time to join Harry Napa, owner along with his wife Pauline for lunch. He might be the most interesting person on the island with his long history of entrepreneurship and many opinions about current politics, including a comment about politicians i.e. forum delegates being carried on a  traditional ‘Pa’ata’ which should really be only for arikis.

Around 3.00 Debi kindly gave the lot of us a ride to the national auditorium where we joined our school groups. The event was a bit of organised chaos. Forum delegates arrived one by one, some riding on a pa’ata accompanied by school children and sometimes a whole entourage of teachers, parents and kids. Fran, Yolanda and Carol, wearing lovely ‘eis’ on their heads march in with Takitumu. The rest of us met up with our respective schools in the stands.

There was dancing singing, some long-winded speeches and so we say ‘ a good time was had by all.

A small note of delight: On the bus ride home from school, a couple of students we’d met at Sister Margret’s homework centre recognized Peter. They looked happy to see him and the little boy who actually tried on Peter’s hat gave a special shy sweet smile. It was a small reminder of how a childs life can be touched by GV’s even in such a short time.