Today was an early start for us, rushing from Mere’s house to the jetty. We were off to Beqa Island; a day promising to provide many new experiences. Upon arriving at the jetty we were struck by the phenomenon known as “Fiji time". We just waited and waited and waited. After 2 hours of waiting, there was still no sign of the of the boat. While we were waiting, we were joined by Epeli Lesuma, an official from the Fiji Higher Education Commission. He was sent to join us by Dr. Richard Wah, the Exec. Chairman for The Fiji Higher Education Commission. Fiji is currently developing a course in climate change and sustainable renewable energy and they are very interested in our Fiji Power project as a practical application of the course. When the boat finally arrived, it was rush, rush then wait, wait. Finally we got underway. The trip to Beqa was fun but very wet as we were going against the massive waves and crashing into them, wetting Jing, Coleby, Sara, Mark and David. By the time we reached the west coast, the five of us were very drenched, but at least we were warm! The reconnaissance was very important because we needed to gather information on the condition of the two medical centres on the island. This information would then be used to aid in the decision making of which type of renewable energy could be used…..the next exciting project!
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During the visit to Raviravi Nursing Station, the nurse there mentioned a couple of main problems:
1) Because the island does not have main power supply, during a night emergency the nurse has to go into the village to ask for torches as the medical centre would be in darkness.
2) The major problem is the gas supply. The problem is that the gas supply for the vaccination fridge is not replenished frequently and often the nurse has to make a 2-3 hour “dash” to the main island to source gas, again at her own expense!
After visiting the Raviravi nursing station, we went to BHSS, a high school in this village. While David, Coleby and Mark were interviewing the school assistant principal, the other members were invited to have a rest in the class next door. Two students were having a biology revision for their test and we interrupted their class. This, however, was well received by both the teachers and students alike. We had a chat with these students, Elizabeth and Joseph. They were the only students who are taking biology class. Both of them were focussing their studies on science and they had dreams of being a doctor or an agricultural scientist after graduation of their high school.
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After dropping off more medical and school supplies were picked up a nurse practitioner from another village on the way back to the main island. Again this was a thrilling ride through the waves but fortunately it was a bit drier. After getting home and cleaning ourselves up, we headed to Dr Wah’s house where he kindly opened his home to all the team and fed us all whilst we talked and listened to music. This meal allowed us the opportunity to explain to Dr Wah how we researched the project and how much we learnt about renewable energy and its application. Dr Wah was very impressed with our developing skills as researchers especially at “such a young age".
