Column 16--Top of the Hill (Part 3)

This is the sixteenth column in a serialization of PACIFIC FLASH: A Year in FIJI by Gerry Takano. Copies will be available April 1, 2010. Stay tuned for more information.

The two young and mannered Brooke children attended the local public Fijian schools. In a few years these blonde kids, today oblivious to the nearby native Fijian poverty, would be educated abroad perhaps somewhere in North America. Today, as they frolicked on the hilltop would these youngsters return to their island privilege and status. In any case, Jennifer’s chicken salad was so yummy.

In contrast was an impoverished Fijian family living below the Brooke's six acre property. Atela, a Fijian woman who took her lover's name, Robinson, lived with seventeen other family members. The home was grand before its decline. According to Atela, the five male relatives and full time residents have little interest in helping out. What can I do, lamented Atela, now an elderly woman. They are family.

That week there were rumors that friend and Mayor George Gibson would be challenged. To my delight, Mayor George Gibson and deputy mayor Bhupendra Kumar were re-elected by Council to another term. We celebrated with High Tea and picture taking. Our Town Clerk Subba, announced his resignation effective Jan 1 that day – he was always there with boiled peanuts for me.

Gerry Takano was reared in Honolulu, Hawaii and received his architectural education and early training in upstate New York and Boston. Gerry served as Hawaii’s National Trust Advisor and State of Hawaii Commissioner of the Historic Sites Review Board.

He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can be reached at gertkno@aol.com