Home coming...and reflections

It's hard to believe that after just over a year (quite literally) on opposite sides of the world, my husband is coming home :) It has been a long, hard 365+ days - but it has also not been without many a life lesson.

Fiji is not a place that many from Europe or Africa visit - there is the enormous distance, the cost of flights, the over inflated tourist hotel prices etc etc So for all the difficulties, I do feel privileged for the opportunity to have spent some time there - albeit only for five weeks. The people of Fiji have a fascinating history and an old culture that is slowly being stamped out by the modern world. There is deep embarrassment over their past - over cannibalism and believing in a variety of Gods and Deities. I find this rather gut wrenching - I would really rather learn about another culture than be told 'Look how far we have come - we have a Mcdonalds'.

Postcards of Fiji show the tourist hot spots, five star resorts that are so exclusive one has to take a second mortgage on ones home to pay the bill. However beyond the glitz and the glamour lies the real Fiji. The Fiji that reminds me of Africa. A country split in two with little in the way of the 'middle line'. There are the 'haves and the have-nots'. In Africa, in general, this has resulted in conflict, desperation, soaring crime, and general misery. Yet somehow Fiji manages to fight through the same difficulties with many still holding a smile on their faces. Yes there is crime, health problems, too many stray animals...but people still seem to try and look for the good.

There is a lot to be learned from that....is it really a crises that when you went to the shops and out of the range of 40+ brands of cereal they didn't have your favorite sugar-laden, mass produced, box of zero nutritional value food? Is it not a somewhat surreal feeling to know that whilst you bemoan this, someone, somewhere in the world is barely getting by with a couple of pieces of fruit and water from a river that is also used as a bath? Personally, I often wonder, what would life have been like if I had been born into a different family, under different circumstances....Perspective - unfortunately it's something that is often not easy to obtain when sitting in one place, especially in a comfortable place.