Two weeks seem to have rushed by since I last blogged. I am sitting in my apartment watching the sun go down over the horizon, listening to the sound of rugby, which is played at Albert Park. This park is in my forground, and Suva Bay is in the background, with the land stretching out behind that. Albert Park is always full of people, mostly practising rugby, before and after work, and then with games on Saturday and Sunday. Off to the left is Thurston Gardens, which also contains the museum, that I am yet to visit. It is on my list of things to do here.

The focus of work for the last two weeks has been on a Training Needs Analysis workshop that we have just run. We needed to invite a wide range of people from all over the place and work with them to establish the focus and direction of the Numeracy Strategy. This included District Office people, head teachers, teachers and two people from the local Unis. If you look in the photos you will see a couple of my colleague Sarita running part of the workshop. She did a great job, doing a very open ended activity for the first time.

Sarita is off to Japan for the next six weeks on a JIKA funded trip. JIKA are a Japanese aid agency. I will miss her expertise and her company. In her place I am working with another man named Tomo. Tomo is a Rotoman, which is one of the far off islands, and a different cultural group. He is a secondary maths edcuation officer, so it is going to be challening for him to work on primary maths.

I feel that I have settled into Suva life now, and am mostly enjoying being here. Occasionally I get home sick and listen to radio from home on my computer, just to get the local news so that I don't feel quite so isolated.

I have even had a fijian outfit called a chumba (not sure of the spelling) made by a local tailor. It cost $18.00 fj for the material, and $20.00 fj to have it made. That is about $24.00 aussie, which is a bargain. Iam wearing it in the photo above. You can also see Jesse, who shares the office with me and Barb.

I have watched a couple of cruise ships come into port from my balcony. You will see a couple of photos - they are enormous, towering over many of the buildings here. The tourists from the ships are very easily spotted in town, with their hats, cameras and backpacks!

This weekend was a long weekend here, so I was able to get out of Suva for a couple of days with my work colleague, Barb. We went to a small island off the east coast called Naigini. It took two hours to drive north of Suva to Natovi Jetty where a small boat took us out to the island. Naigini resort was a very low key, cheap and homely place, with very few toursits. We were made to feel very welcome by the locals, We went snorkling yesterday and had a picnic on a beach around the back of the island - it was lovely. On the way to this beach, we went past a cave that we were told was cannibal cave. We asked who was eaten, and of course they told us it was the white tourists! Naigini was a great spot if you are looking for an island expereince without lots of other tourists.

I do hope that all is well in your part of the world. Best wishes

Kaye