I think at the time, I really did not know what I wanted to do. I mean in a village growing up, you just wondered where the next meal was going to come from. And I think most of the time that was your concern. Or maybe that you wanted to go to the big city, Suva, which is the capital, just to see it, you know? Because they talk about it that it’s bigger and its got a cinema. From a child’s eye—that’s all you wanted most of the time. Though I do remember when the aeroplanes used to fly above my village, and I thought I’d like to get on that aeroplane and fly some day and travel.
I was converted when I was probably about twelve years old. I remember that there was an aunt of mine. She and her family were the only members that I knew of at the time. She always impressed me. Always. At the time, the church met at a used copra shed. Now copra is coconut. So they used to pick the coconuts, cut it open and send it off and that would make coconut oil and all sorts of bi-products that came with it. And so they used to have a shed where people would have it weighed, and they would pay the farmer for his coconuts. They used to meet there, because it was no longer used.
They used to have a youth program called MIA at the time. And I remember going to MIA. And I thought, oh, this is really nice! Some of the things that the kids could do together. Some kinds of things that were very rare in the village. Even in the church that I had attended, the Methodist church, there were kids and they would have activities, but they weren’t quite as organized as the MIA. And I thought this is really good! So even the kids from the Methodist church would go to the MIA, it was so good.
But my aunt always impressed me, and I remember I thought I’d like to be like her one day. I remember the elders that taught me the lesson. And my families were against it, except for my grandad, who was very supportive when I said that I wanted to be baptised. He said, “If it makes you happy, then do it. Don’t worry about anybody else.” So I did it. Even though I was ridiculed for it because they would say, ‘oh, we have been Methodist for many years—why change? That is an insult to your great grandparents who have been Methodist for many years.’ You know. Because some American comes along and says this is the right church and you’re going and joining. That was really bad. I remember it so well. But I stuck to it. I am grateful for my grandad for that.