District 9920 Conference, Denarau, Fiji

Posted by Dave Wylie
District 9920 Conference
April 2018 Presentation to Howick Rotary
8th May 2018
 
Jeannette and I were privileged to represent Howick Rotary together with Lynne and Gavin at the recent district held at the Sofitel Hotel in Denarau, Fiji from 6th to 8th of April. It was a sentimental journey for Jeannette and me. We met in Fiji on Jeannette’s 18th birthday in 1964 and we hadn’t been back since so we were looking forward to going back after all these years.
 
We weren’t sure what it would be like because two cyclones had hit the region in the last few weeks and parts of Nadi where we were due to land had been under water the previous week. There were a few signs of the problems on the journey from the airport to the hotel such as boarded up homes and debris in the waterways but not as bad as we expected mind you we didn’t have a look around.
 
First impressions of the hotel were favourable however Jeannette was not impressed to discover that our room was the most remote in the hotel. I refrained from comments such as “the exercise will be good for us.”
 
We were delighted the next morning when Marie came running over to give us a big hug. She was there for the Rotoract day which was a forerunner to the main conference. And it was her birthday.
 
The host club for the conference was Suva Rotary Club. For those of you who are not familiar with Fiji, Suva is 4 hours drive from Denarau on the other side of the island so it was a major effort for the club members to organise and support the conference. The club has around 80 members and is one of three in Suva. Many of the members are influential in Fiji.
 
The conference opened with a meet and greet on Friday night with around 130 Rotarians and partners attending. The welcome address was originally to be by a senior Representative of the government however he was replaced by the High Commissioner from India who gave what was an inspiring opening address. Unfortunately his accent was so strong that very few of us actually understood what he was saying. He finished to polite applause and the meet and greet resumed!
 
Our MC for the conference was Arjay, a member of the Rotary Club of Suva, and a national media identity on TV, radio and print. He was a bit of a character but more about him later. The theme for the conference was “Making a difference” which is the RI Presidents theme for this year however the focus of the conference effectively added “to the women of Fiji.”
 
In Arjay’s opening remarks he told everyone that one of the New Zealand Rotarians in the room had been to visit a village that he helped construct some years ago and asked that person to stand. That person of course was Gavin Green and the whole gathering acknowledge the efforts of him and the rest of the team on that Rotary project to make a big difference to poor Fijians.
 
Arjay then told everyone that there was a couple in the room who had met in Suva more than fifty years ago and asked them to stand. That was Jeannette and I so Howick was in the spot light from the outset and it had a couple of interesting spin offs!  Later that night one of our hosts came over to talk to us both and asked us about the details of how we met. When we told her she said “Our hotel is literally next door.” It turns out that they own a chain of hotels in different locations internationally and she said “When you come back you will both be our guests as long as you want to stay.” Apparently that is where the Rotary Club meets. Apparently I have to speak at one of their meetings. I will believe it when she gets in touch to ask when we are arriving!
 
Later in the conference Warrick Please came to talk to us. Warrick is a significant employer with more than eighty staff in one of their companies. He already knew who I was and what I do and he wanted to talk about a project that he has coming up. Who knows how that discussion will develop!
 
Some of the presentations during the conference:
  • Domestic violence campaign – 72% of women and children in Fiji are abused
  • Midwife training and empowering – 4 weeks in Canberra
  • 4 prominent women in Fiji – business, education, sport and politics
    • Cyclone Winston - Widespread damage – trees, flooding, damage to infrastructure
    • ERKs already on the ground (100 approx.)
    • RNZAF arrived the next day with 300 more
    • Food sacks
    • Government backing – police and military
    • Suva Rotarians 4 WD expeditions for the next week into worst affected areas
  • Cure Kids – I didn’t know it was another Rotary project, established in 1971; it is the largest source of child health research in NZ after the government, $40 mill. To date, the founder Professor Elliot and his wife were both there (Rotarians) and were dancing after the Saturday night dinner (80 lots so there is hope for some of us still!). Very inspiring
    • Current project is overcoming the difficulty in getting oxygen supplies to hospitals and medical centres in Fiji.
    • The problem was being able to fill the bottles
    • From the floor Warrick Pleas said his company had suitable plant and they should talk to him later!
Saturday night dinner
 
  • Key note speaker was Dean Jones – Aust. Cricketer
  • Huge effort to get there as a favour to a friend – Pakistan, Singapore, Australia, Fiji and return in the space of 5 days
  • Spent  50% of his speech telling us about his first overseas tour which was an Ashes Tour to England so he was the team junior
  • In awe of David Boone who set out to break the record for drinking cans of beer between Sydney and London and succeeded by consuming 54!
  • Maybe that would have gone down well in Australia but most of the audience were not amused. Probably half of them didn’t know much about cricket.
  • By the way David Boon had to taken off the plane on a trolley!
  • I couldn’t tell you what the rest of his speech was about
The conference was an interesting experience – lots of inspirational people and uplifting ways that Rotarians are making a difference. Jeannette and I had planned to stay another day but by Sunday morning Fijian TV was broadcasting cyclone warnings for a storm gathering 60 kms from where we were staying and when I received a text from NZ Foreign Affairs warning me about the deteriorating weather we decided to make a run for it. I started by phoning our travel insurers and they advised that we were covered. Air NZ in Fiji – no answer after 15 minutes so I phoned the NZ office – no answer after 20 minutes! Time to disturb Alison’s Sunday morning, she had us on the 2:10pm flight out within 30 minutes and the insurance company came to the party. If you need a referral for a travel agent Alison is the one!
 
Some decided to sit it out unfortunately for them even those from Suva were still there four days later!
 
So overall an interesting conference, inspiring Rotarians, great projects, an average hotel experience and 1.5 hours sunshine in Fiji. Not quite the return that Jeannette and I had envisaged!