Remembering Peace Corps Teachers, by Dr. Satyendra Prasad, Permanent Representative and Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Fiji to the United Nations
Fiji is a country far from just about anywhere. But Lagalaga is far from just about anywhere even within Fiji. Indeed, most people even in Fiji would not have heard of this village. It is far away from anywhere; some 40 dusty miles from the nearest town of Labasa, on Vanua Levu, in Fiji. In 1970, that is where the road on the Eastern side of Labasa ended! The road actually ended at Lagalaga School.
Here in 1970; as a 8 year old in the my 4th grade, I was introduced to the United Nations by Master John Croes; my class teacher. As a young American, Master John chose Lagalaga School of all the places in Fiji or indeed the World that he could have selected to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
John Croes' Response to Dr. Prasad's Story
It has been an incredible pleasure to have Satyendra Prasad as my friend. How can one forecast in Class 4 and 5 that your student will one day call you from his office in the UK’s Department for International Development that overlooks Buckingham Palace, write a doctoral thesis on global governance at Warwick University, will help build governance institutions in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, will serve in the World Bank in Kabul, Delhi, and elsewhere, and will be Fiji’s ambassador to the U.N.? He wrote me a letter shortly after we reconnected recounting how studying in David’s and my classes had broadened his interest in and awareness of the world and inspired his life path. Well, that certainly brought some tears! And he calls that “some insane statistical chance.” But he wasn’t alone.
