Epilogue

Abstract

Five years have passed since I completed my research in Suva kindergartens and I am once again in Suva directing a term abroad for American undergraduates. As usual, I am staying with Siteri and her family. Siteri now has another child, Ana, who is four and is attending Happy Days, the same multiethnic kindergarten that I attended with her older brother Josh, who is now eleven. Siteri’s mother, also Ana, called Tai (grandmother) Ana by the household, often stays with the family in Suva since her husband has passed away. In the evenings, we gather around the television to watch our favorite Hindi soap operas, piped in on cable on Zee TV from India with English subtitles. We joke that we are practicing our English by reading the subtitles. Periodically, the subtitles fail to appear and we all turn to Connie, now 16 and attending a prestigious Indo-Fijian secondary school, to help us understand what is going on. Connie is half Indo-Fijian but knows Hindi only from Hindi classes she now takes in secondary school, so is not always able to translate. Likewise, when commercials come, advertising special programs on Hindu festivals, Connie often turns to her high school classes to explain to us what this is all about, even though her father, who lives just a few miles away and visits several times a week, is a Hindu and frequently attends local versions of many of the festivals.