Ronald Steve Philitoga

“I’m from Fiji, I live down in Lami in Suva. I work at the University of the South Pacific and I’m employed here as an electronic publisher.  I’ve lived my whole life in Suva.

Sometimes I find it difficult, especially attending to my children’s needs in school, when my wife is out of the country because my wife travels a lot, and I have all girls. It’s more a story for myself, and the life that I’m living, especially trying to be a father and mother, especially when my wife is not at home.

Participating in the workshop, one thing I found interesting was the software that we used – I love experiencing new software. Probably the most difficult part was coming up with a story to tell.

It has helped me in a lot of ways – I did share the movie with my wife … after a long while, last week she finally got a day off to go to my daughter’s concert.”

Mother and Father

The dance concert followed. Three costume changes, lots of little girls covered in flowers. I was the only Dad, in a sea of mothers.  My wife Alma is a flight attendant for Fiji Airways. She is often away for several days at a time. As a father of four girls, this isn’t easy.

“After the screening, a lot of my colleagues came to congratulate me and the other colleagues also, they found our stories interesting and I think most of us, even my friends found it emotional. They said it was probably the way I was talking on the recording of the show. I found most of the other stories too very interesting. We get to know more about our colleagues, what they’re going through.”