Surendra "Sandra" Rabine
Surendra "Sandra" Rabine
Moved from Fiji to Canada to America, now working at Wilshire Park.
Everybody, every single person has their own gift. Every single person looks maybe alike or different but they each have their own story. They each come from somewhere you don’t know. Always treat each other respectfully. You don’t know what that person is feeling that day. No matter what they look like or where they came from. They may have a lot of things to tell, just like me.
Surendra "Sandra" Rabine
Moved from Fiji to Canada to America, now working at Wilshire Park.
My name is Surendra Rabine. Many people call me Sandra because that name is more familiar. I was born in 1961 in the Fiji Islands. My grandparents came to Fiji from India. I am Indian but born in Fiji. In the Fiji islands, mostly all of the people speak English. Many speak two different languages, one if Fijian and the other is Hindi.
I lived with many family members all in a little village. I never had friends but always had cousins to play with. The school I went from kindergarten through eighth grade was 20 miles away and we had to walk. People in those days didn’t have shoes to wear. We walked in flip flops. We made up games with bananas, mangoes and coconuts. I loved growing up in Fiji.
My grandmother and aunt had moved to Canada. My grandma was lonely because grandpa had died. They adopted my sister and me and brought us to Canada when I was 11 years old. My mom and dad thought we would be better educated and have a better life in Canada.
Most of my teenage years and part of my adult life I lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. I went to high school and loved playing sports growing up. I went to nursing school and became a nurse. When I was 19 years old my grandma sent me back to Fiji to get married. In my culture, marriages are arranged. They found a husband for me and I continued to work in a hospital as a nurse. We stayed in Fiji for three months and then moved back to Canada. We had two children.
I got divorced and in 1996 met my second husband. At this time I was in California and met him at my cousins wedding. We married in 1998 and have one son who attends Wilshire Park. We moved to Minnesota and I didn’t like that. It was so cold. I started to volunteer at Wilshire Park when my son finished kindergarten. A couple years ago I was hired full time as a nurse and special education assistant.
I like going back to Fiji and seeing my mom and dad farm when I was growing up. I have three sisters and two brothers. They live in California and Vancouver. You always miss your family. I make an attempt to go there once a year or they come to visit me. That is nice.
Life is an adventure. You just have to go with the flow. Even if there’s things you don’t like in the beginning, it always comes out better than you thought. Challenge to me now is okay, bring it on.
Each Has a Story of Their Own
Honoring Surendra "Sandra" Rabine
Each Has A Story Of Their Own
(Honoring Surendra Rabine)
CHORUS
Every single person has their own story
Coming from somewhere you don’t know
You don’t know what someone is feeling
Each has a story of their own.
In the Fiji Islands near the southwest corner
Of Australia – New Zealand
Way out in the country in a small village
With 11 aunts and uncles
And a whole lot of cousins on a plantation
Or should I say a large farm
With five siblings, a mother, and a father
This is where I come from
(Chorus)
We didn’t have a TV, but we had a tractor
Spent my early years outside
With my dad when he rode the tractor
Sitting on his lap I would ride
Sugar cane, oranges, coconuts, bananas
Down by the river would grow
Where I went swimming with all my cousins
Not too far from home.
(Chorus)
We had to walk to school in the morning
Ten miles each way
Without shoes on, we walked in flip flops
Back and forth each day.
had to milk cows & draw water
from the well at dawn
Before I could go with my cousins
Off to school from the farm
(Chorus)
When I turned eleven my Grandmother
Who lived in Canada
Wanted me to come to live with her
After grandpa passes away
So me & my sister together traveled
To make a new home
To Vancouver with Grandmother
Even though we didn’t want to go.
(Chorus)
Life is changes. Living in a strange land
Where no one knew my name.
Nor my story. When I got older
Moved to U.S.A.
Where I married, had a son Derek
Who goes to school here
Where I work—
oh how I love this school Wilshire!
(Chorus)
Words & music by Larry Long with Gail Beall’s 3rd Grade Class, Wilshire Park Elementary School, St. Anthony Village / New Brighton.
© Larry Long 2009