Editor, The Times:
I am a Kamloops resident and was in Fiji last month. In a shopping mall there a stranger noticed a small Canadian flag sewn on my bag and asked me if I was from Canada. When I said I was from Kamloops the stranger smiled and said he was Ray Chandra.
In September, 1968, Ray Chandra came from Fiji Islands to teach in Birch Island. He lived in a teacherage and taught in Birch Island Elementary School for four years.
Denyse Slingsby, Wayne Ruttan, Joy Gregory, Tracy Holland (Buck) and Hugh Graffunder were some of his students in 1968. Chandra had never seen snow and hail before and while he taught his students things like maths and science, they taught him, laughingly, how to spell 'winter.'
Pauline Gregory and her husband Greg of Birch Island were his nearest neighbors and good friends. Chandra holds some very fond memories of his years in Birch Island and Clearwater. He also taught at Dutch Lake and Raft River Elementary School before he moved to Kamloops.
After he acquired his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Washington Ray Chandra went back to Fiji Islands.
Wendy Bentley,
Kamloops, B.C.
