Pacific Partnership 2026 holds ribbon-cutting for Fiji construction project

SAVUSAVU, Fiji — Local leaders and U.S. Navy personnel marked the opening of a new schoolhouse at Nabua Primary School with a July 27 ribbon-cutting, expanding early childhood education and capping a months-long construction effort carried out with residents of Nabua village.

The two-room building, constructed to modern structural standards and equipped with solar-powered fixtures, adds a Kindergarten class for children ages five to six. Officials said the addition will allow teachers to safely accommodate more students in all weather while strengthening continuity of schooling close to home.

“This two-room schoolhouse completes the K through 12 education system for Nabua Village and two surrounding villages,” said Rear Adm. Aaron Taylor, Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73, during the opening ceremony. “It ensures local school children no longer have to travel far from home to complete their education. This is not just a building of concrete and timber. It is a gateway of opportunity, a place where future leaders, doctors, teachers and public servants of Fiji will find their start.”

The ceremony incorporated Fijian cultural traditions to honor those involved in the project, including the gifting of a whale’s tooth to Taylor and a Meke dance normally reserved for a high chief. “That is the highest Fijian tradition. It’s done [for] our guest,” said Samisoni Dulaki, the Nabua Primary School manager, referring to Taylor. ”He’s our high chief today. Everything we always do [for] our big chief, we did it today for him…. We respect him [at] that higher level.”

Community leaders said the celebration followed years of planning. “In 2023, myself, our school manager [at the time], and one head teacher… We talked about this , and we asked the head teacher to write to the embassy asking for help,” said Dulaki. “After one month, one lady from the embassy came here to the school and said to us that they accepted our letter.”

Construction kicked off in April when Sailors from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1 arrived to begin work alongside local volunteers. Crews labored through long days and bouts of bad weather to keep the timeline intact and meet educational needs for staff and students at Nabua Primary.

“The Fijian culture is based on supporting and helping one another,” said Lt. j.g. Arizona Lenski, NMCB-1 officer in charge. “So even on our first days at the job site, the community wanted to help us in the execution of the project. The school principal came and tapped my shoulder and was like, ‘you see these people sitting on the side watching you build. They want to help. So just let them know what they can do to help.’ They take that role and that amount of support into everything that they do…. It’s a really beautiful thing because it’s such an uplifting community to be a part of.”

Sourcing and logistics proved difficult across Fiji’s island chain. “Fiji is split between roughly 300 plus islands, but the main islands are Viti Levu, which we call the main island, and then Vanua Levu, which is the island that we’re on, which we call the North Island,” said Lenski. “A lot of materials have to come from Viti Levu all the way to Venua Levu so travel times take longer and about half of our suppliers are on Viti Levu. When there were delays or the ferries were shut down, we had a lot more things that impacted our logistics that were risk factors for our projects. So it took a while to adjust to figuring out what all of the factors were to account for, and then adjusting the dates for deliveries for everyone.”

Staff from Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific in Singapore backed the on-site team by aligning contracts, funding, and schedules within the larger Pacific Partnership 2026 framework. “All of us worked together to ensure contracts were going through, modifications were going through and budgets were being met,” said Lenski. “All of that is what COMLOG WESTPAC helped to reinforce and ensure we were going to be able to meet all of our deadlines. Without them, we just wouldn’t have been able to make this mission feasible.”

The remote setting posed recurring hurdles, from weeks-long material delays and mountain roads turned impassable by rain to unreliable ferries from Suva and the inability to move heavy equipment through rugged terrain. Still, teams found workarounds. “It was extremely impressive to see the robustness of our team,” said Lenski. “Every time we had a block that was the wrong size, or our mixers were the wrong size, or some material that came wasn’t correct, we had our subject matter experts on the site who were ready to find ways to adjust and mitigate the errors and corrections.”

A key turning point came with the foundation work. “The one day we poured the footer was absolutely the proudest day,” Lenski said. “It was the hardest day from my perspective. There were so many hands involved and there were so many things that made the concrete placement harder than it ever needed to be, but we were able to push through. It was a long day, but it was a fantastic day because we had been fighting, getting out of the ground for so long. Once we put that footer in, there were no further issues on the construction building front.”

Organizers said the build finished on schedule and within budget. “I joined the Seabees in order to build infrastructure in places that really needed it,” said Lenski. “So this project absolutely captures everything I’ve ever wanted to do as a Civil Engineer Corps officer. Being able to see the light on the principal’s face, the school manager’s face, the whole community just gathering together, seeing people that have been stoic the whole time come up in tears with joy, it’s been super meaningful.”

Now in its 22nd iteration, Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multinational mission focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness in the Indo-Pacific, working with host and partner nations to strengthen interoperability, boost regional resilience, and build enduring relationships.