IF Christmas is a time of giving and sharing, Satya Narayan Swami, 57, lives the Christmas lifestyle every day of his life.
Satya, pictured, a member of the Assemblies of God church, is hardly your average man.
He moves from town to town, villages and settlements doing what little he can to help others.
The day he visited the Fiji Times office, he had just collected 20 pairs of shoes that he was preparing to distribute to mothers and children who needed them.
Satya is a volunteer social worker and a blind one at that.
Last week he was at Masimasi Village in Tailevu, today he's in Rakiraki.
He admits he does not know where his voluntary work will take him.
"No fixed address," he said.
Originally from Vanua Levu, Satya's efforts have taken him to places like Nadroga, Kadavu, Lau and Yasawa.
He said many people how he managed to get from place to place.
"When you are with God anything is possible," he said.
Once an energetic normal young man, Satya has not allowed blindness to drag him down. Instead, he remains a good humoured, independent man.
"Once I went to a church in Bua," he said.
"There was an empty seat right in the front so I sat down.
"I got thrown out of church because I was sitting on the Tui Bua's seat.
"They gave me a name," he said laughing. "Ratu Veisabuki"."
Satya became blind after a car accident in Labasa in 1986.
"I was driving a car and there was another car coming on the wrong side the road," he said. "I tried to save myself but I hit a post, spent a lot of time in the hospital and became blind.
"I spent 20 years in the light," he said.
"Now I spend the rest of my life in the dark.
"For me darkness is paradise."
Satya's wife is dead but he has adopted a young girl.
"Adi Laisani Nai is 11-years-old," he said.
"Her mother died when she was only three months old and I have been looking after her.
"I have been caring for her for more than seven years.
"She attends Assemblies of God Primary School and is presently with relatives.
"When I go places she stays with my relatives."
When asked where his interest in voluntary work began, Satya said he was a Christian and this was something all Christians should do.
"The churches should look out for the people in the village," he said.
"What is the use of reading the Bible if you only end up coming home and throw it aside."
Satya said he came up from a well known Labasa family.
"Jagannath Sami is my brother," he said. "So are the Sami brothers who used to play soccer for Labasa," he said.
"When I became a Christian I left my family, now the needy people come first.
"I have booklists for some children who will be going to school next year.
"I have gone about helping people who have not been registered receive their birth certificates or welfare booklets for others."
Satya said he would continue to help people for as long as he could.
