OKEANOS BLOG: Tena koutou from Kiribati Our sail here from Funafuti was smooth and quick but our entrance into the Tarawa lagoon and sail to Parliament House where we’re anchored was all but. 20 knot winds in the face, low power in our batteries (which we drained down after having been told to wait until morning to enter), and a mine field of reefs and bombies (coral heads) at low tide evading a faulty navigation system made for an exhilarating last 5 hours of our voyage. Dropping and raising sails and pods, standing on the whare (deck house) to spot hidden reefs, and holding onto the anchor bridle with mask and snorkel to navigate a safe path out of the reef....I’m so glad we’ve got a sharp crew! Tarawa’s like Funafuti on steroids. The extremely dense population is due mainly to people moving in from the outer islands for reasons such as employment (which is sad because the unemployment rate here is up around 70% with the majority of the other 30 working in government), education, and health care (I’ve been told that the government focuses its education and health budget here in Tarawa which induces the flow of migrants from outer islands that are somewhat neglected). The roads here are worse than our gravel driveway after winter. We hired a car the other day and I can’t be certain we returned the whole thing. Not being able to swim here in the lagoon has probably been the toughest - in heat that you’d swear could melt you, although the smell at low tide doesn’t seem to deter the locals who wade out to set their nets. We’ve definitely seen the funny side to things here, laughing at Iva’s white t-shirt returning from the laundry dirtier than it was sent, loaves of breed riddled with mold the morning after purchase, noodle dishes on rice, chickens, wild dogs and pet pigs roaming the roads, locals with seemingly good english not knowing what ice cubes are, and $15 (Australian) a kilo chewing gum imposing as steak. It’s a good thing, you learn quickly to surrender. Especially to the heat, surrender or perform the 1km scuttle to Utirerei Motel’s air conditioned reception room which has internet. We feel like locals. We must also look like locals walking down the road to the shop in bare feet wearing rugged clothes (surely all other foreigners are driving their hire cars and staying with all the other aid workers in the motels) or freaky dancing to jungle music at the local club - which reminded me of woolshed parties back in the day – sheltered dirt floor yards and all outside. As much as we may look like locals however, we are certainly not treated as such. It’s mean to see that the legendary hospitality of the Pacific extends to these northern latitudes. We just came back from a trip to Abaiang (the closest northern island) where one of the locals showed us around on bikes free of charge. Steve went with our host while Iva rode with Kaip and Johnny with me. I could sense Johnny’s .... as we sped off down the dusty pot hole road with no breaks or shoes. His anxiety proved valid as he got air over a bump I failed to see resulting also in our chain flying off. This didn’t seem to bother our host – he just told me to jump on his bike and we went and got another one (the bikes he just picked up from whoever was around). Our next mishap he put down to bad luck. We had been blessed at the alter where new visitors are taken for a ceremony to ensure the ancestors recognise you. On our way back we got a punctured tire, this misfortune soon turned into good fortune when two locals arrived out of nowhere with a puncture repair kit as we were whisked away to a nearby house to sit in a weaving circle of women and eat lunch. While we ate our fried fish and tasty shell fish meal, the women’s laughter confirmed the entertainment value produced by our somewhat strange appearance: unusually black feet, grey beards, and Einstein hair. After a thank you speech our bike was roadworthy once more. We managed one more punctured tire as Kaip came to a sudden halt. But once again we were surprised at our host’s benevolence as I’m sure anyone back home would’ve by now been harbouring insidious thoughts toward us. Instead he just said “take my bike and head back to the house, I’ll see you later”. Later we took him and some other locals out for a sail and a spearfish, sort of as a “sorry we wreaked heaps of your bikes and left them on the side of the road” thing. As you can tell the theme of this blog is “holiday”, but I can assure you we have been working, and are working towards the fishing trails which I’ll have a much better understanding of tomorrow when our working group meets P.s well done if you read this whole thing! Arohatinonui! Okeanos
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 21:27:26 +0000
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