Week 7

Well we have finally had a dive here.  The dive itself wasn’t great, but just being able to say we have had a dive is a relief.  It started with sending an SMS to the person running the dive operation on Wednesday morning.  When I hadn’t heard anything by Thursday lunchtime I sent another SMS to see if he received my first SMS.  By Friday lunchtime, still nothing heard so I called him.  Yes, he said he had responded, but I’m still waiting to see the response.  Anyway, the dive was going ahead at 10am on Saturday and the location was the Bairiki boat ramp.  I confirmed the details via SMS, but as expected, no response.

On the way to the Bairiki boat ramp, my phone rang one ring, but as Denise had packed it in the back I couldn’t answer it.  On arrival at the boat ramp, no dive stuff was evident, but we thought that was because we were 15 mins early.  I decided to call the dive organiser to see why he had called me.  He asked where I was and when I told him he said he was at Betio boat ramp, so back in the car for a quick 10min drive to Betio.

On arrival at Betio boat ramp, we pulled up beside 4 dive tanks standing in the sun with a cardboard tray over the top of them (probably to keep the dust off, but it wasn’t working whatever it was for).  I again called the dive organiser who said he was coming in the boat from the slipway.  About 10mins later he turned up in a car.  I questioned about our tanks and weightbelts and he brought out two tanks and two weight belts from his car.

I asked about the boat and he pointed across the water at a white catamaran that looked like quite a good boat for diving with protection from the sun and plenty of space.

We then asked if he had more weights as the weights he provided were not sufficient.  Off he went in his car to get more weights.  Being the cynical old $^#^%$ that I am I decided to have a wander to see if there was anything behind that catamaran, and sure enough there was a small wooden dinghy type boat which I thought that was more like what I expected.  10 mins later he was back with more weights.

At this stage he decided that we should drive around the small harbour to the boat which turned out to be a great idea as we parked in the shade and had a big setup area under cover instead of out in the dust and sun which was where we had been.

It was now that it was confirmed the dive boat was the small wooden vessel.  We began getting ready and I set up the tanks of which there were now only two.  The first thing I wanted to do was see that I had 200bar in my tank – no only 150bar.  Lucky that was Denise’s tank.  I then set up my tank and found mine was also 150 bar.  Oh well, the Kiribati standard tank fill.  We enquired if somebody was diving with us to show us where to dive and were assured that one of the two other locals present was diving with us, but I hadn’t sighted a third set of gear.  At this point off he drove again and came back about 15 mins later with another set of dive gear.

As we were about to set off something else was wanted so off he dashed again and we were to meet him across the small harbour so we waited for about 5 mins before cruising across to the other side for a further 10 min wait in the hot sun with absolutely no protection except for what we were wearing being hats, shirts and the bottoms to our thin wetsuits (black of course – doesn’t go well in the hot sun).  When he got back we finally headed out of the small harbour.  The trip out was only about 1.5kms and the water had a little chop, up to about 30cm.  When we got out to the spot, we were going round in circles for no apparent reason and eventually our “divemaster” (I’m not sure if he is an accredited divemaster) geared up and went in to check we were in the right place.  This took several attempts, but finally we were tied to something under the water that I believed was on or near where we were diving.  English was lacking from the vocabulary of the skipper and “divemaster” so communications were interesting but jovial.

At this stage, with the boat rocking and no seasick tablets for Denise, she decided she had to get into the water so it was a speedy gear up for her and in she went, even though the “divemaster” wasn’t ready for her to enter the water.  After Denise finally got settled in the water it was my turn to gear up.  First observation was my wetsuit was on backwards – who cares, I’m going diving anyway.  I got sorted and in the water and discovered the visibility was as poor as it looked from the surface – less than 5mtrs and I think that is being generous.

Anyway, down we go to find we are tied to what I believe was the remains of a WWII US landing barge with what appeared to be a small tank still on it and the landing ramp down.  The rope to the boat was actually tied to the barrel of the small tank.  I tried to get Denise to lead, but for whatever reason she didn’t, so off I went.  Within 15 mins I had seen the whole wreck and we both still had plenty of air left.  At this stage I decided to look at the fish and then went for another lap looking deeper into cracks and crevices.  I was going to swim under the landing ramp, but the squeeze was a little tight and so out I backed.  In total we were down for 50 mins and reached 7.2 mtrs in water temps of 31c and poor visibility.  The wreck itself was unimpressive as was the growth on it, while the fish life was reasonable.

Getting back in the boat was a small challenge, but we eventually made it, then back to the boat harbour.  We unpacked the boat and I tried calling the organiser without luck so I told the crew I would take the gear back to his place.  When we got there, he was home and wondered why we hadn’t done the second dive.  Let me think, no 2^nd tank and insufficient air to do two dives on 150 bars.  I’m not sure how the logistics were going to work for the second dive, considering the other 4 tanks had dissappeared, but as the visibility was poor we decided to call it a day.

I spoke to the organiser about diving the outer islands and the possibility of the islands having compressors to fill dive tanks and he said there were none, but he would take us and enough tanks to support us.  We are considering our options.

Saturday was AFL Grand Final day and after cleaning up our dive gear we drove to the other end of the atoll to “watch” the game.  We weren’t too interested in the game so sat outside looking over the Pacific with drinks and chatting to others who were as equally interested in the game.  We came home with fish from one of the others who had been out fishing that day.

Sunday was the big day when the Sharkies rolled the Storm in the NRL Grand Final.  Somebody about 10 mins drive away said they had the game on so around we went to their place.  Oh what a great feeling it is to have finally seen the Sharkies win a premiership after supporting them since they entered the competition in 1967.  Only downsides were I didn’t get to the game, and I discovered a lot of short term supporters.  Even Denise was supporting them, which worried me a lot.

Work has been slow with the normal, and expected, two steps forward, one step back, but at least we are making progress.  I am starting to get some really good information, but as always, when you think you have it right, out of nowhere comes another piece of the puzzle, so you have to reassess whether it is of value and how it fits.  The main issue that I am trying to resolve is how to consistently deliver supplies to all the customers, on time and of the right quality and quantity.  Easy I hear you say, until you begin discovering reasons why there are issues and all the competing interests and challenges of individual schools and communities.  The least of which is no power, hence no internet and no phones.  Some would say bliss, but when you have to rely on mail which can take up to four weeks, one way, you start to understand some of those issues.

I have had a small melt down this week. All because I could, and then I miraculously pulled myself together and had a lovely week.  Apart from the English speaking school, I am now going to a Pre-School to speak English. My observation from the Primary school is that the children have very little phonic ability. So to improve that with the young ones would be a step in the right direction. They want me to show Pre-Schoolers what discipline is!! I think I would do a better job bashing my head against a wall.

My impressions for our diving trip, was that we were going to die and that I made sure people knew where we were! Peter told me I was being melodramatic! Rubbish! Anyway we are alive to go on another adventure. I really thought we should have been doing these sort of things when we were younger, oh well, we are just doing things in reverse.

While trying to sort out some issues with my email I managed to delete all contacts, so all I have is email lists that I had saved earlier.

Every now and then you see a t-shirt that you recognise on the atoll.  So far I have seen a shirt from last years Hell of the West triathlon in Goondiwindi, a Smiling for Smiddy shirt (I had to check my bag – mines is still there), a shirt from last years Ipswich V8s, and the one I loved was emblazoned with:

Ozone Layer

Our Shield

Our Responsibility

The work bus music has progressed to country and western and other local music, but I’m sure most people here are deaf as the volume is regularly quite load so you can’t carry on a conversation, or maybe I’m just a grumpy old man.  The other day, the bus was even on time and one day it was early.  People must be looking out for me as the bus waits for me to stroll down the road.  You don’t rush as that would create a lather of sweat.  Have I told you it’s hot here?

Everybody expects me to be able to pick out the work bus from the other hundreds of busses.  I don’t have too much of a problem when they have an MOE tag in the front window. But otherwise I have no idea.  Sometimes they pull up beside me without any tag on them and I tentatively get on and am happy when I recognise someone on the bus.  I believe they all recognise me.

I have nearly missed the bus going home a few times as I have been so engrossed in my work.  It’s a mad panic to put my laptop away and hurry to the bus, only to discover I am still not the last one.

Denise has found where to buy fresh tuna and for two nights we had sashimi, partly because we had run out of gas, and so had Kiribati.  She has also had one of the expats give her fresh fish from his fishing trips.  Tonight is swordfish steaks.

Kiribati appears to have a total lack of native land based animals.  There are plenty of dogs, cats, pigs, chooks and people, together with mozzies and flies.  I’m not sure if the animals were wiped out or there were none to begin with.  There are small seabirds including the frigate bird that is on the Kiribati flag.

Out sporting afternoons at the High Commission for the last few weeks has included a beep test before tennis and/or soccer, both on the tennis court, followed by a swim in the pool.  In the first week of the beep test I stopped at 8.2 and the second week did one better at 8.3.  I could have done more in the second week, but I want to be able to show an improvement each time we do it.

I am still chasing a basketball contact over here.  I have email addresses, but to date nobody has responded to any emails.  I have a local chasing it for me and the latest was to escalate to somebody high up in the Government I believe.  See where that gets me.  We have even driven past the courts a few times in the hope of seeing an organised game, but still no luck.

As Tarawa is a long narrow atoll with many people, you find that everything that normally happens out of sight of the road in other third world countries, usually happens within sight of the main road, and I mean everything.  I have either seen or heard of every part of human life and activities being seen from the road at some time or other.  Interesting!!!

Last week was Education Week and there was a public holiday on Friday.  We had decided to go away, only to be told that we were expected to attend a function on Friday afternoon.  So much for the public holiday.  I actually had another meeting on Friday morning as well.  The function was sitting on the cement floor for 4 hours while the majority of what went on was in the local language.  It didn’t help that we were part of the guests of honour so were front and centre.  This was after going to another function on Thursday evening.  We tend to leave soon after the official speeches are over and the food is done – prior to the dancing beginning, although you don’t get out of all the dancing as you get dragged up to dance during the function.

Short notice is not new as it appears everything is planned at short notice, usually 2-3 minutes, and when you get there you wait for an hour or two for the others to turn up.

We now have a fan so we have started sleeping without air conditioning.  We did try it before, but as soon as the breeze stopped, the room gets hot, so on comes the air conditioner.  We will see how long we can go without using the air conditioning to sleep.

Life in Kiribati is different to the lifestyle we had in Arusha, Tanzania.  As we are not living close to others we have to put up with our own company.  If we want to socialise it requires transport, so we could get by with the local busses, but it is far more convenient to have our own car.

We are flying back to Sydney for a wedding in a weeks time, but will only be visiting Sydney and surrounds due to a lack of time.  Unfortunately, our flight back is via Melbourne then overnight to Nadi and on to Tarawa (home).