Diving

More false starts with diving.  Once again a function has taken the boat we were going to be using and then unavailability of the guide.  Deferred for another week.

Something I saw the other day while we were waiting for a lift from the airport at Starbucks Cafe.  Check out the spelling and remember ti is s

Check the spelling

STOP PRESS

I finally found a dive partner and ventured into the ocean at the back of our house.  Denise wasn't interested as the last time we ventured into the water there it was poor visibility (about 5 mtrs) and the corals were dead.  So I dropped Denise off to church and told her if the current was too strong we would end up down at her church so we could all walk back together.

The dive was a huge surprise.  We went at mid tide not for any reason apart from that's when we went.  The entry and exit was across about 100mtrs of uneven sand, coral and rocks with about .5mtr waves at the edge.

When we were set we descended and looked at each other in amazement.  Instead of the expected poor visibility and dead coral we were greeted with +30mtr visibility, live coral and fish everywhere.  For 5 months we had been sitting on a wonderland at our back door and didn't know it.

As this dive was only a discovery dive with the sole intention to get wet, I left the camera at home.  Why take extra when you know there's nothing to see?

The corals were amazing.  Not the colours you see in some reefs, but the whole place was alive.  Some of the highlights were a nuibranch, the many colourful fish, a big moray eel and the visibility.

The moray was about 15cm across the head.  That is something I want to go back and find again, this time with some tasty morsels.  I was going to take some octopus down, but decided against it much to my belated disappointment, although I would have already disposed of the octopus pieces as I didn't find the moray until near the end of the dive.

When we surfaced we both agreed that was something we will definitely do again - probably next weekend.

I did have one little hiccup.  I decided to use Denise's dive computer as I am thinking of buying one.  When I checked the computer after descending it was blank.  Pressed the buttons - nothing.  Sorry Damien, but I continued the dive as my buddy had my dive computer and I figured it was a short dive anyway as I only had 160 bar, we had clear visibility and were only 20mtrs down at max.

For future dives from our place we will try to time it with the top or bottom of the tide to make it easier to get in and out of the water.  The other thing is to pray for flat seas.

So as you could imagine, I am cheezed off with not diving and missing out.  The entry to the water from our place is quite tricky and since I have a poor track record for falling over, I decided it was better for Peter to do a recon.

In the afternoon we went and met friends at North Tarawa and Denise went snorkelling with her new GoPro.  She came back with video of a sea snake she had closely followed and seemed a little surprised when I told her they are venomous.

Surprised was an understatement.  I had confused the snake with a sea worm. The locals have these sea worms and it is chewed like gum. (Chewing Gum) Yuk.  Anyway at one point my little snake was spring loaded to pounce, so I backed away.  I’m sure I had a dream that told me it was OK while their jaws were open.  Must remember to put more thought into things I have limited knowledge on.

Over the last few months we have watched the slow dismantling of two shipping containers near our house.  I'm not convinced it is legitimate but piece by piece they have disappeared.  All that now remains are the bases and the front door frame on one of them.  I'm unsure what the pieces are used for but my guess is for people's houses.

The "winter" rains still haven't arrived (December to March) which is not good for the water supply.  The water table is low and they don't have any program to encourage people to save water.  Not too sure what happens when we run out.  At least we have a good supply of drinking in the rain water tanks water where we live.  Based on current usage, the tank water should last us at least 12 months, and as we finish up here in August we don’t have too many concerns, apart from having to strain and boil it first.  One of the tanks has a leak and according to Dr Google it can't be fixed easily.  Does anybody out there have any ideas?

As I write this blog on my way to work it is trying to rain which will at least settle the dust.  The downside is when the sun appears it's going to be extremely humid...and it was.  The rain has tried to happen, but every time it looks promising, it disappears again.

It looks like speak English Day that had been instigated by the Minister for every Wednesday was a passing fad.  The first assembly held for 2017 was not in English and there was no mention of Wednesday being English only day.  As expected I had no idea what was said during the assembly, but the locals had a few giggles.  I did have the Secretary beside me who told me four things the Minister said.  I am still amused that we are expected to line up for the assembly, but haven't worked out why.  I will have to ask next time.

It looks like I had been expecting too much when I thought the deliveries would be completed by my return - they weren't.  What a surprise...  After having a little rant I realised I was the only one concerned about it.  The resolution is to send out what we have and get the supplier to send out the remaining items.  Counting also appears to be a challenge for everyone here.  The best was 24 counted, but when I questioned it we quickly found 330 items in 5 boxes.  No idea where the 24 came from.  No wonder people don't receive what they should.  Considering there are at least four different counts done in the process, what chance do they ever have to get it right.  Needless to say it took me three days to fix up my allocation model to cater for two lots of distribution.  Now all they have to do is count properly or we will have further problems.  Guess what I'm now thinking...

When I thought I had seen everything on the roads...the other day the bus stopped in the middle of the road (nothing new there) and the driver jumped out and picked up something off the road and handed it to a lady who wandered out of her house - it was a little child who was sitting on the road oblivious to everything around them.

It appears to be that time of the year where there is a changing of the guard.  There are quite a few people leaving and others arriving in their places.  Next month will see the departure of some of the volunteers who came over at the same time as we did, having finished their six months.  As expected, there are quite a few farewells happening.  One involved a 1am finish on a Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, not good when your bus leaves at 07:15, but the company we had made it all worthwhile.  Names withheld to protect the guilty, but you know who you are.

Kiribati has a high incidence of diabetes caused by poor nutrition and as a result there are many people who have had to have limbs amputated leaving them in wheelchairs and on crutches.  Although tragic, the locals appear to accept it as part of life.  It is not uncommon to see some of the wheelchairs on the road.  They don't go much slower than some of the slow cars.

The other day we had our second only power outage since arriving.  Some sort of generator problem.  That's not bad when we were told before coming here we would have constant power problems.  Come to think of it, it is way better than Brisbane, but we don't get the severe storms that cause their outages.  The only impact to us was we had no water (electric pump), wifi or lights and of course it happened just prior to sunset.  As dinner was already cooking on the gas stove we had dinner then went outside to enjoy the sea breeze and the last of the daylight.  Denise informed me the power came back just before 10pm.  I took the chance to catch up on sleep so went to bed early.

The power at work is way more unreliable than at home.  Outages occur about once per month and this month we had an interesting one where the locals said we had a power outage, but I’m not so sure.  There was no power to the computer room so no servers or wifi, but half of our office, next door, had lights, while the other half was dark.  I work in the dark section.  After getting onto another wifi network I spent the morning surfing the net until full power was restored around 11:00.

Denise is still attracting the local cats (not bad for somebody who doesn't like cats).  Her reasoning is they keep the rodents away.  That might be true as we don’t appear to have any in the house.  I spend my time teaching the cats to enjoy water and catch stones.  They are still in the early learning stage, but I am willing to persist with my training. Peter is a bloody pest!!!!

For those cyclists out there, try riding your bike with three others on it as well.  The other day I watched as a man stopped near me on a bicycle with two kids on board, one on the handlebars and one on the top tube.  What he stopped for was to allow another child to climb up on the rear rack with his feet on the chain stays, then off he rode with to wherever.  As I was watching I was wondering how far he would get before the kid on the back got one or both feet stuck in the spokes.  The other thing that amazes me is pillion passengers on motorbikes who rest their bare feet on the exhaust pipe.  They must have special exhaust pipes here as everyone I have touched has burnt me.

A couple of weeks ago we were heading to Beito.  The war monument area of south Tarawa.  We were stopped while the locals tried to pull down a tree that they had sawed through twice but didn’t budge.  So two weeks later the tree is still standing and no one seems to be in any great hurry to bring it down.  I must say I am quite aware of it now; I look for signs of wavering.  It is also a good idea to look out for falling coconuts.  They are dangerous, great for breaking windscreens that will never be fixed.

So that’s all from us

Big hugs

Me and the Action Bunny(coming up to Easter)

Happy New Year

Ahhh, I'm back in Kiribati.  How do I know.?

• ·         While waiting for the work bus I was swarmed by annoying flies; and
• ·         The music on the bus was blaring.

Something I don't think I have mentioned yet is the many flies buzzing around me while waiting for the morning bus to go to work.  I only encounter this at the bus stop so am not sure what the cause is.  One day I might try walking to another location, but you can't rush these things.

While in Abemama a few weeks ago we met a couple who are sailing around the Pacific.  A few weeks later we met up with them again at the weigh in for the monthly fishing competition.  It turns out they come from Mooloolaba.  As they had to get a bus back to their dinghy we gave them a lift.  The jetty they were tied up to was at the back of Parliament House and when we got there the Parliament House bar was still open so we had a drink there before saying our goodbyes.

As you have already heard, Tarawa encounters the occasional flight delays and cancellations.  Two Fridays before Christmas Fiji Airways cancelled the flight due to a tropical depression hovering around Fiji that some (not the weather bureau) were expecting to turn into a cyclone and a fuel shortage in Tarawa.  With my limited knowledge of weather, I checked the weather bureau website and agreed with them that there was little chance of a cyclone developing.  As I write this a few days later my prediction is still correct, but the tropical depression is still hanging around Fiji which should make for a wet stay in Fiji.  We didn’t get any rain so it was hot and humid.

The other cause of the flight delay was a lack of aviation fuel.  I have heard several things on this one.

• ·         Somebody forgot to order it.
• ·         They were shipping it in from SE Asia.
• ·         Even when it arrived, it still requires testing which is done in NZ.
• ·         They were shipping it back from the outer islands.

Whichever one it was I have no idea.

The story goes that with the fuel problem it meant the planes had to carry enough fuel not only to get from Fiji to Tarawa and back to Fiji, but also enough to divert to either Tonga or Solomon Islands should landing at Nadi not be an option.

We did hear (unconfirmed) that flights were coming in to Tarawa half full so they had sufficient fuel.  To help this version of the truth, our flights out and back were only half full.

Who knows what the real reason/s were, but it made for many hours of discussions, usually involving alcohol.  Did I say there's not too much to do here!

Just in case you hadn't guessed, we spent a few days in Brisbane over Christmas.  It was a great break where we caught up with family and some of our friends.  We are very sorry to those we missed.  It wasn't that we didn't want to see you, we just ran out of time.  Next time we are home you will be the first we catch up with.  Booking us for a catch up would be a good idea.

Speaking of our next trip to Australia, it is not planned until August when we finish.  Denise had been looking at a volunteer role here which would have extended our time by a further 6 months, but that didn't work out.  The role was to implement a Days for Girls program within the education system.  Instead she will remain as an Ambassador for the Days for Girls program and work with local groups outside the education system.  I think this is a much better outcome as it gives her the freedom to work her own hours, be her own boss and not have to write reports, policies and procedures.  We believe there is still a volunteer coming in March to take up the role so that will mean two people pushing the Days for Girls program in Kiribati, a win for all concerned.

The return to Tarawa was interesting and stressful.  It began with Denise picking up (you were there too) about 80kg of Days for Girls kits and me wondering out loud (I had deaf ears so didn’t hear a thing) how they were getting to Kiribati.  We managed to take about 20kg.  The rest we will rely on family, friends and volunteers to bring over. All I’m hearing, it is all about him. One day he will realise that complaining only gets him into more trouble.  That 80kg was 250 kits for Days for Girls.  This project has now turned into a crusade.

The next was Denise having a tumble while trying to assist with the trolley coming into Brisbane airport arrivals.  She is still a little sore.  I had had a fall over here about 4 weeks before we came home and I fell onto my shoulder again.  World of pain!  Today I have tried to rest it!  Must be getting old or just soft.

The checkin at Brisbane was easy as we were in the business/priority queue, although they were going to give us an extra 10kg.  I declined as we had to overnight in Fiji with everything and then hope we had the same offer for the flight to Tarawa.

Once checked in I went off to try to sort out an issue we encountered on our arrival in Brisbane (see below).  The result was, the office I was after was closed as it was New Years Day, but while trying to locate the office I saw staff in the TRS office who were being given a hard time by Asian tourists.  When I entered the office the office staff were trying to stop others coming in so I blocked the doorway for them and watched the "comedy" unfold.  I was impressed with how well they handled the stressful situation with people demanding action and changing their stories and when I finally made it to the counter I congratulated both of them on how well they handled the situation.  They were both so happy that I had noticed and commented.  While I was waiting and blocking the door several people tried to push past, but when I said I was in the queue all bar one apologised and stayed outside.  The one who didn't just pushed past.  I told her I was waiting loud enough so the counter staff heard.  She said she only had one question, me too.  Next she said she was running late, me too, so I asked to see her boarding pass at which point she went to the counter only to be told to get back in the line.  I did see her again after I left the office being told by somebody else that she was in the wrong place to get the information she required.  Ah, isn't it nice to see that happen.

When we flew in to Brisbane we were in so much of a hurry (and excited) to get out to see our girls that we picked up the wrong bag.  It was the same bag as our red bag – note to self…self, check the bag tags before walking off with your bags.  This wasn't discovered until several hours later when I opened the bag and wondered why Denise had packed a cane basket with material.  As there was a mobile phone number on the bag tag I rang it and ended up taking the bag to the rightful owner that night.  We got Lisa to pick up our bag and she handed us a warning letter as Denise had packed a coral rock.  I was the one who received the warning.  I am now wondering what will happen next time I enter the country.  Note to self, no more coral for the fish tank.

Now back to departure, when we got into the departure area Denise discovered she had forgotten her noise cancelling headphones and mentioned it to a friend she was calling.  Between them they decided that I should go back and buy a new set in duty free and our friend would pick up Denise's headphones from home, so off I went as the obedient husband (what rubbish, martyr in the making) and bought a new set.  I then rang Lisa and asked her to locate Mum's headphones.  After Lisa had searched the whole house I asked Denise if she could recheck her bag and guess what, she now has two sets of headphones.  I then had to retrieve the box from the bin.  Girls, guess what you are bringing back when you see us in a few months...

The rest of our departure went uneventfully.

On the flight I had told Denise that she should read up on how to operate her new GoPro.  After hearing the constant beeping through my noise cancelling headphones I told her to find the bit where it told her how to turn off the beeps.  All I’m hearing is Blah Blah Blah

The rest of the flight was uneventful, but we did fly over an island and a few ships.  I turned on my watch GPS to see what the island was, but apart from elevation and speed, it didn't give location.  I figured it was somewhere near Noumea.

Just remember, when the typing is red, it is Peter’s Blood!!!  Oh, OK maybe not

So, we had a really good Christmas.  We had gone to my sister’s for lunch after starting the day at daughter no 2’s for Breakfast and pressies.  That was wonderful.  I don’t think I cooked at all for the time I was home.  Stop Press. I made roast pork and crackling with lots of vegies.  Did we tell you about the crap vegies we get here!

I will need to go as Lord Muck will want dinner soon, so I better get cracking.

Big hugs All Round.

Happy New Year