Easter is Over for Another Year

Hi Ho All!

I thought I would get a jump on the blog!

We have had visitors and that has made for a very enjoyable time. It put me into a better frame of mind and lifted my spirits, which I have to admit is tested on a regular basis. As much as we say for people not to visit, it is a real eye opener for our visitors who may not have experienced a developing country.  Thankfully our friends have known us long enough, so whatever we throw at them they are not surprised.

Banking

This week I have had to go to the bank for some enquires.  So rather than take a number, there are a section of chairs that you leap frog into each time the next person has been helped by the teller.  So I need to make an appointment, which was going to be a very long time before I could make the appointment.  So in true foreigner style I marched myself to the counter and waited!  Of course there was talk behind me but that is nothing unusual.  Now since I stick out like dogs balls they quickly asked what the problem was!  They didn’t know so I went back to the seat hopping to entertain the people as I went!  They think I am a very funny Imatung!  My friend and I had just settled in for the day when we were called to the back office to find out how they could help.  Told them the problem and skipped, maybe not, out the office to tackle the next problem, which we didn’t have so we decided to go for coffee.

Car Servicing

As most of you know, I am not good with people’s random acts of stupidity.  So if you have done the incorrect thing after being coached and asked repeated to verify things, you are going to get the straight up and down version of me.  Let’s just say they learned the valuable lesson of using the phone.  The car and a friend’s car are all serviced now and I hope I will not have to go to a mechanic unless it is Baz in Australia.  By the way Baz I only want social calls when we get back.

Cat

He who thinks he should be boss, keeps trying to shoo the cat away.  Puss is her name and unfortunately due to her very good avoidance tactics, except around food, is having kittens.  I had hoped to get her desexed but that was an elusive dream.  I’m seriously thinking I should do a male desexing course for cats and dogs, then we might have the packs of dogs fighting and the cat wailing their heads off.

Peter’s Turn

Easter is done and dusted for another year.  I wonder what we will be doing next Easter and where we will be?

Denise's man flu has eased.  After a week I insisted she see a doctor over here, and although she was sceptical, after seeing the doctor she was pleasantly surprised as they appeared to know what they were doing.  I was getting slightly concerned that I might have to fend for myself, but lucky for Denise she soldiered on.  Big duck now from a right hook. Smartie Wombat Nose

Some recent tragic news we heard from home in Brisbane was the passing of Emma Betts on Saturday 8 April.  I had only met Emma once in early 2016.  She was a guest speaker at the orientation meeting for the Smiling for Smiddy, Adelaide to Uluru ride I did last year to raise money and awareness for cancer research.  I still remember how she began her talk that evening:

Hi, my name is Emma, I'm 24 and I have terminal cancer.

That line floored me and most others in the room.  It definitely gave us all something to ride for.

I had since followed her progress through her blog at http://www.dearmelanoma.com/.  It makes you realise how lucky you are and the blog described the highs and lows of dealing with a terminal illness. Rest In Peace Emma, we will remember you!

Visitors

I think we have seen the last of our visitors, but if you are considering coming over, let us know soon.  You are more than welcome.

It is always great to get visitors as it is like a holiday for us without leaving Kiribati.  We not only get to catch up with family and friends, but learn about news and happenings from home.

We gave our visitors something to talk about and me something to write about when the tread on one of the car tyres separated.  I have seen it before on trucks, but not on car tyres.  It was a borrowed car from one of the expats and I had noticed there was a problem in the rear of the car.  It wasn't until after about 50kms and pumping up all four tyres to the correct pressure that I was fairly sure it was a tyre problem.

The tyre decided to let go as I was overtaking another car.  I knew immediately what it was.  After pulling out the spare tyre and jack I discovered there was no wheel brace or winder for the jack.  Before pulling the car apart to search for them, a local asked if he could help.  I asked if he had a wheel brace and jack winder and to my surprise he said yes.  Within 15mins we were on our way again, but not until after we had all thanked the local for his assistance.

By the way I did eventually find the wheel brace, but no winder.

Outer Islands

We are now planning on visiting a few of the outer islands to see the real Kiribati.  I have asked some of my contacts through work and it will be part work, part sightseeing.  The idea is that we pay for flights and accommodation and the island contact looks after us.  The work component is for me to better understand the issues on the outer islands first hand.

End Date

We now appear to have a return date for the end of our Kiribati assignment.  It is 24 August.  I stumbled on this when I was checking past bookings and saw there was a booking that I wasn't aware of.  The booking assumes we are going straight home and not having a break in Fiji.  I could be tempted to have another week or two there.  We will see about that one as I am sure Denise will have an opinion.  Do you get the feeling we don't always discuss things?

The good part is that we get a business class upgrade on the final leg.  I did try to get the upgrade out of Tarawa, but that was proving too difficult to negotiate, so I settled for the Brisbane leg.

Is there anyone out there interested in replacing me when we leave?  If you are interested send me an email.

ANZAC Day

Due to the presence of Australia and NZ in Kiribati we get to have an official ANZAC Dawn Service.  We are both looking forward to it.  This is to be followed by a Gunfire Breakfast before heading off to work.

The site for the service is in Betio, the site of the Battle of Tarawa, a WWII battle between the US and Japan with a loss of approximately 9,000 lives in three days.

Shark Bite

The other day, one of the professional divers was bitten several times by a white tipped reef shark reported to be about 2m in length.  The divers are over here working on laying new sewage pipes.

The diving team was having a day off, and as they do when not working, they went diving and spear fishing.  They had arrived at a new location and one of the divers had gone down to check out / catch an octopus.  The octopus got away and in the process it had squirted its ink.  On his way back to the surface (he was free diving - no scuba gear), two white tips swam to the ink and then shot up to the diver where one of them bit him on the back, shoulder and hip before swimming off.  This was all seen by at least one of the others on the boat.

The result was a big gash in his back, grazing on his shoulder and superficial cuts on his hip.  He was brought back to Tarawa for treatment at the hospital and flown out the next day to Australia on the normal Thursday flight.

I must say that it hasn't put me off diving with sharks, but I will probably watch them a little closer in the future.

Sunset for dinner

More Visitors Coming

This week I have some excitement for you all this week.

Happy Birthday to me

I had to work on my birthday and spent some of the day reading all the wonderful birthday wishes.  By the way, Kerry, even though your birthday video was a repeat from a previous year it made my day.  A few days later Denise remembered she had some birthday cards for me – better late than never. I am Sick.  I suppose she could have always kept them for next year, but then I might have twigged if the senders had then sent another card.  Either that or I wouldn’t have realised due to my old age and poor memory.  No, that wasn't the excitement.

For my birthday dinner we went out and had a home cooked meal with friends and I was even able to drive home without suffering from some off prawns like somebody else, who will remain nameless, suffered a few nights earlier.  No, that wasn't the excitement.

Excitement

Now on to the excitement.  I was in a small storeroom at work doing a stocktake with the storeman when we heard what sounded like a pile of timber falling in the adjoining storeroom.  We went out and I noticed the work truck stopped halfway out the back doorway with wooden panels on the ground around it.  The main problem with this was the storeroom didn't have a back doorway, well not until then anyway.  The only reason the truck stopped was it had hit a tree on the other side of the wall.

The next thing I know one of the young men from the office who was standing beside the open driver door saw us and ran away.  Now the assumption I made is that he was the driver who had created the new doorway so I can understand why he ran as he was scared.  The bigger question for me was, where do you run to on a small crowded atoll.  There were no planes leaving for another three days and I doubt anybody in Kiribati is into ultra marathon swimming.  I suppose he could always get a boat, but where do you escape to as Kiribati is not close to anything.

When I got to the truck cab, the ignition was still on and the wipers were going.  He had done a good job.  As well as knocking out the back wall, he wrecked about three big blackboards and totally destroyed a table tennis table that only a few minutes earlier had been in use.  I removed the keys and then checked under the truck because behind where the wall had been is a High School.  Luckily there was no body under the truck.

High School kids came from everywhere to look and take photos.  After getting others to remove the debris I drove the truck out and discovered it was suffering steering damage as well as front end damage, a broken windscreen and I am assuming structural damage.  I am not too sure if there are any repairers here who would have the capability to fix bent frames, particularly on a truck.

Apparently the driver has confessed, and I am still waiting to see what happens to him, but I don't think he'll be back at work.  They told me he doesn't have a license and can't drive.  I had already worked out the second bit myself.

Prior to the accident I needed to get into a locked storeroom so started looking for the keys to unlock it.  After asking everyone, no keys were found so I tried my locksmith skills, honed over many hours of shift work.  Within 30 seconds I had the door open much to the surprise and amazement of the watching staff.  It was only then I remembered that there is very little crime here in Kiribati so when somebody says something is locked they believe it without question or even checking.  I must remember not to set such a bad example.  Next time I will make sure nobody is watching or knows what I am doing.

Two days later I saw a picture of one of the work buses tangled with the front of another bigger bus.  Check out the pic above and see if you can tell who is in the wrong.

Apparently there were two or three other cars then ran into the back of the work bus.  What looks like has happened is the work bus has decided to overtake a car thinking he had the time and distance to do so as the bigger bus would have had to slow down for a speed bump.  He misjudged the time and distance.  The other cars would have been following blind assuming the bus driver had a clear road ahead.  Obviously these drivers didn’t allow the three seconds gap between themselves and the vehicle in front.  I know some daughters who could speak on that one, mentioning no names.

Telecommunications

One the telecommunications front, I have had the telco here working on my phone earlier this week.  Since then I haven’t lost any credit and I have no idea what they did to it.  I will not congratulate them yet as sometimes the problem goes away for 2-3 weeks before deciding to resurface, but at least it’s a start.  It only took two complaints to the CEO, over 50 emails and many visits to the ATHKL office by Denise and myself.

Man Flu

Denise is currently suffering from a cold, probably mine, or could it be the result of a bad prawn night?  I didn't help when I kept her out as I was invited for a drink with the Minister.  I keep getting reminded about it, and it wasn't that late.  I am sure Denise will go to town on this one.  Go. So went to a farewell, as you do regularly here.  I had asked for an early night but that was not to be.  When we eventually arrived home, it was straight to bed.

I’ll give him Man Flu.  I will not bore you with the details but I have been knocked for 6.  Three days now of feeling like I am dying and I have decided that my unwell state of affairs, needs some stronger medicine.  Thanks to another Vollie, she gave me a potion that helped but not completely.

Visitors

Our next visitors are due in for Easter and we have sent them a wish list of unobtainable items.  We really look forward to visitors as it breaks up our time here and allows us to share our experiences first hand.  Unfortunately, Kiribati is not set up for tourists.  That can be both good and bad.

Kids v Cars

My actions of slamming on the breaks when kids are running behind or near the car have proved effective, especially after a fatality occurred a few weeks back in a similar incident when a child was hanging on to the side of a truck while riding a bicycle.

At least with slamming on the brakes it makes me smile when you hear that thud as they run into the back of the car.  They may be a little damaged but they are learning as it doesn't happen to often now, much to my disappointment.  See, discovery learning is an effective learning method.  One women even had the audacity to complain to Denise saying it wasn’t appropriate.  Probably not, but it’s effective and no kids have been killed.

Just to top off the week that was, we lost power about an hour ago, so I had better go and see what is happening.

Just a short one this week, unless Denise has let loose.

School

One of the best I have done here is listen to the children read out loud.  As I tell them, it improves confidence, improves their reading and improves their ability to speak English.  It is truly gratifying when you have the children say hello, call you by name and say that they have been practicing their reading.  This happened the other day when we were heading out of the village and one of the boys sang out to me and told me about his reading.  His big brother was beside him and I had listened to him read the previous year.  He looked a bit sheepish when I asked if he was still practicing.  There are children here that get it and those that will slip by the wayside.

Nothing much else to report. I’m off for a little lie down.

Big hugs

Us