Back in Kiribati

Now we are back in Kiribati we are planning our next escape in June.  When we return from that trip it will give us two months left in Kiribati.

On the latest trip back to Tarawa we managed to get a business class upgrade at no additional cost.  Now we were the ones being judged as the cattle class passengers filed past.  The benefit to flying business class was we could bring back 50kg checked bags each so we took the opportunity to organise the remaining 50+kgs of Days for Girls kits to be delivered to Fiji by all the family members who met us there.  I must say that they didn’t seem too impressed that we took up all their luggage space.  We ended up with four bags that were each over 20kgs.  One being our dive gear which in itself was 23kgs.

This was nice, but there was no way I could have justified paying for it on a three hour flight.  Maybe on a longer trip.  Denise even had champagne with her breakfast.  When we landed I realised I hadn't reclined the seat so did this before exiting.

The only downside was when they announced soon after takeoff that 19 bags had been left in Nadi.  That's OK as we were flying business class and had PRIORITY tags on all our bags.  How wrong I was.  The PRIORITY tags didn't mean anything.  Our first bag came out of the third trolley, our third bag came out on the last trolley and only at this time did we know our dive bag was the only one missing.  Now of all the bags they could have left behind, the dive bag was not it.

I wrote an email expressing my dissatisfaction to Fiji Airways, but to date that didn’t get us anywhere.

Phone Credit

I am still battling ATHKL, the only phone company in Kiribati, to stop losing credit.  I sent them two emails in two days after losing $2.40 in 12hrs.  I think they got the hint that I wasn't happy.  The problem is getting them to actually fix the problem.  Considering they agree it is a problem with all iPhones, they must be making a fortune from us all.  We lose around $5/mth and if 10% of phones are iPhones, that equates to $50,000 per month.  Not a bad scam if you can get away with it.

They have even agreed in writing that it is a problem at their end.  I have now escalated this one to the CEO to see if he actually cares…probably not.  Monopolies don’t have to worry about poor customer service.

Rain

My first trip to work after the break was in drizzling rain so they decided it would be a good idea to shut the windows.  They forgot the bit about not having air conditioning so everyone was in a lather of sweat.

Intermittent rain has continued and I even had to dodge pools of water to get to the bus.  It isn't the constant tropical rain that we had been told would occur between December and March, but any rain is good.

This weekend we had about 24hrs of rain and it filled up all the pot holes in the driveway to our house.  It was a little like 4WD and boating all at the same time.  Hopefully it has dried out by Monday when I have to walk to the bus.

Mould

When we got back here everything was damp and mould had begun growing on things in the house.  It is the result of a few rainy days while we were away followed by high humidity.  Even the tile floors are damp.  We haven't worked out a solution for that yet apart from turning on the air conditioning in our bedroom which is only one room.

Denise

I am now questioning Denise's sanity.  The other morning, I found her outside at 7am telling the pigs to be quiet.  The problem with this is Denise doesn't get out of bed before 7.30am.  She has been complaining to me about the pigs squealing but I obviously didn't show enough interest, empathy and/or care enough, so she has now gone direct to the source.  In the pigs defence, they only squeal when they think food is coming.  Sound familiar to any parents of young children, or animals?  That bloody pig was a bad influence!  None of the other pigs carried on until he started carrying on as if his throat was cut.  He should have been the one to go on Saturday.

Denise keeps telling me how bright pigs are so let's wait and see who wins this one.  I am backing the pigs.

When Denise came back in from her pig whispering she also told me there were new piglets out there as well, so expect a picture or more on Facebook.  My guess is you will get daily updates.  New quasi grandchildren me thinks.  There is actually two batches of piglets.  The second batch turned up on Thursday and there are 9 of them.  Very cute!

To top that off, on Saturday morning around 07:30 one of the pigs outside the back door was squealing a little more than usual and a little longer.  To cut a long story short, somebody is enjoyed roast pork last night, and it wasn’t us.  I know this is circle of life stuff but this was a very lovely Piggy.  Every time I would walk out the back door it would look at me to see if he was going to be fed.

Basketball

There has been a change at the top with a new President of the basketball federation.  This has only just happened and I have already sent him two emails asking when I can restart the referees education.  He has even responded, but it is the usual - just wait.  I will keep pestering him on a weekly basis.

Motor Vehicle Infringements -Fine

No, it wasn't Denise or myself.  The bus driver was stopped in the middle of the road, as they do here, and the police pulled up beside us.  I'm not too sure what was said but they took his license.  A few kms up the road the police pulled us up again coming the other way and handed back what appeared to be the license.  I'm unsure if he got a fine or a warning but after that we only stopped at bus stops.

CAR

Since we arrived home our car horn has not been operational.  I can hear you say why would that matter?  As EVERYONE who is not an Imatung (read foreigner) would know they have no road sense.  So to alleviate the possibility of hitting someone, I drove even slower, with my friend and I beeping (from me) and honking from her.  It certainly keeps us entertained.

School

The school year started on the 6^th Feb, and I decided that they would be too disorganised to start reading at the beginning of the year.  They have a new head teacher, with a name that gives me all sorts of headaches trying to pronounce but we are getting there.  So I made the decision to wait!  Really in hindsight I shouldn’t have worried.  Disorganisation reigns supreme!  Friday we were told the classes would be operating after morning break.  For all of us who have had kids or can remember their own childhood, sports days go all day.  Lost in Translation yet again!