A few Weeks in Oz

Cold

Nooo, we are coming up to having a trip back home and I am coming down with a cold.  Why now? Yes, and if I get this cold I will not be happy. I have had one too many chest infections!

I will put in my apologies early and say sorry now, and in the meantime hope I get rid of it before we get home.

The good thing is Denise has cold tablets.  What a thoughtful wife she is.  See, I knew her wedding vows were what she wanted - to love, honour and obey her darling husband. I really don’t know why he keeps banging on about the obey bit, cause we all know it would NEVER happen!

Trees

I have noticed many trees that have either fallen over unassisted or lost branches.  Not being an arborist, I can only guess the cause/s.  Some are quite obviously knocked over intentionally, but others appear to have some sort of disease.  I haven't heard anybody else concerned about it so maybe it's just me.

Attempted break in

The other morning, I went out to the car and noticed it looked different.  I realised it was missing the weather shields on each of the four doors.  On closer inspection I saw that it was a case of attempted break in.  I unlocked the car and checked the contents and all was still in place, but there were obvious signs of where somebody had attempted to gain access.  The result is wrecked seals on the doors (and yes, it now leaks), missing weather shields, scratches around most doors and broken bits around two windows.

The thing that upset me the most was how inept they were at getting in.  There were even marks around the rear door hinges and not the latch, so they didn't really know what they were doing.

Why didn’t they just break a window, or better still knock on my door and ask for the keys?

I have reported it to the police and Denise has lodged an insurance claim.  I am not confident that either will result in anything, but let's wait and see.  Four day later, I received an email from the insurance people to say they have tried unsuccessfully to contact the investigating officer.  I forwarded that email on to our landlord to see what he can do.  We will wait and see.

I would have liked to get it repaired while we are away, but that doesn’t look like it will happen.  The preferred option is that they write the car off.  That way we just dump it with the rest of the dumped cars around South Tarawa when we leave.  No seriously, if it were written off we could just about give it to somebody that can afford to run and maintain it.  That is the caring procurement person in me coming out.  I don’t want to give it to somebody that cannot afford to maintain a car or it will be dumped.

Whatever happens, without repairs, it has devalued the resale value of the car and just when we are starting to look for buyers for when we leave.  Even though we don't leave until the end of August, I doubt it will be repaired before then.  All up I estimate over $2,000 in damage.

Basketball

I have been running rules discussions with some of the referees and scoretable officials twice weekly and that started out with good attendances, but soon lost impetus.  I am now working with three "senior" officials who have said they will educate the other officials.  I am not convinced that will happen.

I was told that the locals felt uncomfortable with an Imatang (me) running the sessions, were worried I might ask them questions that they couldn’t answer, or that they didn’t want to be seen knowing or not knowing things in front of others.

I explained to the senior officials that they actually needed to read the rules and interpretations to ensure they were providing quality education.

All I can do is keep trying.

Communications

Once again I was reminded that email is not the best communication medium around.  At least this time there were no implications as it was me reading and misinterpreting the email.

It was actually an email from one of you blog readers and I initially read it and thought, you rude person, then I thought I had upset you and wondered for a while about the response.  See, I'm hiding your identity.

Luckily, work intervened and I completely forgot about the email until the next day when I was going through deleting emails.  I saw it and read it in a completely different context.  It was me reading it while dealing with other work related issues.  No, not as bad as what I used to deal with in my paid job.

I must be learning tolerance and forgiveness...or maybe not. I doubt it!

Now there's a subject for somebody to study.  Good luck trying to stop people reading things into the written word where there is no emotion, body language or understanding of the reason/s why the author chose those words.

Work

I finally issued the tender that I had planned to issue in March, only two months late.  Now we wait for the questions and responses, then the real work begins to determine the outcome.  Then it's a quick justification, approval and award...I hope.  I did get a bit of a surprise when during a tender briefing to potential tenderers, my counterpart at work questioned two items that are in the tender.  It was good that I was able to answer both questions there and then.  I told you, expect the unexpected.

More Road Incidents

The bus driver slammed on the brakes the other day, jumped out and ran back about 10mtrs.  I thought he had hit somebody, as did many others on the bus.  I knew it wasn't something like a dog, pig, cat or chicken as they don't slow down, let alone stop, for anything other than people.  It turned out a kid had given the driver the bird (stuck up their middle finger).  I thought, get over it.  I have no idea what the driver thought he was going to achieve, but I guess he scared the kid by his actions.

In another incident, the day before, we were driving to tennis and out from behind a container ran a child.  We only saw the child when they were two to three meters from the car.  I slammed on the brakes, Denise screamed and the child veered off to run along the footpath.  We were both sure we were going to hit the child and it took a while to get over the fright and close call.  I don't know what scared me the most, the child or Denise's scream.  This is when you are glad the speed limit is 40 and the speed humps keep your speed under 30.  Even then, if they hadn't veered away we would have hit them and that is the thing that scared us both the most.

I saw a classic Tarawa road move.  Three cars were traveling behind a bus coming towards me when one car passed the bus and then stopped (on the road) to drop somebody off, stopping everyone else behind.  Just as they started to move another car overtook them all and then stopped to do the same thing.  When there was no oncoming traffic the bus passed them all and then it stopped to pick up someone.  None of them made any attempt to get off the road and just stopped in the middle of the lane.  This all happened in a space of 200mtrs and there was no abuse, no horns and no rude gestures.  Everybody just puts up with this behaviour.  No wonder they get into trouble on our roads.

I am now positive that many cars in Kiribati only have power for their music systems, oh, and their horns.  Things like lights (including brake lights) and indicators appear to be optional extras.  Even starter motors appear to be an optional extra with the number of vehicles (from motorbikes to trucks and buses) I have seen being push started.

Hey All,

23^rd May! What a day! I had lots to do and anyone who knows me well, knows that I like to be super organised. Well it doesn’t always work that way!

Before I had even walked out the house, I had made yoghurt, made the bed, washed up, fed the cat, who I believe has had her kittens, emailed a couple of people, moved photos from the iPad to the laptop, resized and sent an email to the insurance people and managed not to forget anything.

The one thing I am known for, is not being late. Mind you, I was 5 minutes late this morning but late is late. From there it was all go. I picked up my namesake, I dropped her to Kiribati Institute of Technology, hurled friendly banter at a gentleman named Simon, who felt the need to beep at me then I headed back to the bank. I really don’t know what time security work on, but it was after 9.30am by everyone’s watch but his. So bustle your way to the ticket post and get a number to wait. After a little rest I was called only to find out that the signatures I had on the banking slip weren’t enough and that I required them to s be signed on the back (Business Banking). Why, I don’t know!

So out I shot to see if I could find the first person and for the first time since I have been here, he wasn’t where I wanted him to be. So after tracking him down (he was chuffed that I was chasing him) I got my signature and tried to find the other person for his signature. This signature was more elusive, so the decision was made to go back and help my namesake in the Library.

After the running around most of the morning I needed lunch. We trolled for the celery and the RED capsicum and were looking for the frozen veg that didn’t cost $17.00 for a packet of McCann Farm Vegetables. No luck! In my infinite wisdom I decided I needed to make sure I had another presentation for Days for Girls, that done we headed for home. I dropped off my namesake and continued to the Mormon School at Eita (8kms) to find my man (No not Pete). OK, not my man, but my signature man! I had gone to the office looking for him and of course no one knows what I am talking about. I see him drive by and start running after him. I run for no one but on this occasion I was desperate. Thank goodness he was in school grounds; he was driving slow enough for me to catch up. When I did he laughed long and loud because he had seen someone running behind him and thought it was someone else. I then went home for a little rest!

Please, everybody, don’t make me run! I might collapse next time!

Oops almost forgot! I went to pay our power bill. I generally have it paid in advance so when the lady said to me it was 161, I almost had a heart attack! What!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bill was $1.61 that I owed. Everyone had a good laugh over it which was great!

The thing here is that everyone remembers you! Don’t think for a moment you can do something without the whole of Kiribati knowing what you are up too.

Well I think we are done for this exciting chapter, next time it will be all about what food we have been eating since getting home. I already have the order from the girls on what to cook!

Hugs and kisses everyone