Just another week in Tarawa

Only this week I was given another "surprise".  I found out that some of the outer islands still don't have any supplies for the year.  The supplier had only just advised us of this situation and the person who was supposed to be monitoring the process (not me) wasn't.  A little bit of effective communication would have been good, but that is easier said than done.  Everybody thinks that a contract means it will happen automatically, but that is not the case in any country.  I could go on about that, but it will bore you to tears.

Another island, Kanton, sent a letter to my work in March that arrived within a week (the mail system appears to work over here) and then the letter took another five weeks to get to my desk.  What happened in the interim I have no idea.  The letter was a plea for supplies as they hadn't received any since 2014.  I was horrified.

It appears that as they are so small, nobody really cares about them.  I was able to organise a special delivery for the island through our landlord which should arrive in the next few weeks.  To make it a little better, I added in extra items and increased the quantities of some of the things we were sending.

The inability to count stock items accurately continues to amaze me.  There have been too many instances where I am told one amount and then when questioned the number changes, and it's not just out by one or two.  It is usually out by hundreds, or in a few instances, thousands...and I still get comments that they don't trust the suppliers.

Rain

The rain is still intermittent (every few days) and continuing even though we have now finished the wet season.  Some days it is a brief light shower, others it is actual rain for about 30 minutes, and occasionally it belts down for about 5 minutes.  I am guessing there hasn't been enough rain to break the drought, but it did fill the holes in our entry road for a few days before evaporating.

Navy

The Taiwan Navy had three ships visit Tarawa for four days to do some PR for Taiwan.  I am confident that nobody in Kiribati planned for the visit or brought in additional supplies to cater for the visit, so was very surprised not to hear about food shortages after they left.

Exercise

I am now playing tennis three days a week and soccer once a week.  I am not great at either but at least it gets me some exercise, and allows Denise to have a swim at the same time.

Work has restarted their exercise program which I get to run for them.  We are now doing walks of around 40 minutes or 4kms.  On the first walk, I looked back at the turning point and saw there was nobody there, I had lost them.  Not likely, they had taken a shortcut (local knowledge).  I caught up and passed them within a few minutes.  As we were then heading back to work I pushed the pace and left everyone and arrived back in a lather of sweat.  The last group came in just over 15 minutes later.

Many people have excuses as to why they can't exercise, but most of the ones who do come out do so to get out of work and treat it as a social outing.  Nobody walks by themselves so you end up with two or three groups.  The last group doesn't raise a sweat, but they enjoy the walking.

ANZAC Day

We both attended the ANZAC Day Dawn Service followed by breakfast.  It was a nice service and we looked out over the ocean.  The location was at a memorial for the 22 NZ Coastwatchers who were executed in Betio by the Japanese occupation forces in WWII.

As ANZAC Day is not a public holiday here I went to work after the breakfast and by 2pm I was ready for a nap.

Basketball

Just when I thought there was no hope of doing anything with basketball over here it appears to have restarted.  I will reserve my opinion on how successful I will be with any engagement I have to help develop the officials, but at least they are now communicating with me after five months of false promises.

Let's see how we go.  I have already told them my availability is limited due to work and other commitments we both have.

The first session I held, apart from the person who organised it for me, the first person turned up 50 minutes late.  They then rolled in every few minutes until I had eight people.

Scuba Diving

Unfortunately scuba diving appears to be a non-event in Kiribati.  No matter how many times I ask or who I ask I am not making any progress.  I am still not giving up, as I believe there is some great diving here.  All I have to do is get somebody to show me where and get me there as it requires a boat and we don't own or have access to one.

Parliament

The afternoon trip home for two weeks was very boring as I got to listen to parliament on the radio.  Luckily parliament only sits for two weeks at a time and only four times a year.  I have no idea what they are saying, but the locals appear to hang off every word.  Some times with much laughter.  Mike, can you see that catching on in Australia?

One discussion included multiple references to "foreign investment", so I can only guess they were discussing how to get more money from other countries.

There was a cabinet reshuffle the first working day after parliament finished.  The first we knew was when we found out we had a new Minister.  The street gossip is it was because somebody was found to be involved in something they shouldn't have been.  That's my diplomatic response.

Why Volunteer?

I found these quotes the other day and many rang true so I thought I would share them with you.

“The intelligent way to be selfish is to work for the welfare of others”

— The Dalai Lama

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

— William Shakespeare

 “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

— Winston Churchill

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”

— Muhammad Ali

Roads Again

I just saw this move on the road the other day that didn’t surprise me one bit.  A local was driving along right beside me when somebody called out to them from the other side of the road.  The car immediately stopped and the car behind ran straight into the back of them.  No visible damage but that is what happens here.  They don't indicate, pull over, or roll to a stop, that would be to logical.

Straight after that a local started up a conversation with me about how the internet had changed Kiribati women, how the young people were lazy and the imminent war with Korea.  On women, he said you used to be able to tell if a woman was a virgin, but now you have no idea.  I didn't pass judgment during any of the conversations because I wanted to know more about his logic and was really interested to see where the discussion was going to go.  Unfortunately the bus arrived and I had to leave him.

Can I say, I apologise if I sound like I am whinging but I’m trying give you an insight to our life hear.

Days for Girls

As we know I have got on my hobby horse and galloped out the paddock on this crusade. This last couple of weeks has been extremely gratifying and humbling.  I have given three presentations and have another 2 scheduled for next week.  The first presentation was at the Mental Health Ward.  I was warmly greeted by the ladies of this facility and felt I had given them something that was theirs only.  I also received wonderful feedback from the Volunteer who is working there.  For this presentation I had a translator.

The next two presentations were for the School of Nursing.  This was the first time I have had to do the presentation without a translator.  So I had them listening and interacting with me which was fabulous.  Both female and male students attended and even though the boys had to sit through the presentation, I believe they have a better understanding of what women and girls have to deal.  I know that I sound idealistic but I have to believe I am doing this to empower women and making their lives better.

KIT Kiribati Institute of Technology.

For the next couple of weeks my name sake and I are speaking English (Australian) to students who are going to Australia for employment.  We have talked about our families and previous jobs that we have both had and given them as much guidance of things that are acceptable in our country.

We talk for about an hour and a half.  By the time I leave I am not interested in talking to anyone.  So it is a rather a quite ride home.  Did I say both of us can talk the leg of an iron pot?

Library

On Saturdays both Denise and I go to the National Library to read to the Kiribati children.  Strangely, lots of parents stay but that suits me fine!  We read and sing songs, trying to improve phonics and get the children to introduce themselves.  Some of the children come just so we can help with their reading.  As the weeks are moving on, we seem to get more and more children attending.  I really hope there is someone that will take over when we go.

2018

Lately we have started looking at what is happening in the world in 2018 that we might like to go to.  Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Tour de France, ANZAC Day at Gallipoli, Chelsea EPL game (yes Jon), etc.  If you live anywhere in Europe and have a spare bed for Denise and myself, or just want to catch up, let us know.  I just realised, that's another blog...maybe, I hope we don’t bore them all to death.