Kiribati Kindness
30 May 2014 | 01 21.334'N:173 01.965'E, Parliament House, Ambo, Tarawa, Kiribati
Andy
This morning we leave on the tide for Tuvalu! You will be reading this blog either via sat phone upload, or the internet if we can get it working one more time after it crashed last night. If the internet goes down on a Friday afternoon here it can sometimes mean no internet for the rest of the weekend, depending on the cause of the problem.
After nearly three weeks in Tarawa we are looking forward to being back at sea. The last two days, the usual Mitchell pre-departure frenzy, had their special Kiribati qualities. On Thursday we hired a car and bumped our way up and down the island, attending last minute meetings, getting paperwork signed, and where possible, picking up provisions. By the end of the day we were down at the hospital visiting a local colleague but when we returned to the car, the battery was flat. It was now 6.30 pm and the usually bustling hospital compound was quiet with only a few people around. Nwareware can be a black spot for mobiles but luck held and we were able to ring the car's owner, who lives about 20 minutes away, and she said she would come immediately to see what could be done.
While I was ringing, Tone had the bonnet up fiddling, and tried the car a few more times. A local women, waiting patiently nearby came over and said her battery was flat too and she was waiting for her friend, a nurse, to come off duty and help her. We laughed about our cars being in the right place for emergency help, as they needed a doctor or nurse. Before too long, her friend arrived in her car, but with no 'jumpers'. Before we could scratch our heads, wondering what to do, a group of Kiribati people materialised, brandishing 'jumpers' - 80 amp electrical cable with the ends stripped - which were quickly wrapt around the terminals. The off-duty nurse started her car, and we were up and running again! A quick ring to the car's owner to tell her all was ok (she was still waiting for a bus and hadn't been able to leave her village yet) and we were on our way - last stop for the day.
We headed down to a friend's house to leave some things with them. We had organised this with them a few days earlier but hadn't been able to get them via email or phone to confirm. Despite the dodgy battery we decided to drop by anyway and just leave the car running while we dashed in. On the way we got a phone call, they were in Fiji - so it was a quick one - unexpectedly medivacced out that morning as one of them had an eye infection that had not been improving. As always in Kiribati, expect the unexpected!
Friday started very early for us. Hoping for a good sleep to bank the hours prior to passage, an ITCZ related storm cell passed over Tarawa for several hours, arriving about 4.30 am. The lagoon chops up quickly and we were bouncing around on the anchor in no time, almost as if we were on passage. It finally moved on, bringing a much needed 30 mm of rain with it. The down side was the road would be a washout, and we were relying on buses to get down to Betio and Bairiki to check out.... Kiribati kindness to the rescue again - after waiting half an hour for a bus and being told by several that went past that they were only going to the next islet due to the road conditions, a friend, who was going the other way, u turned and took us all the way to Bairiki, even stopping so I could get a precious bag of the elusive small tomatoes that I spied at a road side stall. Immigration processes were quickly sorted, and so onto the bus stop to wait for a bus to Betio.
Pay day Friday it is always hard to get a bus but the rain had made it virtually impossible. Those that were running were totally full, and I mean TOTALLY! Standing in the waiting crowd at the bus stop I wondered how we were ever going to get to Betio and started thinking about how long it would take to walk, when the person we'd rented the car from miraculously materialised, broadly grinning and beckoning for us to hop in. She had a chore to do in Betio, her timing was impeccable! Still no buses in sight.
Customs cleared and Kiribati Port Authority fees paid we faced the prospect of now trying to get a bus back to Ambo at lunch time on Pay day Friday with terrible roads... We were waiting at the stop just outside Tony's old work place and passed a pleasant hour catching up with his former colleagues as they went about their lunch hour chores. I was about to give up hope of ever getting back to the boat, certainly not before dark, when another Kiribati friend came by on a work trip up the island and kindly gave us a lift all the way to Ambo. Thanks so much Terry, Angie and Eri, and all the other lovely people who have helped and supported us during this visit! The day's chores had taken three times longer than 'planned' but we'd caught up with some people we hadn't seen and even scored some tomatoes!
During this visit, Tony even got in a great night of Karioke at the Ambo Lagoon Club, singing his heart out with Barry, Kautu, Anne, Froline, Amberoti and George. I even had a go, but my score was sooo low compared to the other undiscovered Elvis's and budding Jessica Mauboys surrounding me, that it will be a while (and with a lot more practice!) before I inflict my karioke on innocent people!
So thank you Kiribati for all your help and friendship - gotta go, lots of pre-passage stuff still to do. Steph we saw your later email last night, but couldn't reply before the internet crashed. Hopefully we can send our reply this morning. We can't see any comments on this blog, or access Facebook still we next get ashore, but will aim to update the blog enroute this time, weather permitting! Till next time folks.