Trek to North Tarawa

The island of Tarawa is actually a series of island atolls in close proximity. I live in South Tarawa where 5 main islands are connected by causeways. There are many more islands in North Tarawa and because of the labyrinth of crossings from island to island there are no causeways or bridges from Buota all the way to Abaokoro—a distance of about 10 miles. The only way to get to Abaokoro, the capital of North Tarawa, is by boat, on foot during low tide or to swim. I decided to go by foot and make an adventure out of it.   

 I planned my trip carefully so as to be able to make the majority of crossings between islands during low tide. I left South Tarawa in the evening after work when the tide was in so I took a local canoe to the island of Abatao where I spent the night in a Buia—traditional Kiribati house—and waited for the morning low tides.

The trek began on Saturday around 8 a.m.  Villagers came out to meet me along the road and one lady even invited me to her Kava bar. 

I made 2 crossings where the water was up to my waist before reaching Tabuki Retreat Lodge where I stopped for a coffee break and picked up my 2 guides—a brother and sister. I was advised to go with a guide as it is easy to get lost and it is not safe for women to walk alone. As it turned out, I did most of the guiding as my guides had never been to Abaokoro. They were good for company though and at getting refreshments.

We walked to Abaokoro in 3 hours in 90 degree weather. I counted 18 crossings but they seemed to run into another after a while so not sure how accurate I was.  My guides left me to swim as they had to hurry back home before full tide. I wonder if they made it...

I took a canoe back to South Tarawa the next day and then a bus to my home.  I was only gone 2 days but I guess the neighborhood noticed as some children called out to me when I got off the bus, “You Came Back!”

 





Bravery at Sea

Kiribati Canoe

Yesterday morning I took a canoe from Abaokoro, the capital of North Tarawa, safely back to Bairiki in South Tarawa. This is a distance of 18 km by sea. I loved every minute of this beautiful journey, which took over 2 hours.

Original 8 passengers

I waded out to the sea up to my waist to catch the canoe as the tide was low and the boat couldn’t come too close to the shore for fear of getting stuck there. Then, I handed my backpack and bag of cabbages to the captain and climbed aboard to join 8 other passengers.

We hadn’t gone far when we saw someone walking in the sea waving his arm at us. On the shore at the next village were at least 20 more people who wanted to come aboard. So, we stopped the boat and waited for them to wade out to us.

The scene on board was quite entertaining with a grandmother combing the long glossy black hair of her granddaughter, young girls singing songs, a woman breastfeeding her small baby, a catholic sister reading a book, small children throwing up over the side, and the sleeping man next to me that I kept pulling back from the edge of the boat so that he wouldn’t fall overboard.

The view was movie like with endless turquoise sea dotted with small coconut islands.

I was enjoying the ride so much that it never occurred to me that anything could go wrong. The sister had even told me that the last time she took the boat 8 men fell overboard but no one was hurt. We were hit from time to time by some big waves that splashed over us and at one point the captain stopped the canoe and waited for the rough waters to pass. None of us had life vests.

This morning on the bus to work one of my colleagues asked me if I heard about the accident on Saturday. She told me that a young child fell overboard on this same journey that I took one day before me. The captain jumped in to save the girl that was his daughter.  The rest of the passengers were women and they didn’t know how to stop the boat or swim. So, it kept going. The brave captain held his daughter up from the sea long enough for another boat to come and rescue them but drowned himself. God bless this man—a true captain.

My Garbage Disposal



My Kitchen

Someone back home told me that a garbage disposal, I mean those little machines that are actually in your kitchen sink, is required in every home.  So, I always think of him whenever I use my disposal here. Mine is not part of the sink but is a 500 km sq. body of water, the Tarawa Lagoon, just below by kitchen balcony when the tide is in.  When the tide is out, I throw any meat scraps I might have to the wild dogs that sleep under my house but this is more of an insurance policy.

I have to admit that I have been feeling quite guilty throwing left over food and edible scraps into the lagoon.  At first I put them in the bin but in this climate within no time it was full of maggots, which I found disgusting. I asked some locals what they use as a garbage disposal and they told me that they use pigs. Since I don’t have a pig they said that the lagoon would be okay in the meantime. 

This morning I was cutting up a papaya for breakfast and threw the skins and seeds into the lagoon. Due to a guilty conscience, I usually don’t look to see what happens to this garbage but just hope the tide takes it away fast. For some reason, I looked down today. What I saw were schools of fish swimming and jumping over each other to get those scraps of papaya.  I was so happy--my conscience relieved now that I know that I am actually feeding fish.