Open Defecation Free Island

A toilet that found its way to the beach

I was listening to the radio last week and heard a brief announcement about a new island in Kiribati that has been declared “defecation free.” The announcement was over before I could figure out which island they were talking about or what "defecation free" meant.  I was confused as I thought everyone already had the right to defecate freely. Anyway, I asked around and as it turns out the radio announcer was referring to a new "open defecation free island," which is an island where you are no longer allowed to go to the toilet on the beach. 

early morning bathers 

This issue turns about to be rather a big deal here so I am glad that I was paying attention to the radio broadcast on the way to work.  North Tarawa was even declared the first “open defecation free” or ODF island in the Pacific and received an award for this status from the United Nations. The Kiribati President Anote Tong has also set December 2015 as the target date for the whole nation to become ODF.

I live on the Tarawa lagoon and each morning and evening neighbors wade out to the sea to relieve themselves. Sometimes they sing and I have been told this is to let me know that they are there and I try and respect their privacy.  The sewage system is limited here and the majority of people do not have toilets.  There are some projects in place to provide greater access to public toilets and I just hope that they are cleaner and smell better than ours back home as the beach just may turn out to be a better option.



Proud caretakers of a Minister's toilet.
They allow public
access if you bring your own
 toilet paper.

A Minister's toilet





Back to Paradise

I recently came back to Tarawa after being away for several months. This time I knew what to expect and so could remain relatively relaxed during our touch down on the short air strip. On my first trip, I have to admit that I wondered if we might end up in the sea but this time I rather enjoyed the thrill of having my guts pushed up to my throat as the pilot slammed onto the brakes.

The place is as beautiful as a place can be. The pure blue shades of the sky and the many colors of the sea from clear celery green to emerald, turquoise, saffire and violet I imagine must be soothing for every soul. People enjoy a social life along the main the road, which is still a dust bowl except when it rains and then becomes a river. I prefer the river option. The day ends with the sun slowing descending through heavy clouds into the lagoon and I fall asleep to the sounds of the waves and dog fights. 

I returned to what seemed to me to be a cosmetic shortage--the shops were out of toilet paper, tooth paste and deodorant.  Shortly after I arrived there was a murder in my neighbourhood. A man stabbed his X wife in the throat in front of their two sons as he thought she might have a boyfriend. It didn’t seem to matter that he had left her for another woman.   Some divers looking at an underwater ship wreck found three bombs left over from the 2nd World War and the Australian Marines and Navy flew in on a private plane and quickly detonated two of them. Believe it or not it was raining fish.