Village Life - August 2011

The two girls who live next door were seen doing traditional weaving last week. Usually the weaving material has been previously dried so maybe the girls were practising weaving. I wish I could speak the local I-Kiribati language to ask them.

Father and son. The usual mode of transport are the old "buses" which rattle and roll over the pot holes, and puddles at times, with loud music blaring away with the I-Kiribati "top of the pops" and up to twenty seven people (an all time record) crammed into a van meant to carry 17 people.

Due to sea erosion cement bags are used in many places to prevent further damage. These bags are holding back the sea away from the main road that traverses the length of South Tarawa.

The highest point on this atoll is marked with a notice by the side of the road which says  "Mount Kiribati, three metres above sea level"

Below is the local lady from the Seventh Day Adventist Cafe Sugar Blues where we are guaranteed good internet access if we buy dinner there. With nice meals that take ages to arrive (minimum  time of an hour) we know her very well as we tap away at the computer awaiting a nice meal.

Pete 'as proud as punch' for this little creation in our shower!. Don't laugh it works well; recycling a can is all good. We can now reduce the filling time for the washing machine from twenty minutes to five minutes

Not sure how the above became blue and underlined but can't get rid of it; still lots to learn here!!

Accepting nominations for 'Inventor of the Year' in Kiribati?

The Adventures of Meere and Tion.

Maareta and I are stood outside of the YCL building which is the Youth Centre, where the brass band practices daily and our accommodation is situated. We thought it a good spot to promote the book we have written and produced along with many others to help highlight the problem of the dangers to Kiribati children in the local community. It is written in the local language with subtitles in English so that parents can help their children with reading skills as well as alerting them to potential dangers. We are hoping to now get this published more professionally with donor monies from AusAid so that it can be provided free of cost to families and schools throughout Kiribati rather than just the KPC children that it was originally intended for. The other agenda is to highlight the lack of playgrounds and safe places for children to play in South Tarawa. Hence I have an appointment with the Minister for Education next week and hope to talk to the Minister for Health soon. It is our way to try to give a voice to the plight of the beautiful happy Kiribati children who live amongst many dangers in their local villages. Still a lot to do in the short time left here.

Work, Then Time For Relaxation.

Eita Village Health Talk

The younger women with children attended the morning sessions when I focused on diseases and disorders of child hood. This smaller group of Elders stayed for lunch.
We were provided with lunch and singing when we finished the three hours of work.
Topic included  what they had asked for - an overview of the menstrual cycles, reproduction, women's health problems, incontinence and pelvic floor exercises, diabetes and women's cancers etc.

  The women performed fun action songs while we had lunch, they enjoyed performing as much as we did watching them, it was full of laughter and teasing each other!

Looking out from Karea's Resort North Tarawa where we went for lunch on Sunday. When the tide is high water flows beneath the bure where guests can stay. Maybe we will hire this for our last weekend but our time is running out now.

I went swimming when the tide was up, before lunch, the water was amazingly warm but no tropical fish or coral, just lovely sand and clear blue water.

Life in South Tarawa

The yellow fin tuna was delivered to the KPC catering team to feed the guests at a meeting held by the Department of Foreign Affair in our Board Room that is hired out.

Every day fishermen are seen going out to see in the lagoon or deep sea fishing and they return late afternoon to sell fish at the street stalls or drive around to fill orders such as this KPC one.

A staff member brought her sick little girl to see me. She had been to the doctors and now on antibiotics for a sore throat.

The mothers of these boys were asked by them if they could have their photo's taken by me as we attended a meeting to arrange village talks at Eita Village

Two of the four women who do contract sewing in the RAK Women's Centre next to our office.
They work really hard each day and were the ladies who taught the sewing skills to the students in the Women's Skills Development Course recently.

Remains of Air Kiribati; RIP. Behind is the runway for the Tarawa International Airport.
We drove the truck down the runway this afternoon on our way back from Karea's Resort in North Tarawa, along with the locals, as a way of avoiding the pot holes in the road. There is an alarm that goes off when a plane is due, which wakes up the air traffic controller, and clears the runway of pedestrians and traffic I am told!

Assistance for the Finance Department

Peter arrived on Tuesday and is now working in the Finance Department teaching MYOB.

(He forgot to buy a new camera since mine broke in the second week but I've been reunited with my Iphone so poorer quality photos but convenient technology!)

Today he was given a traditional woven bag meant for bibles and the picture shows him in the transport that we used to go to church.


Sugar Blues Cafe is where we come to have a nice dinner and internet access all for $5.00 each.


The lagoon is opposite but unfortunately too polluted to swim in.

Women's Skills Development Workshop Graduation

The graduation was an amazing event.
All the dresses for the graduation were especially made for the occasion.

I taught the cooking class topics such as -
Health and Hygiene
Nutrition and Menu Planning
Diet Related Illness

I managed to throw in a bit of Women's Health as well for good measure!

The sewing group displayed all the garments they had made as part of the course and the cooking class provided a wonderful dinner after the celebrations.

The Moderator - opening welcome speech.

All the students provided entertainment for the guests including dance, singing and comedy skits.

Students from the sewing class are dressed in green and the cooking/ agriculture class in purple

Work

Despite public holidays all week and lots of celebrations I am still doing women's health talks at the Catholic Church Craft Centre each Saturday. I tend to talk about what they seem most interested in and this has included an overview of the menstrual cycle, fertility and infertility, women's cancers including breast self examination and discussing their own health issues. Tomorrow I hope to start on family violence but we will see how things go.