It's off to work I go............

A week of small group orientation and one night in my new “home” and the time had come to rejoin the workforce, I was feeling like a baby bird being tossed out of the nest into a new world.  I had had one visit to my workplace and was quietly confident that I knew where I was going and that at least one person was expecting my arrival, even if I couldn’t pronounce her name. We had agreed on what day to start but didn’t worry about details such as a time, I had heard of “Pacific time “ so I though a 10/10.30am arrival seemed about right.

I packed a water bottle, toilet paper, laptop and my job description. The organisation I was going to had good experiences with volunteers last year but I am the first one actually contacted to them.  They are a strong rights based organisation and were keen for their volunteer to be a person with disability,  I am one of a few non-disabled people involved with them and I sensed that they were as prepared for me as I was for whatever it was I was here to do.  After spending half the morning practising the local language for “stop the bus” I headed off shyly with map in hand to wave down my first bus. For a bus system that has no timetables, no bus stops, and no set fares I was pretty chuffed with my efforts and arrive safely and before lunchtime !

There is one staff member and the organisations chairperson in the office and I’m welcomed in. A few things are cleared away and I’m offered one of three seats in the small office. The space is too small to actually walk around in but I note a couple of desks, a printer/phone which I’m informed doesn’t actually work, a yearly planer without any identifiable days or events and a few piles of folders. There are glass louvre windows on three sides, one view is to the beautiful coloured lagoon some 18 feet away, one into the Mwaneaba (meeting place and where people live) and the other across the road about 60 meters to the ocean. We chat away, well I chatted away and they ask me if I have "my workplan" ! Just getting to work that day was about as planned as I was and I was starting to  feel that I was keeping them from their work and their laptops. Seems Monday morning work is finding out what’s happening in the world via email and social media, turns out this is everyday work and sometimes all day work. Enquiries and questions about the agency flow from my lips and I sense a touch of relief when I informed them that I do have my own laptop.

 Since arriving in Kiribati Internet access has been pretty difficult to come by so holding back my excitement I casually enquiry about getting access. “No worries” just log on. After three days of “maybe this is the password, or “try this one” I did crack it and became a team player with the world of email and social media.

  My co-workers  

My first week consisted of learning how to unlock the door via a louvre window as the key had been lost, how to balance my laptop on my knees or on top of a couple of empty cardboard guitar boxes and how to enter and exit the mwaneaba without banging my head. I spent time meeting the people who live here, people with disabilities, their husbands, wives, children, brothers or sisters and a couple of lovely little pups. The I-Kiribati people here are very welcoming, warm, happy and very forgiving in my attempts at the local language, the universal language of laughter was loud and accepting.    

The week went by with me often getting to work before my co-worker and one day being there alone, I don’t know what happened, I’m just hoping all my questions hadn’t scared her off but that I may never know. I worked on an action plan for a funding application done by a student here last year, remembered to bring my 2 saos and a banana for lunch and more importantly learnt that unless I wanted to go the “local” way I needed to keep my fluids to a minimum as it was a bus ride away to a western toilet ! 

This is my land mark for getting off the bus, if I pass these I've gone too far !

Next up : Transportation