"but you are one of us"

Less than a week ago was the anniversary celebration of the Mwaneaba for the Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO) where I am working  and a performance dress rehearsal. 

A Mwaneba anniversary is a significant celebration for the I-Kiribati people, they are much more likely to know the age and date of these grass roofed meeting places than their own date of birth, age or those of their parents or children.

 Here the organisations sign is being reattached high up in the mwanabea

 

Some of the work I have been doing here has been around project management of a couple of community awareness performances, the Elimination of Violence against Women and the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. We, well I, am working on a tight timeframe with other commitments including a delegation of 13 members heading off to Australia in just a few weeks. Early on, my Western notion churned out a project work plan and timeframe, an alien idea for the very present living I-Kiribati people, and it seems there are no local words to try to get us anywhere near the same page. I know these people get stuff done, our cultures just take us down different pathways.

After some time looking and work- shopping the projects topics I leave the knowledge with the group to shape it into a drama/performance that will be taken to the villages of South Tarawa and two outer islands.

As for making a drama I am well out of my depth. But I have been here long enough to know not to worry “too” much about their collective way of working, but I am scratching my head as to how the transformation into a performance is actually going to take place and when. As for my reworked and reworked timeframe and work plan I’m thinking I may as well start using them to make paper planes and consider a career change, pilot maybe !

I am blessed, I am in the presence of an amazing talented bunch of performers, composers and singers who come from a strong oral culture. Story telling and the use of drama and skits are a popular method of communication and awareness, it is the path we take for these projects too.

A script is written, music and songs are composed, lines are learnt, backdrop and stage curtains are made, tee shirts are purchased and bingo we have a production in less that 2 weeks ! Much negotiation took place to select the 14 person cast of which only 8 will carry onto the outer islands due to budget constraints. The performers are all people with disabilities (blind, wheelchair users or those with physical impairments) and are chosen in an equitable manner to allow all  TTM members to have opportunities in participation. (There is a lot for me and all of us to learn from these people.)

Drama rehearsal in the mwaneaba which at the same time is being repaired after a big storm. This is the oraganisations meeting place but also where some of the people with disabilities & their families live.

 

I have learnt that as an I-matang here I am very fortunate as my work is very much on the ground and with the people as opposed to being at a ministry in a public service role.  While most capacity building roles both paid and voluntary are working alongside locals I am right amongst them everyday in daily living; young, old, babies, male, female, single, married able bodied and disabled.  

Back at my welcoming ceremony in January I said Te Toa Matoa were going to be my Kiribati family, this was well before knowing what this would actually mean.  It’s only about a month since I lay next to my co-workers body as she was laid out in her wedding dress and flowers ready for burial. I may have only know her 6 months but her extended family of Te Toa Matoa members and relatives took me in as part of their community and helped me get through that long day.  I had moments overcome with emotion, pain and sorrow that spilled over into tears, no words were needed, they were my Kiribati family and I felt held.

Back to last weeks celebration and performance. My request to invite fellow volunteers to share the evening and these wonderful people was well received. Guests in this culture are very welcomed and treated accordingly. We sat on mats placed in prime position, were treated to a welcome in speech, song and dance and presented with beautiful garlands. I love the flowers in the hair thing, a scented and colourful crown to really give that regal aura. The garland dance started and I counted five garlands, but wait there’s six of us, what’s going on ? 
My fellow friends looked wonderful in their headdress while I disguised my disappointment.  A day later (still holding onto my dropped lip !) I got around to making a joke about being a garland short at the botaki (celebration/feast).  These people are the kings and queens of protocol, this wasn’t an over sight, the garlands were only for guests not for everyone. My suggestion that they had forgottem me was met with laughter and the words
“but you are one of us”.

 Heading off in the back of  truck for the first performance two nights ago.

 Same night, same truck, driving down the airstrip, it's only road without pot holes ! Beautiful skies here at dusk.

 

As of yesterday  I really am feeling like one of them, maybe just not in the way I’d like. I am surprised it’s taken this long, I have kids using me as a monkey bar and hanging off me almost every day. They may or may not have their clothes on the right way or any at all, definitely no shoes, have the biggest of smiles and cheekiness, they also scratch their heads…………………..er yes I have got to middle age and managed to get head lice !  

Pass me the flowers, I'm not feeling so regal.  

Up next : ???