A year on and lessons in patience

         The New Year has come and settled in and now its first month can almost be ticked off.

I have always liked the feel of January, the madness and mayhem of the end of the previous year is done and dusted and replaced with something that is more relaxed and casual.

Only now I’m still in Kiribati, not the plan this time a year ago !

My 12 month assignment date has come and gone and instead of joining the summer festivities on the Australian East Coast I’m sitting here wondering what I was thinking in wanting to extend my time here in woop woop !

For the most this place can be an easy place to be, as long as you take a shine to its offerings, its people, its rubbish, its rice and fish, its crap (dog and human), its mad buses, its pot-holed road, its loud music and its program. 

And don’t expect too much.

 Pig teeth, coral and a seed pod

It has offered me a very present and engaging life, every sky is different even when viewed from my unchanged front door, rain offers almost instant relief and freshness from the heat and coconuts fall from high above leaving a trail of smashed windscreens. 

 Clouds that add delight to my day

Surprises and challenges come daily and are probably best dealt from a present alertness than from raging triggered emotions or rolling eyes. 

(Fingers crossed my record 90 minute wait for a bus to work doesn’t get broken  ! )

 Coconuts reaching for the sun, the clouds and the gods

Challenges yes, they are guaranteed, especially on the fortnightly payday when everyone hits the road, for walking, transport or sleeping off the days offerings or when the shops run out of rice or loo paper or there’s no tuna or it’s another three days of no internet/power/water.

 Tuna delivery anyone !

For over a year my adopted manta has been around using the opportunities that come up anywhere and anytime for developing patience, it now seems that notion has gone on a summer break.
For the most this mantra has served me well, patience has been learned and practiced, I’d even say for a while there perfected except perfection is a far to unrealistic ideal.

As the start of 2013 rolled along and those self-help happiness tips on the www invite you to check how those life-enhancing goals are shaping up I started to think about what this year may bring and reflect on the one past.

Maybe I’m a slow learner but it’s taken me over a year to get to a point of actually wondering what I am doing here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean !

Twelve months in a developing country is peanuts to think much can be done, yes a canoe got launched and a couple of community awareness projects reached many people. But at work I still need to clear away the geeko poo and dumped stuff to find a space on the desk, find a chair to sit on and last week relocate another litter of kittens from under my desk.  I was starting to think I’d seen it all until after the New Years break when I returned to the office and it had been turned into sleeping quarters, complete with mat and pillows ! (the office is only about 10 x 8 feet)

 My workplace, the mwanabea and the white building is the office

Some big stuff has been achieved and there is always the small stuff wherever one goes, it’s just that now the small stuff the books tell us not to sweat is given my patience a workout. 
There’s no water cooler to gather around to gripe or discuss which contestant really has the “X” factor or a kitchen to fill in time by making everyone tea, 

it’s just my holidaying patience and me.

The waves roll in and out gently washing the discarded coconuts husks and rubbish to another place and the hungry tide gathers more sands leaving us all exposed and vulnerable.
Challenges, opportunities, lessons and stuff will continue is various shapes and sizes with this assignment and beyond, and with less than 3 months before leaving here my thoughts are turning to the what’s next.

 In a tea cup of course !

Now where’s that water cooler ?

Which movie to see ?

What do you mean no one has to sit on my lap on the bus !

Getting a job, hmm, the bills still need to be paid....

 Up Next : Not sure........