Looking back

With some time and space since completing my assignment in Kiribati it’s time to take a look back at the hits and misses, the delights and challenges and wrap up this blog and see what morphs.

What beauty nature provides

  Who would of thought going to Kiribati I would take up an online football tipping competition, collect buckets of rain water falling from broken gutters, wash my clothes in a twin tub washing machine, eat oceans of tuna, spend so much time trailing op shops or seriously think that a research project on the effect of music on this country may be a real key into its survival and future.

The six month recruitment process gave plenty of time to research, ask questions and try to make sense of where I was to go whilst still hanging out in cafes, dog parks and chewing the fat on the latest movies and plays in town.

The best bit of thinking I programmed into my already monkey mind was to have little expectations and expect the unexpected. 

A challenge that I think I have done OK with.

Moving home !

I was given the words “crazy beautiful” and “the last frontier” as snap shots and tags of life in Tarawa, I think they nail it.

Now as I settle back into Western life in a big city and look back at my time away everywhere I turn I come up with contradictions. The things I loved about the time and place also tore my heart, stretched my patience and at time left me shaking my head.

Some days I loved the crowded buses filled with blasting music, kids sitting on my lap and the adventure of seeing how many times I’d have to get off and on the bus to let another person exit. Other days I loathed waiting another minute (or up to 2 hours !) to get a bus to work/home, the sore bum from riding buses without any suspension, peering through patched up smashed windscreens, being at the mercy of mad heavy footed drivers or any fearing contact that could mean another bout of head lice !

This heart stayed in Kiribati

 

I loved my workplace and it’s people, their acceptance of me, my million questions (one member said to me “Nei Leigh you are very curiuos”), the way they encouraged me with their language (only learnt a handful of words but was told that many of the members English had improved), their passion for the rights of people with disabilities and their willingness to do their best. 

This woman was moved to tears of sadness for me that I had to come back to Australia 

 

These people shared their hearts and soul, their talents, their music, dance, food and lives with me. I really was very privileged and touched by their generous spirit.

At times I struggled to know what was planned or what it was they really wanted to achieve (they certainly knew but my western thinking wanted a interactive road map), at work sometimes I just wanted a photocopier, a phone that actually worked, the electricity bill to be paid or not to have to share my pens.  

Sometimes I just wished that the growing army of ants in the office would voluntarily relocate, that I wouldn’t have to keeping banging the nail down in the chair to stop it ripping my shorts or that I had a staff member to work with.

I love the Kiribati sense of community and family that cares and binds, elders are important and are respected and the adage “it takes a village to raise a child” rings true, but witnessing child abuse and seeing children follow a physical language is heartbreaking.

Dear friends who remain in my heart 

I loved the physical nature that Kiribati people appear to greet each other with but I loathed the figures that say 68% of every partnered women between the ages 14 – 49 has experience at least one occasion of domestic violence. (the figures of women experiencing more occasions is also sadly very high). 

I have great admiration and respect for their culture and acceptance of death. If anyone had told me I would sleep next to a dead body, I would never have believed them but it angered me that of the five deaths I experienced the cause for four of them was unknown (& quite possibly preventable), the other was suicide. 

Recently I was asked if I missed Kiribati and the people I worked with. My answer was no.  I have memories, gifts, photos, scars (bloody red ants) and incredible stories and experiences that have hitched onto my life’s journey but I have adopted the Kiribati approach of acceptance and change.

Mini feet minus the red toe nails...........

 

I, like the Kiribati people will ride the wheel of life with its wobbly spokes, detours, adventures and challenges. My hope is that I have built more compassion and resilience than fear and can jump into more escapades and be dazzled by wonderment.

On a final note : 
To those who have followed this journey, thanks and safe travels I hope there has been something to wet the appetite of adventure and curiosity. 
To those from countries far & wide (Kuwait, Russia, Portugal, Guyana, Venezuele !) that have stumbled on this blog I hope there has been a snippet of surprise or wonder.

Kam Rabwa