Tarawa, Kiribati

On Wednesday we left Auckland, New Zealand and flew to Nadi, Fiji.  This was a layover to catch the weekly plane to Tarawa, Kiribati. 

At the New Zealand airport

We originally were going to fly out early Thursday morning. However, upon returning to our room after dinner we packed our bags and set our alarms for the early morning flight and received a phone call saying that the morning flight had been cancelled.  Our flight now was scheduled for a 1:50 pm departure. Of course this required us to scramble to get in touch with our people in Kiribati to let them know of the delay.  Phone connections in the islands are not always reliable.  

The next morning instead of getting up at 4 am, we slept in, had breakfast, and caught the shuttle to the airport.  We arrived at the airport the requested 3 hours early and settled in for a long wait.  The monitor now showed the flight leaving at 2:25 pm.  The plane finally took off at 2:45 pm and arrived in Tarawa at 5:45 pm.  After finding our bags and going through customs(?) we walked out to see Elder Waldron waiting for us.  We asked about his self-reliance class that he was suppose to teach at 6:00 pm and he said we should be able to make it.  We drove to the chapel where he taught a class on the Perpetual Education Fund and we sat in to help.

There is only one road on Tarawa, Kiribati.  It is approximately 30 km (18 miles) long  and 800 meters wide (1/2 mile). Only a small portion of the road is paved.  The rest is a "very bumpy" ride.  Elder Waldron taught his class and we spoke to another class who were learning about starting small  businesses.

Elder Waldron teaching class

Because we arrived so late we were not able to meet with all the appointments that Elder and Sister Waldron had set up for Thursday, therefore we went to our hotel and checked in about 9 pm. 

Friday morning we started our meetings early.  We met several people regarding recently flooded villages.  We drove to the village of Ambo and met with the village leaders in their maneaba (community meeting center).  Ambo village, which recently experienced tidal flooding is willing to do all the work to build a new seawall, if the Church will help them with sandbags and cement. They would like to build the sea wall before the next high tide if possible.

Maneaba (community meeting center)

Susan, Gary, Sister an Elder Waldron

Water has come up inside the village 

After our meeting with the people in Ambo we drove to our meeting with the Ministry of Health (MOH).  We were actually late for this meeting as we had spent longer than planned in Ambo.  Everyone had left, except one specialist who we met with regarding the diabetes problem on Kiribati. We plan to work with the MOH on reducing diabetes on Kiribati.

After our meeting with the MOH we drove to Moroni High School (a church run school) and met with the school principal who provided some good information on the island's needs.  

That was the last of our meetings for the day.  We returned to the hotel where we had dinner with the Waldrons and made plans for Saturday.  We will be here till Monday.  Stay tuned! 

"Humanitarian acts "rooted in a desire to listen, to heal, to cooperate, to respect" are as potent agents for change as anything on the earth."  Sharon Eubank, Director of Humanitarian Services, May 14, 2015.