Hard to believe living in Kiribati for a week has already gone by, and we have been very welcomed here. We have been invited to a few dinners and taken reef fishing with a net and we were also given some traditional Kiribati clothes. Even though our intent was to give things to the people here, they seem to give so much to us. Now Sara can dress like a traditional Kiribati woman and Wade can now wear a lava lava to dress like a traditional Kiribati man. Unfortunately, Wade also tried to eat like a traditional Kiribati and that did not fare so well for him. Wade blames mostly salt dried fish, but whatever it was he had a fever of 103.6 and he couldn’t contain fluids coming out either end of his body. Today he is better thanks to Sara’s wonderful nursing care.
In addition, Sara got a cut on the heal of her foot that was quite painful and starting to infect, so now Wade is reciprocating with doctoring her foot. Her cuts came from burrs in a school yard playground of all places. Young Kiribati feet must be really tough to endure these harsh conditions as they were barefoot. The school Administrator asked if we could donate a gas powered lawn mower. Unfortunately, we are pretty sure we do not have a grass cutter stashed away in a compartment on the boat. We did ask a friend who was going to sail to Fanning Island to bring one if they might not have yet left Honolulu. Also, here is a ship called the “Kwai” that comes to Fanning Island 4 times a year that provides the people with whatever supplies they might need from outside the island. We are told that the Kwai will leave Honolulu in a week to come to Fanning if anyone wants to donate a cheap push mower, or a used set of Encyclopedias or other items. Teetaa Terara would be the School Administrator on Fanning accepting such donations.
Sara scored tons of donated fabric from a store in Honolulu that was going out of business and also numerous children’s books, all of which we hope to give out over the next couple days to people on Fanning Island.
That’s all the news for now.
Wade and Sara
