Funafuti...Farewell

My apologies that it has taken so long to write the last instalment of The Tuvalu Traveller’s time in Tuvalu, but since leaving Tuvalu I’ve been on a little Australian Adventure (more on that another time) and have therefore I’ve not had much time to dedicate to my blog.  And I wanted to give the last month of ‘Tuvalu time’ sufficient attention!!

First to some work, and the important marking of International World AIDS Day!! Staff at TANGO, Caitlyn and myself with the assistance of Melaka and Selita, prepared a colourful stall at the community event that was also attended by the Tuvalu Family Health Association (TuFHA), the Tuvalu National Council of Women (TNCW), the Dept of Health (DoH) amongst others.  The goal of the day was to increase awareness and decrease the number of new HIV/AIDs infections to zero over the next 12 months.  One of the problems in Tuvalu is that a lot of young people don’t know their HIV status and are afraid to be tested so the DoH were there carrying out tests.  In addition to a lack of clarity of people’s current status, there is the on-going problem of societal taboos that prevent/deter young people from practising safe sex, so as part of the work that TANGO did that day we made up ‘gift bags’ which included condoms and information about where people can access assistance and further advice if they need it. It was a great day and through the work that all the agencies did we managed to talk to lots of young people and continue to spread the messages about the challenge of tackling HIV/AIDS.

It took me a little while to wrap my head around the fact that it was December in Tuvalu and that of course meant that the festive season was almost upon us, and although I was due to leave Funafuti and my Tuvaluan family before Christmas I took great pleasure in helping them get prepared for it.  Masi (my Tuvaluan sister) and I scoured the Chinese shops that Funafuti has to offer for Christmas lights to decorate the house and the Christmas tree! There is something very strange about preparing a Christmas tree in 30+ °C! But it was great!! And I think as the photo below showed it was worth the effort J

 

It was with mixed emotions that I assisted in the Christmas prep! Christmas 2012 was to be my first ever Christmas away from my home and my family – which I was obviously nervous about. It was also going to be following my departure from Tuvalu, a place and another home I became very much attached to and was going to be very sad to leave. But also when I left Tuvalu I was heading back to Australia to rendezvous with my beloved, which I was of course very excited about!

There was a little business as usual in the month of December which of course included amazing sunsets, which I couldn’t resist including one picture of!

 

And a couple of community events which included traditional dancing and feasting.  At this event ‘my mother’ led a staring role in the dancing and in the organisation.  She rallied the women from our church group to make baskets of food for other women and children from the community.  It was a great event and as always more food than anyone could eat in one go, the traditional spraying of perfume to show appreciation of the dancers – in some cases by very small and cute admirers, and dancing late into the evening!

 

 

As well as the traditional events, as it was December that also meant that there were Christmas Parties happening and I was lucky enough to be invited to Masi’s staff party for the Dept of Environment, where she works! It was a really fun evening, again with excessive amounts of food and some exceptionally funny dance ‘pieces’ including the ladies performing Tuvaluan version of the worldwide hit “Gangnam Style”!! It was hilarious and brilliant! Nice to see ‘my sister’ let her hair down for well earned night out with her girlfriends!!

 

 

But there was another special event too, which included a visiting dignitary arriving on a Hercules plane, which stayed overnight which gave plenty of opportunities to be impressed with the size of it…

 

For children and young people to play sports around it and sit in awe of it…

 

 

And also thanks to the friendliness of the New Zealand Air Force for lots of children and a couple of big kids (i.e. me and Caitlyn) to climb aboard and have a snoop about!

 

Sadly soon enough it was time for me to leave! After Cyclone Evan delayed my flight by a day which gave Caitlyn, Tony and I time for one more fishing expedition and a sleepover! So I said my farewells to my ‘family’...

 

And stood in front of the plane to prove it was really there and I was really getting on it this time – after so many planes days and so many others coming and going it was finally time for me.

 

And that was it, as a sat on the plane trying desperately to fight back tears, and realising that it was not goodbye but just Tofa (farewell and will be seeing you), and I witnessed the final glimpse of Funafuti and place that truly felt like home and will leave a lasting affect on me, I hope for all my days!

 

The WET season has begun!!

Here in Tuvalu it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are any seasons at all! It’s hot almost all the time – last weekend a thermometer reached 44°C – and since I got here, there’ve been some days when it rains and some days when it doesn’t! But November, technically, is the beginning of the wet season and boy o boy can it rain! There have been a couple of days when I’ve stayed in the office until gone 6.30pm just because I’m waiting for it to stop raining or at least for me to be able to see the other side of the runway!!

 

 

And before you all think I’ve forgotten how to cope with British-esque weather, fear not, the rain here is insane and even with an incredible red rain coat – that starred in the Royal Visit coverage – it still is possible to get soaked through to the skin in a matter of seconds! This is especially true when I have to wear my amazing coat over my backpack to keep my laptop safe and then I can’t do up the coat so my front and my bottom half get soaked J

Heavy rains combined with seasonal high tides lead to the area outside my office being totally flooded! I wish I’d had a tiny canoe to paddle home but sadly I didn’t have one so had to wade through the shin high water almost all the way home!

Luckily the rain waited to start until my brother had gone home J so clouds and silver linings come to mind!

Other things have been happening in Tuvalu other than rain! My friends Caitlyn and Tony who had been away for ages returned on the plane that John left on, which is great and quickly got even better when Tony’s sister and her new husband came to visit and they bought 14kg of tomatoes with them!!!! There aren’t many places in the world where I think people get quite so excited about fresh tomatoes, but I was thrilled! I even made a salad to celebrate!! And then to top it off we even have a harvest of bananas in the last few weeks! It’s been great!

Last week was Kate, Dan and the kids’ final week in Tuvalu, so a crowd of us went to one of the islets still in Funafuti lagoon but on the other side of the lagoon for the weekend.  It had a guesthouse on it, which was really lucky because, you guessed it, it rained all night – so Camp Coconut would have been a little washed out!!

 

This weekend my work threw my leaving party which was a little premature I thought since I’ve got 3 weeks left here in Tuvalu – but it was timed for a number of reasons, the closing ceremony of a workshop the organisation I work for has organised and my boss and a number of other Executive committee members will be leaving this week or next for a church conference that is happening on the northern most island of Tuvalu, Nanumea.  It all worked out quite well! My wonderful Tuvaluan mother, Vaovai, rustled me up a traditional outfit, known as a puletasi. Modelled here with my colleague Melaka

Masi and I went a got Frangipani flowers for my head garland, or fou, which involved Masi having to climb a tree and hit the flowers from up high with a large stick!!

 

So my last few weeks are upon me and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to going – mainly because I miss my fiancé and salads – although not in equal measure!! And hopefully just two days after leaving Tuvalu I will see both!  At the same time I will be devastated to be leaving all the amazing people I’ve met here, and I really will miss this fantastic place!

But I’ve got another 3 weeks to go and I intend to enjoy every last minute!

McSherry population of Tuvalu temporarily doubles!!!

This shall also be known as Brother’s blog! J

This two weeks have been two of the best weeks in Tuvalu - and that says a lot!! My amazing brother John arrived here on Wednesday 31 October after flying straight through (pretty much) from London where he left the Sunday before!!!

As I told him there is not a huge amount to do in Tuvalu on a day-to-day basis, sure there may be opportunities to go boating, snorkelling and fishing some days but mostly it’s a slow pace of life with virtually no ‘distractions’.  There is hardly any TV, inconsistent internet and only a couple of bars and restaurants.  As I had forewarned him he came fully prepared with a kindle (other electronic reading devices are available!) full of books and a desire to do very little for 2 weeks!!

I went to work as little as possible, a few hours in the mornings each day and one full day, due to the staff meeting that would never end! And after work I normal trundle up to Caitlyn and Tony’s house where John was staying - thanks to those guys for letting him use their amazing house - and joined him doing very little! Those of you that have been reading my blog may have already seen a view from the house but just in case and to be clear this is the view from the outside deck.  During the day the view of the lagoon is stunning and in the evenings awesome sunsets!!

 

 

 

We went snorkelling on John's first Sunday and he struck Tuvalu gold and saw a turtle!! I’ve been here almost 4 months and I’ve only seen one from the boat.  At the next reef we stopped at he also spotted a stingray and luckily I was close enough that he called out to me and I got to see it too!

 

I’ve been wowing him with my new culinary talents such as Paw-Paw curry, and my famous banana cake/slice – which I made into a birthday cake with chocolate spread for Elisala (the father of the family I’m staying with), who celebrated his 61^st birthday on Sunday.   

 

Please note the cake featured above is not my one (we didn't photograph it, it got eaten to fast!), it was the much more impressive one that the family had arranged! Also note, Darling – the dog – looking longingly at the cake and sneaking into John’s picture – such an attention seeker J  

I was really nervous about John visiting, about having to entertain him here and the fear that he’d be disappointed he’d come all this way and essentially flown for 3 days (twice - including his return journey) to come to this tiny island in the South Pacific, but doing very little interspersed with occasional activities of swimming, going to the beach, and nice dinners with friends (and family) was enough to keep him happy and relaxed J

On his last weekend we headed out on the town, went out for dinner, hit the karaoke bar, went for a picnic on a desert island, did more snorkelling, but sadly we didn't get round to teaching him how to make sandballs (like snowballs but with sand!) or renting mopeds or joining a gang ;) - which he was looking forward to! We had an amazing time and I feel so lucky to be able to share this crazy place with someone from home, especially my little bro! It was/is really hard when he left this morning, but now I only have 5 weeks left here and I’m sure the time will fly! Better get busy!!!

Work, work, work!!

 My beloved Mum has advised me that I should start sharing some professional stories on this blog, of some of the work experience I am gathering whilst I’m here in Tuvalu, in case any potential future employers might be reading it!! I think the chances are thin but as I almost always like to heed my wonderful, loving mother’s advice I would like to share with my interested readers some of the work I’ve been doing over the last couple of months.  I will intersperse this work related information with nice photos that might not be relevant but will be pretty!

As most of you know upon arriving in Tuvalu I was tasked with writing a multi-million dollar project proposal which was submitted to AusAID.  The project will last 4 years and consists of a variety of activities and works costing $7.3 MILLION!!! The focus of the project is what is termed WASH – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – and therefore there are numerous initiatives within the proposal.  These include improved water catchment infrastructure, compost toilets on outer islands that suffered especially badly during the drought, and a substantial portion of the bid will be to transform the borrow pits (which have featured on this blog previously) into large communal water storage facilities with community-use areas incorporated such as sports courts or areas for traditional community events, such as fatele – the traditional feast/dances! We were supposed to hear whether the bid has been successful by now but they have had so many projects to review we won’t now hear until December so please everyone keep everything crossed for a successful response!

 

These are water tanks that AusAID previously distributed to the outer islands, in this case at the school on Vaitupu - you will all note the different labelling, when AusAID went through some re-branding... 

Since then I have been working on a number of smaller tasks the first of which was a Gap Analysis and Needs Assessment of the member organisations that make up TANGO (Tuvalu Association of Non-Governmental Organisations – who I work for!)  This has involved contacting and meeting with as many member organisations as possible and interviewing them about the services that TANGO currently provides and what their future needs are and how TANGO can serve them better!  Although this might sound pretty straight forward there have been challenges – the first of which was a lack of a contact list of members… a problem that is still not entirely resolved! Aside from that there have been some other fundamental hurdles; for a long time organisations in Tuvalu have been used to responding to funding streams as they become available rather than proactively assessing need and seeking funding, and therefore they are not well practiced in outlining their future requirements when asked! This has led to further work with a number of organisations including the Tuvalu National Council of Women (TNCW).  The TNCW has been trying to write a Strategic Plan for more than a year with limited success, I am now in the process of assisting them with this and developing an Action Plan to accompany this document. 

Some of the activities that the local women are involved in include making local handicrafts, like this gorgeous mat that Sandra was given before she left us last week :(

 

 

 

The communication issues that are experienced across Tuvalu – due to inconsistent shipping schedules, unreliable internet, lack of mobile phone coverage, and a postal service which is reliant on the shipping schedule – are all barriers for NGO development and project delivery, especially on the outer islands.  This is something else I have been getting involved with by liaising with international partners to develop a Terms of Reference to increase the Communication resources at TANGO to work as best as possible around these difficulties.  As a result of the new-age methods of communication being ‘tricksy,’ the best form of communication in Tuvalu is the radio!

Last week I was invited to consult on Island Profiles that have been formulated by the Government Department of Rural Development.  This was an opportunity for me to get my number/data geek on!!! And it was awesome! These documents are the result of 18 months of work in partnership with the UN.  They carried out a very thorough survey of households across all the islands of Tuvalu and asked questions covering a wide range of issues from enrolment of children in pre-school to the level of water storage individual households have!  The point of these 80 page documents is to inform the local government branches (Kaupule – Town Council, delivery body; and Falekaupule – island chiefs and elders, decision-making body) on each island, and assist them in strategic planning and prioritising areas for actions into the future… And yes I’m a giant nerd for getting excited about it but I truly believe knowledge is power and baseline data like this is crucial in order to both measure improvements and successes, but also to assist in showing the areas where quick wins can be made and where longer-term planning is required.

 

Just a pretty picture on Nukufetau (one of the outer islands) - so its kind of relevant ;) !

 

I’ve also begun discussions with my supervisor about Institutional Resilience and as she referred to her job as her “retirement work,” the sustainability of the work of TANGO needs to be ensured, protected and able to progress! I will be presenting a report to the Executive Committee in the mid-end of November with my suggestions for best routes forward.

I hope that you are all satisfied that I’m not just on holiday out here in Pacific paradise, I’ve got work to do too ;)!!!

Ironic Independence Day and Camp Coconut!

The start of October saw more Public Holidays – two this time! Tuvalu was celebrating the 34^th anniversary of independence from Britain! And what better way to do that than with marching, standing to attention, and parading…in the rain!!! It felt like just about the most British thing they could have done, and a spectacularly ironic way to celebrate their independence!!

 

 

Sadly it did rain a lot!! Much harder than I’ve seen it since I got here!

Whilst school students, scouts, sailors and police on parade were all standing to attention! It was tragic to be honest and the fact that none of them ran screaming from the runway was massively impressive!  They were freezing and soaked through to the skin by the time they eventually took cover. 

All the marching and the majority of the celebrations were scheduled on the Saturday of the very long weekend, so we made sure we were up and about at the central Vaiaku maneape before 8am so that we didn’t miss a minute of it!

The next day two boat loads of us and our masses of gear headed across the lagoon for a 2 night camping adventure at the highly prestigious Camp Coconut! Camp Coconut, as it is called by those of us that are fortunate to have stayed there, is a small clearing just off the beach on the uninhabited island of Tepuka, just on the other side of the lagoon from Funafuti. 

 

We took everything we would need with us, traditional mats, mosquito nets (which I was exceptionally grateful for and if I could have used one all day as well as at night I might have not come back quite so nibbled!), eskies with beers and water, sausages (sort of), beans and of course our trusty peanut butter and bread, and fruit!

 

Day one on Tepuka was more eventful than expected. Andy and Dan decided to go spear fishing just after lunch to try and catch us some fish for dinner and Sandra went with them to snorkel.  They took the boat and went to an area in the lagoon where they’d been lucky previously.  Kate and I and the kids remained at base camp, swimming, reading and then building the fire!  When the others returned they had some tales to tell!!!  It seems that their successful spear fishing meant that they attracted some unwanted attention from sharks!  Dan was charged at by a 2m+ grey shark (rubbish name but that’s what we think it was from his description) that got about 2metres away from him and then changed its mind and swerved away!!!  Andy after shooting a large grouper-looking fish, which he proceeded to hold out of the water above his head (an image I wish I’d got a photo of), wasn’t enough to deter the shark that bit his flipper/fin as he was scrambling to get back into the boat – quicker than he ever has before!! Considering their close encounters they returned fairly calm about the whole thing! Tough boys!!

Alls well that ends well and thanks to their ‘bravery’ we had fish for dinner!!

That night we had an expertly built fire and watched the most beautiful full moon rise…

 

Followed by the most amazing sunset…

 

Later we also saw some strange lingering shooting stars, very graciously giving us time to turn around and still see it!  One also had an odd green hue that we think might have been some space junk re-entering!

Great day!!!!

The next morning Kate and I swam around the island, and although not a particularly big distance (took about 45 minutes) the changing currents and inconvenient waves made it a little tricky! But it was amazing to do it and see all the different underwater environments, reefs and rocks and white sand flats and lots of fish but no sharks, thankfully!

Doing something so strenuous early in the day meant I felt totally ok about doing exceptionally little for the rest of the day.  Read my book under a palm tree, had a little nap, took some photos, splashed around in the sea! It was one of the most relaxing days I’ve had since I got to Tuvalu. As evening began to draw in, Kate and I made another fire – which the boys were very complimentary of!!

 

We’d thought the first night had been a good moon but the second nights’ was even better!! I’ve never seen the moon come out of the sea that way – and it was enormous! I took almost 100 pictures of it although none of them really do it justice but this one came out pretty good...

 

The next day accidently started with story time – I was being a little anti-social, sitting in the shade on my Breakfast Cracker bucket, reading my kindle when Rex and Maggie (aged 4 and 2 for those of you that don’t know them!) thought that I was reading a story worth sharing and wanted me to read it to them! Sadly I’m currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything – which is thoroughly interesting for me, but probably not so for them! So I improvised and they were very happy with my magic tree story!  Towards the end of my fairly average story Andy joined the fun, which meant that I could pass the story-telling baton to him! And we all got to learn a little something about rocks in a fun way!! I didn’t know that Geography teachers were such show-offs ;)

The day went similar as the others at Camp Coconut – reading, snorkelling, swimming, lazing! Started to pack the camp up and got ready for our return to the hubbub of Funafuti in the afternoon, and we all were pretty sad to be leaving our island paradise that we’d had all to ourselves all weekend! It’s a mere 45 boat ride but it might as well have been a world away, it had magic rejuvenating powers on me!

Farewell Camp Coconut…until next time!!

 

 

Part Three = This is Nui!

We arrived at Nui early in the morning which meant that we had all morning to explore and wander around, before needing to be back on the boat for a 1pm departure – apparently!

Nui was also very beautiful and quiet.  They seemed to have more care for their gardens and there was a lot of pulaka pits where they grow the traditional root crops. All of the islands that we visited had large churches and Nui’s was a exceptionally large one

 

The lagoon and beach areas were virtually untouched except by coconuts

 

We were treated to local ‘brunch/lunch’ my Sandra’s translator’s cousin’s family!  They welcomed all three of us to a huge meal! Tuvaluans are so genuinely friendly and welcoming it seemed perfectly normal to invite total strangers to your house and to feed them!  We ate grilled and raw flying fish (which was super tasty) lots of paw-paw, rice, feke which is a local speciality and drank fresh coconut juice – from the coconuts! It was so special! And we sat on their traditional platform like this one.

 

After we’d be fed we headed back toward the wharf.  I should have said that this was the scariest of small boat rides! As you can see from the picture below the route in has been blasted through the coral and rocks.

 

 

As you will also see there are a number of fuel drums sitting in the very shallow wharf side waiting to be picked up for the island. The visits of the Nivaga and the other inter-island boat the Monafalau are supply provision for the outer islands communities and even petrol for mopeds and fishing boats is bought ashore this way! It was scary to watch them trying to move the heavy drums filled with fuel!

Once back on the boat we tried to find some space to settle down for the return journey, as you can see all available space was fair game for sleeping J

 

 

And after rushing to get back on board before 1pm little did we know we wouldn’t be leaving until after 4pm when they’d loaded the traditional canoe for the Royal Canoe race!

After this we headed off! The following morning after an eventful night of getting rained on whilst we slept on the roof of the boat again, and then getting smoked out by the chimney stack, and then getting soaked as the rain started coming sideways even when we were undercover, we eventually made it back to the wharf at Funafuti!
 

There was quite a welcome committee there as the chiefs from the outer islands were returning so no one was actually there to see us but still it felt good! Back to the hectic capital city and a desperately needed shower!! It was definitely an adventure and one I will never forget – it was incredible!

Part Two... Nui or is it Vaitupu??

As we left Nukufetau we were settling in for the longest leg of our journey approximately 12 hours of boat time to Nui the furthest north and western island of the Central group.  We’d been on route for approximately 5 hours when Sandra went to stretch her legs and spotted land?!  When she asked a helpful man, “Is that Nui?”, “No” he replied “that is Vaitupu”! And so we arrived shortly after that at Vaitupu!

Vaitupu is the outer island where the second of the two Tuvaluan high schools is based and it is a boarding school.  It was significantly bigger than Nukufetau and busier.  We saw Scout Ambassador, Andy as he has been based here for a couple of weeks teaching and setting up and new scout group, and then walked to the school. On our way to the school dawdled to appreciate the house with hanging baskets!

 

 

When we arrived at the school we were amazed to see it was on the most gorgeous stretch of beach, bright white sand and blue sea! Blew our minds, imagine this being where you go to school…

 

We got to see the models that they were making for the Royal couple up close and remarkably unfinished! They also thought that the boat was going to Nui first and that they would have a bit more time to complete them. This is the inside of the mini-maneape they made:

 

 

After crashing a farewell feast for Andy at the school we borrowed a couple of mopeds and I drove one with me and Sandra on – overall she said I did a great job! It was fun and a great way to see lots of the island which is fully joined up so we could drive all the way round the lagoon stopping and wading across to islets within the lagoon to enjoy views like this,

 

Another great day! We headed back to the Nivaga and our beans for tea again and sleeping on the roof of the boat! This was my view in the morning when we woke up almost at Nui, after sailing through the night.