North Tarawa

Last weekend we were taken to a village on the island of  Nabeina in North Tarawa for the weekend to complete our week long orientation programme. We were picked up by boat abut 4pm and whisked across the lagoon to North Tarawa. We stayed in one of the local villages with the family of Motire, who had been our guide for the week, navigating us through the various government departments getting various forms stamped, helping to get my work permit, as well as a drivers licence, bank accounts etc.

One of the family huts.

North Tarawa is a real contrast to South Tarawa. South Tarawa is quite noisy and crowded;  land is at a premium so there are huts and houses everywhere. Young kids and dogs wander about and there is a constant background hum of cars and vans (used locally as buses) travelling along the main road linking the islands, people and music.  North Tarawa on the other hand was a tranquil haven, an insight into how life would have been like prior to the rapid population growth of the past few decades. The village was spread out with huts tucked between coconut and pandanas trees. The buildings were mainly made using traditional methods and materials- pandanas thatch for rooves and coconut logs for the foundations and each hut has a mat of woven pandanas leaves on the floor.

My hut at night.

When we arrived it was high tide so I swam in the causeway between the islands, the water was up to my neck and it must have been 400 or more metres cross to the next island. The following day I was able to walk around this area at low tide without getting my feet wet! So there was at least a 5ft tidal range between low and high tides.

Lagoon at low tide, at high tide this was 5' or so deep.

Life really seemed to be dictated by the ebb and flow of the tides and it was hard to even imagine the hustle and bustle of South Tarawa was just across the lagoon. We stayed in traditional huts with thatched pandanas palm rooves. The huts were open sided, raised off the ground, with woven thatch mats on top of coconut log foundations.  The locals use moveable screens made from woven pandanas (used much as as flax is back home as a general purpose material for weaving) that they hang to create walls to screen the sun and breezes. The huts were so much cooler than the corrugated iron and concrete house I’m living in and no doubt the other corrugated iron roofed houses on South Tarawa.

Screens woven from pandanas.

Collecting todi (coconut sap)

We spent the weekend getting an insight into village, and Kiribati, life. On Saturday morning I was up early and went with Motire’s brother to climb a coconut tree to harvest the sweet sap, called todi, used as a sugar alternative- and is very nice on pancakes!. After that we spent a couple of hours fishing in the lagoon, using nets to catch, small agile fish. I was amazed at how quickly the water level dropped on the outgoing tide, the area that we were wading through up to our knees was soon exposed coral and sand. In the afternoon we learned how to weave rope together out of the fibre of coconuts and also wove screens/mats using the ubiquitous pandanas tree leaves. Later in the afternoon Motire’s brother took me to the taro pit and showed me how they grow taro. We were up to out knees in warm, thick mud putting a mix of mud and leaves around the base of the taro to add nutrients.

Our final activity of the day was a brief language lesson then as the tide rose again in the late afternoon Motire’s brother took us around the island to the next causeway in his boat to the aptly named Broken bridge. Broken bridge is the remains of a concrete bridge that once linked the islands, its central span long gone and the remaining  concrete slabs tilted at funny angles on the piles. Apparently the bridge was built by the Japanese in World War two but has long ago fallen into disrepair. The rising tide was moving through the central gap with quite a current. The water was deep, crystal clear and about 28 degrees! Perfect!  It was a fantastic spot to cool off after another hot Tarawa day.

Buia's (Huts) near broken bridge

Between each activity there was plenty of down time to rest or wander the lagoon. Motire’s family would cook meals of locally grown produce and fish that they had caught themselves.  We shared our meals with Motire’s mother and then after we had finished the rest of the family came together at the dining hut to eat. This took a wee bit of getting used to for me, used to sharing meals together, but it was a sign of respect for guests.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We had a culture lesson in the open-sided village meeting house, called a maneaba in the morning. The maneaba was an impressive building and is the central heart of the village. The high, thatched roof was formed from coconut wood and held together with woven coconut string, only the most skilled men were allowed to work on its construction. The structure rests of five or six large blocks of coral on each of the side walls and there is a gap of about 3-4 ft at the sides so guests must stoop and bow to enter. In the maneaba we learned about the protocols, the dos and don’ts, the processes of meetings, where people sit and how decisions are made. In South Tarawa one must walk motorcycles or bikes, or drive a car very slowly, past a Maneaba when a meeting is in session.

A well in the village

That was our last lesson but as the tide had dropped we had the rest of the day to relax, read in our huts, or wander the lagoon until it was time to head back to South Tarawa on the rising tide late in the afternoon.

Sunset on the first day

Having the opportunity to stay for a weekend in a local village, learn a bit about and try some of the activities the villagers do as part of their everyday lives was a real privilege and gave me a small window into a very, very different way of life to that which I am used to. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, it was a fantastic weekend and great way to finish off our first week in Kiribati. 

 
Craig