At about 0900 we took the tender and went ashore.Tobi found in NoForeignLand information about possible dinghy docks. One of them is pretty good and another one is good for refueling.

The people are very friendly and curious. The question about from where we are we had to answer very, very often. One elderly gentleman even stopped his bicycle to talk to us.

Potable water, we learned very quickly, costs money. About 5 l for an Australian $. It is made by reverse osmosis in a larger and maybe some smaller stations. People go to water outlets, buy water and carry it home by cars. Most likely this has to do with the rising water due to global warming which brings salt water into there fountains. Rain water is collected everywhere but I get the feeling it’s not possible to use it as potable water, because of the exhaust gases and the dust whirled into the air. With this dirt on the roofs rain water is downgraded to shower and laundry water.

Tobi found a hint, that sailors can get free potable water from the fish factory. We will explore that on Monday.

Global warming – we saw a wall about 60 – 70 cm high, going around living quarters which get regularly flooded since a few years. People said that often water comes into there homes even now. On an island in an atoll, there are no hills on which one can build houses. The highest point over sea level is, according what I was told, typically 1.5 – 2 m. This is not much.

According to what we learned is that Kiribatis are consider as refugees from rising ocean levels.

World war II ruins of bunkers and fortified large cannon positions are often to be seen

We also found the memorial park with a big stone plate carrying the names of 24 British unarmed people who were murdered by Japanese soldiers on 15. Oct. 1942. On which country was a right wing government in power bringing long term prosperity to its people?

Larger public buildings like schools and a new hospital are build by Australia and NZ. So is the new Betio Hospital built by NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. The Maternity and Children’s Department is already open. It’s an impressive, well thought through construction, with roofs covered photovoltaic panels. I estimated the solar peak power of only on building to be 175 kW – 220 kW. I don’t know what such department needs in power and what the storage capacity and
emergency system is. I only wonder what will happen in about 5 – 10 years when the power of the photovoltaic panels will decrease and replacements are needed. Who will pay for this costs?

There are cars, cars, cars, and motor bikes. The cars are very likely only Japanese cars. This I account to the fact that Kiribati has a left side driving system. Motorbikes are mostly Chinese with a few Japanese. Looking into properties I get the feeling that there are often several cars in one family. The streets are filled with cars’ “perfumes” and dust. This reduces the rain water quality a lot and it needs to be ) as not potable.

Shops are to be seen all over. From tiny ones tosupermarkets. Clothes shops are bunch of metal of rope lines with the clothes attached to them by clothes pegs. This just beside the street.

I found with the help of two ladies standing ąt a bus stop a barber shop. The shop was just an air-conditioned container. Inside it was all very simple. However the barber was good. Since long I found one who could make a cut with scissors. Now my hair is short again, thus washing it. is quick and needs only a little of our limited water.

When I’m looking at the economics in the Kiribati, i only can imagine fishing outside between the islands and at the high seas with Kiribati boats and Kiribati crews as source of good income. However, the fishing business is done by the Chinese who ship the catch back home. No jobs and no real income for the Kiribati people.

I also passed a maritime school. This means that the graduates will work on foreign vessel for low wages, to keep their families, who they don’t see often, at home afloat.

Although I could not talk yet with one of them, I expect that many of Kiribati people work in NZ and AUS as seasonal workers to harvest the produce.

That many, mainly men, have problems with alcohol is quickly to be seen and it’s sad. They are poor with no perspectives thus drown themselves in this toxic liquid.

The old Betio hospital has no mattresses. Gone because they got dirty and nobody could clean them, was what a nurse told me. Patients lie on metal plates or tubes. Or, that’s what the nurse also told us, sometimes patients bring their own ones along.

Tobi had the idea to walk to a coffee shop. It was a 2.9 km walk. When we arrived, there were 3 bars, which had the outstanding feature of extremely loud music. I closed my ears with my hands. First ŵe were in the wrong one and had quick drink before my hearing ability goes down to zero. When we discovered the one with the ice coffee, we ordered and set down. In that moment one of the employees wanted to start the powerful modern ghetto blaster. Luckily I could convince him no to do so. I’m sure that within a minute after we were gone, they started littering the bar with all this pressed air trash.
Seems I’m to old for getting my ears damaged in an environment where I feel the basses in my belly. Generation gap. The ice coffee was good, but never ever will I walk such a distance for drink.

The saddest thing we saw, was the garbage lying around everywhere. Larger areas we walked through I would call “slums with very friendly people”. Only in houses a bit better off, people collect garbage and the properties look kind of clean. I was on small islands in other countries where people are poor, but they keep their surroundings clean. Suva and Nadi were dirty and in some places in Panama I saw people preferring to live between garbage rather then cleaning their own surrounding. I’m asking myself why do people live in such an environment and don’t clean up? Is it really the lack of a perspective of a better life? Is it missing education at school? I have no answer.