Tamana

Welcome to the Minister at Tamana Aiport

Moi moi slushies for breakfast. Ice cold coconuts!

Tamana is the second most southern island in the Gilbert group and is unusual for Kiribati, in that it doesn't have a lagoon.

I visited there several weeks ago with a delegation from the government to open the refurbished Margaret Field Primary School. The flight was about 2 hours including a stop there and back to refuel.

 

The island is wholly protestant and has a very large and impressive church which is a monument to the missionaries and the difficulty of maintaining western style buildings. There are neither the materials or the skills to maintain buildings, which is why locals revert to traditional buildings.

If you have to be buried somewhere, this is the place! Ministers who lived and died here in the 1800's are buried between the Church and the sea.







  


The kids turned up for the opening on Saturday.

Many classrooms don't have desks. Students sit on the floor and work on the floor. There is normally work on the walls but they were kept clean for the opening. The floors are polished cement.

 

This computer room is most unusual in a Primary School, but is an example of where one thing leads to another. 

Your taxes at work! The Minister is in the flowery meri blouse, His Excellency, George Fraser, Australian High Commissioner is in the red shirt, and local Tamanans in the white shirts. Currently Australia (or AusAID to be more precise) insists on 'badging' Aid. I am philosophically opposed to ensuring that the giver of the gift is acknowledged with a sign. In my opinion the giving doesn't need to be labelled. It is un-Australian. Another practical reason for not badging Aid, is that in this environment, the building it is most likely to fall into disrepair - the deal being that the Government of Kiribati is responsible for maintenance. They have neither the funds or capacity to maintain a building such as this. Currents efforts to get acceptance of locally built classrooms - which they can maintain, is being rejected by some local politicians who want 'permanent buildings', which are in fact not permanent. It also lessens the investment the community makes in Education, which is critical to maintaining the partnership between government and Islands in all things, but especially education. AusAID favours traditional buildings, but this school was part of a pilot program.    

Check-in and departure lounge! All cargo - human included, must be weighed. The trip back is much heavier with fish (dried and fresh) and gifts, which on this trip were woven mats.