[Apologies - haven't been able to take the camera yet to work so no photos to make it interesting!]
This week (after not being able to work at all last week
because of the storm), I went wandering round on Monday to see what was going
on and found a group of men on a Ute driving round picking up fallen (rotten
and stinking) breadfruit to take to the tip. They invited me to join them so I
spent a couple of hours doing that with them. The breadfruit rots quickly and
attracts flies and the risk of disease so it’s one of the men’s jobs to clear
them all away. That is once everyone has had their full on deep fried breadfruit
chips of course. We tried making a few of these ourselves, and they were very
tasty. Our effort at boiled and mashed breadfruit wasn't quite so successful!!.
So work on Monday was finished by about 10:30am once we’d cleared all village
trees.
On Tuesday I went for another walk to see what would happen this
day. We also were in need of some supplies from the shop on the other island,
so I needed to catch a lift to Fale. I found a group of men down at the beach
scaling and gutting fish, munching away on the fresh liver, or fish eggs or
something and generally joking around. I found out one was headed to Fale, so I
sat around until they were done and then grabbed a ride. I managed to work out
that he wasn’t staying at Fale, but was heading onto work with the men, so I
asked if I could go for the ride too. So we went down the reef a little to a
place where it is sandy. The barge was already there and about twenty men were
in waste deep water filling sacks with sand. I found out the coarse coral sand
is the Tokelau equivalent of builders mix and makes a good concrete when mixed
with cement and fresh water. So I spent a couple of hours in the water with
them (which I didn’t find cold, but they really did). Once the sacks were all
full they are heaved up onto the barge and stacked on pallets and taken back to
Fale to be unloaded and trucked to the other side of the islet to be washed in
the rain before being used. At the end of that, after a quick trip to the shop,
the days work was done (because of the cold) and I grabbed a lift back home.
Wednesday started at 8am with another load of sand from the
water, followed by a trip home to get changed and a bite to eat, then back to
Fale at about 1pm for another task that the men had to do on request from the
Mayor. This was to take a pregnant women who was transverse breach and had to
be medi-vac’d to Apia. Because of the stormy seas and huge waves pounding the
south side and west side of the atoll, the all the men (in about 15 tin dingy’s
– the standard boat here) and a barge full of men headed across the lagoon on
very choppy water to the north side of the atoll where they took the woman and
medical equipment for the journey across the reef and high tide and were pushed
out through the breakers (still large and pretty risky) and then motored over
the large swell to the waiting police boat. The journey was done twice, both
times safely. Only half the men were actually needed for the task, but to my
reckoning, this was more about an effort of community care and compassion, that
everyone wanted to be part of (plus they seemed to mightily enjoy the bouncing
blat over very choppy water in the middle of the lagoon – drenching us all – I enjoyed
it anyway). After this all men were called back to the meeting house in Fale
for a meal and to be given the plan for the following day. By the time I got
home it was after 6:30pm and dark. Poor Chrissie had a long day of it.
Thursday, the men from Fenua Fala, where we stay, were put
on the task of doing the boxing for a new ramp/driveway from the wharf where
all the supplies are brought in. The ramp is mostly functional, to allow the vehicles
to climb a steepish slope, but it was also very imperative that this task was
completed before the big General Fono meeting starting next week where the new
head of government for Tokelau will be elected. The morning involved a lot of
sitting around for a number of the men as there wasn’t really enough work to
keep us all occupied. Again – the focus is on being with each other, with the
work being the vehicle for that. I found it a very interesting process watching
how everything was done (and how many work- arounds are necessary, because of
lack of equipment and tools). So I spend my time looking for insignificant
little tasks that I could assist with, while staying out of people’s way (given
that I often have no idea what’s going on, being surrounded by Tokelaun language
which I understand very little of (except for “palagi” – white man - which inevitably drops into the conversation when
I’m around!) After a lunch cooked by village women we got a couple of concrete
mixers going and I managed to find a wheel barrow (which required old concrete
to be hammered off it first) and we set about pouring the ramp of about 12m x
3m x 150mm, which happened at a very fast rate with around forty men working at
a steady sweating clip so that the whole job was finished in a little over 2 hours
(about the same as it would have taking with trucks in NZ I would guess). I
really enjoyed being part of a good physical job, that was easy to understand my
task. It was amusing that at least at the outset, they insisted on only half
filling my barrows. My guess is that they were thinking – this palagi fella is
only half the size of all the others (at best), so better only half fill his
barrow! Classic, because it’s true – though I can easily cope with a full
barrow of concrete.
With the job done, the Mayor was so happy that he shouted a
few rounds of the local drop – Vailima – a Samoan larger that normally can only
be purchased at 3 bottles per adult. It was a fantastic atmosphere of music,
laughing, conversations, games of Euka and WARM beer – the standard here. The
boys were quite happy to drink the night away. I was worried about my family at
home again and so was fortunate that the very generous foreman Lameko - married
to a Te Arawa Maori women here – gave me a lift home after I’d joined for one
beer. I was very torn, as it’s the sort of experiences that are so worth being
part of, but I’m even more aware that I have to make sure that this adventure
works for the whole family, and I’d already been away from them enough this
week.
Today, Friday, I’ve taken the day to be at home with them. I’m
not actually working officially – more just volunteering – so I’ve got some
flexibility in theory. Though the other men are only getting NZ$2.30 an hour so
– it’s more of a “work for the dole” type arrangement. It’s not a lot when you
consider that most food and other supplies at the shop are at least double, sometimes
triple the NZ cost. It’s a very simple way of life here. People make do with
what they have, and depend heavily on their phenomenal fishing abilities and
other food they can forage.
