Programs Blog

November 1, 2024

Location: Port Denarau, Fiji

Weather: Quite Sunny

Finally, after two weeks the sensation of lightheadedness and nausea left my body. As I woke up that morning and got up to the quarterdeck, I got a glimpse of the only piece of non-watery landscape that had disrupted the now usual blue on blue that extended across the horizon. For the whole day as we neared Tuvalu, I couldn’t stop looking over to it. Next morning the waters were completely calm, an unusual lack of motion for what my body was now accustomed to, and we were now in the atoll lagoon getting ready for port. The feeling of familiarity was ever present, being on the completely opposite side of the world and yet feeling like we were on my island; it was kind of uncanny. Obviously, they are not the same place, but the ambience, clear water, good fish, nice people, all reminded me of what my home island feels like. Yet it was nothing like my island, flags of other more resourceful nations were everywhere you looked, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Fiji. All there supplying and supporting the people of Tuvalu. One thought stayed on my mind for most of it; in exchange for what? Is it from the goodness of the heart? Because they are supplying costly resources, how do they pay back or what are they giving back? I still don’t know the answer.

It was a fun place to be at. Avery and I walked to the end of the island, more or less 40 minutes from where we anchored. As we walked through the neighborhood we noticed a couple of things:

1. This is a very poor place
   • Houses made of wood and plastic roof
   • Trash littered everywhere
   • Most dogs were a bit sickly
2. People seemed to live happy
   • Lots of kids running around, playing football or jumping in the water
   • Everyone had a smile on their faces, living in a really big community
3. They don’t have cemeteries. I know that’s a weird thing to point out, but it was a very interesting thing to see
   • Because the islands are so small they bury their loved ones in tombs in their front yards
   • Since the tombs are big, they also sleep, cook, and play on them as if the dead are still part of the community. Bizarre concept, but I do find it beautiful.

The place was so similar yet so unfamiliar to what I’m used to seeing in my home. It was also an interesting place to be in the circumstance that I found my place, since usually I’m the one on the small island seeing people disembarking from boats and visiting my island. A real turn of the tables.

–Hatuey M Connelly Molina, University of Puerto Rico