One of the other cruisers met a local guy who said he would arrange to hire a van for us and would take us to some vegetable and egg farms. So, the day after clearing in, several of us headed to shore with high hopes to meet the guy at his house and then spend the day getting all those fresh things we hadn’t had in a while. He had told us he lived near the police station, so when we found the police station, we just went in and asked if they knew where he lived. Sure enough, they pointed us in the right direction. When we got to his house, he wasn’t there, because he was at work. Now, my memory is a little fuzzy on this, but I think someone gave us a ride to the government building where the guy worked as it was quite a ways away and I don’t recall walking out there. Anyway, when we got to the government building, we talked to the guy, and it turned out we would need to do it another day. Bummer. Well, no problem, we had directions to an “egg farm” that wasn’t too far from there, so we walked to check it out.
The little egg farm was actually one of the highlights of Tarawa for me, and it’s kind of ironic with all the negative opinions about Tarawa that it was here that we found the absolute freshest eggs we have ever found anywhere. Here is an email I wrote about the place:
I would like to say something positive about Tarawa, so I will mention the small egg farm we found where we could get fresh eggs, and by fresh, I mean gathered right out from under the hens. They had what looked like newly constructed, very sturdy chicken coops with a total of about 85 chickens. It was very clean and the chickens all looked healthy. The feed troughs were tires sliced in half sideways and suspended from the ceiling, so the feed was always up off the ground. One of the women we spoke to there is educated as a lawyer and her English was very good and she was able to give us a few more tips about shopping in Betio. The hens lay about 60 eggs/day and curiously, most of their customers are Chinese. We went 3 days in a row to buy all we could and share amongst all the cruising boats. It was a nice little family business, and I really hope they continue to have success.
The only thing about the egg farm is that you never knew if you’d be able to actually get eggs or not. That first day we went they only had 5 eggs, but they let us place an order for picking up the next day. I suggested that we let Birgitta from Ariel IV take the 5 eggs, because they were leaving Tarawa for Majuro, and the rest of us would be getting eggs the next day, because, you know, we placed an order. This was good logic when needing to adjudicate what to do with 5 eggs when there were 6 women there wanting eggs.
After the egg farm we decided we would go check out the various grocery stores. We were a ways from town, but some of us felt like walking so we set off while Lahnee (with the two girls) and another person planned to take a bus. So, the rest of us walked a little ways and then made a stop at a grocery store, where they had cold crispy green apples that only cost you your right hand. After scouting the place out I walked outside to stand in the shade and have a drink, and off in the distance I see Lahnee walking with Ahia in her arms and Kiani at her side. I walked over to meet her and found out that the other person had taken the last seat on a bus and left them standing on the side of the rode. Oh my god I almost died, I mean, who does that? Lahnee, as usual, had a good sense of humor about it.
We spent the rest of the day walking all the way back to Betio and scouting out three more grocery stores with no fresh veggies to be found other than moldy onions and cabbage. I think the best part about the whole day was when Amanda bought a bag of donuts and shared them with all of us. And they weren’t even really donuts, just balls of dough with a little bit of sweetness. But they hit the spot, especially for those of us like me and Kiani who get grouchy when we’re hungry.
Walking around Tarawa looking for eggs and veggies
Back to the eggs…even though we placed an order, it turned out to be not quite that simple. The next day when Lauri (Free Spirit) and I went to pick up our order they only had 11 eggs for us. In the meantime, Lauri had given all the eggs she already had to True Blue V, because they were leaving for Abemama, and Lauri assumed she’d be getting more eggs. So, I insisted she take these 11 eggs, since I still had a few from Funafuti, and we’d just keep going every day to hopefully get enough eggs for all of us.
I went by myself the next day and hit the jackpot and scored a grand total of 43 eggs. But by the time I divided them among the other boats I think we got 8 of them. Only a cruiser would devote this much time in a blog to the effort expended to acquire a few eggs. (Spoiler alert: just wait until we get to Aranuka and I go on and on about Pumpkin.)
Gresham Family Exodus 