We had accepted the dinner invitation from Keekee, but there was a lot of confusion about what day it was going to be. And one morning we had a boat full of guys come visit us on Exodus with a message from Keekee to come to dinner that night at 6:00. After we checked our social calendar for the evening, we agreed that would be great.
We went to shore and we were right on time, but Keekee was no where to be found. We met some new people on shore, including two Mormon missionaries: one from Utah and one from Australia. So, apparently in addition to Protestant and Catholic churches there is also a very small Mormon population on the island. The one from Utah had just arrived recently but the one from Australia had been there awhile and spoke pretty fluent Kiribati, so he was able to translate for us with some people. It was election night, and being part of the town council Keekee had responsibilities. She was still in the other village where they had gone to collect the ballot box. No worries, we hung around for awhile.
Eventually Keekee came back, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned yet that she’s in a wheelchair, which is a challenging condition considering it’s all dirt roads, and you can forget about wheelchair ramps. But she seems to do OK.
She took us to her house and directed us to a small fale where we lounged around for a while she went off to presumably prepare a few things. Then she came back and told us she would be doing things for the election that night, and her husband would be with us for dinner and if we wanted, we could come down to the election afterwards. Soon they brought out a very impressive, and I am not exaggerating when I say impressive, spread for us for dinner. And similar to Fiji, the custom seems to be that guests eat while hosts watch. The spread was plentiful, but the memorable parts were a big bowl of bananas, sodas and juice, and four huge lobsters. This was an amazing feast that they were sharing with us, almost to the point of being a little embarrassing. Keekee’s husband’s name is Koae, and he didn’t speak much English, so the conversation was a bit sparse. At that point our Kiribati vocabulary was pretty much just the three standard words: mauri – hello, korapa – thank you, and tiabo (pronouned sa-bo) – good-bye. So, we passed the time with Koae learning new Kiribati words, and these are the notes I took:
- moimoto – drinking coconut
- koara – house
- maruruna – I’m very well thank you
- teraoi – you’re welcome
- tebwaukin – pumpkin
- karau – rain
- kiakia – small house with raised floor (i.e., fale)
- tenewe – lobster
Gresham Family Exodus 