Airok - Day Six
Day 6 – Christmas Eve
Shoeless stopped by early this morning to tell me we would not be going fishing. Asheran came by about an hour later to say we would go. I walked down to the other house to get ready to go but her father told me it was too windy. I started to formulate a plan to go snorkeling. I did not want to go close to the village because many of the people still use the lagoon as a toilet and a garbage can. In fact about every night her sisters would stop by my house on their way to the lagoon for their evening constitutional. But my snorkeling plans were interrupted when they told me it was time to go fish….
This time Belenty would accompany us, which is generally considered unlucky (being that she is a woman). This turned into more of a tourist trip. We crossed the lagoon to the east reef to visit a smaller island that was inhabited by one family in one house. The waves were perfect storm mountainous. They appeared to be 40 or 50 feet high but I suspect were closer to 10 or 15 feet. Still, I felt my eyes widen several times when I spotted a huge wave about to crest close to our tiny boat. Out tiny skiff was handled skillfully though and we arrived safely at our destination. I hummed the theme to Gilligan’s Island all the way over. I was proud of Belenty for how bravely she faced the tormentuous sea.
One family, composed of 2 older adults, several young men and women and a few younger kids, inhabits Tobomoro. I strolled along the sand beach till I reached the southern end then I cut through the center of the island. The jungle had been cleared away. A chicken carcass hung from a cocoanut tree. It was mostly just feathers at this point. Further on I was surprised to see a basketball goal nailed to a cocoanut tree. Heading north I came upon an old fashion well with a fishing buoy used as a bucket (just now why I am writing this a chicken has hopped onto the bench next to me). We found numerous cocoanut shells. Belenty said they were involved in producing copra. As far as I could see that is the only cash crop here and the first evidence of agriculture I witnessed.
Figure 9 Tobomoro
Returning to the beach I put on my mask and swam a little thinking that a smaller human population would have less impact on the lagoon. I was disappointed to note the water quality was poor here. I am spoiled on Roi I guess. If the visibility drops below 100 feet we start to complain. Asheran waded into the water and found a beautiful conch that he gave to me. It matched the beautiful conches Shoeless and Belenty’s father had given me.
Next, we headed for a smaller island where the other men fished with a net landing numerous small reef fish unfit for consumption by haoles. I scoured the beach for shells and found a few nice ones.
Finally, we headed back and thankfully the sea had calmed down some. My luck finally returned and I caught 3 more fish. Shoeless caught fish almost at the same time. I think we must have hit a spot where a large school was passing by.
Christmas eve night I was missing the typical American celebrations of Christmas with my family. I tried to explain about caroling to people there but could not generate any interest. Perhaps they had heard me singing. Sometimes when I would be sitting in the hammock listening to my walkman I would look up and see someone smiling and would guess I must have been singing. I also tried to explain about mistletoe to her sisters but they didn’t seem to grasp that and I had no mistletoe to demonstrate its use.