We did get the refueling done. From a 55 gallon drum, into a bucket, into a funnel, into our jerry cans. Respect the man in full gear at these temperatures:
As luck has it, Tuvalu is celebrating independence this Friday with an additional day off on Monday. While most of the little shops will be closed, we will be watching the parade of the police brigade and whatever else Tuvalu has to offer on a big party weekend.
Here is one other boat, anchored in the atoll: "La Gitana" with Michaela and Volker, from Germany. They have spent 4 years in the South Pacific and are a great resource of information, besides being fun to be with.
The island has a very different touch and feel to anything we have been before. There is almost no tourism here, and only few yachts pass though here. But one can see sturdily built homes, a new 3 story government building. Sure, there is also some rotting infrastructure from colonial and WW-II times.
We wondered where this wealth is coming from and learned a few interesting tidbits:
- There is a marine academy school, seems to be a very good one, and the seaman then often serve on German ships. These seamen bring home some significant income to this island nation.
- Tuvalu got lucky and had reserved the .tv extension for internet domain names and is marketing, selling this range of domain names
- Tuvalu is a place where global warming will have a great impact. Whether meaningful or not, many nations, are spending all kind of money on (pet-) projects. Taiwan built the new government building, Japan built a power plant, every house has a huge plastic water storage tank, paid by the EU, to catch the rain running of the roofs, Australia supplied the police patrol boat and several advisors to the government........
- With global warming and rising water levels, some journalists, as well as a few tourists, come here to see and document the oncoming catastrophe.
The island does have an airstip. Two planes a week are scheduled. Usually the airstrip is being used as a road or as a soccer field. Yesterday, Thursday, the plane from Fiji came in. This is a major event. Police and fire-brigade use the sirens they have to clear the airstrip and block access from the side roads. Just before the plane lands or starts, a police car chases down the runway to make sure no kids, pigs, dogs or debris are in the way of the plane.
