It’s my guess that there isn’t a lot of tourists traveling through Tarawa – the Tarawa website reads “Tarawa: for Travelers not Tourists”. As a result I have had a great time talking with locals who seem more than open to chat to this Canadian, and in two separate occasions I’ve been invited back to their homes. The first guy to invite me to his home was ‘Tarabpru’ who I met as soon as I arrived at my hotel. Tarabpru befriended me as I was on my search for toothpaste. He showed me to a local store which was out of toothpaste, but thankfully had cold beer. My new friend and I chit-chatted a bit on my way back to the hotel and before parting ways he invited me to check out his place (which is across from the hotel). I’ve never visited a neighborhood like this. Everyone lives in open cabanas that are packed pretty tightly together, leaving very little room for privacy. It’s pretty easy to see that the average person lives on less than $4.00 / day. Tarabpru showed me to his house and soon after asked me if I wanted to help him harvest Taddy, which is essentially syrup from coconut trees that after fomenting in the sun for 3 days turns into a liquor. I agreed, I had no idea what I was in for…

Keep in mind that I have been traveling for 40 plus hours and a little delirious. After gathering empty bottles from his house that had twine tied to the end of them, Tarabpru and I headed out into his backyard. Before I knew it he was scampering up a coconut tree, a half a dozen bottles in hand. Soon ‘T’ was calling me up, and against my wife’s better judgment, I was following him up. I was pleased to see that the locals had cut steps into the trees which makes it a little easier to climb but it still is a pretty committed climb. Immediately ‘T’ had me tying off bottles and channeling the syrup into the bottles with palm leaves. They leave the bottles hanging for 12 hours and then return to gather their booty. He offered me a taste of some of the harvested syrup, I declined as I thought I might need my wits to exit the tree.

I helped ‘T’ with a few other trees and headed out, not before he offered to take me around the island on a motor bike. We are supposed to meet up today – we will see if he shows.

I am blown away with how open these people are to invite you into their home. I live on a street in N. Vancouver that is a regular route for tourists who want to visit the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge – it has never occurred to me once to invite one of these visitors into my home. Although I really don’t know what kind of excitement I could show them, save for game of Blokus.