2012-1-1 Looking Forward to Fanning Island

Most people don't know it but they have seen Fanning Island. It was the setting for the backgrounds of the TV show, Gilligan's Island. The arrow points to the location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Population: 4000

Location: Draw a line from Santiago Chile to Shanghai China, then draw one from Sydney Australia to San Francisco. Make a microscopic dot where they cross. That is Fanning Island. Few ships visit there. From the island, they see container ships going back and forth from China from time to time but not many ships visit here. 

In 1997, they had one working tractor, 3 working motor scooters, one small flat bed truck, about 100 bicycles for the 300 families totaling about 1,900 people.

Today (2012)  is not much different. There are no working tractors, 5 flat bed trucks, 20 motor scooters, 270 working bicycles and the population has increases to about 4000.

There is still no telephone, no Internet, no electricity, no hospital, and they are often out of imported food basics. Compared to the West there is nothing. But, compared to rest of Kiribati, Fanning is the richest island with golden cash flow of cruise ship money. Communication is by unreliable radio, costing $1 a minute in country, and $6 a minute overseas. The radio often does not work, or when the radio does the other island’s radio is broken. Telegrams are 17 cents a word locally including comas question marks and full stop. (period)

"If you are planning to visit: If you like you can bring some thing to share with the people: Your surplus can meet their most important needs.
-Please NO SUGARY CANDIES, the dental hygiene is generally poor and this adds to making smiling faces into toothless faces. Bring tooth paste and tooth brushes instead.

-Medical supplies for use in the 4 small island clinics are very much needed. Band-aids, cleaning solutions, hand soaps, wound care items and all other health care needs are most needed and important. Treating infections and health matters are a matter of life or death. 
-Educational materials and school supplies are great items to bring and donate
-New or used tennis/sports shoes that can be used by our local soccer team."

They often play soccer and volleyball with ship crew and passengers on ship day. The larger & wider the better because some have described their feet as wide-fat-flat “Flintstone type Feet” from going barefoot.

-Vegetable seeds such as cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, corn, melons, egg plant, green onions, and others that do well in a hot humid climate are welcome.
-Used eye glasses: prescription, reading, magnifiers. 
-Don't bring anything that requires batteries. 
-Pencils are more useful than pens.

I made a stupid mistake that I am ashamed to admit. I bought small toys for the children but I didn't give the toys to the teacher as requested. Instead I decided to give out the toys to the children directly. That caused fighting to break out. The teachers can hand out the toys as rewards which is much better than the way I did it. 

2012-1-1 Packing Toys and Pills

We are packing for two (2!) 30 day cruises back to back out of San Diego. We will visit Hawaii and the south seas then return to home port. A day later we will hop down the coast to Peru and back again. 

It's certainly the longest cruise we have ever taken and probably the longest period we will ever be away from home.

We have no pets and our children are all grown.  

We needed someone to keep an eye on our condo. Thankfully, we just got a new neighbor, Karma, who lives next door. She agreed to check it for us. 

We took a short cruise in 1992 and then another one in 1996. That first Caribbean cruise was on the S.S. Norway which was the former ocean liner, the France. The trip is a celebration for my husband's 50th birthday. The second one was for my 50th.  

The Norway was a gorgeous ship with a beautiful promenade and two pools. Our room was dinky and nothing to write home about but the ship was very nice. 

I chose a room that was in the center of the ship on a lower deck. That's usually the best place for avoiding seasickness.

We decided to start cruising again in 2009 because there was a huge sale on cruises. No one could afford to go because of the collapse of the worldwide economy.

We are taking four suitcases. Two of them hold our clothes. One is full of pills that we need and a bunch of pills that we might need. One is full of junk food and toys for children. 

You might wonder why we need a whole suitcase full of pills. I have everything in there, including Tamiflu, because two years ago there was a flu scare. I think I have every possible eventuality covered. I even have some stuff to stick our caps back on our teeth in case they fall off in Bora, Bora. 

Also, we each have a set of clothes that we soaked in Permethrin, an insecticide made of chrysanthemums that wards off all insects. This is the only insecticide that is acceptable to an Indian tribe called the Embara that we plan to visit in Panama. 

The toys are for the children on Fanning Island. People living there have no electricity and only a few vehicles. Holland America ships visit twice a year. The crew and passengers get an assessment of their needs and we all contribute to bring them needed supplies. The toys are just a bonus.