Our First Day....

Well ... it has taken some time but I finally begin my blog.  I start with an admission.  I am a 38 year old woman and I am a virgin.  I have never flirted with blogging, I have never been in love with the blog, god knows I have no idea how to blog.   So brace yourself and note the date because I am about to lose my virginity.  I can't promise that I'll stimulate you or bring you to any kind of climax but I can give you all permission to watch and to join in.  Well not the action itself but you are free to comment on my experiences and my improved abilities.  We all know that practice makes perfect and once I lose my virginity, I'm heading straight for hard core blogging.  I wanna blog as often as I can, and wherever I can you.  I wanna try as many techniques of blogging as I can. I even wanna group blog.  So things may get a wee bit HOT in this blog!!!

Ummm so where were we? Yes I am moving to Nauru with the beautiful man I call my husband ...

17 January 2011
The flight to Nauru leaves from Brisbane so we departed the shores of Melbourne headed for the sunshine State.  The flight from Melbourne to Brisbane was pretty tough.  Well there was no turbulance as such but there was no lots of tears and lots of anxiety.   I wondered whether I was making the right decision. I actually contemplated catching the next flight back to Melbourne but not having a place to live, or chambers to return to, snapped me back to reality.  I'd come this far so maybe I should give it a go.  Simon and I made a pact there and then - love it or hate it, we'd commit to the one year. Sigh.

The flight from Brisbane was unremarkable well except for one small thing - our stopover in Honiara.  That word stopover misled me to believe that we would disembark while stopping.  Standard aviation practice you might think?  Um, well no.  The air host tells us to unbuckle our seat beat and get ready to make an emergency exit.  Well .. not immediately so don't panic = only if there's any problems refuelling - like a fire or an explosion and then you should calmly make your way to your closest exit ....

I should have known at that very moment, that life in the Pacific, specifically on the tiny island 42km south of the equator, was going to be one rollercoaster ride after another, designed to teach me blow by blow, that every single aspect of life as I know it was going to change.  Actually it had changed I just didn't realise it.

18 January
So 15 hours after we'd said our final goodbyes, we landed in Noero (Nauru).  As we started walking down the stairs of the plane, I was instantly hit by a wave of heat.  It was so humid!  And there were literally hundreds of people.  The airport building was tiny but there were people literally hanging from everywhere.  As we walked along the tarmak, I was approached by someone saying hello and introducing himself as David.  He was the head of customs and quarantine = well the Department, so we were able to skip right past both.  Despite my admissions on my customs form that I had various food, alcohol and cigarettes - even more than I was supposed to, no one seemed to care.  In fact we left our passports with some Nauruan man and off into the night we went.  David's car was literally parked about 15 metres from the plane!!

About the car.  I was having a de ja vu!! Thailand 1997. Let me set the scene. It's a hot steamy night.  My dress is sticking to places it shouldn't.  My pick up is a 1985 toyota (similar to an old camry).  Silver duco with lots of rust. The door opens ... enter white sheepskin covers, AC set on 15 degrees, and every instruction in the car in chinese.    The seat pushed so close to the dash that my breasts end up having a close encounter with the dashboard.

The drive to our apartment is a bit of a blur.  David was babbling about this building being this and that building being that but it was pitch black and I couldn't see jack.   All I remember was him telling me that we were going a different way home because the usual road was closed due to the plane.  Yes, you heard right - closed so the plane can land!  Actually, the air strip is as long as the island is wide - save for a single lane road at both ends. And yes, the road to the airport is closed when all planes fly in and out of Nauru. 

Simon definitely earnt his keep when he carted all our bags through the crushed rock and up the 30 odd stairs to our new abode.  After a few quick instructions from David, Simon and I were standing in the middle of our kitchen come dining room come lounge room.  It was past 6am at this stage and bed was a calling ...

Our apartment.  Apartment 4, Ewa Apartments. We are on the second floor. We do have a balcony which is probably best described as a walkway but we do have a bbq!  The apartment itself is quite small but it is comfortable. It has all the modern conveniences and I hasten to guess that every item of furniture was purchased from Ikea!!  It sits at the back of the largest store in Nauru.  It's called Capelle and Partner and sells food, furniture, kitchen and household items, clothes, shoes, stationary, personal effects, bicycles, haberdashery, material, fishing equipment, it's got a photo lab,  a car rental place, a tailor and pretty much everything else you might want (or should I say can find) here.

In Nauruan terms we are pretty privileged. We have 24 hour electricty and water.  Until 12 months ago, electricity was quite irregular and unstable here.  It would only operate for about 8 hours a day.  Apparently in the 10 or so months before we arrived, the electricity supply had improved substantially: sometimes it was even available for 18 hours a day.  But a combination of factors including a broken generator, has meant that electricity is again quite unreliable.

So we hit the sack in our new bed in our new home in our new suburb in our new country!   zzzzzzzzzzz

To be continued .....