Cook Islands Update # 7

Update # 7 – Saturday, March 18, 2006 – My Adventure to the Outer Islands
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Kia Orana! (Good Day) I HAVE RETURNED!!! My week’s adventure to Mitiaro was “one of a kind”! This is just a short note as I will compose a longer accounting tomorrow and post it.
STATEMENT: You know you have gone to a remote location when:
- Flying there you see a SHORT dirt runway!
- Your pilot places a sunscreen over the windshield (while flying) so the sun doesn’t get in his eyes!
- He spends the 45 minute flight reading the sports section of the newspaper!

….and so began my journey…. Here are just a few of my new experiences…

- eating eel, barracuda, breadfruit (tastes like sheetrock), taro leaves, paw-paw
- not have AC or a fan
- being served Spaghetti-O’s on toast for breakfast
- finally not inquiring about what was on the plate
- teaching Red Cross CPR/First Aid in Maori
- being called Papa Jimmy
- Hot water – what’s that?
- Tap water that is salty and often has “floaties”
- Being in a minority of ONE!
- Being sincerely appreciated for one’s work
- Taking for granted all that we have and others do not.
- Mitiaro makes Cranberry Isle seem like a roaring metropolis
- Amazed at how these islanders survive and worried about their future
- Meeting the most friendly, happy and welcoming people

A few of the phptos – more tomorrow