{"id":40170,"date":"2018-04-16T18:56:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=40170"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:00:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T21:00:01","slug":"discover-local-customs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/discover-local-customs\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Local Customs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Beach <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Cultures can clash over something as simple as a beach barbecue \u2014 one never knows if the sticks on the sand may be needed for a different purpose.<\/span>\n Josh Holloway<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

A hush consumed the entire maneaba, a Kiribati meeting hut. My lovely wife, Heidi, and I sat crisscross on the dirt floor, fidgeting awkwardly, keenly aware that all the villagers were staring at us in disapproval. A few moments earlier, Heidi and I had been chatting enthusiastically about our previous day\u2019s fishing catch, and how we had enjoyed cooking it up over a beach fire in the nearby cove.\nA villager had asked, \u201cWhere did you get your wood?\u201d\n\u201cFrom the beach. There were plenty of sticks,\u201d I responded. And now here we were, in an awkward silence, our sins about to be conveyed to us by one of the elders. What had I done this time?\nI admit, I had a particular aptitude for faux pas when it came to Kiribati culture. A clear example occurred the first time we were invited to the island\u2019s Catholic church service. The preacher finished his sermon and invited the congregation to lie down for a siesta. \u201cWow, Heid, I\u2019m diggin\u2019 this church\u2019s style,\u201d I said, as I quickly adjusted my position from cross-legged on the floor to flat on my back, hands behind my head, toes in the air like I just don\u2019t …\n\u201cUhhhhhhhh!\u201d\n\u201cAhhhhhh!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

People were gasping. People were talking rapidly in Gilbertese, the Kiribati language. They were pointing fingers at me. They were pointing fingers at my feet \u2014 the bottoms of my bare feet. The preacher looked at me sternly and said, \u201cNever point the bottom of your foot at a person.\u201d I looked at my feet, the soles of which were pointed directly where? Directly at him! \n\u201cOh! Oh! I\u2019m so, so, sorry!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Does \u201csorry\u201d cut it when you\u2019ve just done the equivalent of flipping the preacher the bird, in church? Luckily,\u00a0the preacher was the forgiving sort, and he accepted my profuse apologies, recognizing that I was extraordinarily ignorant, having sailed in from another planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In my defense, the 33 islands spread out across the Pacific that make up the nation of Kiribati \u2014 and the culture of the people that inhabit them \u2014 just never found their way into my formal Pennsylvania education. Before leaving on the 2,000-mile sail from Hawaii to Kanton, Kiribati, aboard our engineless Pacific Seacraft 25, Tiny Bubbles<\/em>, I had only met two people \u2014 hardcore cruisers through and through \u2014 who had been to Kiribati. They had confirmed that, “Yes, it does exist,” and “Yes, it does hold the Holy Grail.” So it was off to the Kiribati, pronounced “ki-ri-bas.” We told friends and family about our plans, and each of them, though highly intelligent and reasonably well educated, would get a perplexed look before asking, “Kiri-ba-what?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Makeshift <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Thinking that it\u2019s perhaps safer to eat on board, Josh set up a makeshift fire pit on the foredeck.<\/span>\n Josh Holloway<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Luck was with us on the voyage, aside from a nasty \u201ctropical wave\u201d that made us one with the ditch bag. It was a week of mast-slapping, insanity-inducing, marriage\u00ad- \ntesting wallowing in the doldrums, capped off by a missed tack that was abruptly followed by a crash landing\/grounding at the entrance to Kanton\u2019s lagoon. I\u2019d say things went about as well as could have been expected for my wife and me on our honeymoon voyage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

So here we were on Kanton, with its 40 inhabitants, of which about half were children. It is the only inhabited island of the eight atolls that make up Kiribati\u2019s Phoenix Islands group. The residents there work for the government, which mostly consists of being a human presence, surviving on a coral atoll 1,100 miles from the mother island of Tarawa. They have no stores, no telephones (everything is via SSB radio) and an inconsistent supply ship. During the three months we were there, it never arrived, making it about half a year late. What Kanton lacked in Western convenience (everything), it made up for in that gritty, one-with-nature, live-by-the-spear-or-die-of-starvation experience that we were drawn to as unconventional newlyweds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Plentiful <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Although the supply ship never arrived during their three-month stay at Kanton Island, the seafood was plentiful.<\/span>\n Josh Hollowday<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Occasionally, we got ill, very ill. It was difficult to practice Western hygiene in a world without soap or running water, so the phrase “Oh, you’ve been eating sweets again” became all too meaningful. It was a quote borrowed from our favorite reference book, Where There Is No Doctor<\/em><\/a>, by David Werner. After spending seven months in Kiribati, the pages were beginning to fall out. There’s no beating around the bush in this plain-English text, and Heidi and I could relate with the pages dedicated to intestinal distress. Our favorite quote went something like this: “If Junior is sick, his mother may say it’s because he’s been eating sweets. It’s not. It’s because he has been eating s—!” Cross contamination is a real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The oldest member in the maneaba was ready to speak now, on matters concerning our previous day\u2019s cookout on the beach. \u201cYou must never do that again!\u201d We nodded gravely, though still oblivious to our crime. \u201cThose sticks that you pick up. Those\u00a0sticks are, how do you say? Those sticks are Kiribati toilet paper.\u201d I could sense my tummy rumbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, Josh, I think we\u2019ve been eating sweets again!\u201d Heidi chuckled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Heidi and Josh Holloway are currently cruising the U.S. East Coast with their three young crewmates aboard Tiny Bubbles II.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cultural faux pas adds some spice to this couple’s cruising life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Josh Holloway","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20180416","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"162","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"On a visit to Kirabati, a sailing couple's barbecue lands them in hot water.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Discover Local Customs %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"TSV2TR6SGGD2SDWYZRS2YMGJTM","arc_website_url":"discover-local-customs\/","custom_permalink":"discover-local-customs\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[205,202,735,241],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}