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Episode 9: Taylor Everett - Kiribati - Tarawa & Makin
55 Plays29 days ago
Taylor Everett served in the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission, Kiribati region from 2010 - 2012. Before leaving the MTC after no language training at all, they told Taylor he was going to the Kiribati side of the mission where he would start on Tarawa. After time on Tarawa, Taylor went to the coveted northern island of Makin where he fell in love with the people and island. A unique disagreement between the Kiribati government and the landowners in Makin disrupted all plane service to the island for months, so the only way off was by sea. Taylor married a Kiribati girl (story for another podcast) and carries on the traditions and language of Kiribati every day.
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMission #MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Makin #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia
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Transcript
Meet Taylor Everett
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
All right, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast with Taylor Everett, one of our Kitabas elders.
Life in Alaska and Utah
00:00:10
Darin Tingey
um Taylor, give a quick background on yourself, where you're from, and where you live now.
00:00:17
Ewerete
So i was born in Utah and raised in Northwest Alaska above the Arctic Circle. And now I'm back in Southern Utah. So that's pretty much it and in a nutshell.
00:00:26
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:00:27
Ewerete
Yeah.
00:00:28
Darin Tingey
That's Alaska. That's curveball.
00:00:31
Ewerete
Yeah. No, that's, yeah. I grew up in like, uh, I grew up north of Nome and south of Barrow on the West coast. So,
00:00:38
Darin Tingey
You act like I know where that is. i have no idea that is, but it's okay.
00:00:41
Ewerete
um,
00:00:43
Ewerete
Like northwest, like 30 miles above the Arctic Circle on the West Coast.
00:00:44
Darin Tingey
and
00:00:47
Ewerete
So.
00:00:48
Darin Tingey
So did you go to high school in Alaska?
00:00:51
Ewerete
Yes, that's where I graduated high school and everything. So.
00:00:54
Darin Tingey
ah Okay.
College and Mission Call
00:00:56
Ewerete
Yeah,
00:00:57
Darin Tingey
And um let's see, when when did you graduate high school and then from graduating high school to getting your mission call, when when was that?
00:01:07
Ewerete
So I graduated in 2009, so quite a while ago.
00:01:12
Ewerete
Um, and then I got my mission call. I came down to Dixie and St. George and went to a year of college and I got my mission call down in St.
00:01:12
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:01:18
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:01:20
Ewerete
George. Um, so June, well, I got it, I guess in like, I don't know, what it like March, March of 2010 to leave in June.
00:01:30
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:01:30
Ewerete
So it was a pretty short turnaround. So yeah.
00:01:34
Darin Tingey
And you were the, when it was, started to be 19 years old when you went out on your mission.
00:01:38
Ewerete
Yeah, so I had to be, which is why I went to a year of college.
00:01:40
Darin Tingey
Is that right?
00:01:41
Ewerete
Yeah, so I basically, i graduated and turned 18, and I had a whole year that I had to, had to kill. So I went to college for a year and did that whole fun thing.
00:01:49
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:01:52
Darin Tingey
what was What was it like opening your mission call?
00:01:53
Ewerete
So been so basically, nobody was down here, because it was just like me and my brother were down at college, and then So I picked up the the mission call from the mailbox and then got on FaceTime with my parents because they were still up in Alaska.
00:02:12
Ewerete
and not FaceTime, i guess it would have been like
Mission Preparation
00:02:14
Ewerete
Skype or something. And it was the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission.
00:02:16
Darin Tingey
Skype? Yeah.
00:02:20
Ewerete
And so like, i was like, where is this? Like, this sounds like it's like, i don't know, East Coast, somewhere off the East Coast in America, like Marshall Islands. I've never heard of that before.
00:02:30
Ewerete
And it was English speaking.
00:02:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:32
Ewerete
yeah. yeah So you know how that goes?
00:02:35
Darin Tingey
Did it say like Kitabas region at all or did it just say Marsh Island's Madro Mission?
00:02:39
Ewerete
No. So it only said Marshall Islands, Maguro Mission, and then, yeah, English speaking. So.
00:02:46
Darin Tingey
That's so funny. They must have, like president must have like just like sent out the calls and then like wherever he needed someone, one he's like, all right, this person's going to Kitabas. This person's going to the Marshals.
00:02:55
Ewerete
She waited. So, like, we found out about halfway through the MTC where everybody was going. So, like, I don't think he made any calls until, until it was like, and some of them had gotten word from their moms.
00:03:03
Darin Tingey
wow
00:03:09
Ewerete
Cause you know, there's, there's those moms out there who we all know and love, uh, that were like bugging president about where their kid was really destined to go.
00:03:19
Ewerete
And so some of them kind of knew earlier the MTC and they were just kind of keeping quiet cause they weren't sure where the rest of us were going to go. So they just kind of kept it to themselves. And then, yeah. So,
00:03:31
Darin Tingey
It's kind of crazy because it's not just like, oh, you're going you know you're going to this area. It's like, oh, you're going to this country and you're learning this language.
00:03:39
Ewerete
Yeah, no, it's like FYI.
00:03:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:41
Ewerete
they gave They gave us both name badges in the MTC. And so like people would all be like, oh, what language are you speaking? Like, oh yeah, this one. But I don't know what it is because we're learning English. So they like the Marshallese name badge and the Kitabas one. It was like an innie me innie mind mode, like right till the very bitter end, right before they put us on a plane.
00:03:58
Ewerete
And so then, yeah, it's good stuff.
00:04:00
Darin Tingey
That's pretty cool. i I have both too, just because I served in both. I was happy they got me a Kiribati when I went to Kiribati. That was fun. It's fun to have both.
00:04:11
Ewerete
Did you change the spelling on yours at all or no?
00:04:12
Darin Tingey
um
00:04:14
Ewerete
Wow.
00:04:16
Darin Tingey
No, I just kept it. i mean i went by Marshallese. I went by Elder Thanky. So my last name is Tingy. Thanky means flashlight in Marshallese.
00:04:28
Ewerete
and Okay.
00:04:28
Darin Tingey
And then in Kinnabist, they're like, all the elders like, ah, dude, your last name is like fart, right?
00:04:33
Ewerete
and Not good for translation, yeah.
00:04:34
Darin Tingey
see ah so So
00:04:35
Ewerete
No.
Journey to the Marshall Islands
00:04:38
Darin Tingey
I would be like, I'm Elder Singy, you know, like they'd die laughing.
00:04:42
Darin Tingey
They thought it was so funny.
00:04:43
Ewerete
yeah true true good point i didn't think about that oh cool
00:04:47
Darin Tingey
ah So, yeah, that that was – people had a at ah at a good laugh when I was in Kitabas, which was funny. But, okay, so you find out the MTC, you're going to Kitabas.
00:05:00
Darin Tingey
ah You're probably like, cool. ah so really You probably didn't do – I don't know how much research you did on the mission, but like, all right, I'm going to Kitabas. You're going to the Marshalls. And then you get there.
00:05:08
Ewerete
I Googled Marshall Islands and that was it.
00:05:09
Darin Tingey
and What was it like? yeah.
00:05:12
Ewerete
Like just tiny little speck in the ocean that you like zoomed for forever. And you're like, geez, where we going? but
00:05:20
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:05:20
Ewerete
Yeah, no, i didn't I didn't have much time for like researching Kittabas. The teachers were like, I feel like they served back east somewhere, like New York. like They weren't language teachers at all. and So zero inkling as far as like what we were getting into. They dropped us off the airport in Salt Lake. We flew to l LA then flew to Hawaii and then had to stay that night in Hawaii. So we got set with a set of missionaries over in Hawaii and went out tracting that night and Everything like that. And the next morning went to district meeting and then they put us back on the plane, went to Christmas Island, landed there first on the way over to BG.
00:05:57
Ewerete
And then like, didn't get off the plane, just looked out the window and was like, oh man, rough.
00:06:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:03
Ewerete
It's a little bit rough, you know. But it was cool. like We were getting pumped, you know, like and then went to Fiji, and then no one was there. Like the classic other side of heaven, nobody was at the airport.
00:06:14
Ewerete
I'm pretty sure it was like every set of missionaries ever to go through Fiji. It's like... There's like nobody was.
00:06:19
Darin Tingey
ha
00:06:21
Ewerete
And they're like, oh, we'll call the missionaries. They'll come get you. We slept on the floor and freaking on the like benches in Fiji. Like no jackets too.
00:06:28
Darin Tingey
no way
00:06:29
Ewerete
Fiji's cold. Fiji's cold in June. Like it wasn't like warm. Like we were freezing our butts off. Like it didn't have any like blankets or anything like that. were just like trying to stay warm in our suit jackets and everything.
00:06:41
Ewerete
But then, yeah, the next morning they, yeah go ahead.
00:06:45
Darin Tingey
I'm surprised. was gonna say, I'm surprised you flew through Hawaii. yeah Like, um why did they just send you straight to Fiji?
00:06:54
Ewerete
i don't I don't know.
00:06:54
Darin Tingey
Like Hawaii Christmas Fiji?
00:06:54
Ewerete
like But I think back then it was Air Pacific that flew. So prior to Air Fiji, I think I was on Air Pacific.
00:07:01
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:07:04
Ewerete
Yeah, because I remember the yellow and orange tail fin. So I don't know.
00:07:11
Darin Tingey
That's awesome.
00:07:11
Ewerete
Yeah, I think we flew Air Pacific to Fiji. I think we made all the way to the Kittabas maybe. I don't um quite remember. But yeah, we got there and then next morning, because they made us leave with all of our bags and the mission had us bring two bags, ah we had to check in the next morning and Fiji wanted to charge us all for our extra bags.
00:07:29
Ewerete
And um remember all of us were just like, oh crap, like we don't like we don't have money for this.
00:07:30
Darin Tingey
ah
00:07:34
Ewerete
like We don't have Fijian money. you know like and And a lot of us were just like, oh great, this is mine.
00:07:36
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:07:39
Ewerete
We weren't planning for that. And a lot of them didn't have anything. suitcases. I had duffel bags because I grew up in Alaska. So I just like tied
Adjusting to Kitabas
00:07:46
Ewerete
my duffel bags together and threw it back on the scale and was kind of a little bit cock on this. And just like, dude, there's my one bag, weigh it. like They didn't like it, but I stuck and stuck it to them.
00:07:53
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha.
00:07:56
Ewerete
And then, but the rest of the guys were like panicking and then, uh, uh, what is his name? Elder.
00:08:04
Ewerete
oh goodness. He's the Fijian 70 elder. elder Oh my goodness. It's probably because i'm not supposed to say his name on here.
00:08:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I know who you're talking about.
00:08:16
Ewerete
um Daniela, ah his name is Wacolo, Elder Wacolo. Elder Wacolo came like out of nowhere. So we're like trying to catch our flight like 5am or whatever it was. And Elder Wacolo was like, no, out of nowhere, like church credit card or whatever, maybe as his own personal credit card paid for all the missionaries bags.
00:08:32
Ewerete
So like came in clutch last minute.
00:08:34
Darin Tingey
wow
00:08:34
Ewerete
Everybody was panicking. And then he took us, we were all starving too, because we hadn't eaten all night. Cause none of us had to feel like, i don't know. We didn't have Fijian money. Anyway, we're pretty dumb anyways. So he like took us for like a couple of us. He took us over to like the first class area, like to grab some snacks and whatever.
00:08:52
Ewerete
So like grab some snacks and brought them back out to the rest of the missionaries headed for Kitabas. was pretty cool. It was like definitely one of those moments where you like questioned it like, did I, did I just meet one of the three new fights, you know?
00:08:58
Darin Tingey
That's sick.
00:09:01
Ewerete
Like, but then you find out who he was later and you're like okay, that's fair.
00:09:04
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:09:05
Ewerete
But it was like, it was really weird.
00:09:07
Ewerete
There was nobody in, nobody in the airport. It was totally empty. And this guy just out of nowhere, i'm like, came in clutch, but yeah.
00:09:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah, just like...
00:09:16
Darin Tingey
That's crazy. and And you guys just sleeping on the floor in Fiji, I'm sure, hopefully they've got it planned out better now, but man, that's...
00:09:25
Ewerete
I hear that. No, that's scary.
00:09:27
Darin Tingey
well
00:09:27
Ewerete
I did this part out. but yeah know is Yeah. Slept on the floor in Fiji and on the benches. It's good stuff.
00:09:36
Darin Tingey
That's awesome. Um, how many were going to Kitabas and how many were going to the marshals from the MTC?
00:09:44
Ewerete
We had one sister that went to Marshall's. I think she was Tongan. I can't honestly remember her name. Um, And then actually I remember her name. I think her name was like Sister Fangovia, something like that. I can't say her name properly, but then four elders to Kitabas.
00:10:03
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:10:03
Ewerete
And that was like, right. I don't know.
00:10:04
Darin Tingey
And then
00:10:04
Ewerete
should probably get a little backstory too. Like, so the mission president that sent us our our paperwork, um his daughter got in like a car crash. And so he got released with his wife and they went home.
00:10:15
Ewerete
And so they called the new mission president. like in the interim of when I got my like follow-up packet, right? It's the initial mission call. And then like when we went to the MTC.
00:10:24
Darin Tingey
ah
00:10:25
Ewerete
So President Shaw started his mission with with us pretty much. so
00:10:30
Darin Tingey
Okay. And was he your mission president the whole time?
00:10:34
Ewerete
Yes. So he went he was there for a whole nother year after we left, I think. Yeah,
00:10:40
Darin Tingey
Okay. Where was he from? States?
00:10:43
Ewerete
yeah he's from here in Utah. He was a Marine. So he's pretty... pretty strict, but good is good.
00:10:48
Darin Tingey
pretty strict.
00:10:49
Ewerete
Yeah. think this didn't mess around too much, but
00:10:51
Darin Tingey
Okay.
Challenges and Humor in Mission Travel
00:10:53
Darin Tingey
Did he spend more time in the marsh islands or Kitabas?
00:10:56
Ewerete
he spent more time in Marshall islands. I saw him, I think maybe four times and that might even be a skewed statistic.
00:11:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:08
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:11:09
Ewerete
So for sure too, I think I saw him for sure. Twice, maybe more. I'd say four, probably is a safe estimate.
00:11:18
Darin Tingey
And is is that because he was just in the marshals more often or because you're on outer island or just the combination of it all?
00:11:25
Ewerete
um
00:11:28
Ewerete
Like, he came, i think he came twice pretty early on to kind of get the mission lined out. And then came for, want to say like Christmas and then like right before I went home, something like that.
00:11:41
Ewerete
But yeah, i was on Outer Island. I was on one of the Outer Islands for like five, almost six months. like not like
00:11:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:50
Ewerete
So that probably wasn't prohibitive as well.
00:11:51
Darin Tingey
it it's it's interesting It's interesting to hear, because I mean, you and i have texted about this, and of like, which mission presidents spend their time where, right?
00:11:59
Ewerete
Mm-hmm.
00:12:05
Darin Tingey
Like, my mission president spent most of his time in Kitabas. and And he would... The flight was from Air Nauru, and it would fly from Kiribati to the Marshall Islands on Friday, and then from Marshall Islands back to Kiribati on Sunday.
00:12:24
Darin Tingey
So he would come on Friday... stay for a day and a half, and then he'd go back to Kitabas for like three weeks. So that's what that's kind of his that was his schedule and plan.
00:12:32
Ewerete
Oh, dang.
00:12:35
Darin Tingey
So we didn't see him a ton in the Marshall Islands side. I mean, ah granted, he had a lot more missionaries. He had like three times as many missionaries on the Kitabas side.
00:12:46
Darin Tingey
And... But, and it's lot more work, but yeah, it's just interesting. Like each mission president kind of spends more time in one country or the other, and it affects the mission, the missionaries in that country.
00:13:01
Ewerete
No, yeah. Like, I mean, yes. Yes, and I don't know. Like,
00:13:09
Ewerete
i wasn't, like, too bummed out or butt hurt, however you want to say it. Like, I don't know.
00:13:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah. it Yeah.
00:13:15
Ewerete
Like, because it it didn't have it didn't have too much sway on, like, i guess that we had to go out and work every day. um
00:13:24
Darin Tingey
sorry
00:13:25
Ewerete
But it did have impact on... the struggle with the, I mean, the struggles a kid of a side face that definitely had had its impact. Um, but it's a, it's a hard play. Like it, which side do you spend it on?
00:13:39
Ewerete
Like you're mentioning, like the flights are a flipping mess and air maybe was really like air maybe pretty hardcore back then. Like, and think they had a part that they were waiting on for.
00:13:48
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:13:50
Ewerete
So he had to fly all the way back to Hawaii, then back to Fiji, then back to Tadawa. So like there was no sort or option.
00:13:56
Darin Tingey
Oh gosh.
00:14:00
Ewerete
Um, and I don't know why they're routing from Hawaii too. That was, yeah. like you had to go. Yeah. think the only other flight that went through Fiji was just Fiji to Christmas. Yeah. So if you're going to Christmas, you'd go back through Fiji, but I think everything went else routed through Hawaii.
00:14:13
Ewerete
So don't quote me on it though.
00:14:15
Darin Tingey
If you feel like this mission, like
00:14:17
Ewerete
I'm getting old, you know, so it could be foggy little bit.
00:14:19
Darin Tingey
yeah yeah you feel like this mission might, uh, might be the only mission in in the world that needs it its own private jet. Go to all the different islands.
00:14:28
Ewerete
Oh, for sure. For sure. No, for sure. Like, if not a private jet, a Learjet would be the most appropriate for sure. Like some kind of like little tiny private jet. Yeah. Quinn prop.
00:14:39
Ewerete
That's a little sketchy. You definitely want a jet, but yeah. Yep.
00:14:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay. So, so, okay. you' You're in Fiji, you hop on the plane, you go to Kiribati, you land in Tarawa. What's the initial reaction when you land in Tarawa?
00:14:56
Ewerete
The humidity, like just the heat. And back then too, like, i don't know how it was. Did they finish the airport when you were there or was it still the old airport?
00:15:04
Darin Tingey
um I think it was the new, yeah, I think so.
00:15:05
Ewerete
I think you had the new airport.
00:15:08
Ewerete
So like the best I can describe the old airport would be,
00:15:17
Ewerete
going to choose my words carefully here.
Cultural Immersion in Kitabas
00:15:19
Ewerete
Like similar to like a tin roofed,
00:15:23
Ewerete
Kind of like, I don't know, it reminds me of like the barns are around here, like a tin roof. Like there was wood siding, wood there was venting up near the top of the roof.
00:15:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:15:31
Ewerete
I don't think there was really any insulation. It was all vaulted and tin roof. So while you were waiting to get your bags, you were just like baking inside this building. Like by the time we got out of the building, our suits were totally soaked.
00:15:44
Ewerete
And we all thought we were like meeting president or something, right? Like no one had communicated how it was going to be. So we're like trying to keep our suits on and everything. And like, we got out there and like the zone meters were there with a flatbed truck. We threw the bags up in the back and hopped in the back of the truck. Like that was it. Like president wasn't in the country.
00:16:02
Ewerete
So yeah. And then we ditched our suits at the senior couples houses and our dress shoes and threw on the Crocs and rocked the short sleeve shirt and a tie for the rest of the the time there.
00:16:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:14
Ewerete
so
00:16:15
Darin Tingey
Were you guys allowed to wear flip flops or did you have to wear Crocs?
00:16:19
Ewerete
President Shaw didn't like us to wear flip-flops. The only people that got to wear flip-flops is like people that, don't know, there's a few others, like one of them got his foot ran over. don't even how he managed it, but he was able to wear like flip-flops while his toe did its thing. But for the most part, we were supposed to wear closed-toed shoes and stuff. but So Crocs, some really...
00:16:37
Darin Tingey
That's rough. i was I was so grateful that my president was like, I get there, I land, he's like the flip-flops. Like, what's up elders? And I'm like, yes, thank you. Like flip-flops, like I can do this.
00:16:50
Ewerete
i met I met President Larkin when I went back. he's I was pretty impressed. He's good guy.
00:16:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he is good dude.
00:16:59
Ewerete
i was I was there when he called the branch president in Tamayku.
00:17:01
Darin Tingey
of
00:17:03
Ewerete
So that was cool.
00:17:05
Darin Tingey
That's pretty cool. I hope, ah President Larkin, if you're listening, I hope to have you on the pod. um So you get you get the thought of what? They throw your bags in They take you to Murna High School or where they take you?
00:17:17
Ewerete
ah They took us straight to, well, yeah, we went to, think we went and dropped off the stuff at the Zone Leaders flat in Eta. And I don't even know if that's a still a house or not there, but we threw all the bags out and we stayed at their house, I want to say like two days.
00:17:32
Ewerete
And we slept on the floor, just right in the entryway, like right in the living room, not entryway. I shouldn't say that living room area.
00:17:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:39
Ewerete
yeah um
00:17:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:17:41
Ewerete
And yeah, like just, it was hot, but yeah, then we went to Moroni for a little bit and then they took us straight to like the health training of like, make sure your food's cooked all the way.
00:17:54
Ewerete
The water's boiled and like, you know, the whole, the whole, the whole, uh, yeah.
00:17:55
Darin Tingey
sure, sure. Yeah. so sorry
00:18:00
Ewerete
And then the zone leaders stood up afterwards and were like, Hey, we thank the senior couples for their words of encouragement and whatever. And they're like, Hey, if you get, if you get given food, you eat it. If you get sick, you get sick.
00:18:11
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:18:12
Ewerete
It's okay. If they give you a drink, you drink it. Like, Like, it was it was kind of like and kind of like we got the kosher the kosher version, and then it was like the, here's how it really is.
00:18:18
Darin Tingey
I know.
00:18:23
Ewerete
So, that. Let's
00:18:25
Darin Tingey
and It's so funny how like that still happens today. Like when I was on my mission, same thing. Mission presence wife's like, don't drink the water. If they give you food, say thank you and take it home and just don't eat it. And I'm like, what?
00:18:38
Darin Tingey
What? And then the missionaries stand up. Yeah.
00:18:40
Ewerete
see.
00:18:40
Darin Tingey
Like are the missionaries tell you later, like you're going to drink all the water. You're going eat all the food. Like throw that water bottle. They gave us like a water bottle that had like a filter, like throw it away. Like you don't need that.
00:18:52
Ewerete
we didn't We didn't get that. We did have the pump filters. But yeah, like, no. Yeah, no water bottles with filters. we had We had one missionary.
00:19:01
Ewerete
He got, like, I want to swear, like, yeah.
00:19:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:02
Darin Tingey
I mean, they were crap. We threw them away.
00:19:05
Ewerete
It was good times. Yeah. So then from there to, like, Baso was my first. Do you want to go a quick run through of all my areas real fast? Or how do you want to go? don't know.
00:19:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, quick, yep, yep. Quick run through rub the areas, then we'll start from the beginning.
00:19:16
Ewerete
so So I started in Beso 2nd, which kind of helped me get ah acclimated um
00:19:26
Ewerete
nicely, I guess. ah
00:19:28
Ewerete
Just, you know, there's more stores and, you know, like more kind of like food you'd come in contact with here in the States. That being
00:19:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
Experiences in Baso and Bikinibu
00:19:38
Ewerete
said, the town I grew up in was...
00:19:38
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:19:42
Ewerete
pretty remote. So I wasn't like totally foreign to it it. was just like a frozen version of life versus like an island life of the same kind of lifestyle. So, so it wasn't totally shocking in that regard, but like, yeah.
00:19:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:56
Ewerete
So just like the food, it broke you in a little bit easier on the food and stuff. But when you're in a city like that, as you mentioned before on previous podcasts, like you get fed a lot, like your, your stomach gets stretched hardcore, like so much food.
00:20:12
Darin Tingey
Get that rice belly. Get that rice belly.
00:20:13
Ewerete
Yep, yep, yep. Tons and tons of food. is But Basel II was awesome. I was there. My trainer was Elder Piki. He was from Ponapea. um I think from the island of Kaping.
00:20:25
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:20:28
Ewerete
um He didn't know a ton of kitabas at the time. they hit But was kind of rough. That was a little bit rough. And he didn't know a lot of English either. So it was good.
00:20:42
Ewerete
And then my next companion.
00:20:43
Darin Tingey
besoss Beso's like super crowded, right?
00:20:46
Ewerete
Baso was packed. um I think they've come from what I've heard.
00:20:47
Darin Tingey
Like tons of people.
00:20:50
Ewerete
i mean, is that Baso is like more densely populated than Hong Kong, like per area. um
00:20:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:20:58
Ewerete
So it's not like there's more people than Hong Kong and Baso, but like for the little, little patch, the Baso is it's they're packed in there. So yeah, no,
00:21:08
Darin Tingey
And is there, why why is Bezo, and I never made it up to Bezo when was on Thaddeau, but like, why is it so packed? Is there, are there like more jobs there? And so everyone goes and lives there or what?
00:21:18
Ewerete
um So I think it probably goes back to World War II. That's where the landing strip was, and that's where a lot of the graves were, but the whole thing was like cleared of trees.
00:21:25
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:21:30
Ewerete
So just like a flat, totally flat, treeless island post the battle with Japan.
00:21:31
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
00:21:35
Ewerete
then I think slowly they just kind of, once the causeway got built, they started building over there because it's just... processed like flat land that they ran over with a bulldozer and leveled everything off really nice.
00:21:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:21:48
Ewerete
And so I think, I think that's probably what led up to it.
00:21:51
Darin Tingey
Gotcha.
00:21:52
Ewerete
And then, yeah, they had they had the hospital there. I don't know if that one or Navarrete happened first, but you just got like your amenities. i mean, I think it's your general thing that dropped people to suburbia.
00:22:03
Ewerete
There's like urbanized areas that you see your amenities and things like that.
00:22:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:08
Ewerete
So.
00:22:11
Ewerete
Anyway, I don't know. Bezo's cool.
00:22:11
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:22:13
Darin Tingey
So your base for how long?
00:22:15
Ewerete
um I was there from July until December.
00:22:20
Ewerete
So I don't know.
00:22:20
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow.
00:22:20
Darin Tingey
That's a long time.
00:22:22
Ewerete
Yeah, so I served in Bezos second. had three different companions. So I had Elder Picky for a good little while. then Elder Green, he was one of the previous, like he was one of his own leaders when I got there and he was getting ready to go home.
00:22:36
Ewerete
um And then he went home and then I had Elder Picky. Or no, sorry, Elder Sippy. Sorry, Elder Sippy. um And he was from Idaho. So Elder Green was from Utah.
00:22:48
Ewerete
Mississippi was Idaho. And then, yeah. And then I got transferred over to Bikinabu second.
00:22:55
Ewerete
And then Bikinabu second, I had my first Kiribati companion, Elder Thamwe.
00:22:55
Darin Tingey
ah Okay.
00:23:00
Ewerete
And my ki but my my language started picking up there for sure. Because, like, you just...
00:23:06
Darin Tingey
Was he from Tarawa or where was he from?
00:23:08
Ewerete
Yeah, I think Elder Thamwe is from Tarawaf. Yeah. I don't know whereabouts.
00:23:12
Darin Tingey
I always thought it was crazy. It's like, hey, you're getting called on a mission to your same like place that you're from.
00:23:19
Ewerete
island yeah like like which
00:23:21
Darin Tingey
Your same island. like You know everybody. And it's just like, what? like oh Okay, basically just going to go serve in my neighborhood. Right,
00:23:28
Ewerete
yeah no it's like you get they get transferred all the places that their family isn't but like they still have family in those places like everybody's always like man i'm from utah i hope i don't go idaho or you know like i don't know but like that's like you're from provo and you're gonna go to provo like have fun guys
00:23:41
Darin Tingey
right. right
00:23:46
Ewerete
and
00:23:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:23:48
Ewerete
So I always admired them for like their good positive attitude on it and everything. Like that's, that's definitely like, that's a good attitude to take when people are able to like serve that close to home and stay focused and stay doing the work.
00:23:58
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:24:02
Ewerete
And it's cool. So.
00:24:05
Darin Tingey
Especially people from like Kiribati, like third world country.
00:24:06
Ewerete
um then
00:24:08
Darin Tingey
It's like a lot of them, you know, if they get called to the States, they learn English and like then their life potentially changes for the future or whatever, you know, but, and then it's like, oh, we'll get called in the same spot.
00:24:20
Darin Tingey
All right, cool. But they, yeah, they use a pretty good attitude about it.
00:24:25
Ewerete
No, yeah, he he was awesome. was awesome There was, like, some struggle initially, to get so like, I don't know, the communication and stuff going, but the president was like, hey, to help him learn English. He's going to help you learn Kitabas. I'm like, okay, here we go.
00:24:40
Ewerete
um And then I had another...
00:24:41
Darin Tingey
My president would just, ah sorry i sorry to cut you off, but my president would just switch them. He'd be like, oh, you get called to Kitabas and you're from Kitabas? I'm to take you to the Marsh Island side. Oh, your marshals get called the Marsh Islands? going to take you Kitabas side.
00:24:55
Darin Tingey
He'd just swap them.
00:24:57
Ewerete
Oh, yeah. and I mean, some of that happened. Like, we had some Kittabas missionaries go to Marshall Islands, but I don't know. hey and was
00:25:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:07
Ewerete
It was a different different world back then, too. Like, you'd get one outer island if you were lucky. and
00:25:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:15
Ewerete
so that's kind of that was kind of the mentality.
00:25:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:17
Ewerete
We had, like, 30 missionaries. And, anyway, yeah, my little islands were open.
00:25:22
Darin Tingey
Only 30 in sisters? any sisters
00:25:25
Ewerete
yeah Yeah, we had sisters. We had like, it depended on how, like, how many got a given time. Toward the end, I think we had more sisters.
00:25:36
Ewerete
But like in the very beginning, we had like, don't know, not very many. Less than 10. It was probably like four or five, something like that, maybe six.
00:25:41
Darin Tingey
okay Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine that'd be a lot That'd be crazy.
00:25:48
Ewerete
And then, yeah, so then after Elder Tamwe, we had Elder Vanisi. He lives up north in Utah. He's Hongan. um He's cool. And he was heading home too, so it was pretty – or, no, he was heading to – he was heading to Butari-Tari.
00:26:03
Ewerete
So he was just hanging out for a bit. And then I had Elder – let's see. I'm trying to get my timeline straight. No, he was back from Butari-Tari. Anyways, yeah, so I had Elder Vanisi and Elder –
00:26:14
Darin Tingey
and
00:26:18
Ewerete
Oh my goodness.
00:26:22
Ewerete
yeah i don
00:26:22
Darin Tingey
So this is all in Bikinibu, right? This is in Bikinibu.
00:26:25
Ewerete
All of this has been, yeah.
00:26:26
Darin Tingey
How long, what was Bikinibu like?
00:26:27
Ewerete
And in a very short window, Bikinibu was awesome. Like, so I liked Bikinibu because um back on the ocean side, um you could just pick up shells like crazy. And i'm when I'm saying shells, I'm not talking like seashells. I'm talking like 50 cal rounds.
00:26:43
Ewerete
And so generally when we were walking Bikinibu from end to end, because we didn't catch the bus super often, we walked a lot.
00:26:45
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:26:50
Ewerete
Um, and so the, the shorter side of that area is actually on the ocean side, not the lagoon side.
00:26:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:26:56
Ewerete
It would like cut back and forth. Like it would switch. Like if you cut across pretty much by the ah hotel, then yeah, lagoon side was shorter, but on that other side, yeah, then ocean side. So picked up a lot of shells.
00:27:07
Ewerete
That was cool. Um, tried some new food. That's where I first had like the sea snail. That was like pretty fun. That's cool. That's pretty good. we got a pig.
00:27:14
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:27:16
Ewerete
We got a pig for free over there. This one guy got punished. we were having like family home evening with this family and then he was like intoxicated and walked over and interrupted. And so then the daughter was like, and now you're going to give these guys a pig.
00:27:28
Ewerete
So we had like a full on pig cookout for a new year's and like invited, invited a whole bunch missionaries and like the New Zealand, one of the New Zealand elders cooked some pig in the ground.
00:27:33
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:27:38
Ewerete
And then, One of the guys from America cooked some like Cafe Rio type pulled pork stuff and made tortillas and like, yeah, like we had like legit cookout just as, and we felt terrible. Like we wanted to pay for it, but she was like, nope, this is his punishment. Like he shouldn't have walked over here drunk. Like, like, man, that's rough. but
00:27:59
Darin Tingey
I love that in Kitabas culture. is like ah ah Your punishment is like giving food or you have to bring something to the botaki that next night or something like that. Pay 20 bucks or something like that.
00:28:13
Ewerete
it was ah it was a decent-sized pig. like i was We had to hogtie the thing and load it in the back of the truck. But yeah, it was a big pig.
00:28:21
Darin Tingey
I mean, and and for a reference for those that have never been to Kitabas, these pigs... grow up tied to a tree their whole life. Like they're just being primed to eat and it's usually for a big occasion.
00:28:35
Ewerete
Yeah, they don't they don't walk around without the plagues.
00:28:36
Darin Tingey
so it's a big deal if you get a pig.
00:28:38
Ewerete
Yeah, it's it's all fat and meat. There's no exercise happening for that thing. So it's just, yeah, as unhealthy as it possibly could be prior to injury.
00:28:44
Darin Tingey
None.
00:28:50
Ewerete
Shoot, yeah. Anyways, yeah. So, yeah, then from the beginning...
00:28:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah, but just tied to tree.
00:28:56
Ewerete
Yeah, no, it's cool. like I mean, that's where I learned how to like clean off the hair and stuff, and like we frayed the coconut fronds together, and... Basically burned all the hair away and then scraped it down with a knife. And it was cool. Like it was good. Yeah.
00:29:11
Ewerete
So, and then from there went just like very, very short three months.
00:29:12
Darin Tingey
And how long were you in Bikina View?
00:29:16
Ewerete
Like it was quick,
00:29:19
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:29:21
Ewerete
but yeah, like it wasn't born to key.
00:29:21
Darin Tingey
And then from Bikina View to where?
00:29:25
Ewerete
So then I served in born to key and I served in born to key from like March, like end of March, i would say until August. So Bondiki can like was, we lived right, right across from, it was called the Sepan restaurant.
00:29:39
Ewerete
i don't know if you've ever been there, but it's like, right.
00:29:42
Darin Tingey
No, never went.
00:29:44
Ewerete
Basically like the causeway going to the airport, there used to be a restaurant like right on that corner before you'd leave Bikinneville. And we lived pretty close to that. And so we'd have to bike all the way down to the airport and Bondiki basically just covered like,
00:29:57
Ewerete
the whole outside of the airport, right? So the whole runway, right? So we'd cross the runway with our bikes all the time and you'd see planes come in and land and kids out playing soccer in the middle of the runway.
00:30:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:09
Ewerete
And then the fire truck would come down and like sound its sign. Like everybody would clear off the runway real quick and the plane would land and then everybody would
Time in Boniki
00:30:18
Ewerete
go back to playing again. And like, there was no fence around it. There used to be a fence, but they like cut it all down and everybody like implemented the poles and wiring at their houses and things like, but like pretty much all of the pipe had been cut down. So you'd go around the edge of the runway and was all just sawed off like at the base.
00:30:34
Ewerete
um Yeah. Like, and there wasn't,
00:30:36
Darin Tingey
i don't I don't remember if there was a fence there when I went when i landed. um
00:30:41
Ewerete
I think when they redid the airport, they did
00:30:42
Darin Tingey
i just remember there, like... Okay. I just remember there being a ton of kids. like When I came to land, everyone was there. like No matter if they had someone that was on the plane, they were all just there to see the plane and to see who kept got off the plane. That was it.
00:31:00
Ewerete
No, that's I think that's still the same. um But yeah, they I think partly to get their security clearance for international flights, they had to re-up their security game on the who was allowed on the runway or near the plane, but that kind of stuff.
00:31:17
Ewerete
yeah So yeah, it was ah it a prime time. it was great. like I could just cut across the runway whenever we felt like with our bikes, as long as the fire engine wasn't out. Shortcut right across the area, right? you'd have to ride the whole outside of the...
00:31:30
Ewerete
of the runway.
00:31:30
Darin Tingey
That would have been such a long like detour it if you went all the way around it. That would be a long detour.
00:31:35
Ewerete
No, yeah. You'd have to like pick which end you were closest to and then have to like, yeah, an entire, rate like a huge runway. So yeah. But no, Bonduki was awesome. I loved Bonduki. We had some cool cool people there. My first companion was Eldomahe.
00:31:51
Ewerete
he was i was his second companion, so he was pretty new to the mission. Um, and frankly, so as I was still probably before my year mark. Right. So it was like, don't know, eight, eight months, mind you also with no language training.
00:32:00
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:32:03
Ewerete
So this is all while just trying to get through all the hurdles of like, what am I doing? Trying to figure it out.
00:32:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:11
Ewerete
Um, and then, uh, yeah, well, I was in, in Buendake, we had some cool, cool experiences for sure.
00:32:16
Darin Tingey
And
00:32:18
Ewerete
Go ahead.
00:32:21
Darin Tingey
but and like...
00:32:21
Ewerete
Sorry.
00:32:23
Darin Tingey
Bon Riki, I feel like has a lot of water. I remember like, I didn't spend a lot of time on Tarawa, but I just remember being like around the airport had a bunch of water. It felt like, was there a lot of people there still?
00:32:33
Ewerete
Yes. was Oh, yeah. So you have the Hawaii Bowl, which was, like, full of people. um you had um And then you had, um like, toward Tomaiku, right?
00:32:44
Ewerete
So that whole side of the airport on the Tomaiku side.
00:32:45
Darin Tingey
Okay, yeah.
00:32:47
Ewerete
um So pretty much all of that. And then, yeah. yeah No, there's there's quite a few people. We stayed busy. Had a lot of school...
00:32:59
Darin Tingey
Okay. Yeah. So to my, okay. I'm looking at a map to my coo does. All I remember going there like one time to pick up an elder or something like that. And then there's like the water in between my coo and therefore basically, I don't know what that is.
00:33:12
Ewerete
Yeah, so they had the fish ponds over there, and then there's the pond on that back side, too, of the other side of the airport.
00:33:15
Darin Tingey
Uh huh.
00:33:18
Ewerete
But yeah, no, Boendookee was awesome.
00:33:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:33:21
Ewerete
Frankly, I honestly, i would bet, I might be wrong, but I think, honestly, the highest point in the whole country probably is not where that sign is, but...
00:33:30
Darin Tingey
ha
00:33:30
Ewerete
like i I could be wrong, but based on the hills I rode down on my bike, from like top to airport level, I was like, is that really the highest point? Like I questioned it, but you know, whatever.
00:33:43
Ewerete
It's debatable.
00:33:44
Darin Tingey
how How high was it? Like like
00:33:49
Darin Tingey
eight feet or what?
00:33:50
Ewerete
so
00:33:50
Darin Tingey
How high was it?
00:33:51
Ewerete
I would say top to bottom on some of those hills, at least 15. Like easy. like easy
00:33:57
Darin Tingey
Really? Okay. All right.
00:33:59
Ewerete
Yeah, I might be, I mean, I'd be interested to see like a digital elevation model fly over for that place. Cause I would, I would bet that it's in Bundiki, but
00:34:11
Ewerete
might, I could be wrong.
00:34:11
Darin Tingey
Well, if you're not counting Bonabay, then it's definitely there.
00:34:15
Darin Tingey
But Bonabay...
00:34:15
Ewerete
Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, no, sure.
00:34:19
Ewerete
Yeah, no.
00:34:20
Ewerete
So yeah, no, Bundiki was cool. We had, we had this one lady that um we're teaching this one family and they were just like, leave our mom alone. Like, season her religion, don't bother her, whatever. And my companion, he was he was older than me. He was getting ready to go home, the second companion after Elder Mahe. His name was Elder Bainey. But he just like, dude, don't don't ask that lady, like,
00:34:20
Darin Tingey
um
00:34:44
Ewerete
The parent, the family's like stayed, leave her alone. They're asking us to leave her alone. Don't. And so like, I remember one night i was like, man, I need to talk to this old lady. So like I grabbed my dish, which like generally they'll have like one of the daughters or the mom or whoever comes to it off all the dishes or whatever. you Right. And go wash and and I grabbed my dish and I stood up and went over.
00:35:02
Ewerete
to like wash my dish over in like the little wash hut, which is where the grandma was like laying down at. And i was like, hey, what are you doing?
00:35:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:08
Ewerete
She's like, oh, I was like talking to her when I was like, do you want to go to church with us tomorrow? She's like, sure. She came to church the next day. And then she got baptized later on. Like, but like, I had, I had like this feeling like this lady's, she's, i don't know.
00:35:17
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:35:21
Ewerete
I wasn't going to like not talk to her. So I don't know. The mom the daughter was like, so like, couldn't believe it
00:35:26
Darin Tingey
I feel, I feel like the old
00:35:31
Darin Tingey
The old ladies are always like the best to talk to because they kind of in this like don't care type of mindset anymore, you know? And so they'll talk to the young white or whatever, young missionaries.
00:35:45
Darin Tingey
And my favorite was always like in the botakis, like in the parties in the minyebe, like dancing with all the old ladies.
00:35:50
Ewerete
Oh, yeah.
00:35:51
Darin Tingey
it was so funny. They loved it, dude. They thought it was the funniest thing ever.
00:35:57
Ewerete
Yeah, they throw caution to the wind, for sure. That's that's definitely not how Yeah, yep. Definitely, that that comes with the age, I think, for sure. But, yeah.
00:36:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:36:08
Ewerete
say No, but she was she was super cool.
00:36:10
Darin Tingey
So,
00:36:14
Darin Tingey
and her family, was the was the family like pissed at you or or did they just not, they're like, all right, Ray told the elders, so it is what it is.
00:36:14
Ewerete
Go ahead, Cy.
00:36:20
Ewerete
it
00:36:23
Ewerete
No, like it kind of the vibe we got from her is that she was like sick. Right. And like, she had just kind of come to spend the time that she could with her family. Like, so she was visiting from an outer Island and, and the, the daughter was just like, we've tried and we've tried and she's not interested. Like, just please don't make a, like a family issue of it. You know?
00:36:44
Ewerete
And don't know, I just, yeah, I just felt like I should talk to her. So I did. But the family members and were super pumped about it, like afterward, obviously, like she's coming to church with them on Sunday. and when I went back two and a half years later to visit, she was she was there still.
00:36:58
Ewerete
Went and said I and stuff.
00:37:00
Darin Tingey
Okay, so the family were already the family was already members.
00:37:01
Ewerete
and
00:37:04
Darin Tingey
They were just like, this is straining their family relationship a little bit.
00:37:07
Ewerete
Yeah, it was those places and i and
00:37:08
Darin Tingey
If you keep asking her, just let her be. But then you got her to come and then she was baptized.
00:37:13
Ewerete
Yeah, no, she was she awesome. Super awesome lady. And then I think like probably the other really cool, I mean, there's a ton of cool experiences in Bwendogee, but the other really cool one is probably, um i won't name names because she, i don't know, could hear this, I don't know.
00:37:27
Ewerete
But her daughter had left on a mission and me and my companion were like driving past the house.
00:37:29
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:37:33
Ewerete
And this lady like chased us down on the street and she's like, oh, there's others. Like, so we turned around and it came back to this lady and she's like, I have no idea like why my daughter left me. Like she went off to go on this mission for you guys' this church in New Zealand.
00:37:46
Ewerete
Like, why would she do that? And she was probably one of the toughest investigators that I ever taught my whole mission. She had a ton of questions. Her profession ah was such that she would have a lot of arguments and questions.
00:38:02
Ewerete
This is part of the job that she did. um But she got baptized the same time as that that old lady from the whole IAEBO. And so they were like, they they dressed to match each other. They both wore green and and went and changed in their white clothes and both got baptized like that same, that same day.
00:38:20
Ewerete
But i don't know, there's some crazy, like weird experiences, like just kind of those net, like people are like, oh, nothing's going to come of it. Or like, are you teaching her and you're like, man, she's, she's got a lot of questions.
00:38:31
Ewerete
She's, you're not sure it's really going anywhere. And then kind of turned around for you, you know? So don't know. It's pretty cool.
00:38:37
Darin Tingey
Those ones are always the most rewarding too, because they're asking so many questions. And so you're like, okay, they're actually engaged. They're actually like trying to understand what we're teaching them versus a lot of people like the easier investigator. just like, you know, you teach them lesson. like, all right, any questions? Like, nope.
00:38:54
Darin Tingey
You're like, all right. Like, and they just like kind of go with the flow. And those ones, yeah. tend to be not as strong. I mean, I'm generalizing, but the ones that are like, end up being like the strongest and like the most fulfilling to is like the ones that like asked you a million questions and you were like frustrated that asked you so many questions, but then they like come around they get baptized and you're like, yes, like you are golden.
00:39:19
Darin Tingey
You know, you weren't at first, but you are now.
00:39:22
Ewerete
Yeah, no she she was a lawyer, and so I'll throw that out there. So she was, like, she came prepared every time, and she had some tough questions, and, like, you had to go home and study, and, like...
00:39:35
Ewerete
do your best to really answer her questions. And like, I, I, yeah, no, she's, she's awesome though. I saw her last time we went back from 2022. So she's still, still doing good last I checked.
00:39:47
Ewerete
So, but,
00:39:48
Darin Tingey
And I empathize with her because like, i can imagine, you know, ah live in Lehigh, Utah. I can imagine like two random guys come to my door and then my daughter ends up getting baptized in their church and then says, I'm going to a different country and be just like them.
00:40:09
Darin Tingey
I'd be like, what the heck are you doing? Like, like, why are you leaving me?
00:40:12
Ewerete
No, yeah, like she was she was like, I don't get it. Like, why?
00:40:14
Darin Tingey
You know, you're totally, it looks crazy.
00:40:18
Ewerete
ye now Yeah, I heard. Yeah. is It was interesting for sure. Yeah. That's really cool.
00:40:24
Darin Tingey
So how long were you in Bone Ricky? You said for another like long time, right?
00:40:29
Ewerete
ah Yeah. So I was in Bundaki probably, ah see, was it March? March until about August, I would say. um Like end of March,
00:40:38
Darin Tingey
So you're almost at your year mark at this point you're at your year mark.
00:40:41
Ewerete
I barely, I'd barely hit my year mark in the country and like men to July. and then, uh, yeah. So, but when that side note, so when I was in Bikinibu, those only leaders were like, Oh yeah, we're thinking about sending some people to outer islands. And, and anyway, so I saw this Island truck drive past me and I was like, man, i have this feeling like I'm going there.
00:41:02
Ewerete
Like it was one of those, like, moments where, and it was way before Bondiki too. And I was like, man, feel like going to go there.
00:41:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:41:11
Ewerete
So was Makin, Makin Island, you know? And was like, okay, sweet. So anyways, Bondiki happens. And then the zone leader showed up at my house and they're like, hey ever it we're going to send you to Bondiki, or not Bondiki, freaking Makin.
00:41:23
Ewerete
And i was like, ah, yeah, sweet.
Service in Makin Island
00:41:25
Ewerete
It's like what I thought, like, I saw the island truck of like Makin Island. And I was like, money, like, let's do this.
00:41:31
Ewerete
So. Oh, is.
00:41:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:41:33
Darin Tingey
Were there very many outer islands open when when you were there or was like, were there are very few?
00:41:42
Ewerete
Makin was open. Butari Tari was open. Abba Young and Medicaid. And.
00:41:51
Ewerete
Tabithawea? i don't even know if Mayana was open. I think just, yeah, that's it.
00:41:55
Darin Tingey
Really?
00:41:55
Ewerete
And Tarahuita. Yeah, basically, Nahuamayang and then Bab. So that was it.
00:42:03
Ewerete
And Christmas. I guess Christmas was the Nauter Island. So.
00:42:03
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:42:08
Darin Tingey
Right. Okay.
00:42:08
Ewerete
so
00:42:09
Darin Tingey
So you're going to muck in, you're like pumped out of your mind, like, let's go.
00:42:10
Ewerete
Yeah.
00:42:12
Ewerete
Yeah, no, like super super stoked because I kind of like had that thought.
00:42:13
Darin Tingey
I'm going to muck in like, uh,
00:42:16
Ewerete
like I mean, that truck drives down the island all the time in Tarawasu. It's like the likelihood of it happening, probably pretty high, but you're like pumped about I was pumped about it. so And then and another reason I really wanted to go to Makin is one of the missionaries I met right in the very beginning of mission when my trainer got trained was from Tonga, and he had just barely come from Makin.
00:42:35
Ewerete
And I think he was one of the very first missionaries to serve out there. Um, and he went out and then I think he went back again later. Like you got, I think you got to go there twice, but, and he was pretty legit.
00:42:45
Darin Tingey
Wow. That's a dream.
00:42:46
Ewerete
I stay in touch with him. No, he's super cool. But yeah, anyway, so we went Makin and Makin, like it's the furthest North of all the islands in Kitabas. Like it's up there toward Marshall Islands.
00:42:57
Ewerete
I don't know how far off Marshall Islands is from, from Makin, but it's pretty close, I think.
00:43:00
Darin Tingey
It's honestly so close. It's super close. um
00:43:05
Ewerete
And Makin,
00:43:06
Darin Tingey
I'm going to Google it right now. Distance between Makin and Ebon. Like they're so close.
00:43:10
Ewerete
I would say probably like less than 400 miles for sure. Like if not like 150 or 200, like 230 or something like that.
00:43:15
Darin Tingey
Oh yeah.
00:43:17
Ewerete
but
00:43:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah. it's Yeah. I would agree.
00:43:21
Ewerete
But it was really green. Like I remember flying out there and just flying over all these other islands and not stopping. The flight was fairly long. um And then we get there and it's just green.
00:43:32
Ewerete
Like the runway was green covered in like grass and coral and gets tons more rain. Like Putaritari and Makayi get a lot more rain than the rest of, and my wife will get mad at me for saying this, but like the South is just dry.
00:43:44
Ewerete
Like, I'm sorry. Like if if you're not in the North, it's, it's kind of,
00:43:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:50
Ewerete
Kind of not that green. But anyways, Makin was really cool. um I got there. My companion was Elder Norman. um When I got there, he kind of was like, hey, we've already talked to everybody on the island.
00:44:03
Ewerete
And I was like, oh, great. Here we go. Like, they've already tried. And at that time, I think there like 400 people.
00:44:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah, right.
00:44:10
Ewerete
i think there was like six maybe 600 in total between Gibb and Makin. So like the southern islet of Makin and Makin, I think there's maybe 600 people out there. And so like very few and yeah, it was really cool.
00:44:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:44:25
Ewerete
It's a small, small Island. We could probably ride the whole thing in 45 minutes at a very leisurely pace, like a whole circle around the whole thing. um
00:44:33
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:44:34
Ewerete
Our houses are right on the beach.
00:44:35
Darin Tingey
That is tiny.
00:44:36
Ewerete
It was pretty cool. Like we had nice trees in the back to like give us shade and we got a lot of, a lot of rain. I don't think we ever really ran out of rain, like rainwater. um Yeah, was pretty cool.
00:44:47
Darin Tingey
is that what they mainly drink is rainwater on lock-in?
00:44:50
Ewerete
um I think, yeah, rainwater and like, obviously like Careve, everybody was big into cutting Careve. And we had a big, we had some big rain tanks made out of cement that we had.
00:45:02
Ewerete
And then we had like 55 gallon diesel drums that we also had like at every corner of the house or whatever, like to catch any additional rainfall that fell. And then we had a a well as well.
00:45:13
Darin Tingey
So was your house cinder block? Was your house cinder block and tin roof then?
00:45:15
Ewerete
um Yeah, so Makin, the house is a cinder block with cement floors and like wire mesh across the windows. And yeah, and then the landlady and her husband lived in the hut next to the house and she cooked every day for us because I guess that was part of the agreement back then was like if they didn't supply you with cooking.
00:45:34
Ewerete
ability or material, then they cooked for you. So if we'd never had a dinner or anything, like should make us dinner. We had breakfast every day, like don't know. So flying fish pretty much every day for almost six months.
00:45:47
Ewerete
um Had one companion.
00:45:49
Darin Tingey
It's so cool.
00:45:49
Ewerete
He had one companion flying fish every day. And then she like took a two week break to go to the main Island. And all we got was like breakfast crackers for two weeks. I'm like, that's what you get all there for complaining about having fish every day.
00:46:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the banana.
00:46:02
Ewerete
Like, He's like, you know what, Elder? Man cannot live on bread alone.
00:46:05
Darin Tingey
but
00:46:06
Ewerete
I'm like, you're right. You shouldn't have said anything. should still be here. But anyways, was great. But Makin, we had some success. and Mostly, I don't know, kind of where I grew up and kind of how I was raised was just like,
00:46:24
Ewerete
We shoveled a lot of snow growing up, like at our own house and other people's houses and at the church, like the church would get buried and you have to like wake up and go shovel, unshovel the church before church in the morning. And so like when we weren't having time, like when I got there and he was just like, well, we've visited everybody.
00:46:41
Ewerete
ah just kind of started just doing service, like a lot of service. um would say like three to four a week. And cause they, if they don't want to hear you for, cause it's pretty heavily Catholic up there.
00:46:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:46:54
Ewerete
And so if they don't want to listen, then like, we just kind of took the service route. Like, so did a lot of, we did some cool stuff.
00:47:02
Darin Tingey
Do you feel like the island got to really like know you? I mean, I served on an island similar, but in the Marshalls where there was like 300 people on the island.
00:47:13
Darin Tingey
And so, yeah, you talk to everyone twice a day, right? Like, you know, everybody on the island, everybody in the island's family, they're all like one big family.
00:47:19
Ewerete
Thank you.
00:47:22
Darin Tingey
And I think the coolest part about being on the smaller islands is that you actually get to know everybody. Whereas the bigger islands, like you don't get to know everybody, but the small ones, it's like so tight knit. And I feel like they just get to know like, oh, Elder Everett, like, you know, he's, he's so cool. He's so good at, you know, this and like, they get, that's what you're known for. You know, was that what, how it was in Mockin? Yeah.
00:47:43
Ewerete
I think so. Like, I don't I don't know. I don't want to be like, yeah, they know me. But, um, I went back in 2022, to help out with some stuff and ran into people that I knew.
00:47:55
Ewerete
And they were like, I know you, like you still know each other. and like, there's one guy, like we were teaching him and he was doing awesome.
00:47:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:03
Ewerete
He was like really progressing and reading and, but his wife was like a ah Protestant missionary So she was in the KPC and she like hated us.
00:48:13
Ewerete
Like she's like just really forbade him from like continuing with us and stuff.
00:48:13
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:48:17
Ewerete
And we're like really bumped because like this guy was doing awesome. We helped do service projects and stuff with him. But when I went back in 2022, ran into him and he was in the, in the branch presidency. So like I sat down at church in McKin and like looked up and this guy that like,
00:48:32
Ewerete
Wasn't like, wasn't going to come to
Missionary Legacy in Makin
00:48:34
Ewerete
church anymore. Cause his wife said no. it was sitting up there at the beginning, like at the front of the, like the chapel, the hut chapel. Right. I'm like, what the, he's like, he just smiled the ear to ear.
00:48:42
Darin Tingey
So cool.
00:48:43
Ewerete
Like, like I was like this guy, like, man. And then i like looked over and I was like, well, where's your wife? He's like, Oh, she's coming. I'm like, she's coming to church. Like what? She came and sat down, like, um don't know, five feet from me. I looked over and she recognized me too. And she got like all like,
00:49:00
Ewerete
like she was smiling and stuff. I was like, you, ended up coming to church, huh? Like, that was pretty cool. Anyway, sorry. That's not part of the mission, but no, like there are people like that where you like, we're wondering like, is this going to pan out? And it was cool to see somebody else, somebody else kind of hit home with them. And yeah, well, for sure.
00:49:22
Ewerete
But anyway, sorry.
00:49:23
Darin Tingey
It's just planting seeds, right?
00:49:23
Ewerete
So yeah.
00:49:24
Darin Tingey
Because like, mean, it's planting seeds.
00:49:25
Ewerete
Yeah.
00:49:27
Darin Tingey
Same thing, like I, you know, Starlink is so amazing because now I see ah like all these people on Outer Islands have access to internet via Starlink.
00:49:33
Ewerete
Thank
00:49:35
Darin Tingey
Not all the time, but when they turn it on. And so I see on Facebook, like baptisms of people on this, on the Outer Island and the Marshalls, that's super tiny. And it's like, oh, like I taught him once and I'm sure there's a million other missionaries that like tried to teach that person.
00:49:52
Darin Tingey
And it wasn't until like 10 years later that here they are getting baptized and becoming an elders quorum president or becoming yeah in the branch presidency. And you're just like, that's so cool. And you're like, you can't help but think like I was a part of that a little bit, you know, like i hopefully had a good influence on him to then eventually take the missionary lessons and, you know, a couple years later.
00:50:18
Ewerete
Yeah, for sure. Like he, I don't know. I was really pumped for him and. it was like that a lot with Mockin. Like some people would like, you'd be teaching somebody one day and then you go to find them and they're like, umm I'm not having lessons anymore.
00:50:32
Ewerete
Like a family would be progressing. And then they'd be like, well, my grandpa said we're going to stay Catholic forever. And you're just like, well, you're a whole family and you're an adult man. Like you can make this call, dude, but they have a lot of respect for the elderly.
00:50:44
Ewerete
And like, so if grandpa said so, then that's what we're going to do.
00:50:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:47
Ewerete
And it's like, there's some of that. And like, I don't know. Mockin was really cool. And I i don't know. I, I got to know a lot of people out there for sure.
00:50:57
Ewerete
And I would say probably one of the, yeah, I don't know I got too many stories. We're going to run out of time, but Mockin was, I spent a lot of time.
00:51:06
Darin Tingey
No, i want to hear them. got time.
00:51:09
Ewerete
I don't know. I mean, you're going to you have you'll to cut this down. I guess i don't know how much time you got. Cause like, Like, i don't know, like we we experienced everything out there because we we were there for six months, like pretty much six months.
00:51:15
Darin Tingey
i got time
00:51:19
Ewerete
And so you've, you're there, like I was there for leading up to the holiday or and think it was like New Year's and we had like this big old boateke behind the house because that's like pretty much right across from where they were holding church at the time.
00:51:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:51:31
Ewerete
And like people from Tarawa came and we had this huge boateke from every, like all these people from Makine that had come back for the holidays and um And, like, it wasn't dancing and stuff, but it was just, like, getting together and talking and eating and, like, telling stories. And it was really, really cool. um And then ah just meet meet really cool people. um One of the
00:51:57
Ewerete
one of the people I met out there, his name is Tentake. He was, like, this old guy. And he was pretty solid. Like, he was just kind of, like, a silent...
00:52:08
Ewerete
like church member and we didn't teach him or anything i think missionaries before us did but he was there to like guide us through fixing the roof on the chapel because the chapel was just like the chapel was like uh the pen like the pandanus roofing and so we got some new roofing made and put that up because the chapel was leaking and and he caught us like and i remember he was the one that caught us the coconut crab for the first time
00:52:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:31
Ewerete
that I like ever tried coconut crab and he, it was at his house.
00:52:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:34
Ewerete
Like, like you remember where things happened, like, cause you know them so like so well that you're like,
00:52:44
Ewerete
That's where that happened. Or like there was this other guy, he couldn't make it to church because when he worked in Nauru, he like smashed his leg. um And he really wanted us to cut down this one coconut tree in his property, but it was right by this taro pit.
00:52:56
Ewerete
And me and my companion are like, do you want us to go get the rope? Do you want us to go get the rope? And he's like, no, no, we don't need to get the rope. Like, so we just kept chopping away. like And then the the coconut tree like fell into the neighbor's tarot pit and the neighbor went to go find all the cops, but the cops were all like drinking kava because it was like during election time, right?
00:53:12
Ewerete
So they were like totally like just super chill out of their minds, right? And so then like... they didn't care about the taro pit and the the fact that the coconut tree just like smashed how many things of food.
00:53:24
Ewerete
um And then like, we're just over there trying to hurry and cut up the tree and get it out of the taro pit before the lady that's like yelling at us. It's not even our fault, right? Like we, but anyway, yeah. So like things like that, like where you're just like, dude, I feel like we should probably get a rope here, but it's, you know, he's the older guy and just like, okay, we'll do what you say, dude.
00:53:33
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:53:42
Ewerete
Like, but a gust of wind on a coconut tree will drive that thing in a direction you didn't even think it would go.
00:53:44
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:53:47
Ewerete
yeah.
00:53:48
Darin Tingey
I know. I cut down one in the main island of Maduro, but we weren't like chopping with axes. the The bishop pulls out a chainsaw, and I was like – I think I told a story on another podcast, but i was shocked.
00:54:02
Ewerete
its like
00:54:03
Darin Tingey
But they had – I was it's like a chainsaw? what do We have a chainsaw here? Yeah.
00:54:07
Ewerete
Yep.
00:54:08
Darin Tingey
But they climbed up, tied the rope on, and we were all pulling because the tree was right next to a road and there's cars driving around all the time. and we're like, we're going to smash a car right here. Thank goodness we didn't, man, because because we had the rope.
00:54:18
Ewerete
a yeah
00:54:21
Darin Tingey
But if we didn't have the rope, that thing would have, boom, right on the car.
00:54:26
Ewerete
And don't know, we got we got tight with that guy too.
00:54:27
Darin Tingey
um
00:54:28
Ewerete
Like we built a hut for him and stuff. Like he was cool, but like things like that, like we almost get in trouble with the law. Like we're just trying to do service out here, you know, just like dropping coconut trees in neighbor's yards.
00:54:39
Ewerete
No big deal.
00:54:41
Darin Tingey
So you mentioned, you mentioned Cureve, like um explain to listeners what that is. Cause I feel like if you have never seen it, you don't know what it is or um what it's like. And then also i remember in Kiribati when they, when they cook correve they would sing when they did it.
00:55:02
Darin Tingey
And apparently it was like to make it taste better, you know, or something like that.
00:55:02
Ewerete
Yeah.
00:55:07
Ewerete
Hey, I don't know. them I mean, I think the real, I mean, yeah. So, kind of I'll start with that, and I'll get to there. So, whatever is ah ah the coconut flower, and it's inside of like this,
00:55:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:22
Ewerete
um
00:55:25
Ewerete
like it's inside of a leaf, I would say, basically, and until the flower bursts,
00:55:29
Darin Tingey
ye
00:55:30
Ewerete
and can be pollinated it's not going to become coconut right but if they get they go ahead and bind that ahead of time then they can cut the very tip of it little by little every day and then it'll drip uh sugar water essentially into a bottle for them so basically you're getting filtration yeah sap um you're getting filtration and you're getting more like
00:55:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Sap. Yeah.
00:55:53
Ewerete
ah a good drink, frankly. Like, as long as, I mean, it turns into other stuff. But if you drink it fresh, it's good. um I had one right in front of the house. It wasn wasn't, like, a tall one. It was, like, one I could stand on the ground.
00:56:03
Ewerete
Like, the Tequero Gareve for the Unimane, right? Like, just stand right on the ground and cut Gareve, the best kind.
00:56:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:09
Ewerete
um But it's really good. It's... So it's... Yeah. And then they can boil it and keep it for longer and not have it go bad. And then you can boil it some more and make Kamaimai out of it and...
00:56:23
Ewerete
Like there's different stages of but the boiling process that just kind of help it stay longer, but it's pretty good.
00:56:23
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:56:28
Ewerete
i think the reason part of why they whistle is the same reason that I think was mentioned on pre one of your previous podcasts was somebody made the mistake of looking up when somebody climbed a coconut tree.
00:56:40
Darin Tingey
Ah, yes.
00:56:40
Ewerete
And I think, I think it serves a couple of purposes. i think it serves the purpose of, by the way, I'm up here, but then also if anybody's house is nearby and they have an outdoor shower, right. Um,
00:56:50
Darin Tingey
Ah.
00:56:50
Ewerete
they know you're not being a ah creeper or whatever on the top of the coconut tree. So just kind of, I'm sure there's some, some part of what you're saying too, but I think that your main two things are, by the way, I'm up here.
00:57:01
Ewerete
And also maybe a little bit for the, for the, like the guys, they're like, look at me. I'm, I'm cutting Kareve, by the way, at day 90, as you're walking by or whatever, they're probably like, look how ripped I am.
00:57:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:12
Ewerete
I climbed this tree and now I'm up here cutting Kareve, FYI, just kicking it, you know, like, I don't know. There's probably a little bit of that too, but.
00:57:20
Darin Tingey
yeah i totally I totally agree with that.
00:57:21
Ewerete
i would
00:57:23
Darin Tingey
There's always like the young men in the tall tree and it's like ah along the road and they're just like singing and or whistling and cutting careve and they're just like big smile on their face.
00:57:35
Darin Tingey
you know They're just loving it.
00:57:36
Ewerete
Yeah.
00:57:37
Ewerete
No, yeah. Like, yeah, it's, it's like, it's like very like a manly thing to do. Like for them, it's like, yeah, look at me. I'm like, ah I'm, I'm providing for the family. I'm, I'm doing something productive. And like, I think it has a lot of importance for sure.
00:57:37
Darin Tingey
It's just like a manly thing to do, I guess.
00:57:50
Ewerete
Like, Yeah, no, super cool. And then, yeah, I got a few more. but asked I'm going to run your time out, man.
00:57:55
Darin Tingey
What, um,
00:57:57
Ewerete
I got a few good stories from my kin.
00:57:59
Darin Tingey
no, keep going. Yeah. That's what we want to hear. We want to hear the stories of my kin.
00:58:05
Ewerete
So my kin, got pretty dang sick um with like a fever and a sore throat, like pretty dang sick. I'd probably say it strep throat or something. Just like bad enough fever, like you wake up, you're kind of like in and out of consciousness.
00:58:21
Ewerete
The nurse wouldn't spare me any medicine on the island. Like she was a member, she was a super nice lady, but she like, nope. She protected her stash with her life. You know, like this is for the people of Makin. Your mission provided for stuff for you or whatever. and But I couldn't like even swallow like ibuprofen. Like that's how bad my throat, I couldn't swallow water or anything.
00:58:39
Ewerete
um One of these old ladies came and made me like this coconut mix. Like she boiled a green coconut with the meat inside until it turned golden. And like you drink that and you can swallow like so like I swallow I take my medicine and should like she just stayed at the house with the landlady and she came in every like how many of her hours like this one. And we taught her daughter and and we baptized her daughter and her daughter was like, i don't know, 19 20.
00:59:04
Ewerete
um but Like she was just like super dedicated old lady that just like stuck around until I was better. Like, so you hung out for, i want to say days.
00:59:16
Ewerete
Like super, super giving lady, super, super cool.
00:59:17
Darin Tingey
Wow. So cool.
00:59:19
Ewerete
um But yeah, coconut, like you'd never think boiling a coconut would do that like wonders for your throat like that.
00:59:22
Darin Tingey
But
00:59:25
Ewerete
But it was, it was awesome. Like, yeah. Yeah.
00:59:28
Darin Tingey
coconuts are insane. I feel like who was it there was a doctor in the Marshall Islands. He's like, yeah, this is like the closest thing you can get to an IV is like coconut water.
00:59:39
Darin Tingey
it's It's just, it's just crazy.
00:59:39
Ewerete
Yep.
00:59:40
Darin Tingey
The stuff that's that like how coconuts are so healing and and just so good for you.
00:59:47
Ewerete
Yeah, they got the potassium. I'm sure they got some sodium. Like, they got all of it. Like, everything you're looking for, dextrose. I mean, you get all your IVs, basically, in one one go. um And then, yeah, like, that was pretty cool.
00:59:57
Darin Tingey
right.
00:59:58
Ewerete
We had another time where i think my companion was sick. Or maybe it was when I was sick. I think it was when I was sick. Because I woke up and my companion was like running around the house outside. And the land the landlord's son, he was like 12.
01:00:11
Ewerete
But it was like downpouring, like torrential. I think it was like a typhoon because the thing is about the time that the little lady's house fell down. But it's pretty bad winds and rain and whatnot. But they were like running around having a bucket fight, like of water. There's so much rain, like everywhere.
01:00:23
Ewerete
So they were just like, I woke up to like this noise and they're just like freaking just chasing each other around the house, like just dumping water on each other. The kid would like climb up in the tree. My companion is like looking around for him, dumps a bucket of water from way up in the tree on the guy, like hides in one of those 55-gallon barrels, like Doc's under the water holding his breath. My companion comes yeah like racing around the edge of the house like looking for him.
01:00:44
Ewerete
He keeps running looking for him and he like comes comes back up for air. and I'm just like, this kid, he's a hoot. But the same kid would like it'd bring us dinner at night. His mom would cook it and he'd bring it over to us.
01:00:55
Ewerete
But we'd bought ketchup or like tomato sauce and he'd just be like, elders, going to come eat with you. So like every night he'd like come in there because he could get some tomato sauce, right? like It was pretty funny. Like, so I'd and get his tomato sauce. and like But anyways, one night we were, like, back for the night, pretty much ready to go to sleep. And then this he's, like, banging on our door.
01:01:14
Ewerete
He's like, elder theres elders, elders, thousands, thousands, thousands, and thousands. Like, just yelling, like, totally going, like, he's, like, wound up. we're like, what's this kid on about, right?
01:01:24
Ewerete
And he's like, The one he's like, what is it? The money, the money. Like, so these mud crabs are on there like migration, right? there's tons of mud crabs everywhere outside, like on the road, in the tarot pits everywhere.
01:01:38
Ewerete
And there was like a lot of like, ah like single older sisters, like they'd raised their family, but their husband had died or that old guy that had the leg that was all swollen.
01:01:50
Ewerete
um, And we, anyway, went around, caught tons of crab. So we just like went back out, got our flashlights, filled up all these rice bags and just started dropping them off at people's houses. Right. Cause you don't have to boil them. They'll stay alive. Right.
01:02:02
Ewerete
you just tie off the plastic and leave it at their house.
01:02:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:02:04
Ewerete
Right. So just this bag of rice, drop it at so-and-so's this bag of rice, drop it. So we had some pretty good times doing that, like catching coconut crab. And I did that last time I went out to like, or not coconut crab, mud crab, but was fun, fun times. run Yeah.
01:02:18
Ewerete
And then,
01:02:19
Darin Tingey
I loved crab hunting.
01:02:19
Ewerete
ah
01:02:20
Darin Tingey
It was so fun. like um I didn't have any of that, like the mud mud crabs, but ah two two different times on an outer island, on Lye in the Marshall Islands, we went, we did like camp out with the elders quorum and like all the young men and youth.
01:02:39
Darin Tingey
And we did like a fireside. And then that night we all went crab hunting and we went coconut crab hunting. Dude, those things are scary. They're huge crabs and they can open a coconut.
01:02:48
Ewerete
they'll take your finger They'll take your finger off.
01:02:49
Darin Tingey
And so like that's, that's, they'll take it. Yeah. ah Take your finger. You got to so careful. It's so scary grabbing them. Oh, man. i I was like, it was so fun. But like, I see one and I'm like, dude, that thing is huge. Like it is so big. And it's gonna, it's gonna hurt me.
01:03:08
Ewerete
Basically, for the listeners, coconut crab resembles Sametoa off of Moana, like the first one. So like the big crab, the crab...
01:03:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:03:17
Ewerete
God guy, that's like a giant version of what a coconut crab looks like. Like no shell, this giant frigging crab.
01:03:23
Darin Tingey
They're basically a hermit crab without a shell. Yeah, a giant one.
01:03:27
Ewerete
ah mass A massive hermit crab, like huge, huge, huge, yeah.
01:03:31
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:03:32
Ewerete
Yup. Nope. Yeah, that was some good times there.
Adventures and Perils in Travel
01:03:36
Ewerete
um One of the really great ones was about four months in, one of the families heard, and this might be controversial, but they heard the least was supposed to happen.
01:03:47
Ewerete
right? Because the Kitabas government had barely... um started paying like, i don't know, they were paying a lease basically from like the seventies all the way till 2010 or and 11, 2011. So quite a few years of a lease for the airport. Right.
01:04:04
Ewerete
And the airport used to be, it used to be like this, uh, pond for fish and this family had given it to the King like a long, long time ago. And then world war two happened and they made an airstrip and so on and so forth. And then fast forward, the lease is due.
01:04:20
Ewerete
And, uh,
01:04:23
Ewerete
They're mad about it because they gave it away how many ever generations ago and now this other family is going to be picking up all this this money, quite a bit of money, right? like And so they put like houses and trees and rocks in the runway.
01:04:37
Ewerete
like So we didn't have the airplanes for like four or more months and no ships. like We had a ship maybe one month into the being there, maybe a month and a half, and then none. So we ran out of quite a bit of supplies.
01:04:48
Darin Tingey
Dang.
01:04:49
Ewerete
um But yeah, they wouldn't move them for anything.
01:04:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah. can imagine.
01:04:51
Ewerete
We went like people went in booboo seed. The nurse went in booboo seed because she had some sick people that need to go to Tarawa. We went in booboo seed. No one was listening to anybody's booboo seed. Right. And then it came time for zone own conference slash Christmas and president wanted us to go in and we were like,
01:05:11
Ewerete
There's no planes and they've blocked like a good portion of the runway. So it's not long enough to like land. Right. They pile like boulders and butts and everything.
01:05:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:20
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:05:21
Ewerete
And so we're like, well, he's like, well, then I want you guys to fly out of boot that it daddy. So the plan was, we're supposed to take a boat from Mockin to boot that it daddy and then fly from there. Right. And then I was like, oh, so then the ship came and when the ship came, there was like a big storm going on.
01:05:36
Ewerete
And like everybody's getting off the ship they're like, we're not getting back on that thing. Like the waves are coming up on top of the, and this is a metal ship. This isn't one of the wood ships. This is like the metal one and the waves were going up on top of the deck.
01:05:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:47
Ewerete
And so people were just like ha getting off and we were supposed to be getting on. And then my companion like, yeah we're not getting on that thing. Like, sorry, president, we're not doing that. And so we like decided we made an executive decision for ourselves.
01:05:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:01
Ewerete
Like, nope, not happening president, not no go. And then I don't know what possessed us, but yeah, well, I don't know what possessed us, but I think our landlord is like, oh, dude, I know this guy that has a boat and I got to go pick up a shipment of kava because the plane hasn't come forever.
01:06:05
Darin Tingey
For my life, for for your life.
01:06:16
Ewerete
And so I shipped my kava to butta Italia and I got to go pick it up. You guys can just come with us. We're like, oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea. So we like packed up our bags and everything. Cause at this point, president was pretty mad and he was just like, well, you guys are coming in. i don't know if you're going to be going back out or not. Cause I'm not happy with the whole airport situation, not being whenever I need it to be.
01:06:37
Ewerete
Um, and so we packed up, we yeah gathered all the paperwork.
01:06:39
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:06:42
Ewerete
Um, cause there wasn't even like a unit out there. So we were in charge of like baptism and ordination records and, all that like and tithing so we gathered up all these papers and everything that we got to bring back to thought of what to submit to over in atha
01:06:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yep.
01:06:58
Ewerete
And we're going to get on this little better boat with a 30 horse motor because somehow it looked a lot better than it did the day before or two days before.
01:07:05
Darin Tingey
the
01:07:05
Ewerete
Right. like You know, like this made a lot of sense in everybody's mind. So, and I remember my companion was like, I was like, elder, I was like, elder, we should just like wear a basketball shirt, like PDA clothes. Cause like climbing the boat out of the boat, you know, like we were get wet. Might as well just wear like, and he's like, elder, we're missionaries. so We should dress like missionaries.
01:07:26
Ewerete
I was like, hey, whatever, dude. So we dressed like missionaries that day. And we got on the boat and our bags, our bags are loaded down. Like this thing is like loaded down with all of our luggage we brought with us.
01:07:37
Ewerete
We locked up the house like we weren't coming back, had it all tidied up and cleaned up, all the paperwork gathered together. um Get on this boat and there's five of us. So that kid, the son of the landlady, our landlord, the the guy, his boat driver, and then me and my companion, we start out from walking.
01:07:54
Ewerete
um I think it was the west. Yeah, the west side. and so we're just starting off and the the waves are like five foot waves and we're just like, just smashing. like And like I'm like, okay, this is not too bad. like Because I've been in something pretty similar in Alaska and I'm like, i will survive this. It'll be fine. like But then we got out from like behind Kip.
01:08:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:16
Ewerete
and the And the boatmaster, oh, man, the guy who's like, dude, are you sure you guys want to go? Like, we could turn around. and like, oh, no, it's fine. Let's keep going. Like, stupid person that I was. And we get out from behind behind, like, the very last island after I keep.
01:08:29
Ewerete
I think it's, I can't remember what the name of that one is. um that Nobody lived on it.
01:08:34
Darin Tingey
Pass the island just to the vast ocean.
01:08:37
Ewerete
Yeah, to go between between Makin and but which are close, mind you fairly close, not too far away. um And we get into some huge waves like I had it like cross my mind that I had just killed my companion, myself and everybody else on this boat because of my stubbornness. Right.
01:08:59
Ewerete
Like we were talking like 20, 25 foot waves. in this little 16 foot boat.
01:09:03
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:09:04
Ewerete
And so we'd get into the trough and you'd be looking up at this huge wall of water. And my companion fell asleep pretty early on. Like I think before we got to the big waves and I was just like looking over at the guy. i'm like, dude, don't even pretend like you're over there. Like,
01:09:21
Ewerete
faith of Christ and sleeping through the storm and stuff. Like you're faking it. Like was like sleeping on the bags, you know, like water splashing everywhere.
01:09:30
Darin Tingey
Now where?
01:09:30
Ewerete
I'm like white fist, I'm like white fist in it, holding the edges of the boat. And we're just going up the top of the wave and like get to the crest and then go down and like your gut would go up and everything, just like a roller coaster.
01:09:40
Ewerete
Like, like, oh man. And I just kept looking at the motor man and his head was down, like hat down.
01:09:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:09:47
Ewerete
Like, what am I, what did I do? i just prayed the whole way. no joke. It was like six hours, not even joking. Like we left in the morning and we didn't get there till like two or three in the afternoon.
01:09:56
Darin Tingey
Oh my goodness.
01:10:03
Ewerete
And finally, like we get to the lagoon and bootite it like, that is lagoon. And it like calms down. My companion is like, oh I gotta to go to the bathroom. Like out of nowhere, just awake, ready to go to the bathroom. Like, you know. Like nothing was going on and totally fine, whatever.
01:10:17
Darin Tingey
Was he actually sleeping or was he just like passed out, like scared to death?
01:10:18
Ewerete
and we
01:10:22
Ewerete
I've talked to him a few times afterwards and he claims he's sleeping. Like he, he hasn't like fessed up to, I mean, maybe you could talk to him and get the truth out of him, but i don't know. He claims he was sleeping.
01:10:34
Ewerete
So he had a ton of faith and wasn't worried, but he also didn't believe my story either.
01:10:34
Darin Tingey
Good.
01:10:39
Ewerete
Like he's like, elder everit that we were not on that big of waves. Like that's not true. It's a bunch of crap. Like, like, no dude, serious. And anyway, we get there and there's this tall white guy. Like random, random even thong just on the shore, ready to meet us. And like, who is this? Like some church official? Like, is this a 70? Like, I've never seen this guy in my life. And he's like waiting for us to get up on shore and stuff.
01:11:01
Ewerete
And he has a Scottish accent. I'm like, what in the world? Like, he's like, did you guys just come off the ship parked out there? and we're like, no, we came off this boat. And he's like, you came off this boat in that storm? And we're like, yeah.
01:11:14
Ewerete
He's like, your parents must be so worried about you guys. And we're like, our parents don't even know. Like no one knew we were out here.
01:11:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, our parents have no idea where we're at.
01:11:20
Ewerete
Like president, president didn't even know. Like no, nobody knew. Like nobody knew. and he's like, yeah, me and my wife were just selling back to Alaska.
01:11:32
Ewerete
And his his wife was like the director of like the Sitka Fine Arts Camp up there like the fine arts thing in Southeast Alaska.
01:11:38
Darin Tingey
No way.
01:11:39
Ewerete
And they picked up their yacht in New Zealand. It was like a 40-foot yacht with like a motor and everything. They'd taken down their sails and they'd just been plowing. And he's like, dude, that was like, he was like, we were making no headway last night.
01:11:50
Ewerete
We had the motors full bore. It was super sketchy. And you guys just came in this little boat. Like, he was just in awe. All of our stuff was soaking wet. Our bags kept nothing dry. And then we walked from there.
01:12:04
Ewerete
He tried to invite us to to go have dinner on like he had dinner on the yacht with him and his wife. And my companion was like weirding out. He's like, dude, they're going to kidnap us. And like like, dude, these people, they're from Alaska.
01:12:13
Darin Tingey
i care this good
01:12:14
Ewerete
Like... And mean he was, that guy was like an MD too. I'm pretty sure he's like medical doctor. Like this is the Alaskan hospitality for you, dude. Like we should go eat food um with like these guys out on this yacht. Like this will be an experience. And he was just like, no, no.
01:12:28
Ewerete
I was like, I listened to my companion.
01:12:29
Darin Tingey
We had a few people show up in their yachts when I was on that round.
01:12:31
Ewerete
So.
01:12:34
Darin Tingey
And they're like, Oh, are you guys the the school teachers? And like, no, we're, we're missionaries. though They just like, couldn't believe it that we were just living out there.
01:12:43
Ewerete
No, this guy was shocked too. He was just like, man, your parents must, you can use the sat phone. He was like offering the sat phone to us. Like none of us had called home except for Christmas, you know, like this was back in the day where you couldn't call home hardly ever.
01:12:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:53
Ewerete
And, He's just like, anyway, my companion didn't believe me until we tracked it back into that guy's house later.
01:12:57
Darin Tingey
Yup.
01:12:59
Ewerete
So we came back after all that, came back to Makin, tracked it in this guy's house. He's like, you guys don't know me? And we're like, don't recognize you. And he's like, I drove the boat for you guys to Butari Tari.
01:13:10
Ewerete
And was like, oh, great. Tell my companion about how bad that storm was. And he's like, oh, they were about as tall as this house.
01:13:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:16
Ewerete
And my companion like, I'm sorry, Elder Everett. Like, now I believe you. And i was like,
01:13:19
Darin Tingey
a
Life in Tarawa and Buota
01:13:21
Ewerete
here's here's my proof right here.
01:13:23
Ewerete
But don't know. his
01:13:25
Darin Tingey
Did you guys make it back to Tarawa from Butardari?
01:13:26
Ewerete
was crazy. Yeah, so we flew from... boot We stayed in Butaretare for like one day or two days and then flew back to Tarawa. Butaretare is beautiful as well.
01:13:37
Darin Tingey
Nice.
01:13:37
Ewerete
Tons of bananas. So green. still So, so green. It's like beautiful over there.
01:13:43
Ewerete
yeah wellve I've heard that too.
01:13:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I heard there's mangoes.
01:13:45
Darin Tingey
I heard there's mangoes there too.
01:13:48
Ewerete
Never saw any. So it's possible. i would I want to lay like some...
01:13:55
Ewerete
Val validity to the claim, but I have nothing to offer there like I never saw mango sadly so
01:14:03
Darin Tingey
I would love i would have loved to have a mango on the mission man like I feel like everyone in the States like oh you're going to the islands like you have like all these pineapples and all these like crazy fruits like now I mean breadfruit taro you know like that's what I'm having.
01:14:18
Ewerete
Yep and coconut like that's pretty much oh there was papaya
01:14:21
Darin Tingey
And coconut yeah.
01:14:24
Ewerete
Yeah, there's papaya too. but
01:14:26
Darin Tingey
That's true. Papaya. and I had a lot of papaya. It was so good. And some pumpkin and bananas and stuff like that.
01:14:35
Ewerete
We had one lady, the same lady, the daughter of...
01:14:36
Darin Tingey
And so you were...
01:14:38
Ewerete
ahead, sorry.
01:14:41
Ewerete
We had a watermelon.
01:14:41
Darin Tingey
No, no. can Tell the story. Tell the story.
01:14:44
Ewerete
No, she gave us a watermelon, like a full-on watermelon.
01:14:46
Darin Tingey
Are you serious?
01:14:47
Ewerete
Yeah, that was in Buendake. She sent us home one night, me and Elder Mahe. She sent us home with a watermelon. I was like, where in the heck? She's like, I grew it in our garden. i was like, you just gave us a whole watermelon. like That was super cool.
01:14:58
Ewerete
And having gone back, just for the listeners, watermelons and pumpkin and squash and all this, like that stuff's going for like
01:15:00
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:15:06
Ewerete
more than 50 bucks a pop Australian. Like it's dang expensive now. So like some serious sacrifice for sure.
01:15:12
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:15:15
Ewerete
So anyway, but yeah, no, from my kin, I went to Boata. So they, they brought me into Boata. Boata had just been whitewashed. um They hadn't had missionaries there for pretty much the entire time I was in my kin.
01:15:30
Ewerete
So the whole time we were in my kin, nobody was in Boata.
01:15:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:33
Ewerete
They'd close the area and,
01:15:37
Darin Tingey
That's where I stayed when I was in Tarawa. I went to Buota. Again, I was on Tarawa for like total of five days. It's like two days before Mayena and like three days after. And I stayed in Bota the entire time, which is a cool area.
01:15:49
Ewerete
i think
01:15:51
Darin Tingey
I mean, it's like the start of Tarawayeta. ah So you kind of get a little mix of like outer indoor Tarawa and like kind of city rest of Tarawa.
01:16:04
Ewerete
I would definitely say Buendiki and Buota were my favorite places on Barawa. You still get the Outer Islands feel. people People's houses are still spaced out enough where you're like walking through the dark for a good minute. and like I don't know. like It still had that feel from the Outer Islands of where like people weren't so jam-packed in. and
01:16:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:16:28
Ewerete
which Which, frankly...
01:16:28
Darin Tingey
Did you finish him, Bota?
01:16:31
Ewerete
um No, I finished in Te Arreque. um so I was in Boata. I had my first trainee in Boata, Elder Whippy. He's from Fiji.
01:16:42
Ewerete
um
01:16:42
Darin Tingey
Oh, dude, I know other Whippy, Jared Whippy. He was in my ward in Provo, dude.
01:16:45
Ewerete
Yes. Yes. No.
01:16:48
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:16:48
Ewerete
So I had Jared. Jared was my my first trainee, um like full on trainee. So me and Jared were together for a good minute. um We taught one of my.
01:17:01
Ewerete
One of my favorite people I met the whole time, her name is Nae Khan. She's from Onotoa. Well, she yaed she's married to somebody from Onotoa, but her dad it was a British soldier that married her mom from Butaritari.
01:17:13
Ewerete
So she was this half-kittabist lady, but she was like 80, like 80-something.
01:17:15
Darin Tingey
Oh, cool.
01:17:18
Ewerete
She remembered like World War two had stories of it. Her dad had a gun and stuff growing up. Like just, she had tons of stories. you Didn't want to hear us, by the way. um We were teaching her grandson, but she couldn't, she couldn't move really.
01:17:28
Darin Tingey
Sure.
01:17:30
Ewerete
So she was stuck on her bed. So we just go sit by the bed. um And by the time her grandson asked to but be baptized, then she was ready to have the lessons. And we taught her and she got baptized.
01:17:44
Ewerete
Basically too, when she called and told her son in Onotoa that her her grandson was going to get baptized, it wasn't like, hey, I think it would be a good idea if you let your son get baptized. What do you say about this? It was the phone call kind of went like, you're going to let your son get baptized?
01:17:58
Ewerete
And that was kind of the end of the conference because it was her son, right? So she was calling to tell her son that no, you are going to let your grandkid get baptized. It was one of those grandparent talking kind of scenarios of like, this is what's going down.
01:18:09
Darin Tingey
I love that.
01:18:09
Ewerete
But i think I think her son's like, Branch president on one or something like that. Like, i don't know. Anyway, but yeah, so it's crazy, crazy times.
01:18:17
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:18:19
Ewerete
And then after Elder Whippy, had Elder Whippy.
01:18:24
Ewerete
So Elder Whippy went to Medicaid and then his twin brother Elder Whippy came. So then.
01:18:31
Darin Tingey
No way. I didn't realize his twin brother served there too.
01:18:35
Ewerete
Jared and Josh. Yeah. So Jared, Jared came first and then Josh came, i don't know, like maybe two months later or something like that. And then Jared got sent to Medicaid and then Josh came and I had Josh for like only two weeks or so.
01:18:51
Ewerete
And then Josh went to Atenuka with Elder Pearson. So yeah, no, had both, both twins in a row.
01:18:57
Darin Tingey
Wow, that's pretty cool. i wonder if they ever served together.
01:18:58
Ewerete
It was pretty cool. They did. There was a like a church news article about it and stuff. Yeah. yeah. and Yeah, twins.
01:19:07
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
01:19:07
Ewerete
Twins in the same mission. It's pretty crazy.
Cultural Insights and Generosity
01:19:09
Darin Tingey
Well, what was, you know, come up on time here, but what was your, what was your favorite ah food in Kitabas? And what was your favorite cultural thing in Kitabas?
01:19:23
Darin Tingey
And your favorite area?
01:19:27
Ewerete
i went to Teraki after Bwata, but I would say my favorite area was Mocan, 100%.
01:19:34
Ewerete
It's pretty hard to beat when you're on an outer Island for that long and you're in an area for that long and you get to know everybody as good as you do.
01:19:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:42
Ewerete
And like, you think about them a lot and you remember them and like, I don't know like I still think about them. Like, so yeah, I'm walking a hundred percent.
01:19:54
Darin Tingey
And then favorite food and and cultural thing.
01:20:01
Ewerete
Favorite food.
01:20:05
Ewerete
Liberty's already been saying it, so it's kind of like pretty hard to Sea Turtle's like where it's at. Like, you have choice between some good Sea Turtle.
01:20:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:14
Ewerete
Like, you got you got a good stake here in America, and I would probably place Sea Turtle above that stake. Like, the listener, like the best stake you ever had in your whole life, but it doesn't have anything on Sea Turtle. Like...
01:20:26
Ewerete
There's a reason they're in danger.
01:20:27
Darin Tingey
That's a bold claim.
01:20:28
Ewerete
but
01:20:29
Ewerete
like, like, like there's a reason. There's a reason for it. Like had it multiple, I had it like two times I would say. And I had dolphin too. I don't know. The last guy, I don't know about, don't know about the dolphin that he was super pumped about.
01:20:29
Darin Tingey
all
01:20:44
Ewerete
And having grown up in Alaska, I've had whale before.
01:20:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:48
Ewerete
Not a huge fan of whale or dolphin. Dolphin was kind of not so cool. Like,
01:20:56
Ewerete
I don't know.
01:20:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah. I can't imagine.
01:20:56
Ewerete
But yeah, sea turtles, sea turtles where it's at.
01:20:57
Darin Tingey
i don't know. I don't know what i would taste like.
01:21:01
Ewerete
It was just, i don't know.
01:21:01
Darin Tingey
Sea turtle.
01:21:02
Ewerete
It's like, yeah And a lot of people were of the opinion, like if you eat a dolphin, it's like you're eating somebody.
01:21:02
Darin Tingey
And, uh,
01:21:06
Ewerete
So they're pretty against it. Like in a lot of islands, like only the North really, this touching dolphin, the South is like super taboo on that one. So.
01:21:17
Darin Tingey
and It's funny how it is, like, cultural and just how us Americans hate hate that we eat sea turtle. I don't know. But it's, like, it's just food for them. So it's, like, you can't blame them.
01:21:29
Ewerete
I wish they weren't endangered. Like they're really good.
01:21:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And favorite cultural thing about Kiribati?
01:21:37
Ewerete
cultural thing.
01:21:41
Darin Tingey
and this And this might even be like, for the listeners that don't know, Taylor's married to a kid of a girl. So he's got that culture stuff still with him on the day-to-day, which is pretty cool.
01:22:01
Ewerete
I like
01:22:05
Ewerete
there is the boo-boo see and the boo-boo see plays into this, but I don't think it is necessarily in the boo-boo see itself. I think it's truly just like the selflessness of the people as a whole.
01:22:16
Ewerete
Like they will give you the shirt off their back. Um, I can't tell you how many times you go into a house and they've cooked the rice over a fire. The whole outside of that rise is burnt to a crisp, like black.
01:22:30
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:22:30
Ewerete
Um, And never once were they like, Hey elders, like here, we've served everybody else up here, scrape out the bottom of the pot. No, it was always like that fresh rice right off the top.
01:22:41
Ewerete
And like, that's just how they, that's how a hundred percent across the board kid of his people are like, if, if I were to describe kid of his people as a whole, like, yeah, they're happy. Um, yeah, they're super kind. Um, but they're just giving like super, super giving, like,
01:22:59
Ewerete
does even Even the people that didn't want to listen to us in Mockin, they would still give us a coconut. They still sit down and shoot the breeze with you. um like They'd still give you the time of day. like That's probably...
01:23:10
Ewerete
like even Even being married to my wife, like you know like that's from the thing.
01:23:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
01:23:15
Ewerete
She'll go out of her way to just be there for the kids like you know when they're sick and like really sympathetic and loving and just give a giver for sure. so
01:23:29
Ewerete
I don't know. I feel like I kind of rushed all that.
01:23:29
Darin Tingey
yeah they're're they're super selfless.
01:23:33
Darin Tingey
No, I agree that.
01:23:33
Ewerete
feel bad, but I'm the stuff that I could go on for ages.
01:23:36
Darin Tingey
Oh, no.
01:23:39
Darin Tingey
I know we're going to have to have you on again to talk about i you finding your wife and and that whole story.
01:23:46
Ewerete
thanks for
01:23:47
Darin Tingey
Cause I want to, i want to
01:23:47
Ewerete
Oh, yeah. That's a fun one.
Conclusion and Gratitude
01:23:49
Darin Tingey
hear it.
01:23:49
Darin Tingey
And I, I think the listeners want to hear it too, especially cause you know, it's super unique. Marrying a kid of a Skrill, totally different culture and and stuff like that. yeah,
01:24:00
Darin Tingey
But Taylor, you've been he's been probably the most devout follower of the podcast, so I appreciate it.
01:24:05
Ewerete
okay
01:24:06
Darin Tingey
if you've look If you're listening to this far into the podcast, like go follow it on our podcast or Spotify Facebook, Instagram. like ah Half the listeners I can see like don't actually follow the show, so we give it a follow.
01:24:21
Darin Tingey
now Thanks for coming on, Taylor. was awesome to have you. and
01:24:24
Ewerete
No, thank you. And yeah, keep, keep it up. It's, I don't know. It's been fun to listen to. It's just a good thing on a Thursday afternoon, you know, like, like why you posting this man? I'm kicking it at work.
01:24:35
Ewerete
I can do the rest of the day.
01:24:36
Ewerete
this is like or so
01:24:37
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:24:38
Darin Tingey
and
01:24:38
Ewerete
and sorry Friday.
01:24:38
Darin Tingey
Taylor texts me, when's it coming out?
01:24:39
Ewerete
Sorry. Fridays, Fridays.
01:24:41
Darin Tingey
what
01:24:41
Ewerete
Like dude, man.
01:24:42
Darin Tingey
When is the episode coming out? was like, dude Friday. It's going to come out, I promise.
01:24:47
Ewerete
No, it's, it's been good. Like I like hearing about Marshall Islands and stuff too. Like I never saw that side. Pretty much nobody went to Marshalls except for APs, right? So like, which I was okay with at the time, frankly, like I was just glad to not be one of those blessed people to go go to somewhere else and have to learn a different language.
01:24:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:07
Ewerete
I was like, no, I'm good. I had to learn one. We're good. Like, so you just leave me where I am.
01:25:11
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:25:12
Ewerete
Right.
01:25:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah, no, I think the APs had a pretty good get to get to like just at least see both sides. feel like the APs didn't actually like learn the language if they went over there or whatever, but maybe they did.
01:25:22
Ewerete
No, for you guys, I got to learn both.
01:25:23
Darin Tingey
I don't know. But
01:25:24
Ewerete
Like, that's been pretty cool. like Like, that's cool to hear.
01:25:28
Ewerete
Like, having to struggle through it twice is pretty, that's intense. Like, like once ah one once was rough.
01:25:28
Darin Tingey
it was it was awesome.
01:25:35
Darin Tingey
It sucked at the time, but it was like so fun. I'm so grateful.
01:25:39
Ewerete
Once was rough enough. Twice? oh man. that's That's rough. That's really rough. so But, yeah.
01:25:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah. the The best part about it was just getting seeing both cultures and like getting getting like such a big love for like both island countries and like the different things about them.
01:25:56
Darin Tingey
That's my favorite part about it. So we'll let you get back to your family, Taylor. Thank you so much.
01:26:01
Ewerete
No, thanks.
01:26:02
Ewerete
Yeah.
01:26:02
Darin Tingey
It's another great episode of Islands Podcast.
01:26:06
Ewerete
Thanks. Yeah, bye. Savo.