Although we had planned to leave for the Carteret Atoll today the trip never happens. Sorting out the boat which needs fixing, connecting with the skipper from the Carterets (we don't want to chance it with another skipper who is not himself from the Carterets), chasing down people, purchasing supplies, getting things in place... sometime after noon we call off the trip, postponing it instead for tomorrow morning. My heart sinks a bit, I'm reminded of my first attempt to travel to the Carterets in 2008, a trip which I aborted halfway between Buka and the Carterets due to high waves. I hope this time I'll be successful to go. If one thing is certain it's that the Carterets are extremely remote and very difficult (and risky!) to reach. The banana boats used to perform the journey often drift off course and get lost in the open sea.
To make good use of the time this afternoon we decide to make for the island chain of Saposa, trying to meet Island Chief Joash Kela who I interviewed in 2008. I have been looking forward to seeing him again to hand him a copy of Planet Prepare, the report for which I interviewed him two years ago.
Torotsian, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea: Island Chief Joash Kela with a copy of Planet Prepare. Download Planet Prepare (Mr. Kela is pictured on pages 8 and 19)
When I see him again on the Island of Torotsian I can tell he is proud to see his photo, I'm glad and slightly relieved that today's meeting went so well. We also do a semi-structured full interview together. Although Chief Kela doesn't fully appreciate some of the nuances in my questionnaire, he certainly has a strong opinion when it comes to stating his views on how to call people displaced by sea level rise-related problems. He dismisses all possible suggested answers in my questionnaire, and to my surprise volunteers a new term from the local Pidgin dialect which in his view far better reflects the transient nature of displacement.
I am happy when he gives me permission to film his response on video camera. I'm intrigued. He certainly raises a good point, reminding me that "labels" should be permeable and temporal, not rigid and permanent. As we part company and I ask him whether there is anything else he would like to say, he emphatically reiterates that the "sea is rising really fast." After taking some more photos of him and his friends pointing out noticeable signs of erosion we make our way back to Buka by boat.
Torotsian, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea: pointing out signs of erosion, Island Chief Joash Kala emphatically maintains that the "sea is rising really fast."
After a quick crayfish dinner I try to catch an early night. Tomorrow we have to rise at 3:00 am for our trip to the Carterets, I had better catch some sleep...
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