Day 82

We all woke up relatively early because we were supposed to be getting a boat back to the village at 8am. The weather still wasn’t ideal and the waves were still so big that no boat men wanted to come and pick us up. The family started getting a bit antsy as they were leaving today and heading back to the mainland (they had been bragging about the 5 star hotel they were going to be staying in so much I was quite glad they were leaving).

Finally around 12 a boat did come and they all got rather excited and tried to pile on at the same time.

Much drama ensued.

The waves caused it to capsize and wash up on the beach and with each wave it filled with more water and more sand.

Georgia got soaked.

Dad hurt his foot.

Wid sprained her ankle.

Georgia started crying.

All the families bags started floating off.

The invalids retreated to the beach while Ramona and I tried to push the boat back into the water – not an easy task.

We pushed and pushed for about half an hour but it was just too heavy while it was filled with sand and water.

We spotted some canoeist stranded further along the beach and decided we’d go and ask them if they wanted some help and if they’d possibly come and help us too. Even with their extra help we still couldn’t budge it.
Luckily some other boatmen came to our rescue and with the help of about 5 extra men we managed to push it back out to sea and then bail all the water and sand out.

Very dramatic.

The boat then got towed away by another boat and left us still stranded on the beach.

Thankfully another boat came and we put all our bags into bin bags and carried them out to the boat ontop of our heads.

Then we swam out and clambered in. Once we were all in we had a little team cheer and a hug.

We got back to the village and I realised I’d packed my ‘respectful’ clothes into one of the bin bags but I didn’t have a clue which one. So I ended up having to fashion a skirt out of a life jacket. It wasn’t a good look and as I walked through the village I got a few ‘does she not know how to wear a life jacket?!’ looks.
We went for some lunch at Mamma’s (veggies and rice) and fruit shakes and re-lived the trauma.
Everyone on the project thinks I’m a vegetarian (an awkward misunderstanding at the beginning of the week which I never corrected ) which really limits what I could actually eat. But oh well.
And then it was 4pm and time for the family to get the boat back to the mainland. So we all went down to the jetty and had a team hug and waved them off.
I headed home for a much needed nap and then went across to house for dinner. A new volunteer had arrived while I was at Tigre Ruan – her name was Victoria and she was from northern France. She was very, very quiet but I think it may have just been due to the language difference. Anyway she seemed lovely from what I could tell.

Paul and Gemma had made a rather spicy rice dish with fish.

Attempted to have a movie night (Deadpool) but then Wid got a text from some local boatmen about a turtle trying to lay eggs on Longbeach. Everyone went except me and Wid – I wanted to sleep in a proper bed, so I got an early night.