Stories From Kiribati

She couldn't believe her ears when her mother told her that she was going to Maiana, her home-island, to spend Christmas with her grandparents. Tina, the only daughter of Timau and Nei Rite, had always wanted to visit another island but her parents never allowed it. Now she had completed Year Two at KGV & EBS and her grandparents had asked her parents to allow her to come for Christmas.

Her first few days with her grandparents were a bit boring because she spent most of he...

Long ago the sky was close to the earth. Men and women did not have to plant their own food or go fishing. Instead, when they were hungry, they just reached up and broke off a piece of the sky and eat. Sometimes the sky tasted like ripe pandanus. Other times it tasted like fried fish. The sky was always delicious.

People in the village spent their time playing sports and dancing. At night they sang songs and told stories. The island king, Ueantabo, had a wonderful island. ...

In my family, I have only one sister. She is older than me. She is very bad as she always tells our mother bad things about me. That’s why mother thinks that I am naughty. Not just that, but my sister is also greedy for money.

One day, mother gave me some money for my good school report. She gave me twenty dollars and reminded me that it was for me only. She didn’t give any to my sister since she got poor marks at school. But my bad sister took the fifty dollar not...

27th of May 1997 was the first day of my date. I was in love with the girl named Joana. She was from Cuba and she looked very beautiful to me. Honestly, I loved her very much without knowing how much she loved me. I was indeed a man of high status and position. However I hid my full information from her, so that she loved me for who I was instead of what I was.

 Time and days passed and my love for her grew more and more. Then something happened – her attitude chan...

There was nothing I could do when all of a sudden a voice advised me. So I ran as fast as I could for the thing that I saw was a ghost. I ran on and on then looked back to see if it was still following me. Yes it was still after me. I shouted at it and said, “Hey, what do you want from me?”

The ghost replied, “I want you to be my friend forever.”

“No way!” I said.

It came closer to me and added, “Then...

One morning while I was still in bed, someone knocked on my door. I opened it and it was my elder sister who came to ask me to do the job for her because she would have a meeting at 9:30am. I turned to look at the clock and it was 9:00 so I said, “Okay, no problem.”

She hugged and kissed me on the cheek then she went off. I went back to bed thinking if she was really going to a meeting or going to see her friends or maybe meeting her boyfriend. However, I started...

One Friday afternoon, I went to my friends to tell them of our picnic on Saturday. Then I went back home. On my way back, I began to feel something strange. It was as if something bad was happening at home. I hurriedly walked back without stopping anywhere along the way.

When I got home, I saw my father beating my mother. I was very sad and angry when I saw dad kicking, punching and beating my mother. I knew that kaokioki (coconut wine) was confusing him because he looked ver...

It was more than I could imagine when I heard her saying those words. She said to me that she was now my friend. So I began treating her, the ways best friends treated each other. She was very close to me much like a sister. I counted her as one of our family members. I also really liked her because I had no sister as I was the only girl in my family.

One fine day, we went out playing in the field. I was on cloud nine because we played lots of good and fun games. More friends...

One fine, sunny and beautiful day, I decided to go for a walk. I quickly ran back to my house and got myself ready.

I put on my hat then grabbed other things I would need for a walk. I started walking on a long field where planes used to land on. It was a long straight field - about 400 meters or more. I just kept on walking until I came to its halfway. Then I started running slowly so that I could reach the other end and rest my legs which were now feeling fatigue. My heart s...

Every single day, I always prayed to my heavenly father to bring my Dad back and to help my mother who was still sick. My family was not complete as dad was not with us. I lived with my mom at home, just the two of us. My father had not been with us and I didn’t know if he was still alive. Everyday I asked my mother to stay strong. Every minute, I cried and prayed with all my heart.

My mother was getting worse, and I didn’t have enough money to pay for her medical ...