Nauru

The tropical sun, the sound of waves, and a coconut drink in hand might draw more than two hundred tourists a year to Nauru if it wasn’t such a trek. To get there from LAX, we would first fly to Brisbane, Australia and then change over to Nauru Airlines, which made this promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLXIBSwrPE

People like Drew Binsky, who are on a quest to visit every country, certainly think it is worth the trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WKEZPF489U

For someone like me, who wants to get there without leaving home, it means tracking down coconut in four different forms. Fortunately, Kaitlin, Andrea, Matt, Human, and I all love coconut! Andrea had the coconut oil, coconut sugar, and ground flax to make the vegan egg. I added the coconut milk powder and cacao butter from Amazon. The rest of the ingredients were easy to find at the grocery store. We started with coconut crusted fish https://www.notesfromamessykitchen.com/recipe/nauru-coconut-crusted-fish/ and what I thought would be the almost identical coconut crusted cauliflower for the vegans, but it had a completely different flavor profile https://veganphysicist.com/nauru-coconut-crusted-cauliflower-vegan/. We ate these with sweet potato fries https://www.internationalcuisine.com/nauru-sweet-potato-fries/ and finished with coconut and white chocolate truffles https://www.madmillie.com/recipe/island-bliss-truffles/. The meal received nice compliments and I would make the fish again as it is both good and easy.

Books by native authors might be scarce, but the government posts stories online to promote understanding of their people: http://naurugov.nr/about-nauru/nauruans'-stories.aspx

Movies are also scarce, but I found a beauty pageant. It starts here and continues through four parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_jV6Ssz1AU

A video tour of the island is included here https://www.smore.com/jxep-nauru and YouTube has a multitude of community events such as a poster competition, a fishing competition, Angam day celebrations, and birthdays.

The music is relaxing and I like the basket I found for art:

· Eko Yon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw7-DtL_skM&list=RDrA-meVOqUKg&index=2

· Another Nauruan song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfe9l_Tj44k&list=RDrA-meVOqUKg&index=4

· Egadakua: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314318

There is a downside to this island paradise besides the distance and the scant online and library resources. In the last fifty years, Nauru has been so rich that they rivaled Saudi Arabia for wealth per person and then so poor that they leased land to house refugees Australia doesn’t want to admit. The emotions involved in these ups and downs are shown in Janey Mac Goes To Nauru by Janey Mac (I read it on Hoopla) and in Freedom Stories and Against Our Oath (both on Kanopy).

If I went in person to Nauru, I would snorkel while Allan dives and we would both check out the places on this list: https://pickvisa.com/blog/reasons-to-travel-to-nauru. I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Nauru and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Winston Chen https://unsplash.com/photos/bjJU61GHALI