Yep, that happens in Kiribati, too

Even Peace Corps Volunteers get stood up

Wanna hear a funny "ain't that just my luck" story? Okay, here goes. We went
to a party the other day at Lauren's house. She's a PCV here on South
Tarawa. It was a great party. Lots of barbeque, more than lots of beers, and
3 guitars. Jim, a Volunteer from my group who is super awesome on the
guitar, played pretty much all night and two other guys with two other
guitars were sort of his back up and would occassionally chime in with a
song of their own. I, of course, busted out my "poor-but-loud" drunk voice.
We all sat in a circle and drank and played and sang. Definitely cool.
Also, after all the guitarin', we had a mini-dance party. Now, earlier in
the night I'd been introduced to a young English woman named Jane. She was
pretty cute, extremely sweet hearted and that English accent...well, I'm
sure you know what accents can do to a person's attractiveness. Anyway,we
talked a lot, and danced a lot, and even did that
I'm-gonna-dance-with-you-but-we're-going-to-intertwine-our-fingers-like-we're-
holding-hands-but-it's-not-a-big-deal-cause-we're-just-dancing
thing. My friend Bill (his brother is the bassist for G.Love) was
giving me advice all night, and I was just tipsy enough to follow it. So, at
the end of the night, I invited her to have lunch with me. To make it seem
more casual, I was like "Okay, so how about this. I'll be at the Red House
Restaurant tomorrow at noon. If you show up, I'll buy you lunch. If not,
I'll buy me lunch." We agreed, and I headed home, towing/being towed by two
other drunken PCVs.
The next day came, and I went to the restaurant at around ten to 12 (didn't
want her to have to wait), and she wasn't there. So I was like "Okay, no
problem, Kiribati time." Kiribati time runs at least 45 minutes slower than
normal time. I waited until like 12:45 and then decided she wasn't going to
show and bought my lunch and went back to the Peace Corps dorm.
Bill came by later that afternoon (he stayed in Betio with Jim) and I told
him that his advice had failed. He told me not too feel too bad (I didn't
really feel too bad, anyway) because she was the 19-year-old daughter of the
European Union Consulate. Yep, that's right, 19. And the daughter of a
relatively Big Shot. Turns out she was there under the supervision Corey,
another PCV who lives on Tarawa, who promised her parents she would look
after her. So, basically, I was the creepy guy hitting on the young girl how
was, basically, being babysat. And I was doing pretty well. Now THAT'S a
funny story.
The thing is that it wasn't unreasonable for me to assume she was my age (I
know, I'm only 5 years older than she is, but it's a big 5 years. A lot
happens in that time). A) She didn't look or act 19

She was at a party
drinking beers C) she was a young not I-Kiribati woman. It was safe for me
to assume that she was a Volunteer with some sort of organization. There are
many NGOs, and there are many Australian and other Volunteers, on Tarawa at
least. Not so much the outer islands. Anyway, almost all the Vol.
Organizations require a degree in something, making them at least 22 years
old. Oh well, just another example of my impeccable logic failing.

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