JUST 20 twenty minutes away from Kiribati’s international airport lies the community of Bouta, numbering around 800 people.
It’s in the northern end of Tarawa, a part of the island that is considered to be cleaner and more pristine than the island’s urbanised south.
Admittedly it has some of the worst roads this side of Honiara – and driving through the craters is excruciating but it makes the destination all the more worth while.
The area has white sandy beaches, cool breeze and clear pristine waters.
There is no arguing that this place is beautiful – for me there is something even more special about Bouta because its home to a man who has shaped the lives of a countless number of young people in and around Honiara.
In the 1980s Peter Scarlett was a common household name in Honiara thanks to his sign writing business, his voracious personality and his hard work in training children athletes.
He was a runner himself and he used his energy and spare time to train young children in athletics.
The best of which traveled with Peter to take part in competitions in Australia throughout the 1980s.
I still remember his pick up truck with the Milo logo on the side and the legions of children who took up athletics thanks to Peter’s passion and hard work.
His own house in Mbokonavera was not far from my parents home and I would pass it everyday on the way home.
Peter, an Australian, first came to work in the Solomons in 1976 – he would stay on until 1996 when a death in his family led to his family’s return to Kiribati.
Peter with much regret sold his home at Mbokonvera, his sign writing business and his Point Cruz warehouse.
Peter and his wife Aketa returned here to Bouta – where they bought a land and began carving out their new home and built Buota Lodge.
Today it’s a beautiful lodge with four units plus their own house, but when they first moved here it was nothing but bushland.
The property itself is called Eumeralla – it’s an Aborginal word meaning the land besides the sea – it was the name of a property owned by a very influential man in Peter’s life.
A man who shaped Peter’s formative years which were in Australia and Nauru.
The link between Peter, Eumeralla and Solomon Islands runs deep.
To my surprise I even found out, on my first visit to Eumeralla that one of my own uncles had helped Peter build the lodge.
When he had arrived here from the Solomons in 1996 Peter brought with him two container loads of timber and in true Peter Scarlett style, he brought along several of his Solomon Islands carpenter friends to work with him.
Eumeralla is built with Solomon mostly vasa and akwa was crafted by the hands of Solomon Islanders.
Men who Peter helped to start their own business and some who would stay on and live in Kiribati.
One of those who would help Peter build Eumeralla was my late uncle Jerry Deremoa.
Jerry passed away about four years ago and his body now lies in Christmas Island (one Of Kiribati’s outer islands) where he had married after moving here.
Jerry's memory though lives on at Eumeralla and as a testament to his hard work, Peter’s private bar is called Jerry’s Bar, after the man who built it.
Eumeralla faces out into the sea and lies in the middle of a passage in between another smaller island and an area of mangroves.
The channel puts Eumeralla right in the path of a breeze that blows through the passage – giving it a 24 hour supply of a fresh sea breeze.
Peter and Aketa are wonderful hosts and in the last weekend of October we visited them at Bouta.
We were their guest along with the Tozakas, another family from the Solomon Islands.
We were all fascinated by Eumeralla but even more so by the captivating personalities of our host.
Peter is your typical Australian man – tough as nails and good with his hands. He’s a no nonsense character and his love for the Solomon Islands and its people still grows strong despite having moved away some 17 years ago.
“The Solomon Islands people are the best, they are very smart,” Peter would tell me as the sun set low over Bouta.
Throughout his life he has lived in Nauru, Solomon Islands and Australia. Now in his old age he spends about 6 months between his homes in Australia and Kiribati.
Peter moved to the Solomon Islands in the late 70s to work for the United Enterprise company before building up his own successful sign writing business.
He has fond memories of the Solomon Islands, best of all of the people who were his friends, the countless numbers of children he took under his wings in the athletics programme and the young children who lived and worked for him.
Peter also has warm memories of the friends he made including the men who would shape Solomon Islands political history.
He got on well with former prime minister Solomon Mamaloni, the old governor general Sir Badeley Devesi and the former prime minister Billy Hilly.
He recalled selling a vehicle to Mamaloni long before Mamaloni would become the prime minister.
It was from that sale there friendship grew and Mamaloni would seek his advice over the coming years.
Peter also has fond memories of Danny Philip, now Solomon Islands Prime Minister, a man who Peter described as his SDA (Seventh Day Adventist Church) brother.
Both of us were converted to the SDA church and we had this in common, Peter recalled with much good humour.
“Danny Philip is a good man, a kind man and a good leader,” – was Peters response when I mentioned that one of the first things Phillip did when he became prime minister was to publicly dedicate his win to his mother.
“That’s the type of man he is, old Danny.”
And Philip himself has been a guest at Eumerala.
“That’s right he sat right here,” Peter said, pointing down to a leaf hut table overlooking the sea.
Danny Philip was in Kiribati in 2000 as foreign minister for the meeting of the Forum Pacific Island leaders, the meeting that led to the signing of the Biketawa Declaration, a document that would pave the way for the Regional Assistance Mission entry into the Solomons during the height of the ethnic tension.
Peter suffered a stroke several years ago although his speech suffers – and he might mix up a word or two – his memory and mind is as sharp as a knife.
There is no denying that hardwork is a part of his life – much of what he has in his life is thanks to what he has built with his own hands.
He has a vivid memory of every inch of Eumeralla of the sweat and the hard work he has put into the place.
Peter had open heart surgery about 18 months ago – but he still likes his beer.
“Its bad for you but I still like it,” he says flashing a mischievous grin.
His happiest memories seem to be of the children he took to Australia to compete in athletics.
There the children who ran barefoot shocked the public by winning up to 10 medals.
For Peter that would be one his proudest achievements, he still keeps track where some of these children are today.
One of them Joe Tiba the popular Solomon Islands marathon runner – lives in Buota too. He is now married and has his own family here.
Peter Scarlett may be old but his love for Solomon Islands is still strong, the fighting spirit is still in him.
As he showed me around his beautiful home – Peter was still pointing out things that still needed fixing and work to be done.
By EVAN WASUKA
in Kiribati
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