Tuvalu started as a destination on my bucket list. “How cool would it be to travel to the least visited country in the world?” Plus, the journey gets me closer to my goal of reaching 197 nations.

As with any trip, something will not go according to plan. Throughout, there was a storm. At night, when I tried to sleep, I could hear the loud winds and the torrential rain playing in the background. The sounds took me back to my childhood.

In the Philippines, typhoons ravage my country – from power interruptions, to flooding, people getting displaced, and actual death. And me leaving didn’t change any of that. I just got distant, and at times, I forget.

Fortunately, none of those occurred during my stay in Funafuti. I found the timing of the situation unlucky. But the rain was helpful to the locals as they need it for drinking water at home.

There were moments of calm. I’d look around town during those times. I even got sunburnt. And that’s when I met Tring.

He stays at the same hotel I was in. He works at the United Nations and collaborates with the government to help them get grants and execute programs to help the community adapt to climate change.

We walked the entire island on foot (NO ONE DOES THIS – they all go on motorbikes). And we saw how much land was left and how the remaining parts could get swallowed up.

Everyone was hospitable and smiling. And conversing with them sheds light on how much the environment has evolved through the decades.

Besides Tring and I, two other foreigners were in our hotel. One is employed by the World Bank. He spearheads development initiatives that can be deployed in an under resourced and isolated country like Tuvalu. The other does research on alternative sources of energy, and how a micronation manages given all the obstacles they’re faced with.

And here I was looking for an adventure. I got that… and received a lot of schooling in the process.

Whether anything concrete comes out of my introspection, we’ll see.

For now, I am sharing what I saw and my musings. A lot of us speak about “climate change”. I wonder if we really see it for what it is.

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The trip to Funafuti happened from April 2023 to May 2023.