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CHRIS MARSHALL / Things
Kalapu Vaeluanga and his mother Takeisi Laki are still waiting for the opportunity to return to Tuvalu.
Seasonal worker Takeisi Laki is stranded in Taupō with a new baby due to Covid border closures.
A faulty pregnancy test authorized Laki to come to New Zealand from Tuvalu to work as an apple harvester supervisor earlier this year, but border closures forced her to stay and give birth to Kalapu, her second child. , here.
The 25-year-old has been a CSR worker in Hawke’s Bay for the past five years to help support her extended family on Funafuti, the island’s main atoll.
Denise Eddowes, who met Laki while volunteering in Tuvalu last year and is now providing her with a home and support, hoped the recent announcement of Tuvaluan repatriation flights on November 5 and 19 would be followed with more dates.
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Having delivered by cesarean section on October 19, Laki was not allowed to travel for six weeks, she said.
“The heaviest thing you can lift is your baby.”
Kalapu Vaeluanga, whose last name is the name of Laki’s husband, weighed around 3 kg at birth.
He is Laki’s second son. John, or Junior, Vaeluanga, was born on October 16 last year, which means Laki missed his first birthday, an important milestone traditionally celebrated with a party and a big cake in Tuvalu.
If another flight is arranged, Eddowes will be saddened to see his informal foster daughter leave.
She and her husband Mark have offered to take Laki in for as long as it takes, but as Laki says of her baby, “He wants to go see his dad and his dad wants to see him.”
Meanwhile, while he hopes to hear from officials on future flights and help Laki organize a birth certificate and passport for Kalapu, Eddowes has been teaching some baking lessons.
In Tuvalu, where jobs are hard to find and wages barely exceed a few dollars an hour, many women bake and sell products, Eddowes said.
Other possible career paths for Laki could be going back to computer science studies or working as an account clerk if you can find him.
She and Valuanga Taeka plan to build a house on family land one day and will have to save as much as they can, now that Laki has decided that this business trip will be her last.
“It’s very difficult for me to leave my children,” Laki said, “very difficult to leave baby John.”
