The Big 4..0h!

Viriamu turned forty on saturday, of course he didn't even remember it was his birthday, but I figured it was a milestone worth celebrating, particularly because of a happy coincidence. Maeva and Marco from Moorea happened to come to visit over the same weekend. Maeva was here back in june for a music festival, she is a great singer and show-woman, so she very kindly put on an informal show for us.

Uschi, one of her friends had made us a beautiful painting of A'a Viriamu's family tiki with things Rurutu (whales and atae the flowers which bloom to announce the arrival of the whales in Rurutu).

It was a beautiful evening, with champers and a very dense chocolate gateau that I made, topped with frozen strawberries - how exotic!

Matotea made her musical debut playing the spoons......

Fête de la musique!

This weekend we had Viriamu's friend Maeva Bougues and her husband Marco staying with us, they have a small guesthouse in Moorea and Maeva is also quite a well known singer song-writer. Her father was born in Rurutu though she grew up back in Tahiti, in May she visited us in her quest to find her roots and her family's land. She has fallen in love with the island and our guesthouse and is back again full of energy and enthusiasm to get things moving here in Rurutu, at least on the music scene. June 21st was the Fête de la musique a national celebration devoted to getting anyone and everyone involved in the music scene, with free concerts across France. Maeva had very generously organized the first celebration of this day here in Rurutu, working with one of the numerous local music societies on the island, and holding a meeting for all the author compositors on the island - music, song and oration are integral to the culture here and every July the heiva showcases original dance and music shows produced by each village. I am not a gifted musician, but I do enjoy live music, so being invited along to Maeva's impromptu little celebration was lots of fun.....the weather was perfect, cool but sunny and we had a great location sitting in a friend's garden, on large logs, surrounded by greenery. Very relaxed an fun, I'm just sorry I didn't take any pictures - Matotea was very taken with the whole thing, she loves to dance along to the traditional drumming. Even before she was born she would wriggle away in my belly whenever she heard a drum-beat. The new baby wriggles a lot, but mostly at night and I couldn't notice any pronounced activity. I'm growing impatient to meet the new member of our family, and not to mention to lose a few pounds!