Lazy December......I wish!

Early December was hot and sultry, real Christmas weather, finding us lazy and craving the beach, even before the school holidays began. But, being lazy was not on the cards, particularly as Viriamu disappeared to Tahiti and Moorea for a few weeks, leaving me to juggle the guesthouse, the kids and my translating deadline for Air Tahiti magazine! It was hectic, but I'm still standing, so it can't have been that bad.

Here are a few pics from the school fete - got to love our Polynesian Father Christmas!

Amai was relegated to the back row, too unpredictable to be at the front. Heimana was right at the front and petrified (as usual!) singing about Rudolph.

.....and Mato, she was the queen of poise......no idea where she got such grace and beauty from (not me anyway!).

 In the end it was worth all the juggling, I definitely appreciated a short break and time-off the rock!

A decade on, our land in Moorea's still there, and with a bit of effort Viriamu cleared the several meter high acacia brush that had sprouted up! The old 'house' is also still there, albeit much the worse for the neglect! Some nice men with diggers helped build the holding wall, and we can maybe do something with it in a few years time. Me and the kids, we showed up to plant a few new coconut palms, and enjoy a few days holiday, before heading back to Tahiti and ultimately Rurutu.

 

Moorea is way too mosquito-infested for me, the Christmas hols under the season's heavy rain was too much, I did appreciate a Christmas meal of oysters and breadfruit with a bottle of bubbly eaten behind the mosquito netting. The kids opted for rice and lentils - they were fed up of pizza and, steak  and chips at that point - topped off with a super sickly mass-produced Christmas log, their treat!). We didn't even try to do turkey this time, apparently I'm the only one who really cares, and frankly this year it was just too hot to bother.

 

 

The kids also enjoyed going to the cinema (Disney's Moana was showing in town), the playground, pony club for Mato, shopping (the bank account sprang a leak!) and a little less being dragged around sight-seeing. I wanted to visit exhibition called 'tiki' currently at the Musée des Iles.                                                        

 

 

Here we are at the Belvedere in Moorea, just like we were over ten years earlier, Mato us and the grandparents, just before our wedding! 

Gosh I am suddenly feeling all nostalgic!

November days

November was a busy old month for us, exciting and exhausting, in equal measure.

 

We celebrated Halloween, with a few extremely sticky homemade toffee apples and a very scary mini-pumpkin!

Then it was All Saints day, an important celebration here, as it melds Polynesian ancestor-worship with Christian religious traditions (the ambiance is slightly more in the tone Dia de los Muertos). The kids spent a couple of hours with everyone else up in the cemetery.


After that there were MORE school holidays  and we were suitably busy with guests. The first week we had an archeologist here with us, Jenny, who was in grad school in Berkeley at about the same time as me. We met in Moorea, now she's got tenure and hoping to do some work here in Rurutu, it should be fascinating to find out more about our marae.....and it may also give us the momentum to delve deeper into A'a's story, and the timing of marae construction in Rurutu. She was with a friend from Moorea who was "en mission" trying to catch chooks for another research project on Polynesian chickens! The kids had some fun with the traps, Viriamu kept one of the cocks, good for when he fancies some coq-au-vin!    

The next week was spent with a lovely family from Moorea, with some little boys for Amai to play with.

At the same time we were plunged into a land dispute, with our "neighbors", or rather, the people who think they should own the neighboring patch of land (turns out it's not that simple) and supposedly a chunk of our land too! In fact, land is a super-complicated issue here in Rurutu and French Polynesia, the result of the superimposition of French law on Polynesian traditions, two radically different approaches to possessions! And also, the fact that after occupying a piece of land for thirty years continuously, French law allows you to be considered the rightful owner. We are gearing up to make a land claim, so I suspect there will be more to say about this soon; as I try to grapple with understanding the issues and also to see how our Aunty's genealogical work changes things.

Armistice Day this year seemed like a particularly appropriate occasion to remember the pain, suffering and sacrifice caused by intolerance and prejudice. And to hope that the lessons of the past have not been completely forgotten, in the wake of a strange new world, post US elections. Between this and Brexit, you wonder what's next, with the run up to the French Presidential next year. Here in Rurutu we are still, thankfully, far removed from it all, though maybe not as far as I'd like. The primaries for (Center Right, read left in British politics) the French Presidential played out like tribal warfare here - people wanted us to vote with or against the mayor (but hang on these are National elections here, nothing to do with the Territory or Local council elections!!!).

I've 'discovered' a new fruit, the Malay apple; well, actually I've known about them a while, but it's the first time I've cooked them, they make a pretty decent apple tart!

 

A Big, BIG Day!

 

Everything just seems to be flowing at the moment! It's exciting and exhausting. Since the salon du tourisme in September we haven't stopped, the guesthouse goes from strength to strength, so we're busy renovating and actually re-doing the kitchen and office, before continuing on to build more and modify! While being busy with guests at the same time.
This year the whales were here and in good numbers, and are still with us now in mid October, so that's great for us and our guests! The September holidays brought friends for the kids, including a keen fisherman called Arthur, now Heimana is hooked too and dreams of having her own fishing rod someday!


The end of the month we said goodbye to Viriamu's grandmother, Ela, she was 94 and had been in poor health for sometime, so while it was sad to see her go, somewhere it was a blessing for her.
She's now buried up on the family plot overlooking Avera. On the day of her burial the heaven's opened in torrential rain, a fitting goodbye.

The week before I was on deadline for the Air Tahiti magazine, it gets the pulse racing in sleepy Rurutu, and takes me back to my college days, rushing to finish essays, it helps that the topics are fascinating. This new issue has articles about Polynesian languages - the Tuamotus have seven different languages! The ti plant, a plant that we use for making leis, dance costumes, wrapping food, medicine, also the roots are sometimes used to make a sugar substitute (there is a ti oven demonstration every year at heiva time, photo below).

Finally the issue's destination in the spotlight is Hiva Oa, the Marquesas, somewhere I plan to take the kids next year, for the Mini Festival that will be held in Tahuata (just a stone's throw or half-hour boat-ride away).

Last week I was taking part in an 'advanced' beekeeping course - I won't hide it our poor old bees are more than a bit neglected, though they seem to be doing ok on it, just not much honey to talk about yet! Now I'm feeling motivated to start seriously on a small beekeeping venture, though I do feel that it's for personal or guesthouse consumption only, so better leave room for the youngsters who could make a living from it.

This weekend was Matotea's tenth birthday, a big day for her (she's now a real pre-teener!).

She has managed to convince me to buy a rather large freestanding pool (what have I done!) - with a beach like this just out front, hard to believe that my kids' only wish is to have a swimming pool, but there you go, we're never satisfied!

It also marks ten years of motherhood for me, quite a milestone. It isn't always easy and I'm not always that talented at it, poor Mato is the experiment, I try not to be too hard on myself, I feel like it's going OK, even if sometimes more by luck than good judgement!!! Saturday was also the day the boat came in, a day we celebrate, if only just for the supplies it brings (the red wine and fuel stocks were running very low!). It was also the day chosen to celebrate 'Ocean Day' here in Rurutu, the marine reserve project is continuing to lobby supporters, despite certain vocal opposition here, in Tahiti and France, mostly supporters of our mayor and big business. Supposedly it's because they don't want the Americans (read the international NGO Pew Charitable Trusts here) telling us what to do - even though the reserve itself is to be created and managed by the territory (i.e. Pew's role is purely as a source of guidance and finance, having accompanied similar projects across the Pacific). There has been a short documentary released, featuring Viriamu, among many other Austral Islands faces. A teaser clip can be found on YouTube or Facebook if you search for Rahui Nui no Tuhaa Pae, it's in French, but the images are still beautiful and you can probably get the gist of it!

Oh yes, and today is someone else's birthday, here he is not celebrating with his three gorgeous kids, who are!!!!

 

 

 

Vive la rentree!

The rest of the heiva, July and most of August have passed in a big long blur! It's been great, but exhausting, and I must say the return to school last week is a most welcome breather!

 We celebrated Heimana turning 7, she got a new bike.

 

Then it was the horse races on the 14th, after never saying never, Viriamu rode his champion and won easily, despite having a kilo or two on his previous jockey!

 Amai spent some time with dad, male bonding!!

The whales made their appearance on cue for the start of August, and kicked off our busy season. We haven't really stopped since.

Between all the work we still managed to have a little bit of fun, toasting marshmallows....

....flying kites,

......and as August has been mostly warm and sunny we've spent time on the beach and in the water!

I have been managing to keep even busier with my translating work - it's fun, absorbing, time-consuming and I love it, so am now trying to juggle that into the schedule......add four starving puppies that we've adopted into the mix and you may have an idea why I've been off the blog for a bit.

 

During all this Matotea also made a first solo trip, to Tahiti to shop for everyone's back-to-school supplies and visit meme in Mahina! A big step for my ever growing girl!

 

She has suddenly got back into loom bands (elastic band bracelets) and I have to say is REALLY good at following YouTube tutorials, so we have once more a houseful of little elastic bands and bracelets! But I won't complain too much about finding the little bands EVERYWHERE, as it really keeps her occupied and she's even able to design her own patterns now. Glad to see the craft genes have been passed on!

Lastly, it was someone else's birthday a week or so ago, here you go Granny!