14 32S 146 21W Pearl diving
Libertyatsea10
Sun 1 Aug 2010 03:16
All good here
We love Ahe. It is such a culture shock. Laid back, friendly, contentment but not lacking in future or drive. Gorgeous looking men and beautiful young ladies. Sadly for us , even those our age look young, unstressed , glowing with whatever it is we pay beauticians fortunes to try to conjure up for us!
We were greeted by three enormous lady men,..lady men or not, they are bigger than the Irish Rugby team put together so there seems to be little chance of anyone poking fun at these ladies. Talking with some local folks they tell us that the lady man is very much the norm and they were surprised we were interested. A bit like commenting on the weather in the Caribbean...the response is always a stunned silence because it is just not a subject of conversation. Historically we understand that the third son of the family is brought up as a girl because history was that the sons were stolen away for slavery so this was a way to keep them safe. They are not flamboyant or attention seeking as my generalized expectations go, they are just getting on with things...refreshing.
We went pearl fishing. Well, we went in the boat with the gorgeous pearl divers. They farm pearls here, but learning about the human input and the skill and endeavor to produce these pearls was an opportunity not to be missed. There is nothing here for the tourist, these are folks who live here showing us what they do. They introduced us to their stunningly attractive family where Granny looked about 35. Beautiful names Anahe ; spirit of the sea. Tiputi Spirit of the Wind. and most I cannot remember how to pronounce but I will try to write them down before we leave. Beautiful, romantic, colourful names of which they are hugely proud.
They showed us how they insert the grain which comes from Mississippi , into the oyster, to enable it to grow the pearl over time. They showed us how to check the pearl and then they brought some baskets up and opened them to show us the progress. They sell these pearls to Hong Kong apparently. They also showed us the shark bite on the young mans back where he was attacked whilst bringing up a basket. SERIOUS.
Swimming is postponed on Liberty for a while.
We went to the family's home, a beautiful setting with everything windowless and the trade winds breezing through sun bleached timbers and the lightest curtains billowing gently into the rooms. Giant airy kitchen, living space with obligatory TV. House on stilts right beside the usual jasmine tree showering us with its luscious scent. The sense of openness and peace is glorious. Apparently everything belongs to everybody here, , there is no such vocab. as "steal". There is no internet, a little church and a little school. Kids leave the island for Tahiti to board at 13, but we are told most return to live here and work the coco plantation or the pearls.
Benj learnt the meaning of the sharing culture when dozens of kids started to climb all over Danny's boat which is moored up to the wharf. No amount of telling them they could not clamber with their dusty dirty feet all over his decks and jump off into the sea, was going to stop them . I think Benj felt a little bit overwhelmed by it all, He is a St Mary's boy after all and his understanding is that kids will do what they are told (teehee). They completely ignored all pleas and then helped themselves to the spear gun to go fishing. I am glad we are at anchor..less hassle.
The supply ship came in from Tahiti yesterday and we were treated to brekkie on board. The Captain introduced us to the 16 members of his family working on the boat, we bought some whole sale supplies which still cost a fortune. I cast off the massive mooring lines and wondered if running a supply ship around the Tuomotu was the job I had always wanted!
We had two sharks swimming around the boat this morning..cool.
The wind is strong at the moment but we are hoping that with a good forecast we can get off to Tahiti, we would love to stay longer, but we know we will have this problem everywhere we go.
LOL