When the police is responsible for the soundquality
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 16 Jul 2013 17:44
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You might or you might not wonder why the writing
is less active now.
Two reasons, most of the days are not interesting
to tell you about, we are taking it very easy in a way.
I write a lot on the book, Ellinor is painting some
wonderful art. We take the kids to the beach on the ocean side and that keeps
them busy for HOURS.
So it is like a normal life with routines and you
do not blog about that.
The sun is shining bla bla bla, the water bla bla
bla, we eat bla bla bla, we swim bla bla bla and bla bla
But finally we made it to the village last night,
they are celebrating and on the football field they have different competitions
during the day and it was a song contest last night.
A sport can be; running with a pole loaded with
sand and/or coconuts on your shoulders. And that is serious business! Every pole
is weighted in before, and teaspoons of sand removed or added.
Then they had a song contest and it is amazing how
television affects the world. They had exactly the same set up as "Idol" or what
it is called in different countries. With some serious people sitting in a row
with a table in from of them.
The contestans where brave, to say the least, and
the audience where very encouraging.It's a small village so everybody knows each
other. So when a man came in with some flower on his head there was cheer and
applaus. One guy was running the entire orchestra with a keyboard, preprogrammed
with drums, chorus you name it. Most sang songs in their own language and a few
in French.
In between there was a guy dressed like a woman (or
a woman that looked like a guy) who was leading a traditional dancing team.
Lot's of hands movements, very soft and gracious. Oh yeas the hips are very
important, they move very much sideways.
It is great to see that the police on the island
wearing his uniform is responsible for the sound. He made sure the microphones
where on the right level for the singers and he was pulling the volumes. Very
safe...
All in all you could say that an event like this is
amateurish, but it implies well since amateur is French and means that you
love what you are doing. When we get a chance to post pictures from it you will
get a better feeling.
Another fun thing was that I went to the village in
the early afternoon by kayak. And I suddenly realised how popular concrete is in
Manihi.
They use concrete everywhere! And as I walked the
street (to buy baguettes from Fernando, the baker) there was a concrete mixer
going in every corner. And even the baker was working with concrete by his
bakery!
Well it makes the village sturdy and strong to bad
weather, that's for sure.
When we are in the village we talk a lot with
mostly teenagers, they are eager to try their english (better for me, llinor
speaks french).
Yesterday we learned that they start school at the
age of TWO! We asked in different languages and we asked some other people and
they said yes, that is normal... Well even small kids sit very still when there
is something going on, that cannot be said about our son....
When they are 16 and want to continue school they
have to move to Papete, usually they live by some relative who lives
there.
The hotell here is for sale for 500.000.000
Polynesian Francs if anybody wants to try. It's a most beautyful place with huts
on stilts over water. Your guests can just drop into the ocean from their little
hut. It is more traditionally built that the village.
We can hardly see it from here but we passed it
first day we came in to this atholl and took shelter on the other side of
the atholl.
I have an idea that could get pearl farming going
again in combination with the hotel. You buy in to mussels and can even go here
and see when they are "loaded" with the little "stone" that will create a pearl.
You can stay in the hotell and enjoy a week or two in this beautyful place
knowing that you have your mussels down in the water.
There is a reason to come here now and then to
check your fortune. And then four years later your mussels are opened and you
can collect your fortune! Makes Pearl farming easier with less capital involved
for the people that live here and makes it a high end game for the rich....
because only 40% of the mussels will give you pearls.
Are we getting anywhere with the boat? Well
hopefully at the end of the week. Now the wind is going down to almost nothing
and the waves are still going to be big after the hard winds. So we relax and
enjoy te Atholl.
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