ENCOUNTERS

Ferdinand

There is a maritime museum in Hane, on the island of Ua Huka.  I find it impossible to pass up such museums, but this one was closed for renovation.  Very frustrating, because I could see some very interesting pieces through the glass doors.  Several locals said that if someone were working on the renovation, they would surely let me in, so each time we went ashore, I checked.  One morning, I met Ferdinand, who was building some shelving there.  A very friendly fellow, we had a delightful time chatting in broken French about the old boats there.  Fast forward a few days to our last time ashore before leaving the bay.  We are up at the local (tiny) grocery store, already laden down with gifts of fruit from another villager, when in walks Ferdinand with a huge sack of pamplemousse for us.  He had seen us walking up to the store, and just thought we might like some fruit.  Now we are so laden down that he drives us back to the beach.  Nice people here.

Musicians

We had gone for a hike above Hane with our friends Dennis and Pam from the boat Pamela.  On the way back to town, we heard some guitar and ukelele music, and detoured to find the source.  Three local men were jamming at a house.  We stopped to listen.  When they noticed us, they motioned us over.  We approached and listened some more.  Dennis is an accomplished guitarist, and when Pam told them this, they implored him to play for them.  At first he demurred, but acquiesced just before we left.  He gave an impassioned rendition of “Brown-Eyed Girl”, which left us all wanting more.

Manuhi Timau

The village of Vaitahu lies in a bay on the west side of the island of Tahuata.  We were ashore there when the periodic cargo/passenger ship came in.  As is typical with this, the village put on a small exposition of arts, crafts and food for the tourists off the ship.  Robyn, who doesn’t just break ice, but melts it like a furnace, struck up a conversation with a young woman using her few words of Marquesan.  This woman, Marie-Christine, said her father had a book written in Marquesan, French and English, and invited us up to their house to see it.  Her father, Manuhi, opened up more and more warmly to us as Robyn spoke some in Marquesan.  He positively giggled when she managed to count up to ten in Marquesan — ask her some time how many languages she can count up to ten in — and presented her with the book, being a grammar, dictionary and phrase book of modern Marquesan.  This book is a treasure, and Robyn has made great use of it. Of course, they also presented us with fruit.

Daniel Naudin

We were on the island of Ua Huka, and asked someone about tattoo artists.  She directed us to Daniel in the town of Vaipe’e, some twelve kilometers away.  Hitchhiking is pretty easy here, and when a young woman picked us up, we asked if she knew Daniel.  Yes, she did, and took us all the way to his house (we realized later that she had gone well out of her way).  We were impressed by Daniel’s art, and arranged to have him tattoo my arm the next morning.  After the tattoo session, we had a nice visit with him and his wife, and he drove us back towards the boat.  Along the way, he stopped at his friend’s house (who just happened to be the husband of the woman who gave us a ride the day before) for a visit.  Then, along the way further towards the boat, we stopped at a festival grounds where Daniel had built the major (and traditionally Marquesan) structures.  Before we left there, another friend of his happened by, who took us the rest of the way back to the boat (Daniel’s truck was low on gas).  That friend had carved all the huge tikis at the festival grounds.

Vickie

Also on Ua Huka, as we were walking up to the store where Ferdinand found us, another villager hails us and asks if we would like some bananas.  She promptly begins to pile many bananas into a sack, and then goes over to a lime tree to add quite a few of them.  Not content with that, she adds some citronelle, apparently some kind of citrus.  All this while, I’m protesting that she’s giving us too much, that we can’t eat it all, to which protests she is completely oblivious.  When these people get it into their heads to give you fruit, there’s no stopping them.

Scotia

When we were in New Zealand years ago, we met Hugh and Brenda, a Scottish couple on their boat, Scotia.  When we pulled in to Taiohae Bay last week, they were here.  They had gone all the way around, and were on their second circumnavigation.  That’s a little like visiting New York, and running into a friend from Seattle jogging in Central Park.