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This is the first set of emails from my 2000-2001 trip to Rapa Nui. These emails were intended to share cute little stories with my family and friends of my life there. Along the way, people started to write back, commenting on how much they liked the messages, and even asking if they could send them to some of their friends and family. When I finally returned to Hawai‘i, these emails were what people talked about and remembered most. So I figured, they must be interesting enough for people to want to read them...
These messages offer some insight into everyday life in Rapa Nui and its people. The series on the Tapati festival is especially interesting if you're thinking about visiting during that time of the year. There are emails from the 2003 and 2004 festivals as well, which can be accessed through the Rapa Nui Journal page. Have fun!
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January - March 2003 e-mails December 2003 - April 2004 e-mails Home Rapa Nui Journal Picture Archive Polynesian Language References
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Date:
Aug 27, 2000
Iorana from
Hola!
I'm here!
I
just wanted to say hi, and let you all know that everything has gone wonderfully
so far. Although I haven't had a chance to watch the tape yet...
C. doesn't have a TV and VCR in his house yet, but he's planning
on buying one soon.
The
flights worked out really well, and I didn't have to pay for any excess baggage
fees. I got SO lucky!!!!
The
day that I arrived was C.'s birthday, so there was a big party that
night. It turned out to be a great
ice-breaker for me, because I found out that most people speak a little bit of
English, and they're not afraid to try and talk to you.
Even the ones that didn't speak any English still tried to communicate a
little...so it was great.
That
night I also met one of the
Karikari dancers.
The Karikari dancers perform the traditional dances for the tourists, but
they also fulfill all of the cultural needs of any local presentation.
So they're like the local cultural group.
There is one dancer who is very fair-skinned - more white than me!
Her grandfather is Norwegian, and she learned English so she could speak
with him, so she speaks very well. Her
name is Merahi, which means "Angel."
Isn’t that nice? Anyway, we
talked a little bit about dancing, so I think if I ever want to learn, I know
who to go to.
The
members of the Karikari group are actually the hardest working people on the
island. They practice every day
because right now they are working on their second CD.
There aren't a lot of people around who work every day...
She
was telling me that a lot of people think their dance is the same as Tahitian,
but it isn't. In Rapa Nui
dance, the hips go in
a figure 8 motion, whereas in Tahtitian, it's like a U shape.
And, Rapa Nui
dance is more like
hula in that they use hand motions to illustrate the words of the song.
Tahitian dance doesn't use the hands as much.
However, the music does sound more like Tahitian because of the
instruments they use and the way that they sing, but the songs are a bit slower
than Tahitian. So, in a way, it's
kind of a balance between hula and Tahitian.
But I think that hula is the only dance with so many different steps and
hip movements.
I'd
like to learn, but I've always had trouble with those
‘ōniu....
ugh...
Anyway,
I'd like to thank you guys for all your help before I left.
I really appreciate it. And
if you want anything from
Chao!
Date:
First
of all I wanted to apologize...I told all of you that I would be mailing you
right away, like last Sunday. However,
I've found that it's extremely difficult to find a good time to go online! I
don't have a phone line in my house (that just proved to be too expensive to
install), so I have to go to someone else's house just for the phone line.
And even then, the only time you can get a secure connection without
getting kicked off after a few seconds is at odd hours, like
Therefore,
I also wanted to apologize for the time references in my messages.
What I do is type out all my messages during the week, at whatever time I
feel like it, and then send them all at one time.
So if the time or day references in my messages seem a little off, that's
why. Sorry if it's confusing.
Tonight
is Friday, and I'm going to try to send them all tonight (about 20 messages!).
But after this week, I think I'll send them all on Sunday night (Mon
mornings). There's a party tonight
for Elena's birthday, so there's a good chance that
on our way home from the party, we can stop and try to get online.
Hopefully it will work! I
really NEED to check my mail! I feel
so disconnected from all of you...
Anyway,
mail me back. I like
messages...otherwise I have no idea what's going on over there!
Take
care all....Chao!
Date:
Sep 17, 2000
Life on the
Hola
everyone!
I
know you all haven't heard from me in a while.
That's because I haven't been able to get online for almost 2 weeks.
Apparently, one or two of Entel
Anyway,
things here are good right now. In a
way, it's probably good that I haven't been able to mail out for a while,
because I've had a very difficult time adjusting so far.
But, I think the toughest part is over, and now things seem to be getting
better.
At
first, I had to adjust to the daily life over here.
I'm so used to working every day, 40 + hours a week.
Believe it or not, it was a little difficult to let go of that.
(I know, I know...you guys are thinking that should be the easiest part
to get over! But, trust me, it's
not.) For the first couple of weeks,
I would get up every day expecting to have to go to work.
All of a sudden I find myself getting up every day wondering, "What
am I going to do today?" And
the truth is, there's not a whole lot of answers to that question...well not for
me, yet. But the day will come when
there will be. I'm still exploring,
trying to find what there is to do here. I'm
finally getting used to having my days free, so I'm finally getting to the point
where I enjoy it.
Another
thing I had to adjust to was the food here.
I'm not going to lie - I MISS THE FOOD IN
HAWAI‘I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much... But, I have to
admit that the food here is healthier. In
Hawai‘i, I used to get stomach
aches after eating pretty frequently, maybe even once a week at the least.
But since I've been here, I've gotten only one stomach ache, and that was
when I first arrived. Since then, my
body has been fine. But then again,
there is nowhere near the same selection of foods here than there are at
home....we eat pretty much the same thing every day.
But
here there's no Asian food, no fast food, and they have pasta, but they're not
really into Italian food, so it's hard to find all the spices I would normally
use with my pasta. There's no
Parmesan cheese...oh, how I miss my Parmesan cheese...
Let's
change the subject. I'm getting
hungry...
Another
difficult adjustment is the language. Every
morning I wake up and expect to hear everyone around me speaking English.
Then, when it doesn't happen, I feel like I'm in some kind of everlasting
nightmare. At the height of my stress about the language, I was actually having
dreams in Spanish. But I've started
to accept that I am now immersed in this, and will be for a while, so my stress
is being alleviated, little by little.I'm not picking up things as quickly as I, or
C., had hoped I
would. He used to complain to me, in
English, that I need to speak more Spanish.
But we had a couple of discussions about how difficult all of these
changes are for me to make all at one time, and he has since stopped bugging me
about it. He doesn’t need to…I
get enough of a message every time someone else tries to speak with me.
The
one time that I felt good about being able to speak English here was when I went
with C. to his English class. The
airline here sponsors classes for its employees to learn English.
I went with him to class, and they were so happy to have me there.
They asked me to read all of their exercises first to they could hear the
proper pronunciation. Then they used
me as a part of their exercise by having to figure out the correct way to ask me
certain questions, then to have to understand my answer.
It was the first time I felt like my English was worth something over
here. They asked me to come back to
the next class…I’m actually looking forward to it.
It actually helps me with my Spanish a little bit too, because when they
speak in Spanish in the class, they are speaking ABOUT English, so I can
understand more in that class than I can anywhere else.
And,
by their own admittance, Chilean Spanish is more difficult to learn than the
languages of other Spanish-speaking countries because they speak very quickly
and drop their “s”’s at the ends of words.
For example, “
Thankfully,
C. and I have found ourselves in a little group of English/Spanish
speakers. Right now there is a family here from
All
of these people are here to either surf or dive, or both.
That’s their sole purpose. And
Panda and C. usually get to know all the people who come into town to
surf. (Panda
is our other friend – one of the local tattoo artists – who initiated C.’s and my first meeting when I was here last year.
Like C., he speaks pretty good English.)
This
weekend is a holiday. September 18th
is the Chilean Independence Day, and they also take the 19th off for
some kind of military holiday, so this entire weekend is a party weekend.
Last night the 3 Chileans, Panda, JT, C. and I went out.
They all speak Spanish with each other, except when they’re directly
addressing JT or myself…so half the time we’re both lost.
But, it’s better than nothing. And
these Chileans speak English very well…when they speak it.
The
Piditi nightclub – one of only 2 clubs here –
had previously closed a few months ago due to lack of business.
Toroko, the other club, took all the people.
But Piditi has opened again just for this weekend.
They opened on Thursday night and will keep going every night until
Monday. Unfortunately for them, the
bet night was Thursday. Since then
it’s been a little dead.
There
was another festival going on at the park across the street from the Toroko
nightclub. That one started on
Friday night, and that was the best night for that location.
We went to both of these places on Saturday…apparently we missed the
crowds.
I
think it’s because no one really has money right now.
Most people get paid here at the end of the month.
The
owner of Piditi is a good friend of C.’s, and his name is also C.. (It’s a pretty common
name in Spanish-speaking areas.) His
girlfriend is one of the Karikari dancers. Her
name is Merahi. She speaks English
very well also, because her grandfather is Norwegian, so she had to learn to
speak with him. I like her a lot.
She’s only 19, but she says she’s mature for her age.
I believe it. Her boyfriend
is about 32 or so, so there’s a big age difference.
She says that his maturity level is lower than his age, which makes them
about equal. Isn’t that always the
case with men and women?
C.’s
mom (my C.) is doing all the food for the weekend at Piditi…which is
good for us because our house is the last house on the road before you get to
Piditi, so it’s just a 5 minute walk to go and eat any time we want.
And
C.
(the other one) and Merahi live right up the street, behind Piditi, so they’re
close by also. I told Merahi that I
wanted to learn how to dance
The
weather here has been nice. The
second week that I was here it was really sunny and started to get pretty warm.
We even slept with the window open a couple of nights.
But about a week ago it started to get cold again.
Since then it's still been sunny, but cool out. I
don't like it...I like wearing slippers and shorts...
I
started to get a little upset with C....I had been here for about 3 weeks
and we had only been outside of town twice.
I wanted to play tourist. So
one day he made plans for us to go fishing at Tahai
with Panda. But when we stopped by
Panda's house, he couldn't go, so we went by ourselves.
I ended up having a good time.
C.
was going to attempt to teach me how to fish, again.
(The first time we met was because we all went fishing together.
He tried to teach me then, but I was awful at it.)
There were too many waves, and C. wouldn't let me fish off of the
rocks where the waves were hitting. So
he went fishing and I watched. I
found a nice rock a laid out...it was almost like being on the beach at home.
C. caught 4 fish.
C.'s
favorite pastimes are surfing, fishing and watching TV, in that order.
Because the first two are dependent on weather, we end up doing the third
one a lot. When I first got here, C.
decided to buy a TV set for the house.
(Before I got here, the family only had one at their shop in town.)
Next month he's planning on buying a VCR.
He said it was because of me, so that I wouldn't be bored.
But he never really asked me if I wanted one...the truth is he wanted to
buy it for himself, so he wouldn't be
bored. He loves to rent videos.
If he had the money, he would rent a different video every day.
Fortunately for me, the videos are still in English, with Spanish
subtitles.
There
is only one TV station here: TVN (Television National de Chile).
One day I was talking with Marlene, and she was saying that she thought
their TV was broken because they could only catch one station...
I had to laugh. Then I gave
her the bad news... There is,
however, a local station that only broadcasts on Sunday nights beginning at
TVN's
transmission ends around that time also. The
only time they broadcast the entire night was when
Because
they only have one station, there's a captive audience.
Whenever anyone talks about a TV program, everyone else knows exactly
which one. The news here is 1 HOUR
long...I have no idea who ever thought to make it one whole hour, but they do
it...Because it's so long, however, they end up doing a lot of stories that no
one really cares about. The local
station's news is the same way. It's
only on once a week, but the news is 1 hour long.
They
have 2 soap operas on TVN. One of
them is not interesting at all. It's
just like any American soap opera...I still don't know what they're saying but
for some reason I know exactly what's going on.
As for the other one, it's strange in that they air it at
There's
only one bank here, and, as Panda describes, it is the safest bank in the world.
One time someone tried to rob it. He
rode up on horse in the middle of the night, had the horse break the window, and
stole the box with all the money in it. But
at that time, I guess the bank had just gotten a typewriter, and this guy had
never seen one before, so he typed his name out...needless to say, they caught
him first thing the next morning. That
was the last time anyone tried to rob the bank.
The
bank closes at
Well,
I guess there's not much else to write about.
It's about
Take
care everyone, and please write back. It
may take me a while, but I do get all my mail...eventually.
J
Ulu
Date:
Well,
here is yet another of my updates on my "adventure."
Are you guys getting bored with this?
If so, please let me know...
The
severe homesickness is setting in...I miss everything.
I miss Oreo cookies, and Salt & Vinegar potato chips, and Starbuck's
Frappuccino...I miss my little apartment, my old lumpy bed, and my purple
blanket...I even miss my work and my little PVS office...
I've
bought Pringles twice already since I've been here.
That and the dry saimin packs keep me sane...they remind me of home.
It's funny, because at home I didn't like that dry saimin in packages.
Here, they're like gourmet cooking. I
ate two of them yesterday alone. (Oriental
flavor...yum...)
I
miss American T.V. Do you know I
actually asked my Mom to tape the episodes of Friends and Ally McBeal for me
every week and send me the tapes once they're full?
I get the distinct feeling, though, that she's not doing it.
She hasn't mentioned anything about it, and I've been here over a month
and have not received one single, solitary piece of mail since I've been
here...You have no idea what it's like to watch T.V. in another language every
day...especially when there's only ONE channel, so you have no choice but to
watch the same shows every day. Can you tell this is starting to really
drive me crazy?
On
top of that, I've been sick almost the entire time that I've been here.
I get a cold, then I get a stomach ache, then another cold comes back,
etc. This is driving me crazy too.
But please don't worry about it...this is all a part of moving to a new
place...you know, there are different kinds of little germies here that the
locals are used to and I am not. It's
only a matter of time...but the interim is so frustrating.
Okay...I
guess some positive news would be good here...let's see...
Yesterday
C. told me that I'm beautiful.
Okay,
it was all worth it. :)
All
kidding aside...I've finally started to get up off my butt and do something to
make a living for myself. Panda, his
wife Elena and I have put together a business plan...we're going to start our
own company. Don't worry...I'll tell
all of you about it soon enough. Since we have zero budget, all advertising will
be through e-mail and word of mouth. So
I will be asking for all of your help...hee, hee, hee....
Panda
has had this idea for a long time now...he just needed someone with a computer
and with the right contacts. Enter
Uluwehi, stage left. And, I'm not
afraid to do the work necessary to get this thing going.
Unlike most of the people here, I'm not afraid to work 40 hours a week.
(Most of the people here work 20 hours or less.
Working 40 hours is unheard of to them.
They're just not willing to do it.) But
it's only a 40 hour thing at the beginning.
Once it's up and running, I won't have to work that much.
I can merge into their wonderful 20 hour a week mentality...
Another
good thing is that I've been going out a little bit more.
Panda and Elena have been absolutely wonderful!
They've been so supportive...Elena is originally from
C.
and I have been through some tough times already.
We're both pretty new at this serious relationship thing, so it's taking
a lot of adjusting. But we do our
best to work everything out right away, and right now things are really great.
Last night we sat around the living room together and just talked for
hours, about fun and interesting stuff... :)
The
weather has not been nice to me. It
was nice and hot (summer kine weather) for a couple of days, and I was in
complete bliss. Then all of a sudden
it got really cold...right now I'm wearing sweats, really thick socks, a long
sleeved shirt and a thick jacket - and I'm INSIDE the house!
I don't like this part of it...
Conversely,
the surf has been really good. Well,
yesterday was when it got cold again, and yesterday was when the surf picked up.
It had been flat the few days prior.
So yesterday everyone and their brother were out surfing, right here in
town. I've never seen so many people
in the water here! It almost looked
like
There
are actually only maybe 30 people on the island who know how to surf.
And most of them were out yesterday.
At one point I counted 24 people in the water, all at the two surf spots
right here in town. The waves were
pretty crowded...
Do
you know what one of the neatest things about this place is?
Everyone knows everyone else. And,
because it's so small, someone can always find out where you are at any given
time. One time we went out to the South shore to go surfing (well, I watched),
and Mo., C.'s brother, came out to visit while we were there.
We didn't tell anyone where we were going...
Another time, C.'s friend went camping.
We were supposed to go, but things got messed up and we didn't.
So the next day we set out and we found them.
He didn't know where they went camping, but we found them on the first
try... When you're out in the
boonies somewhere fishing, people see you from the road, know that it's you, and
come out to say hi. That just amazes
me every time it happens...
The
people are so friendly too. It's
kind of deceiving, though. When you
look at them on the street, no one smiles, but if you talk to them they're so
friendly! I've had so many people
tell me (via a translator) that they want to speak to me but I can't speak
Spanish (yet). Everyone shares
whatever they have...drinks, cigarettes, food, whatever.
There's none of that "what's mine is mine" stuff...yet at the
same time I think they understand that not everyone is like that, because no one
ever asks me to share any of my things. (Well,
only C....but that's different.) I
think they know that I'm not quite as used to that as them.
C.
and Mo. share everything. I don't
think they even know what T-shirt belongs to whom...
I
do think that I am finally adjusting to being here.
I finally got my appetite back. When
I first got here, I didn't eat very much. C.
used to bug me about it all the time. But
for the last couple of days, it seems like I can't be satisfied!
I eat, and then one hour later I'm hungry again!
So now we've been spending a little bit more money on snack foods...
But this is normal for me. At
home, I could be hungry the entire day...no matter what I ate.
Bottom
line - I'm finally getting used to this. (Except
for the TV....did I tell you how much that bugs me?)
:)
Anyway,
that's about it for now. I'll write
again later. I'm out of stories for
now. Please write back.
I like getting letters. :)
I absolutely crave anything from home...even if it's only a hello from
someone!
Take
care everyone!
Date:
Oct 5, 2000
The
happenings in
I
guess the good luck I was having with my internet connections has run out.
I haven't been able to connect for almost 2 weeks now...I'm getting
pretty anxious to send out all my mail and get all my new messages.
The
last time I was online, I was able to stay on all day...I was so happy!
So I was able to completely clean out all my inboxes.
Thank goodness I did that...I can only imagine how many messages are in
there now... :(
Anyway,
it finally seems like summer has decided to take control over here.
It's been sunny a lot more than it's been raining, and the days have been
warmer. I have one of those bottles
of monoi (body oil) from
Then,
there are a precious few days when it stays in its oil form all through the
night and into the next day. I am
thankful when I see that...I'd much rather wear shorts for the day than sweats.
And,
after all the bugging I had to do, it finally seems like C. and I are
going out more often. The problem,
as I finally realized, is that he likes to go out at night, like most young men
like to do. I, however, would much
rather go out during the day to explore the sights and take advantage of the
sunshine. He somehow finally got the
hint, I guess, because we've gone out about 5 times in the last 2 weeks.
Of course, it's mostly to go surfing or fishing - things he likes to do -
but at least it's out and away from town.
I'd
like to learn to surf, but I can't get over the thought of how cold the water
is...I'll have to save up some money and buy me a wetsuit one day.
I'd
also like to fish, but I learned how as a child with a fishing pole.
So basically, I'm spoiled. They
use hand lines here, which is a lot more difficult than with a pole.
The pole does all the hard work for you...
So I'm still trying to get the hang of that one.
Needless to say, I haven't caught anything yet.
But then again, C. hasn't had that much luck lately either.
Out of 2 days of fishing, he only caught one fish...
awww...
I
hope all of you are doing well. I
feel so disconnected when I can't check my mail...
Sorry again if the timing in my messages seems off.
I'm basically holding a one way conversation with all of you right now...
Write back and let me know what's up, kay?
One
bit of good news. I did some
research before I left on the American green card lottery.
Every year the
Anyway,
There
is a family here right now from
I'm
a little sad to see our friends leaving. Marlene,
the wife, is really great. She told
me to make her a list of all the things I want from the states and she'll send
them. I'm not making a big list, of
course, but it was so nice of her to offer!
Her husband, Chip, and stepson, JT, are here to surf, so she's spent most
of her time watching them, taking photos and video.
Because C. is such an avid surfer, there were many a time that she
and I ended up on shore together, watching the guys and taking pictures or
video. Now I'm going to be all by
myself on shore...
There's
another young
All
I really need to help him is an e-mail address for the Lan Chile office in Honolulu.
C. was going to try to get that from the Lan Chile office here.
If the Honolulu
I
feel like this message is an old Seinfeld episode - a lot of talk about nothing
much. Sorry if I'm boring all of
you! But that's what happens when I
can't check my mail regularly...
Well,
take care all. Please let me know
what's going on with all of you. I
hope to hear from all of you soon!
Date:
Oct 11, 2000
next
edition
Hi
everyone. Going on three weeks now
that I haven't been able to connect...it's driving me crazy!!!
Actually,
I was able to get online for a very short time yesterday, but only long enough
to take a peek at who sent me messages. I
only got to read one of them before I got cut off.
(Ross - you were the lucky winner! And
thank goodness, it was such a great message!
Thank you!) I wasn't able to
send any mail, however. I tried
reconnecting but the effort was futile.
I
wasn't using my computer, which is why I couldn't mail out.
I type out all my messages offline, so they're all stored in my laptop.
Yesterday I was on someone else's desktop, so I had to check all my mail
online at Yahoo. Oh how I long for
the days when I could stay online all day long and surf where ever the feeling
would take me!
And
to actually disconnect yourself once you were done...
You don't know how good that feels until you don't have it anymore.
I
really want to check out the rules to some card games.
I brought a deck of Hanafuda cards with me, but for the life of me I
can't remember how to play!!! I keep
taking them out and trying to remember, but my mind is a complete blank...
I
also taught C. how to play poker, and he has subsequently taught about 3
other people to play it. …Although
I don't know how reliable my teaching is, because I really wasn't completely
sure on how to play the game myself. Every
single time we play I just have to laugh - the blind leading the blind!
That's why I'd really like to check out some card games online, maybe get
the rules on how to play, and get a few other games too.
(The people here can play the same game for months on end and not get
tired of it. Me, I need variety.)
I
remember from a long time ago (nostalgically...) a game called Shanghai Rummy.
I wish I could remember that one now...Any one out there got any games you could share?
I'd really appreciate it... We
play a lot of games here at night since there's not much to watch on T.V.
And, you know, everyone else drinks almost every night, so a game to
drink along with is always good, right?
The
weather here has been taunting me. For
2 or 3 days straight it just rained...and on the weekend.
C. and I were bored out of our minds.
(C. is most unattractive when he's bored...)
Then finally yesterday (Monday) there was a glimpse of sunshine - just
enough to make me think that the day would be sunny.
But I had a feeling...so I went with my instincts.
We went into town, and I dressed in shoes and a sweater and took my
raincoat, but as a compromise I wore shorts.
Turns out I followed well, because it did rain, but had enough sunny
periods to compensate for my wearing shorts.
Today seems to be the same way. But
I'm wearing pants today...
On
a good note, I finally got a job. I'll
be working as the after hours office attendant at the Hotel Otai.
(The Hotel Otai is where we stayed when we came here the first time.
We made friends with the owners, so I went to see them when I first got
here.) The lady who manages the
office leaves every day at
Kh.
also wants me to tutor her daughter, Ariana, in English.
Kihi's husband lives in
That
has become painfully clear to me when I go with C. to his English class.
The teacher is local, and speaks with the thick accent.
And she doesn't always speak correctly either, but she understands the
rules of the English language far better than I do.
There have been several times when C. would ask me why something
is like this, and I couldn't answer - but the teacher could.
On
the other language front, everyone and their sister is telling me "you must
learn Spanish." I know, I know... geez...
They also tell me "es muy facil"
(it's very easy). Yah, right.
This coming from a person whose first language is Spanish...
I get upset when they tell me these things.
If I truly found it easy, then I would know it all by now, don't you
think? Hmm?
Of course they don't understand that I THINK in English, and the grammar
structure is different from Spanish, so it's not as easy as they believe.
For those who do speak English, they still speak it using the Spanish
grammar structure, so, you know, I don't think they really understand where I'm
coming from.
Sorry.
Had to let off a little steam there.Otherwise, I am picking it up. I
can say a few sentences confidently now. I
can even hold something that resembles a conversation with someone who speaks
only Spanish. I don't know the
proper forms of all the words (past, future, etc.), but at least I know most of
the root verbs to get by. It's all
the nouns that make it difficult now. And
my ears are finally used to hearing them speak, so I can understand more.
I
think the most difficult thing for me is the language.
I am immersed in a world where I don't understand 98% of what's going on.
C. speaks English with me, all the time.
When I tell others that, they say that he needs to speak Spanish with me.
But I told him that I'm thankful that he speaks English with me, because
it's really stressful to be outside where everything is in a language other than
your own. I used to watch TV all the
time at home to relax, but here it's not relaxing because it's all in Spanish.
His speaking English is like my one place I can be comfortable.
There
was a family here from
Take
Panda, for instance. He hardly goes
anywhere. Yet, he has so many
friends from all over the world. He
just sits here, and everyone comes to him. I
guess that's what happens when you take the time to meet the tourists.
Yah, life here can be boring, but meeting the people is what makes it
interesting. That's what brings
variety.
I
remember when we were here the first time, and it was time for us to leave, we
were all sad. We didn’t want to go. I
remember hearing Panda say that everyone comes and goes, and that's just the way
it was. No long “goodbye, I'll
miss you.” Just a "glad to
have met you" kind of feeling. At
the time I didn't understand that, but now I do.
People come and people go...you just have to be thankful for the
experience.
Marlene
is such a wonderful person. She told
me to make a list of all the things I wanted from the states and she would send
them to me. I told her no, that's
okay, blah, blah, blah, but she insisted. So
I made a small list...I should be getting my Oreo cookies in a couple of weeks.
:) She also left me some of
her books. Being married to a
surfer, she knows the importance of books, and since my boyfriend is a surfer...
I've only read one so far. I
try not to read all the time, because I only have so many books and I want to
save them for when C. is out surfing.
Well,
that's about it, I guess. It's long,
I know, but I told you before, I have to get as much in as I can during the
precious few moments that I have online. :)
Take
care everyone, and I truly do hope to be hearing from all of you soon!!!
It's difficult to write a one-sided conversation...
Ulu
Date:
Okay...from
the mail I got back, I see that I may have given off a bad impression, like I'm
really bored or something. Sorry for
that. The truth is that, yes, I was
really bored but I tried my best to keep it out of the letters.
Sorry...guess I failed. :(
Anyway,
I figured that now I should focus on some other things about this place.
It really does have a lot of good things to offer.
And I promise to leave out anything having to do with the TV....
For
those of you who have never been here, I'll try my best to feed your
imagination. And for those of you
who have been here before, maybe this will bring back fond memories.
:)
Many
people here don't have cars. You
don't really need one. The town is
small enough to walk through in about 20 minutes.
Our house is on the main road that leads to Anakena, just outside of
town. For those of you who have been
here, it's past the airport but before Piditi Discotheque. (FYI – I didn’t
spell that wrong. In Spanish,
“discotheque” is the correct spelling.)
We've walked into town several times, and it only takes me 30 minutes to
walk from the house to the Hotel Otai, which is all the way on the other end of
town.
No
matter how small the place is that you live in, most people will always think
it's too far to walk. So, there are
people here who have cars and drive everywhere.
Others have motorcycles, and others ride horses...yes, they ride horses
IN TOWN. Even on the sidewalks.
Those who that have been here before will remember the lovely smell of horse
manure that perfumes the air as you walk. It's
especially fragrant at night. :)
Ah...brings back memories...
I
have been walking a lot at night recently. I
work at the Hotel Otai now every night from
One
of the things I like most about
When
we were here the first time, a lot of the
Only
the main streets here are paved. The
road to Anakena is the only one that's paved with asphalt.
The rest are paved with bricks shaped like "Z"'s about the size
of a regular brick, all fitted together like some kind of intricate, organized
puzzle. The sidewalks are paved with
these same bricks. All of the
smaller side roads as well as most of the residential roads are still dirt.
This is a problem for some roads when it rains.
Some roads happen to run down from the mountain, so when it rains all the
dirt gets washed down, leaving only a very uneven rock road.
The construction crews then (at their own time) fill the road with dirt
again and even it out. But then it
rains again...it’s a vicious circle.
Despite
what many people think, there are trees here…even some right in the middle of
town. Granted, there aren't as many here as there is in
Of
course, they have cockroaches too. I
mention this because it's pretty funny...they don't seem to be as smart here as
the roaches we have in Hawai‘i.
TWICE I saw a roach fall off a wall and onto its back.
As much as it struggled, it just could not get back over onto its feet.
So it just lay there until it died. I
saw this happen TWO TIMES! I never
saw that in Hawai‘i...at home they know
how to turn themselves over. I also
have not seen any of them fly here. And
I pray that I never do...
They
also have a lot of stray dogs and cats here.
I don't think they have any kind of animal control systems...
The animals look pretty healthy, however, considering that they're all
strays. They're all very
mild-mannered also. At home, when I
would see a stray dog on the street, I would get scared.
I'd try to find another path or even turn back to where I came from.
Here, the dogs are so nice. And
these are big dogs like German Shepards and such.
I even saw a stray poodle here. I
have no idea how such expensive dogs could end up as strays in
He
hasn't been "fixed" yet either. C.
insists that Tonti will die a virgin. I
told him "no way." Tonti
is very strong, and I have no doubt that he could break his ropes when in heat.
The
ocean here is, of course, beautiful - crystal clear with no pollution
whatsoever. …Although the water is
colder than in
I
guess that's about all I can say at the moment.
There's only so much landscape to talk about...
Anyway, take care everyone, and please mail me back when you've got the
time!
Ulu
:)
Date:
Oct 23, 2000
ahhh...memories...
Hello
again! Signing in yet again from
I've
been feeling nostalgic this week. It
occurred to me at some point that this week held a couple of special dates.
The first sign I received that the following dates were near was when we
had to turn the clocks back one hour for daylight savings.
I remember sitting in the PVS office talking
on the phone with Shantell, who was here in Rapa Nui at that time after arriving
on
Hōkūle‘a
. I
thought there was a 4 hour time difference, and she told me that it was now 5
hours, as they had just changed the clocks.
So when that happened to me here, it was like a light bulb over my head
telling me "it's been one year!"
The
very next day after changing the clocks was October 16th.
That was the day that I first started working at PVS, in 1998.
I mention it because on
Little
did I know at the time that the trip would change my life.
Well,
last Monday was the 16th, and Wednesday was the 18th.
Now that I'm here, the 18th holds a special meaning to me because,
unknowingly, that's when C. and I first saw each other.
For those of you who don't know, C. works as a Lan Chile flight
attendant between Rapa Nui
and Tahiti.
He was working that night. It's
an overnight flight, so I slept for most of it, but I woke up just after
breakfast was served to my row. C.
was pushing the second cart down the aisle, saw that I had just woken up and
asked if I would like breakfast. I
did, so he had to scramble a little to get to the first cart for my meal.
And the only reason I remembered him is because (aside from the fact that
he's incredibly handsome) of his "fang" tooth, just like mine.
And on him, it was rather attractive.
But I didn't think anything more about it after we left the plane.
Now
that I work nights at the hotel, I often walk from the hotel to C.'s mother's shop in the middle of town after my shift is done.
This always reminds me, again, of October 18th.
I am working now at the same hotel that we stayed at during that trip.
That first night Cat and I somehow ended up separated from the rest of
the group, and so we went walking by ourselves to find a restaurant to eat
dinner - along the very same route that I now walk almost every night.
It was already dark and fairly late.
We were in a strange new place where everyone seems to stare at you, and
at first you don't know what the intention behind the stare is.
I don't know how Cat felt, but personally, I was a tiny bit afraid.
The street seemed empty, and we didn't see very many people as we walked.
In fact, I wasn't even sure which restaurants were open and which were
not. It was all so confusing then...
Oddly
enough, I couldn't tell you any more special dates of things that happened while
we were here. The only other date I
remember is November 7th - the day we arrived back in Hawai‘i.
I don't remember the date that we left
Isn't
that such a female thing - remembering dates of even the tiniest significance?
I guess I should look up the other ones, and then maybe C. and I
can have some kind of anniversary or something.
:)
Our
entire relationship has been so strange, I don't think either of us has any real
idea of when we officially became "a couple."
Okay,
enough of my reminiscing. Now on to
the news.We are in the depths
of a mayoral election here. The
first big (and I mean "big") sign that the election was close was when
right in the middle of town (mauka side of that
little marketplace) a huge billboard-like sign was erected promoting “Albert
Hotus para Alcalde” (Mayor). Oh
yeah, by the way, a new Governor took his position here at the beginning of
September. I have yet to hear any
good comments about him... Anyway, I did not like that billboard.
When I was young my mother was highly involved with the Outdoor Circle, and they spent a lot
of time fighting against the presence of billboards in Hawai‘i.
So when I saw one here, it was pretty disturbing.
The
very next day another billboard went up for someone else.
Before I knew it, there were billboards all over town promoting all the
different candidates. There's a lot
for this election, maybe 7 or so.
But
I am left to assume that this is normal behavior before an election because no
one has made any kind of comment about it. (Well,
not like I’d catch it if they did, being that everyone around me speaks in a
high-speed Spanish…)
I
have no idea who all these people are, although their pictures are on all their
billboards. Petero Edmunds (well,
I've at least heard of him), Julio Araki (yes, an uncle of C.'s), Raymond
Teao Hey, Alberto Hotus, etc.
Then,
the funniest thing happened yesterday. At
about
Although
it is rather funny, when you think about it.
The
election in on Oct. 29. N.
has
been asked to sit on the judges table, or whatever that is. He has complained
about it several times...it's an all day thing and I expect, rather boring.
He said that if he had to be at something all day, he'd rather it be the
beach. (I know that feeling.)
G.
is a woman who's 70 something years old, although I would think she's around 50
something to look at her. She's an
authority on petroglyphs, and spent 10 years in
She
is here now with a Japanese group filming a documentary on the petroglyphs.
This
group reminds me a lot of a group that we had to work with once for PVS.
Some filmmakers want the world on a silver platter.
They NEED you to cater to their every whim, and it's really exhausting.
We have to get a shot with the sails open with the sunset in the
background with this person standing in front of it with the wind blowing from
this particular direction and a dolphin right there next to the hull....come on!
Every afternoon, without fail, when the group arrives back at the hotel I
hear from Miki (the coordinator). This
group always wants something - more soap, the bed needs to be made a certain
way, that wasn't the way they wanted, we want bacon for breakfast, real coffee
please, 4 eggs scrambled with bacon 2 fried and 3 poached with steak, box
lunches but we don't like the way you did it yesterday so do it different today.
For
those of you who don't know, it's really difficult (not to mention expensive) to
get things like bacon and real coffee here.
And
they wash their clothes A LOT. I
don't even wash clothes that much when I'm at home...
Last
night Kh. and G. needed "a break."
They went to the restaurant next door for dinner.
(Our favorite - La Tinita. Remember
that place?)
Ariana
(9), Kihi's daughter, spent this past summer in Hawai‘i.
When she came back she spoke English very well and was very well behaved.
According to Kh., that didn't last very long.
I've been hired to help tutor her in English because her father speaks
it. (Kh. and her husband have a
very unusual relationship. He lives
somewhere in Europe
and they see each
other twice a year. He's due here
sometime in December.) At first I
was apprehensive about the tutoring thing because I have virtually NO
educational experience (other than being a student.)
But we've had three lessons so far, and it seems okay.
I think the main thing is that I'm giving her a reason to practice
speaking it, so I always speak English with her even though I'm supposed to be
practicing my Spanish. I think she
has fun because at the end of the hour she doesn't want me to leave.
So that's cool. :)
You
know, one of the good things I like here is that I have the time to watch
movies. And because C. likes
renting them so much, I've been able to see a lot of the films that I was never
able to see at home. I read a lot
more too. But I wish I had brought
some of my books with me. Like my
Jane Austen or some other classics. I
have the first book in the Horatio Hornblower series...I wish I could have the
next one. Ariana had to read
Robinson Crusoe for her class, and it made me realize just how many of the
classics I haven't read. Now I wish
I could have those books with me. (They
do have a library here, but I'm willing to bet all the books are in Spanish.)
Anywhos...enough
of my going on and on. Sorry again.
But at least I have some more things to write about now.
I was getting pretty bored there for a while…
I
hope to hear from all of you soon. I
still haven't caught up with all the mail I received earlier this month, but I
feel better having letters than not having letters.
:) And I promise to get all
caught up very soon.
Ulu
Date:
Oct 30, 2000
drunk guys...
Okay.
I have a story for you.
One
morning about a month ago, C. tells me that he wants to go to Santiago
to buy clothes for the
both of us. I told him that I
already have too much clothes and don't need any more.
He then said that I dress like his grandmother, and need some young
people clothes.
I
was truly offended. I had agonized
over what to pack for about a month before I came here. It had stressed me out a
lot. I even complained about it to
anyone that asked before I left..."the hardest part is picking what clothes
to take!" So I was upset when
he said that I dress like his grandmother. I
like to be comfortable, and if that means wearing a t-shirt with long sleeved
shirt hanging over it, then that's what I'll wear.
And then there was the fact that when I first came here, he was the very
one that told me that no one here cares what you wear.
Yah, no one except him.
Anyway,
after the fight was over, I figured I could afford to give in a little.
So I busted out my nice clothes which I hadn't worn before because
frankly, the washing process here takes forever (because of the cold weather it
takes a week for anything to dry) and leaves your clothes anything but feeling
soft and comfortable. (No dryers and
they don't bother with fabric softener.)
So
now I "look my age" again, and C. is happy.
But that's not the end of the story.
Since
I've started to "look my age," I've been getting hit on, especially by
drunk men. One day as I was walking
to work at about
So
he crosses the street to come to me. He
catches up with me, puts out his hand for me to shake, and when I do he pulls me
into a hug. I figured this guy
better be a friend of C.'s or he's in trouble.
He asked me my name, and when I said "Ulu," he acted like he
didn't believe me or something. He
said something in Spanish, so I said that I don't speak Spanish.
Anyway, to skip over the conversational part a little, he stuck out his
hand to shake it again, so I did, and again he pulled me into a hug, then left
his arm around me and started walking, like I was now his property or something.
I started to pull away when he started to lean his face towards me, like
he was coming in to kiss my cheek or something.
I finally managed to pull away. I
didn't care anymore if I was being rude.
Luckily,
all of this happened just outside of the store that C.'s mom was tending
while her sister was on vacation. She
saw me pull away and realized that this guy was bothering me, so she came
outside and started yelling at him. He
walked towards her and I quickly went on my way to the hotel.
All
I could think was, "This is all C.'s fault...wanting me to look my
age and telling me to be friendlier..."
Truth is I never would have waited for that guy to cross the street if it
hadn't been for C.'s voice in my ear...
Anyway,
C. came to pick me up from work that night.
I thought it was so incredibly sweet until I remembered that it must be
because of what had happened.
So
things were fine for a while, then after I started spending more time at the
hotel the gardeners started hitting on me. By
the time I get there in the afternoon they're usually all drunk.
They're really old guys too. So
this one guy (that Kh. did tell me to watch out for) every time he sees me he
points to me then points to himself then crosses his arms over his chest like
the "love" gesture. Luckily I'm always deep inside the office and he
stays outside. So I say hi, but
nothing more and try to ignore the rest as best I can.
But he does that at least twice a day when I'm there.
Then the other old gardener was in the kitchen talking to Kh..
This happened to be the very same day that the other gardener started
doing that. Anyway, I was leaving
and went in to let her know when this other drunken old gardener tells me that I
should come home with him. Yah,
whatever. But Kh. warned me about
him too, and this one, she said, was harmless.
Then
this past Saturday night the other guy, who is actually one of the important
staff members around the hotel, came up to the office window and started talking
with me. He doesn't speak any
English, but I tried my best to understand.
I
had already been working there for about 3 weeks, and this guy was very nice and
always helpful and Kh. and N. depend on him.
Plus he has a daughter who comes every afternoon and plays with the other
"kids of the hotel." So I
figured he was attached. We’ve
talked in the past and I thought everything was okay.
So
we were just talking story and out of nowhere he invites me to go to Anakena the
next day. I said I'd have to ask my boyfriend, because I'm thinking that I
wouldn't go all the way to Anakena without C..
Then, and I know my Spanish is not very good yet, but I thought he said
something like that I should leave my boyfriend at home, and that he was only
talking about the two of us going. From
that moment on I felt uncomfortable. So
I told him thank you, but no. He
kept asking why. I kept throwing out
excuses, and he kept knocking them down. But
I kept saying no. He kept asking
why. After about 20 minutes or so of
this, Ariana and her friend came in. They
were a god-send! Kids are very
honest, and they said that he loved me and told him that I have a boyfriend.
They asked me if I love my boyfriend, I said of course.
So they were trying to brush this guy off for me.
Finally, after their teasing and my saying no, he left.
After
N. finally arrived for the night, I got out of there as quickly as possible.
The next day N. asked me if that guy had been drunk the night before
and if he was bothering me.
Apparently
Ariana had told him what happened. I
didn't think that they were serious when they told me he said that he loved me
or something, but if she told N. also, then it must have been true.
So
now I feel all uncomfortable around him, and try my best to keep my distance.
When I got home that night I told C. what had happened...and I
told him that no one ever hit on me when I dressed like his grandmother.
C.'s
solution is to give me advice like "kick him in the balls," or
"tell him 'F___ you." Yah,
thanks. That’s really helpful.
Men will be men...even in Rapa Nui
.
So
my efforts to be more friendly have stalled a bit.
I am more friendly when I'm with C., but when I walk to the hotel
alone, I am my old "don't talk to anyone" self.
Too bad if they think I'm rude. Too
bad if C. thinks I'm rude. That's
what he gets for wanting a pretty-looking girlfriend.
So
that's the end of my story, folks. It's
all a lot funnier in retrospect.
On
a positive note...TVN is playing "Austin Powers" (the first one)
tonight. That's going to be
interesting to see them try to translate a movie like that into Spanish....
How do you think "yeah baby!" will sound in Español?
Or how about "groovy baby, yeah..."?
Or my favorite, "you can't resist my mojo...".
Should provide just as much entertainment as the movie actually does!
Well,
take care all! I hope to send this
soon, and to hear back from all of you just as quickly!
Ulu :)
Date:
The
best things in life truly are free, but some of those free pleasures require
equipment that needs to be purchased... STOP
IT!!!I know what some of you
are thinking...that's not what I meant! Such
dirty minds...
I
was talking about socks. The weather
here is still so inconsistent that I end up wearing shoes almost every day.
Even the sunny days turn out to be very deceptive, as it usually rains in
the afternoon or after the sun sets. Because
I work at night now and I know that it will be dark when I walk home, I always
have to dress warm when I leave the house, no matter what time of morning or
afternoon that might be. Because I
used to wear slippers practically everywhere in Hawai‘i, my feet are now
displaying signs that I've never had to deal with before - like odor.
Yuck. One week I had to wear
socks every day for about 5 days. My
feet did not react well. No matter
how much I washed them the odor never completely went away.
One day I washed them 3 times and massaged them with lotion but the odor
still was not eliminated completely. I
have discovered, however, how truly wonderful the capilene socks from the
I
have 2 pairs of the really thick ones, so at first I only really used them
around the house to keep my feet warm. But
then I remembered about the moisture thing, so I tried them with my shoes.
Bingo! Now I'm saving up some
extra money because I want a couple of thin pairs.
The thick ones are a bit too much to be wearing with regular sneakers.
By
the way, if this sounds like an advertisement, IT IS.
The
Okay...enough
of the sales.
Another
positive result of my shoe situation is that C. is buying me a new pair!
Yeah! Something covered
that's nice enough to go out in, since most of my shoes are of the athletic
type. It's our first personal
purchase (other that food) since I've been here, and I'm pretty happy about it.
It's so exhausting having to watch every peso you spend...sometimes you
just have to get a little reward. :)
Yipee!
Speaking
of money...I am absolutely convinced that the American monetary system is the
most efficient way to go. It's
always so confusing here, because 500 pesos equals (roughly) $1.00.
I think that by breaking up the dollar into change, it's made our system
so much easier to function and understand. Here,
a bottle of soda costs 1000 pesos. A
meal can cost up to 10,000 pesos. When
you see such a huge number, your mind tends to think that it's a lot of money.
But if you look at that same bottle of soda and see $2, it seems like a
lot less, doesn't it? Because they
don't have the small change, some of the expensive things have really big-looking
price tags. For example, a computer could cost about $500,000 pesos - looks
rather large, doesn't it? But with
our monetary system, it costs only $1000.They use the dollar sign also in front of the prices, so that makes it
seem even bigger in my mind, because it automatically makes me think
"dollars".
Changing
subjects now... C.
finally
found some good waves and went surfing earlier this week.
I stayed on the tiny little beach here in town and stuck my feet in the
water. It was REALLY cold!
But you know, the more you do it, you get used to it.
When I finally took my feet out, all I wanted was to put them back in
again because it felt so good.
Thank
goodness we have hot water in the shower again!
We ran out of gas and didn't have hot water for a couple of weeks.
Needless to say, I was cold a lot during those two weeks.
More
ocean stuff: We went fishing on Wednesday.
They brought an extra line for me, and the ocean was calm enough for me
to try this time. Everyone here uses
hand lines, and to toss the hook out they swing it next to them or above their
heads like a cowboy then let it go. I
have not mastered that technique yet...every time I try my hook ends up in the
opposite direction from what I intended. It
kinda looks like one of those paddle balls with the little rubber band that
connects the ball to the paddle...I throw the hook out and BOING!!!
It comes right back to me but from the opposite side that I threw it
from. I must look so silly...
I
demanded a bobber - something that would float on the surface so I would know
when I got a bite. I just don't have
the feeling for the line that they all have.
So with that bobber my line looked even more like one of those paddle
balls... It was a big yellow bobber
that looked like a dehydrated lemon. In
fact, at first that's what I thought it actually was...but after careful
inspection I had to admit that it was actually that foam like material that they
use for ocean stuff.
The
first thing I caught was a rock. A
very big rock filled with sea urchins. I
had to just sit there and wait until the rock was done playing with me and
decided to let me go. I looked at C.
and said, "yah, this is a lot of fun."
It did, however, let me go eventually, so I still had my hook and bobber
in tact. I was utterly discouraged,
but I tried again anyway. But I
asked C. to throw my hook far away from that rock...
He
threw my hook for me the first 10 times or so, but after a while I just threw it
myself. Mind you, I still cannot do
that cowboy thing, so I just gave it a little underhand swing and let it go.
It didn't get out very far, but nevertheless, it was in the water.
So at least I can do that part by myself...
Eventually, as the day wore on, C. stopped baiting the hook for me
also. I never asked him to do it in
the first place, but he tries to take care of me, and I didn't argue.
They use raw chicken as bait. I
have nothing against touching that, since it's like cooking.
When I was young my Dad taught me how to fish using earthworms as bait.
I always refused to touch them or to bait the hook.
I think I would touch the worm now, but I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't
put it on the hook. It's just the
thought that it's still alive at that point...
the chicken is not.
The
second thing I caught was a sea urchin. It
was on one of those ill-fated throws that went anywhere but where I wanted it
to. My hook and bobber got caught on
the side of a rock that we couldn’t see from where we were and I simply could
not get it loose. C.
was
concentrating really hard on his line so he didn't realize that I was stuck,
even though I had already called it out to him twice.
It took about 10 minutes before he realized it.
I would have climbed down to get the hook, but he never would have let me
do that ("it's not safe!").
So he climbed down the side of the rocks we stood on, but still could not
get to the end of the line. So he
broke it then got the crabber his friend brought (a long, thin, round piece of
metal, like a clothes hanger straightened out) and pried the hook, bobber, and
urchin free from the rock. The hook
and line were all tangled up in the urchin's spines.
There was no way I would have ever been able to just pull the line
free... C.
didn't eat the
urchin, although I have seen him do it before.
For all we knew, that could have been the only evidence that I caught
anything...
By
this time I was really irritated, but I kept trying because if I didn't I would
have been really bored. But the more
I tried, the more irritated I got. These
fish just kept eating my bait but never bit down on my hook...those buggers are
smart. About an hour later I think
the gods felt sorry for me or something because one brave fish decided to give
me a chance. He bit my line good.
I didn't have to do anything - I didn't have to pull to secure him on the
hook or anything special like that. Nope…he
did everything for me. All I had to
do was pull him in. He fought, but
not nearly as much as I think he could have.
So I pulled in my very first catch. And
the only thought in my head was "good, now I can stop!"
(Geez, I must have been really frustrated.)
C.
was more excited than I was. He was
really proud of me! He went around
telling everyone that I had caught a fish…so cute!
:) And, as it turned out,
mine was one of the bigger fishes caught that day.
Later we talked about it, and we both expected my first catch to be
really small or one of those rubbish fishes that they never eat.
Neither of us expected it to be a good one, and the biggest one at that.
I
couldn't eat my fish though. It's
some kind of rule or something here. You
can't eat the first fish you catch...you must give it away.
And a mother cannot eat any fish caught by her first-born son. That must
really suck if you only have one son... C.
says his mother is really lucky because Mo. is the first son, but Mo. doesn't fish, so she is able to eat whatever
C. catches.
That day we went home with a bag full of 9 fish total.
C. caught 6 of them. His
friend caught 2, but didn't want to take any because he still had some in the
freezer. We gave 3 to Panda and Nena,
and 3 to C.'s mother (which included the one I caught).
That night we were so tired that we didn't even eat the three we had
left. We just ate saimin - hot and
fast.
We
were out all day. We started walking
to the shore at about
It
was already getting dark when we started walking back.
Just as we got to the road a big truck approached from behind us.
It had a flatbed about the length of 3 regular trucks with no side
panels. On the flatbed was about a
hundred or so rocks, like they had simply gone somewhere, picked them all up off
the ground, and tossed them on the bed. They
didn't even bother to stack them well, so all the rocks jiggled just a little as
the truck moved.
The
driver stopped next to us and asked if we wanted a ride.
There were already two more people in the cab, but we were welcome to get
on the bed. So we did.
C.'s friend climbed on first then
C. lifted me while his
friend pulled. C.'s
a little
bugger, but he sure is strong. :)
For some strange reason, I didn't grab onto the frame at front of the bed
just behind the cab...instead I just found a reasonably flat spot in between the
rocks where I could fit my body into. I
didn't sit, I squatted since I then realized that all the rocks were covered
with fresh dirt (which was now all over my hands, by the way).
So C. and his friend held onto the bars while I held onto a rock
on either side of me. It was futile,
really, as all of those rocks were just as unstable as I was.
I just got as low as I could and as balanced as possible.
C.
couldn't stop laughing. "This
is an adventure!" he said. I
was just as amused as he was. :)
We
made it into town intact, although sun-burnt, dirty, and stinking of fish and
raw chicken. We went to the grocery
store before we went home, which made C. laugh even more.
He told me that we must really stink because everyone walked away from
us. It was pretty funny...
The first thing we did when we got home was take our HOT showers.
Anyway,
this letter must be pretty darn long by now, so I'll say my goodbye's right
here. Thanks all for all your
letters back. I hope all is well
with everyone. And please drop me a
line when you've got the time. :)
It takes me a while, but I do get to all of them eventually.
Take
care!
Date:
It
has become my belief that there are three words everyone here knows how to say
in English.
The
first is "hello." Natural
choice, right? That's the first
thing you say when you greet someone... Simple
to understand and to say.
The
second word is "beer." Shows
what our society today values most. And
do you know that the only reason I discovered that this was a universal word is
because when people find out that I only speak English, they usually try and
list off all the English words they know. And
they're usually drunk at the time...
The
third is, thanks to
Apparently
they don't favor the other English swearing options quite as much.
Hmmm, I wonder why...?
I’m
still working on my Spanish…and now I have people asking me if I speak
By
the way, for those of you who know and love Papa N., he's doing very well.
He came back from
When
Kh. and N. hired me, they said it wouldn't be a problem that I didn't speak
Spanish, because 95% of their guests speak English.
Last night Ramon Edmonds escorted one of our arrivals to the hotel, and
we talked a little. I told him that
this hotel was one of the few places that I could work given my lack of language
skills. He agreed.
Then I told him that the week after I started, we had 4 Chileans and 6
French people arrive, all in the same week.
(Figures…) We just got 2
more French arrivals today, but they speak a little bit of English.
N.
speaks English (Australian style), Spanish,
Such
is life it the tourist community.
I
guess that's all I have to say about that. Talk
to you later everyone!Aloha!
Ulu
:)
Date:
Nov 4, 2000
more
drunk people...including me?
Hello
again!
I
hope all of you are doing well this fine day!
As you may have guessed from my greeting, it is summer here on la isla -
finally! I feel almost positive that
it has taken over at last. The last
week has been sunny and hot, to the point where even I think it's hot.
I love it...although everyone here is complaining that it's too hot.
I like it because it feels just like Hawai‘i.
:) (Everyone here thinks I'm
nuts....)
Although
it promises to be another beautiful day as I look out the window next to me, I
am inspired to write about a different subject: More drunk people…the
reason being that I was most rudely awakened this morning by 2 or 3 of them.
Specifically, C.'s brother and one or two of his friends.
When
I first got here I kind of liked his brother, mostly because he was the only other
family member that speaks English, so we had a couple of good conversations and
he was always very polite. But all
of a sudden things changed...
It
turns out that this guy is very obvious. When
I first got here, he was happy with his girlfriend.
There were difficulties, however, because she is much younger than him.
But the real clincher is that
she is distantly is related...twice removed or something like that, but still,
the familial connection was well established and well known by both families.
C.'s
mom is very nice, and accepted her...the real problem
was her father. I just found out
recently that he would hit her because she refused to stay away from her
boyfriend.
I guess she finally couldn't take it anymore, since about a month ago she
and C.'s brother finally broke it off - and this time it seems like it's for good.
I
thought about it, and I figured that they have been together
over a year already. The worst thing
that they could do together has already been done a hundred times over, so
what's the point in not accepting it? If
they don't gross out about it, then why should anyone else, right?
Anyway,
I noticed immediately when they broke up because C.'s brother wears his emotions on his
face. It was like night and day.
One day, he was his usual pleasant self, then the next he was gloomy and
borderline rude. He started coming
over here a lot more to hang out with C., look for liquor in the house,
eat, and whenever he was at the shop he would always be practicing
"Wonderful Tonight" on his guitar.
I didn't like this person.
Since
they broke up, he has gone to Piditi on a regular basis.
In the mornings, after drinking all night, he comes in here, opens our
room door to, I guess, see if we're here (although I have no clue as to where
else we would be at 9 am on a Saturday morning...), brushes his teeth, sometimes
eats then leaves the dirty dishes and crumbs all over the table, then departs,
leaving the door wide open. And, he
brings his friends in with him, so the morning’s activities are always
accompanied with a loud chorus of drunk people's conversations echoing in our
empty house. It ALWAYS wakes me up.
It doesn't bother C..
Funny,
I am bothered by the noise of other people, but I was never bothered by the
sound of traffic when I was at home. C.
is completely oblivious to noise, but the light bothers him.
It doesn't bother me at all. Hmm...
I
don't like this person quite so much as I liked the happy one.I suspect now that he has found himself a new girlfriend.
He has been nicer lately, but these other habits have not stopped (which
only leaves me to assume that he's just using her as a warm body and doesn't
really care about her). I saw her
riding on the back of his motorcycle one day last week.
This morning, she was one of the people in the morning drive-thru party.
And the reason I know this, you ask?
It's
not because I got up and went to meet them...NO...it's because she also came and
opened up our room door to see if we were here.
I've never met this girl before, but I already don't like her.
And then, of course, after they left I got up to check...sure enough, the
kitchen door was wide open. It never
fails....
I
am confident that the people here could out-drink anyone.
They practice it so regularly. There
have been times when I have seen people after they have been drinking all day.
They are wobbling in their seats, and their speech is slurred and limited
to the same comments over and over because their minds, at this point, cannot
access any other words. And I think
that they will be going down soon. Then
they reach for their cups. Their
hands are so shaky and, I imagine, their eye sight so blurred that it must take
olympic amounts of concentration to actually grab the cup, but they manage to
make contact. Then, they reach for
the Pisco. They swipe air a couple
of times, but eventually run into the bottle.
They unscrew the cap (which seems to be no problem) then go to pour.
The bottle opening is swerving around just like their hands did when
searching for the bottle, and I am so completely sure that they are going to
miss that cup. But they NEVER DO.
Not with the Pisco. Never.
The bottle opening may be right on the inside edge of that cup, but the
never miss it. They never spill one
drop of that alcohol.
They
don't care, however, if they spill all of the coke…so that happens a lot.
It
never ceases to amaze me. When I see
people in this state, I think that it won't be long before they go down, but I
am completely wrong! I saw some
people like this once at about 5 in the afternoon.
C. and I went home, took showers, slept a little, watched a movie,
and then went back at around 9:00.
Their vocabularies were now completely void of any comprehensible words,
but they were still awake, still drinking, and still did not spill one ounce of
that Pisco. These people were still
awake, although barely, when we left at about 2:00 a.m.
Amazing...
Speaking
of Pisco...for those of you who don't know, Pisco is a type of liquor that is
sold (I think) only in Chile
and
Then,
of course, there is the ever popular Pisco Sour.
It's made with limes and egg whites.
It takes a great amount of effort, so you don't see it too often among
the locals.
However,
I have discovered another option. Wednesday
was a holiday (All Saints Day), so we went to the beach with Paola and her
family. (Paola is one of C.'s best friends.) Her mother had
brought some Pisco and Sprite. I
usually don't drink, but I figured, "what the hey..." so I had a cup.
I guess it was being at the shore and everything...
Anyway,
the first drink always makes my face as red as a lobster.
But the rest of my body was already red from the sun, so now I matched.
:) So I had a second cup.
We were out of Sprite, and I had brought along a bottle of Canada Dry
Lemon Soda for me to drink. So we
tried it with that. In short, I have
found my drink of choice in
C.
and Paola kept drinking, as their tolerance levels are pretty much the same as
everyone else around here, and even poured more drinks once we were in the truck
and on the way back home. As I
watched them make two more, I wished I had taken another cup.
It was really yummy. :)
Anyway,
that's my drunken story for the day. Maybe
I'll have another one for you all next time...
(I know you're laughing, because most of you know that I don't drink!
Bad influence, this place!)
Take
care all. Talk to you all soon.
Ulu :)
Date:
Nov 8, 2000
I'm
not really sure when I wrote my last letter, but I'm sure it was sometime before
Halloween. So I'm going to start right there.
:)
Halloween
has always made me feel just a little bit "witchy," like I could cast
a spell that night and it would come true. And
if it's a clear night, I feel even more powerful.
October 31st here on the island was a perfect "All Hallow's
Eve." The sky was clear, all
the stars were visible, and there was a waxing crescent moon.
It really made me want to sit outside and light a candle or
something...but I didn't. I thought
that I might freak C. out just a little bit too much with that one...
:)
I
had almost forgotten that it was Halloween until, just before I left work at the
hotel, I saw all the "hotel children" - Ariana, N.'s 2 daughters,
and Eduaurdo's daughter - having their own Halloween ritual.
Ariana is very creative, and is the oldest of the bunch.
As the leader, she had ripped apart a bunch of black trash bags and hung
them up on a string to decorate the little lanai outside the hotel's kitchen,
and they all put trash bags around their heads like kerchiefs...except for the
baby of the bunch. One of N.'s daughters is the youngest; she must be about 3 or so.
I guess her head was too small to wear it like a kerchief, so instead the
trash bag was around her head like a haku
lei,
with its edges reaching so far out that it almost looked like she had wings!
When
Kh. and I walked out of the kitchen, they were all dancing around in a party
line, holding on to the waist of the person in front of them, chanting out
"Halloween, halloween..." It was so adorably cute!!!
Kh. and I stood there laughing for a good five minutes...I tell you,
Ariana is so creative. It was all
her idea. And it gave me something
to laugh about all the way home.
As
I walked to the shop after leaving the hotel, I saw a group walking around with
2 trick-or-treaters in it. I didn't
think they did that here, so I thought it was strange.
But apparently, just as everything else begins late here, so did the
trick-or-treating. I left work at
about
I'm
not really sure what any of them got, though, since most people don't keep a lot
of candy around. And, they were
soliciting the stores, not the houses.
Anyway,
I just had to share that one with all of you, because it was such a sight!
One of those rare moments no matter where in the world you are...
I hope you guys can imagine it and laugh with me. :)
Well,
take care all, and I hope to hear from all of you soon.
Ulu
:)
Date:
Nov 10, 2000
Domestic Adventures
I
just had to share this one!!!!!
The
other day C. and I were eating breakfast.
It was the day that we went fishing, so we made sure to eat a big
breakfast since we would be out all day. So
C. made eggs.
He
had just taken a bite of his bread with eggs on it when a chicken outside
started to cluck. All of a sudden
his back got really straight and his eyes opened wide...then he looked at me
mischievously and simply said, "Eggs."
Then
he jumped out of his chair and bolted out the kitchen door, stopping just
outside of it. There he stood for a
few seconds - his feet just a little more than shoulder width apart, with the
knees slightly bent, his back hunched over a little and his arms hanging to his
sides but tense...and his head quickly turning from side to side to figure out
which way the clucking was coming from. It
was the stance of a hunter about to catch his prey...a true display of his
native side.
It
was so shocking and so hilarious that I just had to follow him to see what
happened next!
He
went around to the front of the house and started rifling around in the bushes.
When he came out, he proudly held up one freshly laid egg and said,
"We will have eggs for a long time now..."
It
was one of those rare moments that makes me so glad I came here!
C.
said that in his youth he was a pretty good egg hunter...whenever his mother
wanted eggs, he could always find one somewhere in the yard.
He also said that if you always leave one in the nest, the chicken will
come back and keep laying more. Since
that day he's found two more eggs. :)
I
hope you can imagine what that must have looked like!
After it happened I promptly told him "This is definitely going in
my next e-mail!" He just
laughed at me.
Mälama
pono käkou! Talk to you all
soon!
Ulu
:)
DATE:
Nov 10, 2000
Fishing
with Uluwehi
Hello
again!
It's time for more fishing tales from Rapa Nui!I just had to share...
Wednesday
is my only day off, so we always try to do something that day.
Today was beautiful, so we went fishing.
Then
we went to another spot. C.
tried for a while, but didn't catch anything.
While we were there, I practiced my throwing technique.
(For those of you who didn't get the previous e-mails, they use a hand
line to fish here, and to throw the line out you have to swing the hook end
around like a cowboy then release...I have never seemed to get the hang of it.)
Since it was so calm and we were on a relatively flat rock, I practiced
my throw. I had one good one out of
about 7 tries.
After
we being there for about a half hour, C. decided that this spot was
better for swimming than fishing, so he took off his shorts and, wearing only
his undies, dove right in. I have to
admit, today was such a nice, hot day that if I had worn my suit, I would have
joined him. (They're very open people here...in ceremonial dress they're
practically naked! I'm not quite
ready to join those ranks...so I still need to have a swim suit on to do that.)
C.'s
friend, Flaco, was with us, but I'm pretty sure that C. probably would
have done the same even if he didn't have undies on under his shorts.
So
then we went to the next spot, which most coincidentally happened to be the
exact same spot where we went fishing last time - the place where I caught my
very first fish.
Just
like the first time, the first thing I caught was a rock…it was on my very
first throw too. C. had to
break the line and put on another hook. Darn.
I hate losing hooks.
And
again, just like the first time, the second thing I caught was a sea urchin.
It was on the very second throw, after just replacing my hook.
The urchin happened to also be on the same rock that just ate my hook...
But with an urchin, if you pull hard enough, he'll let you go.
So I managed to save my hook. :)
I
had a floater again this time. It
was made out of an old slipper we found as we walked today...
It was blue, though, so it was really difficult to see where it was
sometimes. C.
prefers that I
have a floater because, he says, it will prevent me from losing more hooks.
Okay. I won't argue with
that...
Anyway,
I was a little upset about the rock and the urchin, but I recognized the pattern
as being the same as the last fishing trip - first a rock, then an urchin, then
a fish. So in my mind I figured I
had to go through this or something, so the next thing I catch would be a fish.
Well...it worked! About 2
throws later I got him! Yeah!
So
now I'm thinking, "Maybe the first time wasn't just dumb luck after
all..." But then I told myself
not to get cocky...
I
didn't catch anything after that.
We
didn't fish for very long today, maybe only 4 hours or so.
That's short compared to the last time.
C. and Flaco didn't have as much success either.
C. only caught 3 this time, and Flaco caught only one.
But, Flaco caught the first one of the day...so that's what made us stay
in that spot. And as for my first
fish, I caught him before C. caught his first...
:) Okay, maybe I'm bragging
just a little bit.
Anyway,
both C. and Flaco had decided to give up, so they went to clean the fish
that had been caught. I decided to
keep fishing just because there was nothing else to do.
I didn't really think I'd catch anything...
Imagine my surprise. :)
They
were over a hundred yards away cleaning the fish, so when I realized that this
guy was really on my line, I started yelling to them for help.
You see, one of my problems is that I don't roll the line back onto the
roll tight enough, so often times it comes off of the roll and wraps around my
arm. With a fish on the line, that
can be very dangerous because it can squeeze my wrist and you know what that can
cause...and as I was trying to roll the line in with the fish on it, the line
started to wrap around my wrist. That's
why I was yelling to them.
But
then I remembered what C. had told me...he said that if that ever
happened, let go of the roll and just pull the line in with my hands.
We can always wrap the line back onto the roll later.
So I dropped the roll and pulled with my hands.
It worked. I got him.
:)
I
held the line up to show C., who was watching but made no attempt to come
and help, no matter how much I yelled while all this was happening.
Okay...I
have to admit here that yes, I am a typical girl at times.
I will not touch the fish. Yah,
yah, I know..."you shouldn't fish if you can't do it yourself," blah,
blah, blah. Too bad.
Luckily C. doesn't seem to mind that particular girl quality about
me, because he's never commented on it or gave me any strange looks.
But, like I said, he didn't come to help, so now I had to figure out how
to get the fish off the hook. And I
really didn't want to touch it.
But
someone was on my side today, because the fish flipped and flopped and got
himself off the hook! Yeah!
But
then he kept flip-flopping, and I then remembered that to prevent them from
flipping around too much, C. always bites their heads, just above the
eye. Well, I wasn't about to do
that! So...I stepped on it at first,
but then decided that I didn't want to stay like that until C. came back,
because who knew how long that would be? So,
again I was lucky, because it flipped itself into a little corner-like area in
the rocks and before it could flip again, I put the cooler on it.
It's one of those cloth expandable coolers that you get at Costco...I
brought it with me and we now use it on all our fishing trips.
(When C. first saw it he said "This for me?"
Well, after all the fishing trips, it is now!
I can get another one...)
So
I caught 2 fish today. I'm pretty
happy about it, because I seem to improve on every trip, so that's a good sign.
And, even though I still fully expect it, I haven't caught any bad fish
or fish that are too small. I keep
catching good ones. So that's a
plus. And now C. says he's
not going to take me fishing any more.
The
first time we ever went fishing was when we came last year, and I must have lost
3 or 4 of C.'s hooks. That
was the first time we met, so I didn't know him very well, and I felt really
guilty at the time. The only thing I
caught on that trip was rock.
Then
on my first fishing trip since I arrived here this time, I caught one fish.
Today, it was two. So I feel
a bit more confident now. :)
I'm not totally helpless after all...
Who would have guessed?
Thinking
back, this really isn't the first time I've ever caught a fish.
My father lives in
Of
course back then, I wouldn't bait the hook either, because we used earthworms
and I couldn't do that to the worm. I
think it's because it's still alive when you put it on the hook...I have no
problem baiting my own hook over here, because we use raw chicken.
It's already dead. Yes...I am
such a girl! And proud of it!
:p (stick-tounge face)
Now
that I think about it, that night my dad fried the fish whole, with the head
still on it. I refused to eat it
because it still had the eyes and I couldn't stand that.
(So girlie...) I got over
that one though...I have no problem eating the fish like that now, although I
don't eat the head.
And
in case any of you were wondering, I don't clean the fish either.
C. always takes on that duty no matter who we're fishing with
because he likes to eat the livers...so he always makes sure to be the first to
take the fish to clean it. He says
it's really good with lemon... (He even brings a lemon with us whenever we
go...)
Anyway,
I know this is a really long story, so I'll stop right here.
It was a nice day, and we're all sunburned and full of fish...
Well,
take care all! And I hope to hear
back from you soon!!!
Ulu
Date:
Aloha
hou!
Today's
story is about one of C.'s best friends, Flaco.
His real name is G. Everyone
calls him "Flaco" because it means "skinny", and he is
skinny. But C. calls him
"Takuana." I asked him
why, and he doesn't remember exactly, but thinks it has something to do with
Flaco's grandfather. Anyway,
whenever Flaco shows up, C. sings this little song...
"Taku, taku, taku-taku-ana..."
So even if I can't see him, I know he's arrived.
He's
one of only 5 painters on the island; the others being C., his other
friend Pajaro (whose real name is also Cristian), and 2 others whom I haven't
met. Flaco just arrived back on the
island last week from
Flaco
is very talented. He designed a
poster for the upcoming Tapati, but didn't submit it in time. It's too bad too,
because his poster design was light years better than the one they chose. And,
as much as I love C., I have to admit that I like Flaco's work better.
I had a vision the other day of him having his own exhibit in the not too
distant future, and the woman of his dreams would see his work at this exhibit
and instantly fall in love with him. Don't
ask me why...
I
think that Flaco is at the point where he is ready to be discovered.
C. still has more to learn. You
can see the difference in their work. Everyone,
of course, always has more to learn, but I think that Flaco is at that point of
being a real "artist," whereas C. still needs something more.
(C. will admit that too.)
C.
and Flaco want to create comics together, with story lines based on
Unfortunately
for both Flaco and C., Flaco's family is now using me as an excuse...they
told Flaco to come home early last night because he shouldn't be staying late
since I live here now. That upset
both C. and me, because I don't want anyone using me as an excuse,
especially since they don't know me.
Having
C.'s friends over and stay up all night drinking and playing chess is one
thing...I wish their mothers would tell them to go home early!
But having a friend over to paint all night is completely different...
That's a creative process that produces something beautiful.
They are exercising their god-given talents, and I would never stand in
the way of that. And I support it
100%.
Flaco
even asked me the other night if the sound of the brush on the canvas bothered
me... I thought that was so funny!
The conversations are so much louder than the brush...
:)
Anyway,
it still amazes me at how much talent there is here on the island.
These people can really be amazing at times.
I hope they "make it big" because they truly have enough talent
for it.
Well,
that's all for now. Take care all!
I'll talk to you all soon!!!
Ulu
:)
Hola
todos!
And,
in light of the past holiday and of the season to come, I have decided to
dedicate this particular message to the most important aspect of the holiday
season - THE FOOD!!!
For
those of you who have been here, you may remember that we ate pretty darn well
while we were here. I quickly
figured out that was because when we were here the first time, we ate at
restaurants every day. And when we
didn't, we had people like Kealoha and Terry to cook for us.
So overall the food was one of the high points of that trip.
Not
this one.
There
are some good dishes, of course, but overall I would have to say that being here
has made me miss all the good Hawai‘i
food even more.
Nevertheless, I will be taking home with me the best of what this island
has to offer.
First
let's start with the meats. Over
here they call beef "meat." Carne
is the word which, literally translated, means "meat", but they use it
to mean beef. If they speak English,
they will also say "meat" when they are talking about beef.
That one took a while to figure out, which is why I'm mentioning it.
The
beef here is not good. It's really
tough, and it would seem that no one bothers to do anything to tenderize it
before cooking. I haven't even seen
any of those hammers with all the spikes on it...
The only place where I've eaten good beef here is at the Hotel, when Kh. has to cook dinner for the guests. Their
beef is good because the hotel spends a little bit extra to buy Argentinean
beef, which apparently is light years better.
The local beef is homegrown, and cheap.
That
also means that there's a lot of it. I'm
not a big beef eater, and I've had to ask C. several times if we could
eat something else. Or, I'll only
take a small piece and eat more salad or something.
One day C. said there was beef with vegetables (and he stressed
the word "vegetables" because I had been saying so much lately that I
didn't want any more beef...) but when I got there I found out that it was only
one kind of vegetable - manioka, which is kind of like a potato but not as good.
So woe is me. I've been
eating way too much beef lately and my desire to eat soups and vegetables grows
stronger every second.
There
is chicken here, and of course fish, but you can only eat fish cooked the same
way so many times. Every time we
catch fish, they cook it exactly the same way.
There's never any variation. I asked C. why, and he said because
that's how it tastes the best. It
kind of makes me wonder if they've ever even tried any other way...
But I can only eat it the same way so many times, so the thought of fish
now does NOT make my mouth water anymore...
For
those of you who may be wondering, they simply cook it.
No butter, garlic, nothing. Just
heat. And then you put salt while
you eat it. It's amazingly boring.
As
for the chicken, at least they're a little more creative with that.
But, unfortunately for me, the family seems to have an abundance of beef
and fish right now, so there are no chicken meals scheduled in my immediate
future. :(
And
now on to the vegetables! The most
important of all here on the island is the tomato. Sometimes a salad is simply
sliced tomatoes with a little oil and salt.
And they put it in everything. Consequently,
I've gotten really tired of tomatoes also.
The
recipes here don't vary much. I miss
the experimentation.
There
are carrots here, but they don't use them much.
And the carrots are very small, like they're growth is stunted or
something. The carrots here are
about a 1/3 of the length of our carrots. Midget
carrots. It looks really strange.
There
are green bell peppers too, but they don't use them very much either.
It’s too bad, because I love those.
But
they do have massive zucchinis! I
love zucchini...it must be my favorite vegetable.
And the zucchinis here are HUGE! They
can have a diameter the size of a large orange, or maybe even a large
grapefruit. That's one thing I wish
we had in Hawai‘i!
I
love zucchini so much…I often fry it up with a little butter and garlic and
eat it just like that over plain rice. Hmmm....
Eggplant is considered the "vegetarian steak" but with the size
of the zucchinis here, it could be considered that as well.A lot of the time they cut up the zucchini and put it in other things,
like soups or something. I don't
like that, because it robs the zucchini of all it's inherent taste, and
therefore is a waste of good zucchini.
Fruit...pretty
much all of the fruit here is super sized. You
should see the size of the papaya! Even
the oranges are practically twice the size of ours.
The only fruit I've seen here that's smaller than usual are the lemons.
I think it's because they use so much of them that they just go ahead and
pick them smaller.
And,
of course, there is an abundance of bananas.
And
as a final note, here are some little facts in case any of you were wondering...
Yes,
they raise and slaughter the cows themselves here.
There is a butcher shop where you can buy it, and they even sell whole
sides at a time, and you take it home and cut it up yourself.
I can't watch... One time C.'s
mom brought home a whole side of beef, laid a plastic on the floor
and put the side on it and started to carve it herself…
The
first question in my mind was where she got the plastic from, because it
obviously wasn't new. The second
thought was that the entire side of beef clearly was not all on the plastic, so
some of it was touching the floor. (God,
I hope I don’t get that piece!) My
third realization was that we would be eating a lot of beef from now on.
Ugh.
One
day we went to a funeral lunch. After
the burial everyone goes to the family's house and eats.
They make an umu (imu
in Hawai‘i).
We were next to the umu when they were bringing all the food out, and I
realized that they had cooked an entire cow...head and all.
It was rather frightening.
There
are chickens running around all over the place.
We buy our chicken from the store, but yes, on occasion they do eat the
wild chicken here. C.
says it
tastes a lot better than the store chicken, but it's tougher - especially the
bones. The people here crack open
the bones and eat EVERYTHING. They
can't do that with the bones of the wild chickens...they're too solid.
(C. has a very funny story of a wing he was eating once…
I’ll save that for another time.)
All
the super sized fruit is locally grown. I
don't know what the secret is. I’m
wondering if it has anything to do with the abundance of manure they have
here…
I
guess that's about it. You can be
sure that I'll be thinking about all of you eating your plate lunches, holiday
dinners, and the outrageous variety of possible foods that faces you every day.
Please think of me... :(
Take
care all!
Ulu
:)
Date:
Dec 3, 2000
Teleton
Hola!
Today's
story is about Teleton. Teleton is a
big organization here in
Teleton
is an organization that helps children with all kinds of problems - medical,
abuse, children of drug abuse, and children with pretty much any kind of ailment
such as downs syndrome. They have no
other specific focus other than "children."
The
host of Teleton is a guy who everyone calls "Don Francisco," whose
real name is Mario. He appears on
all the commercials for all the products of all the companies that partner up
with Teleton. So in the last few
months he's been on almost every commercial they show.
The
reason I'm writing about this is because
I
remember when I first got here, there was a house building project going on for
homeless people. Everyone got
involved. Every single day on
various TV shows they would show which famous stars came out that day to help
build houses.
Whenever there is a project like that going on to help people, ALL the TV shows
air the information. There is so
much talk about it that there is no way that you can be ignorant of it.
C.
asks me if the
But
then again, the
If
there's one thing I've learned while being here is that all Americans have
money, no matter how much they say "I don't have money."
Everyone still has enough money to go to the grocery store or on occasion
go see a movie or something. But in
other countries, when they say "I don't have any money," they really
mean it. If they didn't grow their
own food, they couldn't eat.
I
think that the Chileans have developed some kind of pride because of that unity.
In the Olympics, everyone was interested in what was happening, even
here. It was part of the daily
conversation, even for the people that don't have TV's.
Of course, the most focus was on the soccer team, because they are
Anyway,
this Teleton thing was very impressive. It
was a true show of unity, and it kind of blew me away...
So I just thought I'd share it with all of you.
Can you believe they earned 13 million dollars....?
Sheeez...
That's
it for now. Take care everyone.
I'll talk to you all again soon!
Ulu
:)
Date:
I
know, I know...too many fishing tales lately...
Sorry, but if all you do in your free time is go fishing, then your
material becomes rather limited...
Anyway...my
last e-mail (some of you will remember mention of a tweedle dum and tweedle
dummest) took place on a Wednesday...my last day off.
This story begins from there.
Because
that day was so completely unsatisfying for me, I had felt restless every day
since. So finally, on the Monday
following, we did something.
It
was a beautiful day, and C. had just gotten home from his overnight
flight. But because it was such a
beautiful day, I asked if we could go out and do something, just for a couple of
hours.
He
mentioned it to his Mom, and she said "Vamos" (let's go).
Then, as we were preparing, A. stopped by for a visit.
So now our party grew by one. Then
we figured "why not..." so A. called Flaco.
Now our entire fishing party was complete - C.'s Mom, her husband
Hector, C., me, A. and Flaco.
We
went to our old spot, the one where I caught my only 3 fishes so far.
It was really rough that day, but C. says that makes for better
fishing. Usually at this spot, the
rocks are high enough that we don't have to worry about getting splashed, but it
was so rough that we had to watch each and every wave, and most of us got
drenched more than once... :)
Hector got it the worst, because he was standing right at the point, and
he didn't bother to move when a wave came.
C.
was right about the fishing being better though.
He caught the first one, and the bugger was HUGE!
It's by far the biggest pisi I've seen yet.
It was probably as big as the nanue that Flaco caught the last time...a
little longer than a foot in length. It
was the largest fish caught that day.
Unfortunately,
C. only caught 2 the whole day. Hector
was the bread-winner, bringing in a grand total of 10, but it's only because he
has a pole. He was the only one of
all of us that was able to get the hook out far enough past the whitewash.
The rest of us all had hand lines.
A.,
Flaco and I, it seemed, were there more for the atmosphere...
But
overall we had a good time. Getting
splashed, marveling at the large fish, laughing at A. and Hector...it was a
lot of fun. :D
By
the way, thanks to A. and all of her fishing experience in
This
was the first time that we've gotten to go out with A. since she's gotten
back. She's a lot of fun, but a bit
careless. That's mostly what makes
her fun, but also what makes her a bit dangerous when fishing.
We all got bopped with her hook at least once.
Luckily it had bait on it, so no one got hurt.
But that day it seemed that she could not throw the line out at all!
She looked like me when I first tried it...
it was amazingly funny!!!
But,
she does know how to throw a hook out. I
guess she just had some kind of temporary skill lapse that day...because the
next time we went fishing, which was 2 days later on Wednesday, she could throw
her line out almost as far as C.!
On
this particular Wednesday, the skill lapse had been transferred to me.
For some reason, I just could not throw the hook out.
Even though I had looked like an old pro just two days earlier...
On
Wednesday we went fishing earlier than usual, with A. and her mom.
We called Flaco, but he had other plans for the day.
So it was just A., her mom, C. and me.
We ended up going to about 4 different spots on the South shore.
The
first spot we went to was really nice. And,
although we didn't catch anything, A. and I sat there throwing our hooks out
and talking story for an hour or so, while C. and A.'s mom went to
another spot to try and catch something.
Finally
the two fishermen signaled that they were going to the other side of the bay, so
A. and I were left to carry all the gear over.
It
was nice there too, but it was really rough and we all got splashed a number of
times. A.
and I eventually gave
up, but C. and A.'s mom stayed for a long time.
The grand total for that spot was 6, all caught by C..
He was the lucky one for the day.
While
they were fishing, A. and I walked inside of the bay, along some rocks.
The water there was deep enough where we could have gone swimming, but we
didn't. A.
tried to convince me,
but the sun was not constant and I won't go in the water unless I'm really
hot...the water is still too cold for me. Even
though I had already been completely splashed about 5 times while fishing...
It
was a beautiful little spot where we sat, and there were a lot of fish in the
water. Eventually we got up because
we wanted to get our hooks and try to catch something, but the fishermen then
decided to leave, so we had to follow.
We
then went to spot number 3, where C. caught 4 more, and A. and her
mom each caught 1.
I
caught a guppy, which A. most kindly threw back for me.
In response I "threw in the towel".
Then
we moved on to the last spot. It was
high on a rock which jutted out into the ocean.
The waves were so rough here that although this rock was very tall, the
waves were taller and we kept getting splashed.
I caught one wave full on my back.
We
were on our last piece of bread here when I caught another guppy.
However, this one was, as A. said, "big enough."
So we kept it, and C. cut it up and used it for bait.
A. then cut up the rest of it, squeezed some lemon over and ate it.
On
C.'s first throw with the new bait, he caught a guppy.
It was a little bit smaller than mine.
Unfortunately
that was the total catch for that spot. So
we traveled to safe ground and C. and A. cleaned all the fish - 12 in
all.
I
watched as they cleaned and feasted on the innards...especially the livers,
because just like everything else around here, "it's really good with
lemon..."
Well,
that's all for me! Unfortunately the
only thing I walked away with that day was a bad sunburn.
But A. and I had talked most of the day and we had a lot of fun.
So I'm satisfied. :)
Take
care all! I hope to hear from all of
you soon!
Date:
Dec 5, 2000
music
makes the world go 'round
Hi.
:)
So
I'm moving on to some of the other aspects of life in
The
people here in
On
that note, they're not shy when it comes to dancing either.
Just for your information, the stereotype that all Polynesians and all
Latinos are good dancers is not completely true...but they do it anyway!!!!
No one here cares what they look like - all they want to do is have fun!
They
listen to all kinds of music here - Polynesian (
For
those of you up to date on dance music, Christina Aguillera is just as popular
here, because she sings in Spanish. But
they also love Brittney Spears. N‘Sync
was also just as popular (when their last song was released).
Ricky Martin is popular in
Chile, but not too many
people like him here. Hmmm...I
wonder why...?
There's
a song right now that's popular by Christina Aguillera - it's the Spanish
version of her song "Come with Me" and is called "Ven Conmigo",
which literally means "come with me"....funny how that works, huh?
Anyway, I've heard the English version a couple of times before I left
HI, but I've heard the Spanish version so many more times that I think I
probably prefer it now. I think it
matches the music better... :)
They
listen to a lot of English music here too...Whoever's popular in the
This
past weekend we were watching TV. On
Sat and Sun mornings there is a show for kids, and on this show they play music
videos of songs that are popular. One
song was called "Last Resort" and it was all about suicide!
It was absolutely awful, but these kids on the TV loved it and were
dancing to it, because they didn't know what the singer was saying...
On
a side note, they never finish the videos here either.
It's kind of irritating...they play the first minute or so, then they
fade out and go back to the hosts of the show, who then introduce the next
video. It's not just with that show
either...it seems to be some kind of normal thing around here to never finish
the entire video. They don't even
play the credits when they show a movie on TV.It makes me wonder why Chilean artists bother to make entire videos if no
one in
But,
the thing that makes me wonder the most when it comes to music is this: If
there is so much new music around here, then why do the clubs always play the
same songs every weekend?
It's
a mystery...
Anyway,
I think the music I love the best is anything that C. sings.
He sings a lot, just for fun. Whatever
the song is, he'll change the words and make it funny.
Almost any song can be adapted to have "Guaguis" in it (which
is what he calls me, and is pronounced like "wahwee" - it's a Chilean
slang). Cute, huh?
:o)
That's
it for me! Gotta go dance now...
Date:
Dec 11, 2000
I
have an old one to tell...but I just never took the time to write it.
It was during my writer's block period...
It
happened over a month ago now, but it is a day worth telling about.
It was one of my days off, and C., Flaco and I set out to go
fishing (as usual), but this time towards Vinapu
instead of the northwest shore. It
was a very, very long walk.
We
ended up at the shore after over an hour of walking.
It was about
That
took us to another little bay, but the shoreline here was made up entirely of
ocean-tumbled stones, ‘ili‘ili stones for those of
you who know what that is. They were
all small, the ranging in size from that of a melon to that of a pea.
Each and every one of these rocks were colored and swirled in a different
way - some striped like a tiger, some swirled like yogurt when you take that
first spin with the fruit coming up from the bottom, and all in different
combinations of yellows, blues, greens, purples and reds.
It was absolutely beautiful! If our trip had ended with a picnic there, I
would have been in bliss. I sat on
this stone beach for a bit while C. and Flaco climbed up to a rock ledge
where they discovered powder that, mixed with a little bit of water, is used by
the
We
continued on in search of the perfect fishing spot.
We walked for what seemed like 2 more hours, over thousands of large and
small rocks, all along the coastline. We
finally stopped at one place where C. and Flaco proceeded to collect a
fortunes worth of sea creatures a little bit like slugs, but that stick to the
rocks like ‘opihi.
When they were satisfied, we continued on.
We
passed over a rock bridge, and my only thought was of how spectacular this
bridge must look from a boat...it seemed massive while we were on it, as did the
water passage under it.
About
10 minutes later we finally arrived at our fishing spot.
Unfortunately the sun had decided at that point that it would no longer
favor us, and the clouds rolled in. We
started fishing, but about 10 minutes into that the wind direction changed,
blowing directly into our faces. We
had to change the direction of our fishing.
As
we were moving to a better spot it started to rain.
I put on my raincoat and took shelter behind a very big, very friendly
rock cliff. It had a little shelf in
it also, just big enough for me to sit on comfortably.
The rock was also still very warm from the earlier sunshine.
It made for a very nice place to wait out the rain.
The men kept fishing, of course.
Once
the rain stopped and the wind died down a bit, I re-joined them, but I didn't
seem to have any luck that day. The
sun never came back out, and in the end, all I caught was one tiny fish, by
accident. I had wanted to give up,
and as I was pulling my line out of the water, this little fish grabbed on to
it. It wasn't big enough to do
anything with.
C.
only caught one or two good fish for the day, but the big winner was Flaco.
It seemed that all of our luck rubbed off onto him.
He first caught a big blue and pink fish (I don't know the name) that are
supposed to be very difficult to catch. He
then caught a huge nanue.
As he pulled it up we realized that the hook wasn't even in its mouth, it
was in its eye. It's an absolute miracle that the eye film didn't break and the
fish didn't fall back into the water before he got it all the way up.
He then caught a couple more of the common fish that we always catch.
And, apparently, he almost caught a Nanue Para,
which is practically impossible to catch. C.
always includes that fact in the story, so I figure it must be important.
By
the time they decided they were done, it must have been about
To
be perfectly honest, I wasn't afraid of the thought of getting stuck there.
That big shelf rock felt like it would provide us with ample shelter, and
I had come prepared. I had my
raincoat and a pair of sweats. We
had beverages and C. had a lighter, and we did have all those fish to
eat...
But
C. and Flaco were not prepared. All
they had were their t-shirts, so we couldn't stay.
Instead we rushed back over the rock.
Like most people on a mission, there wasn't much conversation on the way
back, just concentration on where to step next.
We made it back to the road in about 30 minutes.
It
brought us up to the back side of Ahu Vinapu.
From there we followed the road back to town.
It was dark and cool, and the perfect weather for such a long walk.
But halfway back to town we got picked up...so ended that trip.
My
favorite part was that pebble beach. I
hope to go back there again before I leave.
I'd also like to go back to that point where we fished.
It was like a small peninsula, and there was a pool in the center of it
that was big enough to swim in. There
were even fish living in it that were big enough to catch.
This pool was constantly refreshed with ocean water, as the tide was at
times high enough to crash waves into it. There
are so many beautiful pools like this along the shore, I love to explore as much
as I can.
So
that's the end of this story. I'm
including a picture of Ahu Vinapu...well,
it's a part of that ahu. Ahu Vinapu
is special because the rocks for the platform are cut so precisely, much like
the temple at Manchupichu in
Bye
all! Talk to you later!
~ Ulu
Date:
Dec 11, 2000
Vinapu
Hi.
I just wanted to send these pictures...I had spoken so much about Vinapu
in my last 2 e-mails that I figured I should send a little more info.
All
of the pictures that I'm sending are from my first trip here.
K was nice enough to bring them all the way from
Once
again, this is Ahu Vinapu.
It is unusual in that the stones used to build the platform for this ahu
are cut very precisely and fitted together perfectly, resembling the
construction of the temple at Manchupichu in Peru.
Archaeologists think that this represents some kind of connections with
You'll
see the construction in the first picture.
The
second picture is a view of the Ahu from the
front,
with all of its fallen moai. A
majority of the moai on the island are fallen...only a few still stand.
Those that are standing had been erected by archaeologists within the
last century.
There
is evidence that people lived in the caverns made by the fallen rocks.
This particular Ahu has a doorway leading
into a living space.
That's
about it. I hope all of you are able
to view it. Iorana!
~ Ulu
Date:
Dec 11, 2000
Christmas
came early this year...
Aloha
käkou! I hope you all are in
good spirits...
As
for me, things seem to be turning in a positive direction.
Yesterday was an especially good day, which leads me to the subject of my
e-mail...because I truly feel like yesterday was Christmas for me!
It
all started on Thursday, when a friend arrived from Hawai‘i
The
next day, Friday, another friend arrived. She
is a friend of a friend whom I had never met before, but was asked to make sure
she had a good time. Her name is
Julie. She's from Alaska
I
knew about her arrival in advance, but I didn't know of her plans, so I didn't
want to arrange anything until I spoke with her.
After finding out that she didn't have any plans and that she only had
one day to really see the island, I scrambled to find a tour guide.
No luck. But she is a great
sport, and she suggested that the two of us just give it a go on our own.
So we did.
On
the day she arrived, we had lunch then I took her up to Orongo.
I couldn't stay because I had to get to work, but we just drove up there
so she would know the way, then she brought me to work and went back up alone.
That's not too bad, however, because Orongo is the kind of place where
you don't need a tour guide...it's the kind of place where you can just wander
around and look with awe at everything for hours.
She
had done a lot of reading before coming here, so she was armed with enough
information...she basically just needed someone to show her where everything
was. So my limited knowledge turned
out to be enough to provide her with a satisfactory tour.
The
next day, Sunday, we started out at about
Luckily,
one of only 2 places that C. has taken me to since I've been here is Vinapu,
so I knew the way. So that was the
first place on our tour.
Many
of the places that we went to while we were here the first time as
"tourists" came back to my mind, and I did my best to remember where
they were and the stories connected to them.
From
Vinapu we went back towards town and stopped at Ana
Kai Tangata, which is actually on the way TO Vinapu, but I missed it
going, so I made sure to stop on the way back.
Then we passed back thru town and headed to the south coast, where most
of the fallen moai are located. From
there we worked our way to Rano Raraku, the
moai quarry, then around Poike to the north-eastern
shore. We were running short on time
by then, so we only stopped at 4 places along that road - the
"trumpet" stone, Te Pito Kura
(my favorite place on the island!), Ovahe
(one of only 2 beaches), and finally Anakena
(the other sand beach where
Hōkūle‘a
landed for the
welcoming ceremony).
From
there, we drove back towards town, making a quick stop at Ahu
Akivi. There are a lot of
really cool caves to see in that area, but unfortunately we were out of time.
In fact, I was a little bit late for work.
Oops. :)
From
there I gave Julie a brief description of the north-western shore.
There are a lot of moai still standing on
that shore, including the only one on the island with eyes painted in it.
The sights are close enough to town that one can walk the shore there.
It's a good 2 to 3 hour walk, but nice.
I told her where to park and what she could expect to see, and wished her
luck.
She
told me that she had a great tour, and that I was a good guide.
I told her it was probably just because she didn't have anything to
compare it to. ;)
But really, I do think that she enjoyed the day.
And I did my best to show her as much as possible in one day!
I
thanked her because I've been here for almost 4 months and this was the first
time I've been able to see the island. So
the day was just as much a gift for me as it was for her.
And I am very thankful to have had the opportunity.
As
soon as I got to work and Julie left to continue exploring on her own, my other
friend K (from Hawai‘i) and her boyfriend
Javier pulled up to the hotel's reception office.
I had asked K to bring up a few things for me from
So
after coming back from a wonderful all day tour, I had been given gifts!
I looked through all my new stuff like a kid in a candy store...
I truly felt like it was Christmas morning!
She had also left all of the items in their original shopping bags...I
was almost as thrilled to see the Longs and WalMart bags as I was to see the
things inside them...
I
had worn shoes all day for the tour, but like anyone from
Then,
like many nights, Kh. set aside some food for me from the dinner they served
the guests. But Kh. is such a good
cook, and last night's meal was especially good.
I
think I must have done a lot of good deeds in my past lives, because I get
treated very well at the hotel. They
always give me the same meal as the guests - soup or salad, but sometimes both,
the main dish with all the trimmings, including the little flower to decorate
the plate, and desert with a soda or juice.
N. has even joked that I get treated better than him, and that he
should stop paying me...but it's true. Sometimes
I even get served. When I have to
stay in the office, they bring the entire meal to me on a tray and everything.
None of the other staff eats as well as I do...
I've never asked for it, but I never take it for granted either, and I am
always very thankful for being treated so well.
Before they never even used to let me was the dishes...but now they do.
It's only fair.
So
after a wonderful tour of the island, receiving my "Christmas
presents", and an amazing meal, I was granted another gift.
We had about 11 people arriving last night.
First, the flight arrived early, so the people made it to the hotel
early. Second, they were all
pleasant and check-in went very quickly and easily, with no problems
what-so-ever. Third, all of the new
guests were satisfied. They didn't
need anything additional. So I was
able to leave by10:00...usually when we
receive people I leave much later.
Christmas
then continued to work its magic this morning...I was woken by the sound of
knocking at the door. It turned out
to be Julie, who by pure coincidence was staying at the hotel right next door to
our house. She came to give me a
gift, and ask for my address so that she could mail me a care package.
She's such a great person! I
am so grateful to have met her.
So
that's my early Christmas story. I
had a wonderful weekend, the weather here is beautiful, and with K in town
the few weeks ahead promise to be a definite break from the "norm".
I'm looking forward to it.
Take
care all! I'll talk to you all again
soon!
Date:
Dec 14, 2000
I
ate grass.
Yesterday
I ate grass...among other things, but that was by far the strangest.
It tasted like a sour grape...not too bad actually.
They
have wild grapes here. Yesterday we
were at C.'s friend Paola's house and her son went off into the nearby
field where wild grapes grow. It's
not the season yet, but he managed to come back with a vine full of grape
seedlings...he didn't know that they wouldn't taste good. Anyway, this brought
back memories for C., and he started telling me that as a child they used
to eat the grapes and a certain kind of grass.
Then he bent down, found a sample of said grass, and ate it. He then held
out a piece for me to try...so I did. Veeerrry
Interesting…
Yesterday
was my day off, so we had planned to do something with some friends, Javier and K. I don't know if I mentioned
K yet...she is in the same boat as me.
She came here 2 years ago with a Hawaiian Studies group, and met a local
boy. She just arrived back here
about a week ago to visit with Javier, her
Anyway,
C., Javier, K and I all planned to go fishing together.
This would be K's first fishing trip...he, he, he...
However, plans here on
We
woke up late, as usual. Then on our
way into town, we ran into Javi & K.
They were on their way to go ride horses before the fishing expedition.
They asked if we wanted to come...I said NO.
There's a good reason for that...for those of you who were here on the
first trip with me, you know why. For
those of you who don't know the story, maybe I'll include it later... maybe...
So
C. and I went to his mother's shop in town and got all our stuff ready to
go fishing. Luckily, Hector, C.'s step father, was going out that way, so
he gave us a ride part of the way, which cut our walk in half.
I like walking, but it was raining a little, so I was glad for the ride.
We
walked to our usual fishing spot, called Hiku
Te Ika - Tail of the Fish. I think that
C. brings me there all the time because it's a very safe spot to fish off
of. The sea was calm
yesterday...just the way I like it. Supposedly,
the fishing is better when the sea is rough, but contrary to the universal laws
of fishing, I have always had much better luck when it's calm...not to mention
the fact that I have more fun that way. When
it's rough, I end up watching the waves more than I watch my line and have to
dodge splashes every 2 seconds...it's exhausting, and I never catch anything in
those conditions. I usually give up
after an hour or so when it's rough.
But
yesterday was perfect…absolutely perfect.
We were there for maybe only 30 minutes when I caught my first fish.
Yeah! However, I whole-heartedly
admit that it was a lucky catch...the hook caught on to the side of the fish's
body, where the fin is. I think that
any catch where the hook is in some other place than in the fish's mouth is
lucky. After all, how likely is it
that he purposely brushed up against your hook so you could catch him, right?
But
never-the-less, I caught him. Maybe
about another 30 minutes passed until I caught my second.
:) This time, the hook was in
his mouth - an honest catch.
Of
course, we both broke out like school children with the teasing... "Well I
caught TWO and you only have ONE..."; "Mine is HUUUUUGE!...";
"My TWO will be great on the barbecue tonight..."; "Mine
is bigger than the both of yours TOGETHER..."It was pretty funny.
Of
course, his was huge. It actually
was almost bigger than the two of mine put together.
(If I could put one of those stick-tounge faces here, I would...)
Then
he caught another, and we were even. It,
too, was pretty big. Then I caught
one - my biggest for the day. It was
about the same size as his second one. Then
he caught a third - again, it was huge. So
now we were even.
Then
Javi & K showed up. The sun
had finally come out, and we hadn't caught anything in a while, so their timing
was perfect. K
and I started
talking immediately, like most females do, while "the men" stayed
together and fished, and talked on and off.
I still had my line in the water while we talked, but of course I didn't
catch anything. I was no longer
concentrating on the fishing.
But,
to my surprise, the ocean gave me one more gift.
I caught another one. Well, C.
and Javi put my total at 3 1/2 rather than 4, because the last one was
really small...but big enough for the barbecue.
:)
I
asked K if she wanted to try, so she gave it a go.
I felt a little strange teaching her, since I’m still a beginner
myself, but in a way it was good because I know exactly the kind of things she's
thinking. When you're first
learning, you're always thinking that you're doing it wrong and no matter how
many times someone else tells you "that always happens in the
beginning..." you never believe it. I
know I didn't believe it when they told me the same.
So, she didn't catch anything, and got bored with it after a while.
(Fishing can be REALLY boring if you don't catch anything...).
In
the meantime, C. went on to catch 2 more, and Javi caught 1.
K took a picture of it. :)
Cute...I did the same thing when I went fishing with C. for the
first time.
Of
course, all the fish that "the men" caught were huge.
All of mine were tiny. Well,
only tiny in comparison to theirs...but they were a good size.
We
left probably only 2 hours after Javi & K arrived.
The sun was now out in full force, and both us
We
went to Paola's house, because C. had arranged to have a barbecue that
night. But Paola wasn't there.
So Javi & K left, and said they would tell Paola that we were
there. We waited at her house, and
as we waited the clouds rolled in. We
were about to start walking home when the rain started, so instead we found
shelter on Paola's back porch. Paola
soon came by with the family truck and took us back to town.
The plan was that we would go home and clean up, then she would pick us
up later and we’d all go back to her house for the barbecue.
That
part, most unexpectedly, went exactly as planned.
We arrived back at Paola's house at just about
A
few people came, Paola served out beverages and we helped prepare the salads
while C. (the only male there at the time, aside from Paola's 6 year old
son) was working on building the fire. Then
a couple more people came. We
barbecued the huge and small fish alike, ate them with 4 different kinds of
salads (salad is an important part of any meal here...) and had a great time at
Paola's house. By the way, my small
"half size" fish was perfect for Paola's son...Thank you very much.
We
left at about
Now
this part could only happen in
In
the front passenger seat was an incredibly happy, incredibly drunk man.
The taxi driver was an older woman, who was incredibly sober.
The man most joyously invited us into the taxi...but when C. opened the back door, a very huge, very furry dog started to step out.
Not one sign, however, of any aggressive behavior.
The
drunk man assured us that the dog was not dangerous, and to come in.
So we did. The dog sat very
politely in the seat next to C., and the only movement it really made
throughout the drive was to yawn several times.
I was tempted to pet it, but thought best not to...just in case...
All went well.
So
we were delivered home by a very responsible taxi driver, a happy drunk man and
a tired furry dog at
And
of course, eating the grass had made the day just that much more interesting...
:)
Well,
I hope to hear from all of you soon. Take
care!
Date:
Jan 1, 2001
Happy
Holidays
(Sorry
for this!!! I originally wrote the
following e-mail on Dec. 30, and tried to send it out on both the 30th and 31st,
but as fate would have it, I couldn't send it for one reason or another.
So I apologize for sounding like a voice from the past rather than a
story from the present... I hope you
can still enjoy it!)
Happy
New Year Everyone!!!
OK...I
had intended to send out a Christmas e-mail to everyone...in fact, I made a
really cool one for the hotel to send out, but I never got around to making one
for myself. I am so sorry! But, I
figured, better late than never, right? So
attached is my "Happy Holiday Season" card...just in time for New
Year's.
I
hope that all of you had wonderful Christmas days. And,
for those of you who were wondering (and I know a lot of you were because I got
quite a few e-mails asking if they celebrated Christmas here or not...) - Yes,
they do celebrate Christmas here. It
looks and feels much the same as it does in
Restaurants,
hotels and private homes all put up lights - some of which were pretty
impressive. In fact, C.'s Aunt's house is one of my favorite houses to look at at night!
Most of the little shops (of which there are many) put up decorations of
their own also. There's one house
which I call "The Christmas House" because they held a big Christmas
decoration party one night when they premiered their outside lights.
Then there is a huge, HUGE tree right across the street from that.
It belongs to the Armada de Chile (navy) and they put lights up the side
of the entire tree, with a huge star at the top.
In
the middle of town there is a butcher's shop.
Every morning they sell "Anticuchos", barbecue meat on a stick
much like shish kabob (did I spell that right?).
Anticuchos are a traditional Chilean food.
So this butcher's shop has a nice outdoor patio area right in front where
they sell the food from every morning. They
also have a very nice wooden fence. They
were one of the first to put up their Christmas decorations - they wrapped real
tree trimmings to the top of the fence and decorated it with little red bows.
It was beautiful...I did not, however, take a picture because since it is
the middle of summer here, the tree trimmings turned brown within 2 days.
Oh well.
They,
of course, do not sell trees here like they do in
Actually,
C.'s parents were one of the few people that did mind the law...their
tree was so sad! And then to make up
for its odd formation, they over-decorated it...it was so pathetic that it was
actually charming. I
took a picture.
C.
went and got a legal tree for us also, but he had very good luck.
He actually found a good one. He
was so proud of himself when he brought it home...he just had to make sure that
I knew that this beautiful tree was actually a legal one!Unfortunately, we didn't have many decorations because his mom had used
most of them on the misshaped tree, so our tree is not quite as pretty as it
could have been with the right decorations.
It looks much better at night when the room lights are out and the tree
lights are on.
Although
I really don't know why C. bothered to get us a tree, since all the
presents went under the tree at his mom's shop, including the ones for us...not
one gift has even seen the likes of our tree...
Sometimes I kind of feel sorry for it.
I
think that the bigger "Christmas celebration" over here happens on
Christmas Eve. Apparently, that
night everyone has dinner with their families, and the kids open some, if not
all, of their presents. Then
Christmas day everyone goes out and enjoys themselves... not necessarily with
their families.
On
Christmas Eve we went to C.'s cousin's house.
His cousin is married to a German man, so he speaks English pretty well.
(Did you guys know that most Germans speak English? They learn it as a
basic part of their schooling.) C.
made sure to note that his cousin's husband managed to learn Spanish in only 2
months... ("See, it is
possible...you just have to try..." Yah,
yah, yah...)
Also,
C.'s Uncle speaks very slowly when he speaks
I
really like C.'s cousin. She
just has a really good energy about her. She
doesn't speak much English, but we seem to get along just fine.
She and her husband speak mostly German with each other.
They have 2 beautiful daughters...they're so cute!
I had a good time that night.
Well,
except for the meal. Earlier that
day the family had a special meal for lunch.
It was just C. and I, his parents, and Mo., his brother.
His mother baked a chicken. It
was really good! And although it
wasn't turkey, it really felt like a holiday meal.
His
mother cooked the meal for that night also, but that was...well...different from
what I would expect. She made beef
ribs. Nothing special, no sauce or
anything, just cooked the meat, that's all.
I
cannot begin to tell you how unchristmas-like eating meat off of a bone
feels....
C.
played chess with his Uncle while the rest of us played some kind of logic
solitaire game with a board and pegs, taking turns going around the table.
The German man (N.) and I had the best scores - we ended up with only 3
pegs left, and both on our first tries.
Oddly
enough, the discos were open that night. I
heard that they were packed. We
didn't go. It just would feel so wrong to me...we don't do that kind of thing on
Christmas Eve...
As
for our actual Christmas day...well, the morning was really good.
I felt like a kid again! I
love how the universe works...
C.
and I were walking to town to go to his mother's shop.
On the way there, we passed the LanChile Cargo office.
A flight had just arrived, so the office was crowded with people picking
up their goodies.
I
should explain here that the LanChile Cargo office is a big warehouse, and the
counter window opens up to the street, with a small parking area in front...so
it's open to the outside. As we were
walking along the street, the woman working the counter saw us and called out to
C., saying that there were packages for him.
Because he's a LanChile employee, we got to go inside to retrieve
them...
There
were 3 boxes - 2 large ones and 1 small one - which all turned out to be for me
(he, he, he...). C.
was a
little disappointed.
Some
of you may remember my previous e-mail titled "Christmas came early".
In it I talked a lot about a new friend, Julie.
She is a friend of the people at PVS, so when she decided to visit here,
my friends at PVS e-mailed me and asked me to take her around.
Which I did, and thoroughly enjoyed!
Julie
was only here for 2 days, so we had to do a whirlwind tour of the island in only
one day! But we gave it a banner effort! In
the process, Julie and I talked and got to know each other better.
She is a wonderful lady.
And
all of the things she sent arrived on Christmas morning.
Julie
had even sent stuff that we talked about in casual conversation, that I never
would have actually asked anyone to send. She
has made me wonder, as I have wondered many times in my life, how I got so lucky
as to make a friend as wonderful as this person?
At
my first opportunity I ripped open those boxes!
It was the first time in years that I've actually had something to be
excited about on Christmas. I looked
at all the goodies with stars in my eyes, just like so many other children
around the world...
Unfortunately,
the day went downhill from there. And
it was a very long hill. C.
made a very stupid move, and it took our relationship 3 days to recover from it.
But it's over now, so don't worry. Things
are okay again.
So
now we're moving on to New Years! Originally,
I had planned to hang out with our friend Paola, because C. has to work
the flight that night. (He'll be in
the air at
Another
side note - Paola was in this accident with a male friend.
They both were hurt very badly, so they had to take the first possible
flight to
Most
coincidentally, it rained continuously from Monday afternoon until Friday
afternoon when, miraculously the sun came out at about
Anyway,
back to New Years. So...another
option was for me to hang out with my
What
I will end up doing is going with C. on his flight to
I
had to think about it a lot, but in the end I figured I would feel better being
with C. on his flight rather than being at some party without him.So that's my plan for the turn of the new millennium.
(Since, as some people noted last year, the new millennium doesn't
technically begin until 2001. I
forget why.)
I
hope all of you have a great New Year's celebration planned!
And I hope it works out just the way you want it to.
Enjoy, and let me know how it goes!
I'll
talk to you all again next year!!!
Date:
Today's
date is 01-01-01. Isn't that pretty
cool? : )
Well, I thought so anyway...
Happy
New Year, Feliz Ano Nuevo and Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou!
I
hope all of you had a great New Year's Eve celebration and a wonderful first day
of the year. I hope to hear all of your stories...
; )
As
for celebrations here on Rapa Nui, well, I'll do my best
to describe it.
First
of all I must admit that all of this is via hearsay.
I wasn't actually on the island for the turn of the year.
(I know, I know...now you're wondering where the heck I was.
Don't worry, I'll explain later.)
New
Year's Eve turned out to be a lot like Christmas Eve.
Most people spend the evening at a family member's house where everyone
has a grand dinner and starts the drinking for the night.
At
After
the fireworks, everyone makes their way over to Toroko.
I heard that the place was packed last night...so much so that you began
to sweat from all the body heat as soon as you walked through the entrance.
I also heard that there were just as many people congregating outside as
there were people dancing inside.
I
don't know what time the dancing stopped, but I have friends who left at 6 in
the morning, and there were still lots of people inside partying at that time.
Today,
New Year's Day, most people had picnic/beach parties along the shore of the
island somewhere with their families. As
it happened, the Gods provided us with an absolutely beautiful day - all day.
O.K.
Now on to where I was for New Year's Eve.
I was on a plane over the
C.
and a bunch of his crew mates had to work the flight last night.
So, as a sort-of compensation, LanChile
offered each flight
attendant one free (well, except taxes) ticket for a loved one, so that they
could be with someone at
4
other flight attendants took advantage of the offer, so there were 5 of us
"loved-ones" on board. None
of which spoke English...but, since we were all "kin" in a way, we all
talked and laughed and had fun together. And
even though they all knew that I was at a disadvantage with my Spanish, they
kept talking to me anyway. :) ....And that blessing in disguise resulted in the longest conversation I've
ever had entirely in Spanish in my whole life.
I was rather happy about that crowning achievement...and my partner in
the conversation said that I spoke well, and even passed that comment on to C.. (C. has been
convinced for the last month or so that I actually do understand Spanish and am
able to speak it pretty well...I keep insisting it's not true, but he doesn't
believe me. All I know is that I'm
still confused at least half the time when someone is talking to me.
Realistically, however, I think I go more with instinct than with the
actual words, because I know I don't understand most of them.)
On
the way to Papeete
the crew was able to
clear the last 2 middle rows for all of us to sit in. But most of us spent half
the flight in the back with the flight crew!
It was a really interesting experience, because I got to see how they all
work, what kinds of things they need to do, how difficult it can really be, and
all that. Yet, at the same time, I
(and I believe the others as well) felt somewhat privileged because we were
being treated as one of the crew but didn't have to do any of the actual work.
We
all got as many dinners as we wanted...some even that we didn't want!
We all got the regular dinner, and just as we were finishing up with that
some crew member came by and gave us all first class dinners - seafood salad.
It was so good...mmm...but I hadn't expected it so I ate all of my first
dinner, and was unable to finish all the seafood!
But I gave it a good effort... And
overall there were about 3 or 4 different meals to choose from, so if we were
still hungry we could have a variety!
We
could choose from any kind of beverage we wished, at no charge of course.
3 out of the 5 of us took advantage of that offer, if you know what I
mean. (Guess who was NOT one of that
3...) By the way, the deserts were
really good too... :)
LanChile
has the best airplane
food I've ever tasted. (But now that
I think about it, I really haven't experienced many airlines.)
So
there we were, in the very last rows of the plane, enjoying first class cuisine.
Did you know that in first class, they give you like 8 different pieces
of silverware? Simply because in
fine dining they have a different piece of silverware for everything.
It was pretty funny when we all opened our napkins and out fell 3 forks,
2 knives and 3 different sized spoons... All
dinners came with a glass of red wine (seafood), 3 different kinds of cheeses
and 2 little balls of butter, yet it didn't come with bread...hmm...I still
wonder about that one... Oh!
And it came with separate pyramid shaped salt and pepper shakers...those
were really cute...
At
5 minutes to midnight
The
night before, Saturday the 30th, there was a party for all of the LanChile
employees. The reasoning was for the
entire staff (ground crew, airport check-in, office, and flight staff) to get to
know each other better. It ended up
serving as a New Year's Eve party since the flight staff would be working during
the actual date. That was a truly
great party...I had a blast!
In
any case, the crew had to eventually get back to work, but from that moment on
we were allowed (welcomed?) in the back to sit and talk story as long as we
wanted.
I
got maybe an hour, hour and a half of sleep after that.
It's a 5 1/2 hour flight to Tahiti, and we left
Rapa Nui
at
10:30 p.m.
We
got to see some fireworks there in Tahiti.
We walked out to the plane at 12:30, and some people were
still going strong. And when the
plane left at 1:00, we got the aerial
view of the few who had spent the most money on fireworks...
The
flight home was full, so we had to sit in our assigned seats…which meant no
more first class food either, because we had regular tourists sitting around us.
But we got to eat as much of the regular food as we wanted...
However, by that time most of us were tired, so much of that flight was
spent sitting serenely and talking, watching the videos, or sleeping.
C. hadn't slept at all so far, and he was really tired, so I tried
to stay up with him as long as I could until it was his shift to sleep.
(I felt bad sleeping knowing how tired he was but couldn't quite yet go
to sleep...)
We
finally landed back in Rapa Nui
at
11:30 a.m.
- approximately 13
hours after our departure the night before.
Most
amazingly, it's about 11:30 p.m.
now and neither of us
has gotten any real sleep yet today. Both
of us got quick naps, but those totaled to about 30 minutes for each of us.
Frankly, I am surprised that my mind still functions...but then again,
has this e-mail made sense to all of you so far?
It
was such a beautiful day that I didn't want to waste it sleeping, so we went to
the beach here in town. C.
was going to give me my first surfing lesson, but I still wasn't brave enough to
get in the water, so I told him to go surf and when he came back I would go with
him.
Little
did I know that the surf would be so good, and he wouldn't come back in until 3
or 4 hours later.
Luckily
Rapa Nui
is one of those places
where you can go anywhere by yourself and you're almost guaranteed to meet with
someone you know there.
As
it turned out, A. had been surfing all morning, and after I had been waiting
for maybe and hour or so, she came out of the water to hang with me.
Soon after that, K ended up down at the beach too.
It turned into one of those rare moments that all three of us get to hang
out together. Eventually, everyone
turned up at the beach, including Flaco and A.'s brother, Victor, and his
family. We ended up having a nice
little gathering.
And
after waiting so long for C., when he finally did come out of the water I
was more than ready to get in - it was so hot!
I
did not waste my first day! I had my
very first surfing lesson today. Start
the New Year off right.
I'm
really burned now. I can't even
remember the last time I spent the entire day at the beach like that.
But it was worth it.
So
here I sit at the end of the first day of the New Year - happy, content, and
extremely tired. Isn't life grand?
I hope you all feel the same way.
Well,
take care all. I hope to hear from
all of you soon.
Date:
And
then there are those days...
...when
nothing seems to go the way you want it to.
On Tuesday I was feeling awful. I
was a little sick and extremely tired, but as soon as I arrived at work the
phone started ringing non-stop! I
remember the days at PVS when the phone would ring all day...being here makes me
long for those days! When the phone
rings here, it’s usually someone speaking Spanish much too quickly for me to
understand, so I have to either figure it out within two seconds, or tell the
person as best as I can, "I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish well.
Could you repeat that please?"
Nothing
makes you feel more like an idiot than not being able to fill a simple request
just because it’s in another language.
The
worst part about the phone calls here is that they’re usually a local calling
for one of the members of the Haoa family. So
I transfer the call to the kitchen, where Senora Rosita would usually be at this
time. But for a few days there, no
one needed dinner, so the Senora wasn’t in the kitchen...
Then the person calling would get mad at being transferred to a phone
that no one picked up, call me back, and yell at me for not being able to speak
to Senora Rosita!
For
those of you who have never been here, the hotel grounds are pretty big.
It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the back of the hotel.
And if I have to look for someone on the grounds, the only way is to take
a message from the person on the phone then go and look for whomever their
calling for. Usually the person on
the phone is not patient enough to wait as long as it would take to go find
someone. Anyone who has been here
knows how big the grounds are and knows how long it would take to walk it...so
it always amazes me as to why these people who are calling cannot figure that
out...after all, if they’re a friend of the family, then they’ve been here
before, right?
On
this particular day, the Senora´s sister kept calling for her.
I finally found out that the Senora was in the very back of the hotel
helping to prepare the new rooms for guests arriving this weekend.
So when the woman called again, I told her where the Senora was, and
could I get her name and number so I could tell the Senora to call her back.
She was so upset at being put on hold the first time she called that she
just kept insisting, rather rudely, that she wanted to speak with her.
Finally,
after explaining for the third time that the Senora was ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK
OF THE HOTEL and that I would have to go and get her, she finally gave me a
phone number and hung up.
Luckily
the woman called Kh. at home and brought her into the picture.
I was afraid to answer the phone here...
That
was not a good day. The foremost
thought in my mind was that if only I could speak their language, I could have
dealt a lot better with this lady. The
second most thought in my mind was why this person was getting mad at me!
I’m not responsible for where Senora Rosita is at every second...this
is a hotel. I’m responsible for
the guests, not the staff.
Then
today a German group arrived. The
group leader did not make a good first impression on me.
First
of all, they told Marcia (the day receptionist) to wait for them until they
arrived back from their tours. At
that time they would tell her whether or not the group would be having dinner at
the hotel. Nevermind that Marcia now
had to stay an hour longer than she was supposed to.
Nevermind that it’s incredibly inconvenient for the kitchen to wait
until 5:30 to find out if a group of 16 people will be eating at 7:30...
But
then the group finally came back. The
group leader came to tell Marcia that he didn’t know about dinner yet, and
they would be having a group meeting right now, and he would tell her in about
15 minutes.
She
then told him who I was, and said that he should speak in English with me.
He promptly told her, in Spanish yet right in front of me, that although
he can speak English, he prefers not to. Then
Marcia had to take a phone call, and while he was waiting he looked down his
nose at me and asked, "So you are American?"
This
is one of those times when you REALLY wish you could say what you really feel...
Marcia
left, and later the man came back and said that they would not be having any
dinner here, and were there any decent restaurants around.
So I gave him the name of one and sent him on his way.
Anyway,
I guess I just had to rant a little. Being
here has given me the opportunity to mingle with people from all over the world,
but at the same time it has given me the opportunity to meet some not-so-pleasant
characters... There are nice people
and there are unhappy people where ever you go...
Many people group them into categories.
You’ve all heard it before - "The French are so rude";
"The British are stuffy"; "Americans are pushy", etc...
Well, after being here, I really can’t do that.
I’ve met some really nice people from all kinds of different
countries...and then there are these chosen few who dare to threaten my good
opinion of their fellow countrymen. How
unfair is that?
For
example, there is a Brazilian woman in the hotel right now.
I have an extremely difficult time understanding her because in
And
then there was this very nice couple from California
that came here for
their honeymoon a couple of months ago. If
they had stayed longer we definitely would have hung out with them.
And
once there was this old French couple. Everything
went wrong for them, yet they were so nice about everything the entire time!
None of that "The French are so rude" stuff!
Even in the midst of their being dissed by their tour company, they were
still very nice to me - an American whom the French supposedly hate.
And
although a few people have told me that the Germans are very harsh in their
behavior, this guy is really the first one that I’ve met that I absolutely do
not like.
Even
N. was saying last night that although he really doesn't do that much, he is
always exhausted from having to deal with so many different kinds of
people...and from having to cater to obviously unhappy people.
I know how that feels now.
I
can't end an e-mail with a heavy feeling, so let's change the subject here.
Some
friends arrived on Friday. : )
Ti., A.'s boyfriend and one of the
Hōkūle‘a
crew members, arrived along with his sister, Amy and her friend Willie and his
Aunt. I went to greet them at the
airport. C.
wanted to go, but
he was busy cutting our yard at the time. C.
actually is more familiar with Amy and Willie than I am.
When he came to visit me in
That
night C. and I went to their hotel to say hi and hang out for a while.
Later we went to Toroko Disco and danced for
a while. C.
and I didn't stay
long, however, because he had been working in the yard then on the construction
of the restaurant all day, and all that work finally caught up with him.
Miraculously, however, he and I danced a lot before the fatigue finally
got to him.
For
those of you who know Sergio Rapu, they're all staying at his hotel because he
and A. are good friends, so she set the whole thing up.
As we waited for their arrival at the airport, I finally got the chance
to speak with Sergio. He's a pretty
cool guy.... And it looks like he's
a real party animal! When we went to
Toroko, he was the first one on the dance floor and he never left it!
And,
some of you may know, the "Amy and Willie" that I am speaking of is
Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom and Willie K. A.
is trying to set up a concert for them while they're here.
I'm really looking forward to that, because I can't afford to go to any
of their concerts at home. : )
Well,
I guess that's about it. Take care
all! I hope to hear from all of you
soon!
Date:
Hola
everyone!
I
hope all of you have been enjoying your new year so far.
As for me over here, it's been pretty eventful.
You've
all read by now about my new year's day. That
was great... Well, the next day was
all about rest. So we made sure to
get enough of it. Unfortunately for
me, I felt awful. I had somehow come
down with a cough, so that day I was coughing a lot, my nose was running, and I
was exhausted. I was miserable the
entire time at work.
C.
was planning on going to his friend's house that night.
I was not happy that I would have to stay home alone when I was sick, but
I didn't complain. Fortunately for
me, he changed his mind. He came
home shortly after I did. It turns
out that he went to pick me up from work but I had already left, since he had
told me earlier that I should just take a taxi home.
So I got my wish after all. :
)
The
next day was Wednesday, my day off. Even
though I was still a little bit sick, there was no way we were about to waste
another day off!
We
got up at
We
were going to the volcano, Rano Kao.
It is a crater with a lake in it, and on the lip of the crater there is a
ceremonial village called Orongo.
This is where the birdman contest was held in ancient times.
For those of you who need some history, the birdman contest was where one
man from each clan had to compete for the title of birdman.
They climbed down the side of the cliff at Orongo, paddled on a mini-canoe
like thing made out of reeds out to an island just off the shore.
There are three islands there - Motu Nui,
Motu Iti & Motu Kaokao. The
first man to get an egg of the birds nesting there and bring it back up to
Orongo intact would win, and person from their clan would be ruler for a year.
Anyway,
we don't have a car, so we walked. A
lot.
I
wanted to bring Tonti, our dog. I
figured it would be good exercise for him, and since we were going to a place
without other people around, we could let him run around a bit.
C. thought about it, but in the end we decided not to because of
many reasons. We had to pass through
town first, and we have a very hard time controlling Tonti around other people.
He's not used to a lot of people, so he gets really vicious around anyone
he doesn't know. And if we brought
him we would have had to bring a lot more water than we did.
In
the end, it's a good thing that we didn't bring Tonti, because it turned out
that we were not the only ones in the crater that day.
He would have devoured those other guys...
Side
note: I've been afraid of dogs ever since a poodle bit my finger when I
was about 5 or 6. But most ironically I am more comfortable around Tonti than I
have ever been around any other dog before.
And Tonti is this big, energetic, mean-looking Rotweiller who turns into
an absolute beast around anyone he doesn't know!
He's as tall as my waist when standing, and when he gets up on his hind
legs he's (of course) taller than me. And
he has a tendency to jump on you when he's excited, because he wants to play.
He's full size, but he's still only a puppy...he's about a year old.
I can't play rough with him because he's way too strong for me...he'd
probably knock me on my butt...but I think he's finally learned that because he
doesn't get as rough around me anymore. So this beast, who would very well
attack a stranger if he wasn't restrained, is tame around me.
That makes me feel good... :
)
Anyway,
we had to walk to the crater. We cut
across the island's full-sized NASA built airplane runway, and started up the
side of the mountain, through the bush and everything.
It was an adventure!
To
be perfectly honest, the walk up to the crater was a whole lot longer than the
walk into the crater. But it was
nice, and we stopped several times along the way.
We got a bird's-eye view of the
island...we took a picture
with a very
interesting tree...
As
we neared the top of the crater's edge, there was noticeably more obsidian on
the ground. All the obsidian here
was bubbly, with little holes all over it, which made it easy to imagine the
explosion that must have caused all these bits of rock to burst into the
atmosphere and land in their present spots.
The closer we got to the crater, the more obsidian there was...there was
so much that you couldn't help but to walk all over it.
The
obsidian is very interesting to me because we don't have much at home.
I've always been interested in minerals, or "crystals", so I've
seen stores that sell obsidian. Here,
it's literally all over the ground, and no one cares.
When the locals see someone picking up a piece of obsidian along the
sidewalk, they know that person is a tourist...
The only obsidian the locals care about are the pieces that have been
formed into arrowheads...the "ancient people" used the obsidian to
make spear heads. All the rest is
rubbish.
Anyway,
back to the story. We finally made
it to the top of the crater...It seemed like we had already done a good day's
worth of walking, but now we had to go into the crater, and eventually come back
out. I wasn't looking forward to
that part...
Walking
in the crater wasn't easy because there were rocks all over the surface, and
grass had grown long around the rocks, so you couldn't see exactly where you
were stepping. Many times there were
holes between the rocks, so we had to check the area before we made our next
step.
Along
the way we had all picked up walking sticks.
I found the coolest looking one - it was long and straight on the bottom
and kind of curly on the top, and it was a white wood.
It looked like a genuine Shaman's stick...we gave that one to Flaco
because it was tall, and he's tall and skinny just like the stick was.
C.'s was a little shorter and a little bit thicker, but it still
looked pretty cool. It was also made
out of that white wood, so it looked like a Shaman stick too.
C. gave me mine. It
was short and brown in color and the top end had obviously been broken off of
another piece, so it was frayed. It
was not very pretty, but later I found out why it was perfect for me.
There
is a plant that has all kinds of pods on it with seeds in the pods.
When the plant dries and you shake it, it sounds like a Native American
rattle. As we were walking, a small
branch of this "rattle" literally broke off the plant into my
hand...and as fate would have it, the stick end of the rattle fit perfectly into
the frayed end of my walking stick. So
now my stick was the coolest because I rattled when I walked...
he, he, he...
Another side
note: C. is really skinny. When
he was in
Going
down into the crater there were a lot of areas where we kind of had to just
slide down. I think I would have been braver if I had worn jeans.
I was in shorts, so I didn't want to just slide because I was afraid of
getting all cut up. So we took our
time, and I had to hold on to a lot of branches...
We
finally got to this great big rock with a petroglyph on it.
It was amazingly cool! I took
a picture... Unfortunately, there
was some idiot who for a while had been going around and vandalizing all the
petroglyphs by scratching his name into it.
I don't understand how people can be as rude and careless as to do things
like this...to vandalize ancient, one of a kind artifacts...
Luckily, the name is scratched very lightly so it's not that noticeable.
It won't show up in my picture (I
hope)...
There
was another smaller petroglyph on a nearby rock that was hidden by the trees,
but Flaco knew that it was there, so he and C. went and took a marking of
it. They had brought their sketch
pads...artists...
We
rested there and had lunch. That's
when two tourists happened by... C.
said they were speaking Russian. It
was a father and son. The son was in
his late 20's or early 30's and spoke English with an American accent, but spoke
Russian with his father. He was
asking us if there was a trail to go all the way around the crater's lake...he
didn't like the answer that C. gave him.
Apparently, Flaco knows the crater best, so C. had to translate
between Flaco and this guy. The guy
walked off unsatisfied... Oh well.
We
had planned to go to the middle of the lake and go swimming, but we abandoned
that idea and went in search of Hei‘a fruit instead.
In
the crater were wild grape vines, guava trees, sugar cane and Hei‘a trees.
Unfortunately, there were no grapes or guava yet, and we were even too
early for some of the hei‘a trees. But
after much searching, we found a tree that bloomed early!
Yeah!
Hei‘a
is a oval-shaped yellow fruit a little bit smaller than a golf ball.
The inside is hollow, with only a big round seed inside.
If you shake the fruit, you can hear the seed bopping around.
You eat the outside of the fruit, which is about the same width as an
orange peel, but it's not thick like one. It's
really good...I swear it tastes a little bit like honey.
When K was here she thought it tasted like mountain apple, but I
never had a mountain apple that tasted that good...
Sergio Rapu says that we have hei‘a in
We
also found a lone sugar cane plant, which C. promptly broke off stalks
from for us to eat.
So
here we were, wandering about the crater, enjoying the fruits provided by the
crater itself. It was pretty cool...eating off the land, like our ancestors did.
We
walked, and talked, and rested...and filled up my backpack with hei‘a fruit.
Then we finally decided to head home.
Walking
back up out of the crater was not fun. Of
course, the both of them are in much better shape than me...I'm a townie.
But
after much heavy breathing and praying, I made it out of the crater.
Yeah!
We
decided to follow the road back down, instead of playing Jungle Jim again like
we did on the way up.
As
we were about to reach the edge of town, a taxi pulled up.
We took it. The thing about
We
went home, C. and Flaco made dinner, and we all sat and ate and watched a
video.
It
was a good day.
I
took some pictures, but I probably won't get them developed until I get back to
Anyway,
I only have a month left here, so you can all expect more adventure stories.
I am constantly reminding C. that we need to do everything before
I leave... : )
I'll
talk to you all soon!
Ulu
Date:
Jan 12, 2001
life
on a tiny island
Iorana
everybody! How is everyone?
Are all your computers still working?
(A friend of some of us was infected with a nasty virus...luckily for me
I opened up the virus warning before the infected message that was sent...so I
deleted all of them. Thanks for the
warning!)
It's
amazingly hot here. Of course, it
doesn't help that I got sunburned yesterday, which is making things just that
much more uncomfortable for me. But
its summer and things are beautiful, so I'm not complaining.
And
now, on to today's story!
Life
on a tiny island can be funny sometimes...
And
I knew that this would happen...it was only a matter of time as to when I became
a part of this little ritual... Just
after Christmas but before New Years, I was hanging out with the Karikari
group one night. There was a flight
that night, and C. had to work. And,
the flight was arriving late, at about
We
were all in town sitting in front of the moai
that fronts the bay, just hanging out, talking story, playing music, whatever...
Then we heard the flight arrive. In
I
decided to hang with them at the airport first.
When we got there, I finally asked why we were there.
Guess what the answer was...come on now, if you're from a small town, you
know what the answer is... That's
right! We were there at the airport
“just because." It was just
something to do. I had to laugh....
Anyway,
this little anecdote was just to show how something like a flight arriving can
have an impact on a small community like this.
And here's another example...
There
is only one airline that flies here: LanChile.
They have regular flights from
A
flight crew from
Anyway,
last night the flight from
Amy
and Willie were leaving on the flight to
It
was supposed to leave at
The
moon is still pretty bright, thank goodness, so I wasn't completely scared when C.
came knocking at our bedroom window at 5 in the morning...
To be totally honest, I wasn't all that shocked either, because I knew
that the flight hadn't taken off...just like the arrivals, everyone also knows
when the flight takes off. The noise
is impossible to miss. But then
again, I had fallen asleep at about
C.
said that the flight was scheduled for around 3 the next afternoon.
They called him to work at
At
around
So
now, this flight is not scheduled to return to the island until about
Most
ironically, there is a regular Saturday flight from
Problem
#1 - There are no hotels that had enough vacancies to cater to ALL the
passengers. So LanChile had to do a
lot of last minute shuffling...
Problem
#2 - This is
Problem
#3 - The flight was absolutely full. They
even asked some people to give up their seats during the original check in...
So now LanChile has to pay for room and board for one extra day for about
300 people.
Problem
#4 - This flight was a round trip that goes to Papeete, then back here, then
back to Santiago. So now all of
those flights are screwed up...that's 3 one ways and who knows how many
connecting flights for all of those passengers...
Problem
#5 - There are only 13 local flight attendants.
That's only one and a half crews. All
flight crews cannot fly more than a certain amount in a day, and there are a
required number of hours of rest that they must have in between flights.
Right
now, LanChile is in danger of not having enough flight attendants to cover the
Sunday flight, because they are all currently working the delayed flight.
Anyway,
who knows what will happen tonight. I
sure hope I don't have to come in at
Thus
is life on a little island.
Now,
on a positive note... as all of my e-mails are required by law to end on a
positive note. LanChile has done one good thing.
They gave C. a bonus for exemplary service.
: ) It’s an end of the year
thing, and because C. has never missed one of his scheduled flights and
because of his attendance at all the meetings, he got a bonus.
They gave it to him last week, but when he went to work last night, they
told him that they had made a mistake, and that they still owed him a little bit
more money... Now that's news I like
to hear! C.
is all stoked,
because on Monday he will be getting the additional bonus money plus his regular
paycheck...
Honestly,
C. missed a few meetings. They
counted the English classes as part of their attendance.
And C. did miss a few of those.
But his teacher told him that she always marked him as
"present" because she knew that he was getting practice every day at
home with me. (Aside from 2 other
flight attendants who have lived elsewhere and thus speak excellent English, C.'s
English is the best.)
Anywho...that's
all I've got to write about our local airline dramas!
Everyone take care of yourselves, and I hope to hear from all of you
soon.
Ulu
Date:
Hiya!
I
just wanted to give you all the ending to yesterday's airline drama...
So
all the people who were supposed to leave yesterday at around
The
flight to
Keep
in mind, I am not a professional. I'm
just the girlfriend of a flight attendant.
Based
on my estimates, that would mean that all of the guests in the hotels would have
to be picked up at about
And,
there was no way that we could get a confirmed arrival time until after
Luckily
someone at LanChile finally wised up at about
Hotel
owners and tour operators now had to either stay up really late, or get up
really early. N.
came into the
office and joked on the phone with one of the tour operators that he'll see him
at Toroko...it's much easier to stay up all
night than to go to sleep for only a couple of hours.
Well,
with all the people that would be needing to meet that plane, I got the distinct
feeling that Toroko would be crowded last night...and that maybe I shouldn't
have gone home after work. But I
did. (I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt...and
females should NOT go to Toroko by themselves unless they're absolutely positive
that they'll be meeting someone there to hang out with.
It's just not wise...)
Sure
enough, the flight landed at 5 a.m. The
Santiago
flight took off at
C.
came knocking at our room window again at about 5:45.
But I heard the plane land, so I was expecting him this time.
: )
Then
he turned on all the lights to get out of his uniform...and take a shower...and
turn on the TV...and turn on the VCR....and finally put a tape in to watch.
Never mind that I had just been rudely awakened from dreamland and really
wanted to go back...
But
we ended up watching a movie, and as we watched it the sun came up.
It's the first time I've ever been awake here while the sun is rising.
After
the movie we slept, and woke up at about
Finally,
the regular flight that arrives on Saturday afternoons came and went on
schedule…so all is well again.
THE
END
Hey,
we gotta focus on something to keep things interesting around here, right?
Talk
to you all soon! ~Ulu
Date:
Here
are some conversations that you can hear regularly at our house.
Just for your info, "C" is C., and "U" is me
(duh...). Tonti is our dog, a big
Rotweiller of a beast.
I'm
not sure if these will come across as amusing as they are to me, but I figured
I'd try it anyway. You have to already be in a good mood to appreciate these...
Sometimes it just makes me laugh...
1)
Heard one morning, completely out of the blue...
C:
Guaguis! (pronounced Wuhwee -
that's what he calls me)
U:
Yes?
C:
Tonti eat bananas. (I guess
you had to be there...this one had me totally rolling!!!)
2)
Heard often at night, when getting ready to take a shower...
U:
Cockroach!
C:
Kill it.
U:
Come!
C:
Kill it.
U:
Just come look!
C:
Kill it.
U:
I don't have my slippers!
C:
Kill it.
U:
Just come!
C:
(comes with the slipper, chases after them - yes, plural
"them") &%*()*#!
cockroaches.
3)
Heard pretty much at any time...
C:
Do you want to eat, yes or yes?
C:
Do you want to eat, sí or sí?
C:
Today we go surfing...SURRRFINGGG...
sí or sí?
4)
When talking about almost anything, including (or should I say
'especially') things you wouldn't actually eat...
C:
...it's really good with lemon...(kisses his fingertips like a chef)...
5)
And the overall reply for everything, no matter what it is (cold showers,
eating bananas, working hard, speaking Spanish, chasing down chicken eggs...)
C:
It's good for the skin.
There
are other things, like singing...but that's hard to document in writing.
C. sings a lot, whatever song he heard last, and he'll always
replace the words with the names of people around him.
For example, if he's with me, then "Ven conmigo, ven conmigo
baby..." now becomes "Ven conmigo, ven conmigo guaguis..."
(In the tune of "Come On Over" by Christina Aguilera)
Or sometimes it even becomes "guaguis guaguis, guaguis guaguis
guaguis..." It may not be the
same as having a song written for me, but it'll do.
: )
Sometimes
I wonder how I ended up with someone so crazy.
But then again, he's considered normal around here...
Well,
that's all folks - short and sweet today. Take
care all!
Aloha,
~Ulu
Date:
Hola
everyone! I hope today's story finds
all of you well and happy! As for
me, things have definitely been changing around here...
The
island is gearing up for Tapati. More
and more tourists are arriving, and the locals are all practicing or building or
preparing in some way. There is a
dance troupe practicing right up the street from the hotel, but, unfortunately
for me, they practice during my work hours so I am unable to go and watch.
For those of you who know Panda, he says that I can even dance with them
if I want, since they are practicing right next to his house...but I guess it's
just not meant to be for me this year.
Tapati
is the island's big annual festival. It
is 8 days full of competitions, exhibitions and parties.
Many locals make the bulk of their money in just these 8 days...money
that they will live off of for the entire year to come.
This year it is from Jan. 26 to Feb. 3.
Again,
unfortunately for me, I must work. I
am leaving in February, but I told N. that I would stay at the hotel until the
end of January. I get paid monthly,
and frankly I need the entire month's salary to cover whatever I will lose by
not working in February. So that
means that I'll miss the bulk of Tapati, and only be able to fully witness the
last 3 days. But, at least I'm here,
and at least I'll be able to see some of it.
: )
The
higher influx of tourists has been a bit stressful for me at work as well as at
home. We’ve experienced a steady
stream of Spanish-speaking tourists in the hotel for the last month or so, and
it has not been easy trying to help them. The
Chileans are not a big problem, since I have grown accustomed to Chilean
Spanish, but trying to help the rest of them is so difficult!
About a month ago there was an Argentinean lady here, and I simply could
not understand one word that she was saying...not one.
And for the life of me I could not understand why I had such difficulty!
Until I found out that she was Argentinean...Yes, Spanish is one
language, but each country speaks it differently.
I guess I can make my way in
More
tourists also means that I have to cater to more personalities.
A few days ago one of the guests yelled at me because his room didn't get
cleaned that day. His wife had come
to front desk to tell me, but I was helping other guests at the time.
It seemed that at that particular moment, everyone staying here had come
back from their tours and wanted something.
So I had to help all of them, which completely irritated the woman.
I told her that I would get someone to clean her room.
So she left...but I guess I wasn't fast enough for her because she came
back only 5 minutes later to tell me again.
So I told her again that I would get someone to clean her room.
And she left.
The
problem is that there were only 2 other staff here at the time, and I had to
physically go and look for them. So
once I was done with everyone else, which took about 5 minutes more, I left the
office to go find them. While I was
gone, the man called the office... twice. And
of course, there was no answer, which infuriated him even more.
So he came to the office to give me a piece of his mind.
He
yelled and flung his arms about and said that this hotel was run by a Mickey
Mouse management, and that all of this was going in his report, blah, blah,
blah... You see, this man worked for
a travel agency or magazine or something like that, and he was checking out the
hotel for that reason. But what he
doesn't know is that here on the island, nobody cares who you are.
Nobody cares what he writes about his stay here, least of all N..
He could say that this was the worst hotel in the world, and N. would
just laugh at him. Because on the
island, this is the best you're going to get, and everybody here knows it.
Apparently
the guy knew it too, somewhere inside of him.
He was complaining so much that I offered to transfer him to another
hotel if it would make him happy (well, it would have made me happy...), but he
declined saying "Why? They're
all the same, aren't they?"
Some
people are so funny when they're mad...and when you show them the lack of logic
in their argument, they just deflate and grasp onto anything they can think
of...
I
explained that there was no one in the office to answer his call because I was
out looking for someone to clean his room, which was ultimately what he wanted.
So when he couldn't use that excuse anymore, he found another one:
He complained about the night before when he checked in.
He had asked me about tours, and I said that if he came back in the
morning that Marcia could explain all his options and set it up for him...
But
because he was mad at the moment, he said that I wouldn't help him that night
and just passed me off to someone else. And
when I explained that all the agencies deal with Marcia because all their
offices close at
Well,
nothing except "I want to speak to your manager," and "This is
going in my report." I said to
the former, "Yes sir, he should be here at about
At
one point he just refreshed all of his arguments because he wasn't done venting
yet...even though they were only full of hot air.
When that happened, I just reminded him that he was speaking to the wrong
person..."I'm just the receptionist and I've done all I can to help you
with what you want." I think
that made him realize that he was, in fact, yelling at me for no reason.
I wasn't the one who neglected his room and I was the one who got someone
to clean it. So?...
The
guy apologized before he left yesterday.
As
for the home front, we have guests. 2
Chileans arrived last Tuesday, so they have been with us for almost a week now.
The man was a very good friend of C.'s father (who is deceased),
and is still very good friends with the family.
He is a well-known photographer in
Juan
Pablo, or Pao as everyone calls him, is a
very interesting guy. He's very
sociable and very likable. He's
traveled a lot and has learned a lot. Last
night, when C. was working the flight, he and I had a very interesting
and enlightening conversation about stars and constellations and navigation.
He spent a month on a boat once taking pictures for another book, and
learned much about navigation and how to use some of the constellations.
So he found it very interesting when I broke out all of my navigation
notes and star charts from when I took the class from Nainoa.
And I had one of Wil Kyselka's books with me...
His
son is a different story. He's about
25 or so, but acts much younger. He
is as anti-social as Pao is social. They
are extremes of each other. Pao also
says that Damien does not have many friends back home...
The day after they arrived, they both went to Ovahe beach.
C. and I happened to be camping there the night before with
friends from LanChile, so we ran into them
there. And, although Damien had 60
spf sunblock, he still got badly burned... I
don't know...maybe he just didn't put it on often enough...
Side
note: The water was freezing when I first got in, but there were waves big
enough to body surf, so I got over it quickly.
We didn't stay in long, and I had a lot of fun.
And, for the first time during my entire stay here, I was smart enough to
put on sunblock! Yeah!
And it worked quite well. : )
(But thankfully my haole blood is content with only 30 spf...)
Anyway,
after that day Damien didn't go out of the house - AT ALL.
He stayed in all day Thursday and Friday as Pao came in and out several
times during the day. I felt
extremely bad and extremely uncomfortable, because the only TV is in C. and my room. I knew that if Damien
had the opportunity, he would have watched TV all day.
But instead he sat in the living room and read.
I guess he felt uncomfortable watching TV in the room with me.
To be honest, I would have felt uncomfortable also.
We were alone in the house, and you don't want to be in your bedroom
sitting on your bed watching TV with someone that you hardly know...
So I was somewhat glad that he didn't come in and watch with me.
By
the way, both Pao and Damien speak English.
So that's not a problem. Thank
God!
But
I guess Damien's burn healed enough because he finally started going out again
on Saturday. Whew!!!
Having
guests in the house has been good in some ways.
Pao is fairly well off, so the first thing he did was to go out and buy
food and necessities. Some things I
am very glad for... He bought us a
trash can for the kitchen with real garbage bags (instead of the plastic bags
you get from shopping) and REAL, SOFT toilet paper!
I had forgotten that kind of toilet paper even existed...and now the
bathroom constantly smells like baby powder.
And now there's never a shortage of something to eat or drink in the
house. And, given that sometimes I
was rather lonely there, now I am never alone.
But
on the other hand, I am NEVER alone! No
explanation needed there...
C.
had to work the flight last night. When
he arrived back home, I went to the airport because he had more friends arriving
off the plane. When he came out of
the doors and saw me, he hugged me and told me that (although he didn't know
why) he missed me a lot last night (which, of course, made me very happy).
I told him it's because we haven't been able to spend much time alone
together lately...In fact, we haven't spent any time alone, just the two of us,
since Pao and Damien arrived.
And
now we have more guests. Last year C.
went to a tattoo festival in
Gotz
speaks a little bit of English. His
wife and daughter only speak French. Pao
speaks French. C.
can
understand a little, but not much. When
he and Gotz speak, it is in English.
Gotz
and his wife, Zabou, are what you would classify as "hippies."
Well, they look the part anyway. They
must be French and not Tahitian...if they are it doesn't show.
Gotz has a shaved head except for a tail in the back about 3 inches long.
His wife brought along a massage table.
She is so skinny that I have a difficult time imagining that she had a
child. Their daughter, Lia
or Lea (I'm not sure), must be about 3 years old, and is the most adorable thing
I've ever seen!!! And although I
don't understand a word she says, she still chooses to hang out with me.
Tonti doesn't like children and is not used to so many people being
around, but Lea is not scared by him at all.
In fact, she wants to play with him, even though he growls and barks and
tries to jump whenever he sees her. She's
very friendly and open...I like her a lot.
C.
and I were lying on the bed this afternoon, after all the excitement had died
down. We were just watching TV when
Lea came in and sat with us. Then
she made herself comfortable and lay down. C.
said, "Can you imagine if we have a child like this?"
Whoa horsy!
They
are all really nice. Yet, I'm not
completely sure how everything will work out... there is somewhat of a language
barrier and they will be here until March.
The
drawback to that one is that I leave in February, so essentially C. and I
will not be able to spend very much time alone together before I leave.
And I feel like there is a lot of strain on C., because he is the
connecting link to all of us in the house...everyone is there to be with him.
He already looks very tired...
As
for me, I am at the point where I feel like my time here is limited, so I dread
going to work every day. I feel like
I should be off learning how to dance
Well,
that's it for now. I hope all of you
are having a great year so far. Hasn't
it passed quickly? I'll be seeing
you all soon, in less than a month now! Still
haven't made my plane reservations, but if all goes as planned, I'll be arriving
back in Hawai‘i
on Sunday,
February
18th. Mark your calendars!
Iorana!
Date: Jan 25, 2001
Soy
una bruja
Iorana
everyone! How is everything going?
Things
have been pretty eventful around here lately...I think maybe it's because I'm
leaving soon, so I'm trying to do more things.
Or maybe it's because we have so many guests in the house.
Or maybe it's because everyone's getting ready for Tapati so the
"party" feeling is brewing... I'm
not exactly sure. In any case, my
recent life has been interesting.
Things
have been going well with all of our guests in the house.
If you recall, I wrote about all of them in the last e-mail.
Gotz and his family are different, but by no means are they unpleasant.
And now that Damien has gotten over his sunburn, he goes out often.
And Pao, well, Pao is always the life of the party no matter who the
party consists of...
Last
night C. and I sat and played a game of "Tarot De Tahiti" with
Gotz and Zabou (his wife). As it
turns out, Gotz did the drawings for this deck of cards.
And, although I am quite familiar with the Tarot, I had never known that
there was a game you could play with the cards.
For
those of you who also know the Tarot, this game can be played with a regular
tarot deck as well, but that would certainly make it different....
In
any case, the game it a little like Trumps, so I picked it up rather
quickly...more so than C., who was really confused most of the time.
But who wouldn't be, if a Frenchman who doesn't speak much English had to
explain the game IN English to a Chilean who’s English is also a bit sketchy?
That
dilemma, consequently, makes most of our conversations pretty interesting, not
to mention funny! Spanish, French,
and English all going on at the same time and not two people know enough of any
two languages to function completely...
Anyway...enough
of the small talk. The subject for
my story is "Soy una bruja", which means "I'm a witch."
At
least that's what C. says...
One
day early last week I had a dream...but I didn't tell anyone about it –
absolutely no one. Then, a few days
later, a friend of mine had a dream about the same subject.
When I found that out, I told C., because I thought that maybe it
was a sign of some sort. All he said
was "Guaguis, you are a witch." He
was joking, of course...
But
the very next day, after I told him about the dream and after he said that,
something else happened.
I
don't think I've mentioned this before, but there is a lady that always calls
the hotel here to speak to Senora Rosita. It's
the Senora's sister. Well, this
woman, by everyone's account, is not nice. N.
equates her to Cruella DeVille. Consequently,
she has never been nice to me on the phone, even though all I've ever done was
try to help her, and she even called me "tonta" once, which means
"stupid."
I've
been called a few things in my life, but "stupid" was never one of
them. When I told N. about it, he
called her to make sure that she wouldn't do it again...although he's not quite
as, um, tactful, as I would be...
Well,
on this particular day, after the "you're a witch" statement, I found
out that the woman happens to be our next door neighbor!
She owns the Manutara hotel.
Before
he got too strong, we used to let Tonti run around loose at times so he could
get out all his excess energy and get some exercise.
The reason we had to stop was because she complained...because he would
wander onto the hotel grounds and the guests, of course, would be scared just at
the sight of him.
C.
and I were walking around town with one of his friends, and he was the one who
informed us that our next door neighbor at the Manutara was this very same
woman. She used to run the school,
and all the kids used to call her "Doberman."
Apparently she is not well liked around here...
Well,
when I found that out I joked, "Then we should let Tonti
loose...'oops...'!" We laughed
then passed on to the next subject.
When
I came home from work that night, I walked into our kitchen.
The door was wide open, but blocked off by the two brooms spread across
making an x, like a gateway or something. Inside
was only Lea, alone, playing at the table. I
thought that was rather strange...and then I found out why.
I
had sat down at one of the seats to rest and was playing with Lea when suddenly
Tonti appeared just outside of the door. There
he sat, panting.
I
have to admit, I was afraid for a moment. Tonti
doesn't like children, so I didn't know what he would do, or if he would do
anything. But he didn't seem to be
angry at all, so after a while I figured it was safe.
Still, I wasn't about to let her go outside.
Then
Gotz came in, right past Tonti, and Tonti didn't do anything.
So then, I knew that we were safe. It
turned out that when Gotz and his family came home at about
And,
apparently, Tonti at some point had been wandering around the hotel next door...
So,
I am a witch. When C. said
that, I told him, "No, I'm a wizard..."
; )
Anyway,
take care everyone! I hope to talk
to you all soon!
Aloha,
Date:
Iorana!
I hope everyone out there is feeling happy and content.
: )
Of
course, I have a story to tell, otherwise I wouldn't be writing, would I?
Ok.
Here goes.
Yesterday,
as we have deemed all Wednesday's to be "Adventure Days", we decided
to go snorkeling. Or, as C. calls it, "diving." We had
planned it a couple of days in advance, and I told him that was something I
wanted to do before I leave. However,
I also told him that I just wanted to go and look - I didn't want to go when he
would be fishing. I had heard that
many times when they go diving for fish, they have to watch out for sharks
because the sharks want to get to the catch.
Well, I'm not a very strong swimmer, and frankly I am nowhere near as
confident in the water as anyone who lives here, so I didn't want to have that
to watch out for also.
Well,
in classic C. fashion, he listened to the "I want to go" part,
but not to the "when you're not fishing" part.
Our
little adventure party ended up consisting of C. and me, Pao and Damien,
and Pajaro. I've mentioned Pajaro
before, but in the very beginning. He's
in the mid-thirty range and is a painter also, however his age and experience
has led to more success with his painting. He's
sold a few to museums. And, he's
also an amazing fisherman. There
have been times when they went fishing together, and C. caught zip while
Pajaro caught 10 - in the exact same spot.
Anyway,
to a fisherman, the word "diving" means one thing only - you are
intending to catch something. There
is no such thing as going snorkeling just to see the sights...
So
of course they searched around for a good spot to fish in...never mind if it
wasn't exactly safe for the rest of us non-fishermen.
We
ended up at this tiny little cove a little way down from Anakena.
You would have to swim about a mile or more to get to the beach from
where we were. I was really scared.
I didn't want to go in. I
knew that they would be fishing, and the ocean wasn't exactly flat.
But C. kept prodding me, and I figured that this would be my only
opportunity, so I went.
It
was difficult getting out of this little cove.
The entrance was very shallow, and there were urchins on some of the
rocks that we swam over. And,
because it was shallow, what little waves there were broke right at the smallest
part of the entrance. Getting out
into the ocean was a little bit difficult, but C. was right in front of
me and as long as I could see him I was okay.
We
swam around for a little while as C. and Pajaro went searching under all
the rocks for anything worth spearing. Pajaro
was pretty much off by himself, and Pao is a little adventurous too, so he would
go off on his own a little here and there. I
stuck like glue to C.. I was
scared, there wasn't anything really great to see, and I really didn't want to
be out there anymore.
I
must have been out for only a half hour when I finally motioned to C. that I wanted to go back. I figured
that since they were fishing, they would be out for a long time, and I knew that
I could not stay in the water nearly as long as them.
I am not a strong swimmer, and I was already getting cold and tired, and
I knew that the longer I waited the further away we would be from the entrance
back into the cove. So he swam with
me back to the entrance and said "just go in right there."
And then he was gone.
So
I did. But the backwash kept pushing
me back out. As hard as I tried, I
could not get in. I tried going with
the wave, but the backwash would always get me before I could get all the way
in. Each time my body was passing
within inches of rocks with urchins on them.
I was getting more and more nervous.
Finally,
I tried again and got caught right where the wave broke.
It didn't toss me around or anything, but all I could see was white, and
I got really scared. So I swam back
out into deeper water away from the waves.
By
Universal law, in any situation no matter what the circumstances are, there is
one thing that you should never do: Panic.
Guess
what I did.
C.
and the others were long gone. I
didn't have the strength to try again, nor to go find them.
I was scared because I was all alone and there seemed to be absolutely no
other way to get on to the shore. I
completely freaked out.
When
you are in a state of panic, the stupidest things make sense.
I saw some rocks on the side of the entrance to the cove.
One of them was big and flat and looked safe.
So I swam to it. But before I
could get to it, a wave came and thrust me right into another rock - this one
partially filled with urchins.
I
grabbed on to a couple of ledges for dear life.
I had no idea where all the urchins were, whether or not I had gotten any
spines stuck in me, and I had no idea of what to do from here.
Then
another wave came.
To
be perfectly honest, I don't know if it overpowered me, or if I simply
surrendered to it. All I know is
that I could not see any way out of this situation.
I could not stay where I was, and I could not see a safe way to continue
on. I had never been so afraid in my
life. I truly cannot recall any
other time in my life when I was so completely in Fear.
The
wave tossed me around a lot. I
remember hitting rocks, but I don't remember on what parts of my body I hit the
rocks. Just a few short seconds
later, I ended up next to a large, flat rock whose surface was just above water.
I quickly got on top and took off my fins and mask. Then I looked in
horror as another wave approached.
Thankfully,
those same rocks that I had just been tossed around upon now protected me from
the most turbulent part of that wave. It
was only then that I realized that the wave had deposited me in a safe little
inlet, with a dry shore just a couple of feet away.
With
wobbly legs and only one thought in mind – “it's okay, it's okay, it's
okay” – I made it those couple of feet and sat against a rock wall in a
completely dry spot, protected from the water and the wind.
There
was blood streaming from my knee down my left leg.
As I sat there and cleaned off the blood, I started to cry.
I was all alone, and angry at C. for leaving me there.
I
sat there for about 5 minutes or so. I
was on the opposite side of the cove from where the car was, and I still had to
walk all the way around to get back there. So,
once I was done crying, I got up and started making my way over.
I must have looked like a pony when it's first born and it's legs are
still wobbly...I was shaking all over from the fear, but to keep my sanity and
my focus I just kept saying "it's okay, it's okay, it's okay..."
Just
then I saw Pao trying to come back in also.
He had the same dilemma as I did, and was having a very difficult time
getting back into the cove. Finally
he made it, but not without a scrape of his own, also on his knee.
When he saw me he came ashore and then realized that I was not happy.
As soon as he asked what was wrong, the tears came flowing again.
We
made it back around to the car and by then I had calmed down enough.
We cleaned our wounds, then sat and talked while we waited for the
fishermen to come back in, which happened to be only about 45 minutes later.
But
of course, Pajaro and C. made it back into the cove, no problem.
By
then I had calmed down enough to put up the brave front.
And I wasn't mad at C. anymore, since I knew that he would feel
badly once he found out what happened. I
didn't want him to feel bad, so I figured there was no need to try and rub it in
by being angry. All I told him when
I saw him was "Please don't ever leave me alone like that again." And
then I told him what happened.
The
Gods were definitely watching out for me. I
managed to walk away from the entire event with only a surface cut on my knee,
and several small cuts and scrapes over the rest of my shins and my palms, and a
big 'ole bruise on the left side of my butt.
(I guess there's a purpose for all that padding after all...)
No urchin spikes what-so-ever. I
got really, really lucky.
For
the time being I can't sleep on my left side because of the bruise, and because
the muscles from my butt to my knee hurt. Sometimes
I have to limp when I walk because of the muscles, and sometimes it's also
difficult to go up or down steps, depending on the size of it.
Also, I somehow strained my right shoulder, right at the joint to the
arm, so that hurts when I put any pressure on it, like lifting myself out of a
chair or something. I guess no push-ups
in my immediate future...
And,
as if I didn't have enough to watch out for on my left side, I went and got
another tattoo today above my left ankle. I
looked so silly today! I had a band-aid
on my right palm, a "rapa nui" band aid on my left middle finger (two
pieces of scotch tape and a post-it in the middle over the cut), a piece of
saran wrap taped around my left leg to keep the dirt off of my new tattoo, and
this weeping wound on my left knee (which I keep uncovered simply because I
don't have anything appropriate to cover it with.
But I keep medicine on it at all times, and it's still weeping and
getting all the stuff out, so that's a good sign.
It's healing very quickly.) Whenever
I felt a little down, all I had to do was think about how silly I must have
looked... : )
So
what did I learn from all this? First
of all, I'm NEVER going diving with C. again.
It's not that he's careless or anything like that... it's just that he's
confident in the water, and things like the backwash spitting me back out are
not an issue for him. He is
experienced, and when you are experienced you tend not to realize that the
things you consider to be simple are not simple to someone else.
If I ever go with him again, it's not going to be when he's spear
fishing, and it's going to be with a lot more "amateurs" so I have
someone to stick with.
Secondly,
I have a much better idea now of what a "safe" spot to enter and exit
the ocean looks like...
Third,
I'm reinforcing in my mind that “Do Not Panic” rule.
And,
of course, never go towards the rocks. I
know, I know...please spare me the lectures.
All I have to do is try to turn a little to the left to remember that
lesson.
And
yes, I have prayed and given thanks for keeping me safe.
A lot.
And
yes, C. has been taking good care of me ever since.
So,
like I said in the beginning, don't worry. Everything's
okay. : )
…but maybe I should stick to shore fishing from now on.
Well,
I'll talk to you all later!
Aloha,
~Ulu
Date:
Hola!
I
just wanted to clear the air a bit, because I've been mentioning Tonti
a lot in my recent e-mails, and I realize that I make him out to be somewhat of
a beast. He's not.
Well, he sure does look like one...If I didn't know him and saw him
walking around free, I would definitely be scared.
But he's been really sweet lately and has behaved very well.
He's
only about 1 year old. He's a full
sized puppy! It's apparent in his
behavior. He's always got a lot of
energy and the appetite of a bear, but I think that must be because he's tied up
all day so he doesn't have the chance to exert himself.
Tonti
has his own little house now. He
didn't have one when I first arrived here. C.
just made it about 2 months ago. He
was so happy when they first put it up! He
went inside all day and wouldn't come out. At first it wasn't very well
protected from the rain, so he still had to run under the cube house in the
backyard whenever that happened, but now it doesn't rain much, so his little dog
house is okay.
There's
this one little dog that has always come to play with him.
C. calls him Kittrie. I
don't know why. But I think that
they have a love-hate relationship, because sometimes Tonti truly attacks
Kittrie, and he squeals like he's being hurt and has to run away.
And, at other times, Kittrie comes up to one of us and if we pet him,
Tonti will get incredibly jealous, and I think Kittrie knows that, which is why
he always comes to us in front of Tonti. So
now I don't pet Kittrie anymore.
And
if I do, I will only do it when Tonti cannot see it.
I
wish that I was here when Tonti was a puppy.
I would have played with him a lot then, and maybe now he would be a
little bit gentler. For the longest
time I was afraid to go near him because he's so big and I didn't know how to
handle him. I was afraid that he
would knock me over when I tried to pet him, since he has a tendency to jump at
anyone who comes near him.
I
finally knew that I could trust Tonti on Christmas Eve.
I was walking back to C.'s mothers shop after work.
I walked into the yard of the shop and didn't bother to look around me.
All of a sudden I saw something out of the corner of my eye something
charging at me! Luckily I was just out of the range of his rope.
I screamed before I realized that it was Tonti.
Once it registered in my brain, I quickly noticed that he wasn't barking
– he was simply jumping. Barking
means he's scared; jumping means he wants to play.
So from that moment on I knew that he trusted me, and that now I could
trust him. I immediately got close
enough and started to pet him, and he stayed calm for me.
: ) I was so happy!
Since
then I have lost all fear around him. However,
Tonti is considerably fiercer when he's tied up than when he's loose.
I think that maybe it's because when he's loose, everything is on his
terms, and therefore he doesn't need to be afraid of anything.
But when he's tied up, whatever he's capable of ends at the extent of his
rope. And, no matter what the case,
Tonti will always prefer the company of C. over anyone else.
He'll stay with me if C. is not there, but once C. arrives,
he's like a slingshot straight for him.
I
was extremely proud of Tonti the other day when he got loose.
He behaved himself so well, especially since the first people to arrive
home that day were Gotz and his family, and Tonti is not quite so familiar with
them.
We've
always been afraid about how Tonti behaves around children.
When Tonti was a puppy he was very, very sick and these two boys came and
teased him and threw rocks at him. Now
Tonti is psychologically scarred and consequently barks and gets aggressive
whenever he sees children. That's
why we were very worried when Lea arrived. She's
only 4, and at first he did bark at her. But
that day he got loose, nothing happened. I
was in the kitchen with Lea, and Tonti stayed outside of the door like he was
told, and made no aggressive moves towards Lea.
When
Tonti was a puppy, he walked into the house one day while C. was in the
shower. C.
told him to come
in, and so he did. Since then, Tonti
has never been afraid of the shower or water like most dogs.
And whenever Tonti does get loose and comes into the house, he always
heads straight for the bathroom.
I
remember one time I was taking a shower and I heard panting like a dog.
At first I thought it was C. or the TV...after I got out C. told me that Tonti had gotten in, and I saw all the dirty paw prints on the
floor. At that point I'm not sure
what I would have done if he had come into the shower...
Hmmm... But he didn't.
I guess he knew that it wasn't C. in there, so he turned around
and walked back out.
Anyway,
I was very proud of Tonti again because the other day when he was loose he
didn't come into the house like he normally would.
He stayed outside of the door. He
was a very good dog that day. I
walked outside with him and petted him a lot as we waited for C. to
arrive home. It was nice to know
that it was okay for him to be loose that day, but, no matter how much I would
want to, we could not leave him loose overnight.
And realistically, C. is the only one that could get him tied up
again.
C.
went to investigate, and found that Tonti's leather collar had simply come off.
Tonti had pulled and tugged so many times that the little metal pin of
the buckle that goes into the hole (like a belt) actually bent, and once it bent
enough, the pin came out of the hole in the strap and the collar just slipped
right off.
I
wonder what that must have felt like for him - to all of a sudden be free,
without any warning or anyone to "let" you loose...?
I
constantly feel badly for Tonti because I know it's not fun living most of your
life on a leash. I can imagine how small his world must feel, having only 5 feet
in any direction to wander about. I
want to let him loose more often, but C. is the one who has to control
him, so it's all his decision.
Anyway,
I just wanted to set the record straight. I've
never had a dog, but I feel like Tonti is mine too, even if it's just for a few
months. I will miss him when I
leave. I wonder if he'll miss me
too...?
Well,
that's all folks. Talk to you later.
Ulu
Date:
Aloha
hou!
It's me again.... : )
A
good friend of ours named Ki. arrived here last week Friday.
He's from
Ki.
is a very likable guy. I've always
enjoyed his company, so I'm very happy that he's here now.
So are a lot of people on the island.
He's got many friends here... so many that he actually has his choice of
who he can stay with whenever he visits.
Last
Saturday Ki. came over to bring us some goodies and hang out for a while.
He and C. got to drinking, and Ki. ended up staying the night.
That was the only time when we can honestly say that every bed in the lot
was full!
At
first, when the night was early, all the young 'uns were here.
When I got home from work Ki. was here with C. and Flaco.
Damien was here because that was still one of his "stay-at-home-due-to-sunburn"
days. So, C. made dinner
while Flaco, Ki., Damien and I had an English lesson.
(I'm trading Flaco English lessons for a painting...pretty good deal,
don't you think?)
Flaco
had to leave right after dinner. The
rest of us stayed and talked. I
wanted to go to Toroko, but
C. ruled
that out once they had started drinking because we had enough money to get
inside, but he didn't have enough money to drink once we got there.
All
this time I've been making my list of
Anyway,
the more they drank the less interesting it got for me, so I turned in.
The next day, Ki. and I talked again. He said that he was a little
excited to be here because now he could be one of the characters in my little
soap opera via e-mail. I told him
that was a guarantee... : )
But given that Tapati is about to
begin, I'm sure he'll do something way more interesting for me to talk about
than this little story here...
One
of the first things Ki. asked C. when he met up with him earlier the
day before was "Who's Flaco?" And
Flaco happened to be right behind him at the time.
He said it was because Flaco appears in almost all of my stories, like
that neighbor who's always there in any TV show.
Once Flaco found out that he was "known", he got kind of
nervous, but then Ki. assured him that I've only said good things.
But to be honest, I still think Flaco's a little bit nervous about it.
It's
funny, because one of the first things K asked me when she got here was
"Who's Flaco?" I never
realized how much he appears in my stories...
: )
And,
most ironically, C. has no idea of what I say in these e-mails.
I've never shown any to him. He,
he, he...
Anyway,
I guess that's all for now! I'll try
and send more details about Tapati. It
officially begins tomorrow...
Talk
to you all soon!
Date:
Jan 27, 2001
Tapati
-
days 1 and 2
I
just wanted to share a short report with all of you of what's been happening so
far.
In
case any of you have forgotten or somehow passed over my description in previous
e-mails, Tapati is the
The
official ceremony began last night at about
I
got off work at
Everyone
on the island was there. It was the
ONLY place to be last night...
The
show started, surprisingly, on time at 10:00.
The stage, which Flaco had designed
and built the set for (with a little bit of C.'s help), was lighted up in
blue and orange, and looked very impressive.
It was something that you would never expect to see here on
The
show started with one player coming out in ceremonial dress with his entire body
painted, telling and acting out a story all in the
It
was amazing. There were 'natives'
with fire torches, the sky clear with all the stars showing above, and a very
small crescent moon off to the side. And,
to top it off, there were a few shooting stars.
I guess the Gods decided to show their approval too...
Once
the skit was over, the two emcees came out and spoke in only Spanish and
Matato‘a
is probably
They
came out all in ceremonial dress also, and with them a dance troupe of maybe 40
men and women. The dancers performed
to all of Matato‘a's songs. It was a
great show. Unfortunately I was too
far away to really see the dances and be able to take mental notes...
But towards the end we found a good spot close up to take pictures
from.
After
that they took a break while another music group called Topatangi came out to
play. But they lacked all the
dancers, so unfortunately their performance paled in comparison.
The
show ended at about
The
rain cleared out most of the people that couldn't get under the food tents in
time...but that greatly benefited the Toroko
discotheque right across the street...The place was absolutely packed last
night! With more tourists than
normal, of course...
Today's
events consisted of the women's and men's swimming
competitions, and the "regatta." I missed the women's swimming
because frankly, I didn't have a clue about the schedule.
And the only reason we caught the men's competition was because we were
looking for Ki. and happened to find him at the pier, which was the starting
point.
It
turns out that Ki. entered the race, and since C. had unwittingly gone
there to look for him, he got roped into competing at the last second.
They
all got into motor boats and were taken out to a point, maybe 100 yards out from
the rocks, here at the beach in town. I
think the entire swim was something like a 100 meters...(I don't know exactly,
because I have no concept of what a meter is, but it looked to me to be maybe a
little more than 500 yards. Not too
far.)
Well,
although they allow "non-Rapa Nui" to compete, only a
C.
was dying when he got out. I knew he
would be. He had competed once
before, and he told me that when he was done, he was so dizzy that he couldn't
even remember who he talked to or what he said, or anything.
And he felt like throwing up... He
felt the same after today's race.
A.
put it best when she said to me "Surfing and Swimming are very different.
All of these guys are surfers, and they THINK they can swim..."
By
the way, A. took first place by a very big margin in the women's race.
She also said that if she were competing with the men, she probably would
have won that also. I believe it.
She's pretty much the only person around here who swims every day, male or
female, so the race was much too easy for her.
Well, maybe the Tahitian man would have at least given her a little bit
of a challenge...
Ti.
didn't swim, he says because of his knee. He
had a brace on it today, so....
Ki.
says that he's going to train so he can compete again next year.
Anyway,
this afternoon was supposed to be the "regatta", which is a paddling
race. I don't know what happened.
We didn't go. But they also
have a women's and men's competition for that.
Tonight
there's supposed to be another big event at the main stage.
We'll see if it's as big as last night...
That's
it so far! I'll keep you guys
updated!
Iorana!
Date:
Iorana
again!
Here's
more of my daily commentary...at least I'm trying my best to do it daily while I
still can. My last day working here at the hotel is this coming Tuesday, Jan.
30th, so after that I won't have guaranteed internet connection anymore.
But my friend T. will be taking over my job while she's here, so
luckily she'll let me sneak into the hotel office at night and send my mail.
: )
Anyway,
I never bothered to find out the exact details about how Tapati
works and what's the purpose and everything, so I'm just going with the flow and
picking up whatever information happens to drift in my direction...so I'm sorry
if at times I sound a little bit clueless...as I know I probably will in today's
letter.
I
just found out yesterday afternoon that all of the competitions during Tapati
are designed to win points for the Queen. There
are only 2 women running for Queen this year, and so in all of the other
competitions, people compete in the name of one of the contestants for Queen.
Whatever points that person wins in that particular competition goes
towards the queenly candidate. So,
for example...yesterday when C. got roped into the swim contest, it was
because each queen was supposed to have 5 people swimming for her team.
As it turned out, there were only 5
Anyway,
all 5 that finished the race were racing in the name of the same queen
candidate. So that means that the
other queen candidate didn't get any points for that competition.
Did
I explain that clearly? Does it make
sense to you?
To
go on...yesterday's regatta that I mentioned turned out to be the children's
division. I guess they were all
teenagers...so the race wasn't that long. Today
they are currently (at this very moment) having the adult division, in which
they paddle the canoes from Tahai back into
the beach here in town.
They have men’s and women’s races.
Unfortunately I can't say any more about that since I'm stuck here in the
office... sorry.
Last
night's "big show" turned out to be not so big after all.
It started out much the same way as the first night...at 10:30 the lights
on the stage flashed and they played thunder sounds, then the two emcees came
out and announced what was about to happen.
Following
that was the fashion show. It's
supposed to be a competition where they dress in ceremonial attire and show it
off and they have to explain what each thing they're wearing represents.
But there turned out to be only 3 contestants, so the show was really
short. We didn't even see it because
we had sat down to eat before the show began, and it was already over by the
time we were done eating. And all we
ate were empanadas... (For those of
you who don't know what empanadas are, just know that they take about 2 minutes
to eat...).
After
that they had two more local groups play music.
I really liked the second guy...I hope I can find his CD before I leave.
Side
note: Rumor has it that Matato‘a is
supposed to release another CD before the end of Tapati.
We'll see...
The
incredibly short fashion show resulted in the entire show ending very early, at
Luckily
the food booths (hare mauku) stay open way
into the night...I don't know exactly when they close, but I'm assuming it's
when most of the people finally leave. So
after the show we just stayed right where we were and talked and hang out for a
few hours. We got home very early,
probably at about
By
the way, I have 3 new words for you: Empanada de Atun.
On the very first night we went to this one vendor and they were selling
empanadas, among other things. Empanadas
consist of a bread pocket filled with meat and some other things, like a little
bit of onions, a part of an egg and an olive.
(I don't know the exact recipie...) But
this place was offering cheese empanadas (which I also LOVE), and Tuna (Atun)
empanadas. THEY ARE SOOO GOOOD!!!
Yum... We've eaten at that
same place 3 times already, and in fact, we haven't even bothered to eat
anywhere else because the tuna empanadas are so good!
And they're only 1000 pesos (like $2).
And, for those of you who don't know, they have an abundance of Atun
(Tuna fish,‘ahi in hawaiian, or kahi
in
Ki.
only discovered them last night, at our recommendation.
I think he went back about 3 times within the next 2 hours...
Today
there was a cooking contest. C.'s
mom entered her award-winning ceviche.
This is the very same contest that she has won twice already.
I don't know the results of today's contest...they hadn’t announced
anything before we left today.
After
the cooking contest they simultaneously commenced with the carving,
necklace-making, and reed boat making contests. Again,
I had to leave before the conclusion of that one, but I managed to get a couple
of pictures of all the people busy at their crafts.
I've
also missed the adult regatta today because I was at work.
Here's
a bit of gossip...Axel Rose of Guns-n-Roses is on the island.
He arrived yesterday. We saw
him at the event last night. He must
have been only 50 feet or less away from us, but we didn't ask for autographs or
anything. There were already a bunch
of kids asking for pictures.... I
didn't go to Toroko after, so I don't know if he appeared there or not.
Tonight
there is supposed to be a big dancing and singing competition...hopefully I can
make it. Of all days, the flight
arriving tonight is late, so I may have to stay late at work...ugh.
But I'll let you all know what happens!
Iorana!
Date:
Iorana!
How's everything going with all of you today?
Here's
today's Tapati update...
Last
night was supposed to be a really big show.
In fact, it was a really long show.
First
of all, for the first time so far this week, the event began late.
But it was worth the wait.
They
started with the first dance group. Apparently
there are 4 sections of dancers - the kids (first the really young ones, then
the older ones), the teens & young adults, then the older adults.
I don't exactly know how the age breakdown works...
Anyway,
the kids were incredibly cute, of course! I'm
glad I got to see that! I
took a couple of pictures...and Ki. most graciously offered to let me
sit on his shoulders so I could get those pictures.
(I'm so short I couldn't see anything otherwise...)
After
that they had the older kids, and they were really good!
Their performance was really entertaining, and had everyone screaming
from the crowd!
Once
they were done, the plane arrived, so I had to leave to go back to the hotel to
welcome the guests. Luckily I didn't
miss anything while I was away...
During
that hour that I was gone, they had individuals singing with and accordion as
their accompaniment. Yes, this is
actually a part of the contest. But
it also happened to be incredibly boring. I
could hear everything that was going on down there from the hotel, so I know
that I didn't miss any dancers as yet... And,
during those performances, everyone took the opportunity to go eat and talk
story.
Finally,
at about
I
don't know how long the contest went on after that, but supposedly the dance
contest is supposed to continue tonight. The
dance competition is by far the longest and probably most exciting part of all
the competitions.
Unfortunately
C. had to work last night, so I went to the event with some other
friends. But for some reason it just wasn't as much fun without him there with
me... hmmm...
that's why I left early.
The
competitions seem to have slowed down a bit today...the only events today was a
diving (for fish) contest, which you can't really watch anyway because they're
underwater; and a moai carving contest where
they have to carve a moai out of a log. I
didn't go to either because I was really tired, so I just ended up staying home
all day.
I
think that being out in the sun all day everyday is draining everyone out.
People are starting to choose their homes over the events...saving
themselves for the night events only.
Also,
some of the food vendors have already made enough money to satisfy themselves,
so they're starting to close up shop a little bit earlier at night than they did
in the beginning...I don't blame them. They've
been working days and nights since it started, and that's not pleasant work,
especially in all this heat of summer.
Wednesday
and Thursday are going to be big days, with the Haka
Pei (sliding down the hill on the banana stump) and the Tau‘a
(race
in Rano Raraku), respectively. Then
the big finale happens on Saturday night, with the crowning of this year's queen
and all that.
There
are some events scheduled for Sunday also, but I don't know what that's about.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see...
I'll
talk to you all again soon!
Iorana!
Date:
Feb 1, 2001
Tapati
- days 4, 5, 6 & 7
Wow...can
you believe that I've neglected to write for the last 4 days?
I guess I have a lot to catch up on...I hope I can remember everything.
I
think I left off telling all of you about Monday's daytime events.
Well, Monday night's show turned out to be very interesting.
It was the "Takona", which is the event where competitors paint
their bodies with various motifs, and must go on stage and explain what each
symbol means. At first the young
boys went. They were really good!
In fact, I enjoyed them much more than the adults...
What
they do is the come out onto the stage individually, and the act out a
part...for example, if they have warrior motifs painted on them, then they come
out all fierce and speak like a warrior, so it's sort of like they're telling a
story while they're describing the meaning of the symbols.
It was pretty cool, and the kids were just so entertaining!
C.
went down early because he got recruited to help paint
the people. I'm so proud of
him... : )
He painted at least half of all the people that competed that night.
After
the boys competition was done, they had a group singing competition.
There were only 2 groups, which was a good thing.
They each sang only 2 songs, but that was good because the songs were
long. The groups were dressed in
ceremonial attire, and they kneeled on the ground as they sang acapella some
traditional song. The melodies and
everything were really great, but if it had lasted any longer I'm sure it would
have gotten very boring.
After
that the men's Takona competition began. Of
course, the men do a much better job than the children, but in a way that made
it a little bit less entertaining. More
professional, less cute I guess. But
still, they did a very good job.
There
was even one woman who went out. But
I don't know if she was technically competing or not.
When
the Takona was done, Matato‘a
played again. They rocked!
Small
kine drama though...at the end of their show, they played the song "Here
Ma‘ohi", which is a really good dance song, and everyone likes it.
The group had somewhere along the line picked up a Chilean (well, he must
be Chilean because he's definitely not
So,
this bass guitarist goes to the other side of the stage to pick up his guitar
case. Now the next song has already
begun, and the dancer in the front is dancing...and this guy just walks right in
front of the dancer to go back to his guitar.
On stage. He puts his guitar
away then walks around the back and leaves the stage.
Now
you can see everyone in the group and all the dancers giving each other strange
looks because it's obvious that this guy just threw a hissy fit, right?
But the show was still going on and they were still right in the middle
of another song...
So
one of the guys in the back, I think, goes to talk to him, and he eventually
comes back, plugs his guitar back in, and plays for like one verse because the
song was almost over by then. And,
it's very obvious when you hear a song without a bass guitar, then all of a
sudden one appears out of nowhere...
So
anyway, it took me a while but I think I figured out what happened...
Axel Rose from Guns n' Roses was there that night.
That's a proven fact. So I'm
thinking that this guy wanted to show off for Axel, but the band wouldn't let
him go off and ruin the show, which is why he threw his little fit.
And
this is why I say that this guy must have been Chilean.
He was definitely not
So
anyway...back to the Tapati.
This
guy in no way ruined the show...because Matato‘a kept playing for a while after
that because the crowd kept clapping...and eventually kids started to get up on
stage to dance with the dancers, and before you knew it, the stage was full of
kids and even some adults having their own little dance class to many, many
versions of "Here Ma‘ohi". It
was pretty darn cool...the kind of thing that could only happen in a place like
this.
By
the way, for those of you who don't know, Matato‘a is probably
I
can't say much about the next day, Tuesday, because I didn't go to any of the
events. Apparently there was a horse
race, but that's not actually part of the the Tapati.
It's independent, but they just do it during the festival, maybe to get
attention?
And,
by the way, C.'s mother's ceviche won for
the cooking contest. That makes 3
wins for her now.
Tuesday
night was supposed to be another dance competition with the upa
upa competition in between the dancing.
The upa upa is the accordian, like that other night I talked about in a
previous e-mail. But, just as the
first section of the upa upa was starting, it began to rain so the rest of the
show got cancelled. That was about
Wednesday
was a big day for events, but unfortunately for C. and I came across some
very bad luck. Or rather, very bad
timing.
There
was nothing going on earlier in the day. The
only events scheduled were the Haka Pei at 5 p.m.
, and the reenactment
of Hotu Matu‘a and Avarei Pua's arrival at
Anakena
The
Haka Pei is where the competitors are tied to
2 banana tree stumps that have been pinned and tied together, and they slide
down a very steep hill, one at a time. This
event is very dangerous, as majority of the time people are hurt (broken limbs
or something), and once someone even died. So
basically, you'd have to be very brave and just a little bit crazy to do it.
There were 9 competitors.
We
went to Maunga Pui (the hill that they slide
down) at about 4:00
or so.
C. wanted to go to the top to help paint the competitors, so we
went. I had, unfortunately, worn the
wrong slippers out of the house. I
had on the really old ones that are all bald on the bottom, which made for a
very dangerous climb up this very steep hill.
C. bolted up, and left me there alone...I was rather upset because
it reminded me a lot of just one week earlier when he left me alone in the water
to fend for myself, which resulted in my tussle on the rocks that you've all
read about.
So
here I was climbing up the side of this hill in bald slippers trying hard not to
slip but concentrating more on how upset I was at C. for leaving me...but
that was what helped me to make it to the top.
I never really had to stop because I was tired or anything, only to find
my next safe step.
And
for those of you who are wondering - No, I didn't take off my slippers because I
have very flat feet so the pain of all the tough grass poking into my arches is
almost unbearable...history will prove that I've always fared much better if I
leave my slippers on. I function
much better that way.
Once
we made it to the top I bitched at C., but he just acted all cute and
kept kissing me, so what could I do?
Anyway,
he took me over to where the competitors were gathered, and he went over to talk
with them. I stayed a little ways
back because I felt like I really shouldn't be there, because this really is a
"man thing." But C. called me over so, as uncomfortable as I was, I went.
And all the competitors looked at me as I passed them...
The first thing I asked C. when I got there was whether or not it
was okay for me to be there. He said
yes. But I didn't feel right, so I
just took our backpack from him then went back around to where I was before, on
the outskirts, and sat and watched.
I
guess I was the first, because after that other local girls started coming
around, and the competitors didn't tell them to leave...
By then I was thinking that I really didn't want to be sitting there all
by myself the entire time, so I modestly picked up the backpack and went back to
where C. was, and sat down and tried my best to be small and out of the
way. (I'm really good at that.)
I
felt very badly though, because I think that maybe my being there had started
something. Because, I obviously
don't look like one of them and I certainly wasn't having anything to do with
the competition, so I think when the tourists saw me there, they thought it was
alright to come over...so they came, and they came, and they came.
The competitors didn't say anything at first, but finally they had to
because the people were starting to crowd around.
And of course, once the body painting started, they had to tell everyone
to leave several times. But you
always have people who don't listen.
I
wanted to take pictures, but I felt like I shouldn't.
The competitors didn't seem to like all the tourists that were taking
pictures from afar, and I felt like I was privileged to be there, so I left my
camera in the bag. But all the
tourists wanted to get pictures of the men being painted, and kept getting
closer and closer. So the
competitors and friends constantly had to chase them away. But there was one
local girl who was taking pictures, and they tolerated her because she was
And
I know that the only reason they let me hang around is because I'm with C.. One of the guys even said
so...when a tourist asked him why I get to stay, he said because I was “Ma‘ohi."
Yah, by association to C.....
C.
and I talked about it later, and he said that I was right to feel the way I did,
because women are not supposed to be around there and people are not supposed to
take pictures of that stuff. But, he
said that none of them would have said anything because they all knew that I was
with him. And he was the painter.
I guess he's somebody... : )
Anyway,
like I said before, the competition was supposed to begin at
So
once all the painting was done, C. and I headed down the hill.
We got to the bottom, and he ate a hot dog.
By then it was about
I
told C., "I have the sinking feeling that we’re going to miss
everything." I was right.
We
got to Anakena, and although a lot of people were there, nothing was going on.
We saw A., and I asked her if everything was over.
She said yes. So C. and I hung out on the beach for a while then went to look for a ride.
We figured we would just go home.
So
we got a taxi and as we headed away from Anakena, there were all these cars
going towards it. As we passed
Maunga Pui (where the Haka Pei was) a bunch of cars were heading out of the lot
there and going towards Anakena. There
were nowhere near that many people when we left there to go to Anakena, so we
were kind of confused. But we just
kept going and went home anyway. We
told each other, "Let's just pretend that we didn't see that, and that
everything went well, and that everyone is at home like us."
It was a nice joke.
Today
(Thursday), I found out that they had, at some time during the day, officially
changed the time of the Haka Pei to 9 p.m., and the Hotu Matu‘a ceremony at
Anakena to follow at 11 p.m. Matato‘a
played at Anakena after that. (They
had to change the time because one of the band members was competing in the Haka
I
was really bummed, because I really wanted to see the Hotu Matu‘a thing,
probably more than anything else. And,
from what I hear, it was really good! They
had practiced it a lot, and it was a "chicken-skin" kind of show.
Especially now because it took place at night, so they had torches and
everything.
So
I missed two of the biggest events of the Tapati.
Ugh.
Today
was another big event, the Rano Raraku
(Tau‘a).
This one started on time, and I managed to be there to see it.
The
race at Rano Raraku is part swimming and part running.
The competitors use reeds, which are abundant in the lake there (Rano
means lake). They tie a bunch of
reeds together into the shape of a canoe, then sit on it Japanese style (on
their legs) and paddle using one canoe paddle across the lake.
Once they arrive at the end of the lake, they get out and drape 2 bunches
of bananas over their shoulders and run all the way around the shore of the
lake. Then, they dump the bananas,
run about a quarter of the way back around the lake then pick up a reed
"paddle board", which is a bunch of reeds tied together into a small,
flat, surfboard-sized raft, then run a quarter more of the way until they get to
the entrance to the lake again, then jump in and lie on the reeds like you would
a surfboard and paddle to the other end of the lake.
This, of all the competitions, takes the most training and the most
endurance.
First
they had the boys, who only paddled across on the flat reed boards.
Then they had the girls who did the same.
After that, the boys went again, but this time with the canoe reed boat
and the paddles. Then, finally, they
had the men's race, which is the only one where they do the entire course.
It was pretty neat, and goes a lot faster than you would think.
I’ve got pictures.
Then
tonight there was another big show down at the main stage.
Surprisingly, there were a lot of people there!
The place was packed when I arrived, which was right around
Tonight
was a signing competition. 2 large
groups of singers sat facing each other, and each would take a turn singing a
The
singing, however, was a lot of fun and wonderful to listen to!
These groups kept going back and forth, so there was constant, un-ending
music!
I
left there tonight at about
Anyway,
I'll try and write tomorrow if I can. Tomorrow
is the big parade down the center of town, and it is the prime picture
taking opportunity! This should be
really interesting. : )
Take
care all! I'll talk to you soon!
~Ulu
Date:
In
re-reading my previous e-mail about the food, I decided that there are many
other small things that could be mentioned...some of them are kind of funny too.
So, I hope I can explain them with enough humor.
Let's
start with the traditional "small things" - the condiments.
First
of all, they use salt here like there's no tomorrow.
Salt and Lemon go hand in hand...in fact, after they've squeezed all the
juice out of the lemon onto the food, they sprinkle some salt on the lemon and
eat it, rind and all. I tried it
once. I quickly discovered that it's
an acquired taste...
There
are no salt shakers here. Everyone
puts their salt in an open dish and everyone pinches from that dish.
The only time you see salt shakers is in a restaurant or a hotel.
I really miss the shakers because the imagination soars when you start to
think about all the individual fingers going into that salt...
But if you want salt, you have to go along with it.
Plus
when you have to pinch the salt, sometimes you end up grabbing more than you
think you're grabbing. That's not
good.
No
one here really uses pepper. It's a
lost condiment. That's kind of a
bummer for me because I used to use it a lot at home.
But C. has this "Aliño Completo”, which has pepper,
oregano, and a bunch of other spices in it, which I have come to rely on as a
very tasty substitute. In fact, if I
can find it at home, I’ll use that from now on.
When
it comes to all the pasty kind of condiments, you can find everything here
packaged in little packets, like the ketchup packets you get at a fast food
restaurant, except that they're way bigger - mayonnaise, ketchup, tomato sauce,
etc. all come in these super sized packets.
I don't prefer these because there's no way to close it.
You tear off a corner of the packet to get the stuff out, and you just
have to leave it like that. It's
messy, and the stuff next to the opening gets dry...yuck.
I'm one of those people who always feel compelled to wipe the top of the
ketchup bottle clean, so you can imagine that these packets nearly drive me
crazy.
The
other option for packaging here are paper boxes, like the little juice boxes
that you buy for your kids to drink. They
package all juices, milk, even tomato sauce in these little boxes...
Again, no proper way to close them...
They don't even have milk in cartons here.
In fact, most people here don't even buy real milk.
They buy powdered milk.
The
first time that C. bought cereal, I told him that we need milk to eat it
with. He said that we had.
It turned out that he was referring to the powdered milk at home...
"It says 'polva de leche'!"
(powder of milk)... He still
doesn't understand that it's just not the same.
On
that note, they sell yogurt here in full sized bottles, and people can drink it
like milk. I don't get it... But C. bought that and put it on the cereal...I've grown accustomed to it,
and in some ways I now prefer it to milk.
One
thing I do like is the crema de leche. It's
a cream, and they sell it here as a canned good.
At first I was a little weary about that, because canned goods usually
don't need refrigeration, but I've eaten it a few times, and nothing's
happened... But here they use it a
lot to cook with. It's quite handy.
I never knew that there were so many things you could put cream on.
I hope I can find it at home too...but maybe the refrigerated version.
They
have shoyu here, but its Kikkoman...ick. I
brought a bottle of Aloha Shoyu, and I've been using it whenever we eat saimin
because, frankly, the saimin absolutely needs the extra flavor.
And I still had a little bit left in the bottle.
It looked like it would be enough to get me through my last 2 weeks here.
But then, I think that someone used some for cooking, and in an effort to
fit more things in the refrigerator, C. laid the bottle on its side.
Whoever used it last didn't put the cap back on tight (that's how I know
that someone else used it...because I always put the caps back on tight) and
most of what was left in the bottle spilled in the refrigerator.
You cannot even imagine how upset I was when I saw that!
I almost cried.
Now
all I have left of my Aloha Shoyu isn't even enough to flavor one bowl of saimin...and
I still have 2 weeks left and there are 4 packets in the cupboard...
OH! The sacrifices!!!
Of
course, they have a chili sauce that's really good with pretty much anything.
In fact, it's totally awesome on those ‘ahi
empanadas I talked about in one of the tapati e-mails.
Did you ever notice that when you eat hot sauces, you begin not to taste
the food anymore? Yet, we still
think of it as tasting good, and we still want to put more of the sauce...
hmmm...
And
then there's Pevre, which is that amazing salsa-like sauce that we all loved
when we came here the first time. I
still love it just as much as I did in the beginning.
I've got the recipe... This
sauce is good on pretty much anything...you can even eat it on bread like a
sandwich. I've done that before...
That's
all I can think of for the condiments.
Like
all other European countries, they drink all their beverages here warm.
Of course, if it's cold they'll still drink it, and cold is even
preferred if it's available, but they're not picky.
It really drives me nuts when people take out a bottle of whatever from
the refrigerator, pour out a cup for them selves, and then leaves the bottle out
so the next fortunate person can have a warm drink.
So, of course, I am constantly putting things away after C....because if I want it cold, I need to make it so.
He won't do it for me, because he doesn't care about the temperature.
The
worst is when you go out fishing or something...the soda has been in the sun all
day and is positively hot. They
don't see anything wrong with this... They'll
even drink warm beer.
The
only time they bother with ice is when they are drinking hard liquors, and even
then they only put a couple of pieces. They
put all the ice into a bowl for everyone to grab from, then leave the bowl there
over the course of the evening...so it's not long before it's all melted.
This has always puzzled me, because it's a huge waste of ice, especially
if you didn't have that much in the house to begin with...
All I want is some ice with my soda, because they're not putting the soda
back in the refrigerator either...
The
people here love sweet things. They
have sodas that taste like bubble gum. It's
really sweet, and the first time I drank it I hated it.
They also have this very strange affinity for chocolate...
When I first arrived here, I got sick.
I had a cold and was coughing and everything.
And everyone kept offering me chocolate, like it was some kind of miracle
cure or something. I could never
understand that! I mean, the last
thing you do when you're sick is eat chocolate, because it gives you more
galas... I told C. that, and
he completely disagreed with me.
On
the other hand, it was only 2 weeks ago that C. finally tried drinking
lemon with honey for a sore throat. I
had told him that before, but he only tried it once Gotz and Zabou told him the
same thing. I think that's pretty
ironic, considering how much they use lemon around here. Lemon
for food, Chocolate for a sore throat...hmmm...where are we?
They,
of course, don't eat plain rice here. They
always mix it with something. Let me
tell you, rice with just onions is not good...
I try to stay away from rice whenever anyone else cooks it.
And, they think I'm nuts for eating it plain.
And
finally, I'd like to share a new treat with you: Pineapple Popsicles.
Pineapples are in season right now, so they're being sold all over the
streets. What they do when you buy
one is chop off the green leaves around the sides so that a round, straight
section is left in the center, then they chop off the outer part of the
pineapple, and turn it over so that the green leaves part is now like a stick,
and they just bite at the pineapple part. I
don't know how to explain this better...you just have to see it.
It's quite inventive.
Well,
I guess that's about it for now. Take
care everyone, and enjoy what you eat! I'll
be there soon, eating all that great
Ulu
Date:
Feb 7, 2001
Tapati
- days 8, 9 & 10
Hello
everyone! How's everything going?
Well,
C. and I have run into a bit of luck when it comes to the internet.
I thought that I would have to return all the way to the hotel
periodically to send all my messages, but it turns out that C. now has
access to an internet account, so we can use the computer from anywhere!
Yeah! That means I can keep
sending messages to all of you up until I leave...
But
don't ask me when that is. I
promise, I'll let all of you know when all the arrangements have been made.
Tapati
is over now, and for me, it ended in a fizzle rather than a big bang.
Here's what happened.
Day
8, which was last Friday, was the big parade.
I stayed home all day while C. slept (since he had worked the
night before). The parade was
supposed to begin at
We
went to the starting area where we saw all our friends dressed up and painted.
I took what I hope is a really great picture
with Javi, Tito and Gabi all painted up. I
also got a pic with Meherio, who did not get painted but instead opted to
wear a mu‘u mu‘u. Apparently, if you
dress up, you can give points to one of the queen contestants.
So everyone was asking me why I didn't dress up.
"Because C. didn't tell me..."
I was a little bummed about that.
Side
note: Hanging out with a local is really cool at times because you get to
see all the things that tourists don't normally see.
But on the other hand, you don't get to see the things that tourists
normally see...because the local forgets that you really are, in some cases,
still a tourist. So what I'm saying
is - I missed out on a lot of stuff during this Tapati.
For
the parade, anyone can participate - local, tourist, whatever.
It's a way for everyone to get involved.
You could tell that a lot of people either found out about this at the
last minute, or decided to join at the last minute, because many people were
there in just their underwear and their entire bodies
were painted over...including the underwear.
This,
by the way, made it very easy to point out all the Chilean Navy guys...aside
from the $2 haircut they have a standard issue underwear...but for some reason
they don't bother to give each guy the correct size underwear, so here were all
the Chilean Navy guys wearing either too big or too small briefs...
It was pretty darn funny... And
apparently the undies were cheap too, because one guy's underwear broke right on
the bottom, so he was literally just wearing "flaps" that hung down
and covered his privates. His mates
kept tormenting him by lifting up the back flap...
And
then you have all the brave people, including women, who were literally wearing
only bras and panties and had been painted over.
I know, it's the same as a swimsuit, but I'm sorry...I just couldn't do
that.
And
then there were the people in swimsuits. My
only thought was that the stain from the dirt paint would never come out...
Because the paint that they use is actually dirt mixed with water.
But
the locals knew how to dress...so here they all were with their ceremonial
dress on and painted with actual patterns on them.
They looked awesome!
Each
queen contestant has a float, and since there were only 2 contestants this year,
the parade was short, but in no way less interesting.
Preceding the float was a group of dancers, made up of women and
children. Behind them walked the
singers and musicians. All
throughout the parade, these people played and the dancers danced.
Behind the musicians would follow the float with the queen on it.
Following that would be all the rest of the people who dressed up in her
name.
First
was Maria's float. She had all the Matato‘a
guys out in front of her. They were
good. But she had far less people
painted up for her...
Second
was Priscilla's float. Their number
of dancers was about equal, but she had far more people painted walking behind
her. And, directly behind her float,
was all the male Karikari dancers, chanting
and singing and dancing.
I
really have to say, those guys truly enjoy what they do.
Tito and Gabi and Javi, and even Marcos and Mai were dancing, and they
were all having such a good time, like they were having their own little party.
But the thing is, they're always like that when they dance.
They really make the show because they just look like they're enjoying
themselves so much, and it doesn't matter if everyone or no one is watching!
The
parade started at the end of the main street, over by the gas station.
They walked down the entire main street then turned down towards the
shore at the main intersection by the school (on the road leading up to the
church), and once they got to the next intersection (at the corner of the soccer
field) they turned left. All the
floats were parked right on that street in front of the field and the show
continued in the field. Dancers for
each queen then put on a show. I
didn't get to see much of it because of my height and because of my association
with a local (who didn't care to watch), but I hear that Priscilla's group was
really good. Those were the Karikari
guys.
Although
Maria did have the Matato‘a guys…but I guess they make better singers than
dancers.
That
ended at about
C.
likes to take on people like that. I
don't like to waste my time with them. They
don't really want to learn, and in such cases, all you ever end up doing is
wasting your breath. C.
hasn't learned that yet... So I got
up and left because I couldn't stand to listen to him anymore.
And
the most ironic thing is that in all of this guy's "learning",
everything he was saying was only 2 days worth of Hawaiian Studies 101.
I wonder what books he read?
Anyway,
I left C. alone with this guy for about an hour, and when I came back he
was ready to be rescued. So we left.
It was an early night, about 1 or
The
next day, Saturday, there was really nothing going on other than the big show
that night. It was supposed to be the last big thing, and the coronation of the
new queen. I heard that it was a
really good show with lots of dancers and music.
Priscilla
won (duh...she always had so many more people in her competitions...).
We
didn't go. As always, we had a very
ill-timed fight. By the time
everything was resolved, it was much too late to go.
Then
the very final event was on Sunday night. They
did a traditional crowning of the queen. They all dressed up in ceremonial
dress, and from what I hear there was a slide show that was rather touching,
just of pictures of the people and the island.
And then there was music.
I
didn't know about it until about 10 that night.
C. was off working, and it's really difficult to find a taxi by
our house, especially since we don't have a phone.
It's not safe for me to walk alone at night because of the dogs, so I
decided not to go. I was a little
bummed, but oh well.
So,
that's why I say that for me, Tapati ended in a fizzle.
I ended up missing all of the biggest events.
But I guess that just means that I need to come back another time.
I
hear that
Well,
that's about it. Take care all, and
I hope to hear from all of you soon.
Ulu
Date: Feb 10,
2001
leaving
soon
Well,
it's finally here...departure time. I
am leaving the island this Thursday, Feb. 15th.
I will be in
The
time has passed by quickly...much faster than I expected it to.
And, although there are many things I miss about
I
still miss all the same things about
These
things that I miss about
And
then there are the actual "things", like American T.V. programming,
with one million and one things to watch at any given moment; stores where you
can buy or rent almost anything you want at almost any hour of the day; the
food, of course, the food; toilet paper, paper towels and kleenex being used for
their respective purposes (here we use toilet paper for all purposes...);
clothes dryers and fabric softeners; carpets in houses; "smoke free"
zones; movie theaters; reliable toilets; 24 hour film developing; DSL internet
connections; and having a car available whenever I need one.
But
then I remember all the things I like about Rapa Nui, and I wish that I didn't
have to leave so soon...like C., of course; having my days free to enjoy
the sunshine, ocean, and the outdoor activities that I never seem to have time
for at home; working for only 4 hours every evening and still earning enough to
cover all of my bills; and having enough free time to do all the things I've
always wanted to do.
This
list, although it is significantly smaller, holds a lot more weight than the
previous one...
This
is a question that I have been asking myself often, for the last 3 months.
I've
also met many interesting and generous people here.
Julie, G., K, T., and all the locals like N., Kh., Rosita,
Flaco, A., M., and many other people and members of C.'s family
that I haven't mentioned yet... All
of these people contributed to my stay here, and helped me in different ways.
Some have become very good friends and I don't want to leave them, yet I
know I will keep in touch with them from now on.
I
am not looking forward to going back. I
have to start all over again - find a job, find a place to live, be alone
again... It's not pleasant to think
about. I'd much rather just stay
here. I tussled over it in my mind for a very long time, up until just this week
(which is why I put off making the reservations for so long), but in the end it
seemed that going home is the best thing to do.
So,
I am still coming back, as planned, and I will be staying there.
C. will stay here and save up money.
He wants to move to
I
am very sorry to be leaving at this point because, as difficult as it was for me
to adjust to life here, I feel like I am finally at the point where I am
comfortable and am enjoying it. But
isn't that always the case? Just
when you start to enjoy it, it's over.
The
other reason why I am disappointed to be leaving now is because I don't feel
like I've learned all my lessons yet. I
know that there were many things I could have learned by being here - many
opportunities for growth - and I feel like I have not learned them yet.
I still find myself practicing the same old programs that I've always
practiced, the only difference being that I am aware of it now.
And, at the same time, I can feel myself closing up whenever I think
about returning to my life in
So,
in an effort not to return to my old self, I am going to make a bold move right
here and now. I declare to all of
you over this e-mail that I have decided that I would like to be a writer
when I grow up. I love doing these e-mails,
and many of you have commented that you like reading them, and some of you have
even suggested that I should get them published. Well, why not?
There's no harm in trying, right? It's
definitely a place to start.
One
of my most difficult programs to get over in life is that I never do what it
takes to get me what I really want. I
don't take the necessary steps to get to the goal.
I've known this for at least a year now, and yet after being here for the
last 6 months and having lots of time to work on things, I still have not
started anything. That is the reason
for my declaration. Now, by stating
it, I have all of you supporting me in your thoughts.
And I need all the help I can get...
: )
Being
here, I have met so many talented people. And
in thinking about it more, I've realized that I've always been surrounded by
talented people, and I've always felt so low in comparison.
But no more. It's not that I
lack the talent...it's just that I haven't tried.
So
that's it. I know that I can pull
more growth spurts out of this whole experience, but maybe I just haven't
realized them yet. But I will, in
time. There's definitely more...I
can feel it.
Anyway,
I'd like to thank all of you for sharing my adventure with me.
I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
It certainly was interesting on this end...
: )
Take
care all! I'll see all of you soon!
Iorana,
Ulu
Date:
Iorana!
I
know it's been a while since I've written about any new adventures, but that's
because C. and I have been trying to do so many things that we've been
out a lot, and I'm often too tired to write when we get home.
I've got so many stories that I don't even know where to begin!
Hmmm...let's
see...
During
Tapati C.
and I had a party at our
house. It was an opportunity for us
Do
you all recall Flaco? He's C.'s best friend and fellow painter...
I've written about him several times.
Or, as Ki. put it, Flaco is that recurring character in every episode.
: ) Anyway, for the longest time, Flaco was interested in one of the
tourists in town. He and C. initially called her "Rasta", because she has dreadlocks.
She's been in town for about 3 months now, and both Flaco and C. had spoken to her periodically in the first 2 months.
But Flaco is kind of shy, so nothing happened.
Well,
during Tapati I finally got to talk with her.
Her name is Muriel, and she's from
Anyway,
C. invited her to our party, and at the party we had the opportunity to
talk. I really like her, and I think
she's incredibly interesting. She is
also a painter, and in a way she has encouraged me to see what I can do.
I told her that I wanted to write. She
believes that I can do it. And she
hardly knows me...
She
stopped by our house today to find out when I'm leaving.
I don't know yet if we'll have a party before I leave, but if we do it
should definitely be interesting, especially with the mix of people in my life
right now.
Which
brings me to the next person who has had an impact on my stay here recently.
T., a masters student from
I
met her when I first arrived in August. She
left about a week after I arrived, but we met because at the time she was dating
M., C.'s cousin. But this
time we've become pretty good friends, and I like her a lot.
T.,
K and I have our own little society - we've all dated a
But
T. is far different from Muriel. T.
talks a lot, and lives to gossip. Which
makes life very interesting around here.. :
) At first, because she talks so
much, you get the impression that she's only interested in gossip, but then she
starts talking about her research and the things she's discovered and you
realize that this is a very intelligent person who has her head on straight.
And, I admire her for her social talent.
She can start a conversation with anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Consequently, she has a lot of friends on the island.
And a lot of admirers. One of
which is Flaco...at the moment.
Flaco
has had many admirers himself recently. It
seems that everyone hooks up during Tapati...which is very easy because there
are so many tourists in town at that time. At
the beginning of Tapati an old girlfriend started hanging around him a
lot...then I introduced him to T., and she thought that he was incredibly
attractive...then Flaco actually got together with another young woman who
happened to be one of the medical interns in town (who has since left for
By
the way...here's an interesting little tidbit.
Flaco bears a strong resemblance to Jesus Christ. Everyone notices it,
and it was even mentioned in a newspaper article written about him once. It's
not only because of the way he looks, but it's also because of his personality
and the way he presents himself. He
has a very gentle, friendly energy...and he is incredibly generous.
He gives away many of his paintings.
But he and C. are equal when it comes to generosity...
It
just hit me the other day that C. and the Jesus Christ look-alike are
best friends... (giggle...). Most of
the time, our adventures end up being just the three of us, and I'm not quite
sure how I fit into this little spiritual trinity.
However, I do know this - Flaco has sold the most paintings of any other
painter on the island, not because he's really good (which he is), but because
he sells them for dirt cheap – far less than they're worth.
C., on the other hand, has not sold any because he charges too
much. I told them to let me handle
the business side from now on...Up Flaco's prices, down C.'s, and then
they'll both get the recognition they deserve.
Balance. At least I can help
with that...
The
three of us had (maybe) our last adventure
together on Wednesday. We went over
to the other side where all the caves are. We
walked a lot. More than I can ever
recall walking in one day before. I
must have gotten an excellent workout...
We
saw a lot of the caves, but we didn't go into many of them.
C. is a little bit claustrophobic, so that limited what we could
explore. I think the most
interesting thing we happened upon was a little cave where the entrance was all
built up with stones around it with birdman
and makemake petroglyphs on them.
The cave is now filled with water, but the petroglyphs outside are still
so clear! It was far away from where
the birdman contest was held originally, so
the best guess that C. and Flaco could come up with was that the winner
of the contest at one time lived there in that cave...which is why there would
be birdman petroglyphs in such a remote location.
Makemake petroglyphs are seen all over the place. Makemake is a god, and
the petroglyphs were put anyplace where the people wanted the protection of that
god.
We
also found a rock with a very interesting petroglyph on it...it is said to be of
a dolphin, but I swear it looks like a penguin to me!
I imagine that maybe at one point in history, penguins came here (because
it simply does not look like a dolphin!). I
took a picture, so you all can judge for
yourself when I get them developed.
And,
as with many of our adventures, this one was also filled with many fruits of the
land. I love going on an adventure
and picking up our food along the way! We
encountered a Hei‘a fruit tree (which, Ki. shared with me is called Rose apple
in Hawai‘i) and picked a lot of fruit...we found a couple of guava that were
ripe enough...we went looking for grapes but it looked like they had all been
picked already...and the tree that covered the penguin petroglyph was an avocado
tree.
C.
and Flaco looted that one...
We've
done many other things also, but there's simply not enough time to write it all
down. It's
Well,
take care all. I'll talk to you all
soon.
Iorana,
Ulu
Date:
Feb 14, 2001
the
last few days
Iorana
everyone! This is officially my last
message from
Well,
the last couple of weeks, in fact ever since the beginning of Tapati,
the weather has been highly unpredictable. In
the last week it has been downright unfair.
C. and I have been trying to do some fun things, but the weather
just keeps getting in the way. Days
are partly hot and sunny with unexpected downpours.
We rented a motorcycle one day but we didn't get to go nearly as far as
we wanted because of the rain. And
cost prevented us from renting it again.
Today
is Valentine's Day. I still have a
few things left to take care of, but we have not even left the house yet because
it's been pouring all day. It's
You
know that last minute stress that everyone goes through before going on a trip?
Well, I have not been excluded from that phenomenon...however my stress
has been relieved significantly after yesterday afternoon's shopping trip.
I
needed to get a bunch of stuff for a friend, and all of these things would
determine how my packing goes. I
finally got most of them yesterday afternoon.
Still one item left to get, but for some reason I feel relaxed today...
I
realize now that most of my stress was because I know that here, in
But
all I have left to get are things that can be bought in a store...maybe that's
why I feel better. Hmmm...
: )
Anyway,
I feel certain that I can now enjoy my last day here.
Bittersweet as it may be...
Thanks
everyone for joining me. I'll talk
to you all again soon... from
Iorana,
Ulu
Date: Feb 21,
2001
the
trip home
Aloha
everyone!
Well,
for those of you who I haven't spoken to yet...I made it home.
I'm back in Hawai‘i, right in the heart of
But
you know what the strangest thing is...all of this "civilization"
being shoved in my face has not seemed to bother me one bit.
I
had to stay in
I
also went to a big Wal-Mart like store, only it was the size of Costco.
This is one of those places that I thought I would feel strange to be in
after being without such stores for so long...yet, as I walked down the aisles,
the environment felt as familiar to me as it ever did.
It was as if the last 6 months hadn’t even existed, and the last time I
went to one of those stores was only the day before.
The
people, the traffic, the multitude of choices of food...nothing seemed to affect
me, or should I say "stress me out."
And, even being back in
I
have, however, experienced a couple of things since arriving home that I am
grateful for that are attributed to "civilization."
First, freshly washed clothes with fabric softener and dried in a clothes
dryer... (ahhh....);
second, not having to worry when you go to the toilet if everything will
work as it should when you flush; and,
in accordance with that, the soft toilet paper as well.
: )
The
most difficult part of the entire journey is, of course, missing C..
He worked the flight from
That
first night after arriving in
There
were 3 other guests arriving off of the same flight that stayed at the same
house as me. I stayed with a cousin of C.'s mother...one of her cousins
and 2 more friends were staying with her also.
2 out of the 3 were originally from
Just
as I had a bit of difficulty adjusting upon my arrival in
I
do have a few options on places to stay, but the fact remains that none of them
are "my place." Those few
hours of anxiety, after getting over the initial "I want to go back!"
phase, helped me to focus on my first goal: To find my own apartment.
And,
ever since I decided to come home, I've been asking myself why.
The answer finally hit me today. I
am here to get my career on track. While
in Rapa Nui I came to many clarities about work, but in reality it is not
possible for me to go through what I need to go through to get what I want
career-wise over there. I need to
learn how to do everything over here and get everything on track over
here...then maybe I can go back there. Coming
to this realization has greatly helped me to finally give in to my being here
and stop thinking about going back to
So,
just to answer the most frequently asked questions that I've encountered so far,
here are my and C.'s future plans: He
wants to move here to Hawai‘i. He
will do that when he saves up enough money.
He has set a monetary goal for himself, but not a time goal.
So I have no idea when he will be coming.
I will find my way in the world to a job, get my own apartment, and enjoy
myself while I set up some kind of foundation for us.
I have no plans to go back at any time in the immediate future.
The reason I left is because C. finds it difficult to save money
while I am there because he won't let me pay for any of the expenses
(machismo...), and because he wants to spend time with his friends and family
before he comes here. He feels that
when I am there, he is not able to spend as much time with them as he would
like, so he wanted some time alone over there to focus on being with all of them
and mentally prepare himself for having to leave them all.
I came back to
And
yes, everything is still good between us. In
fact, everything is wonderful, which made it even more difficult to leave...
So
that's about it. Thanks all for
listening...or reading. I hope I'll
get to see all of you guys soon!
Aloha
from
Ulu
Date:
Hi
everybody! How's everything going
with all of you?
I
know I told all of you in my previous letter (about a month and a half ago) that
it would be my last. But due to
recent developments, I felt I should send out just one more, although you may
not enjoy this one quite as much as the rest.
I
guess I should leave off with that fateful day - the day I arrived back in
As
soon as I arrived home, I was swept up in the whirlwind that was the final 2
weeks before a friend’s wedding. I
offered to help, because I thought that being busy would be a good distraction
for me - but being busy preparing for a
wedding turned out to be depressing. And
then the worst possible thing in the world happened - C. broke up with
me. He said that he didn’t love me
anymore.
So
in the midst of my friend’s wedding bliss, I wanted to crawl into a dark hole
somewhere and fade away.
I
didn’t tell anyone for a while, except for a couple of very close friends, and
that was only because there was no way I could deal with all of it on my own.
It took me about 2 or 3 weeks before I started to expand that small
circle, and only now am I finally announcing it to the world.
Mostly because I don’t know how many more times I can hear someone
innocently ask, “So how’s C.?” or “So when is C. coming?” It still hurts too much.
And,
although some of you already knew about the break-up, most of you do not know
the rest of the story…
The
details, at this point, are not important. So
here is the nutshell version: C.
has feelings for someone else. The
“someone else” is T., my (former) best friend during my last month on the
island. She is from
He
confessed his feelings to her just after I left the island, while he was still
mailing me “Te quiero con todo mi corazon” (I love you with all my heart)
messages and calling me almost every day.
She,
at the time, avoided his declaration. But
apparently her moral fiber was not woven very tightly to begin with.
She left the island only 2 weeks after I did, and they have been
corresponding via whatever means possible since then.
It was only a matter of a couple of weeks before she confessed her
feelings for him in return. Since
then they have been communicating constantly, telling each other how much they
miss each other, how much they want to get to know each other better, and
talking about how quickly she can come back to the island so they can be
together again.
Neither
one of them told me that this was going on. I
found out from another source - on Easter Sunday.
When
I finally confronted them both about it, C. did the honorable thing and
confirmed the reports. T., on the
other hand, still insists to this day that nothing is going on and that she does
not have any feelings for him, even after I told her that C. already
confirmed it. (In a way, that
worries me…)
Needless
to say, I’ve experienced a great many emotions in the last two and a half
months, the majority being anger, depression and self-pity.
Aside form the exhaustion caused by such emotions, I’ve also expended a
wealth of energy trying to hide these feelings from most of the world.
It’s not been easy.
I
am happy to report, however, that I do finally seem to be making some progress
towards a positive outlook once again (which is probably why I am finally able
to write this e-mail).
This
week has, by far, been the best since I’ve arrived back.
Nothing very eventful has happened; I have simply arrived at a point
where this “situation” no longer dictates my overall feelings about life.
Somewhere along the line, C. and T. have, in my mind, become
less like real people…they have turned into characters that I’ve seen in a
movie or envisioned in my head while reading a book once.
They are no longer two people that have directly affected my life, or who
were ever really in my life to begin with.
Granted,
this may not be the “healthiest” way to look at them, but it is only one
small step in a very long healing process. There
are still times when I am confronted with the evidence given to me of their
‘relationship’ (for lack of a better term), and I am forced to remember just
how real they are…and my heart starts to feel the ache again.
But, overall, I see no harm in thinking of them as fictional for
now…it’s just one step, and this step is far more pleasant than the ones I
have previously traveled over in the last few months.
Like
most experiences, there are a few positive things that have come out of all this
(although I’m sure that when all is said and done, I know I’ll be able to
point out more than just a few). I’ve learned a lot more Spanish recently in
my attempts to write letters to everyone and to be able to convey to C. exactly how I feel. I’ve been
going out more to get my mind off things, and I’ve had soooo much fun!
I’ve learned how to dance Salsa, and one night I was blessed with an
excellent partner - and found myself doing moves I’ve only seen in movies!
I’ve met a lot of new people and have been asked out by 5 different
guys in about 5 weeks. That is
simply mind-blowing for me, because my previous record was something like being
asked out by 5 different guys in about 5 years!
I’m definitely not as stuffy, conservative, self-conscious or shy as I
used to be (although that’s still a work in progress).
I’m also not nearly as anal as I used to be (some of the PVS office
staff will remember how I always was about my pens…).
Best of all, I’ve realized that I have 3 friends who have been
absolutely PRICELESS throughout this entire process - K, Carol and
Christopher. They’ve listened to
me grumble and cry, supported me in my weakest moments, of which there were
plenty (and which, most ironically, is more than C. was ever willing to
do), and encouraged me to do whatever I needed to get through this.
I will never be able to thank them enough for being my friends.
On
the other hand, I’ve also learned about what kind of person I am capable of
being. I have not behaved well
throughout this experience, and I have done and said some things that I am
ashamed of. The best I can do,
however, is to make sure that I’ve grown enough so that I would never do such
things again. Cross your fingers on
that one…
At
the same time, I’ve learned a little bit about love.
C. made mistakes - lots of them - and although I’m hurt by all
of it, I can still feel that I love him. I
mean, there were a lot of things
that I could have done better in the relationship as well…most times, I was
even aware at the time that I could be handling something better, but simply
didn’t do it. We both could have
done a lot better, but I’m not going to let all of those bad things make me
forget the person that I fell in love with.
You
may call him a stupid, idiotic fool - and you may even hear me use those terms
too - but please, I don’t want to hear anyone else tell me “he’s not worth
it.” He was worth it.
That’s why I was willing to drop everything and go down there to be
with him. It takes an extraordinary
person to get through this iced-over heart of mine, and he did it.
He got through…and that extraordinary person is still inside of him
somewhere. I think that anyone who
has met him will agree that he is certainly one-of-a-kind.
But, at some point, he just gave in to his fears, as all human beings do,
and as a result he forgot how to love. I
am guilty of the same, so please don’t tell me that he’s not worthy.
The
only difference between the two of us at the moment is that I’m willing to
admit to my mistakes and take responsibility for them.
He is not. I pray that he
does find the strength and courage to do so one day, because if he does, the
world will be so much better for it.
Don’t
get me wrong…I’m not holding on hoping that we’ll get back together or
anything like that. I don’t want
the person that he is now. But I’m
also not afraid to admit how much I loved him and how much I hope that, for his
sake, he will find that genuine person within him again.
And
I am definitely not afraid to admit that I DO NOT want him to get together with
that girl!!!!! Yuck!!!!!
(Hey, I’m only human…) If
he does have to be with someone else, I’d rather it be with someone that I
don’t know…and someone who tells the truth.
Sorry…just
had to get that one off my chest.
Anyway,
this letter is already way too long, so I’m signing off now.
But first, I want to thank all of you for bearing with me through all my
trials and tribulations. Whether you
know it or not, you have all inspired me. These
e-mails brought me great satisfaction while I was there, and I deeply miss
writing them now that I’m back. I
just wish I had something else to write about now…
Well,
take care everyone. And from the
bottom of my heart: Thanks for
listening.
Aloha,
Ulu
Continue on to: January - March 2003 e-mails December 2003 - April 2004 e-mails
