Sunday Services on Tahuata

"The beach followed the semi-circle of the small bay, and was hemmed in on both sides by massive black rocks, above which rose steep mountains covered with verdure.  The narrow valley itself sloped upward on either hand to a sheer wall of cliffs.  In the couple of miles from the water's edge to the jungle tangle of the high hills were thousands upon thousands of cocoanut palms, breadfruit, mango, banana, and lime trees.... The tiny settlement was beautiful beyond comparison.  A score or so of houses, small, but neat and comfortable, wreathed with morning glory vines and shaded by trees, clustered along the bank of a limpid stream crossed at intervals by white stepping stones.  Naked children, whose heads were wreathed with flowers, splashed in sheltered pools, or fled like moving brown shadows into the sun-flecked depths of the glade as we approached."

                                              --- Frederick O'Brien, "White Shadows of the South Seas", 1919

i'm writing this Sunday, in the airplane, but wanting to remember Sunday sept 29 a week ago, when at dawn we found the Aranui in the lovely cliff shore by the village of Vaitahu on the island of Tahuata.  Such an amazingly beautiful valley and bay!

This was our second Sunday, and another Catholic Mass.  The entire town was in church and the service was mostly music.  Men shouldering babies, ladies who had dressed up to sell to the Aranui took time out to come to mass. It was raining and the church is practically open sided so it was fresh and beautiful with a light breeze coming through scented with rain. 

This island had the absolute best of bone and wood carvings, the famous tattoo master Fatty Barcinas and his family live here.  Only, he no longer tattoos due to shaky hands.  We did find some treasures here but the best time was walking upstream and up out of town past yards with friendly dogs and chickens and up into the forest where we could overlook the bay.  Such a beautiful place! 

We didn't stay long in the bay after mass was over for Aranui work, because Most of the Vaitahu deliveries had been offloaded a few days before when we had paused - this was done inttionally so that our boatmen and sailors had less work on Sunday.  It was time for a rest.  for the rest of the day, the whole boat was taken to a lovely white sand beach all to ourselves for snorkeling, barbecue and rest time including many of our sailors. I somewhat imagine on the boat, while we were all ashore, the staff could enjoy some tourist free time. 

At night, after another awesome Aranui dinner and pastry, we watched a video of the maiden voyage of the Aranui 3 ten years ago.  you could see the excitement then of the villages to receive more folks and especially you could see very high quality dances and costumes. A little different from today .... Today's Aranui 3 is no longer quite the novelty as the Paul Gauguin sometimes brings cruise tourists and the dancing seems less polished and though fun, a little ho hum.  I think Possibly its a generational thing.... because the dancers ten years ago were still part of the Polynesian cultural renaissance that the first sailing of Hokule'a and other events had kick started. The younger generation is starting to be caught up in cell phones and many want to depart the Marquesas, which have very little in the way of jobs, the economy relies a lot on France's willingness to subsidize the copra price.   But we know every four years for sure there is a grand Marquesan festival which moves from island to island, for which they restore the old temple sites and they perfect the dances. On the last days of our voyage, we talked a lot with Kate, an anthropologist, about the situation, Marquesa doesn't have a language immersion program, the French have French and Tahitian taught in schools, and she says at home while the men still speak marquesan the women seem to be changing to French.  So many influences... Maire told us that Tahitians love the Mexican telenovelas on TV so throughout French Polynesia the outside world is coming in more and more easily.  So, the films from ten years ago were very welcome to see as they preserve a little bit of the extra excitement Aranui used to provide when it was, indeed, the only source of outside amusement.

We must have waited to get underway until 2 in the morning.... In order to come into Ua Huka at the right time of the tides the next morning for our dangerous entry.... But that's another story altogether...