Part 2<\/p>\n
A conversation with Kaia was started and Shigeo talked with Cano who was sitting across the table of him. I enjoyed my conversation with Kaia, only my hearing problems disturbed me due to the normal background noise.<\/p>\n
A lady gave a speech about donations for the school. Not knowing the island’s customs, I asked Kaia to please help me and Shigeo with making a donation. She helped and we could just give her the money. However, she came back to us to get our names for proper recording of the donation.<\/p>\n
For the donation, each of us got a drinking coconut. Very delicious! Then I recognized that this is a party without the junk drink of the world: Coca Cola! How wonderful! Everybody was drinking coconuts. When empty, there was always someone with a bigger knife using the not sharp edge of the knife to make a crack around the coconut. A twist and the coconut was open in two halves. I saw that Puna removed the coconut flesh with his thumb. It really works well. But I made the mistake that I tried to get pieces. That was the moment when Cano stepped in and showed me that I have to separate all the flesh as one piece because it then can be eaten very easily. I’m very thankful to Cano to show me that excellent way to eat the flesh of a drinking coconut.<\/p>\n
Then the main part of the evening started: a Polynesian dancing competition.<\/p>\n
At one side of the stage there was the band of 6 drummers. Most of the drums I have not seen before in the French part of Polynesian. (Next day I learned that they are made from a tree of one of the motus (islets) of the atoll.)<\/p>\n
The rhythm and sound they drummed out of their instruments was incredible. This music has pace, power, and drive, which is felt immediately. It goes under the skin. Real unplugged music. Authentic.<\/p>\n
For a dancing competition one not only needs band but also judges. Puna was one of four. Sitting quite separate from each other to not be influenced. A lady collected the results after each performance.<\/p>\n
A big metal bowl, almost a meter in diameter, was placed in front of the stage and I was wondering why.<\/p>\n
Then the first dancing couple appeared on stage. I might be wrong about their age, but they appeared to be around 12 years. They wore traditional costumes and got a very warm welcome. The boy with strong and lound voice made a verbal introduction. It sounded very rough and tough. Unfortunately I don’t speak Polynesian to understand his words. Then the drummers let the sound and rhythm out of their instruments and the boy made movements to invite the girl to dance with him. The dance they performed was for me a strong contrast to the verbal introduction of the by the boy. It was, as if he slipped into another role because there was a harmony and softness between the male and female dancer. Soft and gentle movements showing care for each other.<\/p>\n
When the female dancer performed a special swinging of her hips, the audiences bursted out in cries of admiration and cheers, close to breaking my ears. Again it was something, which went under my skin, straight forward. To me this swinging of the hips seems to be a pretty difficult movement. It seems to be a combination of fast steps and hip movement. The skirt of the female dancers is designed to emphasize the appearance of the swinging hips.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of each performance people went – partially dancing to the Polynesian rhythmns – to the big metal bowl in front of the stage to put money in. Valuation of the performance and donations for the school.<\/p>\n
If I recall it right, there were 7 performances in traditional costumes. Then there was an intermission during which the drummers left their places. Audio equipment was ready to be used. It was also during the intermission that a young girl tapped my shoulder and gave me a chocolate muffin with regards from people in another corner. I turned around and saw Tuku, the health inspector, who was at MaRe in the afternoon and was one of the people, who invited us to this event. It was the best chocolate muffin I had in my life. (Next day, when we met again on the main street he told me that his daughter baked this excellent muffin.)<\/p>\n
Then the music came from the audio system and a dancing couples performed a dance in “non-traditional costumes”.(I’m using this word because I don’t have a better one.) Again if I recall it right, there were also 7 performances and if I’m not wrong, the dancers were the same as before. Just different costumes and different dancing styles. One music piece I recognized as “Dancing Queen” (The real title is mostly likely different, but I’m not an expert of pop music.) Like described above the audience cheered the dancers fully hearted with the maximum of their voices. What a power and enthusiasm!<\/p>\n
While watching the performances I started admiring the dancers, musician food and other sellers from another perspective. The village has only about 120 invitations. Thus, I estimate that some 30 – 40 % of the population put an tremendous effort in this found raising event for their local school. Community feeling and responsibility for the community are the drivers. Coming myself from a small village, I only can draw my hat in admiration for all who were involved.<\/p>\n
As it was a competition, there must be an announcement of the winners. Two winning couples were announced. If the event would have been in closed hall the screaming of the audience after each announcement, blew the roof. It was not possible to put more enthusiasm and emotions into this heart warming screaming. A community put all their efforts, enthusiasm, and emotions in the preparation, realization, and execution of this event. Simply incredible!<\/p>\n
I feel privileged for being given the chance to experience all this.<\/p>\n
Every event has its end. But there was not only a “going home now”, but wonderful closing. A group of people starting to sing a song in Polynesian language. I could recognize that there were parts song by men but being interwoven with parts of the female voices. I didn’t understand a single word, just enjoyed the voices I could hear. It appeared to me a very emotional song because I saw a lady singer wiping off some tears. (Accidentally, I learned today that the song was a hymn.)<\/p>\n
As the community is also strongly driven by their religion, a prayer was the final, formal end of the event.<\/p>\n
Shigeo and I said thank you and good night to the people we met today for the first time. I was filled with very happy feelings and thought that it was worth to have sailed all these thousands of nautical miles from from Europe to this small island with its heart warming community.<\/p>\n
I only missed my OBM that night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part 2 A conversation with Kaia was started and Shigeo talked with Cano who was sitting across the table of him. I enjoyed my conversation with Kaia, only my hearing problems disturbed me due to the normal background noise. A lady gave a speech about donations for the school. Not knowing the island’s customs, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}