August 19, Sunday, Day 5, Society Islands, Tahiti
Crew Anya
It was almost eerie and quite spooky how awake and talkative Judy and I were this morning as we sat in the dingy at 5 am (!) on our way to the Public Market in Papeete. And without any signs of having lack of sleep! I must say I was very proud of the two of us – and John for having lowered the dingy for us before stumbling back to bed – for getting up so early to go do our grocery shopping for the next 2 weeks. They had told us in our guide books that the Tahitians go to the market on Sunday morning to do all their shopping for their Sunday feast. They had also told us that it was the only place we would be able to find fresh vegetables at lower prices than found at Carrefour or Champion, the local supermarket chains in Papeete. Now we were actually not in it for the cheap food but more for the adventure. After all, we have a history of Moonlight Shopping together and this seemed like another adventure for us, with a convenient end result: food!
As we walked from the Marina to the bus stop we noticed however that there were no Le Trucks to be seen anywhere. After about 5 minutes a small car stopped with a young man in it, asking us in French we were heading. We told them “the public market” and he pointed out that there were no Le Trucks at this hour on Sunday, not until 9 am. But he was more than happy to give us a lift as he was going to Papeete anyway. So Judy and I scrambled in the car and introduced ourselves. The second time within 24 hours that a Tahitian has come to our rescue! I am ashamed to admit that I myself have never been this nice to any strangers or foreigners as far as I can remember. Am I too self-absorbed when I am back home? Or am I too afraid for the unknown? Or does all the news about murders, stranglers and what have you not just brainwashed me that I don’t trust anybody anymore? A shock to realize this, I must admit. It is therefore very refreshing – and at the same time very confronting – to be helped in such a warm way by these people. I truly hope that I can take some of this back home. There is nothing more positive than ‘Pay it forward’ (Make sure you rent the movie if you don’t know what Pay It Forward means yet).
When we got to the market it already was buzzing with people everywhere, buying and selling cabbages, peppers, eggplant (aubergine), tomatoes, salad crops, baby ginger and Polynesian ginger, fresh herbs, onions, taro root, roasted duck, chicken and pig (chopped to small pieces right then and there), freshly got fish in all shapes, colors and sizes and of course fresh croissants and baguettes. As Judy’s eyes lit up with excitement we entered the market, ready to fill all the backpacks and Sami-sacs we brought. We bought an amazing looking piece of tuna for just $8 that would feed 8 without any trouble. I sure will have to get used to the prices once I get back home… Once again, all the people selling products were ever so nice and friendly to us. All smiles and helpfulness and we needed it because my French is not that good and the Chinese tried talking Chinese to Judy but that apparently was too long ago for her as well to understand. We had a great time walking around, meeting the people and getting our groceries.
Luckily around the time that we wanted to go back to the boat, the Le Trucks were running so after I had bought us a huge glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice for on the way back we hopped on and were on our way back to the boat where we found everybody… sound asleep at 8 am. Since we all had to be at the Sheraton at 9:15 for breakfast with Ann we threw ourselves into a turmoil of getting ready, getting hair done, finding clean clothes and hurried back to the entrance of the marina to find yet another Le Truck to take us to the Shereton where we arrived – I am proud to say – at 9:17 sharp to join Ann for a truly wonderful breakfast. We were welcomed with live music coming from three men playing the ukulele and singing and a huge breakfast buffet with freshly baked bread and croissants, every kind of egg you could think of, poisson cru (raw fish, very good!) and many types of fruits, yogurts and cheeses.
After nobody could have anymore to eat, we took a stroll around the pool and went up to Ann’s room where we had a morning that reminded me most of Christmas Morning. Ann had brought presents for everybody, there was no end to the gifts she kept pulling from her bags, including gifts for me! I received a green dress (my favorite color), a green pareo with little pink flowers, a new crew shirt (since I had offered mine to Neptune the day we arrived at Fatu Hiva) and a pretty mauve colored top. Somebody had been filling Ann in on my favorite colors… I will leave it to the others to tell what they got!
Another wonderful thing that came this Christmas Morning was the opportunity to take a long hot shower in Ann’s bathroom. She had even asked for extra towels so we were all nice shiny and clean around 3:30 pm when we decided to go swimming in the pool and take another shower after that! I spent the time in between this reading Harry Potter nr. 2, trying to get ready for number 7. The last and final book in the Harry Potter series that has just recently been published and Ann brought it over. The first one to read it is Sami since she is the most prepared: she has read 1 thru 6 before Ann’s arrival so she is up to speed. Next will be Gaby and then John. Judy and I are way behind because we haven’t read all of the books yet. It is funny to see everybody of the AmberChans reading a Harry Potter book.
We had dinner that night in the hotel with Ann and took a taxi back home. It has been a full and fun day!