Aug. 30th – Impressions and experiences of Mopeti

Hi

It seems my experience of our week and a half at Mopeti was a very
friendly culture. Or may be it was the opportunity to hang out with a
local all day for almost a week

The culture of Mopeti is softer and relationship orientated and I could
see staying here for while. The way people greet each other and place
relationship with each other on a very high priority. For instance, they
practice the Polynesian custom of putting a flower over the right ear if
you want or are available for a relationship and over the left ear if
you are committed or not available. If you are a woman then you wear
over your ear an open flower, which seems to make each woman more
beautiful, and if you are a man you wear a closed bud. This broadcasts
and publicly states you relationship status.
As it was explained to me by my friend Ui, if you see someone who
interests you, you tell them you like them and ask to be in
relationship. And you keep asking to show you are really interested.
This seems simple, clear, and straight forward. I compare our
complicated courtship rituals to this simpler way. How would
relationship be if it worked that way in our culture?
Because we were in Mopeti over a week and a half we had the opportunity
to have many unique local experiences. We accompanied Ui by boat out to
his land on a motu or island along the outer reef. The inner lagoon
portion of the motu was the typical white sand beach with the palm trees
reaching out in curved arches over the water you see in many of the
postcards. We walked from the lagoon side to the the outer reef with its
pounding surf and long coral shelves and volcanic rock ledges. This is
where earlier John had seen a whale easily swimming along parallel to
the outer reef. As I walked along the outer beach the large chips and
pieces of broken coral spread everywhere rang with musical notes as my
sandals shuffled and disturbed the coral.
We went to the motu to help Ui cut six to eight foot poles for some
outdoor furniture from the jungle in the center of the motu. The next
day we stripped the bark off of the poles wit machetes and knives in
preparation for lashing them together making the furniture.
We got a sense over many days of a slow easy life having many local
experiences.

Thank you all for listening to my ranting.
Love
Jim