Monday, May 19, 2014

Some Local Flavor

The guidebooks report this place as abandoned, but it turns out one of the owners was here. He's probably in his 30’s; the property has been in his family for generations. He has a Marquesan name that none of us whities can grasp on to, so he called himself Steven, as do we. He has lived in Tahiti and lives in Hiva Oa, but likes to get away and live here instead. He's a very generous and gregarious guy. He loves interacting with the boaters and sharing his land, citrus trees, coconuts, and skills with sea life. He's a very active and hard working person! - -Always moving and doing. He loves the kids and calls them "Champion," which they love being called. Except Innocence, he knows her name and really likes her. He made her a shell necklace and shares everything with her. She endeared him when he gave her an orange and she began to swim to the boat with it. She treasured it and swam with it above her head. We saw her swimming and went and picked her up in the dinghy. She climbed in and continued eating her orange. He said it reminded him of himself when he was a kid.

He catches crabs on the shore and cooks them in lemon juice. - - - Lots of them. And he shares them. So, I've eaten a few shore crabs. So little meat, he showed me how to squeeze it out of the shell and out of the legs. Doesn't seem worth the effort to me for such a little bit of meat, but maybe it's a delicacy just lost on me?? He cuts open green coconuts and gives you juice, then cuts it in half, slices the side and makes a scooper and you can scoop out the meat to eat. Today he cut open a pamplemousse and gave some to each of the kids. Just generous!

Last night we had a potluck on the beach with him and all the boats. One of the boats made homemade bread and some pesto from fresh basil that he grew here and gave her. She also made him a key lime pie with his limes from the recipe I'd just given her. Everything works out nicely. At the potluck, he cut open some sea urchins, spread limejuice on them and was sharing them. Cassidy tried it, but ended up throwing it up. Well, nice try, at least she's trying new things.

He told us stories about his village in Hiva Oa. There's a beach town and mountain town, they were rivals, and when they fought, they ate each other. I asked if he was a cannibal, and he reassured me no. He said it was about 200 years ago. He is easy to talk to and has a good sense of humor. He is teaching us Marquesian, I try French, but he does pretty well in English, so communication isn't too hard. But some concepts are beyond me. I can't communicate them. But that's OK. It's been good French practice, but he's excited to teach us Marquesan. It's fun to learn phrases, more Hawaiian than French. But even the southern Marquesan islands have a different language than the northern ones! These language skills aren't going to get me far, but it's fun and he really seems to appreciate even the littlest communication in his native language!

He was telling us that he's had ciguatera a few times. He catches the fish and tries them before sharing them, so he's the one who gets sick. He's spent 3 days in a hospital in Tahiti for it. This bay is known to have ciguatera. He was telling us that if you wait 20 minutes after killing the fish, if it's limp it has ciguatera, but if it has rigor and is stiff, it is OK. Interesting. Why have I not read that before if it's accurate? That would be nice if we could tell??

Shannon

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