French Polynesia '08: Tipaerui and Paea

Tipaerui

The Baha’i Faith is growing steadily in the Tipaerui section of Papeete as neighbors and extended family members come around to learn about the Baha’i Faith.

The main Baha’i household in Tipaerui is that of Robin and Bea who are reviewing some points here about the Baha’i Faith:



Here is a class on the Baha’i Faith, part of a sequence of courses, being tutored here by Jean-Claude. He just translated the text for this book and is trying it out on some Tahitian speakers from the neighborhood:



Here are Jean-Claude and Bea sitting next to a newly declared Baha’i, Maire Maruoi, whose daughter was in a class on the Baha’i Faith which I tutored last year:



The Baha’i youth of Tipaerui put in a devotional program which included a presentation of the Baha’i Faith using a specially prepared booklet in French:





Lahayna and Diane live up a very steep incline in the neighborhood. Bea and I worked with them to practice the presentation. Here is Baha’i with her son, Tawi, standing on the incline:



Lahayna and Diane are standing on either side of the outline we made of the presentation.

French Polynesia '08: the island of Huahine

Teura Carawine, Ui, Robyn White, Marie-Claire and Pascal from Taha'a and their son Toromona travelled to huahine to have a meeting with the Baha'is of that island and do some additional service. We stayed at the home of Piera, a farmer and long-time Baha'i, who lives 10 feet from shore next to a small town on the Southern shore of the island.

Huahine is not nearly as much of a tourist destination as other islands so it is very rustic and peaceful. From Tahiti, you can get to neighboring islands by planes—-the expensive way—-or by sleeping on large cargo ships, which is how we went. To get to Huahine from Tahiti, the boat Hawaiki Nui takes eight hours. We slept outside on the back near the cargo. I didn’t sleep much because night on the Pacific is spectacular. There were stars everywhere, then the moon became as powerful as a stagelight. Later in the night, I saw a lightning storm on the far horizon lighting up a section of the horizon like a set.

Here are Ui and I in front of the boat:



Here is the majestic island of Moorea as we pass it on the ship:



Piera is one of the Baha’is on the South shore of Huanine. He works his family's land. His home was blown down by a cyclone in the 90’s.
Here is Piera breaking open a coconut using the spike and then a machete to extract the white part:



Here are coconut shells used to help crops grow by sheltering them:



Here I am drinking the delicious coconut water:



Here is a community meeting of the Baha’is of Huahine. I was translating for Robyn as she went over some points about community development:




Piera raises some roosters for combat. Here he is taking some out for practice:



Piera has placed a crown of leaves on me:



We studied and practiced using this booklet which explains the Baha’i Faith. On islands like Huahine, people are much more comfortable speaking Tahitian than French so the booklets were in Tahitian. Here is Marie Claire presenting it to her husband, Pascal:



Here is a video of Teura presenting it to Piera, explaining the life of Baha’u’llah in Tahitian:



Here are some shots and a video clip of Huahine, though these don’t do it justice:

French Polynesia '08: First summer school in Tahiti

I had the opportunity to return to French Polynesia this summer to serve the Baha'is there. The Baha'i group in Papeete, Tahiti's capital is growing steadily. There is also a Tahitian family that has become Baha'i on the island of Taha'a, a beautiful vanilla island mentioned in a previous post.

The first part my trip was to be a part of their first summer school. It was held in a schoolyard in Tipaerui, a neighborhood in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Robyn White, an artist from New Zealand who serves as a Counselor in the Baha'i Faith, meaning some who advises Baha'i communities in an official capacity, and Uileiuluwehi Pimental(Ui for short), who serves on the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii, the Baha'i governing body of Hawaii, was there as well. I mostly taught songs, translated and provided some materials.

Here are some pictures and videos from the first Baha'i summer school in Tahiti:

Birthday of one of the children. Tawhi, the mayor of Tipaerui, in green, leaning in.



Robin from Tipaerui prepares fafarou, the national dish of Tahiti--raw fish soaked in sea water and dunked in coconut milk--for the old timers, there's some additional fafarou juice, which is sea water with fish bones soaked in it for that special old fishy salty extreme taste.



Kids leading the devotions, Edward from Tipaerui, and Matai Rea from Taha'a:



Here is a video of Toromona from the Vanilla island of Taha'a. He is the 4th person in his family to become a Baha'i. He is a small farmer. Taha'a is in the same lagoon as the Polynesian holy island of Raiatea. Bora-Bora is on its horizon. Taha'a has very deep bays which are dark and mysterious.



Robyn Whie arrives in the evening, seen seated here with Poereva Dubois, the Auxiliary Board member for French Polynesia on the left, and Marie-Christine Curieux on the right:



One of the major challenges to teaching people in the islands about the Baha'i Faith is that the territory functions with two languages--French and Tahitian--both of which are now taught in school. As the Baha'i community is an open community, there is also the issue of varying levels of literacy. Here is a picture of Jean-Claude Hauatua seated with Robyn White. Jean-Claude is a teacher of Tahitian and very involved in the preservation of Maohi culture. He has also been one of the most active Baha'is in the last 17 years. He has translated Baha'i prayers into Tahitian--no easy feat given the enormous difference in the languages. Here he is holding Book #2 of a course on the Baha'i Faith which he has just translated:




Dance night

The adults and children organized an evening of traditional Polynesian dance. Robyn welcomes everyone with Marie-Christine translating into French and Jean-Claude then translating into Tahitian:



Here are some group dance scenes from that evening--Poereva is in light blue, Jianni my host from Paea is in a black t-shirt, Ui is in the back with a red print skirt, Bea from Tipaerui is all in black, Marie-Christine is in a white t-shirt and her little daughter is in yellow:




Marie Christine shows how it’s done—she is the first Baha’i from the Marquesas Islands, an archipelago in the northernmost section of French Polynesia. She is a former professional traditional dancer.




Here is a video of the “band”—those are log drums that the men are playing called ‘Toere’ and are the main percussion instrument. That is Pascal in the red shirt--he is a vanilla farmer from the island of Taha’a and a new Baha’i:



During the summer school, the Baha'is gathered to talk about the growth of their groups in the coming months. Here is Teura making a presentation:



Here are Pascal on the left and Robin on the right listening to Jean-Claude emphasizing the importance of Maohi culture in the development of the Faith in the islands and the power that the Faith can bring to the reawakening of the culture:



Sunday program

On the last day, Sunday, a special dance program by the children--and some adults who wanted to have fun is held.

Mararereva, anew Baha'i from Papeete, and her family prepared food--which included smoked veal which was smoked by the men from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m..



Here is the audience that morning:



Here is Robyn White singing a beautiful Maori song. Her grandfather was part Maori.



The kids and some adults got into a circle dance, calling different people into the middle to dance. It was a lot of fun. This video is hilarious—little Teura jumps in the middle (at 1:00minute) but, as her dance partner is missing, she is rescued by another little boy who jumps in to help her. Ui shows that she was raised in Hawaiian and Francis and Poe show how it’s done Tahitian style.

(if you click the little square right to the left of the Google symbol at the bottom of the video, it becomes full screen)


Here is little Teura from Taha’a showing how to really rock. The two kids behind her—Hiti and his sister Gwen—are from the Tipaerui section of Papeete.






Here is Tawi, the mayor of Tipaerui, saying hello:



Picture of most of the summer school participants:

French Polynesia '07

(Thanks to the Lepard family for the photographs; my camera was stolen)

I went to serve the Baha’is living in French Polynesia again in ‘07 for one month.

I was asked by Teura Carawine to go give classes in the home of a new Baha’i couple, Robyn and Bea. Teura writes beuatiful Tahitian style melodies to passages from the Baha'i Holy Writings. I have been involved in producing a cd of 6 of these pieces. The cd will be out soon!

This is Teura on the right:



Robin and Bea lived in the Tipaerui section of Papeete, the capital city of French Polynesia. Papeete is a small city on the slopes of the hills that go down into the Pacific. Robyn and Bea have at least four children—Edward, 10, Gwen and Angelique, 6, and Tawhi—one year old. Their home is made of plywood, tin roof, and two large rooms. There is an older man –the patriarch of a Baha’i family -- living there who has diabetes and stays home. He sleeps in a special bed below a Xerox of the Baha’i “Greatest Name” – Everyone in the home helps him out. At night there were the two parents, 4 children, grandparent, two kids from the island of Taha’a who were spending the summer on Tahiti, me, and, sometimes, one or two overnighters. I would give the class both in the morning and afternoon. Children, neighbors and relatives would stop by and watch or participate.

The house in Tipaerui:



The partriarch of the Baha'i family:



Here are some of the people living there who were in the class:

Bea, the mother of the family, was illiterate. Her son Edward helped her to learn to read. She was very eager to learn by reading, memorizing and learning songs. She was determined to develop her skills

Matairea, a fifteen year old from the island of Taha’a whose parents recently became Baha’is. I was able to visit her family in Taha’a and have some real fellowship. She wanted to become a Baha’i while I was there. Her father, a small farmer on the island of Taha’a, gave me a hand made log drum, saying “I would like to give this to the people of my daughter’s spiritual father”.

Tehey, a 21 yr old from the island of Taha’a. She was extremely shy and unable to speak. She showed great eagerness privately to learn the lyrics to Baha’i songs and prayers though she was too shy to say them in front of others.

Here is a video showing Tehey on the left, Bea in the middle and Matairea on the right. they prepared a dance to go along with a song they had been learning. This is in Bea's home in Tipaerui at night. Brian Lepard is over on the left:






Here is a video of me teaching the song "Oy es el Dia", a song in Spanish written by a Baha'i:





Poereva Dubois and some children learning the songs:




Robin, the father of the house is very warm and about age 40. He is very sincere and not educated. He participated actively and took the risk of making of participating in the skits. He takes care of the elderly man in the home.
Fai is Tahitian woman of Chinese ethnicity. She was taught about the Baha’i Faith by Piera from Huahine who is somehow related to her; she became a Baha’i four months ago and eager to deepen in her knowledge and understanding of the Baha’i Faith. She has a much higher reading level, money with which to travel abroad each year and a husband who is not Baha’i. She has a one-year-old named Heiva.

Robyn on the right in a dark blue shirt and Piera behind him over his right shoulder:





Language

Many country Tahitians, the background of most Baha’is there, do not have strong reading levels in French and Tahitian is the language of their ‘soul’. Fai explained to me that Tahitians in their forties and up had not been allowed to speak Tahitian in school and were certainly not taught it outside the home. Therefore, rural Tahitians do not have a strong grounding in either language. This presented me with a unique teaching challenge and I was fortunate to be able to draw on 20 years of teaching experience to help.



Taha’a, the vanilla island

I flew to the island of Raiatea where I met up with Richard Neufeld, a Baha’i from Canada who lives there. We boarded his sail boat and crossed the ‘lagon’ to the neighboring island of Taha’a/

Much less touristy than the other islands, Taha’a is know as the Vanilla island because of the amount of cultivation of vanilla there. It is a tough plant and fetches a good price on the market. The island is almost indescribably beautiful because it has deep bays into which you sail that are very foreboding and often have mist in them. We circled the island in the boat searching for the village of the Baha’i family we were visiting. On the horizon the jagged, high mountains of Bora-Bora appeared as a blue silhouette. The ocean was multicolored and Taha’a has a dark green mysterious coloration. It is surrounded by ‘motus’ tiny little islands, which are beginning to be built up with hotels and the secret gets out about this extraordinary island.

We found the Baha’i family home after looking for much of the day and docking twice. There are picturesque Christian churches bit the shoreline. We stayed late with the family, fellowshipping and singing song sin Tahitian and I played a few in Spanish and English. Richard and I went back to sleep on the sailboat because of the electronics on board and set sail about 5 the next morning.



Aditional photos

Moorea is one of the most majestic islands in the world. The Lepard family and I went for one day accompanied by Francis Dubois, a local Baha'i Tahitian fisherman.

The Lepards, Francis and me at an overlook on Moorea:



The magnificent vistas of Moorea:







Cook's Bay ...wow or booya is all you can say...James Cook, a real genius and leader..









Why not to use plastic bags:



The beach at Moorea:



One of the old Polynesian temples -- marae -- in the hills of Moorea:



Trees on the hills of Moorea with interersting strange roots:



Les, a Baha'i from New Zealand, who has settled on Moorea and works as an engineer in the fruit juice factory:



Leds and the Lepards in his home. He built this indoor/outdoor house on a steep hill with a view of the valley and ocean:



The hillside home in Tahiti of Francis and Poereva:



Hanging out with Marco at Poereva and Francis's house:



The Lepards teaching the children at Poe and Francis's home. The kids live on the hillside in nearby homes:



Andre, a mechanic and gifted musician/singer, who sang on our forthcoming Tahitian music cd, visiting us at Poe and Francis's house:



Home of relatives of Poe down the hill in Paea where we had a prayer gathering:



Group picture at prayer gatehring in Paea, Tahiti:



Katy and me talking afterwards:



Katy



Djanni, a Baha'i living, in Paea, and another of the singers on our upcoming Tahitian music cd:




A few parting views of Tahiti: