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: