Author: Pam
Visiting beautiful places, maintaining the boat, making passages, provisioning, and constantly learning is a short list of experiences we are having on this adventure, but it has become clear the top of the list is the people we meet. Some of our fondest memories are the people we have met through our efforts to meet and learn about the visually impaired community. Today was no exception. During the visit with the Association for the Blind on Monday we had the pleasure of meeting Michelle, the “2nd President” of the Association and before the afternoon was over she invited us to lunch at her home on Friday. Her son Jaque was also present and he offered to pick us up.
As promised he was at the boat just before 11:00 am with his eleven year old son Arnaud. Arnaud was a bit shy and did not want to have a look at Starship, so we hopped in the car and headed off to make new friends here in New Caledonia. When we arrived at Michelle’s home we were welcomed with the typical French greeting, cheek to cheek and kisses in the air with both cheeks. I am a bit more comfortable with this custom, because there is never a question if it will happen with a man, woman or child. In Scott’s case sometimes it happens with men and sometimes not, so he is never quite sure. He was quite taken aback when all three young boys offered up their cheeks. It was really sweet to watch though. We met “Papa” Michelle’s husband, Christine, Michelle’s daughter who works for immigration as a boarder patrol police captain, Eric and Mayana, he is a trainer for elementary teachers and she is a primary school teacher and their two sons. Mayana was married to Michelle’s son who was a pilot and died 15 years ago in a plane accident. Mayana married Eric and they are now both part of the family.
We were ushered inside to a huge, beautifully set table that we later learned is a ping pong table. Within minutes champagne was popped and poured, pictures snapped, horsdeuves served and questions being asked in French and translated into English by Christine. Arnaud wanted to know the name of our boat, he had drawn a picture of a sailboat on a white board. I spelled Starship for him and he added her name to his work of art, which then prompted more pictures. At least Christine and possibly Eric had taken the day off from work to meet us, it was as special for them to have two Americans sitting at their table as it was for these two Americans to be having lunch with a New Caledonian family.
We learned that food is very important to New Caledonians, even if you are poor you still have plenty of food on your table. The whole family had contributed to this special lunch and it was a feast. Jaque made the most delicious potato salad I have ever had, there was pasta gratin, grilled eggplant, steak, green salad, ashards (which is a local relish made with vegetables or citrus fruit). Everything was delicious and just when we thought we could not possibly eat another bite three desserts arrived on the table, flan, banana tart and an orange cake. We were served a small piece of each dessert with offers for seconds. The French love their desserts, it sometimes is a longer list on a menu at a restaurant than the main course options. Scott refrained, but he would have had seconds if he could have fit them in his big toe.
Throughout the meal the questions continued to fly from each family member. Mayana wanted to know what was the one thing we think is important to have on the boat, I answered fresh water and Scott answered gummy snakes. It turned out to be a difficult question to answer, I don’t think I could ever narrow it down to one thing. Papa wanted to know about the GPS and other instruments, he used to be a pilot and how we navigate was particularly interesting to him. Eric wanted to know about the computers on board and how we communicate. Michelle wanted to know if we believe in God or something bigger than us, especially when it seemed there was divine intervention when we were hit by the wave and Scott was not washed off the boat. It started to rain during lunch and Jaque shared with his family that we had been hanging laundry out on the lifelines when he and Arnaud arrived at the boat. That lead to a conversation about underwear and how we were told by friends in the beginning of our first cruising season, if you don’t hang your underwear on the outside of your boat you are not a true cruiser. We had used a clothesline down below the first time I hand washed laundry in Tahiti, but only once, because if that is what it takes to make you a true cruiser we could hang our underwear out for the world to see with the best of them. Papa commented that nowadays there isn’t much to woman’s underwear, so it shouldn’t take long for it to dry. He further elaborated (this was translated by Christine) that it used to be that you had to move the underwear to see the bum, but now you have to move the bum to see the string of the underwear. It was difficult to not feel part of the family at this point as we all laughed until we almost cried.
When it was time to leave the goodbyes looked like the hellos, more kisses, but in a few hours we had become friends and our lunch with a New Caledonian family will be a special memory of our time in a country that we were actually not originally planning to visit. Jaque and Eric drove us back to the boat laden with a bag full of gifts. They had all written a message and their email addresses in the back of a 2008 agenda, there was a 2009 calendar, mosquito spray, a dishful of the yummy potato salad, a sampling of all of the desserts and a loaf of French bread added at the last minute. There were offers if we need anything in the time we have remaining and promises to keep in touch. Scott and I came back to the boat feeling overwhelmed by their generosity and blessed that we crossed path with the Bellet family.
As promised he was at the boat just before 11:00 am with his eleven year old son Arnaud. Arnaud was a bit shy and did not want to have a look at Starship, so we hopped in the car and headed off to make new friends here in New Caledonia. When we arrived at Michelle’s home we were welcomed with the typical French greeting, cheek to cheek and kisses in the air with both cheeks. I am a bit more comfortable with this custom, because there is never a question if it will happen with a man, woman or child. In Scott’s case sometimes it happens with men and sometimes not, so he is never quite sure. He was quite taken aback when all three young boys offered up their cheeks. It was really sweet to watch though. We met “Papa” Michelle’s husband, Christine, Michelle’s daughter who works for immigration as a boarder patrol police captain, Eric and Mayana, he is a trainer for elementary teachers and she is a primary school teacher and their two sons. Mayana was married to Michelle’s son who was a pilot and died 15 years ago in a plane accident. Mayana married Eric and they are now both part of the family.
We were ushered inside to a huge, beautifully set table that we later learned is a ping pong table. Within minutes champagne was popped and poured, pictures snapped, horsdeuves served and questions being asked in French and translated into English by Christine. Arnaud wanted to know the name of our boat, he had drawn a picture of a sailboat on a white board. I spelled Starship for him and he added her name to his work of art, which then prompted more pictures. At least Christine and possibly Eric had taken the day off from work to meet us, it was as special for them to have two Americans sitting at their table as it was for these two Americans to be having lunch with a New Caledonian family.
We learned that food is very important to New Caledonians, even if you are poor you still have plenty of food on your table. The whole family had contributed to this special lunch and it was a feast. Jaque made the most delicious potato salad I have ever had, there was pasta gratin, grilled eggplant, steak, green salad, ashards (which is a local relish made with vegetables or citrus fruit). Everything was delicious and just when we thought we could not possibly eat another bite three desserts arrived on the table, flan, banana tart and an orange cake. We were served a small piece of each dessert with offers for seconds. The French love their desserts, it sometimes is a longer list on a menu at a restaurant than the main course options. Scott refrained, but he would have had seconds if he could have fit them in his big toe.
Throughout the meal the questions continued to fly from each family member. Mayana wanted to know what was the one thing we think is important to have on the boat, I answered fresh water and Scott answered gummy snakes. It turned out to be a difficult question to answer, I don’t think I could ever narrow it down to one thing. Papa wanted to know about the GPS and other instruments, he used to be a pilot and how we navigate was particularly interesting to him. Eric wanted to know about the computers on board and how we communicate. Michelle wanted to know if we believe in God or something bigger than us, especially when it seemed there was divine intervention when we were hit by the wave and Scott was not washed off the boat. It started to rain during lunch and Jaque shared with his family that we had been hanging laundry out on the lifelines when he and Arnaud arrived at the boat. That lead to a conversation about underwear and how we were told by friends in the beginning of our first cruising season, if you don’t hang your underwear on the outside of your boat you are not a true cruiser. We had used a clothesline down below the first time I hand washed laundry in Tahiti, but only once, because if that is what it takes to make you a true cruiser we could hang our underwear out for the world to see with the best of them. Papa commented that nowadays there isn’t much to woman’s underwear, so it shouldn’t take long for it to dry. He further elaborated (this was translated by Christine) that it used to be that you had to move the underwear to see the bum, but now you have to move the bum to see the string of the underwear. It was difficult to not feel part of the family at this point as we all laughed until we almost cried.
When it was time to leave the goodbyes looked like the hellos, more kisses, but in a few hours we had become friends and our lunch with a New Caledonian family will be a special memory of our time in a country that we were actually not originally planning to visit. Jaque and Eric drove us back to the boat laden with a bag full of gifts. They had all written a message and their email addresses in the back of a 2008 agenda, there was a 2009 calendar, mosquito spray, a dishful of the yummy potato salad, a sampling of all of the desserts and a loaf of French bread added at the last minute. There were offers if we need anything in the time we have remaining and promises to keep in touch. Scott and I came back to the boat feeling overwhelmed by their generosity and blessed that we crossed path with the Bellet family.
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