Cultural Experiences

Air Tahiti Nui

If ever flying with three children ages five and under could be made enjoyable, then Air Tahiti Nui is the key to that successful experience. We were quite giddy with the accommodating treatment we received. I think I may have even teared up a bit as I bumped down the aisle with loads of backpacks nudging Dylan along in front of me when a flight attendant kindly grabbed some bags and gave him a smile as if to say, “It just wouldn’t have been any fun to fly today without a toddler like you.” This is far from the quiet pleas one often sees in the eyes of people, “Please don’t let that kid kick my seat and DON’T let me hear him screaming because being confined in this space in the air for this many hours is already more than I think I might be able to handle.

Our seats were also perfect. That means they were right next to the bathrooms. That meant that Benjamin could pop up utilize the facilities any time and as often as he wanted. And he could do it by himself. Amazing. We were seated right in the middle behind one of the bulkheads right over the wing. The legroom was unprecedented and there was no one in front of us to bother or really to the sides either because we were right by the emergency exits. I was beaming with glee over our good flying fortune.

Our seats also gave us an excellent view when the flight attendants did the pre-flight show. Yes. Show. I have never been so fascinated by seat belt and safety instructions. The beauty of the Polynesians extends to their very motions. As the two attendants smiled and pointed to the various features, their movements captivated me—a lilting, graceful dance.

Once we were in the air and I let the tears fall as I watched the edge of California fade behind me and I wondered when I would see a Target or my family again, the dance of the flight attendants continued. But first, a costume change. Gradually all the flight attendants went from wearing formal aqua fitted skirts and jackets to wearing long floral, flowing dresses. Then there wasn’t anything that they could not do for us. They brought each of the boys a little child sized backpack filled with fun things for them. They brought me a mother and baby care kit with an extra diaper, wipes and to my delight the best part of all—our own giant liter and a half water bottle! My favorite in flight commodity—WATER. Then came the blankets, the pillows, the bags with headphones and eye covers and ear plugs. They attached a bassinet to the wall for when Dylan might fall asleep. It just kept piling up. We hardly knew where to put it all. It was fun. We had fun flying. Then the food. There was plenty of food. And if you didn’t get enough, the attendants offered you more. They would walk the plane after the food service holding baskets of rolls and offering more water. Then just at the end after the second meal/snack, right before they changed back into their formal uniforms, they even walked around offering candy.

Kill them with kindness, bags of stuff, and their own personal television screen I suppose. It worked. The kids were great travelers. They toyed with all the novelties and did not scream. Best of all, they slept a good portion of the trip, curled into their seats or in Dylan’s case in his little bassinet with his toes sticking out the end. Yes, we had a great flight and we’ll proudly sport our Air Tahiti Nui visors.

The Carrefour

Carrefour is the biggest super store on the island. Not only is it the biggest, it is the only store of it’s type on the island. It has just about anything you could possibly need for living. You can even buy Breyer’s ice cream for thirteen dollars. Enjoy some the next time it’s on sale at your local grocery and raise a spoonful for us, we’ll be favoring something at a different price. We hope. Eric and I had talked about the expense of things in Tahiti, but nothing prepared me for the true sticker shock. Nothing. Gasp. Still on our first day in Tahiti, it was the logical place to go to get us started with some things to eat.

After my first many hours in the sauna of living in Tahiti, the first thing I noticed about the Carrefour was the air conditioning. For that amenity alone, I would have stayed there several hours. However, that good airplane behavior of the boys? Gone. Isaac removed his shoes and refused to put them back on. We were too jet-lagged and hot to argue, so he enjoyed running around barefooted. Actually, there’s not really any reason to argue with him about shoes here anyway. He was in good company. Running around is what all the boys wanted to do. So it is possible that there is a bar of soap for under a dollar. I didn’t find one, but it also could be because we were chasing children down the aisles while doing price comparisons. When they weren’t running around, they would all fall to the floor and roll around on it. We can’t explain this. I would never want to roll around on a dirty tile floor. They had lost it. Completely. I was close to follow after about Dylan’s third screaming fit and searching three aisles for salt. I did not writhe on the floor or scream. I just put a big bottle of Nutella in the cart and gave Eric that look that said, “Don’t even question me on this.”

It was a mad house. You can’t even imagine it. We could hardly even negotiate through it. Apparently we had arrived on the mother’s day weekend of the island. Apparently, procrastination is universal. The place was packed with shoppers. We were stumbling around trying to find things to eat that didn’t require cooking and wouldn’t eat up all our cash for the month, while surrounded by masses of fellow shoppers. Masses.

Yet, we were together and I smiled. Plenty. The cashiers were completely decked out, happy and smiling. One wore a straw hat decorated with flowers. People were helpful and kind and pardoned our disoriented state and our insane children. And some of the experience was just too funny to not just look at each other and laugh.