Monday, June 22, 2009

Viva la Beach

June 18, 2009

So it costs at least $8 for a gallon of ice cream and $6 dollars for 20 eggs. Perhaps for good reason. This living close to the ocean part—it is more amazing than I had expected. I am a Midwestern girl so I haven’t always given much stock to sunshine and water. I can change my mind.



Tuesdays and Thursdays for now are our beach days. We’re still doing “calendar” and “school” each morning along with chores. We’re getting used to walking kilometers to places. Benjamin easily covers the whole kilometer and half without complaint often adding a skip and a lusty arm swing. He even manages some of that distance on the way back and recognizes landmarks. Dylan revels in his stroller. Isaac walks a bit of it just fine. He’s been known to cover the distance with his little legs, but he becomes discouraged. I cajole and coax him past his whining several hundred more meters and then he gets a ride. Our “single” stroller is glorious. Again Graco gets my endorsement. When the need arises, Dylan sits in the seat, Benjamin stands on the front foot rest and holds onto the canopy and Isaac sits on the console attached at the back to the handle bars. Even with the extra load, the stroller handles well and the wheels chug on down the road. I keep it going at a pretty good clip. It’s the best sit-and-stand-and-sit ever. We’ve even figured out a system for when both Isaac and Dylan are tired and falling asleep. We recline the seat completely, lean Dylan in the back and then Isaac lays on part of Dylan. Apparently, when they’re tired enough they can make it work and they sleep away. It’s nice to own something that was actually built to last and withstand heavy use. I can’t say that if I had any other choice, I would recommend walking with small children along Route 1 next to large, rumbling trucks, diesel fumes, commercial busses, a constant stream of cars and motorcycles and past the requisite barking dogs and wild roosters, but it is not inconceivable—we’re also not the only crazy people that do this. I feel less daunted by it all now and not as jumpy. I will never like it, but I can cope and not jump ten feet out of my shoes every time I hear a motor just an occasional twitch and veer. So, prayers for safety have taken on new proportions and off we go hugging the side of the road—the bit of concrete left for cyclists and pedestrians. (Yes. Mom. I know. This is not what you want to read about. I’ll be VERY careful. At least the speed limit is quite low and people obey it).

We spent most of our morning and part of the afternoon contentedly lounging at the beach (PK 18 in the direction of Paea). I’m really glad to know that the beach and I just got off to a bad start last week. We’re learning that there is not really a daily high and low tide, but the depth and intensity of the water changes with the moon. Last week the moon was full; now it is waning. Today the beach and ocean again exceeded all expectations. Gorgeous. An adult would be hard pressed to find a spot where the water is more than chest deep in the large swath of beach around us and for quite a ways out towards the coral reef where you can see the waves breaking. It was like a giant wading pool with that beautiful clear water and calmly lapping waves. The wind was blowing a bit, but while it was cool, the day was warm and we were never chilled. As we floated in the ocean, we could look back at the island and see the peaks and valleys of the lush vegetation wealthy mountains behind us with palm trees and coconut trees softly swaying in the breeze, while the shadow of the island of Moorea has become a constant friend of a landmark. I should also mention that the temperature of the water—perfect. At least during this time of year (the cool season) the water is so pleasant.

We’ve decided that while we liked our Tuesday beach because of our little friend (Isaac wondered if we would see him again today) and all the fish, the Thursday beach was much better for swimming and for playing in the sand. There weren’t nearly as many rocks under the water. I was encouraged that there would be far fewer places for things to come out and surprise me that I didn’t really want to see close to me.

Adding to our fun today was a school group enjoying a field trip to the beach. They looked like first, second and third graders. They had partitioned off a portion of the water with floats so that the teachers could keep an eye on all of their charges. Most of the children were playing happily in the water, while some of the boys were conducting large-scale sand excavations on the shore. We positioned ourselves near them and enjoyed their antics and laughter. What proved most helpful for my boys was the line of floats in the water. They grew a lot in confidence today because those floats made the ocean seem less vast and gave them a guideline. They were more likely to swim further (still waist-deep) and explore because they didn’t feel so lost. It added to the easy-going mood of the day to have the company of this nice group of children and their teachers—it felt familiar and friendly.

I later talked with one of the teachers whose English was very good. She told me the group was from a school in Papeete—a private school and that you could tell by the way they were swimming that they were “city” kids. She had grown up in Tahiti-iti and Moorea. She currently lives in Moorea and commutes via ferry to Papeete every day to teach. She substantiated my belief that Moorea would be a more pleasant place to live. Tahiti is heavily populated—a bit crowded and Moorea is more quaint and kept pretty for tourists. I enjoyed the friendly chat and it felt good to communicate with another adult other than my own Eric.

We played the day away. We swam, snorkeled and never ran out of things to do. This is good. This is our Tahiti version of a “going to the playground.” The beach is our new playground and a great one at that. I hear that there is a children’s playground in downtown Papeete. I hope to sometime figure out how to get us all on the bus and there and home again, but that’s a few weeks away.

Our expedition to the beach has earned me the unprecedented leisure of sitting in the garden of our porch without any boys asking me questions or looking for me. They are back in their bedroom dressed in engineer pants pretending to be driving on the Canadian Railway. Dylan is slightly distressed that he does not have a pair of engineer pants, but everyone is so mellow from all our beach time, that even that can’t mar this late afternoon lull.

Except it took only about 14.5 minutes and here they are. Where I am. But they’re running races around the house and still happy and calm. They even have their lanes figured out. They line up “small, medium, large.” It’s pretty cute. Wait. Pause. They have to go change from the engineer clothes to “running” clothes.

It’s dusk now. It’s great trying to put kids to bed here. It’s always dark when you want them to go to sleep. Of course it’s dark by 6:30 every night. That’s a bit too early for bed. Still we get the boys to bed around 8:00 after reading and talking. They usually fall asleep very quickly after our full days here. We’re very soon to follow. We just collapse in our beds at night. Tired!


2 comments:

  1. Daughter, you read my mind! :) Your descriptive report gives me a picture of your comings and goings. Happy you got to communicate with the teacher, knowing you, that was a bonus beyond the beach fun. Enjoy.......you are made of good stuff and will make the best of it all.
    Love, Mum

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  2. Love your descriptions of all that is happening in Tahiti. Such a great experience and you are a real trouper. We attended a talk last week at BYU from Gerald Lund and he talked about the 'Lord's Autograph' in our lives. You are experiencing it now...he is watching over you and blessing your lives. Hugs and Kisses
    Grammie

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