Day: July 17, 2017
Mo’orea, Society Islands
It didn’t take much more than an hour to sail northwest over to Mo’orea from Tahiti. The actual spelling is Mo’ore’a, which in Tahitian means ‘yellow lizard’. Three ferries a day travel over to Mo’orea’s Val’are wharf.
This beautiful mountainous island is 10 miles wide and is completely surrounded by a crystal clear turquoise lagoon. Beyond the lagoon is a large reef, and Darwin once said, while looking at Mo’orea from a mountain top in Tahiti, that Mo’orea is a beautiful picture within a frame. In the photo below, one can see Tahiti in the distance.
Every photo taken looks like it’s been photoshopped, but it truly is just that beautiful!
This morning the creatures and I went for a dinghy ride to check things out. The mountains are so thick with foliage with dramatic peaks and valleys.
Small settlements are scattered along the coastline, separated from the ocean simply by a few coconut palms.
We had to watch closely for coral heads in the clear water as we moved through it, as some of them were large, but flat with tall pinnacles,
while others were stag horn and antler corals and spread out wide and close to the surface.
A gorgeous resort is located on the southwest end with bungalows over the water and an exquisite reef to explore.
Since it is paradise, there is of course plenty of area without coral if that’s what you prefer!
When we returned to Tanda Malaika, a ray welcomed us home and our sweet friends on Makara, (Ian and Erika), came over for a visit.
Erika brought me some keifer in sugar water to experiment with – she’s experimenting too. So if anyone is a pro at the water keifer, I could use some advice. She also let me borrow her book called Wild Fermentation, because I want to start making my own sauerkraut and kimchi.
Ian and Danny worked on building a new starter, using a blue footed boogie feather, pine sap from the island of Yap, the spring from inside a nebulizer and a zip tie. It worked and we now have two running engines. VOILA!
Far out there!!!
The past few days are a blur. Due to the medication I’ve been on for sciatic pain, my brain has been some place I’d never heard of or discovered yet. During that time I asked Aidan how his non existent hamster is, I conversed with Mycah concerning upcoming plans about half a dozen times only to realize today that I’d never heard about it before. I discussed an upcoming flight for Danny, ‘we’ agreed to him accepting it and today I heard I’d agreed to him leaving for a month – maybe two.Three days ago I passed out twice here on the boat while we were all working on projects, both times waking up to find concerned family members around me as I’d French kissed the floor.
Two days ago I showered and dressed (with all clothing items on the correct body parts), and began walking to the temple. Danny and the creatures had decided to go hiking up to some waterfalls. Mycah took this gorgeous photo there.
After about an hour of walking I was drenched in sweat mostly from sciatic pain, but also from the humidity, and even though my head was spinning around at incredible speeds, because of my ninja skills I noticed a vehicle drive passed me, turn around farther up the street then drive passed again – this time very slowly. I wasn’t sure if I was going to need to give them directions some place or use my Jackie Chan moves, but somewhere in my floating head, I was ready!. They turned around again and this time stopped next to me, rolled the window down and sweetly asked if I needed help. I guess I must have looked pathetic. I tried to focus my blurry eyes on them and told them I was walking to the temple, and just as they told me they’d give me a ride and opened the door, I woke up half an hour later in the Emergency room of the hospital. After some time of me drifting in and out of some sort of dimension combined with an English word here and a French word there, they pried Danny’s cell number from my comatose mind, did an EKG and drew about 48 gallons of blood with a needle the size of the Alaskan pipeline. I quite enjoyed the entire experience telling jokes I’d forgotten the punch lines to. I’m still not entirely sure but I think the EKG showed my blood sugar was extremely low and the blood work showed that my pacemaker was doing its job…or something like that.
I do recall sometime in there some half naked men running a race carrying lots of fruit! Bazaar, I know, but welcome to my week!
Other men were loaded with far more than just bananas…we’re talking about an entire fruit salad for a tri-county picnic.
When I left the hospital I was told that they highly recommend me having an ultrasound on my neck to check out what mischief my arteries are getting up to. Danny showed up some time in there – I have no recollection of when or if it was really him, but I knew the nice man drove me to the marina and I ended up on Tanda Malaika to rest.
Yesterday I left the boat while all but Danny were asleep and walked to where the clinic was for the ultrasound. My sciatica pain was really getting old and exhausting.The only effect I could see I was experiencing from the meds was scrambled egg brains. I arrived at the clinic and spent literally an hour (which felt like 4 hours) being sent to different departments, up and down stairs and finally told I’d need to go to a hospital for the service about 480 miles away. I’m proud to say I didn’t cuss once, but instead left with a garbled ‘merci’ from my parched mouth, and began my next trek. At about mile 111, I noticed a beautiful mural and studied it as I held onto a street pole in appreciation of the incredible talent and time it had taken. II wished I could be the girl sleeping so peacefully.
By about mile 298 another mural caught my eye, and I leaned against an electrical box of some sort and studied every detail of the art work. I was amazed.
What seemed like 3 days later I reached my destination and stumbled inside like a zombie from The Walking Dead series. I sat down for a few minutes to catch my breath and checked my phone for the first time. Danny had texted and when texting him back he told me he was getting a tattoo in 20 minutes and that Jude and Mycah wanted to find me and keep me company. The twins accompanied Danny. I walked over to check in, handed them the order for the ultrasound, and was told to return on Monday. I’m not sure if it was the fire in my eyes, the sweat dripping from me all over the woman clean desk, or the fact that I told her that Monday was never going to arrive for her if I didn’t get it done today, but she told me to take a seat and she’d squeeze me in in about 3 hours. I then walked over to the general med area and demanded a big fat dose of anything at all – I couldn’t care if it was windex, to be injected into my hip for my sciatica. The doctor smiled and told me that people here NEVER ask for injections because of the pain. I told him I’d birthed several children, I’ve hung upside down after been impaled on 4” spike, all my body weight pulling down on the metal in my leg, I’ve ripped my knuckle in half, sending it down the side of my finger and more importantly, I’m African, so bring the dang needle even it’s size put a javelin to shame, and show me the love! He handed me another flipping piece of paper and told me to take a seat. Jude and Mycah arrived, we chatted a while and they left to check on Danny.
I was finally called back and the doc told me that the injection may bring relief for 6 hours or it may bring relief for 6 weeks – it depends on the person. I told him I’d take my chances and he drew up a some sort of concoction that looked like fabric softener, which was fine with me, and asked if it would be ok for him to get a nurse to hold me down because it’s very painful. Once I had him convinced that they simply didn’t have a hospital employee strong enough and that I welcomed and adored pain, he counted in French and slammed that baby into my right hip/buttocks area then exclaimed, “VOILA!” It hurt so good. I thanked him profusely and since I still had a couple hours I walked around, hoping it would encourage the fabric softener to spread quickly. My appointment time time eventually arrived and I lay down on nice clean hospital bed – not having felt any pain relief yet. The Radiologist gooped up the ultrasound wand and slowly moved it up and down my neck, periodically stopping to type some things into the computer. I’m not sure how long I’d slept and I hoped I hadn’t snored, and was at first embarrassed about the amount of drool on my neck but quickly remembered it was KY gel from the ultrasound. I sat up at the starring doc and smiled at him and said, ‘VOILA!” I didn’t understand 90% of what he explained to me, only that I had growths on my thyroid and that I needed a neck and brain scan, I thanked him, and paid my bill then made my way to the exit, Too many walls for this girl for one day! The hospital fees for two days, EKG, fabric softener in the hip, ultrasound and consultation with the radiologist, plus medications all came to about $250.
The creatures arrived as I was exiting the building, we stopped for an ice cream (I had mango sorbet) and walked back to the boat.
I’ve learned a lot the past few days. I learned I’m stronger than I thought I was. That my children are even bigger Angels than I thought as they let me lean on them for support and they cooked dinner. I learned there are two main types of people…those that love unconditionally and would walk to the ends of the earth with you without judging like a true disciple of Christ and those that ‘love’ only under certain conditions. These people in Tahiti love BIG. They share and laugh and work together, sitting in circles singing in the parks, with their genealogy beautifully recorded onto their bodies. Some of them are massive and few are petite, some are more dolled up than others while others are natural, and they are all so beautiful. I love these people with all my heart. We leave for Mo’orea today, which is another of the Society Islands. I pray my sciatic pain will fade away so I can be active like I usually am, and maybe there, we will once again take our imperfect selves and find those that we can serve, love and learn from.
Far out there!!!
The past few days are a blur. Due to the medication I’ve been on for sciatic pain, my brain has been some place I’d never heard of or discovered yet. During that time I asked Aidan how his non existent hamster is, I conversed with Mycah concerning upcoming plans about half a dozen times only to realize today that I’d never heard about it before. I discussed an upcoming flight for Danny, ‘we’ agreed to him accepting it and today I heard I’d agreed to him leaving for a month – maybe two.Three days ago I passed out twice here on the boat while we were all working on projects, both times waking up to find concerned family members around me as I’d French kissed the floor.
Two days ago I showered and dressed (with all clothing items on the correct body parts), and began walking to the temple. Danny and the creatures had decided to go hiking up to some waterfalls. Mycah took this gorgeous photo there.
After about an hour of walking I was drenched in sweat mostly from sciatic pain, but also from the humidity, and even though my head was spinning around at incredible speeds, because of my ninja skills I noticed a vehicle drive passed me, turn around farther up the street then drive passed again – this time very slowly. I wasn’t sure if I was going to need to give them directions some place or use my Jackie Chan moves, but somewhere in my floating head, I was ready!. They turned around again and this time stopped next to me, rolled the window down and sweetly asked if I needed help. I guess I must have looked pathetic. I tried to focus my blurry eyes on them and told them I was walking to the temple, and just as they told me they’d give me a ride and opened the door, I woke up half an hour later in the Emergency room of the hospital. After some time of me drifting in and out of some sort of dimension combined with an English word here and a French word there, they pried Danny’s cell number from my comatose mind, did an EKG and drew about 48 gallons of blood with a needle the size of the Alaskan pipeline. I quite enjoyed the entire experience telling jokes I’d forgotten the punch lines to. I’m still not entirely sure but I think the EKG showed my blood sugar was extremely low and the blood work showed that my pacemaker was doing its job…or something like that.
I do recall sometime in there some half naked men running a race carrying lots of fruit! Bazaar, I know, but welcome to my week!
Other men were loaded with far more than just bananas…we’re talking about an entire fruit salad for a tri-county picnic.
When I left the hospital I was told that they highly recommend me having an ultrasound on my neck to check out what mischief my arteries are getting up to. Danny showed up some time in there – I have no recollection of when or if it was really him, but I knew the nice man drove me to the marina and I ended up on Tanda Malaika to rest.
Yesterday I left the boat while all but Danny were asleep and walked to where the clinic was for the ultrasound. My sciatica pain was really getting old and exhausting.The only effect I could see I was experiencing from the meds was scrambled egg brains. I arrived at the clinic and spent literally an hour (which felt like 4 hours) being sent to different departments, up and down stairs and finally told I’d need to go to a hospital for the service about 480 miles away. I’m proud to say I didn’t cuss once, but instead left with a garbled ‘merci’ from my parched mouth, and began my next trek. At about mile 111, I noticed a beautiful mural and studied it as I held onto a street pole in appreciation of the incredible talent and time it had taken. II wished I could be the girl sleeping so peacefully.
By about mile 298 another mural caught my eye, and I leaned against an electrical box of some sort and studied every detail of the art work. I was amazed.
What seemed like 3 days later I reached my destination and stumbled inside like a zombie from The Walking Dead series. I sat down for a few minutes to catch my breath and checked my phone for the first time. Danny had texted and when texting him back he told me he was getting a tattoo in 20 minutes and that Jude and Mycah wanted to find me and keep me company. The twins accompanied Danny. I walked over to check in, handed them the order for the ultrasound, and was told to return on Monday. I’m not sure if it was the fire in my eyes, the sweat dripping from me all over the woman clean desk, or the fact that I told her that Monday was never going to arrive for her if I didn’t get it done today, but she told me to take a seat and she’d squeeze me in in about 3 hours. I then walked over to the general med area and demanded a big fat dose of anything at all – I couldn’t care if it was windex, to be injected into my hip for my sciatica. The doctor smiled and told me that people here NEVER ask for injections because of the pain. I told him I’d birthed several children, I’ve hung upside down after been impaled on 4” spike, all my body weight pulling down on the metal in my leg, I’ve ripped my knuckle in half, sending it down the side of my finger and more importantly, I’m African, so bring the dang needle even it’s size put a javelin to shame, and show me the love! He handed me another flipping piece of paper and told me to take a seat. Jude and Mycah arrived, we chatted a while and they left to check on Danny.
I was finally called back and the doc told me that the injection may bring relief for 6 hours or it may bring relief for 6 weeks – it depends on the person. I told him I’d take my chances and he drew up a some sort of concoction that looked like fabric softener, which was fine with me, and asked if it would be ok for him to get a nurse to hold me down because it’s very painful. Once I had him convinced that they simply didn’t have a hospital employee strong enough and that I welcomed and adored pain, he counted in French and slammed that baby into my right hip/buttocks area then exclaimed, “VOILA!” It hurt so good. I thanked him profusely and since I still had a couple hours I walked around, hoping it would encourage the fabric softener to spread quickly. My appointment time time eventually arrived and I lay down on nice clean hospital bed – not having felt any pain relief yet. The Radiologist gooped up the ultrasound wand and slowly moved it up and down my neck, periodically stopping to type some things into the computer. I’m not sure how long I’d slept and I hoped I hadn’t snored, and was at first embarrassed about the amount of drool on my neck but quickly remembered it was KY gel from the ultrasound. I sat up at the starring doc and smiled at him and said, ‘VOILA!” I didn’t understand 90% of what he explained to me, only that I had growths on my thyroid and that I needed a neck and brain scan, I thanked him, and paid my bill then made my way to the exit, Too many walls for this girl for one day! The hospital fees for two days, EKG, fabric softener in the hip, ultrasound and consultation with the radiologist, plus medications all came to about $250.
The creatures arrived as I was exiting the building, we stopped for an ice cream (I had mango sorbet) and walked back to the boat.
I’ve learned a lot the past few days. I learned I’m stronger than I thought I was. That my children are even bigger Angels than I thought as they let me lean on them for support and they cooked dinner. I learned there are two main types of people…those that love unconditionally and would walk to the ends of the earth with you without judging like a true disciple of Christ and those that ‘love’ only under certain conditions. These people in Tahiti love BIG. They share and laugh and work together, sitting in circles singing in the parks, with their genealogy beautifully recorded onto their bodies. Some of them are massive and few are petite, some are more dolled up than others while others are natural, and they are all so beautiful. I love these people with all my heart. We leave for Mo’orea today, which is another of the Society Islands. I pray my sciatic pain will fade away so I can be active like I usually am, and maybe there, we will once again take our imperfect selves and find those that we can serve, love and learn from.
Adventures of a Tribe 