Working in Paradise

Charlie is the name of the helper from New Jersey, although you would
never know he came from there. He has been here seven years,
Australia and New Zealand before this. Now he is married to a
Tahitian and has a French passport. His accent is heavy and
vocabulary strange as he has been speaking Tahitian and French while
living deep in the bowels of the backside of this island, the dark
half that is not lit up at night when flying over it. In this area
you will see the Tahitian flags, blue and white, the Free Tahiti, i.e.
no French control.

Charlie wants to learn as many trades as he can, he works hard and
clean. He has two children, half Tahitian, and wants to introduce
baseball to their school. He has a large and beautiful tattoo on his
whole chest depicting his life story with all of its struggles and
rewards. In addition to Charlie we have two other former Americans on
the work crew, Steve and Roger. They too have been here a long time
and have gotten French passports, they are builders, doing new
construction and remodels. Unlike Charlie they speak less French and
Tahitian, but do have superior handles on the island ways and
functional lingo.

We are in demolition mode right now, getting rid of the ugly stuff and
planning on what will replace it. As much of the material is saved as
possible as the prices of everything here are rather high, old 2x4s
are like big cumbersome chunks of money, coveted by neighbors and
carefully stacked. There is a small building supply store on this
island, but the big ones are in Papeete, a ferry ride away.

The weather is generally warm, really and truly don't need much
clothes, ever, so forget much packing when coming here. The
rainsqualls we had on Monday didn't stop work, just felt like what a
shower is supposed to feel like, warm and wet. Just before dawn the
calls and clucks of various birds start chiming in, dawn comes in
gently from the east, doors and window flaps open, the chickens are
busy plucking up any insects. We will begin day three. Pier holes
dug, concrete, hopefully agreement with the neighbors son whose deck
seems to sneak into our zone, hmm, an as-is situation.

Claude and Barbara were speaking of looking for their house and
comparing prices from Hawaii and other places. Here, one speaks in
millions, just like in Santa Barbara, but it is in millions of Pacific
Francs which in a simple conversion would be a million US pennies
which means a house costing CPF 27,000,000. is costing US$ 270,000.
So a fishburger down at Freddie's local mobile diner (called a
Roulotte) costs CPF 850, or US$ 8.50. Food is expensive here as very
little is grown here, not that it couldn't be, but other than some of
the regular tropical stuff much food in imported from all corners of
the world.

Charlie, Steve (former carpenter and foreman, Southern California
surfer married to a Tahitian and here for a long time), and Roger
(here for a really long time, also married to a Tahitian) all worked
their butts off today in the gentle but sufficiently warm sun. The
backdrop is the next-door Tiare Tahiti flower (Cape Jasmine, Gardenia)
farm and the dropping down mountains of Moorea. This is Claude and
Barbara's back yard which will have a new deck and veranda with an
outdoor covered kitchen, also an out door shower, a new Tahiti style
extra room and more. Very few Americans live here as Claude is French
(with a lot of American experience) he can live here as a regular
resident, work (if he wants), own property, gets full medical
insurance, and has one heck of a fun time speaking with all of the
French people around here.

At noon and in the evening after work we make sure to walk (100 feet)
to the beach and go for a quick swim, do the "bon jours" and walk out
on the dock. Right there in this water are big sea cucumbers, very
long skinny transparent needlefish, bright fluorescent blue and black
and yellow angle fish, puffer fish, and manta rays. One of these days
we'll rent a couple of kayaks and paddle over to the motu, the lagoon
island of which there are several. I met a 70+-year-old French guy
who was telling me about his triathlon training (this is NOT me) but
we did have a nice talk about the nice bike ride circumnavigating the
island, it is basically all flat with one big hill.

Doing a remodel here is quite interesting, a different world of
construction, mainly 2 x 3's and 3 x 6's and stuff like that. The
stores use a combination of inches and meters; materials come from the
USA, China, Australia, France, and everywhere else. We don't have a
car so deliveries come in small Japanese trucks with Tahitian drivers
smiling as they check out the new gringo's project. Tonight, after
dinner, after sunset at the beach, I did my 6.5-minute cruiser ride to
the neighborhood mini shopping center and wi-fi zone. It was a long
and interesting day like all the rest, unpredictable, hard-working,
full of little energies and dramas, amazing backdrop and a good
therapeutic swim.

I am still on the learning curve with Barbara's powerbook, so I
haven't had the time to edit and upload photos of this area yet, that
will happen soon, I want to see them too.