Crazy wild weather today has kept us out of the water. Yesterday green sea turtles swam near us at our little beach. Why do we value so high a visit from a wild creature and yet treat them so indifferently in the way we live our lives? Anyway it was a little treat. We visited the Polynesian Cultural Centre, staffed almost entirely by bright-eyed, smiling students from around the Pacific, studying on scholarships at Brigham Young University. There were some very clever and entertaining shows, lots to see, banana leaves to weave, canoe rides to be had. The kids had an absolute ball but I couldn't help feeling that, whilst the idea may have seemed brilliant 50 years ago when it first started, perhaps our understanding of the indigenous cultures and the role of missionaries could have moved on a bit further. I'm fairly sure it's not all dancing and singing in Polynesia these days. I feel a bit curmudgeonly even saying that, the staff were so overwhelmingly professional, cheerful, helpful and hard working. Several of them explained that they would have no prospects of higher education but for these scholarships, so what can you do but wish them all the best.
The last photo is of the paper dolls and village the girls made whilst stuck indoors today. The dolls are in 'Inga' tribe, formed from survivors of the Titanic, washed ashore on in the tropics and left to fend for themselves. I guess they were influenced by our day yesterday and all the focus on different islands, but it's hard to entirely abandon their regular orphan/historic settings shtick.
We leave tomorrow for what feels like the true start of our adventure. This has been a delightful tropical interlude on our way to the different wilds of New England but now I am bracing myself for the cold and looking forward to settling in for a while in Boston.
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