Adventures in Paradise 41

Adventures in Paradise 41

Kia Orana, everyone! Our excellent adventure continues with thoughts of July celebrations. Here, we are five thousand miles away from our Fourth and Twenty Fourth of July holidays. There has always been a special place in my heart for these two dates. One is intrinsically American, while the other belongs to Utah as a celebration of our pioneer forefathers.  It seemed a bonus to me that Utah had two causes for fireworks within the same month. I love these traditions and the festivities surrounding them.

 We were lucky to live in Utah. July had that languid, lazy air about it. For me, it was always the best part of the summer. There were endless picnics, fireworks and reasons to fly the flag. There were drives up the canyon, trips to Lake Powell and barbeques in the back yard.  There were rodeos, demolition derbys, baseball and a lot of hot dogs. Then there were the parades. There were large, fancy parades and small, intimate ones. There were parades that lasted three hours and those that simply wound around the neighborhood. There were elaborately designed floats and crepe paper decorated bikes. It was all a wonderful accumulation of tradition and I loved it. I was  anticipating that I would miss home more in July than in any other month and was preparing myself for a major attack of homesickness, when I first began hearing the announcements for Cook Islands Constitution Day. July was saved!!

Te Maeva Nui celebrations began this morning with a parade! The theme for this year is “Signs of My Homeland” and people from all of the outer Cook Islands are arriving in Rarotonga to participate in a week jam- packed with singing, dancing, drumming and non-stop activity. Yesterday evening, the Lady Naomi docked at Avaitu harbor. Having left Samoa two weeks ago, she had made stops at all the northern group of the Cooks to pick up passengers. These passengers were arriving to help us celebrate. They were met at the docks by a truckload of drummers and ei-laden Rarotongans ready to welcome their participation.

The coming week’s festivities will not include a single rodeo, firework or marching band. Thousands of dollars will not be spent on elaborate decorations .Instead, one will enjoy a cultural feast with floats and social halls adorned with native plants. Beautiful effects can be achieved by plaiting palm fronds into different patterns, as the variations seem endless. We watched in fascination last evening as one truck after another passed our home filled with what appeared to be palm forests. We knew that many islanders would be working well into the night to transform vehicles into parade floats. We were excited to view this transformation and could hardly wait for the parade. Oh, yes, need I mention, that there will be heaps of traditional food as well? This will not be an easy week for dieters!

This is a celebration of all that says Cook Islands. My favorite banner simply read:

“Our Culture is Our Heritage”

So, we ask that you indulge in one more July parade and we hope that you can catch a bit of the island spirit that we enjoyed today. Might I add, that today’s parade was made all the more enjoyable for us because we now love the people and appreciate their culture.  Isn’t that the way that it should be with friends? 

As usual, we are happy and trying to work hard. We are grateful that you all have been part of the parade of loved ones passing through our lives. Tapiri mai kia mataora to tatou araveianga!

Love, Ward and Susan             Elder and Sister Belliston, serving in the Cooks

The Lady Naomi docking

The Cook Island Flag: New Zealand Flag with the addition of fifteen stars for the fifteen islands in the Cook Island chain.

Most of the floats were decorated with palm branches. This float includes drummers.

A tiny participant

A children's dance troupe

My favorite float

Even the local prison got involved!

Jugglers

From the island of Manihiki. Notice the Tivaivais

I wish you could see how fast he was dancing!

This god was worshiped before the arrival of the Gospel

This float is urging people to "Buy Local"

Some of the local produce

This float is made up entirely of cans and plastic bottles that can be recycled

Tin can men urging everyone to recycle

My friend, the local warrior

No parade is complete without beauty queens

and dancers

and clowns

This is the largest float in the parade. It was sponsored by Arorangi village, which is located on the western side of the island. They call  that part of the island  the wild, wild west and their rugby team in called the Cowboys 

Ka kite! See you next week!