May 10th Wednesday 1972
Today began badly. We all had a restless night with the children taking it in turns to wake up and cry. I was worried about Rosa’s baby too and kept dreaming that gangs of people were setting on me and beating me up and killing Mungo.
At about 5.30 the kids woke in the next room and at 6.30 the alarm went off for me to go and get bread. By the time I’d got back (15 escudos for 20 rolls) Christian had shat on the bathroom floor and the kettle wasn’t on and nobody was up.
I got the kids breakfasted and cleaned up a bit and then had a row with Grant because he complained he had no handkerchiefs
At that point the Tepanos came to pick me up.
We were going on a trip to the campo
I checked with Rosa that the baby was a bit better and then went out with Mungo, by then a bit sleepy. I jumped up on the back of the lorry and literally cooled down as we trundled out to the country. Maria’s mother, Mamaflora sat next to me and his brother Santiago opposite.
Mamaflora became a good friend, always calm and wise.
A young boy called Sergio who I haven’t quite placed yet was there too. They were all awfully sweet to me. Mamaflora gave me a cardigan to wrap Mungo in, who cooed himself to sleep and she told me what all the beaches were called as we passed them. When Mungo sneezed I explained about the English tradition of saying “Bless you” to stop the devil getting in and they laughed and asked if we had many devils in our house. I said no and asked if there were lots here and Santiago said there used to be lots before 1968 but now not so many. And we joked about Mungo being Tatane Matamomoke – devil with the blue eyes.
I was amazed throughout the day at the patience of the men with Mungo. Santiago played with him for ages and Sergio had him on his lap on the way home and Daniel always had a word for him. They were far more attentive than the women in fact.
When we got to the beach the boys whom I didn’t really know went off fishing – one had a very neat wet suit and we made a little fire outside the cave I rested in on the way back at the camp with Louisa Pakerati on Labour Day. It was very dirty and I understood a sentence saying so in Pascuence. We peeled and cooked some tarot and Maria gave us all bread and meat with a bit of egg
Mamaflora and Maria then went off to look for shells – Mamaflora for little black ones and Maria for shiny mottled ones. She counted hers afterwards – 150 there were.
Maria (Tepano who was my student and married to Daniel) brought her lessons with her and her English book and checked things with us from time to time. Anna and I went for a short walk together and I learnt a few interesting things about the tourist side of the household. Daniel charges 250 (escudos) a day and 150 for outings. Anna gave some clothes away and sold an outfit for 500 to the maid who, according to her , has a pretty rough life. She is not often given lifts in the truck and works very hard but had a tougher time before with another employer. There is a certain amount of squabbling going on over some shirts which Anna gave to both of them[?] The maid is called Loretta and is Chilean.
When the boys came back they brought a huge sack of fish – all sorts, yellow, grey and some were chopped up and put on to boil. The intestines were roasted and I was offered a bit of one which I didn’t like too much. Mungo slept while we ate and just woke in time to gobble down a bit of fish and watermelon.
Then we drove on to another beach with very blue water. The boys went off again, with Daniel this time and the females and Santiago hung around the truck. I had quite an interesting conversation with Flora Leontina Fati sister of Jose Fati who works at the co-operativa. She has a lot of relatives in Tahiti and wants us to take letters to them when we go back. She writes to them in Tahitian because they no longer speak Pascuence. She began teaching me a song too and I’m going to see her on Monday I have a feeling that the relationship of Maria to her mother was not too good. Flora stopped talking to me when Maria came over.
After the second fishing trip we drove to the volcano which was amazing – quite different from the other one., Rano Kau.
There were statues on the outer slope with cows and calves grazing amongst them. The volcano is unambiguous in its shape – sheer sides and a huge crater. We climbed up – me with the Mung and refusing offers of help from Santiago – and then the most unexpected sight met us – this great peaceful lake with reeds growing in it. I’d forgotten how peaceful a lake could be. There were cows there too and it looked very verdant and rich. The quarries lie on one side of the volcano only and you can see half carved statues and statues hardly formed at all, and some half way down the side of the volcano. Some had a sort of intimate look – those still in their matrices with a shelf of rock above them.
We climbed right to the top of the crater wall and looked over down the side which was quite sheer and made me feel very nervous with Mungo wriggling in my arms. I was full of wonder at the whole weird scene – on the one side a sheer drop and on the other, way below, this reedy lake and a group of cows
We climbed around with Santiago holding my hand anxiously from time to time and finally over the top and back to the truck. We drove off and picked up the two’jovenes’ (young boys) on the way and Daniel rattled away in Pascuence all the way home. I was dropped off with a couple of fish at about four o’clock.
I washed some hankies. The frig is full of meat from Luis and the statue is finished. He’s out tonight, supposed to be visiting his mother but Rosa says he’s lying because he’s gone to a fiesta at Milarosa’s house. Apparently Milarosa has two children – both grown up, and Maria/Suzy has four. One lives with Elvira by the port and one with Milarosa. All four are girls. It’s curious the way people won’t admit to all their children.
Friday May 12th 1972
Didn’t manage to write anything yesterday for no very good reason. We were busy though. After getting the bread and dealing with the kids we went down to the church via the Paoas where I handed in the clothes we had borrowed – and some biscuits. I think it is almosr obligatory to take things when we visit people. We must go on doing it. They still seemed a bit strained.. I met them at the airport too – sitting on the little wall by the altar in a row.
I spent a couple of hours in the morning organizing Grant’s cards in the church and then it came on to pour with rain and Mungo was tired so we both had a sleep in the padre’s spare room bed. His house is really crawling with little wood boring insects who leave piles of dust everywhere.
I came on home afterwards with Mungo and had a dreary sort of soup for lunch and wrote to Mum while waiting for the plane which was very late indeed – about 5.30. We saw off little Anna, the New Zealand tourist from the Tepanos. Maria was huddled in the truck with a stomach ache. Milarosa was at the airport. She called to see Rosa yesterday with a little boy who I think is hers.
A box came from Carlos full of fruit with two bottles of Pisco and some antiseptic from the Unctad couple who must have met Carlo in Santiago. No letter or anything so we don’t know when they’ll be back.
We had quite a jolly supper which I served not giving myself any “a la Chilena” but then I had some meat afterwards. There was Pisco and the lights went out so we ate and drank by candlelight. Luis’s statue is varnished black now
Afterwards Grant, Luis and I set off for the post office – Luis maintaining he was just coming for the walk and then slipping off to a fiesta somewhere half way down the road.’ It was very windy and there were lots of people at Alvarez buying cartons of eggs and newspapers as usual. But there was no ice cream this week.
I got two letters from Mum and a birthday card for Mungo. We went on down to the hotel to celebrate and bought a bottle of wine and were joined by Tula and co who drank most of it and wandered off, rather to my annoyance. They are an empty little bunch. On the way home we met Sergio ( not sure who this is now but not Sergio the schoolteacher) and his aunt and two little cousins He was very drunk and asked me to buy apples for his cousins which we did and then for five escudos to buy a little egg for himself which we didn’t, thinking it had gone far enough. He kept mauling me and staggering about.
Luis arrived home a little after we did and Grant and he set to finishing the Pisco and both got to bed about 1.30 pretty drunk. I’d left them to it a while before and lay in bed listening to creaky old Luis singing drunken Tahitian songs with his guitar.
This morning the place had a very ‘morning after the night before’ appearance with the floor covered in cigarette ends and no washing up done. As usual we got the kids breakfasted. Grant has started instituting a few rules like no”Da me” [give me} but “Per favor” [Please]. This was such a success that he told them not to shit about the place either but in the bathroom. Unfortunately this wasn’t such a good idea because as soon as Rosa came out and found Christian shitting nicely on the lavatory she said “Why can’t you go and shit outside?” So one really can’t win.
Chico is a nice, basically very intelligent child. I wish we had more ways of keeping his curiosity and interest in pictures and music alive. He’s really hungry for things to play with. The other day he retrieved my [empty] Norinyl [birth control pilll) card from the dustbin and played with it for the whole day cherishing it and keeping it in the bottom of the disused frig. I felt a bit outraged at first and felt it to be oddly immodest but – what the hell.
We went down to town at 11ish. I went to the ECA and then to the hospital to check that Mungo’s BCG thing was all right since it looked as if it was eating up his arm. It was OK in fact. There were lots of people milling about there. I saw Nora for only a minute or two. Spoke to a woman who had lost a baby. Said, I hope correctly, that it was sad but there was time for plenty more,
I hadn’t had any miscarriages then or I certainly wouldn’t have said that.
After that I joined Grant at the school where he was talking to Sergio and a tourist. Mungo wanted to be held by both Sergio and the tourist who were touched by his affectionateness but unwilling to be sullied by his grubby feet. Afterwards I managed to get the last batch of cards filed at the padre’s house and we came home because Grant was feeling very sick. I suspect the kidney he ate last night wasn’t too good. He took to his bed and was sick in the afternoon.
It has become very cold and I long for an electric fire.
I talked to Rosa a bit tonight. She says she only went to school for 7 years because school was very expensive then in Chile. She doesn’t want any more children because she had such a bad time with the last one. It’s now quite a joke that Luis “goes to see his mother” in the evenings. Rosa says “Mentira!” [lies]
I cooked fish tonight. A nice change from boiled food.
Spent an hour or two with Chico and Fifi (Rosa’s daughter from next door) tonight going through “Developmental Psychology Today” because it is full of pictures.
Because the university forwarded everything that arrived there for Grant we often had magazines Like Psychology Today to which he subscribed then.
He (Chico) was enraptured and forgot about his warm milk. I was pleased to see Fifi drank hers. She wasn’t going to until I said it didn’t matter whether she did or not. Her mother forces her to eat a bit too much. Mungo has been totally off food today. I gave him some herb tea – was the only thing he’d take.
Funny how quite unconsciously we started imposing our cultural assumptions on the kids when their parents were gone. Please and thank you. Use the toilet! Really it wasn’t our business.
Saturday, 13th May
I felt really ill today with an awful sore throat. It was drizzling when I went out to get the bread and lots of people were up because of the plane. Tula went off apparently. The kids were naughty at breakfast and did things with chewing gum. Grant was late back from the plane because he went down to Alvarez to change some travellers’ cheques and the bank manager walked in.
Money matters were complex for us. The exchange rate at the bank was unrealistically low because of inflation in continental Chile. Our day to day funding from the Australian National University went through the bank but other arrangements were made for exchanging supplementary funds in dollars or travellers cheques. Foreign currency was much in demand.
Last night was punctuated by disturbances. First Luis left the gate open and horses got in and and ate the maize and then dogs chased the horses so their hoofs pounded by the house. Next Mungo woke and bellowed inconsolably for ten minutes or so. At about 2.30am Luis came in and clattered about with food and then at 6am Mungo woke up.
After Grant returned [with the bread] and we had eggs for breakfast we set off to get Jose Fati’s foot size to ask for some boots from England for him. He was out on his verandah and Grant drew round his foot. He said he couldn’t ask us in because his son was ill in bed. I didn’t believe this – not quite sure why. Anyway it came on to rain and we hung around on this wretched verandah and every time Mungo put his bare foot down Jose said to beware of the humidity of the soil. He told Grant a lot of nonsense about the old days and said his brother went to Tahiti. He’s Mamaflors’s brother. He has a swing and ducks in his garden.
I’m not sure why Jose Fati’s information was dismissed as “a lot of nonsense” because he became a very important source of historical and traditional information later. Perhaps he was testing Grant’s ability to judge information. That seems a bit devious since we were getting boots for him, but islanders sometimes had a way of teasing us!
By the time we got away and down to the church I felt really terrible and crawled into the spare bed at the padre’s house. It felt marvellously soft and comfy. I had a short nap and then Grant put the Mung in with me. By the time he slept I no longer wanted to but decided to go home and fetch a nappy for the Mung before going to Maria’s for today’s lesson. I left him in the padre’s bed and set off down the short cut. I must have taken a wrong turning because I landed on a road I couldn’t recognize at all. I was just puzzling it out when a man and two little boys came down the path, obviously strangers. They were ever so English as it turned out. He was a doctor in the Gilbert and Ellice islands for two years and was on his way home with his wife and two little boys.. He explained where we were and it seemed I’d done a full circle and was back at the church again.
I decided not to go home then but to go on up to Maria’s which I did. I told her about the doctor’s family and that they wanted a trip around. She was pretty busy today with three tourists – the Basque with the fastidious manner, a rather nice Frenchman and a Chilean I didn’t see.
She gave Carlotta a lot of instructions and then whispered to me that we should go down to her mother, Mamaflora’s house for the lesson and get out of the way. I think she was keen to get me out of sight too because I looked a bit grubby and sweaty, not having managed to get home. So we went and Mamaflora made us tea whilst I gave a dictation to Maria which was an incredible sight. She has no idea of spelling yet, at all and had simply written what I said as phonetically as she could. I’m not sure how to cope with that.
Mamaflora is a sweet lady. An awfully good teacher too. She taught me as we ate tea in the kitchen. Her kitchen didn’t have a fridge or a sink. A hunk of meat hung from a hook on the wall and she washed up in a tin bowl which she placed under a tap. She did, however, have a little washing machine. She has a dog too, with a name. Maria gave it bits of bread now and then. Maria has promised us a kitten in a couple of weeks for Mungo.
Mamaflora also told us an interesting superstition. She said she knew we were coming because she dropped a spoon– a soup spoon is a female coming, a knife is a man and a small spoon means a child.. Maria thought this was a bit silly and seemed contemptuous.. She [Mamaflora] also picked Mungo up and showed him a picture of a stag on the kind of cheap tapestry that people often have here and said “Mira – tatane” (Look – a devil”) sort of jokingly. The devil is certainly ever present as a joke or a threat or whatever. Grant turned up and had a quick tea and then Daniel came to pick us up.
Mamflora seemed disappointed that we weren’t staying longer but I just reconfirmed that I’d come on Monday afternoon which pleased her. I was aware again of the lack of respect or affection from Maria to her mother.
the evening I talked to Rosa a bit more. She said that the present doctor was no good and made her suffer three days during the birth of her second baby . Fifi [her first] was born by caesarian and there was a much better doctor there then. She claimed she was given no pain killer at all for the second baby. She and Luis met at a dance in Santiago “for Pancuence”
The tourist doctor’s wife said I ought to clean up and cover Mungo’s vaccination which is now a great pit in his arm. I have, despite the Chilean doctor saying it’s OK as it is. I put gentian violet on it too because, really, it’s getting to look terrible.