Monday May 1st 1972
Mungo’s first birthday. We are out in the country with Maria Ika’s family and spent last night in a sort of tent made of the lorry top. We left yesterday after a very well attended mass with an announcement about having a dance to raise funds to look after the coconut trees at Anakena.
Unlike most Pacific Islands, Rapanui did not have indigenous coconut trees. The ones at Anakena beach were planted, perhaps to create a traditionally Polynesian feel for the only good beach on the island which would please the tourists.
We went home and gathered up a bit of food and were picked up by a lorryload of the Ika family. We drove out to a beach not far from Anakena and immediately set to making an umu. A smallish hole was dug and a fire lit in it with stones on the top. When the stones were hot enough, fish entrails were roasted on top and a few fish the boys had caught. Later the stones fell into the hole and banana leaves were put on top of them. On the banana leaves was first put poi, which I helped to make. It is a paste of bananas,squash, sugar and flour. The poi was in basins of tin. After that went meat, a lamb we’d picked up at Vaitea and sweet potatoes and more banana leaves. Finally the whole thing was buried in earth and left. Other cooking was going on. Three hens were killed (slowly) and plucked and boiled for Mana because he can’t eat meat. I plucked one while it was still warm. It gave me a very odd feeling.
I took Mungo down to the rock pools for a bit and then walked to Anakena Beach with a couple of the women and a little boy. It was hot but the sun was going down and when we came back it was quite dark. Lots of people were on the beach. Most of the town seemed to have taken to the country this weekend because of Labour Day. Before we set off, trucks kept passing the house.
But anyway when we opened the earth oven, a great plate of lamb and lobster and a great dollop of poi was given to us. I noticed that we were served whilst everyone else just dug in. Felt a bit out of it at that point.
Patricia, the Chilean girl who has been here three months, is very much part of the family now. There was plenty of food. Mana Ika had gone to fetch Luisa (his wife) at this point. He brought out two loads of people including a tortoiseshell cat. The cat stayed around the whole weekend getting fatter all the time.
We went off to get water in the truck with the handsome son (Gabriel), who likes Mungo, and we got thrown about in the back a bit.
After eating Luisa prepared the “tent” for us. On asking where the rest of the tribe were sleeping we were surprised to be told “in a cave”. They all slipped off and away into the cave except for one little lot who had a makeshift tent. Mana Ika’s sister slept there with some others whose name I don’t know.
We slept badly with Mungo waking up again and again because he was uncomfortable too. I ended up sleeping on top of his basket and he in my place.. Just as we really settled it was dawn and everyone came up out of the cave and set to making coffee and banging on our roof. Apparently it got awfully hot in the cave.
We had coffee and bread and cheese and I had a look at the cave which seemed small for all those people. The lorry was loaded up with the boys who were going to fish with guns. Grant went too. I went with Luisa to the front, a little way along the coast. Others came too, to look for shells (for making the shell necklaces which were almost always given to those departing and arriving on the island) and to swim.
I saw an interesting antique yesterday – a stone (found by the sea) for blowing and making a trumpet noise. None of the kids could get a sound out of it. After I left the beach with Olga I felt Mungo needed a drink and so we headed for a camp in La Perouse Bay. It was a hot and rocky walk with the sun sizzling down on my back. I was relieved to reach the camp where two little fires were going and a group of boys were playing a guitar. Graciela Huki, who gave us tomatoes, was there and so was Maria Pakerati with a straw hat on. I explained that Mungo had diarrhoeia and Graciela produced a tablet which she administered by crushing it and mixing it with water and holding Mungo’s nose while she poured it down his throat.. It seemed to work cos he’s better today. She gave him a cup of tea and some soup too. She has also offered us a house which we are going to see soon. She’s a nice down to earth woman without the streak of fantasy that so many people have here.
By this time we had decided we needed to find our own space, however grotty. My housewifery was never going to please Carlo and we wanted to be nearer the centre of the village too.
Maria Pakerati accompanied me back to our camp along the coast which is supposed to be quicker than the road. We stopped for a rest in a cave about half way and she asked me if Grant was a good husband. I said yes indeed but he wasn’t a very good father but it would be better when Mungo learnt to talk. She nodded sagely. She told me she was one of sixteen children, eleven being girls.
Grant getting to be a father was a work in progress. He was better with our second boy and very good indeed with our third. And when he got grandchildren he was patient and lovely.
Back at the camp various little things were being cooked but we were really waiting for the boys to bring back fish. I desperately tried to find shade for Mungo but he wouldn’t stop crying.. The other half of one of his big teeth was coming through.
When the lorry returned there was much cooking of fish. By this time the camp was getting pretty mucky with heaps of fly ridden scraps here and there. Luisa Ika gave me a mug of rice for Mungo which he ate.
We drove home around four o’clock rather to my relief. It was lovely to get out of the sun and the house seemed positively luxurious. We brought a lobster home for Carlos. He’s really suffering from lack of cigarettes.
In the evening we went out to go to mass only to find it had finished. I had diarrhoea by this time and kept having to dive into the dark guava bushes.
I was feeling terrible so Grant took us to the hotel where I had a lovely lavatory and a stiff cognac and fruit juice. While we were sitting there our banana friend (Old man Pacomio) came in with his rucksack on his back. We bought him a drink . With lots of mysterious beckonings he called the barman over and slipped him a couple of cigarettes. Don’t know why. Afterwards we went back to his house and were given a bunch of bananas. I staggered home feeling rather high.
Today I went down to the meat market to get the family’s sheep ration. I got half a sheep for fifty escudos.. Lots of people were there and a couple of babies. – Victor (baby of Soledad who lived in the house for a while) being one. He’s really growing now. He seemed hungry and was sucking a bottle teat. The babies were nicely dressed. There was quite a queue at the meat kiosk. Miragrosa (a sister of Georgina) pulled me in behind her. Soledad was there with Florencia from down the road. She seems to be living there now. Florencia’s mother was sitting on the grass with Victor.
While we queued a lorry came with the sheeps’ carcasses and lots of sheep heads which were piled into the kiosk pretty briskly. When I asked how much meat our family should have, Soledad and Mirarosa went “Shsh” and said ten kilos. Apparently the ration is 1 kilo per person. I wondered if there was any allowance made for the different cuts of meat or the heads which Mirarosa’s father has about six of.
We started walking back – me with my half sheep in a blue bag carried by a little boy. Then we were given a lift in an open jeep. He brought me all the way home for which I was mighty grateful.
I nearly didn’t go to market today at all because when I dropped Coca off at Maria/Suzy’s she told me there was no market today because of the holiday yesterday. But, going home empty handed, I met Maria Leon Hei who said she had it from the horse’s mouth that there was a market. Rumour is confusing sometimes.. Maria/Suzy also told me that the father of her baby works in the hotel and she’s getting married soon because her father says she’s no good having so many babies without being married. She also says she’s going for a holiday in Santiago in September.
We had a telegram today! From Mum and Frank for Mungo’s birthday. I was really delighted. Such a surprise. It’s a radio telegram.
I gave my lesson to Maria Tepano today. She has a very chic tourist house with a frilly lavatory seat cover. A Chilean plastic surgeon and his wife are staying there now. Very jolly and speaks English. Mungo behaved incredibly nicely and I taught quite a bit and learnt quite a bit of Rapanui but forgot it as easily as I learnt it.
Sometimes I worry about the negative things the diaries say about Grant who was much loved for over fifty years after all. Before he died I asked him if I should edit bits about him but he said no = it was what it was. But it makes me wonder if one can upset or offend the dead. It is a grievous thought.