It’s ten o’clock and all is quiet after Rosa and Luis had a big row. Luis came home drunk at about six o’clock with three mates – also drunk, and as Rosa saw it – totally unsuited to being here..
Rosa was the official head of the household because Carlo was in Santiago
They were the blonde husband of one of one of Juan Ivan’s daughters who is now passed out on our couch, a young son of Juan Ivan and an older man. Rosa was furious and Luis somewhat abusive to her. The men drank a bottle of cognac and the young boy cooked up meat since Rosa refused to. They all seemed a bit craven to me, as if they knew they were breaking the rules and the singing didn’t go on as long as usual..
There was a big issue about where Luis was going to stay. He said he wanted to go to his house [next door] with Fifi but Rosa has the key. In his cups he told us that Rosa had loaned all the money he’d been saving to build a house to Carlo. He also says there is to be a death tomorrow. Apparently, too, the blonde bloke works in Vaitea and got us the meat we are eating now.
All this I think arose from the fact that Luis wanted to baptize the baby today and Rosa wouldn’t let him “Because it has a cold”. It was a most peculiar business. I woke up feeling dreadful after a sleepless night with Mungo waking every hour or so and didn’t go to mass.
It seemed impossible to sleep at home so I went down to the church at about 10.30. Everyone from the mass had left but Milarosa and her husband,old Luisa Ririroco and a few others were hanging about and told me they were waiting to baptize Luis’s baby. They seemed unperturbed by the fact that Rosa knew nothing about it and when I asked what the name was to be they didn’t know that either.
I waited with them for a while and sat down beside Mama Luisa Riroroco who looked extraordinary. Very weathered with her silver hair falling out of a scarf and her bare toes all splayed out. She couldn’t possibly wear shoes with toes like that. She said she had bad rheumatism. Someone gave us all a banana. After I’d been sitting a long time and was contemplating going home, Kiko came by and invited me to his house so I went. I realized that it was the same house I went to with Georgina the first week we were here, to make her dress. It was Kiko who made it. His sister is the woman who speaks good English and has the bright little baby
I was struck by the contented feeling in that family. The house is quite small. The main room has Tahitian cloth on the walls and a bookshelf full of bibles.. Outside the door is a big low wooden box with a sheepskin in it and the baby, who can walk with support now, is just as charming as before. There are two treddle sewing machines too.
Kiko served me real coffee made from island beans and cake, and I gave him my packet of biscuits that I had for presenting to Alberto’s mother. Luisa Pakerati Ika’s sister was there too. Kiko looks after a nephew and was full of advice for me on Mungo. He told me not to make him wear shoes except in wet weather and not to worry about his vaccination which is still festering like mad. I stayed for a while and then Kiko started fixing his double bed in the other room which he said had broken the night before. I thought I’d leave.
On coming home I found Grant had aired everything. Mungo smashed two soup plates this afternoon. I wonder what Luis is going to do with his passed out friend.
Visiting Mamaflora,wild kids, scurrilous rumours
May 15th Monday 1972
A pretty exhausting day it’s been. It started nicely with us getting up a little late and feeling affectionate. I got the bread as usual and Grant got the breakfast.
A rare inclusion of matrimonial harmony which was more normal than these diaries would suggest!
Then either Fifi or Christian shat vilely in the bathroom and we decided to try a reward system tomorrow and see if we can’t stop them doing that.
Rosa looks a bit pale this morning but the drunken amigo of Luis has gone leaving the door wide open and the gate too.
We went on down to the hospital to see if we could get something for Mungo’s cough and get him weighed as well. It took hours seeing the doctor. There were lots of people for the control and the doctor too – mostly with colds of one stamp or another. Gradually I got worn down by Mungo being fretful and the stream of people watching us and I had a pounding headache by the time I finally got in which must have been at least 12 o’clock. Mungo had his temperature taken anally for the first time which he didn’t much like! Maria/Suzy Riroroco was there as usual but nobody else I knew.
I arranged to start work on the archives tomorrow, forgetting I had a lesson with Maria Tepano.
After the hospital I dragged us both down to the padre’s house. He let us in to wait for Grant and I put Mungo to bed. G turned up about half an hour later and I filed the latest batch of cards and had a little nap myself.
Then I went on to Mamaflora’s as I had arranged and she gave me a nice welcome and taught me some new kai kais [cat’s cradles] I learnt three sorts of “Utami” and one called “two men carrying a reed bed ‘amo moenga’ which can be turned into another called ‘kia kia’. She actually had a reed bed which we sat on. It was very comfortable. It was made from dried reeds from the volcano sewn together. Because of the spongey middles they are surprisingly soft. Mamaflora is a good teacher because she is naturally very repetitive. She acted out the carrying of the reed bed for both Grant and me with great verve.
While we were there alone a woman came to the back door and Mamaflora rushed out with great sighs and then popped back to tell me in a stage whisper “La Tahitiana” and then went back to natter a bit more. I took the chance of noting down the details of the living room which were as follows:- It’s a smallish sitting room with two tables – one large and one coffee table size, both with vases of plastic flowers. There are two chairs for the table and a suite – a settee and two armchairs, yellow, and covered over with cloth with roses on it. There’s a treddle sewing machine that looks in good shape. On the wall three of those fabric pictures that I think come from Tahiti but could be from Santiago. One portrays Jesus and a flock of sheep, one a tropical scene with palm trees and the third a stag. The floor is polished wood and one pane is missing from the window and has been replaced with a piece of cardboard. Net curtains separate off two bedrooms which lead off from the sitting room. The kitchen leads off one of the bedrooms. There is a small radio and a small record player in the sitting room.
Mamaflora always asks us to eat in the kitchen which is nice. We had bread and syrup today with coffee. The dog was down beside me on a sheepskin. It’s a fat dog.
Mamaflora and I gave Mungo his medicine – two bottles of different pinks from the doctor – a spoonful of each.
When we got home the kids were running wild, grabbing chunks of meat and handfuls of sugar and Rosa had made a completely vile soup out of one of her chickens. I cooked up some tallarines [noodles] which we ate instead. The kids came out with their “Dame fideos”[give me noodles] and Rosa gave Fifi some though I wouldn’t have. Chico tore off a hunk of bread. I came to bed before I got any angrier. I don’t feel I can go beyond a certain point when Rosa is present because the kids are in her care and Fifi is after all, hers.
Grant went and got some paraffin for the stove from Juan Ivan today. Apparently Carlo is in league with the FACH supplies man and thieves it off the Fach always. Talking of thieving, apparently the mayor has run off with approx 5000 escudos of the profits of the dance. Sergio told Grant too that Mana Ika threw out Tula for thieving clothes from him and his son. A Pascuence rumour?
Saw a little girl today with really shocking teeth. We must go and see the dentist sometime and find out about milk and teeth.