June 12 – Rebuked AKA Queen of Shebia AKA I
am an idiot
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| Mangareva |
Wow. I am an idiot and, consequently, had a
strip torn off of me today, a huge strip, and, consequently, Sven has lost, in
my opinion, some of his shine. What a shame. As usual the incident was petty
but nonetheless I can’t see myself completely forgetting it. I don’t know why I
am so stupid. Miguel, another yatchie, stopped by in his dingy to ask what we’d
thought of the movie he had leant us and Sven said we hadn’t finished it. I
chirped in that someone had posted a small segment of it on facebook earlier in
the year and I’d found it so compelling that I’d taken it into school to show
my students. Miguel wanted to know which clip and then asked how far though the
movie we’d gotten and I, idiot me, said I thought we’d watched the whole thing.
What was I thinking? After Miguel left Sven just totally flipped. He yelled at
me for 15 minutes. He told me not to talk during HIS conversations, not to
contradict him in public, called me the Queen of Shebia who thought only of
myself, told me that HE was boss on the boat, that HE got to do all the
talking, that I took orders from HIM, blah, blah, blah… (I watched this whole
performance somewhat detached wondering if he realized the irony of his calling
me out for being self-centered while simultaneously thumping himself on the
chest and declaring that he was lord of the universe.) I am sure that mostly he
was embarrassed by my having implied that he had lied to Miguel, which, after all,
he had (his explanation being that he wanted to keep the movie another day to
make a copy of it. Why not just say that then? I asked) but his reaction was
nonetheless WAY out of line. Why, oh why, can I not just get along with people
better?
Later I sit outside under an almost full
moon, the cool breeze delightful, the sound of (loud) drumming coming across
the water from town giving the evening a lovely Polynesian flavour and yet the
ambiance tarnished by events of the day. I am torn, almost ready to jump ship,
miss seeing the Tuamotu Islands, yet realize that this might also be an
over-reaction.
Was it only yesterday that I wrote in my
journal that for the first time on this trip I was totally at peace? Man! Easy
come, easy go, I guess.
PS The next day Sven acts as if nothing has
happened, Lipsticktoo and I wander the town together happy as can be, and I decide
to try and let it all blow over, partially because our guidebook claims that
all, except one, of the islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago are ‘true atolls
that range from unbroken circles of coral surrounding a lagoon to glistening
chains of coral islets with one or two navigable passages into the lagoon.’ and
this all seems to good to miss. Our first stop will be Hao which has the
interesting history of having been a military base back in the day when they
were doing nuclear testing nearby…
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| "marble kids" - after they see me! |
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| Kid playing marbles on the steps of the cathedral before he sees me. |
PPS I assume internet opportunities will be
few and far between as we hop from almost inhabited atoll to uninhabited atoll
but also assume that I would have to say anyway will be, ‘Wonderful sail!
Amazing snorkelling!’
