Pacific Islands

March 8, 2009
Another Sunday, and what a difference from last week! I only printed 20 bulletins thinking I was being optimistic since last Sunday’s turnout had been so low. And I had failed in my attempt to move the worship hour to the evening because again so much is going on this evening. So I was surprised that as the 9:00 a.m. hour approached, more and more people kept filing into the service. I soon ran out of bulletins and started asking people to share. I ended up with around 30 people, my highest attendance to date.

Actually, a lot more people around the ship are getting to know me, and not just because we have been on the ship for six weeks or so. I attribute it to three things: Ronnie’s warm outgoing nature which just draws people in (believe me she has been a star on this cruise and has done so well in controlling her colorful language), my appearance as a contestant on the Mariner’s Got Talent show, and finally the class on meditation that I have been teaching on sea days. Since attendance at the sea day devotional was quite low, I talked to John and Handre (Cruise Director and Assistant Curise Director) about teaching a class on meditation. So I scheduled it for the days after Robinson Crusoe Island (we had three sea days in a row), and I started with 15 or so the first day, went to 20+ the second day, and then 30+ on the third. It appealed to people from a variety of traditions and it was simply through word of mouth that it grew. People have requested that I continue the class on sea days, and the Cruise Directors have agreed. Since I love to teach, I have found it gratifying.

At the last minute I decided to enter the Talent Show tryouts, partly because I heard they needed more contestants. Ok, Ronnie doesn’t think I’m funny, I know, but I entered in the comedy category anyway, since even I know I can’t sing. Because I signed up last I was the last one to try out, and I waited around for 2 hours. They had it set up like American Idol, with three judges (2 men and one woman) deciding whether you made it to the next level. Our Cruise Director John is a dead ringer for Simon Cowel, and we had to appear on stage in the main theater. The tryout went Ok, but what I did not realize was that they would televise all the tryouts in a continuous loop for 2 days on one of the ship’s channels. Even Ronnie said I looked relaxed and comfortable on stage. I had people coming up to me all the time saying they had seen me on TV and hoped I made it to the next round. I didn’t. They cut 7 of us and 6 went on to appear before the an all ship audience in the theater before dinner. We all then voted for the winner. Actually I thought the six best were chosen, and the winner was a lawyer who wrote a words about the ship to the tune of Those Were The Days. She had a good voice and a good stage presence.

March 9, 2009
Easter Island. Beautiful and mysterious. We took an early tender onto the island amid fairly rough seas. It was hard getting on the tender with the ship pitching up and down rather dramatically at times. One woman on a different tender injured her leg when it became sandwiched between the tender and the ship. She was taken off the ship permanently for medical treatment. It was a long walk into town from the dock (about 30 minutes) and on we seriously almost got run over by a heard of wild horses, which run loose all over the island. We walked around the village for the rest of the morning and found, you guessed it, a handicraft market. We really didn’t see much that interested us, but couldn’t resist a moai (the island’s monolithic statues that have made it famous) carved out of the volcanic rock of the island. Thanks to the help of a local who translated for us, we also were able to buy bread and turkey, chips and a large bottle of coke light in grocery store for lunch for a little less than $6. We took a taxi for $5 back to the pier (we met some people who paid $20 for the same ride into town), and ate our lunch while we waited for our excursion.

We had an excellent guide on our excursion, which took us to see several of the moais and the stone houses that the Easter Island natives had built. We then drove up the side of one of the volcanoes where we had a panoramic view of the whole island. Next stop was the rim of the volcano, where we could look down and see a huge crater lake covered with dense vegetation. It was dramatic, like nothing we had ever seen before. From there we went to a lookout where the natives used to start the birdman competition, a race involving climbing down steep cliffs, swimming to a close island to retrieve a bird’s egg, then swimming back and presenting it to his chief. That chief ruled the island for the next year.

We also saw some amazing petrogliphs carved in the rock. The theory is that the birdman cult followed the ancestral cult (the statues are supposed to be of ancestors who would watch over them). The one stop we regretted was not on our tour was the quarry where the moais were carved. There are over 400 at the quarry in various stages of completion. Being on the island is like a step back in time, and you can almost feel the presence of the natives who carved these huge moais. It is a bit eerie. They do have an airport with one huge runway accommodating 2 to 4 flights a week. A plane (767) actually landed while were there. You might think that is a large plane for a small place, but the airport can accommodate anything you can throw at because the runway is long and bisects the island. You can thank good old NASA for the long runway, as it is an emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttle.

Today we were anchored off of Pitcarin Island, where the mutineers from the HMS bounty settled and burned the Bounty (made famous in the books and movies entitled Mutiny on the Bounty). Because the dock is so small on the island, the islanders came on board instead of our going ashore. They seemed like happy and interesting people, with a total of 48 living on the island and an additional 12 temporary residents (doctor, teacher, etc.). They sold their crafts at stall on deck, gave a lecture on the island, and sand a few songs. Oh no! Beautiful carved wooden sea creatures (even a sting ray) for sale at bargain prices, and yes, a few small ones just seemed to make their way into our hands. Well, the lecture told us this was one of the islander’s main income, and they get less than one cruise ship per month. We had to help support the local economy! I know: we will be a walking craft store when we leave this ship.

The ocean is so blue and beautiful, with another incredible sunset this evening. Again, we have to pinch ourselves to be sure that we really are on this incredible voyage. For the past three days straight we have been crossing time zones and gaining an hour every night. You might think it would be great to gain an hour every night, but our bodies don’t know it, so I have been waking up at ridiculously early hours. I even went to the gym before breakfast this morning. Ronnie is now up to an hour and half in the gym every day. Although we know we gained some weight in the beginning, we both now have actually lost some weight from when we embarked.

Our love to all family and friends who read this. God is good. Thanks be to God!