Mittwoch, 22. Juli 2009

Patience-Training

Aute II, Monday 20th of July 2009

This morning Manuel dropped us off at the harbour where we had to sit and wait for the “Taporo” (freight ship) office to open. There are only three or four ships going to Raiatea and they are all occupied up until the 18th of August… after this first disappointment of the day we bought another Manacard (I think it’s time we ask them to sponsor our project) and carried out our daily “desk duty”.

While Raphael made some phone calls I went to see Antonina to ask (politely) if we could move in with her anytime soon – I had to sit there and wait three quarters of an hour until she was finished with a customer – just to learn that her guests had decided to extend their stay and her family from Rarotonga was coming right after they left. I guess that means we’ll have to stay on the hill – far away from the beach a bit longer...

Disappointment number three: The Ukulele-chap Raphael was in touch with won’t be able to sell him one for at least another two weeks (“the Japanese are buying up everything and they’re willing to pay any price”) – we could really use some diversion up here in the middle of nowhere…

After Raphael paid the energy ministry another quick visit and I bought some black, red and yellow construction materials we made our way to the marina (I had the crackpot idea that we could find some millionaire and hitchhike to Raiatea). We saw some disgustingly huge and shiny private yachts - we were too intimidated by their size that we decided to talk to the owners of smaller sailboats. We found two people who knew someone potentially going to Raiatea so we swapped phone numbers. We also put up a note in the little shop and by the launderette. I doubt that anyone will respond but it’s always worth a try!

We had been spoiled with success and everything running smoothly…
Back home Raphael designed a rotor blade for our host presents. I cut them out and we assembled a prototype which we attached to our wooden spoon (I guess we’ll have to use a metal one to cook dinner tomorrow ;)

Final thoughts of the day: Originally I was going to skip the blog-entry for Monday since I felt like I had nothing positive to report but now that I’m looking at our wind turbine spinning in the kitchen (all our windows are open and there’s a nice breeze coming in) I know that yesterday wasn’t a complete waste of time!

Aute II,Tuesday 21st of July 2009

Raphael is preparing for the meeting with Terii Vallaux (the energy minister’s renewable energy consultant) and I shall cycle down to Arue (yesterday we learnt that there is another), find a millionaire to take us to Raiatea – and pester more people with my questionnaire and look for a Manaspot to keep in touch with our contacts.

Final thoughts of the day: Optimists don’t worry about cycling back up the hill while they’re enjoying the wind blowing through their hair on the way down :)
Bicycles with a built-in tailwind would be really handy – I bet they’d encourage more people to cycle!
Going to the other Marina in Arue was probably a waste of time – no millionaires there – only locals with small boats (very unlikely that anyone is going to Raiatea in the near future – only three sailboats with strangers: from Sweden, Norway and the US – left a note on one of them, the other two where anchoring somewhere off the shore) and I only got three questionnaires filled in today…

1 Kommentar:

Anonym hat gesagt…

Manacard as a sponsor? Why not??? Couldn't find any contact details online, but maybe you guys have them... Let's just ask!

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