Saturday 12 October 2013

Arrival and departure times and floral necklaces

Sitting under a ceiling fan at Faaa, Tahiti’s airport, I will stay here for the next 2 hours until my check-in opens. My flight leaves at 20 after midnight. If we think Tassie is marginalised or held to ransom by airlines, Tahiti has drawn an even shorter straw. This is how it is here. Back when I arrived, I felt somewhat sad that no-one was meeting me with a floral necklace. But that sadness was lost when Joelle gave me the largest fattest most important (because of the main choice of flower used, the value of which I only learnt about later) floral garland when I arrived on the island of Tahuata. But back here in the Tahiti airport I discovered an undercover open building slightly across from the main entrance, where dozens of woman sat with mounds of garlands and seed and shell necklaces waiting to sell them. Strongly fragrant white coloured tiara and p???? (must find out how to spell that important flower) flower garlands were everywhere. So simply seeing this set up, was a pleasure. Felicity, I couldn’t help drawing a parallel between these woman and those sitting on the edge of the Ganges at Varanasi and Patna selling their rich yellow floral necklaces.

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