6th August - Ba'a (Rote) day

Tuesday 6^th August

We had been invited to a welcoming ceremony in Ba’a at 12.00.  At 9.30 our neighbor Jan, on Avanta, rang to tell us it was now to be at 10.00 so…hurry up and get on shore!

We took the dinghy in to shore, where Jan was waiting with his crew member, Arnaud, and we were – to our surprise greeted by quite a large group of young men with a big car to take us the 500 metres to the ceremony.

Jan is a nice man, Dutch, lives in Malta, is a member of the Royal Yacht Club in Hobart and his boat flies a Swedish flag…His wife will joining him in Bali, and in the meantime, he has Arnaud as crew, who is busy learning all about boats… He told Pete that he is VERY patient with Arnaud, who started off knowing not much at all about boats or sailing.  “Yes,” said Pete.  “I am very patient with the people on my boat too.  But funnily enough – they don’t think I am…”

I have met a few Indonesian people in my time, and had never found them to be particularly fun-loving.  I am now revising my opinion… Here is a cheery young chap John and I met in the street yesterday:

And this morning we met the Chief of Police of this island…

He was sitting across from me during the speeches and performances, and he was extremely funny, dancing in his seat and waving his fingers around… VERY unlikely!

The dancing girls were GORGEOUS

and were very happy to be photographed with John, wearing a local hat:

There were lots of people at the ceremony, fortunately… Five boats* from the rally, every official from the area, and all manner of Ba’a locals.

All with cameras…

I have to include one of the (slightly boring…) line-up photos, to prove I was there:

Two of the officials were thrilled to be photographed with John – they found his height to be VERY impressive.

All of the performers, and all of the officials, wear clothes made from the beautiful local woven material.  Skirts, jackets, shirts, the lot. 

But this little girl…wears a totally nylon Barbie dress!

Yesterday I spent many hours constructing postcards – ten of them.  They are not very beautiful (we have run out of coloured ink…) but I TRIED.  I had found the post office yesterday, and had noticed it was open when we were on our way to the ceremony.  But was it open afterwards?  NO!  Tutup, said the sign…(closed.)  One of the local teachers stopped to talk to us, on his motorbike.  He said that the post office wouldn’t be open until tomorrow.  Or maybe the next day.  Or Monday.  But why did I need it?  He looked at me, slightly pityingly and said, “Why don’t you just send an email?”

Tomorrow we are all meeting up at 8.00 to go on a tour of the islands.

Maybe I will see monkeys…

* Avanta (Sweden), Zangezi (USA), Ocean Child (USA), Equilibrium II (Australia).  Two of these boats have children aboard – they are having such a good time and are SO well-behaved at all of the (slightly incomprehensible…) ceremonies that I am very impressed…

And to finish up...some limestone (I do like a big of rock, every now and then...)