Just Like Home

Well, i'm not in Utah anymore... Quickly, guess where I am... Got it? 

K, well if you guessed Bora Bora then you hit it right on the dot. French Polynesia feels like home. The aloha spirit that everyone embodies is super prevalent. You'll never be hungry, because you'll slap (go eat) and once you slapped once, I hope you're ready for seconds and thirds because there's no stopping and desserts, well there's always room and if not, pray and make some room. The weather and vibe is just like Hawaii and the place itself is like a Hauula town mixed with the reef and sandbar of Kaneohe.

We had to catch a bus and two trains to get from the MTC to the airport, and then a plane from SLC to LAX and then another plane to get to Tahiti. When we arrived in Tahiti me and another elder stayed the night with another companionship since we had to catch flights the next day. That night was spent trying to figure out all the clothes, books, etc... I would/could pack for the next few months since we are only allowed to take one 50lbs suitcase. I finally figured what I would take and when we got to the airport my bag was 22.2KG right under the maximum weight allowed of 23KG. I caught a small plane to Bora and was asked to switch seats before we took off to balance the plane. Landed on a small atoll and had to take a boat to Bora itself.

My companion Elder Parau is the best and is a native of Tahiti. It's really good because he can understand everyone no matter their age. Oh, he also doesn't speak English but has just started to learn English these past few days so we can converse with each other. We started using Google translate after I realized that he would just nod his head and say yes to all my questions and things I would say. 

Teaching is fun especially teaching children because then we keep everything super simple. I find myself reverting to Tahitian a lot during lessons with some French as well. The kids here are like never in school or at least the little kids aren't. There's always some holiday going on, like the Hawaiki Nui paddling race is going on this week so the kids here don't have school. Since we have plenty lessons we don't necessarily plan each lesson in detail. Instead we go in with a few main points and branch of based off of their needs and the spirit. This has taught me to really be in tune with the spirit and if I am I am able to understand and ideas, phrases and words come into my mind or just out of my mouth.

Keep on keeping on and smile cause everything is gonna be alright. Oh and someone was blasting the band SOJA while we were teaching a lesson and I thought there songs were sick in English but hearing it in French was something else.

"Vents favorables et mer suivante"

"Mata'i haumaru e moana mania"

"Fair winds and following seas"

Standing by,

Elder Ellis