Land of Sweet Fruit, Sweet Scenes, and the Sweetest People

HELLLOOO!!!!!!!!!   Finally I have found an internet cafe, and I will update all of you! I hope you are all having wonderful winters wherever you are! 

So for the first 6 days of the trip, we were in Rartatonga, a beautiful island in the Cook Islands about 5 hour plane flight from NZ.  This island takes about 30 minutes to drive around, there are green lush mountains in the middle, and the most beautiful clear water beaches on the rim.  Everyday is its own amazing adventure - it really is incredible.  From the day we landed in the airport and jumped off the plane only to be surrounded by mountains and cool air, everyday has been an amazing adventure.

We went to a market on Saturday with tons and tons of food and FRUIT! The fruit here is amazing! Starfruit, mangos, papaya, sour mangos (ever head of that?), kiwi, and passion fruit of course!

 

We hiked across the mountains, a cross-island hike, with a 70 year old barefoot Cook Islander man with dreads who was faster than all of us combined! It was an extremely muddy and steep hike, but felt so amazing to just be surrounded by green at all sides! And this was the view at the top - amazing, huh?

 

I've also gotten to meet some people who live here in Raratonga, and they really are some of the nicest people I ahve met.  The amazing thing about drawing that I've realized is you meet so many people through it.  Almost everytime I've met someone new, it's because I was drawing and he or she came over to see what I was drawing.  At the market, a woman came over to see my drawing, it started raining, actually POURING, and she let me come under her tent! And I could just talk with her about Raratonga.  I met two 18-yr-old guys while I was painting a theological college backdropped by the mountains, and I was starting to learn more how someone my age lives on the island.  And I met a bunch of kids, who were fishing for eels and such, and they colored all over my sketchbooks - which was so fun!

And I'm guessing you are wondering where the heck the school part of this is? Well, that's what is amazing about this trip is that the school time is all the time and seemingly none of the time.  We have figure drawing sessions where we pose for each other, we are drawing constantly throughout the day if I see a hermit crab on the beach or a beautiful cloud.  We had a real test when we had a session drawing some Cook Island dancers.

We go snorkeling almost every day - for gym credit of course! It's the coolest experience - being so close to all the colorful life underneath the water.  The patterned coral, the huge spiky sea urchins, squid, balloon fish with black polka dots, and my favorite fish - Mr. Gup Gup! He has huge yellow lips, and is very territorial so he will come right at you shaking his head back and forth! Whenever I see him I start cracking up underwater and have to surface to clear the water from my mask :).

And then we have a cultural part of the program, we includes everything from seeing Cook Island dancers; to learning the art of tivaevae - a very special art similar to quilting with brilliant colors, beautiful embroidery, and so much care and love weaved into it; to just talking to people on the street!!

I really fell in love with this island - and I really hope I can come back someday!