Pacific Arts Festival, Part I

The Festival of the Pacific Arts kicked off last night. I skipped the opening ceremony, but today Carol and I headed down for the start of the daily festivities, which include dancing, food, art and craft demonstrations. Our main beach park has been converted into the central location for the festival. As soon as we walked up to the park and saw the guy below, I was extremely excited that American Samoa is hosting this event. It is almost as good as getting to leave the island! The first people we encountered today, from Papua New Guinea, will undoubtedly end up being the most interesting-looking of the festival. Before they even arrived, they caused quite a stir as many people of the Samoan community were concerned about their topless dress.

Polynesian women love babies. Everywhere I go Ona gets quite the attention. In the stores here women are always offering to hold her while I shop. These girls from Fiji thought Ona was adorable and while I don't typically let random people hold my baby, they were too sweet to say no to.

This woman from the Solomon Islands was one of a group who I sat down with as I needed a place in the shade to take care of Ona. The women and I had a great chat about diapers, breast feeding, traveling, and more. They were definitely my favorite people of the day, and they thought I should come visit them when the Solomon Islands hosts the next Pacific Arts Festival in 2012. The people in the next two pictures are from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). One of the guys explained to me how they traveled to get here. I believe it was Rapa Nui to Chile to Tahiti to New Zealand to Samoa to finally arrive in American Samoa. Wow. The girls below are from our neighbor island, (Independent) Samoa.Carol and I did some shopping and ended up with a bunch of baskets from Papua New Guinea. It was pretty comical watching Carol try to push the stroller while balancing the baskets. It was even more entertaining as people kept asking if we were selling baskets.

We saw dances from quite a few of the 27 different countries today. I would love to see all 27 by the end of the two weeks. These dancers are from Kiribati. Rainmaker Mountain makes a stunning backdrop to the stage.