Kauai Day 4 maybe

Today, Saturday, is the day of the International Tahitian Dance Competition. We really wanted to go to that, now that we "know" two of the competitors!

First thing that happened in the morning, my camera would not work. We had left the windows and balcony doors open all night and that made the room so humid, my camera batteries would not work! Then Todd was trying to fold up the hide-a-bed and not catch the sheet in the mechanism, when he found out later, much to his horror, he had caught the computer cable in the bed and had snapped the cord! It was a near-tragedy! I had a Private Quarters sale to enter and the computer battery was running low quickly. So I called Keith and he gave me a name and number of a reliable camera man. So I called Joe Olivas
and told him about our two dilemmas. He said he could probably fix the cable, so I asked him where his shop was, and it turns out, he is right across the alley from us! Wow! Not only in the same town, but on the same block! Such good fortune!
We had a fun chat with him about our mutual profession (photography) and then we left the computer cable with him. He had it fixed in a couple of hours. Luckily, he had been an electronics engineer before he became a photographer!
My camera seemed to have dried out enough to work again, so off we went to the dance competition.
The dance competiton was a lot of fun.

There he is again, Mr. Mayor of Kauai! and yes, he is a big guy! He sat on a "throne" with elders around him on the ground for the Awa ceremony. Two beautiful virgins served them all a bit of Kava as part of the ceremony...just a sip or two. It was part of the Tahitian custom.

Then came the Keikis! They were adorable...ages 4-6. The little tiny girls could shake their hips as well as the adults. The little boy was great!


This is Mia, concentrating like any athlete before her turn. She was in the 10-12 year old group.

Isn't she lovely! She was really good! Beautiful form and talent.

One of the excellent young men. They are a little more wild then the girls...great athletes also.

And here is Maria, Mia's mother, who was amazing. She and her daughter are so talented! It was really fun "knowing" some of the competitors! I hope we get to see them dance again when they are back in northern California.

You can see more pictures on our Flickr account in our 2009 Kauai set. We'll be adding photos to it regularly (or not regularly...just check it once in a while.)