Banana Pancake Diplomacy
Peregrina's Journey
Peter and Margie Benziger
Tue 16 Aug 2011 11:34
Position Report - 08:20.762S 122:59.200E
Banana Pancake Diplomacy
Peregrina was one of ten Sail Indonesia Rally boats to visit
the town of Larantuka on the eastern end of the island of Flores, Indonesia.
Not many visitors come here, so that the local government
very generously provided us with a formal ceremonial greeting and activities agenda
for our visit.
We were greeted at the beach and given headdresses in the
shape of birds. We wore these all night.
The King and the Regent, Yoseph Lagadoni Herin (head of
government), performed the ritual greeting. It consists of an offering of the
local distilled spirit, followed by a homemade cigarette and chewing a beetle
nut with lime. The King first spills a bit of the local spirit onto the ground
to commemorate his ancestors and then drinks. We did the same and then tried
the cigarette (briefly) and chewed a beetle nut with lime powder. My personal recommendation is not to swallow
any of the beetle nut (which I did) since your stomach will want to send it
rapidly back up.
The ladies danced a beautiful swooping choreography which is
very graceful as they led us up from the beach to the Regent’s house.
At the regents home we were each presented with traditional
Indonesian scarves and greeted by the entire government. The King is a ceremonial position and the
current King’s son will become King when his father dies. The Regent is the
head of the government and is elected for a five year term.
A wonderful meal was served with tasty dishes, most of which
we could not identify. There was whale meat and, of course, the symbolic
cigarette smoking chicken which symbolized their heartfelt greeting.
[Dancing girls]
Our dinner had entertainment with dancing girls and also
several of the key governmental officials singing us songs using a microphone
and speakers. Even the Regent sang to us. It was quite an honor to have the
upper level of government sing songs of welcome.
During the dinner and dancing I made friends with one of the
little girls. I always carry stickers, balloons, lollipops and treats for the
kids. This little girl danced with me and ended up sitting in my lap. As it turns
out, she was the Regent’s daughter so, after dinner, I asked the Regent if he
would like to visit Peregrina. He accepted and told us he would visit the next
morning.
The regent and the about six of his top officials arrived
with eager faces. They were so interested in Peregrina and we showed them
everything including the engine,
batteries, electronics, galley, heads, storage etc…
They tried on the life vest, had a wonderful time cranking
winches and stood behind the steering wheel.
When we showed them a map of the 16,000 miles traveled from Miami to
Indonesia they asked in amazement: “ Just you two?”
We made a formal speech of appreciation with a presentation
of gifts to the government including a Coral Reef Yacht Club flag.
It is customary to provide food to guests. It is a sign of
respect and sincere welcome. On Peregrina, the government of Laratuka was
served an American breakfast of banana pancakes with butter and maple
syrup. They looked at their plates
dubiously but, after the first bite, they were hooked. Even the solemn looking head of the
government, the Regent, broke into a giant smile.
Banana pancake diplomacy was a success!
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Best regards to all
Peter and Margie Benziger
Peregrina
http://blog.mailasail.com/peregrina
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Best regards to all
Peter and Margie Benziger
Peregrina
http://blog.mailasail.com/peregrina