June 23 Bon Jour! We are still in Wallis, and still at Halolo anchorage. We are finding Wallis to be very interesting and the people here very kind and friendly. Pascale, the diving instructor has become a very kind friend. As reported in our last blog, he runs a little bar on the beach where his dive shop is. This is also his home, so we see him often. He is quite busy this time of year and is diving almost every day, weather permitting. Pascale also likes rock and roll, and soon after our arrival, we found that he had a special "Hard Rock" night planned. Well, of course, this was something we could not miss. It turned out to be a nice night just last Saturday. There was no live music, but he had put together many videos of Deep Purple, AC/DC, Ramstein, etc. He had a nice turn out of people and was the chef of the evening cooking some goodies to go with the beer. We had what is called "un sandwich Americain". It was essentially a hamburger on a baguette with fries in the sandwich. We were charmed. After so many times having seen so many things named after a country that have nothing to do with said country (Belgian waffle, French toast, German chocolate cake, Russian dressing, Danish pastry, Swedish fireplace, etc.) in the U.S., it was nice to find this sandwich Americain that would never be found in the states. And it was good! Elisabeth enjoyed the music so much that she did something she had never done before. She asked me to dance. I believe the song was "Hell's Bells by AC/DC. We had danced before, but it was always me dragging her out to dance. We got to visit with Dominic, the Gendarme who steered us to Jean Yves the mechanic. Pascale and his little daughter, the cat, and the dogs sat with us. Our friend Yves had just returned from his trip abroad, and he too was there. It was a nice time.

Speaking of live music, we have made other friends. One day while arriving in our dinghy, Pascale and his divers were also arriving, returning from a dive out on the reef. We struck up a conversation with one of his divers, a lovely woman named Claude, who we invited out to the boat for dinner along with her husband Alain. Alain is the administrator of both the hospital here in Wallis as well as the hospital in Futuna. They are very special people whom we have come to call close friends. They told us of an event coming up that perhaps we might be interested in seeing. It was a Wallisian event, a very old traditional fest where all of the island's chiefs are presented gifts with lots of dancing and singing. Would we like to go have a look? We said yes, of course, but they had gotten the date wrong, so we had a change of plans, (unbeknown to us). Alain came to pick us up, and told us of the change. We would have lunch at their house in the afternoon, but was there anything we might like to do earlier. Well, yes, we thought, we had been told of an ancient Tongan fort, perhaps we could go see it? So we did. It was quite huge and impressive, all stone and very cleared of the jungle growth that, left unchecked, would cover everything in very short order. Claude and Alain live in a beautiful house on the hill that over looks the sea, the reef and the lagoon and its islands. Absolutely spectacular.

They told us of their neighbors who would also be coming to lunch to meet us. Thierry and Soisig. They live next door and are musicians. Thierry plays saxophone and Soisig piano. Again, just super people who have captured our hearts, and we have done many things together, and shared special times, all in this very short time that we have been here. They have a boat, a Fijian long boat and we were treated to a picnic and outing to the northernmost island on the reef. I cannot tell you how beautiful this was. The island is not flat, so Thierry showed us the way to climb to the top from where we could see all of the islands on the windward side of the Wallis reef, all in a row. Breathtaking and colors to behold. Soisig is an artist, so after our lunch, we took a nice walk along the windward side of beach to find driftwood that she uses in her creations that are not just a hobby. She truly is talented.

OK, ok the music. Theirry invited us out to see him play with his local funk/R&B band on Sunday. What a nice treat. They were rally quite good and had some guest musicians from Fiji playing with them. Thierry and I also played together at his house, and he did invite me to sit in with them, but with my odd style of playing I thought it best to leave the funk/R&B to those who can really do it justice. It was great fun just to listen.

So here we are. Wallis is very interesting and we are having a great time. We have had many other experiences and have met and been introduced to many other nice people that if I had the time, could fill a book. Our French? It seems the more I learn, the more I know that I don't know, so it is work. I can tell that we are growing, and if we stayed here a long time.....it would get good. So, we speak as much as we can, we study on the boat and I read French books (easy French books). How long will we stay? Maybe another month. Je ne sais pas.

Be Excellent to One Another, Rod and Elisabeth, "Your Rock and Roll Argonauts"