Juliette, The Incredible Plant Lady

Once we landed in Raiatea, we were met at the airport by Herehia's grandmother, Juliette. I'd met her last year at Tama and Herehia's wedding and she'd said that I needed to come to Raiatea. We'd just celebrated her 75th birthday a week ago and I was excited to see her home. She has literally hundreds of plants. They are spread all around the outside of her home and require a daily watering schedule of 4 hours a day. She is part Polynesian -part Chinese. Her typical routine is -she rises at 4 AM to study her Bible, pray, and have breakfast. When the sun comes up she is ready to begin her work. She waters her plants 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. But Raiatea gets a lot of rainfall -which helps her.
I was amazed at the variety and especially liked some Bonsai trees. There were branches that wrapped around each other like braids of hair. Little by little over time, she bends the branches so that they become flexible and go where she wants them to go without breaking. She weaves them together beautifully. She said someone had asked if she read a book on how to grow these little trees and she told them no...she'd just prayed for wisdom. Now she's got people asking her advice because they look so good. It just makes sense that God would know best how to grow a tree, doesn't it? She's also got some hanging plants that don't even need dirt! She attaches them to some small, dark-red branches.
Of course, there were things to eat as well like cherries and blackberries and something they call a "miracle fruit". It's a tiny little thing that had just a hint of a licorice flavor to it. Immediately after eating it, Herehia handed me a lemon. I didn't really want to bite into that but she was persuasive. The "miracle fruit" nullified the tartness of the lemon! It was kind of bizzare.
Juliette also keeps around 25 exotic birds in a very large cage. Most of them are love birds. They are pretty vocal until the sun goes down. Then -not a peep.
It is quite obvious when you step into her home that Juliette has the gift of hospitality. There are rooms added onto rooms and are probably more than 20 beds in the house. She usually hosts visiting pastors and missionaries.
When Juliette was 12 it became necessary for her to quit school and help take care of her 7 brothers and 4 sisters. Later on, as a young woman, she became convicted that she wasn't living right and gave her heart to God. She proceeded to educate herself. Now she is one of the hardest working people on behalf of the church in Raiatea. When we first arrived, we stopped by a market and Juliette introduced me to the granddaughter of the first Christian on the island. That kind of blew my mind. Then the woman gave us 30 bananas. :)