The Adventures of Yapman: Opening Day

Today was the day - The day we have been working towards for the past 6 weeks - The day that has been long awaited for the past 12 months - The day that has been put into motion over 2 years ago – The day that the people of Yap have prayed and hoped for long, long before I ever even knew the tiny island existed. Today – Yap Catholic High School officially opened.

YCHS (www.ychs.net) – began last year in borrowed space from the local St. Mary’s Parish with a freshmen and sophomore class. This year – despite many obstacles, and with many graces – YCHS begins its second year on its own, brand-new campus. Over 300 people gathered at the campus for an opening mass at 11:00 AM. The mass was absolutely breathtaking. There were people spread out everywhere – sitting on whatever they could find – logs, rocks, tarps, cardboard, flipflops. There were Filipinos, Yapese, and Outer Islanders – all gathering together to celebrate the great accomplishment that they achieved together. There was a choir representing each group – each singing in a different language. There were gorgeous flower arrangements made from local plants and placed in banana tree stumps to stay fresh. The campus abounded with smiles, laughter, pats on the back, congratulations, and just sheer admiration. The Catholic community of Yap came together today out of mutual respect, accomplishment, and love. As Fr. Mickey Corcoran, principal of YCHS, said in his fitting homily:

“This is our school. Not the students’ school, not the faculty’s school, not the priests’ school. Not the board of director’s school. This is our school - the catholic community’s school.”

Before mass began, I was able to talk with many of the students about the upcoming year. Many of them were ecstatic to begin on Tuesday. I was overwhelmed with excitement getting to interact with the students in a school setting. I am slowly adapting to being called “Mr. Wine-check,” which we are slowly but surely working on correcting the pronunciation. And I genuinely enjoy getting to know these teenagers – I can already tell this is going to be a fantastic year. I also was able to talk to many parents and other members of the community. They were so purely enthusiastic and grateful for what we are doing at YCHS. I even met a woman who taught Chemistry on Guam for over 20 years who was very eager to help me in any way that she can as I began to describe to her the lab experiment I had adapted to be performed over a campfire rather than a Bunsen burner.

I was able to take many pictures – most of which are posted to facebook, and more are sure to follow. While doing so, I quickly became friends with the young altar server, John – who kept looking for any photo-op he could grab and asked to help me many times as we were setting things up. Needless to say – I may have a new best friend – and of course he is probably 7. As I was saying before I got sidetracked (so unlike me – I know…) – the mass was breathtaking. The weather was gorgeous… up until the Our Father of course – when it began to absolutely downpour. As one would expect – a general state of chaos ensued. Many people squeezed hurriedly in under the hodge podge tent city we had set-up – I ran out into the sheet of water to direct people to the veranda of the Junior Classroom, and then I proceeded to walk around to the various groups of people scattered about hiding under trees, tarps, cardboard, a few umbrellas, and whatever else they could find – only to be greeted by huge smiles telling me they were fine in the rain. Meanwhile – I was soaked through to the bone and took advantage of my saturated state to stay out in the rain with my fellow weather-endurers. I decided I would try to keep everyone out in the rain up to speed with the Mass still going on, so I frolicked from group to group for the sign of peace – and then attempted to get everyone to Communion – which is usually done in the churches by the priest just standing in the front and everyone just goes in for the free for all. So now we had about 300 sopping wet people milling around looking for 5 priests – it was wonderful calamity. There was smiling, singing, a lot of “Sirows” (excuse me or sorry) as everyone was bumping into each other trying to stay under the tarps. As I stood outside letting the rain come down all around me – I recognized just how special this image of the Eucharist was.

The mass was followed by an open house and huge picnic. Almost everyone brought some local food to share and it was all delicious. The students’ jaws dropped as they saw their new classrooms for the first time. They rushed in to start checking out their books – many even took books from the classroom libraries to start reading before Tuesday. The parents smiled approvingly, and many even sat down in desks and began paging through the text books – so proud of what their children would be studying in those very seats. Other members of the community milled about admiring everything about the new campus – making sure to thank the faculty countless times and asking how they could help us clean-up. I have never experienced such a high in my life.

Finally, the day came to a close as we locked up and everyone headed home – but my day still had one more adventure to be conquered. I drove the other volunteers home in Fr. John’s car (I just got my official Yapese Driver’s License the other day – all I had to do was pay $10 – it is a miracle there are not more accidents). I then turned around and headed right back to the campus to pick up Fr. John since we couldn’t all fit in one trip. It began to pour even harder as I approached the campus. As I hopped out to let Fr. John into the driver’s seat – he yelled “Oh – let’s just help them get this one tarp down so they can take it home.” So, once again, I forgot about the rain as it saturated every ounce of my being and happily joined the group of about 7 men who were taking down the tarp. Of course, once we got one down – one of them shouted that we might as well get them all down so that people could pick them up tomorrow. So for the next hour we ran around in the rain taking down tarps and counting and miscounting poles and connectors. I have never had so much fun taking down tarps in the rain (spoken from much experience from my numerous camping trips).

Today, we officially opened Yap Catholic High School. Today, hundreds of people gathered together out of love to celebrate their accomplishment. Today, I feel like I truly became a member of this unbelievably beautiful Yap family.