New Years came and went with quite a bit
of fun. I celebrated the New Year in
style with the other ex-pats at the MNUW boat/ restaurant/ bar and then met up
with a few of my local friends at the
ever so classy O’Keefe’s canteen across the road. It was a perfect ending to a fantastic
2012. I mean – 2013 has some big shoes
to fill (an epic last semester in Scranton, meeting the “takes-my-breath-away”
girl of my dreams, going on the adventure of a lifetime to Yap… just to name a
few) – but somehow, I know it will step up to the challenge.
The
rest of the Taro Patch Kids have returned to the Nimar Wentworth, and while the
time alone was fantastic, I am glad to have them back again. As school has started back up and we head
into midterm exams, my tree climbing has declined considerably, but I am
getting back into the swing of things.
Before I know it, my chief will be teaching me how to make my own “tuba”
– which is fermented coconut sap. I have
had tastes of the “drink” before, but after working with the men of the village
on clearing the Nimar Stone Path, the chief had us over to his koyeng for some
food and tuba to kick off our New Years’ celebrations. His wise words of wisdom: “just make sure you
don’t start the countdown too early and don’t wake up in jail tomorrow.”
I
have now been filling some of my free time working with the men of the village
on our stone path projects. This past
Saturday, I even was able to help add on about 25 feet to the stone path which
involves gathering large stones, digging clay, digging the path, and then
fitting the stones into the right spots in order to make the path uniform. It was hard labor, but in the traditional
Yapese way, we made sure to take lots of betelnut breaks (as of now, my teeth
have not taken on the reddish, black tint that eventually comes from chewing
the local plant). I look forward to
continuing working with the men of the village and slowly but surely getting the
faintest grasp of the complex Yapese language.
