Monday, January 7, 2013

A Man of the Village


        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.
           

No comments:

Post a Comment