Life in the Village of Nemar

Here on Yap, the island is divided into different villages.. yes, I said villages.  Some villages are huge, but with just a few families living in them – these usually have a pretty big stone money bank.  Others are smaller areas of land with lots of families living together in them.  I am currently a member of the village of Nemar.  I live in a house that does not have an address, but rather goes by the name of Nemar Wentworth – seriously, that’s what we are listed as in the white pages (or the Yapese equivalent of a phone book).

Life in the village has many rules that you must abide by.  For instance, if you are too loud, people will suspect you are up to no good, so you must always keep your general volume to a minimum so as not to disturb the other villagers.  Also, you must walk with a flashlight at night so that the men of the village who hang out together late do not decide to protect their village and tie you to a tree.  Everyone is also expected to do their part in helping the village progress – whether you trim the grass along the road, collect fruit, handle finances, or just do some general village improvement.  We have not yet been asked to make our contribution, but we are anxious to see what our village duties are – apparently you can just give some beetlenut (you can chew it with some other things to get a high – I will dedicate a whole post to this later) to the chief though and that can cover your duties, too. 

In our part of Nemar, there is our house, which is fairly modern by Yap standards, and there is another house that is very similar.  Then there are a couple of other more traditional Yapese homes that have outdoor kitchens, minimal to no electricity, and are constructed primarily of scrap metal roofing.  Our neighbors are incredibly friendly and very happy, content, peaceful people.  One of our neighbors, Mary, is the sweetest woman in the world.  Mary is somewhere between 55-85 years old – it is hard to gauge age here – and I see her pass my window each morning with machete in hand to go harvest fruit and vegetables from her garden and to get some fire wood.  Mary runs a daycare/babysitting type service so we always have some little Yapese boys running around in their little thus (similar to loin cloths).  Our other neighbor also has a few young boys, but they usually are wearing shorts and sometimes t-shirts.  Mary brings us fruit, vegetables, and even offered to teach us how to make breadfruit chips!  She also shares here garbage collection can with us as her way of helping us out since we are volunteering with the new Catholic high school.  Bottom line, Mary is the absolute sweetest woman I have ever met. 

Mary also is raising a young boy, I think.  Adoption on the island is extremely complicated, but once I know more I will let you know.  Anyway, I have met this little boy a few times, and by met I mean I wave and he waves back, and I start to talk English and he says some words that I assume are in Yapese.  I told him my name is Michael, and he couldn’t pronounce it, so I said “Mike” and I pointed at myself, and he pointed at himself and said “Mike.”  At first I thought we had the same name… then I quickly realized he just liked to repeat the sounds I make.  When I pointed at him and said “Name?” he responded, “Nafarad.”  I do not think this is actually his name, mostly because I have heard the word used by others on the island..... but to me, he is Nafarad, and I believe we are friends because he helped me set-up ours clotheslines the other day – and by help, I mean he smiled and laughed at me.

“For Christ plays in ten thousand places…” – Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ

Nemar Wentworth