The Adventures of Yapman: Home for the Holidays

On Yap – Thanksgiving is not celebrated as a major holiday … for obvious reasons. If you hesitated for a second on figuring that one out – in all sincerity, Good for you! Thanksgiving may have its roots in those beginning days of settlement in America – but the true meaning of the day has become something much more pure. When you celebrate Thanksgiving Yap Style, you are basking in that simple gratitude, that indescribable appreciation, that true feeling of friendship and fidelity among family.

Thanksgiving is truly about being with family. I mean – look at how we celebrate – we gather together with unending amounts of food, gather around cramped tables that have been squeezed wherever we can fit them – just to simply share a meal together – to simply be with each other. That is how we spent our Yap Thanksgiving. One of the older ex-pats, Tim, and his phenomenal wife, Lucy, have been on Yap for a number of years. Lucy is Yapese and Tim is American. They raised their kids in the United States, and then returned to Yap – to the family they loved and missed. One thing they missed about the states though is the celebration of coming together as a family for Thanksgiving. Tim realized that all of the ex-pats on the island are away from their families and loved ones back home – so every year – they host a Yap-style Thanksgiving dinner for all of those who are so far from home. They invite their Yap family.

The Taro Patch Kids were commissioned with the task of roasting the second turkey – which of course none of us had fully done before. And to make it even better- we went for the biggest bird in the store (YCA gets a whole bunch of frozen turkeys sent in for this season) – weighing in at almost 28 pounds. We were up at 5:45 AM getting our lovely turkey (who was named Taylor – gender neutral – or T-bird for short) prepped for the big day. The feeling in our house was electric… it felt like a true holiday. We were all so excited to get “dressed up” and to bring our turkey and just to spend time with our incredible Yap family.

The day was perfect. T-bird came out splendid after 6 hours of roasting. Lucy made an amazing gravy from the juices we used for basting. There was corn hole, and guitars, and betelnut, and cooking, and laughter. It was a true family holiday.

At the end of the night, I walked over to the sink and started doing dishes without even thinking about it. Lucy and her many sisters (many. Many. Many. Sisters) began yelling at me to stop and that I should be outside enjoying myself. I turned around and smiled and told them that I was fully enjoying myself just washing the dishes – it is something that I always liked to do after my family’s Thanksgiving feasts – and to be doing it here made me feel at home. They laughed and told me I could “feel at home” whenever I wanted if I ever felt like cleaning more.

I ended the evening sitting inside with Lucy and a few of her sisters. We just sat and talked for an hour or so about Yap, and about my life in the United States. We talked about school and our hopes for the students and our hopes for all of Yap. We talked about my family and friends back home, we talked about Keri, we talked about just about everything. It was perfect. As I was preparing to leave, one of Lucy’s sisters, Monica, looked me right in the eye and told me – we are a big family, and we are here to help each other – we may not have much, but we want to help you in any way that we can. I held back the few tears and told them that their kindness, their friendship, their welcoming into their family was all I could ever ask for.

I may not be with my true family, and all of my friends back in the States – but at least I can say that for this Thanksgiving, I was home for the holidays.