Man-Date

         On Thursday, the TPK headed to the Jesuit Community for our second round of Thanksgiving dinner.  There ended up being 11 of us total and we had quite the traditional feast.  I managed to whip up a pumpkin pie with a crust that I had to make from scratch and my mother somehow managed to mail over a batch of her famous Chocolate Turkeys which we devoured.  It was a great way to spend the holiday with good friends and good food.

            While at dinner on Thursday, our new friend, Norman, invited me to come visit his house down South and to get a tour of a side of the island that I had not yet seen.  Norman spends half of his year in Yap and the other half in Rhode Island.  He originally worked in Chuuk as a Peace Corps volunteer and has been in Micronesia for a number of years.  I decided to term my visit to the south as a “Man-Date” because since my graduation from Scranton – my life has been considerably lacking in bro-time.  Now – Norman is probably around 20-30 years older than I am, but bro-time is bro-time. 

            So – I spent my Saturday with Norman exploring the South.  He lives in Kanifay, which is a very private, very quiet part of Yap.  Whenever you go anywhere outside of your village, you need to ask permission and usually be accompanied by someone from the village you are visiting.  Norman was my guide as we walked through one of the largest stone money banks in Yap which he had helped to restore.  It is incredible to think how these HUGE pieces of stone were carved into circles with large holes in the middle, then transported of miles across open ocean in just simple canoes, and then somehow dragged to the middle of the island.  These things easily weigh multiple tons… the largest of which was about a foot taller than me.  We then explored the jungle finding the ruins of stone platforms that traditional houses used to be built on.  There were remnants of houses, clay pots, medicine bottles, everything.  It was an absolutely breathtaking and humbling experience.

            After our exploration, we headed to the small church down south, St. Francis.  I was quickly greeted by a couple of my students.  One of which told me he had to go get changed because he was altar serving.  He came out in his traditional thu and I told him he is going to have to help teach me how to wear mine.  Seriously – these things look so practical for this heat – can’t wait.  Anyway – Fr. John (the Micronesian Provincial) said the mass and at the end introduced me to anyone who had not met me yet.  The deacon even gave me his nu-nu to wear around my neck.  Fr. John explained to me on the car ride home that the reason he re-introduced me is because before mass started, the girls were all gossiping about how old I was because they  were curious about the cute tall white boy.  They had come to the conclusion that I was 16.. so he felt the need to set them straight.  All I will say is that if I still look 16 by the time I get back to the States, I cannot wait to use my sweet Yap Driver’s License when I get ID’ed.

            “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”

                                                -Amelia Earhart