The Adventures of Yapman: Yap Family

Over this Christmas break, I have had a lot of free time to hang out with the other ex-pats, chill with the Jesuits, and work on some projects around the house and village. My favorite part of this break, though, is all of the time I am able to spend with my “Yap Family.” Our neighbors have always been wonderful to us, but the past few weeks have gradually led to more and more just sitting and talking with them in our new koyeng. The other day, I told Mary that when people asked about her, I told them she was my “Nina” which means mother in Yapese. The whole family was so thrilled to be able to consider me a son and brother. It felt so natural.

Now, Peter is going to give me for Christmas an “ankle strap” made of some type of woven palm tree bark in order to start my work on climbing trees. He is also going to teach me how to wear my “thu” – so we will be collecting the various parts (for a loin cloth – there are a lot of parts haha) over break. No worries – the thu usually covers almost everything.

To thank my new family, I had them all over for a dinner with the Jesuit priests. I made some beef barbeque, and lentil and bean barbeque for those who don’t eat the island meat, as well as a stew and some vegetables and cookies. Mary made a 5-course meal buffet style with her famous stuffed crabs, taro dishes, pork and chicken, and even some local ice cream served in a pumpkin. (Fun fact – the pumpkin is mostly white so it is called “ngubchit” – I have no idea of the spelling and can barely even say it – but they it also is the word they use to refer to “white people” – it has already come in handy when talking to the little kids in the village) It was an amazing night of food, music, and great conversation.

After the priests, Mary and the kids left, Tracy, Maria, and Peter stayed behind for a while so we could look at pictures I have taken of Yap, and then we went through a ton of pictures of my family, and Keri, and Scranton, and camp, and home. We decided we would need to do this more often, and I said maybe once a month we could try to have dinner, and next time our other neighbors will join us as well. It was an incredible night. It led into tonight, where we all hung out under the koyeng with Thafarad and I learned so much about the different villages and how the caste system truly is supposed to work, and how it has been corrupted throughout the years. I had the greatest Yapese history lesson there is, and all while sitting under a koyeng on our bamboo platform in the pouring rain. I will be spending Christmas day at their family barbeque when they all simply get together to celebrate Jesus’ birth.