Nina nge Papa rog

         Last week was probably one of the greatest adventures I have experienced thus far during my wonderful time on Yap.  Last week I was blessed to have two very different, yet very significant parts of my life come together.  Last week, my Mom and Dad (nina nge papa rog – in Yapese) were able to meet my Yapese family.

            That is right – the Wienceks traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to spend a week on the Island of Stone Money.  They could not have picked a more perfect week.  For about a month or two before they arrived, everyone was constantly asking me about them.  It seemed to be the hot topic of the village as everyone I passed seemed to want to tell me how excited they were for my parents’ visit.  My unbelievable Yapese family even began to make my mom a traditional grass skirt made out of hibiscus without even telling me until they needed to know her approximate waist size (which we guesstimated by saying “slightly smaller than so and so, but a tad little bit bigger than her”).  The process usually takes almost 2 weeks, but Mary Guchol, Tracie, and Maria (with some assistance from Peter) whipped it together in a record-breaking 2 days!  On top of the 25 pound grass skirt, they also arranged for our neighbor, Titaw (grandma in Yapese.. I can’t even tell you her real name) to fix two baskets for my parents. 

            When I picked them up from the airport, I immediately embraced my mom as she tried to hold back her tears.  I had a few nunuws for them from my neighbors and students, and everyone at the airport enjoyed the show of our reunion.  They settled in quite well into the Waterfront Inn thanks to some amazing friends on the staff there.

            We then spent the next few days flying through adventures thanks to so many incredible friends on island.  One of the saints of the island, Bob, who is an incredible ex-pat working in the budget office of the government, allowed us to use his car throughout the visit, which I cannot thank him enough for.  We were able to get up north to go snorkeling with a variety of the cast of Finding Nemo as well as almost an hour of swimming just above the majestic manta rays.  My dad could not stop saying how everything we were doing was a “once in a lifetime experience.”

            On Thursday night, my Yapese family and the Jesuits came over for a traditional Yapese potluck dinner.  There was an overabundance of local food and this is when Mary gave my mom and dad the grass skirt and baskets which they immediately put to use.  My mom then gave some presents and such to my Yapese family including an adorable outfit for Summer and some sports balls and books for Dafrad.  Many others joined throughout the dinner including a visit from my chief and his wife.  We headed to bed as early as we could because tomorrow would be Yap Day!

            On Friday morning, my good friend – Martin – came over to the house bright and early to help me in putting on my thuw.  I thought I had it on pretty well, but apparently I was showing a bit too much thigh, so Martin helped me to fix it up and to make sure it wouldn’t fall off in the middle of the day.  I have learned so much from Martin about the culture including that the colors and style of my thuw were specific for the “youngest of men” who were no longer boys, but were not quite reliable enough yet to be married.  My mom was in her local attire as well – no worries everyone, she opted to keep her top on.

            Yap Day was filled with introducing my parents to many people amidst many traditional activities and demonstrations.  We saw many dances, ate lots of local food, enjoyed local relays ranging from basket weaving, to canoe lashing, to betelnut tree climbing.  We even were able to have an excellent chat with the US Ambassador to Micronesia who I now have multiple pictures with in my thuw.  Now that I think about it, I think a lot of people have pictures of me in my thuw.  A lot of tourists seemed to perhaps think I may have been Yapese – which is probably one of the greatest compliments I have ever received. 

My dad especially loved seeing the reenactment of the traditional sailing canoe bringing in stone money pieces from Palau.  It was so surreal to think that this culture has existed for so many generations without being tainted by the modern world.  It truly is a hidden paradise.

During the Yap Day festivities, one of the FSM senators who is a good friend offered to take my parents to the “Forbidden Island” of Rumung.  Ted and his wife Joan took us on their boat to this beautiful, untouched island.  Rumung is separated from Yap Proper by about 100 yards of ocean and remains unconnected by roads.  It is absolutely stunning.  It is so peaceful and the traditional stone paths are still the primary means of traveling the island.  We even were able to see the 3 largest pieces of stone money in the entire world.  In fact, we sat and had a great talk with Ted and Joan ON TOP of the largest piece which happens to be on its side on the ground because it is so huge that to try to prop it back up could cause it to break.  We were so lucky to be able to have such a wonderful day in Rumung.

On Monday and Tuesday, Nina nge Papa came to YCHS to talk with the students and get a glimpse of how I spend the majority of my days on Yap.  The students loved hearing my parents’ stories of what “Mr. Wiencek” - who they all quite easily know as “Michael” since my parents found it too strange to call me “Mr. Wiencek” (I prefer Michael… REALLY prefer it) – was like as a little boy as well as during his own high school years.  Stories of electrical sockets and roof climbing at the age of 2 became quick favorites for the students.  My students also knew that my mom has an incredible singing voice and they convinced her to sing “Ave Maria” and “On Eagle’s Wings.”  It was simply breath taking and the kids were so appreciative.  In exchange, the sophomores sang a little bit for her.  The students are still asking questions about how their visit was and what they are up to now back in Pennsylvania.

On top of all of that, we also received the grand tour of the South from my friend, Norman, who takes care of one of the largest stone money banks on island.  We seemed to be non-stop busy the entire week, and we didn’t even manage to see all that there is to see – but it was a perfect visit nonetheless.

I am on top of the world now after being able to see and hug my parents after 8 months on Yap.  I am incredibly blessed with a truly remarkable family who supports me in all that I do.  I am blessed with friends back home, here on Yap, and around the world who I love more than words can describe.  I am blessed that I can share these different worlds that I am a part of with all of these people.  I am blessed.

The first hug in 8 months

Local attire

Ambassador Rosen and I

Yapman - For Mr. Lerch

Wienceks on Yap

“Family is the most important thing in the world.”

-          Princess Diana

Sirow

            Sirow!  My deepest apologies for my lack of blog posts over the last month.  My adventures on Yap have seemed non-stop as January flew by and I was challenging myself to live in the moment, live fully in Yap, without getting distracted as much by the internet and that whole Facebook thing.   Unfortunately, this led to me failing quite a bit in the communication department (in terms of technology – I DID manage to get almost completely caught up in writing and responding to letters… almost… not fully yet).

            Let me try to put the past month into the best Spark Notes version I can manage (another thing that technology is ruining… what happened to a good old Cliff Notes reference.... we don’t even have shorter books to replace our books, we now have websites… but I digress).  

            I made it through my first midterm exam week, and so did all of our students.  I was blown away by how well my students did on my exams – which is a true testament to how hard they worked to show how much they have learned throughout the first semester.  I learned (well, more affirmed what I already know) that I cannot possibly sit still enough to proctor a 2-hour exam.  I needed to be moving around, or humming to myself, or looking everywhere else BUT watching the students.  I think it was a more painful experience for me than it was for the students.  I also just hate tests.  I am good at taking tests, I always have been… but I just despise them.  Who came up with the idea to “test” our knowledge in these written formats?  I literally told my Chemistry class that I knew they knew so much more information than I asked of them on the midterm…. But since I knew they knew it, I figured I wouldn’t waste my time or theirs putting it on the exam.  It makes sense in my world.

            My tree climbing skills have developed quite nicely.  I use my hibiscus wrap to hurry up betelnut trees, and I even managed to get up a tree at school completely barefoot as a reward for my freshmen.  I have been working a bit on my Yapese with an older woman who is slowly going blind.  I can say basic phrases and questions and can almost pronounce sounds that before I just couldn’t even comprehend.  My chief, Pugram, has agreed to teach me how to make tuba.  Tuba is fermented coconut sap which tastes like… well it tastes like something you don’t want to drink, but for some reason you do anyway.  He also has been helping me with my Yapese and one day while I was stuck in an out-of-nowhere rain storm (quite typical here), he called me over to his little shop to share some tuba with him to wait out the storm.  It was a fantastic bonding experience.

            Let me see… oh ya!  Maggie came to visit from South Korea for a week.  All I can say is that it was simply fantastic.  It really opened my eyes to the beauty of this island all over again – the nature, the culture, the people… it is just so pure and real.  Maggie really inspired me and re-invigorated me as this adventure continues on.  I am still so shocked that it has been 7 months and it is unbelievable how much I have grown.  Kammagar, Maggie, for a most perfect week.  It was our own little “International Service Immersion” trip.  We went snorkeling, we drank tuba, we chewed betelnut, we went to O’Keefe’s and danced, we ate local food, we just appreciated the island and all it had to offer us.  Maggie fit in perfectly and she put a smile on everyone’s face.  She even arranged a little pen-pal project with some of my freshmen girls.  Which reminds me – Maggie helped me to teach our girls volleyball team how to play some real volleyball (we hadn’t started practices yet) just in time to WIN the first ever sports competition in YCHS history!  There is a new league for the high schools (yes, all 3 of them) to compete in for volleyball and basketball.  Our girls were absolutely phenomenal – I almost cried – the excitement and thrill of the games was electric.

            I am now rejuvenated and re-inspired to continue doing whatever I can to give back to this wonderful island.  My spiritual life is in an amazing place that I cannot even describe, and I honestly could not be happier.  I am still growing and learning each day, and I am so truly blessed to have this opportunity on the island of Stone Money.

            Kammagar for reading!  Kefel’

“Let me lose my voice
Singing all my favorite songs
Let me stare up at the stars
'Cause it's where we all belong”

-“Living Louder” – The Cab

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.

           

This is Christmas on Yap

Sing it out everyone.  There happens to be this mind-blowingly amazing song about Christmas on Yap that I can only describe as having the “stuck in your head for hours” quality of “It’s a Small World” from Disney.  It involves a lot of perfectly random lyrics that you cannot fully understand, but there are clear snippets of “There will be no sleigh this year.. something something. FIRE TRUCK” and “Pork wrapped in Taro leafs” and I believe there was some line in there about “canned spam.”  Sadly, this chart-topper is yet to make it to youtube so I cannot share its pure musical glory with you, but it is probably one of those songs that you need to live on a tiny island for almost 6 months to truly appreciate.

            “Merry Christmas!” from the island of Yap. (That is how you say Merry Christmas in Yapese…. Which means that basically, when Christianity – along with the story of the birth of Jesus – came to Yap – they never got around to making up a new word for it, so “Merry Christmas” just stuck)

           

            On Christmas Eve, I had a lot of the ex-pats over for a nice traditional family style dinner.  It turned out to be a perfect evening filled with lots of sharing of Christmas traditions and stories.  We even wrote letters to Santa and then burned them on the back porch to make sure they got to him on time.  Some people ended up hanging out until Midnight Mass.

            The mass was absolutely incredible.  St. Mary’s Church was beautifully decorated with palm leaves, native flowers, and lights.  It was packed and absolutely pouring rain, so you had to dodge rain drops as they leaked through the roof or just kinda accepted it and sat right in a puddle (yes… I sat right in a puddle and was too proud to move…) There was a traditional local dance performed by women from Dalipebinaw and they added lots of garland, tinsel, and glitter to their palm leaves and flowers to really add some Christmas spirit to the dance.  My favorite part of the mass was that all of the songs were traditional Christmas carols, but they were sung in Yapese.  Silent night was simply breath-taking during Communion.

            I spent Christmas day with my Yapese family at a little barbeque in our koyeng.  It was a simple way to spend the holiday with friends and family.  For dnner, I went to the Jesuit residence where we had a fantastic turkey dinner with some good friends who have been in the Micronesian islands for many years.  To round out my Christmas festivities, I was able to Skype with my family on the 26^th while they were all together on their Christmas night.

            This Christmas season may not have been what I am used to, but it still continues to be my favorite time of year as it is filled with love, laughter, and family.

My little brother in his Christmas present

The boys enjoying the Christmas barbeque

Christmas Barbeque

St. Mary's Church

Manger at St. Mary's

“Christmas needs love to be Christmas.”

            -Andy Williams

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. 

Blurry because I was so far away, but here is Thafarad at his Christmas Show

TPK Christmas Ornaments - with my Christmas present to the girls
- a full length mirror - almost impossible to find on the island

Dinner preparations

Lots of food - American and Yapese

Mary's Delicious Stuffed Crabs

Local Ice Cream

"So I don't need bells to be ringing

'Cause I'll join with angels singing Gloria.

And I can feel Christmas like a child

I want to feel Christmas like a child..."

-"Christmas Like a Child" - Third Day

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer...

… is singing loud for all to hear. 

            Following the wise words of my alter-ego, Buddy the Elf (yes, I am officially adding him to the list of alternate personalities - , right alongside Gordy Silverstein and Baby Dewey), I have spent the first few days of my break immersed in friendship, food, and music.  Quick side note while I mentioned elves… I am proud to say that the Christmas elf tradition was kept alive this year by Kaela Ward as she dressed as Tinsel the elf to spread holiday cheer to some happy little first graders.  Also, it was simply amazing to be able to talk with  a few of my best friends from high school as they continued the annual Christmas party tradition… it made my weekend.

            Now, back to Yap – as I was saying, the past few days have been chock full of holiday merriment.  On Monday night, we had our “Lessons in Carols” program that we have been preparing for over a month.  The choir was breath taking.   They all put in such an unbelievable amount of work and it really came together so beautifully in the end.  The energy, the adrenaline, the excitement was just flowing through all of us and they absolutely nailed it.  It was a perfect way to spread some holiday cheer on Yap and to get into the Christmas mood.

            On Tuesday, we had a fun dress down day at school that consisted of volleyball/ basketball, The Santa Claus, and mass.  It was a nice relaxing day to start off the Christmas break. 

            Thursday night, our neighbor – Mary – who I now call “Nina” because she is my Yapese mother – told me that Thafarad would be performing in the St. Mary’s Elementary School Christmas show.  We went together and sat on the floor of the improvised auditorium packed in among hundreds of eager families.  Thafarad’s first grade class sang first and he was adorable.  Afterwards, I went to pick him up from his classroom to bring him back to sit with Mary and I for the rest of the show.  He spent the show on my lap and singing around me.  It was an amazing night.  A bunch of my students were there and after asked me who that little boy was.  I simply told them that he was my little brother and said “Can’t you see the family resemblance?”  I chitchatted with a lot of my local friends who went to the show and it turned out to be an all-around amazing evening.

            Today, we had our second concert performance at St. Mary’s Church and the singing was even more incredible.  They almost had me in tears as they sand “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman” and “O Holy Night.”  I am so proud of them, and I let them know just how much happiness they have brought me during this holiday season.  I talked about how difficult it is to be away from home during this time of year, but I was so blessed to have all of them to make my Christmas so special.   Each and every day I keep falling more and more in love with this island, with this culture, with these people. 

            

December Pictures

Freshmen Class Picture for their pen pals in Mrs. Stephanie Hartline's English Class

Freshmen "Silly" Picture

Koyeng Construction

Junior Chemists

Koyeng Construction

Just chilling on top of our koyeng

Peter and I working on the roof

Sunset over our lake on campus

YCHS Christmas Concert Decorations

Fr. Corcoran welcoming everyone to YCHS

The crowd that could fit inside, there were even more people crowded around outside sitting on the veranda and  in various spots around campus

Choir preparing to sing

Choir after their first performance