Turtles and Taro

I was going to start this blog with what a wonderful day we had and how we were treated as royalty and I've never met so nice of a people (which is all true). But after the last few hours, I have to say that I am going to show how shallow I actually am and make the beginning of the blog be about me...yep, after weeks without any female friendship at all, I finally got an hour and a half by myself to be a girl and watch a chick flick, while Andy and Jake went to shore for the drinking circle and for Jake to play on the beach with the local kids. About 15 minutes into my chick flick (while sitting in my underwear drinking a coconut...fabulous day), Andy came back and told me he was taking not only the computer, but the generator AND THE TV!!!. Yep, he had made a copy of Act of Valor ("Andy's MOVIE") for one of the guys, and while they were "testing" it on a tiny portable dvd player, he offered up our TV for a movie night. They sent him back to the boat quicker than he could say NO!!!.....seriously, I wasn't happy. You can only imagine what I was thinking, but I'm going to really try and let it go...


Not letting my own issues get in the way... this was a wonderful day. I've never met a nicer group of people. We went in this morning for Mass and we were met at the door with fresh lei's for our heads from our friends Michaeila and her daughters. After Mass we were whisked off to our friend Sasario's house for his daughter to fry up some fish for us and give us some taro. They also had lei's for us and every time I looked at Andy I thought of that lemur on Madagascar with the flowers poking up out of his head... spitting image.


As we waited for the party to start, I suggested we go say hi to Michaeila and her family. When we got there, they asked me if they could decorate me in tumeric, as in the spice. I had seen a few people in church all dusted up, so I said sure. Saralee (or Juralee...not sure), made me take my shirt off so I was just wearing my bikini top and took a HUGE can of tumeric and covered me with it. Did you know tumeric was yellow? I do now. It's yellow (and takes more than one shower to come off). I'm not sure what this had to do with Mary's Ascension, but everyone seemed to really like it. Jake and Andy were wondering if it was just "seasoning." I assured them I wasn't fat enough, and it was just for local entertainment. They wanted to paint my face with lipstick as well, but I kind of drew the line. I have an aversion to lipstick, even in my own culture.

Quite attractive, don't you think?  Matches
the flowers on my head nicely.

Turtle meat from one turtle (and the fat too).

We went and waited with our other friends while they divided the turtle up between everyone as well as the smoked fish they had been preparing for the last few days. They each drew a name from all the island households and prepared baskets for each one (think "dirty santa" without the dirty). The island had actually gotten together and made a basket (two, actually) for us as well! It was really neat to hear our names called out, but I can't feel but more than a little bit of guilt for taking so much from them! We had a basket of 4 land crabs, a bunch of bananas, two curried fish, a papaya, and a huge amount of taro. Then we had another basket full of taro and rice and on top of all of that, we had about 8 coconuts and a pound of smoked fish. Oh yeah.. almost forgot...we got our share of turtle. And it was good. I have so much to say about that, that I just don't have the room or the time.

This is the fire that's used to loosen the shell from the turtle.
If you look close you can see the tail sticking out on the right
hand side of the picture.

Smoked fish to be rationed out.

People starting to bring their gift baskets.

Starting to hand out the baskets to everyone.

Everyone waiting to hear their names called.

The men mostly picked up the baskets and the women watched.

Our name was called!  Look at that elaborate basket.
It had a top and bottom put together by some sort of
woven hinge.

I think Andy looks like King Julian on Madagascar
with his headdress on.

We ended up having two baskets, but this one had the
best goodies...crab, fish, bananas, papaya.

After many swims in the ocean (tumeric kind of stains the skin), a chick flick later (on a VERY small computer screen), and watching my son eat turtle, I have decided we really live an extraordinary life.

We have decided to stay a few more days to watch the "Christmas Drop." The US Airforce flies from Guam to many of these small islands and drops a Christmas package (with a parachute) full of stuff for the islanders. They're scheduled to come here on Wednesday and we thought that would be a site to see. Should be interesting.

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Culture, Culture and more Culture

Everyone always says, "What a great opportunity you're giving Jake...to see the world and learn about other cultures..." Well, I'll tell you, he's learning culture now. And so are we...

A young boy with his ration of fish.

It's hard to sum everything up in a cohesive story so I'm not going to try. Andy has spent a fair amount of time with the men, and I with the women...so I'm going to try to just summarize what we've learned (with a little bit of my opinion, of course :) ).

There are four clans on the island. They're not necessarily family, but "like family" is what I was told. As a matter of fact, the chief's stepson, Mannuel, is in a different clan than he is. Not sure how that happens, but it does. Each of the clans control a different part of the island; one controls the sea, one the land, one the tuba (remember the coconut toddy?), and one does the administrative tasks (not quite clear what this entails yet). There was a meeting the other day (and apparently, days after that), to discuss the tuba. Since the holidays are coming up, they want to decide if they're going to let the men drink the fermented tuba, or make them drink the sweet tuba (non-alcoholic) that the women drink. They want everyone to have fun and be happy, but they don't want them drunk all the time and useless. One night, the meeting results were handed out and it was a yes, you get to drink the tuba (interestingly enough, the women have a large say so in this), but last night another meeting decided that no, you don't get to drink the tuba. I don't think it's much different than our politics at home, actually....

The fish to be divided among the various families on the island.

Michaeila (I totally spelled it wrong in the last post, sorry. Pronounced, Mi Kay La, very common at home, I just don't know how to spell) told me how women get married here. I was very curious as there just doesn't seem to be a lot to pick from. She said a boy decides he wants to marry a woman and goes to her parents and asks permission (much like we do in the south, right?). If the parents say yes, the boy and girl go "away" for a few days to get to know each other and basically to let the girl decide if she wants to marry the boy and "how" they want to get married (I don't know what "how" means). If she decides she likes him, they go back and tell her parents, yes. Then they go to each of their family's houses and tell them they're going to get married and "how" they want to get married. Then they wait for the priest. On this island, there is a deacon, so they can get married anytime they like. If they are from two different islands, the man moves to the woman's island. I like that they get to say no if they want to...

Mannuel and Andy

Mannuel, the chief's step son, paddled out to the boat yesterday to give us our ration of fish (the clan that controls the water, divides the day's catch up among the men based on the size of family. They included us in this process, therefore we received more fish than we were ever able to eat in a given meal.). He stayed and had a few cold beers (his first since being in Yap in June) and we started to talk about their traditional dress. As I've described, the men wear the cloth tied around their nether-regions, called a "thu" here and the women wear lava lava's that they make here and go shirt less as well. While I've read numerous blogs and tour guides that will lead you to believe that they are bucking western traditions, I heard it straight from the chief's son's mouth that it basically comes down to soap. Yep, soap. Only a hand full of people here have jobs....teachers, doctor, dentist, etc. No one else has any money unless they sell the occasional lava lava or basket or what have you. So the people with money, tell the people without that they don't have the money to buy soap so they shouldn't wear the shirts. If you can't afford to wash them, you shouldn't wear them. I can't make this stuff up, people. For the older generation, this really is just how they dress, but for the younger generation, it's a restriction. If we're carrying a camera, you can see the young girls put their school books up to their chests. If you do see a young man wearing a shirt, he has written on it and cut it up into his own design...trying to make a statement. Not unlike any other culture we've ever known, including our own (I remember numerous mid-drift shirts and short skirts driving fathers crazy all over my hometown back in the 80-90's). But I thought Mannuel's explanation was worth noting.

Kira and Jake playing.  Kira was afraid
there were sharks in the water so we couldn't
get her off the ladder, but she had fun
anyway.

Every night we've been here (with the exception of the one night I didn't go to shore), we've had dinner cooked for us at Michaeila's house. They fry up the fish and put some taro in for us. One night they even found some breadfruit and instead of eating it themselves, they saved it for us and fried it up with our fish (breadfruit is out of season right now, so to find one is very rare). At the same time, the men are giving us our "rations." We have more fish than we know what to do with. To show my appreciation, I invited Michaeila out to the boat. She was so giddy it was like a teenager. She brought her granddaughter, Kira with her and they had a blast. Kira, of course, played with Jake (it's amazing how kids can play even when they don't speak the same language), while Michaeila and I chatted on the bow. I baked some pumpkin bread for them and made some deviled eggs...I was trying to think of something "American" that I might have the ingredients for. Turns out she loved both. We sent her home with a ton of goodies and a nice color picture printout of us on the boat. It was so funny and fulfilling to watch her so excited. She's a large woman and wasn't sure if she could climb on board, but in the end, she couldn't pass up the opportunity. And I think it made more than one woman on shore jealous...I think she liked that :).

Tomorrow is the big celebration. It's the day of Mary's Ascension. After Mass, they're having a big party, complete with turtle. The poor thing has been laying on it's back for two days huffing and puffing trying to stay alive. We thought about secretly letting it loose, but we think they harpooned it in the neck. We'll have to go for the "we're not going to waste it" attitude and have a taste tomorrow. Then on Monday, we're off....

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Going Native

"I should get a picture of that...ha!" Andy said as I'm standing in the cockpit in my new lava lava, with my bikini top, a flowered headdress and two leis, while sucking on the bones of a fried fish.
"You should talk" I said, watching him shirt-less, with some crude green necklace tied around his neck, staring at me with his glassy eyed expression one can ONLY get from drinking too much tuba (the local coconut toddy he was introduced to today in the men's drinking circle).

The stuff in those big bottles (and in the photographer) is
the "tuba"

Our welcome here wasn't quite what we expected. We had read about people rowing out to the boat before the anchor was even down, kids wooping it up on shore, people fighting for your attention, etc. When we rolled up in here, it was dead quiet and not a soul around. They even had advance notice of us coming (Pulawat told them over the radio to expect us). I think we caught them during siesta. When we went to shore to see the chief, we found out he was very ill and on the verge of dying. This explained everyone's somber mood. We found him in a boat house laying on a platform in the middle with 10 - 15 women around taking care of him. His wife was by his side, smiling one of the warmest smiles we've received yet. We gave our gifts, talked to his son, Manuel, and then went back to the boat to rest up.

All the men carry around these woven bags.  They mostly
contain beetle nut and knives, but strange for us westerners.

The next day was totally different. We went in before lunch (everyone was sleeping again?) and were greeted by the chief's wife who had made us all a lei and a headdress out of some beautiful local flowers. We chatted a bit and went to the school to drop off supplies. This island seems to be very educated. Everyone was partaking in some sort of school, whether it was vocational, traditional, or even pre-school (they have a "head start" program here!). School goes up to 9th grade and then they go to a larger island (Wolei, Ulithi or Yap) to continue their education. We met up with Manuel again and said we would be in later in the afternoon. When we came in around 3:00, they were just starting up their men's drinking circle. This is where they sit around every day and pass around the "tuba." It's a form of fermented coconut that they gather from their trees every morning and night. It's Yap's version of Kava Kava for those sailing around in the S. Pacific. There's only about 10 people in this world who will get this (and I think most of them read the blog), but the tuba they drink tastes like Andy's old wine, drunk about 10 days earlier than any of us EVER thought about drinking it. It's not the finest in the world, but let's just say that Andy got along just fine.

One of the men in the drinking circle.  All of the men here
seem to be very good with their kids and show a gentle side.

After about 10 minutes of listening to a bunch of men cackle about (I've always wanted to say that), I set off to find the women. I went back to where the chief was and the ladies invited me in. One lady in particular spoke excellent English, Makaila. After a bit, she invited me to her home. There I tasted every form of coconut I think I've ever come across. The ladies here aren't allowed to drink so they sip the sweet tuba - non alcoholic coconut drink. They also boil that down to make an even sweeter concoction that resembles honey to me. Then they mix that sweet stuff with more coconut and make a candy for the kids. I tried it and have to say it's my favorite...like a brown sugar thingy with a smoky flavor....

Sweet little Kira, Michaeila's granddaughter.

I had worn a lava lava that I purchased in Pulawat and Makaila was very interested. She wanted to know where I got it, how much I paid for it, etc. Finally, the secret was out...apparently, I was wearing a very cheap lava lava. Who knew? I was running around in a Walmart lava lava and she wanted me to wear Bloomingdales. She came out with a much nicer (it really was) one made of black and purple threads and immediately made me put it on. As she saw how mine was tied, she was appalled once more and set me straight :). It was all very nice and she was so happy once I was all dressed up. She laughed and clapped and gave me a big hug. It's weird...I've spent the last year being all covered up and here, I'm overdressed in my bikini top. It's hard to get used to the change. Anywhoo...Eventually I had to go catch up with Andy and make sure he was still standing. I was sent home with three fried fish, some taro, coconut and a bottle of the sweet stuff...oh yeah, and a new lei and headdress...mine was wilted, can't have that.


I found Andy just as I described in the beginning of this post. I scuttled him back on the dinghy and off we went for our own drinking circle and debrief. It was a grand day. Andy did get a bit of a "honey do" list while he was socializing though. There are boats to be fixed, spear guns to be drilled, sails to make and engines to grease. That was going to be what he did today. Instead, he spent most of the day fixing a leak on old Savannah. It seems some floor joists have put some pressure on some of the braces in the bildge and caused a crack over time. He cut out the joists as they're not structural to the boat and patched it all up. He's back in a different drinking circle tonight. Apparently, there are two...this is the teacher's circle. I wasn't sure if I was invited or not (it is a "men's" circle afterall) and Jake was tired, so we opted to stay on the boat. I'll get the debrief when he gets home.


We're going to stay through the weekend as there is a celebration this Saturday and we will finally get to try the turtle we've been hearing so much about. More on that later... It's impossible to sum it all up, so I'll leave you with that. I can't wait for you guys to see all the pictures...it will be so much more interesting.

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Underway for Lamotrek

The last few days have been uneventful in Pulawat...a good thing. Yesterday, we cleaned the boat, pulled our hooks out and went in to say our goodbyes. The winds looked good on Sunday, dying out a bit on Monday, so we decided to go ahead and leave.

Everyone seemed genuine in their thank you's and goodbyes. I like to think we helped a little here. Andy's final list of fix its and to dos were fiberglassing a boat, fixing a block, programming a gps, patching a water tank, sealing an old compass, loading movies onto laptops and providing the daily weather report. I made a friend towards the end there in a lady named Josaline. We exchanged recipes and a bit of food, so when we went in to say bye, I gave her one of my bracelets that I had recently made. She had made me some lai's (I have no idea how to spell that), and gave Jake a plastic beaded necklace and her husband, Tony, gave Andy a Trident Trumpet shell and a few fish he had caught that day. They were very nice people and when not around her husband, Josaline spoke perfect English. That made it easier to get to know her than some of the other ladies. I'm assuming it's tradition or a cultural thing, but whenever her husband was around, she spoke through him. But if she rowed out to the boat or I caught her by herself, we spoke like old friends. She is from Weno, in Chuuk, but has spent a fair amount of time in Guam. Pulawat is a bit small for her and I think she wants to go back to Guam. She has two older kids there in school and misses them quite a bit. And her little one misses McDonald's (so does mine, I told her)!

Josaline and two of her kids.

The old compass Andy sealed and cleaned up.  It was
manufactured in 1944.  Wouldn't you like to have that?

We're a few hours underway and things are looking like we might possibly be able to arrive tomorrow before sunset, which is our goal. It's 170 or so miles and the winds are so so... we'll see.

Keep the prayers and good thoughts coming for Palau...the forecast this morning said the typhoon was still on track for hitting there and winds were currently at 130 mph. Our friends have taken refuge in the Rock Islands...we're hoping for the best.

Some photos of the Catholic Church here (Jake thought Papa Mac would like these)...

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Coconuts, Bananas, and Typhoons

You can't see the lines, but they're there.

Did I say typhoons? Yep. Thank goodness for friends who watch the weather. Our very good friends, Richard and Lee on s/v Before, are in Palau and dropped us a little note (bomb) the other day about a tropical depression (possible typhoon) heading our way. It's original path had it going right over Pulawat. We considered heading south, as typhoons don't typically travel along the equator, but in the end, decided to move the boat to the little lagoon here and hunker down. We waited until high tide, as the water gets deep enough for us to move in (about 8 foot), and we motored into the lagoon to a spot in the SE corner. We put out all four of our anchors and tied a 600 foot line to a coconut tree on shore. We alerted the locals about the coming storm and began to pull our weather twice a day. As Richard kept us informed, we slowly realized we were going to be spared (I know, I'm being dramatic)!!! The storm did a lot of weird things, like slow down, speed up, change directions, etc. but eventually, it decided to go west. It passed us about 120 miles south last night and we only got 25-30 knot winds (no different than an active day in Majuro during the northeasterlies). But the track now shows it moving more northwest and heading straight for Yap and Palau. While we're out of danger, now Richard and Lee have to take cover in the Rock Islands. So we'll be watching our for them and saying a few extra prayers. Thank goodness for friends who watch the weather.

And thank goodness for family that doesn't! We didn't want to keep the information from our family, but knowing no one at home was watching the weather out here...we opted to wait until all was good before informing them. Hopefully they'll forgive us. Both families have had enough to worry about without unnessessary worry for us.



This storm is really strange though...it's late in the season and they rarely come this low in lattitude. Kind of a fluke thing. And really hard to track. We wanted to have a typhoon party, but we were lacking in the ability to go buy a keg and watch the weather channel. So we decided to cook popcorn and watch Surf's Up instead :).

His brother was hiding in the water but it made a cute picture. 

Some kids in their canoes paddling around our boat.
Canoes here are like bikes for the kids at home...everyone has one
and knows how to paddle.

So...Andy didn't go sailing on Wednesday. But we did manage to get in a hike to a Japanese lighthouse that was put up before WWII. We had a great little walk on the beach, eventually found the path to the lighthouse and spent our afternoon exploring the jungle. A perfect day for Jake.

The actual light in the lighthouse.  I believe they
said it was working up until 10 or so years ago.  Looks pretty rusted out
to me...

Going down the stairs in the lighthouse.

We're going to pull up our hooks tomorrow and move back to our original spot, getting us ready to move out early Monday morning (weather permitting of course). Andy was going to cash in a raincheck on the sailing for tomorrow, but one look at the pass this afternoon and the small canoe they'll be going out on and he decided to hold out for Lamotrek.

So, as we sign off, we're going to go eat a few of our (20 lbs) bananas, put a dent in the 2 dozen coconuts in our cockpit (while lacing with a bit of rum) and thank the Lord for giving us another wonderful day.

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The other village

That's Mayor Dale with the machete in
his hand.

Round 2 - The other village

Mayor Dale and his people have been very nice to us and very warm and welcoming. They still ask us to do a lot of stuff, but the attitude is different and therefore ours is different, making us much more eager to help. Apparently, there was a meeting yesterday (with both the Mayor and Joey), and the anchoring fee is not $50 (as quoted by Joey), or $35 (as quoted by the mayor and what we actually paid), but $25. The money should be collected by the Mayor and go towards the municipality, not just one village or chief. Makes no difference to us as we've already paid, but maybe it will be a little clearer for the next yacht that comes in here.


So far, Andy has spent an entire afternoon trying to fix a chain saw, with no success. He thinks it's the timing but we don't have the tools to confirm or fix it. He's patched up a water tank for the local school principle as well as programmed his GPS (it had him somewhere between Montana and Kansas). Andy has fixed a block on one of the outrigger sailing canoes and secured himself a position on Wednesday's sailing crew. He's really stoked about that one! Imagine sailing on one of the traditional built canoes with the locals! (Incidentally, I have asked him to take his hand held epirb - emergency beacon - as there has been more than one tale of an islander floating up on another atoll) The only job left undone so far is fixing the GPS for the "oldest master navigator" on the island(I know, funny right? Which came first the GPS or the Master Navigator?). We think it's probably just batteries.

Not too sure what's with the peace and gang signs, but
all the kids seem to like to use them in their pictures.
Melony is on the left.

George, one of the guys that translates for us with the mayor sometimes, rowed up to the boat last night with his three daughters. He is originally from Lamotrek and wanted us to take some letters to his sisters for him (no names, just ask around he said). He also brought another lava lava for me to buy. I got this one for half the price of the one Joey sold me...hmmmm.... George's 11 year old daughter, Melony, was one of the girls that sat on the boat the other day and stared at me while I made a bracelet. She's very beautiful and spirited but her English is lacking so our communication was pretty basic. She rowed out today to give us some more letters and some papayas George had promised us. This will be a much welcome change as the boat is slowing sinking from bananas and coconuts. She also made me a beautiful little headdress made out of some local flowers...very sweet. I think I might give her one of the beaded bracelets I've been making for people. I usually give them to the "woman" of the house, but she's been so sweet...

Jake climbing a tree to retrieve his very own
coconut.

While we were talking to the Mayor one day, we were told Jacinta wanted to meet us and we were sent to the kitchen house. There she was with a huge smile on her face and nothing on but a skirt. We had been told that the women in Lamotrek were very traditional and went bare breasted, covering nothing but their thighs...the most provocative part of the body here. But we hadn't expected it here in Pulawat. It seems that everyone over 50 is pretty traditional (i.e. no shirts), but the younger women wear the newer uniform of long skirt and t-shirt. Andy, not surprisingly, seems to think it should be the other way around. We had tried to prepare Jake for this as he's obviously not used to seeing so many boobies but I think we left something out.... When we got back to the dinghy, he said "Mommy? I wasn't surprised by the boobies, but I was surprised by something else."

"What was that?," I asked.

"I thought they would be BIG, not LONG and hanging."

Ha! So, that began a whole different conversation about sizes of boobies and why everyone is different. I bet you wish you were a fly on the wall for that one, huh?


It turns out the reason Jacinta wanted to meet us was to offer us to come back later in the day to give us some taro to try. It was the best taro we've eaten by far. Jake even liked it. It looked like she boiled it and pounded it, as is traditional, but not too much. Then put the coconut milk on it and gave it to us immediately! That last part is key. It goes sour pretty quickly and well, our taste buds (or stomachs) haven't adjusted to that yet.

Preparing Taro

The Master Navigator's hut.  Not many building codes here...

Today we're going to try to secure ourselves a guide for tomorrow to go up to a lighthouse they have here. They say it's through the jungle so it's not really feasible to go by yourself (if you don't want to get lost). We'll see if we can find any takers...

I have a feeling the next major update will be after the big sail on Wednesday. Apparently, there are people from other islands coming in tomorrow (possibly a big feast?), and who knows how many boats going out on Wednesday...we're just going with the flow. Stay tuned.

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More on Pulawat

Where do I start? I'm on information overload. Ok, I'll start with where I left off and
try not to skip around too much.

It turns out Joey had a change of attitude when we showed up to fix his boat. He was very grateful and well, just a different person. We also gained a little more insight on what appears to be a rivalry here on the island. I'm making some leaps here to fill in some gaps in the story but Joey told us that his family and ancestors own tons of land (relatively speaking) here on the island (he actually gestured to the whole island). Apparently, way back when, there were some "bad guys" here. They would kidnap the women, eat other people's food, and well, just weren't very nice. So Joey's ancestors got a group of men together - "army" - and snuck up on the bad guys and killed them all (as well as their families) so they wouldn't have that gene pool to worry about. And so it is, that he owns the land now. As for the mayor....well, I think it's a case of traditional meets new ways and they don't know yet how to live together. The idea of a mayor is fairly new here and typically, on the islands we've been to, you don't have a mayor and a chief. So they have a bit of figuring out to do. It seems civil enough though...we're spreading the love to both villages and so far, it's working out for us.

Andy putting a fiberglass patch on their boat.  Lots of
spectators....

Andy has spent a couple of days fixing Joey's boat and I think he's about done. I made them some ahi poke this morning with one of the tuna's we caught and the ladies really liked that (the sauce in particular). We've received 6 coconuts, a stalk of bananas, and two coconut crabs(actually, Andy just pulled up and it turns out they want to sell them to us for $15...I don't think so...no coconut crabs tonight). I also had the opportunity to buy one of the handmade lava lava's here(and I did). They strip the "skin" from the trees and they take part of the leaves and roots and whatever else and pound them to make dye. Then they weave these elaborate fabrics - elaborate in the sense that this is all made out of a tree and done by hand and it turns out to be a bona fide fabric - that they use for skirts or sell for wall hangings or what have you. It's beginning to be a dying art (ha ha, I just reread this and got my own joke), so my guess is they're becoming more scarce. I'm glad to get the opportunity to actually purchase one. I'm hoping I can catch them making one before we leave and get some pictures. Overall, my opinion on the gimme gimme attitude hasn't changed (see the incident on the coconut crabs after spending 2 days of hard work and at least $100 of materials and gifts), but I'm growing to like the individuals.

While Andy was working and I was socializing, Jake was playing with the kids in the water. They had a funny little game(and I'm sorry to say my overprotecting nature didn't really allow Jake to actively participate - he was more of an instigator or spectator). They took a piece of fabric and wet it. Then they would put it over their head and crouch down in the water and float on their backs, making a bubble of sorts over their faces and bodies. It looks like some sort of floating corpse. I could see all kinds of wrongs happening there and I wasn't paying 100%attention, so rather than have my own corpse to take home, I just encouraged Jake to splash around with them :). He seemed fine with that. The other game they were playing was for one kid to hold a big rock and the others try to jump on him to get it from him. A tug of war, hold your head under the water until you give it up type of game. I pretended not to notice whether Jake was playing or not. It's hard to encourage him to play and then to tell him he can't play... He's learning "good judgment" and "common sense."

I did learn something new today...a man's lava lava here in Micronesia is known as a mungca, with the enunciation on the "ca." I learned how to say bye (twice since we've been here) but for some reason it isn't sticking...I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Everyone watching us talk to the principal
when we were giving our supplies.

Joey is a teacher at the local school, so he sent a kid to show us the way and we gave our usual school supplies of paper, pencils, sharpeners, crayons, dictionaries and flash cards. What really needs to happen is for someone to just spend a few hundred bucks and load up on all that stuff for the whole school for a year. We can't carry that much on our boat and I'm not sure our budget could handle it for each island, but when we worked and had jobs, it wouldn't have been a drop in the bucket. I wonder what would happen if everyone did something like that for the local inner-city school (or any needy school) in the U.S.? I'm not turning into a softy here, but it's so amazing how much we have compared to these people. We are considered living "without" by so many of our friends and family. After all, we live in a small confined space, no dishwasher, washing machine, toaster, coffee maker, etc. all the comforts of home. But my gosh, we roll up in here and we might as well be Bill Gates or Oprah for all they know. These kids come on the boat and they just stare. Literally sit and stare at you and your stuff for hours. They live in tin sheds or shantys made out of pandanas leaves. They sleep on woven mats on top of layers of palm leaves. They have no running water and no electricity. Their clothes (if they're wearing any) are old and tattered. Thanksgiving was a good time to roll up in here. It brings things into perspective.

This is the school here in Pulawat...

Jake and I at a little shrine we found.  They
have many of these around here, much like in Mexico.

There is tons more to tell but I think I'm going to spread it out over the next few days. Maybe separate the info between the two villages... There's so much to take in, I just want to share it all. So stay tuned for more on canoes, bare breasted women, and our invitation to eat taro.

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