Even More Odds and Ends

Pete  A post or two back I mentioned Pete, my driver.  Here’s his picture.

At the track  Below are a couple of pictures of the track and field near PICS High School.  It's a great track, built as a result of a large grant.  I come here often and there are usually a wide mix of people, young and old using it.  A couple of weeks ago I had a nice chat here with the United States Ambassador.  I met her at the Peace Corps swearing in ceremony early on, and more recently, at the Japanese embassy.  She is a self-described Pollyanna, finding the good in most anything—which, I guess is a good attitude to have for someone in her position.  Lately, I often see a large group of young people training for a Micronesia-wide track meet that will be taking place in early June.  I am looking forward to seeing it.  As for me, I continue to run—although not all that far nor all that fast.  Other than my family and a few friends, most people at home question my sanity when it comes to expending all of that energy.  Here, I am even more of an odd ball.  Most people just don’t run around in this heat.  They just look at me funny.  I can’t quote the science as to the release of endorphins or whatever—I will leave that to my son-in-law the phys. ed. teacher and coach.  Whatever the reason, the exercise does help put negative thoughts in perspective and seems to open the mind to new and better interpretations. 

Dogs, Pigs, and Festivals  I was riding home from Nahnpei High School when we came across a bunch of dogs having a conference in the road.  My driver asked if I had dog.  His English was not the best, so I thought he was asking if I had a dog.  I started telling him about Digger when he said, “No, have I had dog?”  I dawned on me that he was asking if I had eaten dog.  When I answered no, that I didn’t think my own dog would approve, he began telling me about dogs, pigs, and festivals.  Seems that dogs were on the island long before pigs and were once considered an important food component at local festivals honoring the king.  Men would honor the king (Nahnmwarki) with yams, dogs, and sakau.  Once pigs were introduced on the island, however, they were obviously much bigger and considered a more worthy gift than a dog.  Lucky for dogs, they seem to have fallen out of favor and apparently are not eaten that much anymore. 

As for festivals, Pohnpei is divided into Kingdoms (what we would call provinces) each of which is ruled by a (now largely ceremonial, I think) King or Nahnmwarki.  Anyway, starting in late August through October and November, the local villages in each Kingdom still invite their Nahnmwarki to a festival at which men still traditionally present him with yams, pigs, and sakau.  I said I would like to attend a festival or two.  He said I would have plenty of opportunity.  He compared it to our Thanksgiving.  Along with honoring the king, the festivals traditionally promoted the hard work of growing yams, raising pigs, and making sakau, all of which served the people well.  Interestingly, he raised the whole culture-in-transition thing, which I keep mentioning.  As money has become more important in everyone’s lives, some have begun to substitute money for the traditional gifts.  Seems the Nahnmwarki are OK with that.  

Lapw Kepwou  I had another “Pohnpeian” lunch, this one with a science teacher who during lunch doubles as a caterer selling pre-boxed lunches of rice and fish or hot dogs under a big shade tree.  She invited me over to where she was sitting and insisted I have lunch with her.  She is by nature a jolly woman and was fun to talk with.  She offered me a plastic fork, but (like the principal in a previous post) she informed me of the Pohnpeian custom of eating with fingers, so I had to forego the fork and accept the challenge.  She also filled a water bottle with kool-aid and placed it in front of me.  I didn’t realize right away it was for the both of us.  Anyway, I thanked her for her hospitality and she explained that there are three important aspects of Pohnpeian culture:  Friendly greetings, respect for family, and offerings.  The word used to convey offerings (what we might call hospitality) is Lapw Kepwou which translates literally to “Untie the basket.”  Apparently, before refrigeration, etc. people would store food in baskets tied to the rafters of their house.  When visitors came people would untie the basket and offer food to guests. Neat word derivation.

Sokehs Ridge  A couple of miles west of Kolonia is a high ridge overlooking the west side of the main harbor in Kolonia.  I had read that it is the location of some of the Japanese artillery left after World War II.  I took a walk this afternoon, headed in that direction, and without giving it much thought, ended up climbing the ridge.  I need to go back—I didn’t have my camera with me, my i-phone was low on battery life, and I should have had more water, so I didn’t stay to explore the whole ridge.  Funny thing happened at the parking area, just below the peak.  As I was coming down a man was taking pictures at an overlook.  He asked if I would mind standing in the foreground, looking out at the view while he took some pictures from behind me.  Apparently, he liked my red shirt.  So I stood there, pretending I was looking out at the view through imaginary binoculars.  He was a photographer working for United Airlines.  They are planning some advertising, hoping to lure people to Micronesia—which makes sense since they are the only airline serving these islands.  So anyway, if you see a United Airlines ad with some old guy in a red shirt looking out over the ocean, I will be glad to sign autographs.  The photographer was from Rochester, NY, attended RIT and was intimately familiar with our area of the Adirondacks.  Small world.  Below are some of my own pictures of what I saw—one artillery piece, some bunkers, and great views of the harbor.  

The ridge in the distance on the left is Sokehs Ridge, where I took the pictures.

There were a couple of bunkers like this just behind the artillery piece.

The trail up the ridge.

If you look closely at the large island you can see the straight landing strip for Pohnpei and the causeway leading back to the mainland.