Kamadipw en Wahu

We received a phone call from Peter Panuelo-Leon, Chief of Elementary Education for Pohnpei schools, on Friday evening asking if Roger and I and our Peace Corps colleagues were available on Saturday around noon to attend a “Kamadipw en Wahu,” or festival of respect.  Our immediate response was sure…then we stopped to wonder…what’s this?!

Well, we certainly found out on Saturday.  Chief Panuelo picked us up, and while driving, explained that now (September through December) is the time for “first harvest” or thanksgiving festivals.  A little background….there are nine municipalities in Pohnpei, each of which has a traditional system of leadership wherein they are ruled by a king or Nahnmwarki. It is interesting to note that the Pohnpei culture is matrilineal, and leadership titles are passed down through the mother’s clan. Women, however, do not hold leadership positions.  Along with the Nahnmwarki, there are various other titles with greater or lesser responsibilities.  Anyway, in keeping with tradition, each of the local villages in each municipality still invite their Nahnmwarki to a festival at which they present him with yams, pigs, and sakau as tokens of respect.

We went to Nett municipality where Chief Panuelo’s wife is a person with some standing.  The Chief led us to the Nahs (like an open-air picnic pavilion) where we were presented to the Nahnmwarki and other members of the cultural leadership.  Because we were invited guests of the chief and his wife, we were invited to sit on the cement platform with the King and his family.  However, we had to be in front of him and lower in elevation (he sat on a chair, we sat on the cement floor). Almost immediately we were presented with food…woven palm leaf platters filled with fish, chicken, breadfruit, and bananas.  Music was provided by a young man singing and playing a keyboard.  The music was very upbeat and soon women were dancing.  They took great delight in inviting us old white folks to get up and dance.  Believe it or not, Roger got up first, then me.  The women are great dancers; they have a hip shimmy that I tried but could not even come close to duplicating.  My dancing instructor said “just bend your knees and relax”…no way! 

As the afternoon progressed, we watched an amazing array of gifts and tributes presented to the King.  Most impressive were huge piles of sakau plants and perhaps a dozen pigs, killed within the last hour—we could hear their squeals.  Also hanging from the rafters were dozens of yam plants.  In between and during all of this there were two groups of men making sakau.  Half a dozen men sat around two large flat stone surfaces and pounded the roots and prepared the drink.  After hearing about sakau for so long, I finally had a chance to sample the drink.  The first sakau from a pounding is very thick and strong.  I had a sip and found it strange but not as disgusting as I thought it might be. 

Equally amazing to me was the presentation of the pigs.  Palm fronds were laid on the cement floor in front of the king.  The pig carcasses were then carried in on the shoulders of strong men who struggled under the weight and dropped their load at the foot of the Nahnmwarki (and only a couple of feet from where we were sitting).  At that point, a dozen men with large knives and machetes started butchering the pigs and distributing portions.  We were presented with a couple of large sections of ribs.  Wow!  It should be noted that much of the sakau root and most of the meat is given to families from the host region.

All-in-all, the day was pretty amazing and provided an opportunity to see the traditional Pohnpeian culture up close.  I will let the pictures fill in the details.   [Another side note—we were at lunch in Kolonia the other day and our waitress asked us if we had a good time at the festival on Saturday…she said she saw us dancing!!]

The Nahnmwarki (sitting in chair) and others with lesser titles.

Taking sakau from a traditional half coconut shell

Pounding the sakau root

Yams hanging from the rafters

Gifts of pig and sakau heading (we think) to the Nahnmwarki

Odds and Ends (5)

Send off for new Peace Corps Volunteers  A couple of weeks ago the newest group of 13 two-year volunteers to FSM finished their three months of training.  They will be teachers in schools all across FSM.  After three months, they were ready to go.  Their final obligation was to perform at their swearing-in ceremony.  They spent the time during training living with local families and learning the language and culture of their destination island.  As noted in the picture, they donned traditional costume, sang songs, and danced in tribute to their adopted communities.

Fortunately, Lin and I were not required to do this at our own swearing-in ceremony!

The Peace Corps Associate Country Director, who was responsible for most of their training, also said a few words and recited the attached poem.  It was a poignant reminder of what has motivated many of us to end up way, way outside our comfort zone.

Pacific Island Forum Comes to Town  Kolonia has been a busy place for the last week.  Pohnpei, FSM is hosting the 47^th Pacific Island Forum.  The Forum is a grouping of some 16 independent Pacific island countries including Australia and New Zealand to the south, Palau to the west, Kiribati and the Cook Islands to the West, FSM and the Marshall Islands to the north and a whole bunch of island nations in-between.  In addition, the Forum attracts “Observers” like the United States and the UN, as well as various other entities like the Asian Development Bank, the Pacific Fisheries Commission, and the World Bank.  In other words, a pretty big deal.  Their mission seems to be all-encompassing from economic development to good governance; from embracing cultural diversity to addressing immediate concerns such as climate change, health issues, and guardianship of the ocean and its resources.

Along with more traffic and people on the island, the biggest impact on us was the decision to close schools for the week.  It seems that someone in authority felt that school buses would serve a higher need by transporting visiting dignitaries to events rather than children to school.  Obviously not my call….  Fortunately, teachers and principals were expected to find their way to school, which allowed a full complement of staff development to take place during the week.  Lin and I were busy—I with principals; Lin with teachers.

One other impact was the decision by the U.S. Embassy and the Head of the United States Delegation to the Forum to host a cocktail party in honor of the Peace Corps’ 50^th anniversary in the FSM.  It was an interesting event.  The new Ambassador, Robert Riley, is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who spoke of his own experiences, as well as those of his daughter who is a current volunteer in China.  The Head of the U.S. delegation also spoke.  He has some role within the State Department that had him traveling with President Obama in his recent travels to Midway, China, and Laos as part of his G-20 trip last week.  There was an interesting mix of Peace Corps, State Department, and other folks, and of course, it was nice to be recognized as current Peace Corps volunteers.

New U.S. Ambassador Riley

Update on Our Work  Our work in the schools has continued to evolve.  As a group, the Peace Corps Response Volunteers in the education sector have been successful in convincing both the Pohnpei Department of Education and the Peace Corps leadership to rethink our positions.  Long story short, instead of being assigned to a limited number of schools, we are now working in all 30-some schools on the island, but with a more limited focus for each volunteer.  My role will concentrate on building leadership capacity.  I am now working with all principals and Department of Education leadership, providing workshops and training.  Linda and another volunteer are working with teachers.  They are providing workshops for teachers all around the island, concentrating on the basics such as lesson plan development, teaching strategies, classroom management, and assessment.  They are also attempting to involve the Department of Education curriculum specialists in these initiatives, hoping to “train the trainers.”   A fourth volunteer is concentrating on data collection and other matters related to the accreditation process—a process initiated (so far with limited success) to drive school improvement.  All four volunteers have been (re)located to Kolonia and now work out of common office space at PICS High School.  It has been a good move, allowing us to better coordinate our work and reach more teachers and principals.  It has also allowed me to continue my relationship with the leadership at PICS, which continues to need all the help it can get.

It’s Not All Work  We are discovering new food and drink:

6° Off the Equator

Ant Atoll.  Photo from the Nature Conservancy  www.nature.org 

 

We were feeling the need to get away, which on a small island, is not all that easy.  Your choices are pretty much limited to other small islands.  Fortunately, Pohnpei is surrounded by a few “outer islands,” all of which are atolls (ring-shaped reefs that enclose a lagoon).  We chose Ant Atoll for our get-away.  We signed onto a small charter boat with 10 or 12 other people for the ten-mile trip to Ant.  The boat was captained by an expat from Brazil who now makes his living taking people on snorkeling, scuba diving, and surfing trips around Pohnpei.  His boat was powered by a couple of 150 hp Honda outboards, so it didn’t take more than an hour to get there.

Ant is a quintessential Pacific island—what you dream about in February or March in the North Country.  Lots of long sandy beaches, palm trees and warm aquamarine water.  It has been named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve due to its high levels of biodiversity and abundance of marine birds and fish.  We stopped on our way in to snorkel along the outer reef.  It was pretty amazing.  At this particular point, the coral reef was a thick wall from the ocean floor to just below the surface of the water.  Along with the coral itself, the main attraction was the variety of small brightly colored fish.  Lin saw a reef shark—relatively small—several feet in length and supposedly harmless. 

Like most places in Pohnpei, the island is privately owned so there is a $10 fee you pay upon landing at the beach.  It is not permanently inhabited, although people like us come frequently to visit.  Some come to stay for several days and there are huts you can rent or nahs (sort of like thatched picnic pavilions) under which you can take cover.   Lin and I and a couple of other PC volunteers took advantage of a nahs for a picnic and to get out of the sun.  Mostly, though, we spent our time snorkeling, swimming, and getting a bit sun burned.  Despite its reputation for wild life, we didn’t see a lot of birds or animals.  The closest thing was a dog who was pretty intent on our fried chicken picnic fare.  Other than the dozen people on our boat we saw very few others—only one or two other boats were pulled up on shore or anchored off shore.  All in all, a pretty spectacular place to spend a day.

Lin looking through a piece of coral

On our way back into Pohnpei Harbor