traveldiary.stracke.us

So what is a typical Sunday like on a beautiful Pacific island, living with a lovely Yapese family? In the morning we attended a church service in an outdoor church structure, with the Pacific breezes giving us a nice cross wind. The pastor of the church kindly acknowledged the "white people’s" presence at his service and the congregation gaves us a round of applause. Maybe, if they did this back home, we would attend more often As far as the "white people" thing goes, I was insulted, since I have been working on this tan for the last 4 months and I could definitely be regarded as a "brown person" now.:mad: Back to the service………….it was actually very tranquil to listen to the pastor’s sermon, as I was looking at the swaying palms outside. After the service, everyone shook our hands on the way out, as if we were some honored guests. Then it was cookie and punch time. Since the heat inside our hosts’ real house was unbearable, we spent the early afternoon in a resting hut in the backyard of our hosts’ house. It consisted of a raised platform with an A-frame roof, covered with pandana leaves. On the inside, a mat of the pandana leaves was rolled out, upon which we laid our exhausted bodies. The hut was the only cool place to be, with a gentle breeze blowing through the open sides. Everyone napped. The only noise to be heard was when a gecko would jump from pandana leaf to pandana leaf on the roof. Once a poor lizard lost his footing and ended up taking a dive straight into the surrounding grasses. Maybe, he actually jumped. The late afternoon was spent touring the island and getting some insight into herbal remedies, as for example, the fruit of the noni tree is used to help patients afflicted with diabetes. [It is a very common disease on the island -- Edited for HIPPA compliance, AGAIN] -Carsten The 8 year old was playing a soccer game with his team that afternoon, so our next stop was at the soccer field, which consisted of a patch of weeds, measured out with twine. The kids on each team ranged in ages from 8 to about 14, both boys and girls. They played barefooted and without shin guards but thankfully did use an indoor soccer ball. It was about 90 degrees in the shade!! After the game, it was home for dinner. Our hostess had prepared a typical Yapese meal, which consisted of fish, rice, taro, banana paste, cooked in pandana leaves, and a tapioca paste. All tasted very good and Lothar actually ate the fish, after I deboned every piece for him. Maybe I am turning into a Yapese wife.:twisted: Thereafter our host challenged us to a game of Scrabble. He promptly won! We found out after wards that he plays against himself every evening and one of the 4 "hims" always wins. Where there is no outside entertainment available, one must learn to entertain oneself. By about 10PM we were all sweating in our beds, hoping the night would bring some rain, or at least some breezes through the open window screens. The fan did make sleep a little more bearable.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 25th, 2005 at 8:05 am and is filed under Yap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.