White Folk

"Psst!  Ryan!"  I whispered excitedly.

Ryan looked up from his plate of rice, cucumbers, and a sketchy chicken wing.  

"Look!  White people!"  I pointed to the bleachers next to us. 

 In the midst of a crowd of island-skinned Kosraens, there were two young-looking white folk around our age, one guy with red hair and a sweet beard and a girl wearing an island skirt and had the appearance of someone who was obviously not in their normal climate.  

Kun giving us a Kosrean-speaking lesson

See, we were at the last day of the Liberation Day games, and we had spent the morning watching different events and races put on by the different Kosraen Villages.  The first race we witnessed was strange, and it is still puzzling us to this day, spending many sleepless nights tossing and turning trying to figure it out what the purpose was.  The race went like this:  The man over the loudspeaker jumbled something in Kosraen, which prompted a number of elderly people to emerge from the stands.  They all lined up, and when the race started, they all just started walking.  They walked around the whole track, just like it was a sabbath afternoon and they were just getting fresh air.  The crowd was going nuts, and one of the men finally picked up and ran to the finish.  The crowd went crazy, and he went and laid down on a blanket that was set out before him on the field as they poured a bottle of water on him.

I looked at Ryan.  He had the same bewildered look on his face.

Soon after, we went the tent to look at the fruits and crafts people had brought.  Uncle Larry won many prizes for his breadfruit, mango, taro, and lettuce plants, so he was beaming with pride the whole morning. 

But back to the white people.

Doing laundry with my new palm basket

After the championship baseball game between villages Malem and Walung had started, we spotted the white people.  First let me say that there are no white people on this island, especially not Americans.  If there are, they are usually Australian.  

"Ryan, I'm going to go talk to them!"  

I went over to where they were sitting with Ryan following, and introduced myself.

Hi!  I noticed that you were whi....I mean, I just thought I'd come say hi, since there aren't many of...um...our kind here!" I stumbled.

He laughed.  "Good to meet Y'all!  Where you from?

Ah, yes. American! 

I miss this girl very much.

"Spokane, Washington!  We are a long ways from the Northwest." I replied.  We are student missionaries, teaching at the SDA school for a year.  You?"

"Peace Corps!  We're here for 2 years teaching also.  There are about 6 of us on this island.  We got our training in Hawaii, so they taught us in the language, teaching skills, and everything else we would need to know.  Where did you guys get your training?"

Ryan and I looked at each other.

"Well, actually we basically arrived here and started teaching two days later.  Not a lot of training." 

He was amazed.  "Heather, did you here that?  They didn't even have any training or anything, and they had to just start teaching basically when they got here.  And they have to teach all their subjects for their classes!"  

We talked for a while about the island and the people, and ended up exchanging emails.  It is amazing how simply talking to another American can make it feel like home, taking on the same challenges and experiencing the same change from comfortable United States to the wild island.  

Drinkin' coconut at Utwe Beach

Things are going good here.  My fever has subsided, and I feel much better, although nights have been lacking sleep lately, partially due to waning sickness effects, WEIRD dreams, and the occasional interruption by the "Mysterious Phone of Mystery" at 1:00 AM last night.  I woke up this morning, and my bed sheet was on the living room couch, where last I had it was under my covers when I went to sleep.  Maybe soon the nights will get more normal.  

It is the evangelistic series this week, so our speaker and his family came from California.  More Americans!  The meetings every night still seem to operate on island time, however, and we find that learning about the seven horns and the fires of Revelation can be a bit much for 2 hours.  

It is now time to make lesson plans for this coming week, and perhaps attempt to cook up some spaghetti for dinner!  You use the oven for that, right mom?

Peace from the tropics,

-River