Walkabout week 4: The Real Welcoming Ceremony
2017-05-28
All of the churches decided to combine into one ceremony on this Sunday, followed by a big feast, all to welcome me. We would gather at the Presbyterian church, in the neighboring village of Leiwoma. My host family explained to me that the traditional call, a conch shell, would be used to let everyone know when to head over. That, and every dog in the village went nuts when it heard the conch.
At the church, they used the new traditional method of notifying people, which is to bang on a suspended welding tank with a piece of rebar or something. Seriously, there are so many welding tanks here. I was in the church with the welding tank 50' away, and it kind of hurt my ears. I feel sorry for the guy who has to ring it.
The most interesting part of church was the singing, where everyone seemed to know how to harmonize "karem pat" and just did it. The other interesting part was where everyone devolved into a sort of speaking in tongues kind of thing, with some people crying, others wailing, and others going on and on in what, even if I could understand them, would be gibberish. (I refer to it as gibberish not because of a bias against these people, but because I think that's what religion pretty much is.)
I was also asked to address everyone, and unlike last time I was prepared. After being caught flat footed on Friday, I wrote a general thank you, happy to be here speech in Bislama and had Annette correct it. That went fine.
I haven't mentioned yet the problems with my outhouse and kitchen. They are both the size of kids playhouses. If you were prepubescent and about 4 and a half feet tall they'd be just right.
So in church the pastor asks me to stand up so everyone can see how tall I am--even they've all seen me and already know. He then says they have to rebuild the outhouse and kitchen. He's right, knows it, so I'm happy to hear this, though it is a little funny being put on display in church. While I am taller than most, I'm not Guinness World Records tall, and the people aren't especially short. I don't know why they built my outhouse and kitchen so small. No idea.
After church there is a ton of food, featuring yams. Also featured are the black crabs which Tongariki is known for around here. I didn't like the crabs at all, so that's a bummer. It wasn't the taste. I don't like food that is difficult to eat, and having to crack open all the tiny little crab compartments to suck out tinier bits of meh-tasting meat just isn't worth it to me. In the same vein, the fish here is far better than in Epau, because they catch bigger fish, so removing the bones is a piece of cake.
There have only been 3 previous PC volunteers here, all of whom were women. I'd heard through the grapevine that the islanders were really excited to finally have a male volunteer come, but I never knew why. I mainly talked with the men at the feast, and they told me. In their culture, men and women don't mix so much, and the men really never got a chance to sit and storian (hang out and talk) with the other PC volunteers because they were women. So they were really happy they'd get to talk to me. I didn't have ask about this, they came right out and told me.
With everyone all together, it was a good time to ask some more of my PC questions. One of them was, what are the challenges facing youth in your community? Bislama has the word yut, which I thought was the same thing as youth. But it turns out that yut means anyone who isn't married, hence the talking dog looks I received when asking about yut leaders and yut programs. The challenges facing young people (these from a pastor) are marijuana, alcohol and spending too much time on Facebook.
I thought for sure they'd grow marijuana here, I mean, there aren't any police on the island, and the environment is perfect. No, he was pretty sure it was coming from somewhere else and that kids traded yams for it. Alcohol was funny. The kids know how to make home brew, for which you only need a bucket, some fruit and yeast. This isn't a new thing, the people here have known about it for years. And Facebook. Interesting how these are all big concerns in the U.S. too, but also interesting that sex wasn't mentioned.
The feast went well into late afternoon.
All of the churches decided to combine into one ceremony on this Sunday, followed by a big feast, all to welcome me. We would gather at the Presbyterian church, in the neighboring village of Leiwoma. My host family explained to me that the traditional call, a conch shell, would be used to let everyone know when to head over. That, and every dog in the village went nuts when it heard the conch.
At the church, they used the new traditional method of notifying people, which is to bang on a suspended welding tank with a piece of rebar or something. Seriously, there are so many welding tanks here. I was in the church with the welding tank 50' away, and it kind of hurt my ears. I feel sorry for the guy who has to ring it.
The most interesting part of church was the singing, where everyone seemed to know how to harmonize "karem pat" and just did it. The other interesting part was where everyone devolved into a sort of speaking in tongues kind of thing, with some people crying, others wailing, and others going on and on in what, even if I could understand them, would be gibberish. (I refer to it as gibberish not because of a bias against these people, but because I think that's what religion pretty much is.)
I was also asked to address everyone, and unlike last time I was prepared. After being caught flat footed on Friday, I wrote a general thank you, happy to be here speech in Bislama and had Annette correct it. That went fine.
I haven't mentioned yet the problems with my outhouse and kitchen. They are both the size of kids playhouses. If you were prepubescent and about 4 and a half feet tall they'd be just right.
So in church the pastor asks me to stand up so everyone can see how tall I am--even they've all seen me and already know. He then says they have to rebuild the outhouse and kitchen. He's right, knows it, so I'm happy to hear this, though it is a little funny being put on display in church. While I am taller than most, I'm not Guinness World Records tall, and the people aren't especially short. I don't know why they built my outhouse and kitchen so small. No idea.
After church there is a ton of food, featuring yams. Also featured are the black crabs which Tongariki is known for around here. I didn't like the crabs at all, so that's a bummer. It wasn't the taste. I don't like food that is difficult to eat, and having to crack open all the tiny little crab compartments to suck out tinier bits of meh-tasting meat just isn't worth it to me. In the same vein, the fish here is far better than in Epau, because they catch bigger fish, so removing the bones is a piece of cake.
There have only been 3 previous PC volunteers here, all of whom were women. I'd heard through the grapevine that the islanders were really excited to finally have a male volunteer come, but I never knew why. I mainly talked with the men at the feast, and they told me. In their culture, men and women don't mix so much, and the men really never got a chance to sit and storian (hang out and talk) with the other PC volunteers because they were women. So they were really happy they'd get to talk to me. I didn't have ask about this, they came right out and told me.
With everyone all together, it was a good time to ask some more of my PC questions. One of them was, what are the challenges facing youth in your community? Bislama has the word yut, which I thought was the same thing as youth. But it turns out that yut means anyone who isn't married, hence the talking dog looks I received when asking about yut leaders and yut programs. The challenges facing young people (these from a pastor) are marijuana, alcohol and spending too much time on Facebook.
I thought for sure they'd grow marijuana here, I mean, there aren't any police on the island, and the environment is perfect. No, he was pretty sure it was coming from somewhere else and that kids traded yams for it. Alcohol was funny. The kids know how to make home brew, for which you only need a bucket, some fruit and yeast. This isn't a new thing, the people here have known about it for years. And Facebook. Interesting how these are all big concerns in the U.S. too, but also interesting that sex wasn't mentioned.
The feast went well into late afternoon.
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