Pig Roast

First, I would like to remind you of my July post: PIGS! That day, Andrew and I were on our road trip, having a normal conversation, when I shouted "PIGS!" as we passed that truck. We slowed down to take pictures because those oinkers were so cute, with their noses and curly tails poking out of the truck. Pigs in Ohio are raised to eat. Pigs in Pohnpei are "grown" for the same reason.

Andrew and I sort of share a backyard with Eugene, Mayliza, and 14-year-old Corey. Corey is an exceptional student and recently left to go to a selective school in Chuuk. Before leaving, his parents, all of his mom's eleven siblings (10 brothers, 1 sister), and his grandmother threw him a big farewell picnic. Pohnpeians grow pigs for special occasions, and this was one. Saturday morning, Andrew and I woke up to some racket, and hurried off to school to make phone calls and to avoid the blood bath. Our neighbors and their brothers did the deed, barely escaping Rocky's (the dog) bites - he was rather upset, and has been barking at Eugene since.

Upon our return, we got to see them making coals and heating rocks in the yard. The spread out the coals, put down a layer of giant leaf stems, then the opened pig, then they cover it all with big leaves aiming to keep the smoke in. You can see the guys using to pieces of wood as large tongs to move the hot rocks.
For the event, Eugene and Mayliza rented a new hut on the ocean at the east side of the island. They dropped us there with some family in a borrowed minivan early in the afternoon. Here's the hut.
You can see a platform was built over the water. I had fun jumping off and playing with the younger kids. Having something like this to do helps overcome the language barrier with all the little ones here. It rained on and off throughout the day, so you can see a rainbow.
We waited all afternoon as more and more truck- and van- loads of people arrived. How many people were going to come? Where was the pig? Did we make enough yam bread for everyone? How long until we can eat?! They were also busy building a fire to cook some chicken and hotdogs. Eventually the pig arrived with Eugene and Mayliza. And we still didn't eat. Someone asked us if we were staying for the night. Overnight? Was everyone staying overnight? If we didn't want to, did we have a ride home? We estimated at least 40 people joined us.

Dinner started after a prayer. It was darker, so it must have been past 7pm. All the people who prepared the meal were served first. Then Andrew and I, as guests of the family, went along the table filling our plates, then the rest of the adults, then the adults made plates for the kids. Besides the meat, there were rice dishes, bananas prepared in coconut milk in various ways, my favorite was the potato salad, and there were cakes for desert. Here is the table with the food. Eugene is the man in front cutting the pig meat. Mayliza is wearing a brown shirt and holding a plate.
One family brought a tiny puppy along. It got wet and was shivering, so I held it for a while to keep it warm. One man gave me a towel to wrap around the pup. This puppy will be raised outdoors and to be a guard dog like all the others here.
There was also sakau (mostly just the men drank it) and betlenut (to chew) offered to us numerous times. We said no thanks, but it was a little neat to see how those things fit into the culture. Eugene and Mayliza gave us a ride home later in the evening with a few others. Nearly everyone else stayed overnight, and spend the entire next day swimming and hanging out. We were really grateful to be included in a family event like this.

We heard afterward, that there was one couple who spend a good deal of time together that weekend. On Tuesday, Malyiza told us that the whole family (everyone from the picnic, the male's side) was going the the female's parents, because the male was asking permission from the parents for marriage. The parents on both sides accepted, as did the couple. There's a special sakau ceremony, and by tradition the couple was considered married immediately. Later, they will have a church ceremony as well, to make it official.


Some tidbits from our daily life: There's little lizards that come and go in our home as they please. They don't bother us. I think they help keep some bugs away. I've been trying to get a picture, but this has been my best so far. They're fast!

And here's our sterilized milk. I don't like to drink a glass by itself, but I'm used to it on my cereal.

Fishing and swimming again

Once again Megan and I had an opportunity to go out on a boat. Another math instructor here, Dennis, goes out quite frequently so we joined him and once again we had a boat load of fun :)

We left at around 1pm and headed for a place in the lagoon called Manta Road. Appropriately named, Manta Road is where people quite frequently see manta rays. We had no such luck. We went during low tide and this is when visibility is at its worst so we may have been swimming with them and not known it.

We did get to swim with this school of fish though. I was having fun doing underwater video and someone decided to have some fun...



After leaving manta road we went to the outer reef for some more swimming and snorkeling. Megan and I were swimming together and Dennis told us he had seen a 12 foot shark and motioned where he saw it. Megan and I decided we would also try to find it. We had no such luck. But we did get to see some other cool fish. I saw several clown fish (Nemo) and one fish cleaning another fish.

By now it was late afternoon and Dennis wanted to try some fishing so we went outside the reef and scanned the horizon for feeding birds. Nearly 30 minutes went by before we saw some but once we spotted them Dennis gunned the engine and we were on our way. Megan and I both put lines in the water while Dennis drove. Here is what 'hand' fishing looks like...



And one of me...



After only a few minutes of fishing I caught my first fish a skipjack tuna. Shortly after that I caught my second fish. As I was pulling in my third fish Megan hooked her first fish. At the end of the day I had caught 4 Tuna, Megan caught one and we each had one on the line that got away. This all took place in 45 minutes. By now the cooler was full of 5 giant fish probably 10 or more pounds each, although I don't really know, and we were eight miles off of the lagoon. Of the distance Dennis said "That probably isn't smart". So we headed home.

On our way home we say a lot of sea creatures. The first thing we saw was some kind of brown whale, probably about 10 feet in length it was about 40 feet from our boat. The next thing we saw was a small dolphin. The dolphin was quite a but further way but it did jump in and out of the water so we headed towards it. Once we were very close to the dolphin we noticed that we were surrounded by a pod of dolphins that was jumping in and out of the water all around us. They were very curious and swam along the bow of the boat while it was moving. We even got a video...



The next thing we encountered where flying fish, and a lots of them. These a extremely fun to watch as the skim a few inches over the water for 15-20 feet. While descending some of them will hover so close to the water that their fin touches and they proceed to 'swim' generating more speed thus more lift and they are airborne again without getting back into the water. It is probably one of those things you have to see for yourself.

When we returned to the harbor we where invited to come aboard a 40 foot sailboat. The boat, or yacht as they referred to it, is owned by a couple that is sailing around the pacific. They are doing so very slowly. They left Seattle, WA in 1993 and have been working and sailing all through the pacific. We had a very nice evening with chatting and hearing about their experiences. They have been in Pohnpei since May so we also got some information about the island.

We returned home at 8pm and had quite a bit of work to do cleaning, skinning, and filleting our fish. Fortunetly we gave one to our neighbors, one to the couple from Seattle and Dennis kept one so we only had to clean two but before we did Megan snapped this shot...