EMILY'S NEWS IN DETAIL [posted by MOM]

Week one of six of PST 2 on Yap - check. This week, marking my first experience of Yap, had a rough start to say the least. It began quite well at first after a day of travel and a cool, breezy night at a hotel. The next day, however, I got a bad case of the burps. Many of you who know me know that usually means bad news, and let me tell you, these burps meant BAD news. Unfortunately it coincided with meeting my new host family. What a first impression. I show up and immediately curl up in a ball for a few hours until my system starts to revolt, at which point I proceed to expel any and everything in my system to the point that my family insisted that I go to the Yap Memorial Hospital. Fun. And if that weren't enough, Tropical Storm 19W decided to extend an extra hand of welcome. Magotin - welcome to Yap.

As unpleasant as this experience was, I'm happy to report that many a good thing came of this episode. For one thing, I am 100% certain that I have the most wonderful host mother in all of Uap - Ramona was such a comfort and support during many first experiences, incl. horking from a car, getting full-blown food poisoning, and visiting a hospital in a foreign country. Another good thing is that, even when I felt like my body was trying to explode, I didn't have even an inkling that this isn't where I want to be.

So let me tell you a little bit more about where I am and what I'm doing. I have training every weekday, shich consists of at least four hours of language training with Tino, or Augustino. Porter, Gita and I are in this together, but it's still rough at times. Our afternoons are spent with the other Yap volunteers for technical trainings or meetings with the CoE and whatnot. My family drops me off and picks me u0p every day, so pretty much everything I do is planned by and in the hands of other people.

Like I said, I have six weeks in the state of Yap, the western most state in the FSM. Yap on the whole seems to be a very traditional and relatively quiet island. There remains a strong sense of family, a social caste system (where outer islanders, like me, are at the bottom), and gender roles that prevail in determining most aspects of daily life. Now, I know this is a very loaded generalization and one that initially gave me reservations before coming here. I have the next two years and five weeks to explore this further. So far, I have come to see (and been told) that a sense of respect guides the culture and, however different it may seem from how I would establish a way of life based on the principle of equality, each person is seen as valuable. I also want to qualify that I haven't been here long and have not had the chance to really observe in depth how these aspects of culture play out (plus they're not obvious). All this to basically say, I have not yet reconciled myself to or understood the social structure at work here (and It's likely to be different once I'm in Woleai) but it is different and much less of an issue that I would've anticipate. Like I said, I'm leaving room for future investigation and reflection.

I am living with a Woleain Family in order to begin the slow learning process that will hopefully equip me with the linguistic, cultural, and technical knowledge I'll need when I get to my post (read: island). I say slow for a couple of reasons. The main one is that woleain is HARD! For example, here is how to say thank you: go sa gashigashige, pronounced along the lines of ho sa hasihehasihe. Yes is ngoa. It's a language with mostly unvoiced vowels and vowels up the wazoo. Plus, being the language of only a tiny Pacific atoll, there aren't many resources to turn to. Wish me luck. My family is very helpful, but that hasn't stopped them from laughing at me many, many times.

I live with about fourteen people. There's my host mom and dad, theri six sons (including one set of identical twins), two other couples, and two other women (cousins, I think). Our house (imwashe) is comprised of two open platforms, one of which is the cookhouse (mwaluumwu), and two buildings. There's an indoor toilet and both an indoor and outdoor shower. We have power and fans, and overall it's a nice setup.

My friend Gita, one of the other PCVs going to Woleai, Lives two houses down from me so we've been learning and getting laughed a lot together. Yesterday we went for a run and were laughed at outright by the neighborhood kids. Exercise isn't a normal concept here (& I can't blame them with the heat), but we did get most of the kids around to play a game of volleyball at sunset. It was one of those beautiful moments in life where there's so much goodness and beauty around you that you can taste it. Life is delicious.

Another such moment happened Thursday night when Elizabeth, the PC Program and Training Asst., treated all the PCVs on Yap - past, present, & future...M47s-M76s to beer and pizza at a restaurant on a ship. It turns out a favorite pastime at Mnuw is to jump from the top deck into the bay, which is roughly a three-story distance. The Woleai Trio - Gita, Porter, and I, took the plunge together, and me in a lavalava no less (sorry mom). It was another beautiful moment.

Oh, yeah, what's a lavalava? It's the traditional skirt worn by the outer island women of Yap. It's a handwoven piece of fabric that is wrapped around and folded on the waist held in place with a "belt" (I use a shoelace). It comprises the whole of the warrobe for women, as it's a topless culture. I'm already very used to the women in my community letting it all hang out so to say, but I have yet to join them. My family is going to wean me off of shirts slowly with the cunning use of smaller and smaller leis :-) The men here similarly have a one piece wardrobe that consists of a thu, more or less a loincloth created by any number of ways of folding. I love seeing people conduct their daily business so comfortably and causually. For instance, several of the DoE representatives with whom we met today were wearing thus. My favorite was a macho young man strutting around like nobody's business at a birthday party wearing a thu and a tank top that said "I love my attitude" as he handed out melting ice cream cones.

Diet here is mostly imported - my brunch after mass today was Chef Boyardee cold out of a can. There are lots of root crops like taro and tapioca (very much like a potato). Breadfruit is in season and I've had it a kajillion different ways. It's a big skikey fruit that has an almost feathery flesh. Canned meat is ubiquitous, as is turday tail (which I'm convinced entails no meat, only fat). I've been fortunate in that I haven't had to have much of either, but it'll be a long five weeks. I have ramen for breakfast, lunch in town, and then any variety of fried food with peraasi (rice). I haven't seen a vegetable in days. The other staple of the Yapese diet is betel nut, a little green nut that people sprinkle with lime and wrap with a pepper leaf. They chew it constantly and spit red all over the place (you don't actually eat it). It gives you a little buzz, but it also makes your mouth raw. I tried it this weekend and I'm no a huge fan.

Speaking of diet, now might be a good time to implore health food care packages. I've received some amazing care packages from the fam (incl. this iTouch I'm now typing on) that have lots of freezedried fruits and veggies from Just Tomatoes...they're super light and ship well. Other great items I'd kiss you for include:

( bran flakes [fiber is SPARSE!]

( nuts - especially walnuts and cashews, mixes are great, too

( quinoa

( dried beans, esp. garbanzo and black beans

( just add water mixes, like hummus or beans

( seeds for veggies and herbs...I'll ask you to do the research for me on what will grow well here

( spices

( dried fruits, i.e. mango and cranberries

( bars of any variety, like Kashi, Clif / Luna, or those green superfood ones

( popcorn and nutritional yeast :-)

( canned spinach (weird, I know...just call me Popeye)

*quick note about packages / mail: we have a US zipcode and all domestic shipping rates apply. Check out flat rate boxes and make sure to ship by air. It seems to take between 1 & 2 weeks for me to get things here on Yap proper...it'll take longer once I'm in Woleai - I'll hopefully get mail at least once a month. I'll definitely be excited for any mail.

Thank you everyone for following along. I've been busier than I expected here and so I've fallen behind on all the letter writing I wanted to be doing. If you sit down and write me a quick note, I promise I'll get back to you with some inside sotry or little trinket. I'll be learning how to weave soon, so maybe you'll get something handmade! Here's my address:

Emily Hurianek, Peace Corps Trainee

PO BOX 190

Colonia, Yap FM 96943

Be well, be happy and keep in touch! My love to you all and a great big Woleain WHEE,

emily