Waiting on the prognosis
31 May 2012 | Faraulep, State of Yap - Federated States of Micronesia. The Caroline Islands.
David
We had Thomas over for dinner on Wednesday night to say thank you. As it is now over 3 weeks since we left Saipan the only fresh food we have are a couple of onions so it was a dinner of canned food but we did our best. Campbells Cream of Mushroom for entree, (he did not know what mushrooms were but liked it very much), spaghetti bolognese for our main - sauce from a can but I boiled down some tomatoes, added the onion a piece of chili pepper and red wine to improve on it, and iced pinneapple pieces finished off with some toblerone chocolate - which we just noticed is now owned by Kraft. Drinks were bud light of course, followed by an aussie chardonnay and a cab sav.
The photo is of me showing him pictures from home - a little confusing as that includes Japan, Australia and Canada. He is wearing the el-cheapo JPY1,000 glasses I bought from Handy in Shimoda on the spur of the moment. He said they were better than his pair so I was happy to give them to him.
He said had never had soup with a spoon before and I have to admit he did a better job makiing the cultural adjustment than my crew Mr. Slurppy.
Nicky and I are just amazed at the level of English these islanders have. We are miles from anything - Guam 600kms away, Yap 700kms away but they are able to express themselves and converse freely in English on even complex matters. If only the Japanese education system could work out how to be so successful. These outer islanders whole world is this atoll made up of 3 islands and a deep lagoon surrounded by a reef which is constantly defending them against the roaring waves of the open ocean. Yesterday one of the youngster about 10 was fishing from his canoe singing away happily to himself just 50 metres off our boat. Providing global warming does not force him to move sitting alone on his canoe for hours at a time on this spot in the ocean will be his life. We think this daily solitude is why they are all very ok with the comfortable silence we encounter in the Man's Hut or when some of the come on the boat and visit us and don't say anything. When we enquired if the youngs ter had caught anything he said no you have to be patient. Then he asked if we had any chocolate.
Unfortunately for him we made the decision not to give any gifts to the kids from the boat. If we did we would be pestered all day. Instead Nicky has been visiting the school daily and taking different food with him each time and making it part of a 30 minutes English lesson. He has started to affectionately refer to them as my kids.
David