Halloween Weekend Pohnpei Style

I wrapped October up with a really fun weekend of Halloween activities.  It started off with Chi Alpha, the Friday night college ministry, where we made masks out of paper plates.  It was really fun to see how creative everyone was with their designs.  We had everything from scary monsters to cheerful smiley faces.  I chose to turn myself into a pumpkin head while Lori went with a scary green goblin. :)

We had some good laughs that night!

Aren't we a silly looking bunch?!

 It was certainly a fun way to get into the Halloween mood!

The weekend also brought the first 5k race since I've been on the island.  This was the MiCare 5k Fun Run/Walk.  Just for fun I made us a pasta dinner the night before to get us energized and pumped for the big race.

Saturday we got up bright and early to get going.  It was a beautiful morning which brought quite a good turnout for the race.  You can check out a more thorough recap of the race at my Mango Escapades Blog.  It is the first Mango Escapade in Pohnpei! Yay!  For those of you who would prefer to get a shorter version from here, I'll give you a brief recap through pictures.

I threw on my race clothes and soon realized
something felt kind of funny.  If you look closely
you can see I still have a clothespin attached
to the seat of my shorts like a tail :)

Races here are very well sponsored which means cheap
entry fees and lots of free giveaways! 

We're ready to run!  Start the countdown!

One of the beauties of an island race - they have chilled
coconuts waiting at the finish to drink and the tastiest
bananas around!

Well known around the island: The Joggler!  He juggles
while he runs.  It's really impressive!

Lori finished strong!

And so did the lovely Laurel!

Lori and Laurel won matching mugs in the raffle.

I walked away with a medal, golf umbrella (so great!), shopping
bag, coffee mug, and new t-shirt.

This was a first for me!  Again, the perks of running
a small race on an island :)

A race isn't complete without some kind of mango!  This
time it was little shots of mango jello.  Yum!

After a little recovery time the three of us reconvened for a little more Halloween fun.  We decided to try our hands at popcorn balls.  But we could not do just ordinary popcorn balls.  Ours must have KOOL-AID!  We of course went with orange to make them festive.

It was a lot of fun and we were happy to have to support of the team as we measured, stirred quickly, and smooshed them together.  And to round off the night we enjoyed a meal right out of a pumpkin.  It's becoming a must for me when Halloween time rolls around.

Laurel, being the wonderful roommate she is, found this
pumpkin for me just so I could make my meal in a pumpkin!

And finally Halloween itself came last night.  This was of course my first time to experience it Pohnpei style.  I was so excited I even let my night class out a little early so we wouldn't miss any of the action.  As I made my walk home there were already tons of cars in the street with screaming children and lots of honking.  They were ready for their candy!  I was interested to see how the celebration would differ.  Things I noted:

• costumes are generally just masks or face paint - very few full costumes
• trick-or-treaters can be all ages - you're never too old
• wait until dark to begin the door-to-door collection of candy
• kids are sent off in mobs to hit up the best areas known for good candy (not unlike the states)
• kids in the street cause some pretty large traffic jams

When the kids started roaming the streets we set up our treats in the store with Maryanna and let the fun begin!

Our first trick-or-treaters!

Maryanna's niece - one of the most adorable
little girls.

Gradley even came to see me! 

He had actually called me the night before to tell me he was going to be Spiderman.  We always color his Spiderman book when I visit, so this was perfect.  I was so glad I got to see the little Spiderman! 

He brought his cousin too.  I just love that kid!

Our neighborhood kids!

Kool-aid popcorn balls were a hit!

Little diva

The beautiful girls that often greet me around my house

The kids were obviously great to see and a lot of fun.  But the older guys definitely took the prize for being the most humorous.  We were laughing so hard!  I think you'll see a common theme.

A mix of girl & scary

When else do guys have an excuse to
wear bras and put on wigs and practice
their high-pitched voice? :)

The funniest by far!  This lovely couple put on quite an
act that had us rolling and left everyone talking about
them the rest of the night.

I took a few video clips to try and capture some of the action and sounds of the night to give you a better feel.  These are short and completely unedited.

It was quite a night and will probably go down as one of my most memorable Halloweens.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!