Nahnmwarki Festival

Saturday I was offered the opportunity to attend a party for the king!  Nahnmwarki means king in Pohnpei.  There are 5 Nahnmwarkis in Pohnpei for each of the municipalities.  Once a year they have a feast/party/festival for one of the Nahnmwarkis.  This year it was for the Nahnmwarki of Kitti.  Seeing as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity I jumped on the invitation.  The principal of PICS high school where Lori teaches has a high title in Kitti, and he is the one who offered to take us.  By high title I mean that he is in line to be a Nahnmwarki, so the next of these parties might be for him.
So the day began being picked up at 9am to begin a day I'll never forget.  First we had to stop at the school, where we waited in the back of the truck while a tree was chopped down with a machete.  Turns out the tree was for the men we were going with to tie up the pig which would be presented to the Nahnmwarki at the party.

This was no small pig.  Mike was running to the rescue
because that was way too much weight for only 2 men.

Pig loaded and men cleaned up, we were ready to head toward Kitti.  We made it there just in time to be part of the parade of gifts being brought to the Nahnmwarki.  It was great!  The street was filled with people bringing yams, pigs, sakau, and trays of food all dancing and shouting like crazy.

The pigs!

Yam

Cloths and pillows to make the nahs more comfortable.

Sakau plants

Pohnpeian parade

We're going to see the king!

Once we got down to the party everything was stacked and placed around in preparation for presenting it to the Nahnmwarki.  And we were engulfed in the mass of people.  People estimated there were about 1,000 in attendance.  Talk about a party!

This is only a small portion of the food trays brought.

The people!  So many colors and people gathered for a
joyous occasion!

We were adorned with mwaramwars and quite excited
to be there!

 The Nahnmwarki sits at the head of the nahs.  Inside with him are other high titled people and honored guests.  There are also several sakau stones going to make sure there is plenty of sakau to drink.  We stayed just outside the nahs to observe this absolutely fascinating ceremony.

The Nahnmwarki

Pounding the sakau inside the nahs

A speech was given and then the ceremony began.  I watched in utter fascination as organized chaos began to unfold.  I observed that there is quite a process involved.  First, every single food tray is carried into the nahs, presented to the nahnmwarki, and then sent back out to people based on their titles.  The king gets the best tray and the rest are sent back out.

Presenting the trays - they're filled with everything from
local food to boxes of Apple Jacks and Sunny D.

Everyone gets some sort of tray of food and then it's time to eat!

My food tray - not bad for a menwai with no title :)  It
was udahn yo!

I'm excited to eat, Lori is stunned, and Mike just barely
got his nose in. Haha!

 After everyone has full bellies it's time to continue the ceremony.  There are 3 things that you need to be a real man in Pohnpei: yams, pigs, and sakau.  So those are exactly the things that are brought to honor the Nahnmwarki.  Each is again brought into the nahs and presented then sent back out to each person with a title.  I will spare you some of the pictures because they just aren't appropriate, but let's just say the pigs are not alive when presented to the king and they are sent out in pieces to the various titles.  There were 18 pigs!  Again the king gets to keep the biggest yam, biggest pig, and biggest sakau plant.  These are no ordinary yams.  They weigh upwards of 150 pounds.  Here is the process of presenting the sakau plants:

They begin coming in...

and they keep coming and coming...

and piling and piling!

Outside the nahs men and women are chanting and dancing as
they collectively present their gifts.  Can we say sensory
overload?! :)

You may ask yourself, what are the young boys doing.  Oh, why every kids dream is to get one of the pig hearts to tote around to prove your manliness:

He thought it was hilarious to stick it in my face and see me grimace.  I was not so pleased with him and I let him know it :)

The food, yams, pigs, and sakau had all been presented and shared, so it was time to crank up the music and dance!

Lori was the first brave soul to get her groove on

Then I decided I couldn't miss out on the fun

I love all the colors! 

One of my favorite pictures of Salpisio,
having fun with the kids!

Mike was finally convinced to join

and even Andrew and Becca!

The final touch of the occasion is to be slathered in coconut oil and glitter.  We sparkled the whole rest of the day!

And with that the party was over and people began to clear out.  This didn't mean our day and adventure were over however.  We quickly learned that time is no concern.  It was important that we go back to the nahs where Salpisio's family was and hang out there for a few hours.  Then we loaded up and made it to the other side of Kitti where it was once again time to stop and hang out for a few more hours with some important men.  Well into the night we were finally good to go home with a yam, portion of pig, and memories to last a lifetime.

This yam was probably about 150 pounds!

Unforgettable day!  Now let's go home!

Mango Madness & Other Random Happenings

Yes, last weekend I finally got the mango madness I had been waiting for!  Papa Samuels recruited a strapping young man to climb the mango tree right in our yard.  I stood by amazed, nervous for his safety, and eager with anticipation all at the same time.  He ascended the tree and then his buddy handed up the necessary stick to pick them with and a huge sack to fill while he was up there.

Somehow he got up there without a ladder;
I'm still not sure how he did that.

The jeans have been transformed into a bag
that he could hang around his neck and
fill with fruit.

He got way up in the tree to get the big ones
at the top!

His friend, Keno, is carrying the stick that
they use to pull the fruit off. 

Do you think I was excited?!

His friends watched from the ground and pestered
him hoping that a few would drop to the
ground for them.

Meet Rosener, my mango man :)  That sack in his hand
is entirely full of mangoes and they were ALL given to us.

Needless to say, I'm eating mangoes every day.  I went out and bought a big bowl just to hold all of them.  I lost count as I was putting them in, but I'd say I have at least 40 mangoes and there's TONS more on the tree waiting for the next picking.  I'm a happy girl!

Ok, so enough about mangoes.  What else has been happening?  We welcomed our new volunteer and member of the WorldTeach family.  He is joining Becca out in Madolenihmw to teach at the high school.  We had a delicious Italian dinner at our place and all got to know each other.  We're excited to have him join us!

Andrew & Becca - new roommies

Great people + tasty food = good night

A couple of weekends ago I got to have a true Laurie pizza night.  I got to make my crusts and lay out all the toppings and each person got to make their own pizza creation.  This time my guests were Mariana, Jay-Jay and Maloney.  They love pizza, but it's often hard to get here and it's not always the best.  Plus they had never had the pleasure of making their very own pizza.  It was great!  I love introducing people to the fun of homemade pizza!

We're all set up to begin the creations!

Laurel helped show them how it's done since she has
previously been introduced to the guidelines of my
pizza nights :)

Jay-Jay and Laurel showing off the 1st pizza!

Mariana & Jay-Jay's work - Mariana did a great job of loading
up the toppings. She was having a lot of fun!

Maloney was working at the store, but I stole her upstairs
long enough to enjoy and show off our work.

We will definitely have to do that again!

Our kitten is growing quickly and getting more and more playful by the day.  He loves playing in our door which the termites have completely destroyed.  And I swear he's used up several of his 9 lives already.  He has fallen from the gutter, jumped from the porch, and faced dogs much bigger than him.

I visited my host family one Sunday afternoon.  It was great to see Paula and Gradley.  We played cards and colored as usual, but we also enjoyed a new activity: painting toe nails.

He was quite concentrated on his work.

We couldn't be too girly though.  We had to do some manly ninja moves to make up for nail polish:

He's good...and oh so cool!

We had another of our monthly international dinners.  This month the theme was Mexican.  Yet again we had a huge table filled with all kinds of Mexican dishes from enchiladas to layered dips to chicken mole to rice pudding.  Mmm...mmm! 

Shockingly, there were no leftovers.

I love meeting great people at these events!

Lori's Mexican Rice Pudding!  She did a great job!

Oh, and how could I forget that I got to see a live band right here in Pohnpei.  That's right, Pohnpei has it's own band called Wetter Than Seattle.  They played one night at the Rusty Anchor, and that's where you could find most of the ex-pats in Kolonia.  It's not often you get the chance to enjoy live music on the island.  It's made up of some menwai (white people) who just like to have fun playing every once in a while.

Finally, ever Friday I go up to the National Campus for a college ministry with my church.  These are mostly students who live on campus, so they're from all over the FSM - Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae, outer islands.   We play games, have a time of devotion, and sing praise and worship songs.  They're a lot of fun and I'm so thankful to have found this opportunity. Here they are:

Well this is quite possibly my most random post, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what's going on here.  This week at school we gave midterms.  It's so hard to believe that it's really already that time.  We're half way through the semester.  Time is a flyin'!