Beginning with my June 2008 post "It's Been Five Years," the following is the continuing story of my travels from the United States into Micronesia ~ Pohnpei, Guam and Saipan ~ and my life since June 2003.
Saturday, September 6, 2003 ~ Pohnpei
The FSM Congress is a unicameral legislature ~ one house; not a house and senate like we have in the States. It was the Chuuk delegation (6 of them out of 14 total), plus one we think is from Pohnpei that killed Paul's confirmation. A terrible kick in the teeth for Paul. Such is life in a developing nation. Especially Chuuk. No foresight. There are many in government here who are very worried about the future.
I saw a piglet and a sow killed today, and butchered. The machete' is slip-stabbed into the rib cage through the lung, into the heart. Pretty quick and relatively painless if you do it right. The piglet suffered, and had to be stabbed a couple of times; the sow died within one slow minute of a single stab through the rib cage. It reminds me of a scene from "Gangs of New York," where Bill the Butcher is educating Leonardo DiCaprio's character about killing a man, using a pig carcass as a model, because anatomically they're very similar to humans. Having seen a pig killed that way, it makes perfect sense. I am pleased to report I had no reaction one way or the other to seeing its slaughter, never having seen such a thing before. Lynn tells me dogs were killed, though I wasn't offered any, and a third pig was killed, and a fourth ran away.
It was a celebration for someone coming home. They built an "uhm" (sp?), an above-ground oven heaped with stones, heated from within with mangrove wood, until searing hot. We left to do a little shopping and I missed the rest of the preparation, but when the stones are done, they will place the pigs on top, cover with banana leaves, and then let it cook for about three hours. We brought a case of chicken and a couple cases of soda as our contribution. No one comes empty-handed; and no one leaves empty-handed.
Lynn and I went looking for a birthday present for one of my nieces and a present for the other in the Kapingimarangi village, the famous woodcarvers village. We didn't find anything I thought my nieces would like. When we came back from shopping, we went to the sakau market where people were congregating. There was breadfruit, banana cooked in coconut milk (pretty decent, I usually don't like it, too bland), rice, chicken, turkey tails (the all-fatty part we all throw away at Thanksgiving but is almost a delicacy here), hot dogs (it's a staple, like rice and Spam, a party isn't a party without hot dogs), guava, beef ribs, more. The pig ribs, which was all I ate, were good. No marinade, or seasoning, but very tasty, and tender. It was the sow. It'd be great with some BBQ sauce. (I hear the local chicken is very, very tasty. When my bow and arrow come, I'm going after one of those silly roosters in my yard.)
Very primitive conditions, the village where Lynn lives. But it doesn't really faze me, although I think it does freak the locals a bit when I'm there. They have running water, some have electricity (Lynn doesn't), some have phones (Lynn does), they sleep on mats on concrete floors. One of the unspoken reasons Lynn and I left and came back, that we later agreed about, was that I was just watching, being a tourist, so-to-speak. And in that capacity, I wasn't more than a woman. I didn't help build the fire, kill the pig, sear the hair off, butcher it, split breadfruit. So, without saying anything to each other, Lynn and I decided it'd be a good idea to take off for a few hours, get my laundry done, do some shopping and come back.
It's not that it's a male-dominated society, per se. Far from it. But there are defined roles for who does what. The men kill and prepare the meat, the women do other things. Both tend and make the fire. So, it is no slight to feminists what I just said about not being more than a woman. I just wasn't filling a man role, as an observer.
I haven't taken pictures in a while. That just seems too touristy. Lynn's clan is still getting to know me, and I want to do things their way, the best I'm learning how. Most are warming up to me. Some have their reservations still.
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