Thursday, April 2, 2009

Another week on Chuuk

Last Saturday we attended the Branch RS birthday celebration. It was a nice, short program, but was all in Chuukese so we didn't understand much.
The meal was served, but no utensils. We were served first and we were unsure whether to just dig in with our fingers, or wait for the utensils. The other branch members were waiting for us to begin eating. I finally asked if there were forks. The girl seemed very surprised, but went and found ONE fork for us to share. There are no kitchens in these island chapels. The food was all prepared in the home of the Branch President and brought to the church in big plastic containers.
We ate and enjoyed the food: rice, turkey tails, chicken, oriental noodles and koolaid. When the women finished eating, someone began playing a ukelele and they all began singing. It was wonderful! Their lovely voices harmonizing, and everyone swaying back and forth to the music. They sang and sang and sang. I loved every minute of it.
The members seem to be pleased that we are trying to speak their language. We get frustrated when our old brains will not remember the new words. But we ARE progressing. And we try to use Chuukese whenever we can.
Our apt faces the sea and we get a nice breeze off the ocean. But it is still very hot and humid. Our temps usually begin at about 84 degrees at 6 am and reach a high of 98 in late afternoon. In Pohnpei we lived in our own house out in the jungle. We had no neighbors at all and usually heard just silence or sometimes some distant music.
Here we have lots of very close neighbors, so we hear crying babies, and people talking and vehicles all the time. But this apt is much nicer than the home we had in Pohnpei and we are happy here.
These people are much livelier than the Pohnpeians. But seem to have more of a temper too. But they smile alot and are very nice. It's no surprise that we are beginning to love them.

1 comment:

DiMDiT said...

Your "finger food" meal puts me in mind of Tom's father who served his mission in Hawaii in the late 1920s. He told of 1 finger, 2 finger and 3 finger poi, which just indicated the thinness of the poi if it took 3 fingers to get a mouth full and every one ate out of a big central dish. There must be sooo much to learn, I'm proud of you for being willing to take on this big learning curve.

I'm glad to know how to pronounce the name of your Island I was saying Cuoo-uk but I will change now that I know. Lots of love to both of you and keep up the good work of the Lord!

Love, Sis and Tom