Yap Day

OK..quick blog. I’m definitely not as good at keeping up with writing like I was in New Zealand, but this is a different experience in many ways.

First, Yap Day! We just celebrated two days of Yap culture—school-free! We went for a bit of the festivities on both Monday (the technical holiday) and Tuesday, and saw log-pulling, canoe-carving, roof and basket-weaving, raft-building, and cultural dancing (yes, complete with topless women, but they are wearing leis usually, so it’s really not as crazy as it sounds). Mostly, it’s about the food. It was like going to a small fair, where everyone has booths and sells food. There were a few craft things, but not as much tourist stuff as we’d hoped. Oh well. We did see the Ambassador and his wife again. The day before, they came to visit us at the school. They were very friendly, and asked us how we were all doing after the loss of Kirsten, answered lots of questions that some of us had about things going on in America, and asked if we had suggestions on how to improve the FSM. (Kind of a humbling question.) Anyway, back to Yap Day. It was pretty sweet. Especially having SO much free time (which I could have used more productively, no doubt).

Yesterday afternoon, for part of our free time, we went for a little hike—about six of us. First, we went down a little stone-paved trail that took us to a place that had a whole bunch of stone money. I wondered if it was the stone money bank or something back in the day. Then we went on a trail that followed a ridge so we could see a lot of the island and ocean. It was so beautiful! Also a lot of fun to be with the other SMs and visit during our hike.

There’s always so much going on, I feel like I’m just scratching the surface whenever I write, but I guess it’s good enough for you to know that things are still going well, and holidays are as greatly appreciated here as they are there. ☺

One other thing. Last night was so amazing. The three of us girls were talking, and somehow we ended up having a positive feedback session. We each took turns affirming each other, and saying what we appreciated. Wow. It was so meaningful, and even though we went to bed late, it kept me going through the day. We have plans to extend this idea beyond our apartment with the others as well for one of our worships next week. Something that I have recently been thinking about is how God uses community. Each of us is given gifts by Him, and we inspire each other to do more “good works” for His glory. As we were affirming each other, often we would end up saying, “Oh, but I do that because you…” At the end of the day, God gets all the credit, and we get so many blessings. Once again, God is teaching me the value of community. Ah, man, how does He do it?!