Tiro

or "excuse me." This was a phrase I got to repeat many times times today as we walked through the properties of about half a dozen families during a four hour hike back to Xavier from Saramen (and that was the short walk! The other direction is 6 miles but we usually drive it). We walked through road, jungle, and sparse trail. Other than complete exhaustion and being a bit thirsty, we all felt it was a worthwhile event, although maybe not something to do every day.

Anyways, I wanted to spend this post to just write a bit on how the Chuukese deal with land on Weno. Hopefully I have most of my information correct, although I haven't been here long this has been a topic brought up on multiple occasions during stage two orientation and something most of may find interesting.

In short: all the land is owned by someone.

In long: you cannot walk anywhere, even on a road, you are walking on someone's property. There is no "public land" so to speak. For the most part, this does not create much of an issue, particularly on well traveled roads. Right now, as construction begins soon with the roads though, people may try to prevent construction -- for whatever reason -- as eminent domain (while existing) is not something looked highly on. Land is sacred and owned by families. When traveling on back roads, like today, we had to ask permission to walk through and thankfully many of the people, mainly because it was the only road, were willing to let us through. It is still polite and courteous to say "Tiro" profusely as well as "Kiniso chapur" (thank you very much...I hope I spelled it right!). Some people may ask for money to pass (it used to be food, but money has become more valuable). If a person wants to take a coconut or piece of fruit from a tree, it would be very impolite to take it without asking the owner (which may require talking to a number of people to find the owner). Usually, though, most of this isn't an issue. Anyways, all this to say, if you find yourself in Chuuk, always be nice and curteous, remember that the land you walk on is not your own.

In other news...tomorrow we are going to Tol and coming back Saturday evening. Faculty meetings start on Monday, and I officially know what I'll be teaching (Soph. English, Jun. Lit., Sen. Religion -- I may have gotten the Soph and Jun classes mixed up though). Things are picking up, hurrah!

Peace!