Tol

Greetings back at Xavier.
This post is dedicated to the past 72 hours...
We left Saramen around 2:30 with Fr. Fernando on Friday towards Tol, an island a few miles away from Weno, to stay at Assumption Parish. Saturday was the Feast of the Assumption, which meant a big shin-dig was in store, and was the reason we (JVs) were invited.

The boat ride was fun, to say the least. It started raining as we were walking to the dock, and the waves were fantastic. Needless to say, we were all soaked when we got off the boat. Once we arrived to the island area, we were surrounded by beautiful mangrove trees, which Tol apparently has a LOT of (thanks Matt). When we docked, we were greeted by singing children and given mar mars (I'll post pictures soon!), I was lucky enough to get decked out in the most extravagent, which also, unfortunately, fell apart the easiest. We were shown to our rooms, and given showers. This was the first time I ever bucket showered, and, to be honest, it was amazing. Anywho, after we all finished showering, we got fed, which was a feast in itself (again, picture to come). Apparently, it is tradition on the islands that visitors always eat first. This may sound like the normal "serve guests first," except it is to the extreme. Our hosts wouldn't eat anything until we were finished. It was a bit awkward, to say the least. After dinner, we began "taking part" (ie, watching) the ceremonies which had begun. We were warned that the singing and speeches may go on till 1 or 2 AM. We showed up to the church late (we lost track of time), and were sitting outside. As people were exiting, thanks to Tyler, we realized we were all in the way and wanted to go to the other side of the river. We moved and followed. When we arrived to the classroom we would be in (fitting about 100, I think), we were offered chairs and got to witness some talks, as well as a lot of singing. It was fun. It ended at about 9. We went back to our rooms, talked, and played a game of Mafia and eventually hit the sack.

Saturday
We woke up and after showering were treated to a huge breakfast consisting of what we would probably consider lunch or dinner foods, as well as some "normal" breakfast foods (cereal). Then we headed to Mass, which was, again, beautiful, although I have found it hard to pay attention when everything is in Chuukese. We sat in the back and as the Liturgy began we were offered chairs to sit in (there are no pews in the church, everyone was sitting on the ground, like in the classroom). Afterwards we sat and talked with ourselves and some of the kids. Lots of laughing, lots of fun. More food at luch, with singing, followed by listening to people speak and hearing songs. Matt got to speak on behalf of us, thankfully we didn't have to sing! After the fun, we headed back to Weno. Our boat ride back to Weno was smoother and quicker this time around. However, our fun had not ended.
We unfortunately missed the bus that had picked up Lydia (US independent volunteer) and the three returning Austrailian volunteers from the air port, so we waited at Saramen for the truck. I had forgotten to mention that we returned with a LOT of food from Tol. The truck eventually arrived as the sun was setting (circa 6 pm) and we began our journey, with about 9 people in the back of the truck plus our bags and the food. One minute in we get a flat tire, which was changed in less than 8 minutes. Half way to Xavier, the engine overheated, which was easily fixed. To our "delight," once we jumped back in it was discovered that the battery/engine wasn't "connecting", so, with a few locals from the houses around us, we pushed the truck up and down the road until it started. I have to admit, it was actually really fun. As we continued our trip, we found out that our driver was having difficulty seeing in the dark without any headlights, so we fished for a few headamps in our backpacks and eventually got light. It was quite the sight! To top it off, due to the flat, we all moved to one side, thankfully, as on one sharp turn on the hill to Xavier there was definitely some tipping action! We got to Xavier though, safe and sound, and were able to successfully which Tomi a happy birthday (there was a cake being held in the truck), and we also got to meet our two new American independent volunteers as well as the Austrailians (who have already been here a while, they leave in Nov/Dec and will be replaced by some more via some post high school volunteer program).

Today has been much more relaxing, and the day is actually almost over (ok, not really, but the power has been working since last night, and I'm worried it'll go out soon as I post this). Kiniso chapur! Thanks for reading :)