Surfing, Diving, Bananas, and Island Culture

Hello from Kosrae! The past few weeks have been wonderfully full of surfing, scuba diving, local culture, laughing with the girls in my efforts to learn Kosraean, bananas, banana bread, banana fibers, banana wallets, and a few coconuts. Most mornings I amble out of bed to the colorful, expansive Pacific Ocean and let the waves and sun wake me up. However, last week brought the surf, dive, surf rhythm to my days. One morning I heard, “Claudia, Claudia, surf bus is leaving in ten minutes!” Sunrise surf sessions are a super duper way to start the day.

I've been loving scuba diving since that first spontaneous encounter (story in the previous blog). I went diving in Lelu harbor at two of the shipwrecks! Apparently there are four ships and two or three planes from World War II. Much of WWII was fought out here. The visibility was very poor because the bottom is silty but swimming around was wild! We swam over the deck, as if we were walking around the ship. The best word I can think of to describe it is eerie. Diving creates a huge contrast in the harbor. Above the water are the beautiful green mountains and the sleeping lady, but underneath are war remnants. It’s polar opposite from the lush vegetation and picturesque views above. One day I took the camera (thanks Sam)! I tried to get some shots of bigger fish, but they didn't turn out well. Also on this day we recovered two old fishing nets that were stuck on the reef. 

This week a 9-person crew on an 86ft, double-masted sailboat anchored in Lelu harbor. Their story in brief is that they’re delivering the Alabama from Fiji to South Korea. Five of them were together in South Korea on Tom’s (the captain’s) boat when they got this job. The four others joined at various points along the way. They are from all over the world—Italy, Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Colombia, France, Japan, and I think that’s it. They're all part of the Alternative Sailing Community, essentially a fleet of ships that are a kin to Rainbow Gatherings. Rainbow Gatherings are when people come together in remote places for a month or so and live with shared values.

The group was full of musicians, artists, and performers. One evening they played music and performed circus tricks at Bully’s restaurant. They played all kinds of music and sang with a guitar, flute, and didgeridoo. The night will be remembered as the time Marcello, the Italian sailor, lit his face on fire. He was breathing fire and his beard went ablaze. Luckily he was right next to the water and jumped right in. Anyways, they came to Green Banana and also invited us to their boat one evening. In fact, two people here hopped on the ship for a week or so to Pohnpei, another island in the Federated States of Micronesia. It's great, a new week and a new sailboat in the harbor!

 

My banana consumption has increased exponentially in the past few weeks. The banana trees in the front yard are fruiting loads of bananas now. There are about eight different varieties in the yard, though lacatan is what is mostly fruiting right now.

Green Banana Paper got a custom order from a banana soft-serve shop in Hawaii for a ten-foot banana fiber paper to be their menu. Milton built an extra long screen, and then had to figure out how to appropriately get the pulp on the screen. So the guys took to the ocean!

One Saturday afternoon I was reading in my hammock, hung between coconut trees at the beach, when I noticed a little girl curiously looking at me. She giggled and came closer, and started drawing in the sand. We ended up playing together for a while, drawing in the sand and swinging in the hammock. She fanned through the book I was reading, looking at the pages and excitedly pointing out pictures. She also climbed a little ways up a coconut tree and jumped into my arms, then ran back to the base of the tree to climb again, and again and again. She constantly chatted in Kosraean, but I only understood a small fraction of what she said. I am now very motivated to keep improving on the local language. We mostly laughed together, I used Kosraean when I could—I learned her name, Metbit, and her age, 5. I tried drawing in the sand to explain to her that I didn’t understand all of questions she was asking me, but she just kept on chatting away! Her grandmother was sitting in the sand a little ways away, enjoying the beach with a friend. She came over at one point and we talked for a little while, she has siblings in the states and speaks some English. All in all, it was loads of fun to play with Metbit, and I so wish I were able to speak Kosraean with her.

I spent Sunday with the locals! Everyone spends the weekend with their family. One day is dedicated to church and the other to family bbq/game day, depending on their religion. Mitta, who works at Green Banana, invited me to join her church’s “fun day” on Sunday. She is part of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They all go to church together on Saturday, and then many of the families get together on Sunday so all of the kids can play together. But, since the island population is so small, one person’s husband is another’s cousin, is another’s brother, and all of a sudden nearly the whole group is connected. Anyways, we played volleyball and many silly games. One game consisted of partially filling two bowls with flour and burying a piece of gum in each bowl. The contestants had to blow the flour away and whoever blew a bubble first won! We were all covered in flour until we went swimming in the river (far away from anyone of another religion who would severely disapprove of being in the water on a Sunday).

We spent nearly the whole day together. I took the opportunity to practice Kosraean, the local language. It was loads of fun overall and everybody laughed the day along. I thought of what Matt said one night, which is that the purpose of conversation on the island is to make the other person laugh. For the few of you who will understand this, it was similar to a SimKap Olympics, except that there were no age groups or medals, and it’s a weekly gathering. Yikes! We’re pushing nine years!

Last weekend we went to Sipyen waterfall in the depths of Utwe-- way down a dirt road that feels like more potholes than road. Just a short walk through the jungle and we came upon a gentle flowing, lofty, freshwater shower. And up a small hill on the other side of the road was an expansive view of the ocean and the island below.

One morning when we were surfing, one of the guys accidentally locked the keys in the car—both sets. So, the proceeding events were classic island style. The guys hitched a ride back to Green Banana, of course they were picked up by the first car that came by. Meanwhile, I hung out in the water and enjoyed the salty sea. It wasn’t long before I saw the blue factory truck tottering down the road. The guys brought a few materials for breaking into the car—a hammer, some wood, a wedge, and a sturdy-ish piece of wire. Just when Scotty and I were discussing other strategies we could try, Matt opened the door. 

Upon returning from a short trip with a couple buddies and a bag full of surfboards, Matt explained the ways of surf culture. It’s all a special secret. For example, James was asking about a wave that looks like it’s in Ghana but he knows it’s not Ghana. With a slight smirk Matt said that he knew where it is. James nodded, but didn’t ask any more questions. Essentially, people find waves from tracking all sorts of weather patterns, and friends don’t tell friends where to find surf, they take them there. Matt wouldn’t tell James where the wave is, but he would take him there. This keeps surfing exciting, and it helps keep more remote places wild and pure.

Here's an interesting situation-- there’s a taro flour factory on the island and I wanted to get taro flour to bake with. Unfortunately, despite the functioning factory and large supply of taro, they cannot sell the flour because of the expense of bags. The cost of analyzing and printing nutrition facts, and getting the bags far exceeds the factory budget. However, there is another successful factory making and exporting delicious banana chips.

For my latest writing project, check out https://greenbananapaper.com/blogs/news/sights-and-sounds-of-green-banana-paper

This weekend I’m off to Walung with some of the same people from last Sunday. Walung is a village on the island that is only accessible by boat and there’s no electricity.

Getting gas island style

Cheers!

Thanks for reading!