Happy Hospitality

I often complain about Chuukese people and some of their not so admirable habits. Inefficiency, violence, laziness, ignorance and apathy sometimes bother me. However, they contain a few qualities that trump all these negative things. Chuukese are some of the most friendly and hospitable beings on the planet.

I believe that is deeply ingrained in them due to their close living quarters and tight family connections. It’s the same effect that happens in small towns. Everybody knows everybody, so everybody is nice to each other. But the Chuukese generosity extends beyond their community. They are phenomenal at making outsiders feel welcome. Some of this has faded since my novelty as a newbie has worn off, but I still get treated like a king anywhere I go.

At parties or get togethers, I am given a plate the size of suitcase and adorned with flower leis. Even if I don’t know the hosts or the occasion for the party, I am usually seated at the head table and fawned with attention. A fresh coconut will be brought to me immediately as I arrive and a small girl will probably stand next to me and wave the flies away from my food with a fan.

This welcoming attitude extends all over Chuuk. In the Mortlocks, my arrival was greeted by throngs of children singing songs and offering plates of fresh seafood. When I followed my friend to a new church, two of the pastors thanked me for attendance during their sermon and asked their parishioners to give me a round of applause. Politicians, priests, chiefs and grandmas have quickly jumped out of their seats to offer me a place to sit down. It is widespread and consistent throughout the islands.

However, the best example of their friendliness is their behavior on the roads and pathways. I took a short walk through a different community on my island the other day and thought I would tally the signs of hospitality that I received along the way. None of these people had ever met me before and could all be considered total strangers. This was a sparsely populated road with scattered houses, but here are the statistics of my walk.

This all happened in a 10 minute period.

17 people simply said hello.

6 of those people also asked me how I was doing.

9 of them asked where I was going.

4 different people shook my hand.

5 households hollered at me and asked me to come and eat rice with them.

And a countless number of people gave me beaming smiles.

Let me counter this with a fictitious (but realistic) example from my time living in Los Angeles.

If I were to walk down the streets of LA for 10 minutes, I could expect a grand total of 0 hellos.

3 cars would honk.

One guy would bump my shoulder in a crowd.

4 would make slight eye contact and then turn away.

 2 cars would cut me off.

1 homeless man would babble nonsense at me.

And a countless number of people would hurry along staring into their phones and ipods, not even lifting their heads.

People here treat others as people, not as other objects in the way. There is a strong human connection that is reinforced by people’s behavior. Generosity isn’t reserved for a select few, it is given freely to any passerby. Every house will offer walkers a place to rest and eat. Every pedestrian will smile and ask you where you are going. Every person will make the effort to show that they care.

Chuuk may be a fucked up place in many respects; but they can be proud of the fact that despite their mounting social problems, they still maintain some of the best hospitality in the world. Their unrelenting positivity and welcoming attitude is motivational at times. Anytime I get frustrated or disillusioned about the struggling society that I am trying to improve, someone will shoot me a big happy grin and I will be reminded of Bob Marley’s maxim “don’t worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be alright”