Child Safety

I come from the safest suburban city in all of America. I grew up in place where crime and poverty were foreign concepts as rare as djembe drums and blue whales. I went to schools where slapping your friend on the arm would cost you a trip to the principals office. I lived in a family where running with scissors and putting your hand in the lawnmower were discouraged.

            But just like everything else, the concept of safety is very different here in Chuuk. Fingers get chopped off with machetes. Infected wounds spread like wildfire. Poisonous spiders are shooed off the dinner plates. Little kids start fires. Fights are brushed off as minor interruptions. And every human being has a two-foot knife in their hands at all times.

These things being said, you might think that Chuuk is a very unsafe place. On the surface it seems to have all the symptoms of danger and instability. But somehow, all these things we fear in America don't cause all the terrible effects that we imagine. Lots of knives + dangerous work + no rules + safety precautions= peace and happiness? This seems counterintuitive and oxymoronic, but that's how the formula works out. People live their lives and they are happy, things just flow along with a sense of relaxation and carefree demeanor, instead of blowing up in mayhem.

Once you realize that the hulk-like half-naked man with a tattooed face who is walking towards you with a machete is not on a rampage of murder, but instead is going to retrieve you a coconut, your anxiety level about the safety begins to wane. Once you see the dexterity of a teenager chopping a tree with a knife, you realize that training from a young age maybe isnt such a bad idea. Once you taste the succulent juices of a freshly caught octopus, you realize that having a reckless abandon for safety and sticking bare hands into the den of a powerful creature isn’t too crazy.

My little sister Katherine serves as the best example of the disregard for child safety, but relative prosperity and happiness that ensues (for now at least). Katherine just turned three years old and can do pretty much whatever she wants. The problem is that what she wants to do would be considered insane by most babysitters and preschool teachers. Two quick examples give a good summary of how Katherine is allowed to live her life.

 The other day I saw her walk into the house from outside. She had a cigarette stuck behind her ear and was carrying four in her hand. The waddling baby girl then plopped the cigarettes on the table next to her father and then went after a snack. She opened the jar of sugar, licked her finger and began to eat handfuls of plain sugar. Minutes later she was crying in a puddle of her own pee. 

I came home from school the other day, and found Katherine in the front yard doing some weeding with a butcher knife. Surprisingly enough, this was not an unusual sight. She is given a large knife on almost a daily basis to amuse herself as she wacks away at the grass. It's a good way to waste the hours. But today she was double wielding knives. One huge kitchen knife and one small machete. She then popped her head up and screamed at the top of her lungs waato masis!!! (give me some matches). If this scene was happened upon by an America social services worker, Katherine would most assuredly be taken to protective custody. Seeing an unsupervised toothless baby (her teeth are rotted out by sugar) with two knives demanding matches might be cause for concern. But this is a normal scene in Chuuk. Things like this happen all the time. And call me crazy, but I still feel pretty damn safe.