Pwen Mii Fenu (Walking Around the Island)

Fefan is a rather small island and is only composed of about 10 little villages that have sprung up along its coastline. I am on the northwestern corner of the island in the village of Ununo and had not explored much else of the area. I was eager to get out and see more of my new home. I talked to Ben and we got a couple of locals to guide us in a walk around the island. There used to be a road that went around the entire island and rumor has it that cars could even drive the entirety of the road.

Nobody seemed to really know how long it would take to walk around the island, so we decided to leave early in the morning. Some said it would take 30 minutes and others said 10 hours, haha. It was a perfect example of how Chuukese have no concept of time. It is just a general abstract idea for them that has no fixed meaning or significance. Even the intelligent, well-educated people do not have a firm grasp on time. They may tell you that a 15-minute boatride will take 3 hours, or they may tell you that a 2 hour walk will only take 20 minutes. Time just does not hold the same important as it does in American culture. However, I will have another extended blog entry sometime in the future about the relevance of time in Chuuk. I have a lot of philosophical ramblings to expound upon with relation to the concept of time around the world.

Anyways, we embarked on our journey around the island at 9am. Our group consisted of Ben’s two older brothers and my 8 year old brother Ennet. I brought plenty of water, a sweat towel and a camera as my essential supplies. The three locals brought one small water bottle to share amongst all of them. It is continually surprising to me how little water they seem to drink over here in spite of the debilitating heat.

As we walked along, we passed dozens of people and had short talks with them. When you walk anywhere in Chuuk, you are always asked “Kee war me ia” (Where are coming from?) or “Ka no ia” (Where are you going?). These questions are always asked. People are very curious about your whereabouts regardless if they don’t know you. Your destination and starting point seem to be very important. Whenever I walk anywhere, I formulate my response beforehand because I know I will be asked these questions several times.

Walking along the pathway/road, we were able to see the varying degrees of development throughout the island. In some places, the road was wide and relatively smooth. At other times it was just a rocky, muddy path that was overgrown with grass and plants. I cannot picture a drivable road in many of these places, but people have reassured me that cars once traversed this terrain with ease. The path would sometimes open up and fantastic views of the ocean and surrounding islands would be visible. Other times we were covered in a canopy of mango and palm trees that engulfed us on all sides. The road stretches primarily along the flat coastline, so we didn’t have to deal with much elevation changes. The center of the island is mountainous and dense with vegetation, so nobody really lives up on the inner hills. All of the civilization is along the coast.

We took this walk on a Sunday afternoon, so lots of people were out on their way to and from Church. I was greeted by many curious glances and friendly smiles along the way. I think Ben is the only other white person on the island, so the presence of a new whitey is quite a big deal. I introduced myself to as many people as possible and tried to remember as many names as I could. I already forgot anybody’s name that I met along the way, but I am sure that my foreign face will be recalled by most of them. It is much easier for them to remember one little white guy’s name and face, than for me to remember hundreds of similar looking people with obscure names.

We walked for 4 hours continuously, with only momentary breaks to sip our water bottles. We finally reached the village of Sapotaw. Sapotaw is on the northeast corner of Fefan and has many connections to my triple village of UFO. We stopped at a relative’s house and relaxed under the shade of a mango tree while a small boy climbed a tree to retrieve us drinking coconuts. We settled down for a while and talked about politics and history with a local fat man in glasses who spoke very good English.

After we were sufficiently rested, we were prompted to go over to the school and watch the volleyball tournament. An island wide volleyball tournament had been going on every weekend for the past month and many people from around the island come to watch. The players were actually very good and did the legitimate “bump, set, spike” every time. I was impressed to see over a hundred spectators watching the game. Each team had groups of cheerleaders that would clap and scream incessantly each time a point was scored. I was happy to see the enthusiasm of everyone towards the sporting event. It made me realize that this was their equivalent of our football and basketball games that enthrall millions of fans back in America. They don’t have TV here, so nobody watches sports on TV. They don’t have stadiums or indoor courts of any type. They don’t have leagues or endorsements or professional teams. So this is their athletic entertainment. I was glad to see that even without the resources and abilities to support large scale sporting events, people were still excited to participate and watch athletics.

As the sun began to drop behind the mountain, we decided that we better head home because we still had about an hour of walking. The last stretch of road was the most rural and undeveloped. It was a muddy, trampled footpath through the dense jungle. It’s still hard for me to believe that cars once drove on this little path. We arrived home right before dark and slumped down to rest. Our trek took about 8 hours, but we figured it was only about 5 hours of pure walking. I think the distance was about 12 miles. I am really glad that I toured the island in the beginning of my service. Now I know the land and the people know me.