September 3rd, 2006
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This weekend consisted of working on the EPA website. Friday night drinking on the Mnuw (Manta Ray's restaurant/bar on a ship). Saturday night up at Village View in Maap with Megan, Daisuke, Sei, Jan, Mike, Stevie, and Paul.
Stevie and Paul.
This weekend was the anniversary of Padre Thall's death (and also, coincidentally, the anniversary of his ordination into the Catholic priesthood). Padre Thall was the only priest on the island until he passed away of a heart attack while playing tennis last year. He was the only Yapese person to ever become a priest. There have been several temporary priests sent to Yap since his death, and I believe it was just announced that a permanent replacement has been made. I don't know where he is from. One of the temporary priests was from the Philippines, and he was learning Yapese. I went to the candle light Easter mass (where nunuws are exchanged amongst the congregation, and I apparently sat next to Megan's host family but didn't know it), and it was hard to understand his Yapese. Not that I can understand too much to begin with, but I could tell that he was not a native-speaking Yapese. He was a lot better than I am, though, that's for sure.
There were two events for the anniversary- one mass on Friday night (during which I was drinking on the Mnuw) and one celebration at the Community Center all day Saturday. Megan sang with the choir from her village at both events. Stevie and Cynthia were both also there on Saturday. I stayed home and worked on the website (lame, I know). I'm a bad Peace Corps Volunteer.
I was also busy nursing a broken toe. I was boiling water in the morning for my cups of instant coffee, and I ran into the wooden couch on the way to turn off the stove. I heard the toe snap. When I looked down (amidst the searing pain), the little toe was already puffing up and hanging at an odd, sideways angle. Couldn't bend it. So I hobbled around trying to locate my medical kit where the medical tape is. Found it, taped it up, called Stevie who was still at the Peace Corps office at that time to see if she could find a medical handbook that would tell me what to do. She couldn't, so I just sat around on Saturday with my foot up on a chair and some ice, periodically having to loosen the tape to allow for circulation with the growing puffiness. I fleetingly thought about going down to see the grandparents to have them put some local medicine on it or snap in in place, but quickly decided against that. I didn't take any ibuprofin until last night (with a few glasses of wine at Village View). At the time I was worried it was going to get infected, heal at an odd angle, but today I'm realizing it's really not all that bad. There's not much you can do for toes anyway. It just hurt a lot. Now the swelling has gone down quite a bit, and it's just a little purple but still sore. I'm not limping as much either. I was able to bend it a bit this morning when I took the tape off, but that didn't seem like such a good idea later when it started to throb again. Doh! Silly toes and furniture! It's not even a good story.
Cynthia and I were supposed to go up to Gagil to see Stevie today and go surf some waves in kyaks. But by the time she got home this morning, she was beat from last night and passed out for the afternoon. I was working and feeling productive today, so I flaked on venturing out into the world again today. Totally lame, I know. Cynthia and I vowed to go up and get Stevie to take us kyaking very soon, though.
Stevie and Paul.
This weekend was the anniversary of Padre Thall's death (and also, coincidentally, the anniversary of his ordination into the Catholic priesthood). Padre Thall was the only priest on the island until he passed away of a heart attack while playing tennis last year. He was the only Yapese person to ever become a priest. There have been several temporary priests sent to Yap since his death, and I believe it was just announced that a permanent replacement has been made. I don't know where he is from. One of the temporary priests was from the Philippines, and he was learning Yapese. I went to the candle light Easter mass (where nunuws are exchanged amongst the congregation, and I apparently sat next to Megan's host family but didn't know it), and it was hard to understand his Yapese. Not that I can understand too much to begin with, but I could tell that he was not a native-speaking Yapese. He was a lot better than I am, though, that's for sure.
There were two events for the anniversary- one mass on Friday night (during which I was drinking on the Mnuw) and one celebration at the Community Center all day Saturday. Megan sang with the choir from her village at both events. Stevie and Cynthia were both also there on Saturday. I stayed home and worked on the website (lame, I know). I'm a bad Peace Corps Volunteer.
I was also busy nursing a broken toe. I was boiling water in the morning for my cups of instant coffee, and I ran into the wooden couch on the way to turn off the stove. I heard the toe snap. When I looked down (amidst the searing pain), the little toe was already puffing up and hanging at an odd, sideways angle. Couldn't bend it. So I hobbled around trying to locate my medical kit where the medical tape is. Found it, taped it up, called Stevie who was still at the Peace Corps office at that time to see if she could find a medical handbook that would tell me what to do. She couldn't, so I just sat around on Saturday with my foot up on a chair and some ice, periodically having to loosen the tape to allow for circulation with the growing puffiness. I fleetingly thought about going down to see the grandparents to have them put some local medicine on it or snap in in place, but quickly decided against that. I didn't take any ibuprofin until last night (with a few glasses of wine at Village View). At the time I was worried it was going to get infected, heal at an odd angle, but today I'm realizing it's really not all that bad. There's not much you can do for toes anyway. It just hurt a lot. Now the swelling has gone down quite a bit, and it's just a little purple but still sore. I'm not limping as much either. I was able to bend it a bit this morning when I took the tape off, but that didn't seem like such a good idea later when it started to throb again. Doh! Silly toes and furniture! It's not even a good story.
Cynthia and I were supposed to go up to Gagil to see Stevie today and go surf some waves in kyaks. But by the time she got home this morning, she was beat from last night and passed out for the afternoon. I was working and feeling productive today, so I flaked on venturing out into the world again today. Totally lame, I know. Cynthia and I vowed to go up and get Stevie to take us kyaking very soon, though.