Airok - Day Three
Day 3 – A Sunday of Light and Darkness
Sunday morning in the Marshall’s is a time where everyone puts on their best clothes and goes to church. The little girls look quite pretty in their fluffy dresses. Mom puts on her best muumuu and Dad wears long trousers. I brought some jeans and a nice shirt for the occasion.… At various times in the morning one of the pastors will strike an old propane tank with a hammer in lieu of a bell. This occurs roughly on half hour intervals. Eventually they told me it was time to go. I think they give plenty of notice for the parishners who must travel from neighboring islands. The back two thirds of the church has white wooden benches. The front third has just the cement floor and is where many of the children sit. The preacher seemed an affable man as he smiled throughout the sermon. I had no idea what the sermon was about as the entire service was in Marshallese. I asked Belenty later what it was about but all she said was “The Bible.” A pack of dogs wondered in during the service, perhaps to escape the rain. There were a few shhh’s but no concerted effort to remove them. To add to the cacophony the children and some adults talked throughout the service. The pastor seemed unfazed and continued his sermon without giving notice to what was happening around him. It should also be noted that there was no public address system. I’ve seen circuses that were more somber and orderly.
Figure 5 – The Church
Fortunately for me the main service was only a half hour long. We left but returned in less than 5 minutes for a special Christmas music program. Choirs from each of the islands plus a children’s choir took turns entertaining us.
Figure 6 Girls in their Sunday dresses (Moshalina on left)
I observed that the Marshallese seem to use a different tonal scale than we do. The women’s voices reach a pitch and volume that is just short of a screech. There are various harmonies and the men sound pretty good. To my western ear I thought the overall effect would be improved if the ladies dropped down about 2 octaves. This was not a serious affair to put it mildly. Usually one of the female choir members would make comic gestures that would solicit laughs and guffaws from the congregation. At various times one of the ladies would toss candy out to the audience. Children and ladies alike would scramble for it. I had the good fortune to sit behind Loren, an extremely attractive young blond from Taxachusetts. She introduced herself to me and explained she was a volunteer with World Teach. She had many admirers from her students. They would squeeze in as close to her as possible. If a boy got up a girl would take his place. I asked her if she ever got a moment’s peace. She replied “not many.” But her personality was perfect for her occupation as she maintained a good humor throughout and would tease, make faces at the kids, and competed with the kids for candy to everyone’s amusement. For their part, it was obvious the kids loved her.
When they would finish their set the choir would circle the church then parade with various parishners, who felt led, to the front of the church to donate money. One of the elders stood behind the choir and counted the money throughout the program. This was because each group got to keep the money that was donated after their performance. I was comparing this in my mind to past choir concerts I’d attended in the states but there really was no comparison. This one was certainly livelier and more entertaining than any other I’d seen. I forgot to mention that the whole singing was conducted acopella.
It rained all day on Sunday so we took our lunch indoors. I convinced Belenty to heat up a can of corned beef and hash I had brought with me. This turned out to be no small ordeal as she had to round up a skillet and borrow a neighbor’s stove that was a gas powered camp type stove. This solicited one of her typical “Why didn’t you bring a skillet?” comments. Earlier she asked me why I didn’t bring another dress shirt for her brother to wear. I half expect her to ask me next “why didn’t you bring a sledge hammer” as if that would be the most natural item to take on vacation. The doors are usually left open here plus there are ground level windows and it is common for chickens to roam through the house. During the meal some chicks came in. One leapt up on the rice bowl and stuck a foot in the rice before being shooed away. The mom did seem to scoop from the other side of the bowl. I did not eat rice the rest of the day and was only able to finish my corned beef and hash with great difficulty. I did not eat supper that night, as I wanted that bowl of rice to be finished before I ate any.
The neighbor she borrowed the stove from was married to a brother or cousin. I never did figure out. I got to be friends with her as time went on. She would have been a beautiful woman were it not for a physical defect. For some reason the muscles in her face did not quite work so that when she talked or smiled her mouth was twisted. But inside she seemed very beautiful to me and was always pleasant to be around. I forgot about her defect over time and tried to take her picture before I left but she hid her face in shame. I felt quite bad about that as I had completely forgot about it and just wanted to remember my friend. She was one of the few younger women who would talk to me when Belenty was around. I think, because due to her defect she was considered not a threat. I will mention more about this later but the attractive women would be real shy if Belenty was there but quite the opposite when she wasn’t around.
In the afternoon Belenty wanted to spend the day drinking Marshallese yeast drink. I dubbed it Marshallese moonshine. I had no desire to partake but got dragged along as her cover because she didn’t want her parents to know. She is 27 but in their culture the parents still hold a place of authority over them.
Here is how you make yeast drink. Pour about 4 or 5 pitchers of bacteria infested water into an old tea kettle (in a pinch you can use treated water). Add most of a bag of yeast. Stir with your unwashed hand. The same hand you were probably using to clean fish with shortly before. Tear open a plastic bag of sugar with your teeth and add about 1 kg. Add a few handfuls of salt. Stir some more with unwashed hands. Then you must allow it to age for about 24 hours. Add some mint leaves and you have a 150 proof beverage that is enjoyed here in the islands. It resembles milk with a leaf in it.
After seeing it prepared I was even more certain I did not want to drink any. Belenty enjoyed it as did her cousins. Her Mom got wind of it part way through the afternoon and came over to the house where they were drinking and chewed her out. This vexed Belenty sorely. Her father, who is a kind-hearted soul, made peace between them and by the evening they both laughed about the incident.
Shoeless was there and we talked about going fishing the next day. His speech was a bit slurred and this is when I developed the notion his name was Shoeless. He told me we would leave around 8 and asked me if I was ready. I assured him I would be the next day. He went on to tell me he loved me, a perfectly natural statement among non-gay men here and that he would give me a conch. Of course he did not say conch but by hand motions and descriptions (including pretending to play a trumpet) he let me know what he meant. By the time we left the fishing time had slid to 9. It is now 11 am on the next day as I write this and we haven’t left yet. But her father told me we were waiting for the tide. I will say Shoeless was as good as his word as this morning a very beautiful conch showed up. It had to be delivered in secret at night so that other people would not get jealous. Shoeless is a compact, lean, muscular man in a wiry sort of way. He is an excellent fisherman as are most men here.