Ready to Go!

We will all be in Yap less than two weeks from now! Everyone has the things they they are most excited for of course. I am most excited for going out and exploring the island. I will probably live with my camera attached for the first few days just taking pictures of everything. Will this actually change while I am there? Probably not. I am so excited to be in a part of the world which few people actually get to travel to because of how isolated some of these islands are in Micronesia. Also, I am so excited to be traveling to Yap with this group of students with our two professors. Our group dynamic is a very fun one with a lot of laughing. We will have a lot of laughs together while we are stuck on long layovers too 🙂

Getting to have layovers in Guam and in Hawaii will really be interesting on the way there and back as well. I have never been to Hawaii because my parents think it is just too far away to travel to easily when coordinating the schedules of two kids at school and two parents at work. Guam is definitely not somewhere I thought I would ever go to because of how far away it is either.

I cannot wait to hike up to get a high enough vantage point to see the sunrise on the first morning we are there like we talked about doing in class. The fourteen hour time change will really mess with us for the first few days that we are there, so we have plans to go hiking before the sunrise since we will probably be awake at 4:00 AM Yapese time anyway. Regardless, I am so excited! The vast majority of Yapese land is privately owned (we have been told that about 98% of land is privately owned), so hiking and exploring will probably be done in some of the down time when we are doing work out in the field. Our afternoons and evenings will be pretty open while we are on Yap which also allows for a lot of time to explore.

I just got my cot about a week ago, and all I need to get still is a pair (or two) of board shorts to wear while I am swimming and snorkeling. I think I will have everything else I need once I get those board shorts. My last exam will be this Saturday which gives me plenty of time next week to lay out at the pool at my parents’ house in order to work on my “pre-tan” before we get to Yap. I do not want for my skin to go from the farmer’s tan (with mostly pale skin if I am totally honest here) to a complete sunburn once I am in the intense sun that close to the equator. I have a list of all the things I will need to pack, and I find myself adding and subtracting things to it a lot still.

Taro

We have mentioned taro frequently in our John Belk International Program prep class because it is such an important part of the Yapese diet.  There is a taro flavor at Yoforia frozen yogurt stores, but now I really do not know if that is real taro or not.  The giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma chamissonis) is also known as lok or lak in the Yap Islands.  It is native in the Indo-Malesian region of the world and was most likely introduced to islands throughout the Pacific before Europeans came to this region.  It is the most cultivated aroid plant from the Araceae (aroid family) and Aroideae subfamily.  This plant is praised for how easily it grows in the often nutrient poor soils which are common of low-lying atolls.  It is adapted for tropical climates which receive ample rainfall each year because it needs to grow in a very wet environment.  On Yap, giant swamp taro patches are located in Mesei soils which are deep, mucky, and come from organic materials with silt deposited from alluvial origins.  The giant swamp taro plants need to have a growing area with ample shade, so the challenge of shading these areas on atolls can be difficult.  A current threat to Yap’s taro agricultural fields is global climate change.  Rising sea levels from thermal expansion of ocean water as well as from melting ice caps combine and threaten the current locations of these agricultural areas.  Although brackish water is sometimes tolerable by the giant swamp taro, the inundation of saltwater will prevent further plant growth.  Additionally, salinization of the soil which results from inundation of salt water will completely inhibit further plant growth.  There are alternatives to growing giant swamp taro in naturally swampy and wet areas.  Streams can be diverted sometimes in order to create dams for growing giant swamp taro.  It is interesting to me that taro is even as popular in Yap because it is inedible unless it has been cooked for a very long time.  The calcium oxalate in taro is one of the biggest parts of human kidney stones, so why in the world would people want to eat something which has so much of it?  And who was the unfortunate person who decided to try eating taro and found this out the hard way?  The amount of calcium oxalate in taro can be reduced to a safe amount after cooking it for a very long time, especially if a little bit of baking soda is added to the water used to cook it.  I remember one of our professors saying that taro is often eaten with milk.  Well, I found out why this is so commonly done after I did some more research about how taro’s calcium oxalate needs to be reduced to safer levels.  Dairy products are great sources of calcium.  This calcium helps to make the taro safe to eat.  I wish we would have learned this in class, but I guess it is too much of a chemistry lesson for class.

Finding Your Way

The Yapese are proud of their navigational skills and preservation of traditional canoes which their ancestors used to first travel to Yap and other islands within Micronesia.  Canoes were used to expand the Yapese empire as well as to facilitate the ideals of reciprocity called “sawei” in these islands.  Today, modern cargo ships and airplanes are two more commonly used modes of transportation for people, goods, and services.  According to the Yap Visitors Bureau, the most common type of canoe is called the Popow.  It is characterized by its two-pronged bow.  The Popow canoes are most often used for transporting people and goods to distant locations such as Palau.

When we read His Majesty O’Keefe  for class some of the different ceremonies were explained.  In His Majesty O’Keefe we read about the magician Fatumak who was consulted about proceeding with actions because the Yapese people have many rituals and beliefs surrounding fate and magic.  These ceremonies used to be much more popular and common before the modern age when not as many people are involved with the traditions.  The same materials which were used historically such as coconuts and breadfruit are still very popular, however.  Breadfruit trees and mahogany trees were used to construct canoes because they grew to such large sizes.  The Pacific Ocean which surrounds Yap is notorious for being rough, so the Yapese people would dig the trees used for building canoes up from the soil rather than cutting them down in a way which many Americans would probably do.  They did this in order to prevent the wood from cracking, thereby enhancing its stability for such long ocean voyages.  Traditionally, women were in charge of weaving pandanus sails for the canoes.

When I read more about canoe construction the importance of the coconut plant was explained in detail.  I feel as if the Yapese people are unbelievably resourceful with how they use the coconut.  Coconut husks and fibers were used in order to make very strong rope.  We actually saw some of it in class one day which was really cool.

Furthermore, the breadfruit tree was used in order to have its sap be used for waterproofing the canoe’s hull.  Finished canoes were decorated with traditional designs and colors and then released into the ocean with grand ceremonies in Yap’s past.  The stars served as the map for the Yapese navigators who did not even have a compass or proper map.  These navigators were also experts at recognizing the changing patterns of tides in the middle of the ocean when they could not even see land!  The Yap Visitors Bureau compared the current efforts of preserving the traditional canoes and navigational skills.  Their website explained that the Outer Islanders actually do a better job of teaching the younger generations about the traditions from the past.  This is probably because the Outer Islanders do not always have the financial resources which are necessary to have the most modern boats for transportation, so they preserve the traditional methods because they are much more practical.

 

Source: Yap’s Visitors Bureau

Coral Reefs and Mangroves

The threats of global climate change and human population growth are being felt by the modernizing society in Yap, especially with their natural resources. Natural resources are already limited in Yap because of the isolation of these islands, so conservation of ecosystems as part of a larger scale is even more important. It is difficult for the Yapese to just import the resources they need if they run out because the cargo ships which bring the majority of goods take weeks at a time to come. Construction of new buildings to replace delapadated ones as well as to have new ones for tourism is one pressure for the mangrove resources found on Yap. Unfortunately, destroying large areas of the mangroves for timber cannot be done because the coral reefs which often attract tourists in the first place become overwhelmed with sediment and nutrients if they are not protected by the mangroves. One of the things which draws people to visit Yap is the diving. The coral reefs around Yap are less disturbed by tourists and exist in a healthier state because of the management of Yap’s island resources which ultimately impact the coral reefs.

Mangroves exist in the “in between” area of Yap. They exist in between oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor soils as well as in between the land and the sea. They do not only survive in this environment, they actually thrive in this environment which has limited competition. When compared to an inland forest the mangrove forest is much more delicate to manage because it is more difficult to get seedlings to take root without being carried away by the tides. Harvesting timber affects this important ecosystem and has a detrimental influence on the surrounding coral reefs. The pressures of modern development increase the amount of timber needed within the Yap Islands, especially on the coral atolls which have fewer resources than Yap Proper.

Storm surges are broken by the mangroves, and sediment which could smother the coral reefs is captured by the thick network of roots and trees. Therefore, a coral reef around Yap definitely depends on a healthy mangrove system around Yap. It is interesting to me that many of the pictures of the coastlines on Yap are covered in these mangroves because I am so used to seeing sandy beaches where I have traveled and vacationed before this upcoming trip. Additionally, mangroves are home to so many more fish species than I have ever seen on a sandy beach because there is so much more available shelter. On a larger scale, the area’s fishing industry depends on healthy mangroves because more than half of marine species in this area feed, reproduce, or spend their time as babies in the mangroves before moving out toward the coral reefs. The management of the inland development and mangroves helps to protect the coral reefs from an excess of soil or nutrients which could cause algal blooms in the water. In essence, the interactions between coral reefs, mangroves, and islanders all have to be carefully managed and balanced in order to prolong the availablilty of these resources.

I can’t wait to go to Yap!

Yap.  Where in the world is that?! would definitely sum up my first thoughts about this amazing group of islands I will be visiting this summer.  “Yap Proper is the main island within the Yap Islands within the Federated States of Micronesia which is a country within the group of islands called Micronesia” is definitely one of the ways I heard to describe Yap which I have been using to explain where I am going this summer as part of my John Belk International Program study tour.  The one thing which has stuck out to me the most about Yap is how the traditional culture clashes with the modern culture.  There are definitely a lot of mutually beneficial relationships between Americans and Yapese, but I see the struggle to maintain a cultural identity as the one topic about Yap which sticks out to me the most.  A shift in family structure from the extended family to nuclear family is just one of many aspects of Yapese culture which is different.  Who are we as Americans (or the Germans, Europeans, and Japanese beforehand) to decide how Micronesian people should live?  Why are our cultural values sometimes seen as more important than theirs?  My impression is that the “untamed” beauty and wonder of Micronesian islands is what initially drew people to visit these islands.  I put “untamed” in quotes because I am referring to the ecosystems which are so dramatically different from those found in Europe, for example.  This word choice by no means indicates any slight against the Yapese people themselves.  Different languages and cultural customs caused a lot of conflicts in Yapese history because of European versus Micronesian ideals on how rulings should be made and on how people should live.

I admire the laid back attitude which so commonly embodies the Micronesian spirit.  It contrasts so much with the aggressive attitude focused on constant development and financial gain of people from the United States.  The people from Yap who are adjusting to modern currency from stone and shell money are adjusting pretty well in some areas but not as well in others.  With any good change there will also be bad change.  Alcoholism which was not common before the modern age is now very prevalent in Yap and throughout Micronesia.  The changing family structure also messed up the security blanket that extended family members used to provide on Yap.  These two changes are negative, but my impression is that the more diversified daily life, diets, and experiences are very beneficial for the Yapese.  Educational opportunities which now exist in the modern age are absolutely key to helping the Yapese to advance.  There has undoubtedly been some resistance to the modern government style in comparison to the traditional government style which is on Yap.  Problems arise when there is an established leader who still may be powerless in comparison to the village chief.  Those problems are what stick out to me about Yap as well.  Certain things such as fire departments and police departments have some real limitations when it comes to the chief system on Yap because so much of their land is privately owned.