We made it to Chuuk!

First I want to thank everyone for your emails! We currently have more emails than we can answer individually, but we are working on it. We want to send a special thank you to all the students from Truckee, California who took the time to write. We have all your questions for the students and your gift suggestions. We are trying to answer as many of your questions in our journals as we can; knowing what you are interested in helps us know what to look into and report to you.

Here's our latest news. It's warm here! Unlike the U.S., where Fall weather is setting in, here in Chuuk, we're enjoying average weather, between 70°F and 90°F with high humidity. The temperature of the ocean is about 86°F, or the temperature of a really warm bathtub!

After arriving in Chuuk at 2 a.m., we slept a few hours and set off to scuba dive. The diving was incredible, but I'll let Tom tell you most of that. All I'll say is that seeing the china cups and dishes spilled out of crates inside of a dark hold in a sunken ship is very spooky. It really made me realize how people lived and died in these ships. I realize now why many people refer to the wrecks here as the "Ghost Fleet."

After cleaning up our dive stuff, we headed into "town," a term I use quite loosely. In fact, the people here call the town of Weno a "village," which is probably a more accurate description. To get there you must take a taxi, also a word I should use loosely. The taxis here are just regular cars with cardboard signs in the front window that the owners stick on. It costs only $1.00 each way to get around the island. I found it a little surprising that the island uses U.S. money. It is a physical reminder of the close ties the FSM has with the U.S. and of the island's colonial past.

Constitution Day

Now that we're on the subject of the colonial past, one of our missions today was to find out about FSM Independence Day, coming up soon on November 3rd. I learned from the curator of the museum at the Ethnographic Center that the holiday is called Constitution Day and it is a really big deal.

On Constitution Day all businesses, schools, and government offices are closed. Huge track and field competitions take place all day long with school-aged children. It seems to be a day of competitions; the adults compete as well, but in singing.

Can you imagine all the parents in your neighborhood getting together in a softball field to hold singing competitions in groups of thirty or forty (and sometimes as many as 100)? Well, that is what they do here. It sounds like incredible fun and I wish we would still be here when that takes place next week. We heard some Micronesian music playing today and it is lovely and melodic..

For more information about FSM independence, click here.

Ethnographic Center

The Ethnographic Center was great. It is housed in a small building, and a curator/guide happily explained what all the tools were used for. Many of the implements looked fairly new. We found out that when the museum opened in 1980, people from all over Chuuk donated items they had made using traditional techniques they learned from their parents and grandparents. Although some of the items are still used, they are constructed differently. For example, a coconut shredder made today has a metal scraping edge instead of one made of seashells.

I want to share with you some of what we learned today at the museum. Look for the photos we took to go with our descriptions.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)
The large orange container once carried offerings of breadfruit to the village chief as a tribute and a sign of respect during the summer harvest. On many of Chuuk's islands, clan chiefs still have special privileges like this. Only men were allowed to carry the offering (what do you think about that?) in fours, one at each handle. The container is made from the wood of the breadfruit tree, the hardest wood available on the islands. Most of the tools and implements are made from this wood.

These tools are used to build canoes. They are made of breadfruit wood and shell. Can you imagine building boats that could sail all over the Micronesian region -- thousands of miles -- with no tools made of metal? If you think about it, seashells aren't that hard and can break easily.

Who would have thought that a ball of twine would have a featured place in a cultural museum? The curator told us that the people of Chuuk used twine and rope made from coconut fibers to tie wood together when making houses because they had no metal from which to make nails. In fact, rope was considered a very important tool before the introduction of metal. It was also used to make baskets, belts, and fishing traps.

This basket is still used today to pick and gather breadfruit, one of the staple crops of the area. You use a long stick to poke breadfruits still on the tree to the ground. Then you gather them. This basket holds 15 breadfruits on each side, 30 total. It is made of palm fronds, rope, and wood.

These masks are called "devil masks" but I'm not sure of the reason for the name. Both men and women used them (and still do) in ceremonial dances. The Chuukese like to celebrate, and dances are frequent.

FSM Independence

Like many other countries in this part of the world, the FSM was colonized by large nations before becoming independent.

We'll start our study of FSM independence after WWII. Then Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap (the islands that would eventually make up the FSM) and other Micronesian islands (like the Marianas, the Marshall Islands, and Palau) became part of a trust territory governed by the U.S. The U.S. was supposed to help the islands move toward self-sufficiency, but didn't start truly helping the Micronesians make improvements until 1961. Under President Kennedy, the U.S. bumped up the amount of economic aid to the area, though it didn't yield many results.

As time went on, Micronesians started calling for self-government. To quiet growing calls for independence, the U.S. created the Congress of Micronesia in 1965. In theory, Micronesians had some control in this governing body, but in truth they were not given much real power. In fact, the U.S. distrusted the Congress so much that they sent the CIA to spy on Micronesian leaders.

In 1966, Peace Corps volunteers from the U.S. arrived in Micronesia. While educating Micronesians about American ways of living and governing, they also taught them about their legal and social rights. Armed with this new knowledge, Micronesians began organizing serious movements toward independence.

During the 1970s, other countries in the Pacific started clamoring for independence. The United Nations intervened for Micronesia and insisted that the U.S. offer the Micronesians a new political status. In response, the U.S. offered them Commonwealth Status. Only the Northern Marianas chose this arrangement.

Belau/Palau and the Marshall Islands negotiated separately for their political future. The four districts of Yap, Kosrae, Chuuk and Pohnpei united to create the Federated States of Micronesia pursued joint negotiations with the U.S. The FSM developed a constitution that was ratified in July 1978. It took effect on May 10, 1979, granting the FSM self-government. In 1991 the FSM was admitted to the United Nations.

The FSM kept close ties with the U.S. by accepting a Compact of Free Association with them, which gave the U.S. sole military rights to the FSM and veto power over its foreign affairs decisions. In exchange, the Micronesians received funding until the year 2003 when the treaty could be renewed. The FSM remains economically dependent on the U.S. With little economic alternative, the FSM is presently renegotiating the Compact with the U.S. to extend beyond 2003.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip to the Ethnographic Center. Keep sending us your questions to ask the high school students via email. We also need questions for the family we will visit in a few days. Email us. Knowing that all of you are along with us on this trip is making it a great adventure for us.