We loaded into the mission truck, a small green Toyota pickup, and set out for home. I noticed right off that the pickup was fairly new, but it was already very rusty in some spots and from the sounds of it, the muffler had seen better days.
Gilligan jumped in back of the truck with the luggage saying that he preferred riding in the open air as opposed to cramming in the cab. I think he was just avoiding the unpleasantries of drawing straws for dubs on shotgun. I and the other two elders jumped into the front. As we drove along, we got acquainted.
Lunde (pronounced lund-ee) was about my size with sandy colored hair. I could tell he was a westerner from his speech. “LaBarge, Wyoming is where I’m from, he said. I grew up on a ranch outside of town.” He had a high pitched voice and I later learned when he got excited, it became even higher. I took an instant liking to him. He seemed easy-going and being from a similar background as I, we seemed to have a lot in common.
He asked, “Did you bring a pair of cowboy boots out here with you?” I thought that an odd question, but replied, “Yes, in fact I did!”
“Alright, he yelled, the pitch in his voice getting higher, I think I’m going to like you!” Lunde, I was to learn later, wore Wranglers, Tony Llama boots, and a huge silver belt buckle the size of a serving platter in true western fashion. He hated the dress clothes that we were expected to wear while we worked. Of course, that went for all of us. Much of our work, however, involved labor in behalf of the islanders in building huts, and other such stuff that called for work clothes anyway.
The man that was to be my mission companion, Pita - The Tongan Tiger, just sat in the middle and laughed at the conversation without saying much. He seemed to be a very good natured guy and would chuckle and smile at nearly everything. He said that he was from Tonga and was a professional rugby player before coming on his mission to Micronesia. He got the nickname, ‘Tongan Tiger’ in his days of rugby playing. I thought to myself that this is going to be a nice time living here and working with these guys.
Lunde asked about Gilligan. I did not want to ruin it for Gilligan before he had a chance to ruin it for himself, so I said, “I will pass on judging him; he’s alright.” I knew that Lunde and Sorenson would be companions and they were going to have to live and work together, so I didn’t want to give him any preconceived notions. I thought maybe Lunde might think he is a pretty cool guy.
“Well, I’ve heard that he is a real nut job, said Lunde. I got word from one of my friends on Guam.”
“His reputation precedes him, then,” I replied, and we had a good chuckle.
As we drove, I was immediately taken in by the intense greenery that lined and in some places, surrounded the road we were traveling. I commented on the beauty of the different shades of luscious green that were everywhere. Pita said, “That’s nice, but believe it or not, we are in the middle of a bad drought right now, so things are actually drier than normal. In fact, as soon as we drop off your luggage and rest a bit, we will need to go get water.”
I was to soon find out about water day. Since the island was suffering from drought, there was no water on the island except for a large well near the airport. Three or four times a week, we were forced to load two 50 gallon drums in the pickup and go to the airport well and get them filled. This is what we used for drinking, cooking, flushing the toilet, and taking bucket showers.
We pulled up to a large flexible hose and filled the drums. After filling, we placed framed screens over the tops of the drums to keep the water from spilling on the way home. Even with the screens, we would still lose about 10 gallons of precious water by the time got home. Once at home, we would siphon the water from the drums in the pickup into two drums sitting in front of the house. It was a fairly efficient process, but would take at least half a day from start to finish. Thus, we traded off and took turns going to get water.
This was to be the start of a complete lifestyle change for me. My previous life was goal driven with a full schedule of events and objectives to accomplish in a limited amount of tim
e. On Yap, I soon became accustomed to slowing down and taking each moment at a time and not getting in a hurry for anything. It seemed like time stood still on this little island, and there was nothing I could do to alter that. It seemed like everything moved in slow motion with nothing happening very fast. Everything from driving and walking to talking was done slowly and deliberately. Top speed on the rutted and bumpy roads was around 15-20 miles per hour.
For the rest of this story, I will discuss the processes used for everyday events and how much time they took to accomplish. Keep in mind; some of these events were time intensive because for about the first three months of my mission on Yap, we were in drought.
Bucket Showers
These took about 45 minutes counting the time for heating the water and there was no standing in the shower and soaking like a teenager! I would take a 2 ½ gallon bucket and heat half of it to boiling on our small two-burner heat plate. After the water boiled or after I lost patience waiting for the water to boil, I would dump this hot water into the cold water already in the bucket. A small cup would be used to pour water over myself to get wet, lather with soap, and then rinse using the same cup. What water was left was used for teeth brushing. After I got good at it, I could conserve enough water to flush the toilet, too. Needless to say, every drop of water became valuable since nobody liked going to the airport and refilling the drums when they ran out.
Washing Clothes
This chore would take all day, so we took turns. The washer was located at the senior couple’s home, so we would load all our week’s laundry into baskets and take them over to their house for cleaning. We would also take a 50 gallon drum and fill it before going in order to have enough water for filling the machine.
We were smart enough to divide the laundry into darks and whites. We filled the machine to max with clothes, dumped the water in the machine using buckets, dropped the soap in and turned on the machine. We would repeat the process for rinsing. There was no spinning with the rinse. Because we usually overfilled the machine to save time, the clothes hardly ever got very clean, but who really cared? Certainly not us. Also, consider the ramifications of washing dry-clean only, Swedish Knit pants in a machine. After a few washings, all dye in the thread was gone and the pants looked like used coveralls. They were still some of the coolest pants on the island, though.
Typical Meals
My food is one thing that, at first, I refused to go light on. I spent whatever I needed to get good food, at least for the first few months of my mission. In time, I learned to eat whatever was available, but that took some time. So, at first, I blew a lot of money buying whatever the ship brought in – hamburger, chicken, canned fruit and stuff like that. Things like milk and veggies were impossible. We finally found a brand of powdered milk that was shipped in from Australia that was really good, but it was about $2 bucks and ounce.
One time I bought a head of lettuce the day the ship came in and paid $6 bucks for it. I protected it like gold. When I got it home, I pealed off the outer leaves like you always do, and the whole head was completely rotten and gooey. I was so mad I took the remains and lobbed it against a tree. Within time, I got used to buying stuff at the open market to eat – like fish, taro, and rice. It wasn’t long before that became my main course for breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared in different combinations and interspersed with bananas, pineapple, breadfruit, and mangos.
Quite a few months found all of us completely out of money with very little food left in the cupboard. Most of those times, we would take a day off mission work and forage for food. This included catching crabs and fishing in the lagoon that surrounded the island. It is amazing the lengths one will go to when he is hungry. Even though my diet consisted mainly of the foods mentioned above, I also ate dogs, turtles, oysters, clams, and once in awhile, some yummy pit-cooked pork.
Gilligan jumped in back of the truck with the luggage saying that he preferred riding in the open air as opposed to cramming in the cab. I think he was just avoiding the unpleasantries of drawing straws for dubs on shotgun. I and the other two elders jumped into the front. As we drove along, we got acquainted.
Lunde (pronounced lund-ee) was about my size with sandy colored hair. I could tell he was a westerner from his speech. “LaBarge, Wyoming is where I’m from, he said. I grew up on a ranch outside of town.” He had a high pitched voice and I later learned when he got excited, it became even higher. I took an instant liking to him. He seemed easy-going and being from a similar background as I, we seemed to have a lot in common.
He asked, “Did you bring a pair of cowboy boots out here with you?” I thought that an odd question, but replied, “Yes, in fact I did!”
“Alright, he yelled, the pitch in his voice getting higher, I think I’m going to like you!” Lunde, I was to learn later, wore Wranglers, Tony Llama boots, and a huge silver belt buckle the size of a serving platter in true western fashion. He hated the dress clothes that we were expected to wear while we worked. Of course, that went for all of us. Much of our work, however, involved labor in behalf of the islanders in building huts, and other such stuff that called for work clothes anyway.
The man that was to be my mission companion, Pita - The Tongan Tiger, just sat in the middle and laughed at the conversation without saying much. He seemed to be a very good natured guy and would chuckle and smile at nearly everything. He said that he was from Tonga and was a professional rugby player before coming on his mission to Micronesia. He got the nickname, ‘Tongan Tiger’ in his days of rugby playing. I thought to myself that this is going to be a nice time living here and working with these guys.
Lunde asked about Gilligan. I did not want to ruin it for Gilligan before he had a chance to ruin it for himself, so I said, “I will pass on judging him; he’s alright.” I knew that Lunde and Sorenson would be companions and they were going to have to live and work together, so I didn’t want to give him any preconceived notions. I thought maybe Lunde might think he is a pretty cool guy.
“Well, I’ve heard that he is a real nut job, said Lunde. I got word from one of my friends on Guam.”
“His reputation precedes him, then,” I replied, and we had a good chuckle.
As we drove, I was immediately taken in by the intense greenery that lined and in some places, surrounded the road we were traveling. I commented on the beauty of the different shades of luscious green that were everywhere. Pita said, “That’s nice, but believe it or not, we are in the middle of a bad drought right now, so things are actually drier than normal. In fact, as soon as we drop off your luggage and rest a bit, we will need to go get water.”
I was to soon find out about water day. Since the island was suffering from drought, there was no water on the island except for a large well near the airport. Three or four times a week, we were forced to load two 50 gallon drums in the pickup and go to the airport well and get them filled. This is what we used for drinking, cooking, flushing the toilet, and taking bucket showers.
We pulled up to a large flexible hose and filled the drums. After filling, we placed framed screens over the tops of the drums to keep the water from spilling on the way home. Even with the screens, we would still lose about 10 gallons of precious water by the time got home. Once at home, we would siphon the water from the drums in the pickup into two drums sitting in front of the house. It was a fairly efficient process, but would take at least half a day from start to finish. Thus, we traded off and took turns going to get water.
This was to be the start of a complete lifestyle change for me. My previous life was goal driven with a full schedule of events and objectives to accomplish in a limited amount of tim
e. On Yap, I soon became accustomed to slowing down and taking each moment at a time and not getting in a hurry for anything. It seemed like time stood still on this little island, and there was nothing I could do to alter that. It seemed like everything moved in slow motion with nothing happening very fast. Everything from driving and walking to talking was done slowly and deliberately. Top speed on the rutted and bumpy roads was around 15-20 miles per hour.For the rest of this story, I will discuss the processes used for everyday events and how much time they took to accomplish. Keep in mind; some of these events were time intensive because for about the first three months of my mission on Yap, we were in drought.
Bucket Showers
These took about 45 minutes counting the time for heating the water and there was no standing in the shower and soaking like a teenager! I would take a 2 ½ gallon bucket and heat half of it to boiling on our small two-burner heat plate. After the water boiled or after I lost patience waiting for the water to boil, I would dump this hot water into the cold water already in the bucket. A small cup would be used to pour water over myself to get wet, lather with soap, and then rinse using the same cup. What water was left was used for teeth brushing. After I got good at it, I could conserve enough water to flush the toilet, too. Needless to say, every drop of water became valuable since nobody liked going to the airport and refilling the drums when they ran out.
Washing Clothes
This chore would take all day, so we took turns. The washer was located at the senior couple’s home, so we would load all our week’s laundry into baskets and take them over to their house for cleaning. We would also take a 50 gallon drum and fill it before going in order to have enough water for filling the machine.
We were smart enough to divide the laundry into darks and whites. We filled the machine to max with clothes, dumped the water in the machine using buckets, dropped the soap in and turned on the machine. We would repeat the process for rinsing. There was no spinning with the rinse. Because we usually overfilled the machine to save time, the clothes hardly ever got very clean, but who really cared? Certainly not us. Also, consider the ramifications of washing dry-clean only, Swedish Knit pants in a machine. After a few washings, all dye in the thread was gone and the pants looked like used coveralls. They were still some of the coolest pants on the island, though.
Typical Meals
My food is one thing that, at first, I refused to go light on. I spent whatever I needed to get good food, at least for the first few months of my mission. In time, I learned to eat whatever was available, but that took some time. So, at first, I blew a lot of money buying whatever the ship brought in – hamburger, chicken, canned fruit and stuff like that. Things like milk and veggies were impossible. We finally found a brand of powdered milk that was shipped in from Australia that was really good, but it was about $2 bucks and ounce.
One time I bought a head of lettuce the day the ship came in and paid $6 bucks for it. I protected it like gold. When I got it home, I pealed off the outer leaves like you always do, and the whole head was completely rotten and gooey. I was so mad I took the remains and lobbed it against a tree. Within time, I got used to buying stuff at the open market to eat – like fish, taro, and rice. It wasn’t long before that became my main course for breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared in different combinations and interspersed with bananas, pineapple, breadfruit, and mangos.
Quite a few months found all of us completely out of money with very little food left in the cupboard. Most of those times, we would take a day off mission work and forage for food. This included catching crabs and fishing in the lagoon that surrounded the island. It is amazing the lengths one will go to when he is hungry. Even though my diet consisted mainly of the foods mentioned above, I also ate dogs, turtles, oysters, clams, and once in awhile, some yummy pit-cooked pork.
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