Beyond That Horizon

We were invited to have supper with a Filipino family. They were not members of our Church, but we were good friends and I think they liked having us around for conversation and on occasion, for the entertainment value. They lived on a hill above Colonia in a nice home that had air conditioning and carpet. I think the father was in Yap on assignment for a construction project.

We sat down to eat at a table with nice place settings and utensils. It was great. The mother had fixed Filipino chicken, egg-battered spam, and hotdogs. It was a far cry from some of the unspeakable concoctions we were used to eating. There was plenty of food, good company and we were relishing the moment.

Suddenly, Gilligan noticed a bowl of Boonie Peppers on the table. I’m not an expert on peppers, but I tried that brand of peppers a few days before and I knew what they were all about. One tiny seed from a Boonie Pepper burned my mouth as if a white hot poker had been thrust in. It was not a pleasant experience. I was told that those peppers were the second hottest peppers in the world! I am not actually sure of the scientific or culinary name for them, we just called them Boonies because that is what the islanders called them.

Gilligan began spouting off about how he was a pepper expert and being from California, knew all about them and could handle eating even the hottest. The Filipino mother warned him that he may not like those particular peppers, but he was welcome to try them. He proclaimed, "Oh, these are nothing compared to what we have in California!” At that instant, he put a whole pepper in his mouth and started chewing it up.

It took a few moments for the debilitating pain from the fire in his mouth to reach his wee-little brain and tell him that he was about to suffer a miserable death. His eyes began to water profusely, his nose to blow snot down his face and shirt front, sweat drops ran in rivers down his forehead, but most critical was the fact he wasn’t breathing and his face was turning purple! He was motioning wildly for help with screeches and grunts being the only audible sounds his mouth could make.

Filipino mom yelled for him to spit out the pepper and get something else in his mouth. He jumped up, staggered over to the sink and gulped water before mom could scream that, “Water will only make the pain worse!” just as he spewed water everywhere. He was close to circling the drain. The rest of us elders remained seated and were silently amused by the entertainment. Pita was the only one that was visibly laughing. He couldn't hide the fact that it was a jolly moment!

In the melee, Mom jumped up, grabbed some thick, milky liquid from her frig, bent Gilligan over backwards and poured it down his throat. This seemed to save him and within about 30 minutes of gulping copious amounts of that, alas, he was back with us, but without his mouth flapping incessantly as it usually was.