Note: Below is a web-page from my now defunct College of Micronesia - FSM site. I haven't changed it from it's 10/07 post-date. Now that I am living in America, I sorely miss these kinds of random adventures with friends. (If some of the jokes don't quite make sense, it's because I was poking fun at Dana Lee Ling's long descriptive, useful web pages.) I thank the fine people of Dien for putting up with me for so many years. My friends and neighbors in Kitti, from senator to teacher to farmer, all shared a common sense of humor (mostly dirty). I miss those long evenings at "Taste me first, eat me later" market.
Here are some photos from when I left Kitti (5/08)
Placing Nahs Roof Beams in Dien
October, 2007
All the nonsense on this page is that of Jonathan Gourlay.
Below is a document of one of my recent SLO (Sakau Leeching Opportunity) adventures.
Above: Bamboo scaffolding engirths the ten or so workers as they place the heavy roofbeams of the nahs. The roofbeams are cut from a tree made of wood. The man on the right is deaf and has developed his own personal sign language. Everything is tied together with vines and bark which are also organic matter. A chair of plastic is on the right in front of an oil drum.
It's backbreaking work taking pictures of guys placing expertly measured and extremely heavy beams onto re-bar. My photo-taking finger was already chaffing when I took this picture.
I feel like the guys would like to sing a Village People song, perhaps "In the Navy", but I am wrong.
Kaniki (below) is the foreman -- a builder extraordinare -- here he is telling the guys to move "just a little to the left... there... there.. no not that far!"
Kaniki sits on the freshly chainsawed roof beam. Kaniki always calls me a "dirty cat". But, dude, who's got eleven children? Huh? Who's the dirty cat and who's the clean cat?
Kaselarryah, Larry!
While the guys work, Luk (Center) and Nan Koi (right) begin to pound sakau. Sakau? Oh, you happen to be pounding sakau? Well, sure, I guess I'll stay. It is hard work taking pictures. I guess I do deserve some.
Soulik contemplates a Chinese firetruck full of young Seventh Day Adventist volunteers (not-pictured) while holding a dripping hibiscus-bark-tube full of mashed sakau.
Kaniki is all like, "Hey guys, pass the sakau up here." Later, Kaniki will drink sakau on the roof beam while hopping on one foot and grappling bare-handed with an enraged jungle chicken (not pictured).
You thought I was kidding about the sakau. The guys (like Larry above) do enjoy their sakau twenty feet in the air, perched on a wobbly beam. It's okay because sakau effects mostly your motor skills and not your reasoning skills. Of course, what reasoning skills do you possess if you are drinking sakau perched high in a construction zone?
It's important to close your eyes while drinking sakau -- otherwise, your eyes fall out!
Dough-Knee (above) mixes up kool-aid for me. Also, some of the guys who are working on the roof are thirsty.
This is a picture of the all-important center beam of the nahs which Kaniki has made in a fancy faux-ionic classical greek style.
Kaniki just spent the entire day directing the placement of massive roofbeams onto a traditional nahs. But, since it is UN Day, he's still got the energy to pound me some sakau. The sakau helps to numb the pain of my bruised picture-taking finger.
A few short months ago, we were rattling down the Lake Street El line in Chicago.