Massive Sailing Canoe Takes Shape on Lamotrek

/

Adzes are used to slowly remove wood forming the hull

Men on the remote Pacific Atoll of Lamotrek are hard at work, carving  and shaping a massive sailing canoe. In addition to preserving their  native traditions, they may be carving their way into the record books  as they work under a tarp by the open-air mens' house on the beach.

Voyaging canoes in the Caroline Islands (modern day "Micronesia") are  made from hollowed-out tree trunks for the keel. Planks are then fitted  and tied in with rope made from coconut fibers to complete the sides.  These graceful crafts appear symmetrical. Both sternposts and stems  protrude up from the keel in forks that shoot up

Read More

“Waa'gey Planning & Partnership Tour a Success”

/

Waa'gey's Larry Raigetal and Curtis Loftis Treasurer of South CarolinaLarry Raigetal of the Community Based Organization “Waa’gey” has  returned to Yap, Micronesia following a planning and partnership tour in  the United States.

Raigetal met with a range of public sector officials and private  citizens across several states, the District of Columbia and the  Territory of Guam. “It was great to talk with policy leaders,  philanthropists, cultural aficionados and others. I was surprised by
Read More

Lessons From Hawaii

/

By: Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

(http://jkijiner.wordpress.com/)

--------------------------------------------------------

Lesson Number 1:

FUCKIN MICRONESIANS!

that’s my seventh grade friend

cussin at the boys across the street

rockin swap meet blue t-shirt

baggy jeans

spittin a steady beetlenut stream

yea one of them’s related to me

You know, you’re actually kinda smart

for a Micronesian

And that’s my classmate

who I tutor through the civil war

through the first immigrants

through history that always

seems to repeat itself

LESSON NUMBER 2:

Micronesian

MICRO(nesian)

as in small. tiny crumbs of islands scattered

across the pacific ocean. different countries/nations/cultures no one

has heard about / cares about too small

to notice. small like how

i feel

when lady at the salon

tracing white across  my nail

stops and says

you know you don’t look

Micronesian.

                        You’re prettier!

LESSON NUMBER 3:

Prettier as in not

ugly like those

other Micronesian girls

walking by the street smiling

rows of gold teeth like they got

no shame with hair greased and braided

cascading down dirt roads of brown skin, down

shimmering dresses called guams and neon colored chuukese skirts

and i can hear

the disgust

in my cousin’s voice

Look at those girls! They wear their guams

to school and to the store like they’re

at home don’t they

know?

This isn’t their country this is America see that’s

why everyone here hates

us Micronesians

LESSON NUMBER 4:

I’ll tell you why everyone here hates Micronesians

It’s cuz we’re neon colored skirts screaming DIFFERENT!

Different like that ESL kid

whose name you can’t pronounce

whose accent you can’t miss

Different like walmart/7-eleven/mickey D’s parking lot kick its and fights

those long hours

those blue collar nights

Different like parties

with hundreds of swarming aunties, uncles, cousins

sticky breadfruit drenched in creamy coconut

coolers of our favorite fish

wheeled from the airport

barbequed on a spit

my uncle waving me over

Dede a itok! Kejro mona!

Dede come! Let’s eat!

LESSON NUMBER 5:

It’s actually

NOT Micronesian

It’s Marshallese/Chuukese/Yapese/Pohnpeian

Palauan/Kosraean/Chamorru/Kiribati/

but when Hawaii insists

on lumping us all together

when they belittle us and tell us we’re small

when they tell us our people are small

when they give you a blank face

when they give you a closed door

when so many in Hawaii hate

Micronesians, when so many hate

us

LESSON NUMBER 6

That’s how I learned

That’s how I learned

That’s how I learned

to hate

me.

Memorial Scholarship Renewed by Midwestern Family

/

Orpha Hapdei: Habele Scholarship Winner

A Midwestern family has renewed their support for a Micronesian girl  attending a small private school thousands of miles away in the State of  Yap.

Orpha Hapdei is a seventh grade student at Saint Mary's School in  Colonia. Her family is from the Atoll of Ulithi, a remote outer island  of Yap, Micronesia.

Orpha began attending St. Mary’s in 2011, through the Leona Peterson  (1926-2011) Memorial K-12 Scholarship. The scholarship pays for

Read More

Storied Canoe Returns Home to Micronesia 70 Years Later

/
James  Hapdei holds a model canoe in Yap, Micronesia. The model was a gift  from his father to Francis Wilson, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate, who helped  treat a Yaws epidemic during World War Two
(Colonia, Yap) A two-foot long model canoe has returned to Yap,  Micronesia, where it will be restored and preserved by a local group of  carvers. Included in the group is the son of the man who first made the  model for a special US Sailor seven decades ago.

The canoe has traveled thousands of miles on its journey home. It was  carved as a gift for a US Navy sailor who served in the Pacific during  World War Two. Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Francis Wilson was one of a pair  of sailors who
Read More

Palau: Typhoon Bopha Relief Efforts

/

As of December 5, 2012.

  • A State of Emergency has been declared.
  • Congress has been asked to appropriate US$10 million for response and recovery efforts.
  • Current priorities are shelter, water, sanitation and power. 92 houses have been completely destroyed and 59 houses have major damages. Initial Damage Assessments are continuing, with results still pending.
  • No casualties or major injuries have been reported.
  • The hospital and clinics will resume normal operations as of today.
  • A Recovery Task Force has been established
Read More

High Tech Meets Traditional Tech in Yap

/
Tuesday, November 27, 2012Navy Seabess & Waagey Canoe
Contact: Habele
Colonia, Yap
US (803) 586-2358
FM (691) 952-5005
njm@habele.org

High tech met traditional tech when a group of US Navy Seabees pitched  in to help the Waa’gey traditional canoe project in Yap, Micronesia.

The sailors, stationed on Yap as part of a construction civic action  detail, used their
Read More