Category - Culture

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Bridging the Xavier-Sapuk Gap
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Something Worth Living and Losing For
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Facing the Future: Forum in Palau
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Oh Yeah! Now I Remember Why I Missed the Islands So Much!
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While I?ve Been Gone…
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Another Homecoming Tale
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My Hot Homecoming: Return to MIcronesia
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Immunization Against Microbes and the Hard Knocks of Life

Bridging the Xavier-Sapuk Gap

I’ve been back in Chuuk for the past week as part of an effort to push education reform there. Toward the end of the week, I found myself back at Xavier High School–the place where I was first introduced to the islands just 50 years ago. Xavier is also the new home for the MicSem library. So this trip was something of a sentimental journey for me.

But the flow of memories took some strange turns. Barely an hour after my arrival at Xavier, a man came up and introduced himself as Basilio, one of the workmen at the school. When I told him that I was once director of the school, he said that he remembered me at that time. I asked him how long he had been working at Xavier. ?Six years,? he said. ?Not far enough back,? I replied, ?I was director long before then, during the 1970s.? He smiled but insisted that he knew me long before he began working with the school. ?Don?t you remember?? he said. ?I was the guy you tackled and arrested when I was drunk one day.? Read More

Something Worth Living and Losing For

I?hadn’t?seen a movie in months and had almost forgotten how films can be a tonic for the spirit. Earlier this week it was ?Gangster Squad,? set in Los Angeles in the late ?40s when gangs first threatened to steal the soul of the city. I suppose you could have put the underground police squad, fighting against big odds to undermine Mickey Cohen, the mob boss who wanted to own everything, on horses and given them cowboy hats. The Magnificent Seven (for those old enough to remember them) ride again. It was good against evil. ?Good? in this case was a team of war vets and other prickly individuals who decided that they?didn’t?want to see their city lost. Sometimes we need those white and black hats, if only to reassure ourselves that there are still causes worth losing life and family for.

But tonight?s movie, the musical ?Les Miserables,? was more than a pick-me-up.? For me it was the confirmation of a vocation. Read More

Oh Yeah! Now I Remember Why I Missed the Islands So Much!

Reflections of a recent returnee to Pohnpei:

  • Basketball games every afternoon, not just with guys my age but with speedy, sharp-shooting 20-somethings who won?t give away anything to a geezer.? If you are lucky enough to have one of them on your team, you might win a game or two.? But even without them, you?re playing with old friends.? Afterwards, the return home with shirt sweat-soaked and lips parched.? What a way to prepare for dinner!
  • Walking into a US Embassy reception at a local hotel and being able Read More

While I?ve Been Gone…

Next week I leave for Buffalo for a weekend with the family, centered around the wedding of a niece. After that, thankfully, it?s back to the islands to set up camp on Guam.? Just today I received an email confirming that I will be living at the cathedral rectory in downtown Hagatna (as it is now called).? I?ll be doing pastoral work on weekends, teaching a course at the seminary, and trying to take advantage of whatever opportunities come along to do useful things. A few projects have already been proposed by some?for instance, a short book to commemorate the Diocese of the Carolines.? I?m sure there will be others. The truth is that I haven?t found myself idling for too long at any stage of my life. Read More

My Hot Homecoming: Return to MIcronesia

It?s hard to explain to others how comforting it is to be uncomfortably hot.? Since I landed on Yap three days ago I?ve been sweating constantly.? What a relief!? It doesn?t hurt that I?ve had a 5 PM basketball game set up every afternoon, courtesy of Dickson Tiwelfil, the young man from Woleai who will entering the Jesuits later this summer.? I knew that I?ve been homesick, despite the wonderful people I?ve worked and recreated with in the US over the past two years, but I never reflected on how Read More

Immunization Against Microbes and the Hard Knocks of Life

Those hand sanitizers that I wrote about a few months ago are still on the credence table in our church here at Oceanside to keep parishioners safe from germs.? But there is plenty of other evidence germophobia is here in the US to stay.? Last night a woman from the parish told me that some families are taking their kids to see allergy specialists at the first sneeze during the pollen season. I wish I?d had that option years ago when my eyes watered so much with rose fever that I could barely see the book in my hand. Some parents seem to live in fear that Read More