Over the next few days, Tony went on
several more dives and earned his C-card for open-sea diving. Having earned his C-card, he studied and
took practical lessons for higher levels of diving skills.
That Saturday, he decided to stay on land
and relax. Early that morning, he joined
a tour group headed for Kanifay Island Traditional Village. The shuttle bus picked up the tourists in
front of the Chamorro Bay Resort and drove them to a parking lot at the western
side of the island. At that point, a
guide wearing a traditional grass skirt met them and led them to a stone path
that had been built hundreds of years earlier.
Everywhere the tourists looked on both
sides of the path, they saw beautiful trees, flowers, and other plants. From time to time, the guide stopped to show
the tourists a plant and tell them something about it. Some plants were useful for natural
medicines, others were used to make clothing or pretty things to wear, or to
build things. One flower, shaped like a
flower vase, was called a pitcher plant.
The pitcher pant trapped and ate insects.
After a half hour along the stone path,
they came to the village. Kanifay Island
Traditional Village was not an actual village where people lived. It was built to show how people lived before
the Japanese had taken over the island in 1914.
All the natives in the village wore traditional clothing and did things
the traditional way.
Tony did, however, see some things that
weren’t traditional. Some of the natives
wore wristwatches. Some of the women
wore small earrings, other items of jewelry, and Western-style makeup. There were a few other non-traditional items
that you’d notice only if you were looking for them.
The pathways were set a little lower than
the rest of the land in the village.
Tony figured that this was probably to control flooding. When it rained, water would run along the
pathways without coming near the buildings.
Running along one side of the village was
an area called a stone money bank. Tony
counted nineteen stone money “coins” placed side-by-side and facing the
village. Some were only knee high; a few
so tall that a full-grown man had to stand on tiptoes to touch the tops of
them.
The stone money bank area was also the
stick dance performance area. The
performance area was about half as long, and a little less than one fourth as
wide, as a football field.
Women and girls as young as five, wearing colorful
skirts, walked to a traditional building and asked for palm tree leaves or island
flowers or other items for making things.
They took the leaves and other items to a stone-covered area, sat in a
row, and started making things from the palm leaves.
Some made the kind of baskets that both
the men and the women of Kanifay Island carry as handbags. Others used smaller leaves to make balls the
size of your hand. These balls were
useful for juggling, decorations, or just playing. Still others made strings of island flowers
for people to wear on their heads or around their necks.
Tony recognized one of the native girls as
someone he had seen asking for the actor Dash Tobey’s autograph. Tony remembered her because her smile was
bright enough to light up a room. He
said, “You were asking Dash Tobey for his autograph about a week or two ago,
weren’t you?”
She looked up from the ball she was making
and excitedly smiled, “Yes, you saw me there!
I believe I remember seeing you. Dash
Tobey wrote a really sweet note on my autograph. It’s nice to know that he’s just as nice in
real life as he is in the movies.”
“I think he is,” said Tony. “Did you know that he has a working cattle
ranch in Wyoming?”
“No, I didn’t know that!” She usually spoke with exclamation
points. Continuing to make the ball, she
added, “I’ve always pictured him as living by the sea.”
“People in that part of Wyoming usually
don’t like for rich outsiders to buy up their land and change their traditional
ways of life; but Dash Tobey did everything he could to fit in. After buying the ranch, he kept it as a
working ranch; and he lives just the way his neighbors do.”
“Hey, I really like that! I think I know how those Wyoming neighbors of
his feel. A lot of outsiders say that
we—the people of Kanifay Island—should change our traditional ways and become
more like people in the West. We do
accept some Western ways, but we also like our traditions. We like being able to do things for ourselves
instead of having to buy everything from stores. And we like being able to help our neighbors
instead of having them ask the government to take care of them.”
“And you’re not the ones who are polluting
the earth,” Tony said, repeating words that Kanifay natives have sometimes said.
“Oh, you’ve heard that,” she said
softly. She grew excited again and said,
“Does Dash Tobey ride horses and herd cattle and all that?”
“Well, cowboys have had to accept certain
modern ways, even as they hold on to their traditions. Dash rides a horse, but he also uses a
helicopter. Sometimes he uses the
helicopter to look for people who are lost in the mountains. A few times, he even found people and brought
them to safety.”
“So, he’s an action hero in real
life! I’m not surprised to hear
that.” Actually, she seemed very
surprised to hear that, because she said it with an exclamation point.
Tony turned the conversation to something
else that had been on his mind. He held
out his hand and said, “I’m Tony McCalla.”
“Cindy Pialug,” she said shaking his
hand. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
“Cindy, I’ll be here a few more weeks, and
I’d like to fit in. Do you know of a
local person who might rent me a room for a few weeks—a homestay?”
“Yes, I have a neighbor who does
that. I’ll ask him if you like. Could I give you a call?”
Tony pulled an O’Malley’s Inn brochure
from his pocket and handed it to her.
Cindy reached into her traditional, handmade palm leaf handbag and
pulled out a somewhat less traditional smart phone. She quickly keyed in the resort’s telephone
number, pressed the save button, and returned the smart phone to her
handbag. “I’ll call you when I find out
something,” she said. “Excuse me. I have to get ready for the stick dance.” She handed him one of the leaf balls she had
made. “This is for you,” she smiled
brightly.
A few minutes later, a man lead a group of
more than thirty men, women, boys, and girls along the money bank path into the
dance area. They were lined up
two-by-two, each holding bamboo sticks.
After the leader, a pair of girls around seven years old followed. From youngest to oldest, the dancers entered
the dance area.
Once they were all in the dance area, two
rows of dancers faced each other. An
elderly native woman named Agnes sat on a raised spot and began calling out the
chant that she would continue calling for all three sets of dances that would
follow. The dancers bent their knees,
ready to dance. Then each dancer touched
his or her bamboo stick against the stick of the dancer in front of him,
looking as though they were stick fighting.
As the women hit their sticks together,
they shook their hips. As the men hit
theirs together, they jumped into the air.
The dance was both graceful and exciting as the dancers moved around in
the dance area. Several times, the
dancers at each end of the dance area turned and danced toward the opposite
end, hitting their bamboo sticks together as they did so. With each set of movements like these, the
dancers kept changing their places in the dance area.
At the end of the dance, the dancers
chanted as they were led from the dance area.
All the dancers, especially Cindy, were covered with sweat because stick
dancing could be tiring.
A
few minutes later, Cindy hurriedly walked over to Tony and said, “I have to go
change. “I’ll call you tomorrow after
lunch.”
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