Maap

Christmas was pretty uneventful.  We started our day at the prison.  I don't know exactly what I was expecting.. but what we saw wasn't it.  I was surprised to find the only jail on the island was just a chain link fence with the men inside.  They had lockers and koyengs (structures made of coconut leaves for the roof and no walls) and a little grill.  Their were a couple guards in there with them.  We were a little nervous to go, mainly because we knew Justin, Kirsten's murderer, would be there.  It made me kind of uneasy to think about meeting him.  But it wasn't that bad.  We went and sang Christmas songs, prayed with them, and left them food for Christmas.  Justin had chains around his feet and he kept his head down mostly.  They said he comes to all the meetings the church puts on in the prison.  I hope we made their Christmas a little better. 
Skipping ahead a day, really nothing else happened on Christmas, we went to Maap!  Not all of us, just Sabrina and I with a few of the freshmen.  One of the freshmen is related to one of the great chiefs of Maap so she got permission for us to all go to the beach there.  The water was really choppy but we started the day with a swim.  Then they offered to take us through the village of Maap.  I learned so much! They showed us the branch we needed to carry with us.  You might remember a couple months ago when I talked about the peace branch.  Whenever you walk though a village you must hold a branch to show that you mean no harm.  I thought you could us just any branch but they showed us the specific plant we should take it from.  The people who belong to the village use a different kind of branch.  They also said girls always had to make sure their hair was up before they walked through a village.  Pony tail, bun, or braid; really anything as long as it wasn't loose on your shoulders.  I had never heard that one before! They showed us the grave yard and the women and mens houses, sort of town meeting places.  Men can go to a womens house but women cannot go to the mens house.  In fact we have to make sure we don't stop walking as we go by a mens house.  Some of the houses were so close to the water.  I didn't even realize they were houses, they were completely open.  Almost just a roof with no walls.  They told us more about the stone money too.  I will tell you more about the stone money another time.  They took us to small bridge we all jumped off, then they knocked down some coconuts and opened them on a rock for us to drink.  When we got back to the beach they wanted to play in the sand so we buried them!  The reef looked like it was really close!  So even though the water was choppy two of the students wanted to swim towards it so we went with them.  Turned out just to be a sand bar though, the reef was still a ways out.  It also turns out that the freshmen boy who wanted to go out there knew that the whole time, "Ms. I knew their was no coral, but you were so excited, I didn't want to say anything, and I really wanted to come out here".  I didn't get to play in the snow this Christmas or go for a walk with my scarf and hat but I did play on a white sand beach with coconut trees and clear 80 degree water.  Not my usual Christmas, but I really can't complain about Christmas in the tropics :).