Watch the Walk

Just like Americans, islanders vary when it comes to their experience with other cultures and understanding the differences between places in the world. During a class on "hospitality and hosting" recently, we were talking about what it means to be a good host in local culture and what it means to be a good guest. I asked what a good host should do, and they were a little quiet, so I primed the discussion with some questions... Should the host say hello? YES!!! Should the host give their guest something to drink? YES!!! Of course! Should the host wash the guest's feet? NO!!! (with looks of confusion-- who in their right mind would do that?) We discussed some more of what it meant to host well, then moved on to being a good guest. Should the guest bring a gift? Maybe... sometimes? If there's a new baby, you should bring a gift. What sort of gift should you bring? "A live chicken!" said Sia, as the classroom burst into laughter. Sia was surp...

Sometimes figuring out new words is easy. You point, you ask for the word, they give it to you. But sometimes it's more confusing than you think it should be. Here's a sample conversation: "What's this?" (motioning to an apple in a box) "This is _________." Ok, great. You just learned the word for apple! But wait, are you sure that's what they said? Did they give you the word for apple? You asked, wanting a word for apple, but here are some other things they might have said, based on the contextual clues you gave them: "This is a fruit." "This is food." "This is something I'm eating." "This is the apple peel." "This is a box of apples." "This is something I'm selling." At the beginning of language learning, you can end up with all sorts of vocabulary that you know how to use it in its original context, but you have no idea whether it works in other situations. Is this...

It may surprise some of you to learn this, but here on Clove Island I don't have a garbage service to conveniently carry away my trash. Instead, I sort the trash into things that can decompose/compost, things that can be reused in creative ways, and burnables. So recently I decided it was time to burn trash. Now, I kinda figure that I do a decent job of using things up and repurposing items. So there's not a lot that gets burned which I would consider salvageable. Any containers have already been gifted to someone who will use them. Notebooks have been written in on every page. But somehow my burning stuff quickly became an attraction. Three kids saw the smoke and came running over. They started rummaging through the basket of burnables, grabbing and fighting over random items. Oh dear! I quickly informed them that they had to ask permission before running off with anything, and tried to assist with equitable distribution. What things did they salvage from the burning? -...