Archive - February 18, 2012

A Writer Writes Heather Kaschmitter was a Youth and Community Development Volunteer on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. She was in the 69th group of PCVs to be sent to Micronesia. While there, she started a library at an elementary school and taught English part time, and all the while, she gathered stories of the island that someday she hoped to build into a book. Here is one of the stories she’ll tell. • Sakau Moon Ring by Heather Kaschmitter (Micronesia 2002–04) Disclaimer For me to write about sakau, I beg the forgiveness of the Pohnpeians, and any other culture that drinks kava.  As an American, there is no way I will ever be able to understand or appreciate the importance of this beverage completely. My understanding is that sakau was historically a sacred beverage. In the past, women were forbidden from drinking, and it is still looked down upon, even though women . . .