Thatching

Thatching opened with the question "What are the two styles of Pohnpeian thatch?" Setting aside a student from Chuuk lagoon, two from Kapinga, one from Lamotrek, one with roots in Chuuk, and two with roots in the Mortlocks, the other 16 students were Pohnpeian. After polling around and not getting an answer, one student from Paies answered with hesitation and uncertainty in her quiet voice. She was right, and by her expression she had not been sure that was the answer. In years past the students taught me these two styles. Now the knowledge is slipping away.

Sharla, Mesenda, Elmerlynn, Joanalynn, Mary May displaying their completed dokoahs en ruk thatch panel.

In the past the spelling for weaving thatch has been communicated to me as being doakoahs. The dictionary indicates that the spelling is dokoahs. As the orthography is phonetic and sounds are consistent with spellings, the difference will likely be a pronunciation difference. English is not phonetic and holds spelling paramount over reflecting pronunciation or dialectical differences. Spelling is rigid, pronunciation is flexible. On Pohnpei pronunciation is paramount over spelling. Pronunciation is fixed for a given locality and the spelling is flexible. There is no one singular orthography, there are orthographies. 

Joana and Drewnida

Well ahead of class I retrieved a branch of Ixora casei from behind the gym. This was complicated by the downed Falcataria falcata from a storm last April. This proved to be prescient and useful as I could then carve my dok at my desk. Ketieu works very well as a dok when properly carved. Stiff, hard, and resistant to blunting. 

Berkarihna

Berkarihna named dokoahs en Ruk and dokoahs en Pohnpei, the two styles. No student attempted dokoahs en Pohnpei. 

Mesenda works with Joanalynn

Sharla removes the nohk for Mesenda. Reenomilyn at the left observes.

Ivan

Devron

Shaquille

Jordan

Joanalynn and Sharla

Teamwork helps keep the lower or backside aligned

Mary May assists Elmerlynn and Sharla, Cassandra and Reenomilyn in the background.

The weather was beautiful and having the materials at maintenance helped. The early prep of the doak worked out nicely. And while the bundle size was smaller than a decade ago, back then we threw out a lot of leaflets. The smaller bundle was good enough. The real plus this term was having five small machetes available. Those were, unexpectedly, in the faculty closet 


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