Fashion Faux Pas

As most of you know, I appreciate fashion and try to look as put together as possible whenever I go out in public. At home in California, looking nice was easy when I had mirrors and washers and dryers and many clothing options. In Pohnpei, it’s another story. For one, I only brought 9 shirts, 3 skirts, and 2 dresses with me, so my options are limited. Secondly, the humidity makes me sweat constantly and turns my hair into a frizz ball. And thirdly, I’ve had to hand wash all my clothing, so I often re-wear clothing to extend the time between my washes (don’t judge, it’s a lot of work to hand wash!) To prevent myself from getting bored of my clothing options and to make it less obvious that I’ve been wearing the same shirts and skirts for weeks now, I try to mix and match my outfits as often as possible. It’s definitely not how I’d prefer to be dressing and to be looking, but I’d say I’ve been doing a pretty good job so far.

The fashion in Micronesia is relatively simple, and quite comfy in my opinion. Women typically wear embroidered skirts that cover their knees and shirts that cover their shoulders. Sometimes they match, sometimes they don’t. On Sundays at church, you’ll usually see women wearing mumus, which are knee-length dresses that have very little shape to them. Not so cute, but very comfy and airy. Women’s hair is often in a bun, secured with a butterfly clip or a colorful rubber band. The men are less conservative and wear shorts and can opt out of wearing shirts if they’re not in a professional or formal setting. Everyone wears flip-flops and goes barefoot in the classroom and around the house.

The other morning as I was getting ready for PST, I put on a skirt that my host family gave me the first night I moved in with them. The skirt is pink with darker pink flowers and green leaves on it, and has a light blue stripe running around the bottom of the skirt. Back home in California I would never wear pink, but my Pancake family’s gesture was so kind, I sucked it up. Plus, the skirt is really unique, and I kinda dig it. Anyway, I paired a blue shirt with it to match the blue on the skirt. That’s about as match-y as I could get (like I said, I don’t usually wear pink and therefore didn’t bring any pink shirts to pair with it). I thought I looked pretty fashionable by Pohnpeian standards (that’s not to say their standards are lower—just different from what I’m use to!), but apparently not.

I walked out of my room and my Nohno Pancake quickly called me into another room where she and my host sister were going through piles of clothing. “Mom wants you to wear this,” my host sister Emmy said as she passed me a different purple skirt. “Wait, am I not suppose to wear this skirt more than once?” I asked. I had worn the pink skirt to church the Sunday before and was under the impression I could reuse skirts since they barely show any dirt. “Just wear this,” Emmy told me. “Okay, thank you…I have the blue dress you lent me too! Let me go get it,” I responded. When I brought the blue dress back to them, my Nohno Pancake said “No, that’s for you! Keep it.” I tried arguing that it was theirs and I couldn’t take it, but they insisted. I then told them I’d return the purple skirt to them once I had worn it and washed it, but they told me to keep that one too. 2 new skirts and 1 new dress in 5 days?! They really shouldn’t have. It was extremely generous of them, considering how expensive those skirts and dresses can be.

After thanking, I put on the purple skirt and walked back into the living room. My whole Pancake family stared at me. I knew that expression too. It’s the one my little sister, Romy, gives me back home when she doesn’t like what I’m wearing. “Do you have another shirt? An orange one or a green one?” The stitching on the purple skirt is orange and green, but the only clean shirts I had left were the blue one I was wearing and another teal one in my suitcase. “Let me go see what I can find,” I murmured as I walked back into my room for the second time to change. Just as I suspected, all of my green shirts were dirty and I didn’t bring an orange shirt with me to Micronesia. What to do, what to do...What the heck, let me go through my dirty clothes pile and see if anything somewhat matched and didn’t smell disgusting. I found a pinky-purple shirt, sniffed it, and decided it was my only option. I put it on and walked back outside.

“Mwowwwww!” my Pancake family exclaimed all together. Back home I would have never worn purple on purple. But I am glad my host family is looking out for me and making sure I don’t look completely American every time I leave their house.

Show some shoulder and thigh for me,

Rachel