Mand Drama Club Performs

By Dr. Lois Englberger

An exciting premiere drama performance by 20 children of Mand Community, Madolenihmw, took place on Sunday, November 13, 2005, at a large community meeting in the Community Hall in Mand. Mr. Rohaizad Suaidi, instructor at the College of Micronesia-FSM, National Campus, led this activity, supported by the Island Food Community of Pohnpei.

Something is very special about the Mand Drama Club...it focuses on learning about the values of local island food, and making this into a fun activity!

At this event two groups performed. Twelve younger children, around 10 to 12 years old, did a song and dance skit. They took on roles of different island foods and said which they are. For example, one said "I am taro (mweiang)... and I am full of vitamins!!" In their bright yellow Mand Drama Club t-shirts, with a GO LOCAL theme, the children made a very cute appearance.

The eight other children performed "conflict scenarios" that they themselves helped to write.

Each of these involved a scene between a "parent" and a "child" and reflected some common situations with a problem relating to local foods versus imported foods.

For example...the first story unfolds with the mother/parent motioning that she is putting out the food to eat on the plate, but this is local food, and there is a bit of an outcry from the child....with the following lines:

Child: Where is the rice?
Parent: Today we are having taro.
Child: But I want rice.
Parent: You had rice yesterday.
Child: I like rice, I want to eat rice everyday!!!
Parent: We have many kinds of local food. Why do you want to eat only rice?

....then the story goes on, with the children deciding how the drama should go forward and end...So you will need to ask for a performance from the children, then you will find out what happened in the end!!

One of the Mand adults later said, "Oh we really liked that! It was really good!"

Thanks go to the New Zealand AID for their support in this project, as well as the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment. Special thanks go to Rohaizad who has been working with the children on Sunday afternoons since the beginning of September. Thanks to Kiped Albert, Douglas Nelber, and Yumiko Paul who assisted Rohaizad and thanks to the children for their enthusiastic involvement. Also, thanks to Jim Currie, who put forth the idea for IFCP to have a village theater type activity for promoting island foods. We hope that many may at some time come to one of the next exciting performances!!