An Island Mom (Inemenaw Pwe Fos)

By Asher Mull

This book is titled An Island Mom, which would spell out some of the characteristics and behaviors of a real person whom she identified by her real name. “Inemenaw pwe fos” is a Chuukese phrase used here with the title to show that even though she is gone, her words, deeds, and teachings still speak as we read along. The intention of this book is to be for her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids who have only heard her name but don’t have any idea about some of her extraordinary behaviors. Some of the things that they’d hear about would be a lively reveal to them while reading this book about her. Everything that was written here is not a made-up story about this island mom. They are real stories about this island mom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664185463

Asher Mull

The author of this book had decided to convey what he believed to be the meaning of the Chuukese phrase “Inemenaw pwe fos.” He talked about what he learned from his mom to his kids, nephews, and nieces; but he is now showing in a black-and-white way how she would still talk live even though she hasn’t been around anymore.

Book preview

Story of Mulleta (Mull)

This is the story of Mulleta (Mull) that happened in the 1920s. One of his cousins called Raatior—the oldest brother of Aliwis (Always), Resepal (Raymond), Maluk (Rially), and Pwekak (Dimas)—sailed on a canoe from one of the northwestern outer islands to another one to get Mulleta to help him with his copras. It took months for Mulleta to wait for the ship to make a field trip to the islands of the northwest region for their copras. It happened one day that the ship made its field trip and started from the group of islands where Mulleta was from. After that group of islands, it came down to the islands where Mulleta was taken to with the same reasons, to buy their copras and also sell merchandise to them. When the ship reached where Mulleta was, they bought the people’s copras and also those of Raatior and Mulleta. After that, the ship continued on its trip to the western islands.

One day, Raatior decided to take Mulleta back to his family on their home island. Their travel plan was to go to the main island first, then Mull’s homeland to drop him off and go to a turtle island to get some turtles, then back to the northwest group of islands where Raatior was from. Both of them liked their travel plan. They set sail for the main island and stopped at one of the neighboring islands because the weather was so bad and the wind was not from the direction it’s supposed to be to make a good and easy sail to the main island. While they waited for the weather to get better, the ship came back from the western group of islands and rested one night at the anchorage site of the same island where Mulleta and his cousin were. Mulleta talked to his cousin, Raatior, and asked to let him go on the ship to the main island and find his own way to his homeland. For that reason, Raatior would go back to his homeland whenever the weather was getting better. Raatior didn’t agree with him. He told him that since he, Raatior, took him away from his family, he also had to take him back to his family. Mulleta just insisted on going on the ship and letting his cousin sail back to his homeland. It happened that Mulleta got on the ship to go to the main island. On their way, they got into a strong storm, and their ship sunk. Ways of communication at that time was so inadequate. People believed that the ship had sunk with the many sacks of copra and made their slow-motion dive down toward the deep floor of the ocean and rested there. The captain and his crews, along with their passengers, floated along with the strong current among rough and big waves of that storm that took them to wherever they ended up at after they had exhausted from so many attempts of fighting over their ways for survival. When the weather was getting better, Raatior sailed back to his homeland without knowing that his cousin didn’t make it back to his family. He knew about that tragic incident but only after many months—almost a year—later. That was the story of Mulleta, and that was his ending.

A Stepfather

When Kimiko’s dad died, her dad’s relative married her mom to be in place for taking care of the kids. Even though this is their stepfather, the kids didn’t consider him that way. They treated him as their real dad, and he also treated them as his own blood. Kimiko loved her stepfather since he stayed longer and worked hard for her. There was a time when Kimiko and her stepdad, Menika, went to pick breadfruit. It was a rainy day, which made the trunk of the breadfruit tree slick and slippery, very hard to grasp and to hold on to. Her dad tried many times to climb up the breadfruit tree but just couldn’t make it. They left that breadfruit tree and went back home. She cried for she loved her dad and was sad at the same time for they didn’t have something to eat that