Wuluu Men's House Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Yap's first geocache! When my friend Cacheleijne and I were going to Yap, we discovered the island didn't have a geocache yet! We made a little geo event to fix that. Our thanks to the village chief of Wuluu for granting permission for the placement of this cache at an important cultural site. Many thanks also to Mr. Theo Gumang who will take care of cache maintenance!
WULUU MEN'S HOUSE
Yap's first geocache is hidden near the Wuluu Men's House, also called a Faluw.
Faluws are large thatched buildings that served as a meeting place, living quarters, school and lodge for Yapese Men. The Men’s house is an important structure of traditional Yapese community life that the Yapese are maintaining. It is constructed only with traditional locally available materials, as is the sabin ( fish weir).
In these houses boys would learn important skills from older men and leaders would meet to discuss important issues in the village and on the island. Additionally, these buildings served as a rest stop for tired fishermen and a place to store their fishing equipment. The buildings were often (but not always) built around large stone platforms that served as outdoor meeting places. Some of these platforms have several large thin rocks sticking up from the ground. These stones were basically sitting areas (a backrest) for tired travelers or for any man that wanted to relax.
All women (with one exception) were forbidden to enter the Faluws. The one exception was the Mispil whose job was to keep the Faluw clean and cook for the men who used the house. This practice does not occur today, but it was onceconsidered an honor to be chosen for the "faluw" because only the most beautiful women would be taken there.
The view inside the Wuluu Men's House:
The geocache is not too far from the Wuluu Men's House and the cache container has room for a few small Travelbugs or Geocoins. Happy Yap caching to you all!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pybfr gb gur Bprna, haqre fbzrguvat gung'f cneg bs vg.