I'm a Daddy (Well, Not Really)

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: seripwelel = “newborn baby”

I am officially not sick anymore – hurrah! Apparently all of this sunshine is agreeing with me. It’s been a busy week, as it appears all of my weeks are going to be from now on. I thought it would be a good idea to give all of my three classes the same basic syllabus, so that I won’t get lost switching between them, but I am now realizing this means I will routinely have to grade about a hundred exams all at once every weekend. I am slowly diminishing the pile of grading I built up while I was under the weather, but not quite as fast as I am having to add things to it.

I am definitely starting to feel like I am boring my students, but I’m not sure what to do about it. I have a lot of material to get through in the next fifteen weeks or so, and I can’t afford to do many “fun days”. I also feel like the only way I can speed up is by giving them the sort of math education they’ve already had – that is, telling them how to do things without the why. Then again, its very hard to teach them anything abstract when the only questions they will answer are of the “what’s six times nine?” variety, and even then at most half of them will speak up. The learning process continues for both of us.

To get a little variety and a different perspective in my life, I have started auditing the Basic Japanese class at COM which meets twice a week. The scene is pretty interesting – our teacher is an excitable, wafer-thin Japanese woman who addresses a classroom full of dark-skinned Micronesians (with the women in flowery skirts and bearing quarters stuck in their earlobes – no clue why – and the men, sporting the all-pervasive rat-tail, decked out in their version of hip-hop regalia) and, finally, me. In addition to my desire to learn the language, I also wanted to see how another teacher manages her classroom, and what it feels like to be amongst the students.

The first class I went to was on Niare (Tuesday). I felt a bit out of place because I missed the first three meetings, during which time they had apparently learned all of those useful little phrases like “good evening” and “thank you very much”. I didn’t help that I had to grade papers during class, and when it came time to work with a partner I was placed with an obviously disinterested girl with the thickest upper-lip hair I have ever seen on a woman, who spent most of the time we were supposed to be conversing lazily flipping through her notebook.

That day, we learned how to count to ten and how to ask questions like “How many people are there?”. We also learned a Japanese version of “ten little indians”:

    hitori, futari, sannin imasu
    yonnin, gonin, rokunin imasu
    shichinin, hachinin, kyunin imasu
    juunin no-indian boys

I was startled when the other students managed to sing this little ditty in near-perfect harmony. Micronesians love to sing, and their highly musical church services can often be heard for several blocks around.

A word on the format of this class – the Basic Japanese course at COM Pohnpei campus is part of the HTM program, or Hospitality and Tourism Management. Although the national campus in Palikir offers Associate’s degrees, our campus only offers certificate programs in various trades like accounting, cabinet making, air conditioning repair, and of course tourism – we pass the students seeking an AS, AA or AAS on to Palikir.

Because the Japanese course is run under the auspices of HTM, it is geared towards students with interests in the service industry who may encounter Japanese-speaking tourists. Accordingly, much of the speech we are learning is highly formalized and respectful – Japanese has many distinctions between honorific and non-honorific vocabulary, a legacy of Japan’s long-enduring class structure. For example, we learned to ask someone’s name with the lengthy phrase “Osore iri masu ga, o-namae o o’negai shimasu?” which translates roughly as “I’m afraid to do so, but may I humbly ask for your most honored name?” Of course, in a less formal setting, the phrase “O-namae nan desu ka?” is perfectly acceptable.

The second day, Niepeng (Thursday – do I have to keep translating those?), was a little more fun. We spent most of the time working on demonstratives (“this”, “that” and so on) – like Pohnpeian, Japanese distinguishes between locations near the listener (so-) and locations far from both speaker and listener (a-), while English uses the single word “that” for both. This time, I was paired with an energetic man who was an absolute delight as a partner. When we were given cards for word substitution exercises (“Where is the ____?” with the blank filled in by the words on the cards) we would always blow through our entire stack in no time and be forced to recycle the cards.

I am also studying Japanese from some books I ordered on Amazon (which only took a week to get here) – one is on basic Japanese grammar, while the other two cover hiragana and katakana respectively. The language has a fairly simple, though not always intuitive, structure – it is far closer to Pohnpeian than English is. The hardest part for me is that the verb always comes at the end, so that a simple sentence like “Denwa wa kore desu.” translates word-for-word as “telephone (topic marker) here is” and means “The telephone is here.”

There has been another really exciting development this week – I would have talked about it first, but then you never would have read through that linguistic polemic. On Niepeng, Meghan came in to tell me that she had called our host family, and our sister Tanya had given birth. She wasn’t supposed to be due until September 11th, so this was a little unexpected and we were both really excited to see the baby, so Meghan and I decided to meet up at the Spanish wall that night and head over to the old house in Ohmine.

I am pleased to announce that Leonard Brian Doses entered the world on August 26th at around nine in the morning, weighing seven pounds and three ounces. That middle name is not a coincidence – I had joked with Tanya before that she should name the baby after me if it was a boy, and I guess she decided it was a good idea at least for a middle name. I’m going to call him “Li’l B” since that was the nickname my old friend Ben gave me, and it matches his initials :)

Poor Tanya, who is only sixteen, had to undergo twenty-four hours of labor, and she is still not walking straight, but after watching this video I think you will definitely agree it was worth it. By the way, peren means happy.

After visiting with little Leonard for a while, we all stayed for a bit and colored with the kids before heading home. Before we left, Floid made me promise to come visit him the next day and help with some math homework. I was beaming from ear to ear all the way back – I’ve never been a namesake before, and I kept thinking about how this means I will, at least symbolically, be staying on Pohnpei much longer after my year is up.

The next day, I kept my promise to Floid and went back to Ohmine. As I said last time, I’ve been meaning to spend more time there anyway. When I came down the street, Floid spotted me and shouted in excitement, at which point all the other kids (who were playing in the yard after school) came tearing around the corner to say hi. It was a heart-warming sight, and a little hilarious since two of the boys were as usual naked. Floid and I reviewed a math test he had done poorly on, and I was happy with the half-hour or so of good focus I got out of him considering we were in a highly-distracting environment. In the end, Kathy handed me a little Tupperware container of yams (which taste like buttery mashed potatoes). It was a very fun evening.

Today is Rahnkaulop, and I am sitting in my office typing this after a boring and unproductive day, spent making Japanese flash cards and listening to books on tape. Old habits die hard. To break up the monotony, I am going down to Kitti with the family tomorrow – they’re going to church, and I’m going to visit Beth and Nick. I haven’t seen their place since it was made ready for them to move in – the last time I saw it, it was mostly spider webs. Look for the pictures.

I am also starting to plan for a trip to the Phillipines for Christmas – Evelyn invited me to stay with her family at an apartment in Manila or their house in one of the outer provinces. I am really excited about the idea of staying in a city with 14 million people after living in a country with a hundredth as many. They also have a mall, the Mall of Asia, which is the fifth largest in the world. Apparently, Phillipinos love to shop and they have a massive number of cheap Chinese imports flooding the market.

To help pay for the plane ticket or any expenses I’ll have there, I’m going to start tutoring at night for the Talent Search Program here at COM. They pay something like $10 an hour, and it could be as many as two hours every weeknight – best case scenario, that could double my income, and even if not it will still help out a lot. Wish me luck!

Life Goes On

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: keteu = “rain”

Well, it seems that once again I have let far too much time pass since posting anything here. I hope mom hasn’t begun calling the National Guard – though I’m still getting over my cold, I am otherwise doing fine. Mostly, I’ve just been too drained to write, and I haven’t had much to write about. Anyway, here goes…

I hear that everyone had a bit of a touchy time last week with Hurricane Fay, and I hope you’re all alright. I realize I haven’t said much about the weather here – they say that the island has only two seasons: the rainy season, and the rainier season. We haven’t entered the latter yet, although I believe it starts soon, and I’ve heard horror stories about nonstop rain for days at a time. At the moment, the rain is frequent but always light – you might say that it rains kittens and puppies. Sometimes it will shower for only a few minutes at a time, sometimes it will fall on only one side of a street … but eventually, it falls everywhere at some time or another. Considering that the alternative is a sweltering heat, you quickly learn to love it when the sky goes grey.

Last week, the USNS Mercy, a former oil tanker converted into a hospital ship, docked at Chuuk and sent a fly-away team here to Pohnpei. This is the last leg of their four-month tour, known as Pacific Partnership 2008, which has already taken them to the Phillipines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. On Niare (Tuesday), they had set up shop in Kolonia Elementary School, which is next to COM. I remember walking past it on the way to the grocery store around ten in the morning, and seeing a couple hundred people waiting in line to get their teeth pulled or be treated for scabies, all for free without any medical insurance. Obviously, these guys are providing a much needed service and demonstrating the often unreported positive side of a well-funded military.

My classes are marching along – I finally introduced the idea of a variable to my MS96 classes, although MS95 has yet to get to negative numbers (grrroooaaan). I gave them their first test, and one of the classes (Prealgebra) had an 87% average, so I’m either doing something right or just going way too slow. I have still yet to figure these kids out, and not feeling like I know what I’m doing is at alternate times frustrating and enjoyable.

Some of my kids listen intently, never taking their eyes off me and taking careful notes, while others have begun to goof off incessantly. Today, for example, I had somebody leaving or entering the class every two or three minutes, and they kept switching seats for some reason. They also move the chairs around, disrupting the nice little grid by pushing the back row all the way to the wall and grouping together in isolated little groups.

Of course, they almost never answer my questions – Micronesian culture is very collectivist, and people are reluctant to do anything seen as standing out from the group. In general, they will only speak up for simple queries (like “three times seven”) where they can be sure that a large number of their fellows will arrive at the same answer. Questions which require a more phrased answer or some kind of critical thinking receive little more than crickets.

Of course, losing my voice last week didn’t help much. I had to cancel one class on Niepeng (Thursday), but I forced myself to make it through the others, and this has slowed my recovery. When I’m not teaching, I’m often too tired to do any of my grading, so it has built up a bit. Nonetheless, I am keeping in good spirits despite these setbacks, and I am looking forward to getting out of the learning phase.

When I haven’t been teaching in the last few days, I’ve begun pouring myself into the study of Japanese. I ordered a couple books from Amazon, and while I wait for them to arrive I’ve been researching the language on Wikipedia and making flashcards. I want to learn to read and write the language as well, and this is going to prove very difficult.

For one, written Japanese incorporates a composite of two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), borrowed Chinese ideograms known as kanji, and letters and numbers taken from the Latin alphabet – there are complex rules governing which to use in any situation. The syllabaries contain a distinct symbol for each of the hundred or so syllables in Japanese, and are used to spell out words phonetically. There are, on the other hand, more than 50,000 kanji symbols, with each typically standing for a single word.

The Japanese Ministry of Education has helpfully organized these kanji into several nested lists, with the smallest being the set of 1006 kyōiku kanji which are taught to Japanese students in the first eight grades – it is said that you can read most Japanese text if you know this small set. I have made flashcards beginning with these, having a computer printout of the glyph on one side and the English and Japanese translations on the other. Using them, I have already learned the 80 kanji typically taught in the first grade.


Yesterday, as I went to grab a towel from my closet, I spotted a wolf spider that had to be three or four inches across in it, which I promptly sprayed into oblivion with Raid. This is the second time this has happened – I also saw a slightly smaller one in the sink when I was shaving. Liz says she doesn't kill them because they eat mosquitos, but I haven't had any mosquito bites at home yet, and personally I'd prefer they bite me to that thing. I’ve already lost track of the cockroaches we’ve killed … nature is invading us as best it can.

Today, I sat in Namiki restaurant eating bacon and eggs and watched us win the silver in water polo. Now that is a weird sport – it’s like soccer for people that don’t want to overheat. I guess everything is coming to a close now, and I’ve barely seen any of the Olympics, but in a way I’m somewhat proud of the isolation that demonstrates. It reminds me that I am somewhere really far away, and this can be easy to forget sometimes.

Cough Cough, Hack Hack

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: soumwahu = "sick", literally "not good"

Well, I'm soumwahu - my throat started hurting on Sunday and I've been achy and tired ever since. I hope the sun and fresh air out here will help me get over quicker, because I have a lot to do this week - lessons to plan, tests to write, daily problems to grade.

On Monday, I started my new section of MS96. I now teach at 8:30, 12:30 and 2:30 on MWF and 8:30, 11:30 and 4:00 on TTh, all with two office hours a day. It's not a bad schedule, since I have plenty of time between classes to prepare, but it has cut my lunch breaks a little short.

My classes are getting in to swing ... I'm starting to remember why I love doing this so much, how great it feels to get up in front of a group of people and walk them through some big ideas. I'm still trying to get a sense of where my student's levels are at - they seem to be a bit bored by some of the review we've been doing, but one class didn't do very well on their first daily problem so who knows. I'll figure them out eventually.

Mostly, I'm just posting because I wanted to share this picture of Katie that she sent me, since it really gave me a lift today. I bought that necklace at Joy Hotel - it's carved out of an ivory nut, which grows on a local palm tree (Metroxylon amicarum, or oahs in Pohnpeian). The nuts are about the size of a softball, and you hack the outer shell off with a machete to get something that looks like a cue ball, which is suitable for carving. They had a lot of local crafts in Joy, but after looking through all of them I decided the octopus was the only thing that would do. I'm glad you like "him", sweetie.

Trip to Madolenihmw

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: tenihr = “waterfall”

Nick and Beth came up from Kitti pwong en Nialim (Friday night). Although we had planned on going out to the Karaoke bar, we ended up only going to the movies. They saw The Dark Knight … I thought about watching it again, but I made the mistake of seeing Wanted, whose only redeeming quality was some rather risqué shots of Angelina Jolie. Afterwards, we were too tired to do anything else.

The next morning, Tanja made us all raspberry pancakes … from scratch. After a couple meals of simple spaghetti, I was beginning to doubt her claims of culinary prowess, but this little feat definitely proved it. It was a good way to wake up, and considering that it would be the last meal I would have until five o’clock, I was quite glad for the treat.

Afterwards, I set out for my trip to Madolenihmw – which was easier said than done. The drive is at least an hour, and every cab company I called wanted at least $20 to take me there alone. So, I decided to try hitchhiking – I made a sign that read “Keh pahn kohla PATS men Madolenihmw?” (Are you going to PATS in Madolenihmw?) and started walking down the road waving it. Eventually, I was picked up by a taxi that was already headed out that direction, so I knew the fare would be less - he ended up charging me only $8.

The ride was pretty interesting – I was the only menwai in the car, so I knew they were talking to me whenever they used English. There were two other passengers – we dropped one off about halfway there, and for the other we had to take a half-hour diversion up and down a badly beaten-up dirt road. When I was alone with the cab driver, we started talking about where I was from and why I was here in Pohnpei. At one point, he suggested I find a Pohnpeian wife and stick around… I told him I’d think about it. :)

Eventually, we arrived at Lucas and Matt’s place – they live in a tiny house with a single bedroom and no stove, next to Ponape Agricultural & Trade School (PATS, which my driver said used to be “the best high school in the FSM”, before it was closed down). Unfortunately, due to the unexpectedly long cab ride, the four of them (Andy and Erin had arrived the night before) had already left when I got there … so, I told the cabbie to take me to Kepirohi falls to meet them.

Although Kepirohi is the most impressive of Pohnpei’s many waterfalls, you’d be hard-pressed to tell that from the decidedly understated entrance. The land it sits on, like all land in Pohnpei, is privately owned by a local family. You pass by their house (which is the usual corrugated tin affair) on the way up there, and someone steps out to accept the $3 fee for entry and points you to the narrow but well-maintained foot path.

I walked up this path for a few minutes, and soon I could hear the roar of the falls, long before I actually saw it. The path hit the river, and turned to parallel it. Soon I was stepping through more slippery river rocks, and then there it was. I had seen pictures, but I had imagined something about half as large, and was duly quite overwhelmed.


The waterfall is some 70 feet high, and almost as wide, with the raging waters tumbling over countless basalt boulders on the way down – one the left side these boulders are dry and Matt climbed up to the top on them at one point. At the bottom is a small pool which is home to some of the freshwater eels which Pohnpeians consider sacred, one of which apparently bit Matt while he was swimming. Sitting on the rocks at the edge of this pool, you are bathed in a spray of cool water from the falls and everything is drowned out by the roar – it was extremely relaxing.

After the waterfall, we walked back to Lucas and Matt’s to gather our stuff for our next outing to Nan Madol, then we started walking to Temwen (pronounced “chemwen”) island. After passing over the causeway, we came to a fork in the road and chose the path on the right. This turned out to be a mistake, as the paved road turned to dirt road, then to dirt wheel ruts and finally to thick weeds and mud. We turned back and took the other path, which was paved for most of the way.

After taking yet another wrong turn and doubling back, we finally found the road leading down to the ruins. Just as at Kepirohi, this path is owned by a family and we were required to pay one dollar each to use it. At the end of the path, we encountered the family that owns Nan Madol itself, and they charged us three more dollars. I was struck by how simply they lived, considering that they own one of Micronesia’s most important cultural treasures – although the complex of structures were large, so was the family that occupied them, and everything was very simply built and reflected their isolation from the rest of the island.

After paying, we walked through their backyard and began down the narrow path leading back to the ruins. We stepped down a walkway paved with bits of broken, dead coral, and crossed several makeshift bridges constructed from logs and plywood. Finally, we arrived on an island from which we could see the first truly identifiable structure, which was separated from us by a shallow channel of water.


The buildings of Nan Madol are constructed from basalt rocks which are cut so as to resemble logs – these are stacked in alternating directions on artificial islets to yield stone fortresses some twenty feet high in places. Once again, the pictures I had seen before had not prepared me for the size of the place, and I was also struck by another thought – these were the oldest structures I had ever seen. The area was occupied by people in the first or second century AD, the islets were constructed in the 8th or 9th century, and the buildings themselves were begun in the 12th or early 13th century. In other words, Columbus had yet to land in the Americas when they were already in use.

The complex originally covered some 170 acres and housed about a thousand people, with more than a hundred of the artificial islets spread out over the reef on the southern side of Temwen island. Today, more than half of this original area has been overtaken with jungle. The first building we saw was actually the royal mortuary of Nan Douwas, which sits at the very edge of the complex … we had walked right over most of the site without even noticing it.

Nan Madol Originally

Nan Madol Today

As we were about to wade across, we were joined by Liz, Saiyuri and Helen, who had coincidentally decided to tour the ruins as well. We knew Liz and Saiyuri from the hike in Salapwuk – Liz was a WorldTeach volunteer here four years ago, and has stayed on to work with CSP (Conservation Society of Pohnpei). Helen is a new arrival that we happened to have met the previous day on our way to the movies. We said hello, and then followed them across to the first island.

Nan Douwas itself consists of a series of nested courtyards, the innermost of which contains a royal tomb chamber. After exploring the islet thoroughly, we waded out to the reef. Some basalt walls marked the boundaries of shallow pools which were perfect for soaking in the warm Pacific waters. Off to our right was another islet in the complex, known as Kariahn, which marks the boundary of the city. To our left, we could see the reef island of Nahkapw about half a mile out – covered in palm trees and lined with sandy beaches, it was the sort of thing that would immediately come to mind when you hear “desert island”.


When we had seen enough, we all walked back to the entrance and Liz gave us a lift back to the house in Madolenihmw, where we left Matt and Lucas, and eventually all the way back to Kolonia. It was nice not to have to wait for a taxi, or to have to pay an arm and a leg. When we got back, we slipped Liz a little cash to buy coconut oil biodiesel for her car – yes, they can make a car run on coconuts.

At the apartment, the courtyard had been decked out with tables, chairs and balloons for a kid’s birthday party, to which we were immediately invited by our neighbors. The food was incredible – there was more pancit, along with a whole pig and some fish. After helping myself to some of the feast, I dashed upstairs to get bubbles and bouncy balls for the kids from the care package dad sent, which I quickly got rid of.

The party was also attended by a few of the Scottish medical students who have been doing internships here for the last few weeks. We drank a few San Miguels (a Phillipino beer) together, and I soon headed off to bed … only to discover that the power had again run out. As a result, Tanja and I had to trek down to a convenience store in Ohmine to buy CashPower cards. We have to start watching that more carefully.

As we were leaving to go run this errand, I finally got a chance to see a centipede when Tanja nearly stepped on it. There are no bees or snakes on the island, but this thing is something you really want to avoid – the bite is supposed to be incredibly painful (though not lethal) and they move very fast. The one we saw was about five inches long, but some of the kids at the party told us he had seen them two or three times bigger. Watch this awesome video or this one for an idea of how bad-ass these creatures can be.

Anyway, that was my busy day in Madolenihmw. Enjoy these videos:

Kepirohi Falls

Nan Madol

My Second Day of Teaching

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: net (pronounced like "netch") = "to buy, sell, trade or shop"

I came home last night to find Matt and Lucas sitting with Tanja in our living room. They had come into town to stock up on CashPower, and had decided to stay the night - it was good to see them, and I had a chance to discuss plans for this weekend. It looks like I will be going down to Madolenihmw tomorrow morning (Nick and Beth are coming in from Kitti tonight, and we're all going to Karaoke), and staying Saturday night in their little house. They claim to have enough bedding for everybody, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Today I gave my first real lectures, and I was even more nervous than yesterday. For my Prealgebra class, we discussed place value, rounding, addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing. I couldn't tell if I was boring them or confusing them - I've never had to teach anything that basic before. About half of them kept jumping ahead, and the rest seemed tuned out. It's like pulling teeth to get them to talk, but I knew it would take me a while to figure them out anyway. At least it wasn't a total disaster. :)

At lunch, George told me that they need me to take another MS96 class. I had mixed feelings about it - I all but begged them to give me more sections if they needed to add them, but they didn't want to do that because I'm just a volunteer. Either they bought my reasoning (I don't have a family here, or anything else to do, so why not), they've developed more faith in me since I showed them my syllabi, or they were just pushed up against the wall and had no choice. At any rate, I've lost my cushy two hour lunch breaks, but at least I feel a lot more useful. Plus, teaching two sections of the same course will help me get better at it faster.

In Elementary Algebra, we discussed the real number system. It's the usual lecture I've given at the beginning of each MAC1105 class I taught at UF, so I was on a lot more familiar ground. I even came up with a cool analogy, relating the integers to Pohnpei and the rationals to the FSM, so that I could explain how "every Pohnpeian (integer) is a Micronesian (rational), but not every Micronesian is a Pohnpeian". When it came time to talk about the reals, I drew a big map of the world and talked about how the irrational numbers like pi live in places like South America outside the FSM. I saw most of them taking notes, and a lot of people have started chiming in with answers, so I think the ship is on the right course there.

I was confirmed in this suspicion when one of my students came to talk to me in my office after class. He asked if I taught any earlier sections, since all his other classes are in the morning and he doesn't like staying so late into the afternoon. I told him about the new section they just assigned me, and also suggested he could find another MS96 instructor at an earlier time if it was a big problem... but he assured me that he liked my class and wanted to stay with me. I felt very put at ease.

My First Day of Teaching

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: sounpadahk = “teacher”

*A note on today’s PWOTD… the prefix soun- means “expert at”, while the verb padahk means “to preach”. Thus, sounpadahk translates literally as “expert at preaching” but takes on the meaning of “teacher”.

My Office at COM

Last night (pwong aio) we had Takuya over for dinner. I prepared a nice little dinner of corn, cucumbers, leftover spicy tuna rolls and farfalle with spaghetti sauce… I had some fun fancying myself an entertainer. When the appointed hour arrived, Takuya showed up with a six-pack of Bud Light. Normally, I wouldn’t touch the stuff, but in deference to our guest I drank one. Then, for some reason having nothing to do with politeness, I drank another three.

The evening was very pleasant, although the conversation was a bit limited – JICA volunteers receive only three months of English training before heading off to their two-year assignments, and Takuya still has a lot to learn. We talked about where we’d traveled, and what our plans were for teaching. Oh, and I learned a little Japanese – I now know how to count to ten (ichi, ni, san, shi or yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyu, ju) and how to give a toast when drinking (kampai). Takuya seems amenable to my Japanese-for-English tutoring trade, so hopefully I’ll be learning more soon.

After awhile, Tanja headed off to bed and Takuya and I began discussing the math we’d studied in graduate school – it turns out his emphasis is in topology as well. Eventually, I got tired myself, and had to kick him out. Talking across a language barrier can be pretty exhausting - you have to avoid complex vocabulary, idioms, and convoluted sentences with multiple clauses, all while enunciating carefully and stressing important words - and those Bud Lights were beginning to settle in.

Despite being tired, however, I didn’t find it easy to go to sleep that night. Mostly this was due to being nervous about teaching the next day, although it also may have had something to do with an autistic rooster that decided to start crowing at one o’clock in the morning. I am adding roosters to my list of animals the world no longer needs, right under those worms that always ate my cucumbers. On a curious side note, did you know that every language has a different version of the sound a rooster makes? English roosters say cock-a-doodle-doo, while Pohnpeian roosters say cock-a-roooaaach and Japanese roosters say kokekokko.

At some point in the night, I had a strange dream… in it, I was talking to someone in Japanese and inadvertently used the Pohnpeian word for two, riau, instead of ni. I guess I should take it slow with the languages – I’ve already got my heart set on being quadrilingual when I leave here. I want Takuya to teach me Japanese and the Phillipinos in my office to teach me Tagalog, along with the Pohnpeian I’m getting from everybody on the street.

Mensengo (This morning), I had to teach my first class (Prealgebra) at 8:30. I woke up early for my daily cold shower – I still hate them, but at least they’re free. Intent on looking my best, I put on my wrinkle-free slacks and a collared shirt, and shaved my upper lip with a razor. This was my first time without an electric, and I’m proud to say I didn’t require any little squares of toilet paper.

I got into the office about an hour before I had to start, just in time to print out my syllabus and make copies. When I walked into class, I greeted my students with “Kaselehlie maingko! Ia irohmwail?”, or “Hello everyone! How are you?”. I then informed them that this is about all the Pohnpeian I know, and I would be conducting the rest of the class in English.

I went through the usual first day stuff, introducing myself and the course format. I have settled on a combination of weekly homework (assigned every Monday and due the next), weekly exams (every Thursday) and daily problems (put on the board at the beginning of each lecture period, that is Monday, Wednesday and Friday). I also discussed the difference between just getting the right answer, and doing the right work, with a heavier emphasis on the latter. Then I passed out an assessment test, and while they were taking it I took pictures of everyone holding up cards with their names on them. I’m going to print the pictures out and study them, so I can avoid the awkward “hey you” phase that usually lasts a couple of weeks.


I walked home for a lunch of leftover pasta – now that I’ve figured out how to cut through the south side of campus to Daini, the trip is less than ten minutes each way. Afterwards, I walked back to COM, hung out in my office for a few hours, and then repeated the performance with my second class (Elementary Algebra) at four. They have virtually identical syllabi, to make things a little easier on me – I just have to be careful not to mix up my lectures. :)

When I finished up, the sky was beginning to darken – the sun sets here between 6:30 and 6:45 all year long. I walked home to drop off a few things, and decided it was time to go play Santa Claus with the package from dad that arrived a few days ago. In addition to coloring books, colored pencils, crayons, watercolors, CDs, stuffed animals and other things, it also had item #1 from my wish list of July 28th: Sousol’s Thing action figure.


After the twenty minute walk down to Ohmine, I was greeted by the sight of the house I called home for my first three weeks here. I gave the girls one of the coloring books and all the CDs, and then distributed bubbles and bouncing balls all around (I’ve been using these to bribe every neighborhood kid I see). Sousol wasn’t home, but he was in town… after a quick phone call, someone went to pick him up. When I took the toy out of my bag, he was utterly speechless – he doesn’t talk much anyway, and these kids aren’t used to getting presents so he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. I can tell it will probably never leave his side. Way to go dad!

(By the way, the MagicJack can’t connect with the server it needs, so I’m sending it back to you – I think Skype might be able to work, but I haven’t tried it. I’ll try to be on AIM more often. I’ll also include the Truth project DVDs in the package – I’ve ripped the interesting ones to my computer.)

I also had the chance to see Floid, and I gave him the Speed Racer coloring book. He loves the movie, and I also had the chance to draw him a map to my apartment and office in the front cover. We made plans to meet up next Friday, so I can figure out how we should arrange the tutoring. The family is going to prepare a dinner, and they hinted that they might even serve dog, which I’ve been dying to try – Takuya said it tastes like chicken.

After this little reunion, I walked to Joy and treated myself to a bacon cheeseburger in celebration of my first day. It was, as usual, delicious … and I still had the grin on my face from seeing all the kids again. I just sat there, reading Tolstoy (122 pages down, 1236 to go) and feeling very contented.

Tomorrow marks the end of my fourth week here in the tropics, and I’m happy to report that I have thus far escaped the scourges of traveler’s diarrhea, culture shock and homesickness. Here’s hoping the next eleven months go as well as the first one has.

By the way, Katie, your last comment really touched me … I’m glad to hear that I’m still in your thoughts, and I hope I haven’t disappointed in my report of my first day.

Sushi Night at 4-TY

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: mwahmw (pronounced like "mom") = "fish"

Before anyone complains that I’ve neglected you all for the last few days, I should tell you that I’ve been spending them lounging about in my office, reacquainting myself with Minesweeper and Space Cadet Pinball, so there hasn’t been much to report. Nonetheless, here’s the highlights.

Menseng en Rahnsarawi - that is, Sunday morning – the power went out around ten in the morning. This is my second time experiencing what happens when the little numbers on the CashPower box run down to zero point zero. Unfortunately, CashPower itself doesn’t open until one on Sundays - which would have been less unfortunate had I known that. Instead, I believed the random guy in a pickup truck who told me they usually open at ten, and as a result I sat around waiting for an hour in the tropical heat, cursing the “Pohnpeian style” of punctuality. Eventually, I decided to run some errands, and when I came back they were open. Confident the $50 I spent would last a while, I rebelliously blasted my AC for an hour once I got home.

We began checking the meter regularly and writing down the balance on a list stuck to the refrigerator. On Niehd, I was shocked to see we had used some 38 kilowatt-hours (about $19 worth of power) throughout the night, while running only our fans. It soon became clear that some other culprit was at fault, and the only reasonable suspect was the blasted water heater – the fridge barely costs $2 a day to run. I will never figure out how, when the temperature is a constant 85 degrees, it can cost an arm and a leg to heat something, and be virtually free to freeze something … but that’s how it is. So much for the tantalizing dream that was hot showers. Fortunately, since making this discovery and turning the heater off at the breaker, we have been using about $4 a day – at that rate, our power bills will be 20% of our monthly income, which is doable.

In a further attempt to conserve power, I have been going in to my office at COM just to sit in the air conditioning and charge my laptop. This has resulted in some marathon sessions of Solitaire, interrupted from time to time with real work (like typing my syllabi or glancing through my textbooks) when I get really bored.

I’ve also been getting to know my coworkers. Next to me sits Evelyn Tadena, who as I’ve mentioned before is the reason I was chosen for COM. The other day she showed me a picture on her computer of her brother, the one who works at ICBR… I’ve given up attempting to explain how big of a place UF is, and now I just nod and say, “I think he looks a little familiar.” It seems to make her happy.

Across from me is my department head, George Mangonon. He’s an awesome boss, and his only flaw may be that he’s a little too nice – I’m getting tired of being asked how I’m doing or if I need something every time I walk in the door. There’s also Emma, who teaches science and brings in her little girl a lot. Oh, and I finally met Takuya Sunohara, the JICA volunteer who will be teaching math as well – I was excited to see that his English is pretty poor, which means I can trade with him for some Japanese lessons. I invited him over for dinner tonight, and I think I’ll bring it up then.

Pwong en Niehd(Monday night), I finally finished Me Talk Pretty One Day, and I accordingly began looking for my next book to tackle. I tried to start Cormac McCarthy’s The Road again, but I just can’t take a writer seriously when he can’t seem to find either the comma or quotation marks keys on his computer. I finally settled on Tanja’s brand new copy of War and Peace - after all, if I can’t read it when I don’t have cable, when will I ever? At present, I’ve got 65 pages down and only 1493 to go.

On Niare, I realized I’ve been slipping into too much of a routine lately. I had chalked it up to moving, but now that excuse is fading fast and it’s time to start forcing myself to do new and different things. Hence, I set myself to the task of learning to make sushi. I figured that if I’m going to live in the land of cheap sashimi, I ought to be able to get my hands on a decent spicy tuna roll one way or another, and nobody around here seems up to it.

After looking up some instructions on the internet, I began pounding the pavement all over Kolonia looking for the various ingredients I would need. I started at Yoshie, which had just about everything except the bamboo mat you need for the actual rolling. The cheapest bag of sushi rice they had was twenty pounds, so I guess I’ll be doing this plenty of times.

I finally found the mat at INS, near where we used to live – it was good to be back in the old neighborhood, and one kid even recognized me and stopped for a high five and fist bump. Afterwards, I headed over to the fish market near the airport causeway. I found out later there’s one closer to home, but what the hell – I needed the exercise.

I should note here that “fish market” is maybe not the best word to apply to a couple of plastic tables laden with a few yellow fin carcasses and a plastic cooler full of reef fish. Still, at $1.80 a pound for tuna so fresh it practically has a pulse, I’m not complaining. The only problem is that they won’t actually sell you a pound, but rather whatever manageable chunk they can manage to hack the beast into. Thus, I ended up walking home with a four pound plastic shopping bag containing half the tail, including the signature yellow fin.


Now, anyone who’s known me long enough will tell you that I’m not afraid to try insane things when I cook, though my abilities usually fall far short of my aspirations. However, I have to say that this little experiment went off quite well. I started by cooking and seasoning the rice, a process which real sushi chefs in training spend up to three years perfecting. I think I used either too much vinegar or too much sugar, but at least it was sticky and that’s the important part.

Then I started hacking up the tuna, which fortunately cuts like butter and has large meaty sections which are easily identifiable, even to those not versed in ichthyian anatomy. I put some of the pieces in a bowl and mashed them up with mayonnaise, kimchi base, and wasabi. The prep work done, it was now time to get rolling.

My first attempt at it was a pretty dismal failure – I only used half a sheet of nori, and I overstuffed the rolls so they burst open when I tried to cut them. On the second try, I used a whole sheet and let the finished roll sit in the fridge a bit to stiffen up before cutting it, and this definitely did the trick. Before long, I had made two spicy tuna rolls and two with plain tuna and cucumber sticks.




Knowing that this was way too much to eat with just the two of us, Tanja and I invited Andy and Erin to join us for dinner. I was pleased to see that my ad hoc creations were in fact edible; despite the fact that the tangy rice clearly overpowered the fish, the plate I had piled high with bite-sized pieces was soon emptied and compliments were given all around. I was quite pleased with myself, so much so that I did all of the dishes right then and there with a huge smile on my face. I also made another three rolls with the spicy tuna I had left, which will be lunch (and probably also dinner) today.

Today, I’m in for another marathon session of minefield clearing and War and Peace reading, but tomorrow I finally get to start what I came all this way to do. This weekend, I’m going to try breaking up the monotony with a visit to Matt and Lucas down in Madolenihmw, where I will hopefully get to see Nan Madol and Kepirohi Falls. Look for the pictures and videos. :)

Video Backlog

Since I have finally managed to get on a reliable internet connection at the college, I've decided to post a few large movies that I've shot since arriving. Enjoy!

A Tour of (Some of) Pohnpei

The Six Waterfall Hike in Salapwuk

The Sokehs Ridge Hike

A New Home

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: ihmw = “home”

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in the last few days, but I’ve been pretty busy, as I’m sure you can imagine.

On Niare, our last night in the Doses house, our next-door neighbor and host brother-in-law Leto took everyone to his new bar for a sneak peak before it opened. The place is pretty nice, despite having a somewhat gaudy yellow-and-red paint job. More importantly, it has Karaoke. After my stunning but severely under-appreciated rendition of The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry, Meghan and Erin took the mic for Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. Thankfully, Leto had installed egg-cartons on the ceiling and padding on the doors, so we should still be welcome in that neighborhood.

The next day, Niesil, was moving day – and, of course, I hadn’t packed a thing. Not that it mattered, since we weren’t even able to pick up our keys until eleven o’clock. Then again, I hadn’t packed by then either. Fortunately, when Michaela called around two to say she would be there in fifteen minutes to pick us up, I was able to jam everything I own in the world into four bags and a laundry hamper, just in time. I guess I’ll never learn.

The apartment itself (4-TY Apartments, Room 203) is not bad, at least by local standards. We have a large balcony where we can hang our clothes to dry, a brand new electric oven and range, more cabinets than I can count, a beat-up leather sofa, a water heater, and air conditioners in both our rooms. There is a laundry downstairs, and the dumpster is right across the street – a regular Ritz Carlton.

Judging by the papers still taped to the refrigerator, we have assumed that the previous tenants were Mormon missionaries. There is, for example, a list of emergency supplies in the event of a 72-hour power outage or other catastrophe, and the fourth item on this list is "scriptures" - it is listed before "clean water" and "candles". You can't say they don't take it seriously.






A word about my new roommate, Tanja Manners. Her mother is Slovenian and her father is American – she was born in the UK, and grew up in the former Yugoslavia and Austria. Although she has lived in London most recently, her English is flawlessly American – she also speaks Slovenian, French, German and Italian. We are thus far getting along much better than I had expected, mostly due to our recently discovered joint love of gossip and Digiorno frozen pizza.


After I lugged my 150 pounds of luggage up the flight of stairs, Michaela took us to the old WorldTeach house to pick up little necessities that previous volunteers had left behind. We found a living room floor scattered with pots and pans, dishes, utensils, books, appliances and various other knick-knacks … I scooped up whatever I could carry and brought it back home.

The next order of business was electricity. In a way, the system is a little simpler than the one I’m used to - I didn’t have to fill out any applications or set up online bill pay – but that didn’t make it easy. Here, you prepay for electricity, like a cell phone … the problem is, you have to actually walk down to the CashPower building to get it. You tell them your meter number and give them your money, and they give you a receipt with a sixteen-digit code on it. You then punch this into the keypad next to your meter (ours is downstairs) and the display shows how many kilowatt-hours you have left. When you hit zero, the lights go out – it’s just that simple. I bought $30 worth, and I hope it lasts at least a couple of days.

We spent the rest of the night watching The Office, and retired early. I had a good night’s sleep on the 400-count sheets I had earlier bought at Yoshie, the Japanese grocery store. In fact, due to my over-eagerness with the air conditioner, I actually became too cold at several points throughout the night, and this was quite a new and unusual feeling. I won’t run the damn thing so much anymore, but just for one night it felt really good.

The next day, Niepeng, Tanja and I trudged down to Ace Hardware (the only American chain I have managed to locate here) to buy more supplies for the place. We got everything from Pyrex baking pans to pillows and, most importantly, two electric fans for each of our rooms. After catching a cab home, we spent some time unpacking and putting away our purchases, and then began decorating.

We found some tourist magazines, and I proceeded to cut the pictures out of these and tape them up – I am quite proud of my “Pohnpei Bananas” fan-shaped collage. Tanja, meanwhile, wrote the Pohnpeian words for various household items on little pieces of paper and taped these up in the appropriate places. We also started a wall for postcards, but this is pretty bare… by the way, my address is still:

Brian Boucher, c/o WorldTeach
P.O. Box 2378
Kolonia, Pohnpei
Federated States of Micronesia
96941

We spent the rest of the day eating yet another frozen pizza and playing cards. For dinner, Tanja cooked us a rather simple spaghetti which was nonetheless delicious (despite her having mistaken shallots for garlic). She seems to enjoy cooking, and I imagine I’ll be doing quite a bit of dishwashing in exchange for my meals, which suits me just fine.

On Nialem, the three-week anniversary of our arrival, I had to wake up early to attend COM’s general assembly. Most of the faculty and students had gathered in the gym for a boring series of speeches during which the entire staff was introduced. When it came my turn, my department head mispronounced my last name – then again, I sincerely doubt I will ever correctly pronounce his, so I’m not sore about it.

Afterwards, I returned home to take over the watch from Tanja, who was waiting for the maintenance man to arrive and hook up our water heater. Soon afterwards, we were joined by the volunteers from Madolenihmw and Kitti, who had moved the same day we did and were now returning to Kolonia to shop for unforeseen needs. We spent some time catching up with them, and then it was time to hit the movies - The Dark Knight finally opened here, and we were there for the first showing. Of course, this being Micronesia, the projector was broken and we had to wait half an hour while the reels were moved to another screen. The movie was nonetheless worth the $3.50 and the wait.

Following the movie, we all ate out at Island Café, where I wisely ordered the sashimi this time. We then walked to Leto’s bar for its grand opening, where we served more sashimi and corn nuts, while drinking our Budweiser and belting out everything from Girls Just Wanna Have Fun to Bohemian Rhapsody. Despite our tone-deafness, a good time was had by all – we won’t get to see the volunteers in the outer municipalities much, although they are only a $3 hour-long cab ride away, so it was nice to have a last hoorah.


Today is Rahnkaulop, and I am sitting in the air-conditioned Telecom watching the Olympics and generally doing my best to avoid any heavy lifting before the busy week ahead. I didn't get a chance to watch the opening ceremonies, so if anyone has a tape I'd appreciate it if you mailed me a copy - that's generally the only part of the games I actually enjoy watching, except maybe all the freak sports like Synchronized Kayaking.

I begin teaching on the 14th, and Tanja starts on Monday… it seems that the vacation is over, and the hard work is about to start. Wish us luck. :)

Orientation at COM Begins

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: menwai = "white person"

On Niehd, we officially began our two-week orientation period at the College of Micronesia Pohnpei State Campus, where Erin, Meghan and I will be teaching for the next year. After attending the first half of our daily Pohnpeian language lesson, we left to attend what would prove to be the usual start-of-the-year faculty meeting. It was mostly pretty boring, with the exception of the fact that I had the opportunity to meet some of the people I will be teaching with.

When the meeting let out around noon, my department head (a nice and refreshingly nerdy Phillipino named George Mangonon) showed me what will be our shared office, let me know my course schedule, and gave me my books. I am teaching MS 095 (Prealgebra) and MS 096 (Beginning Algebra) - both classes meet every day for one hour, with one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Its a light load, but that will give me plenty of time to devote myself to other projects. I want to try to put together a Pohnpeian language CD for incoming volunteers, and I'd like to get involved in the Upward Bound program here since I did it back at UF.

The group soon reassembled for a pot-luck lunch with a downright shocking amount of food, which had disappeared in an equally brief period. As usual, there was plenty of white rice (the only constant in any Pohpeian meal), chicken, pork ribs, and an amazing Phillipino noodle dish called pancit. I piled a plate high, and had an enjoyable lunch discussing the 2008 American election with one of the local faculty.

I also discovered why I had been selected for the college - apparently, several of the volunteers on this trip have the masters degree required. However, when the list was presented to then-department head Evelyn Tadena, she noticed that I went to UF; since her brother heads the ICBR genetics lab there (which I have ironically used for sequencing in the past), I was a shoe-in.

After the meal, we headed back to PICS for the rest of our WorldTeach orientation day. Since we are nearing the end of this period, we have now begun practicing all we have learned by presenting 45-minute sample lessons. The remainder of the group does its best during these practice sessions to give the teacher-to-be a sense of all the problems we are likely to encounter with classroom discipline, including students staring off into space and shouting out random or inappropriate comments. My coworkers, Erin and Meghan, each did theirs during the afternoon session.

Later that night, we had our end-of-orientation dinner at the Village. We all met at Daini Street for the usual pickup truck ride to the resort, which was thankfully open this time. When we pulled once more into the gravel driveway of the place, we were treated to the most incredible sunset I have ever seen in my entire life.

The sun was just sinking into the ocean, and it had lit the sky in various hues of purple, orange and gold. From our vantage point high on the hill, we looked out over a verdant tropical valley which tumbled into the sea hundreds of feet below. Sokehs ridge stretched out like a finger of land straining to touch the light itself. Palm trees swayed and birds quietly chirped - it was the sort of thing people spend untold sums of money just to see a tiny part of.

The dinner itself was as fantastically decadent as the view. After quesadilla appetizers, I ordered the steak and crab dinner - after all, the DoE was picking up the bill. Mangrove crabs are insanely large, and even the small half of one I was given was way too much for me to ever get through. We finished the meal with a feeling of contentment in our progress thusfar, along with soursap ice cream. Considering that the place also has hot showers and we can get rooms for the local rate of 50% off, I'm sure this will not be the last I see of the Village.

I spent the rest of the evening preparing for my practicum the next day, and slept quite well with that steak in my stomach. Today was our last language lesson with Johnny Rudolph, and we will all be sad not to be spending time with him anymore. However, we should be picking up the Peace Corps language instruction job this August (I wrote him a letter of recommendation) and I will probably sit in on some of those courses if I can.

After Johnny left, I presented my lesson. I had prepared a generic activity on graphing involving a city map and a story about free pizza delivery, and I think it went over fairly well. I had enjoyed being the "disruptive student" the day before, so I anticipated getting hit pretty hard in retaliation and managed to hold my composure. The feedback I received was generally positive, and I am definitely feeling confident to begin teaching.

Later in the day we had to return to COM for more orientation. We were given our course catalogs and shown around the campus, including the eight lecture rooms, three computer labs, and multiple machine and electronics shops. It is a small campus with few courses, but I am looking forward to the tight integration amongst the staff.

I also had the chance to decide where my cubicle would be in the office. George gave me the choice of being against a wall with no windows, or being right next to the air conditioner. That one didn't take much thought.

Tonight I have to pack because tomorrow we move into our apartments.

Sokehs Ridge Hike

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: pwehda = "Why?"

Sokehs rock is the first thing you notice when you come to Pohnpei. As we stepped onto the tarmac some two-and-a-half weeks ago, the only thing I could make out in the pitch blackness was the slowly climbing ridge which abruptly terminates in its signature 600-foot drop-off. To actually attain the summit of the rock itself requires rock-climbing skills, but you can get pretty far down the ridge on a regular hike, and that's what we did yesterday.

Once again, I seem to have gotten myself into a hike I was never physically prepared for, and survived anyway. When we arrived on Daini Street to meet Michaela and the others, I was surprised that a couple in our group decided to stay back - looking at the mostly athletic ones remaining, my stomach dropped a little, but I toughed it out.

The hike itself began with the two-mile walk to Sokehs island, after which the road abruptly turned upward and resolutely stayed that way for the rest of the trek. The first incline had me puffing, but after we turned into the switchback I new I hadn't seen anything yet. I swear the slope had to be some 40 degrees, and the "road" was mostly just loose gravel so it was hard to find purchase at times. I had to stop at least once so that my heart wouldn't explode, but fortunately made it up the rest of the way without incident.

When we arrived at the top, we were rewarded to the sight of the old WWII Japanese gun emplacements. These massive hunks of metal were supposedly dragged up that awful incline by a team of 20 Pohnpeians over the course of a year, because they kept sliding back down whenever it rained. It was well worth the climb to see this piece of history, and take pictures of ourselves climbing all over it like jackasses.

After another short incline, we were finally treated to the best view on the whole island. Atop Sokehs sits a small outpost with a cell-phone tower, and when we climbed to the roof of one of the buildings we could see everything from Kolonia to Palikir. It was humbling to observe the tiny airport runway stretching from end-to-end of one of the islands in the lagoon, where we had landed earlier this month. Off in the distance, you could just make out the thin white outline of the reef. The sight was incredibly beautiful, and we stayed up there for some time just admiring the view and our accomplishment in getting there.

And I slept like a baby when we got back. Today we will begin our orientation at COM...

Return to Nahlap

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: mwahu (pronounced like Mao) = "good"

Our farewell get-together with the Kosrae volunteers turned out to be a pretty hilarious night. Around nine o'clock that night, the four of us (Meghan, Andy, Erin and I) crammed into a taxi for the half-hour ride to the Village. This was my first time riding in a cab here, and our driver certainly gave little thought to either the speed limit or my recent dinner as he careened around the slick circle road (after stopping for some Betel nut, of course) - I noted the speedometer hitting 60 at several points. Nonetheless, we eventually turned onto a rougher gravel road, where he was forced to edge the little sedan forward at a snail's pace.

The Village itself is an absolutely beautiful, tiki-themed resort buried in the jungle near Nett (pronounced "Netch") - and that's about all I can say about it, because it was closed when we got there. Silently cursing whoever had made these plans, we got back in the cab and instructed the driver to head to the Rusty Anchor. Somebody owes me six bucks for the two rides.

Fortunately, the rest of the group eventually wound up at the Anchor as well. I spent the rest of the night drinking shots of cheap tequila and Crown, along with Heineken and some Australian beer, and learning how to play darts. A few hours later, I stumbled home for a very restful sleep, from which I would fortunately awake without too bad of a hangover.

On Nialem, we attended our language lesson as usual, and then got out early. I walked to the Joy, which I have discovered serves an amazing cheeseburger. Unfortunately, I discovered this by watching a bunch of island-hopping Mormon youths devour theirs, while picking through my rather unappetizing Oyako Donburi (chicken-and-egg bowl). Oh well, live and learn.

Afterwards, I walked to the airport to see the Kosraeans off. Watching them, laden with flower crowns and shell necklaces, hug their host families for the last time gave me a taste of a dreaded moment soon to come in my future, when I will have to leave the nest and venture out on my own. Once they left I walked home and spent the rest of the day sleeping in my room.

Today, Rahnkaulop, we returned to Nahlap resort, this time with the rest of the WorldTeach volunteers (although our host family was also there for a youth retreat, and I spent most of the day with them). Michaela picked us up in a four-seater pickup, which forced the remainder of us to pile in its tiny cab for the bumpy ride. I have included this little video to give you an idea of what its like to travel here, although I was unable to include the incredible smell of the moist, rich jungle as the wind blasts it into your nostrils. All apologies.

Unfortunately, when we got to the boat dock the tide was low, and a couple of the men had to get out of the boat and walk it through the mangrove silt at a few points. This lengthened the usually quick trip, which wouldn't have been so bad had it not been raining. In fact, the sky was an awful grey hue and our prospects for a decent day at the beach seemed poor.

Nahlap itself was double its usual size in the low tide... but portions of the reef were still deep enough to swim on, and I dove right in. Before long, the tide moved back in and the clouds moved out, and it turned out to be a very relaxing day indeed. I swam for a bit, but I spent most of the day reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris next to our host family's boombox, which was blasting Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks versions of popular songs. They love the Chipmunks, don't ask me why.

I also met a JICA volunteer there by the name of Nobu. JICA stands for Japan International Cooperation Agency, and is essentially the Japanese equivalent to the Peace Corps. Nobu has already spent a year in the Marshalls, and was visiting Pohnpei for vacation before finishing his final year. There will be another JICA volunteer teaching math with me at COM, and I am hoping he will be able to teach me some Japanese before I leave.

Tomorrow they plan to take us another crazy hike up Sokehs ridge, so I had better get home and grab some sleep. Enjoy this photo of the Dolan Pwisel Malek, which literally translates as "Chickenshit Mountain" - it is one of my favorite sites on the route between here and Kitti. The Pohnpeians have a legend about a chicken that killed a king, and then was unable to fly, so it shat out this mountain. I don't really get that one myself, but its a cute name.