Attempt 2

So I pre-wrote my blog entry in word then moved it onto the website and began to put the pictures in and then I closed the window. In the meantime I deleted the original document. Anyways I have safely arrived back in Chuuk about 24 hours ago. I said good bye to Mae on the airplane as she was continuing to Guam then Australia then eventually PNG. As for everyone else I said goodbye to them at the airport while I felt like I was going to cry. I was leaving this huge family who I have done everything with for the past six weeks. I think they even got me sick because I am not feeling the greatest right now. I told them I would return and who knows maybe Ill jump on the flight Sunday and go back. I miss Pohnpei and all the people there very much. Since my past post I have done quite a bunch. I went diving and water skiing again and had a blast with both. I hiked up Sokehs ridge one day with and saw some of the huge guns from WWII and there is the roof of a cell phone tower building you can get on and see the rock from. A great view of part of the island and a nice
short hike as well. The day before I left I went on a bike ride around the small island of Sokehs. It was a good ride except for the dogs that would chase after us and try and bite our feet. As apart of that journey we hiked/climbed up sokehs rock. A very difficult climb where you have to balance on tree roots and use your hands quite a bit. Once you get to the rock there is a pipe which holds old electrical lines for a small tower on top of the mountain. You must use this pipe which is bolted to the rock to assist in climbing the mountain. From the top it is an awesome view of the island and of the ocean with pineapples growing wild too. That evening there was a party to celebrate my last night in Pohnpei. It was a great last day before I had to leave. Now I am here in Chuuk and its so quiet. I have one little cousin here, Morgan but not 9 plus all of their cousins. While I am here in Chuuk I am going to try and get a dive or two in. This is the worlds premier wreck diving location with I believe 40 some wrecks inside the Lagoon. If it is possible I am going to try and dive with the Odyssey which is considered the worlds best live-aboard dive boat. Anyways, so long from Chuuk and Pohnpei I miss you.

Kaselehlia

Although my trip is coming to a close my experiences by far are not. This past weekend I had a great time doing many different things. It started out with a dive at a place called Palikir Rendezvous which had the clearest water I have ever swam in. You could easily see the bottom at 35 feet. The spot was just on the outer side of the reef right before where the waves were. Being so close to the waves was neat because the movement of the waves would rock us back an forth just slightly. I was surprised that there was still that movement 20-30 feet below surface. After that we made our way to the island of Nalap. Nalap is a small resort like island where people go for the day and there are a few little huts where people may spend the weekend. We ate lunch then went out on the boat to have a try a water skiing. First i took a fall on my face, then on my back and then I balanced out my falls and stood up. I was surprised I got up so quickly but it was amazing. I think the ability to snow ski helped me out in this situation. I was able to stand up and stay up every other time I tried as well. Yesterday I had fun trying to to take some pictures driving around the small island of Sokehs trying to get some pictures of Sokehs rock. I have not yet hiked up it but that is on my list of things to do before I leave. It was nice driving around and exploring new places and even having to throw the truck in 4 wheel drive. There are so many nice things about this tropical rain forest but I miss home and I have decided not to extend my trip again. I know I will miss it a lot and the people as well. Thats okay because I can still come back some other time.

Stay Longer?

Every day I am tempted with new reasons for why I should stay longer. The most exciting reason would be for yet another trip. Another trip with Mae for three weeks to Papua New Guinea. As tempting as it sounds I am not so sure that I want to say longer but no one wants me to leave. I have been told that if I leave they will never speak to me again, so I guess I am stuck forever. There are so many places that I have not yet been to here in Pohnpei but there are a few that I am about to tell you about. Nan Madol is the ancient and very impressive ruins of Pohnpei. It is not quite on the scale of the Egyptian Pyramids but it is a massive and amazing structure. Nan Madol was constructed right on the water and is built out of huge pieces of stone carved in the shape of a log. These rocks are only found up on the mountains and no one knows how exactly these rocks got so far. In many of the islands out here there are stories of magic and witchcraft. In the story of Nan Madol there were wizards who rode on these huge stones and flew them down off the mountain and put them in place. Their is much more than the main stone structure for there is a series of canals which wind all through the area. I am not sure how old it is supposed to be but it is one amazing structure. With the ancient history there are stories on where people have come from. One of the stories is that people came from eels and the eel is a sacred creature here. If you are to kill and eel it is very bad. There is a family who handle the eels and we stopped by
to see the eels. Some of them are huge. They are not scared of these eels which are about as long as I am tall but I could not go around picking them up. As for new foods there have been a few. Its nice to just walk outside and pick any fruit you want off a tree. Well not
quite, in our yard there are guavas, star apples, coconuts, papayas, and bananas. The bananas are not like the bananas in the states, they are about half the size and also have a slightly different taste. There are also local oranges, but they are not a very orange. They are green. Although they don't look much like a Florida orange they are still very good. There are more fruits like 'German mangoes' and limes. I have also realized that the grocery stores are for the wealthy people. Many of the local people still fish for a living and eat dogs, chickens and pigs. Fruit bats are also eaten along with sea cucumbers, crabs, just about everything. Taro and breadfruit are two other foods which are eaten quite a bit. They are both starches and very bland but are apart of many meals. I just about forgot. The other night I was able to go to the meet and great party for the new US ambassador. I feel special because I have been here in Pohnpei longer than she has. I believe she used to work with the UN with something. While I was there I also meet the Vice President for the FSM. Thats it for me today. Enjoy the cool weather for me.

I have been making a mental list of the things that I miss and bother me and whatnot and I thought this is a good place to write them down. The radio is a great source of background noise while driving. In the states it is very annoying listening to the radio because you must listen to twice as many commercials to music. Out here on Pohnpei there are not commercials but the music selection truly is a mix. One minute you are listening to some recently released rap song then the next minute its some old country song from the 50's followed by some reggae. It truly is a mixture. Also coffee out here is not the greatest. Sometimes you can get some good coffee but its ruined because there is no cream only coffee mate. I really miss riding my bike as well. What else? Cold weather. What seems strange is tourist season is just beginning out here where in most places it is ending. When it gets cold everywhere else its still hot here. Year round the temperatures stay in the 80's and for me that's not always a good thing. I love the cold weather and when the coldest temperature out here is maybe 75 all I can do is dream of snow. Caroline and Richie left this afternoon to go to Ace Hardware convention things in Chicago and Denver and I told them to bring back some snow. I just had this thought, so if a toilet flushes counter clockwise north of the equator and counterclockwise to the south will a toilet flush if it is placed directly on the equator? I had to buy a watch while I was in Guam. Why? Well back home I just flip open my phone to check the time but I have no phone here. The thing is I don't miss my phone either. The grocery stores are quite different, half of the labels I cant read because they are written in some Asian language. One of the few things from the US are cigarettes and for once I have something in common with a pack of smokes. We are both from NC. Their are maybe 3-4 brands sold out here but I don't see people smoking. Tobacco is one of the things people put in their betelnut and that's why they buy it. Betelnut is much grosser than anyone who dips or chews tobacco. You take a betelnut bite the end off and bite it in half. Then you rip a section of pepper leaf off and pack it inside the nut with crushed up coral or lime. Those are the basic ingredients but then most people also pack some tobacco inside the nut then they pop in in their mouth and chew. Somehow the combination of a green nut, green leaf and white coral makes red. So people spit this red juice and its gross. You can tell people who chew because their teeth are all red and sometimes missing. Its funny on the signs that say no eating no drinking they also say no betelnut. Just one of those cultural things people do here. As for other happenings in Pohnpei mommy cat never came back and I have been milking babies multiple times a day. There are only two which are still alive and I would like at least one of them to survive. Noah had his birthday party along with his first ever sleepover and he had a blast. Lots of people went out to an island yesterday. We maybe had 35 people and returning we went outside the barrier reef and the swells were huge. Surf season is starting up out here and the waves can be 10-15 feet on a normal day this time of year. Again I must think of more things to talk about. See ya later.

Baby kitties.

So Mae's family has a cat named Coco and she sneaks out at night to see the boy cats. Well as a result Coco's tummy became swollen and would move around sometimes. Yes, Coco got knocked up and she was pregnant. Well what happened the night before last? Ok I'll tell you Coco birthed her 5 babies on top of Rich's basketball clothes in the room which I stay in, then she left. I opened the door the next morning and she bolted out and we have not seen her since. So we waited for her to come back to feed them but she hasn't. So this morning Mae and I took a tiny syringe and tried feeding them just regular milk. There is a girl here who took a 3 day old abandoned cat and helped it out so maybe I can get some advice on how to nurse baby kittens. Other news Noah is having his 4th birthday party this evening and he wants to have a sleepover NO GIRLS ALLOWED. Guess what? I'm in charge. So it will be fun of course. We went and saw one of the many many waterfalls the other day but of course I didn't take any pictures. I have been going to tennis practice a few times too. My cousin Caroline is like the elite tennis pro best ever and coaches kids some of which compete on the national level. I am running out of breath already, I don't know what else to say. On my previous posts I miss spelled some names just about all of them except Connor because he does not have island spellings and accents on his name. So the correct spellings are Taeyanna and Jourdyn.

Well it has been quite a while since I have spread the island news. Where do I start? If you were waiting on my return for one reason or another I am not coming home . . . when expected. I have changed my tickets so I arrive in North Carolina on the 27th of October. As strange as it seems my trip is shorter on return. Not counting time in airports before and after flying my trip was about 25 hours to get to Guam. I leave Guam at 6am and then arrive in Raleigh at 4pm how does a 25 hour trip turn into a 10 hour one? The international date line is the only genie that can let you go back in time and somehow make time disappear. On that note I had to talk to my uncle who lives in Chuuk about the ticket to go back and visit him. They are enjoying their 7th day without power today, and when I say enjoy I mean not enjoying. I am now back in Pohnpei and my trip to Yap and Palau is now complete, I have now been there and done that. While returning from Yap we stopped in Guam and picked up some things to bring back to Pohnpei along with meeting some new people. My record of seeing rainbows in Guam every day has now ended very depressing I know but someone must have found the pot of gold. While we were there we meet some graduate students and other marine biology people at a lecture about a study this guy did about moving corals. I understood nothing about the lecture and fortunately I was not the only one. At the end I understood that you can transplant corals to other locations but that was about it. I talked to a girl who has him as a professor and she said "even if its a topic you understand somehow he will loose you." Well one thing lead to another and we ended up eating the one homemade meal of our two week trip in Guam. The guy who made us dinner seamed a little depressed that he didn't make the pasta. He made the spaghetti sauce, the bread, the salad, the salad dressing, the ice cream, the other ice cream, he made everything, everything but the pasta. Personally if someone makes that much of an effort to make all that but not make the pasta they are slacking off. So I respectfully declined the meal because he did not put enough effort into the meal. Then I got hungry and ate it. It was delicious and I didn't even taste the box in the noodles. If you believed me about our chef not putting enough effort I was just kidding, im not that mean. While our chef/designer was cooking he put parsley stems in a little cups and I had to borrow a camera to take a picture. I could just see this perfect picture. So I took it. Around his apartment he had collected just about everything you could find on the beach. One of the coolest was beach glass, so what did I do but I went out and started collecting some beach glass too. So there are a few other interesting things about Micronesia which I have learned. Did you know the state of Yap is the largest consumer of Budwiser products per capita?
So the kids in the pictures are Tayana in the first picture. Jordan (on the right) and her friend and the second and Connor in the third. Jordan is Mae's oldest and Tayana is the second oldest. Connor is just one of their cousins that lives nearby.

Milk ppllleeaassseeee

So fresh milk is one of those things I enjoy along with other dairy products like cheese and even cream for coffee. One of those downfalls of traveling to what one may call the middle of nowhere is there are no cows. No cows, no milk, no cream, no cheese. Then that means no macaroni and cheese, pizza, ice cream, milkshakes. . .unless you want to drop lots of money. I have been told about a lady in Pohnpei who runs a store which sells fresh milk and cheese, and its not cheep. A gallon of milk flown from wherever is around 5 times as much as gas (in NC when I left) fifteen Washingtons. And a one-pound block of cheese is twenty-five hard earned dollars. With limited land availability it is hard to do lots of farming and difficult do grow many vegetables because of water. Not that there is not enough water but there is too much. Other than that the day before leaving Palau we went with a group of guys working for PCS, Palau Conservation Society who were measuring corals in a protected area in Palau. This was an area thought to have survived a major coral bleaching which also has some of the biggest corals in that area. In the pictures the stick they are using to measure is 3 meters long to give you a reference on how big these actually are. Well when we were done there I left my hiking shorts which I was using as my swimsuit in their truck. So yesterday here in Yap I went looking for a replacement swimsuit. After visiting I believe every place on the island I found 4 huge swimsuits at a dive shop a handful of kids suits in the back of a grocery store and finally I found one. There was a small clothing store filled with primarily traditional hand sewn clothes and a few other random items. And there it was, the one bathing suit in their store hand sewn by a local Pilipino lady, and gold. It had that island look with the flowers on them but they are more like roses. They are not the most attractive things but they remind me of drapes hanging in a fancy house. Every day the weather is about the same, mid 80s, partly cloudy, humid with a mid day shower and like that through most of the year. So swimming is one of those nice things to do when you have a chance to cool off and enjoy the water. So yesterday we jumped off our 4-foot balcony into the bay with was refreshing and fun at the same time. The since of community on these small islands is just amazing. Everyone really does know everyone and if they don’t know him or her they have most likely heard their name. Along with that every one is so nice and so helpful. If you need something people don’t have a problem dropping what they are doing to help out. We were in a restaurant across the street and my cousin went to use the phone to see if the lady she was meeting with was at the hotel yet and the hostess said oh no her cars not here. The man who drove us from the airport knew everyone my cousin was meeting with as well. They are just normal people not famous nor stand out figures. It’s just so nice the differences where people actually know who you are. As short of a time I have been here I even recognize people on airplanes and every time I go out recognize faces of passerby’s. In a place the size of Raleigh I could walk across town and may not even see one familiar face. I went over to the post office to mail some things and checked to see if I could mail things in Yap with stamps from Palau. I found out I cant, sure doesn’t make much since but stamps have to match with the country they are sent from. I find so many people amazed by the traveling involved in the trip but they don’t know about what I am doing while I am here. Other than my family I have been meeting with many biologists, naturalists and conservationists that are known through the country, through the pacific and through out the world. The scuba diving is not necessarily just a typical place to go scuba diving. It is written about in books, magazines, and online and people pay thousands to travel from Australia, Asia, and all the way from Europe and everywhere in between. I have meet people from Greensboro, NC, Utah, Texas, Michigan who come to dive. I talk to them and they say you are learning to dive in one of the world’s premier locations in pure amazement. I have learned so much about the history and the environment along with animals, plants, foods as well as myself. A couple times I have thought of studying marine biology in California or Hawaii because the oceans are so interesting. Time to go save the world.