I've been sort of incommunicado for awhile, so I thought I would let people know that I'm alive, that indeed, living on tropical pacific island is not all beaches and cream (neither of which can be found here), and a few other random notes...

This has to be one of the few places in the world, where you'll find the American ambassador running unaccompanied in the morning, and in the evening find yourself sitting in the same sakau market as former presidents, current governors, and senators, and college students who've come from all over Micronesia. It's a great place, unassuming, pleasant, but not without it's challenges, problems, and stresses. Ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the wildness of the price of rice and gas, and the ever reaching arm of American popular culture, things have a large and impressive affect here. All the while traditions and indigenous culture(s) reign supreme, trumping all these varied issues and powers in a world and on an island that finds itself digging in while the world head toward a ball of euphemistic shit that may soon enough hit the fan. It may feel removed, and many people may have extremely romantic notions of life in the Pacific (which may or may not be spot on), but as the world is increasingly inter-connected and dependent this place becomes different each day, some days it startles me how easy it is to witness the revolution that is taking place, economically, culturally, socially, and politically here.

For now, that's enough on the social-cultural-political-economic situation that Micronesia and in particular Pohnpei finds itself in these days... more in hopes of highlighting the everyday experience here..

I leave my coffee cup, with some old instant coffee (creamer included, thank you nestle) in my car. upon entering the mobil gas station this morning to get a cup of actual brewed coffee (folgers or miller bros., i can't place it), I find my cup crawling with ants, some drowned in a coffee-milky colored broth... Sad sad, but at least I've got a jug of water (for my radiator drinks water, a lot of water) and can give it a quick rinse. I guess, after you get used to the abundance of life here, finding ants on your food, all over your kitchen, and cockroaches scurrying at night when a light comes on (or becoming brave and ignoring the looming presence of human), and other such annoyances (bugs!)... The midwest in summer has potentially a one up on this place in terms of heat and humidity, at least here, you get a pleasant breeze of air from thousands of miles of open ocean... One can be grateful for the small things, folgers coffee, ocean breezes, and fresh fish...

Work here is good, it's been a bit of a roller coaster, for a variety of reasons I won't go into, but, watching over 11 people from varied backgrounds and experiences (can we say big brother) on a small island in the pacific can be a bit of a stress on one's health and well being. It's unfortunate when you get to be responsible for other people's actions (empathy for parent's the world over)... Oh well, it's the bane of this silly job i've taken up so I continue to roll with it. I remain undecided at this point if I will stay another year (and it depends if this WorldTeach program continues, which I think it will), but I'm leaning toward staying. One never knows. I'm thinking a decision around Christmas and New Year is in order. I keep a hope buried that I'll get one of ya'll (or a number as yet undetermined) to make the plunge toward these little islands in the North Pacific, the invitation is always open, of course, and many new friends, faces, experiences, foods, and inebriants, awaiting your arrival.

School is as crazy as ever, with classes canceled, parties going on, and buses arriving 30 minutes late every morning, along with a variety of other obstacles, things run fairly smoothly, which is often surprising, but never ceases to be entertaining or amusing. My students however are great, with only maybe four "trouble makers" (why is it that I like these kinds of kids so much? Birds of a feather perhaps...
I have about 30 students, with 24 or so making a regular appearance. I'm teaching English reading, writing, and speaking. They are pretty engaged with their schooling (they are the academic section, with the all 1700 students, read it correctly, 1700 students, at PICS, (that's Pohnpei Island Central School) divided into academic, business, and vocational "tracks", with about 16 tracks per grade level, yikes), and respectful. I'm not sure if it's the reduced teaching load or the students, or the experience that I've got under my belt already, but I'm finding it much easier this year. Things that flustered me beyond belief last year now hardly faze me now, for whatever reason, it's great. I'm still looking to find my rhythm of having class in the morning (MWF) and then the afternoon (T.Th.), for a variety of reasons we do periods 1-4 one day then reverse the schedule the next day. I get to run away from school to the air-conditioned building that houses the Pohnpei state Department of Education, to a computer ridden with viruses that freezes an average of 3 times a day, depending on what I'm trying to get it to do (side-note, I hear that its lucky to have a gecko poop on you, can anyone confirm this legend, cause if so, I just go lucky...). It's an interesting office to say the least, and a large chunk of time is spent by the employees some kind of arcade type game on their computers (which obviously don't have the level of virus infection that mine has, or they would not be able to play these games all day). At least, they have a great sense of humor here (mostly), but the kinds of things that I often get poked fun because of/in regards to are not to be repeated on such a public email, but involve not so vague references to land-clams, my status as a "vegetarian" (which is a misnomer as I regularly consume fish here, lots of fish, fried, raw, fried, raw, fried, did I mention fried), and of course the constant expression that one is incomplete without a member of the opposite gender to complete the labor divide you find in pretty much all Pohnpeian homes (i.e. they want me to have a "serepein" (ser-a-pain is girl in Pohnpeian) to wash my clothes, cook, etc. I'm certain that this place could use a bit of a sexual revolution, but it's also a learning experience about how a people may find themselves very comfortable with a division of labor by gender that many in the west would find supremely offensive, that's a whole other issue I'm not about to get into, but wanted to raise).

I sit on my balcony watching the sunset on the clouds above the rugged terrain that is the interior of this island and one of the hundreds of waterfalls (although the only one visible from my home), and finally, the neighbors dog is finding herself comfortable enough to run after my car and approach me as I come home. I'm sure it's hard to imagine what "my house" is like amidst the many ideas of what it's like here. So, lacking a functional digital camera, I'll try to paint a bit of a picture of my new abode (which may not be so humble)... About a 10 minute drive outside of town (which deserves its own description, but will not get one here), lies the niftiest little hotel and restaurant called "The Village" with a stunning view of the reef, a coral island just on the reef, and mighty Soekhs (so-kez) Rock. Unfortunately, my house is at the bottom of this same hill that offers such a stunning view, so I settle for a view of the interior mountainous greenery and waterfalls. The house itself is something that might be of interest to a student of what might be termed "fusion architecture", combining elements of traditional Pohnpeian building with more a very North American style of housing as well. Sort of Swiss Family Robinson meets The Brady Bunch or something... It's a two level house, with a large open room upstairs that serves as my bedroom and office (even though all I've got at this point is a bed and two small tables, if I had a personal hot yoga instructor it would be perfect, or perhaps if I was a modern dancer). The bedroom structure is entirely built of wood, with the balcony off the front gazing at the aforementioned waterfall (Pahn Takai, literally "above the rock", pronounced "pohn tcha-kie). Underneath the bedroom is what is best called by it's Pohnpean name, a Nahs, which as far as I know, has no equivalent, it's basically a covered "house", as almost any structure is called here "bathroom house, cook house, shower house, sleeping house, etc). But that's not the right image to conjure. It's a structure with a roof, but no walls, with a sort of raised U-shaped bench type area to sit on (no shoes allowed folks). I've also got a large outside sink (great for washing disgusting dishes with food scraps, doing laundry by hand, rinsing out sakau bottles, etc), a swinging bench, a single person hammock created out of fishing net material, and get this, surround sound speakers (complete with subwoofer) with an audio hookup, it's too bad that unlike tons of people around the world, I lack a portable digital music player (like a MP3 player or iPod)...
The kitchen (and the upstairs bathroom, there is one downstairs too) is a bit of something out of Sunset or Better Homes and Gardens magazines. It's got little actual cupboard space, but cabinets that are flush with the floor, that have either a flower or dolphin wooden carving on the doors, and some really nice tiling on the floor. It's fairly open, with windows on all sides, with, thankfully, mosquito screening to keep those little pesky ones out. I've got a gas stove (awesome!) hooked up to a large gas tank that I'm praying to the gods doesn't run out anytime in the near future, as I can only imagine the price to fill it will run me. The fridge is very modest, fairly new, and sleek, small, which is nice cause you know we electricity is pre-paid here (what a brilliant idea!), and sort of expensive (about 19 cents a kilowatt hour, what do you pay? maybe about 4-8 cents I'm guessing. Last year, we were paying almost 30 cents a kilowatt hour. With some many renewable resources around, of course we get our electricity from four large diesel gas burning generators... A sweet dinner table came with the place, and I'm using an acquired bookshelf as a pantry for dishes and such. I've even got a kitchen sink with one of those little spray-deelymabobs. It's actually a incredible smart design for a home here, very modest but also a wise layout and use of space. I've got a little utility shed outside, two street lights (one of which I may soon shoot out with a slingshot, it's way too bright), tons of local parrots around during the day chirping away, a old white coral driveway/parking lot, but alas, not one of those nifty space saving Japanese made washing machines (hence the hand washing as of late in the big outdoor sink). Ok, so a picture would be better I realize, and I'll work on getting one, there is one up on my facebook page taken a few years back from a former WorldTeach field director that lived in this house, which small, but gives you a good idea of how it's all laid out.

A few other randomized tidbits, some people are saying that there is a salt-water crocodile on the island (it's happened before), somewhere in the vicinity near my house. I went swimming with a friend yesterday, and was a bit freaked out at the prospect, probably an unreasonable fear, but one does not want to come face to face with a potentially 20 foot salt water crocodile, this is certain death (and of course, I left my "Worst Case Survival Handbook" back at mom's house in Lakewood, great)...
They will be exploding some old WWII ordinances sometime this week, some US military explosive experts arrived on the island with a body of a Pohnpeian that was killed in Afghanistan last week. Per capita, Micronesians have a hugely disproportionate rate of enlisting in the US military, and of course, death rates, this is like the 34th Micronesian person to die in the pointless battles waged by the U.S. (this is a country of about 100,000 total). After a year of electronics working, I'm discovering that indeed, this place is bad for electronics, my computer is on it's way to whatever place that dead computers go to, it's like organ failure, first the battery, next, who knows, I think the ants inside love it though. Books too, are easily destroyed, if not eaten by termites from an infest bookshelf, the sheer amount of water in the air will get to anything. Just to illustrate, leaving a piece of paper in my house, within two days, it has become so floppy from humidity that it's almost unusable. What is it about this place that can reek such destruction on a piece of paper. I'm assuming that 400 inches of rain a year might be a contributing factor.

Things I've been missing:
Family, Sweet Honey in the Rock (why didn't I bring these CD's again?), really good live music, rock shows, a choice of more than two bars and six beers, friends (I do have them here, but I miss the one's that aren't here), the feeling of a really chilly rainy dark night in the northwest (I do get cold here now, really, even though it's never below like 80 degrees F.), NPR (all things considered, this american life), fast internet (that I don't have to pay per megabyte for), the old worldteach crew (oh my hands), a daily newspaper, you-tube, tv on the internet, good pizza, pesto, good cheese (you know, I saw 8 oz. of organic valley sharp cheddar here, it was $14!) bagels and cream cheese, the eastside club tavern, snow capped mountains, a good cup of coffee (or, god-forbid, a Batdorf americano), hot water (not to shower, I'm used to the cold showers now) to do laundry with, bulk spices and food (spices are crazy expensive here, anyone down to send some cumin/coriander/red peppers/other spices regularly used in granola-person type cooking, my Moosewood cookbooks (again, why exactly I didn't think I would want these), the list goes on...

Things you might not know that you miss:
fresh drinking coconut (eat your heart out yuppie so.cal, 50 cents each, or free if I get a local to climb up a tree for me) and of course the meat, fresh squeezed coconut milk boiled with breadfruit, the freshest sashimi tuna in the world, yummy Philippino candies, the chipmunks versions of Akon's music, $3 DVD's (thank you for not having those silly copyright laws FSM), tropical waterfall swims, friendly sharks and stingrays, dog meat, ramen with koolaid (cooked and dry), day long siesta's (or a lunch from work that you aren't expected to come back from), people everywhere you go offering you food (it's more like a demand that you come and eat with them, everywhere, really), sakau en pohnpei, scuba diving in pristine tropical atoll waters, over 40 different kinds of bananas, fresh mangos, thatch roofing, drunk aussies, pro surfers, and on and on

Picture links - these are links to some fellow volunteers' pictures, some recent activities we've kept ourselves busy with...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42248032@N04/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyulm/sets/72157622182247742/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyulm/ - look for all the Pohnpei pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058712&id=32102300&ref=mf

To give you an idea of the sort of way that things work at the school. I came into my classroom yesterday to find the doors open, the windows removed and all my posters piled on the desk. The walls had been scraped somewhat, and dust and dirt was all over the desks and the floor. I guess they decided to start to prepare the room for a paint-job which is good, because it really really needed it. It would have been nice to have a little forewarning. Second day, I came in to find half of the walls and some of the ceiling painted. It really smelled and the students didn't want to have class in there (who could blame them). We did some stuff, but I generally cut my classes short, tomorrow will be much the same.

Joel and Judy kicking back in class, what's new.
Me and a student, Nathan sort of high on the paint fumes in my classroom.

This is the men's bathroom at school. It is sort of unpleasant place to go, and often there is water on the floor and strange dirtiness on the walls. The hole to the hallway is the best part though. These toilets don't flush, you use the bucket method.

Many of the classrooms (not mine) have these really odd posters on the walls, I'm not sure where they came from, but they are quite amusing. Topics include medicine (pictured), making and breaking habits, drug use, etc...
I sometimes enjoy chewing a betel nut or two. It's something that I didn't realize is so widespread in the world, not just on pacific islands, but also in the Indian subcontinent. Here is pictures the betel nuts, the lime powder that you put inside the betel nut and the lime leaf that you wrap the betel nut in. Many people put a piece of a cigarette (not pictured) in the betel nut as well, I choose to abstain from chewing the cigarette. I tried it once and very nearly threw up on the porch of our house.
Turning the camera over to Relian at Wilfred's house resulted in this shot

Day trip to Awak Pah, just a little community nahs and place for swimming. Some places have these giant PVC tubes that float that are endless entertainment to play on in the water. Andy, Beth, and Sara demonstrate how to enjoy oneself.

Fuzzy, but zoomed in shot of Ant Atoll, view from Black Coral Island

Sunset on Black Coral Island. Ant Atoll in the right hand and mid background

Getting ready for beach fun. I really like all the facial expressions in this picture. It's almost staged but not quite


Waiting for the boat to pick us up, Matt went into the mangroves to rescue the Frisbee. Little did you know, a mud puddle a foot and a half deep awaited his unsuspecting self.

We did this really awesome one night, two day trip to an island "in the lagoon" (sort of, it's actually on the reef that surrounds Pohnpei) for our "WorldTeach Mid-service Retreat". I think I can say that most of us can't wait to go back and not have to do the whole sit around and talk about our experience in an official capacity, and just sit around, talk, drink, swim and snorkel, and generally just relax and enjoy ourselves. Black Coral Island (Kehpara in Pohnpeian) is a small island that is part of a "Marine Protected Area" where fishing is restricted. The island itself is nice, nothing major, just a small little thing with a few huts and a local house (nahs) for folks to come out and enjoy a day or overnight or two. The snorkeling was probably the second most awesome that i've done here. I wrote previously here about it (I think) and swimming with a number of sizable reef sharks, a large sting ray, and a plethora of fish and some amazing coral. I'll attempt to explain in words the set up. The island itself sits on the reef around Pohnpei, so it's just a short boat ride out. There is a channel right next to Black Coral that is maybe 40 feet wide and probably about as deep. It is sort of a Olympic sized pool of sorts that washes out into the ocean, instead of concrete walls, this pool has two walls of beautiful coral on each side. We had ourselves a grand time and stayed up late into the night reminiscing and just enjoying ourselves. I did manage to get a few pictures through the process. I think these are in chronological order. I tried to get a picture of Ant Atoll, which from Black Coral is maybe a short 9-12 miles away, so fairly visible in the distance. Ant is amazing!

Picture Links

I have another round of pictures, which are always fun, but for now, I'm posting a link to some Picasa gallery's of activities that we've been taking part in recently (more or less). There some fun ones of fire juggling from last weekend in particular.. Enjoy

Championship Week - High Schools do sports competition for a week
Uht (Banana) Fest 2009 - Worldteach does a Banana Fest w/ fire juggling
More Uht Fest 2009

Random Photos

I can't recall if I put up pictures of our most recent trip on the "Six Waterfalls Hike", so here is one of our guide enjoying the last of the waterfalls.

Beth, Meghan, and Myself on Black Coral Island during our mid-service

Tyson Mudong
Matt and Sylvia open up the floor at the Christmas party

Blog Post for all

Things here are rolling along, it seems that many days are the same as the last here, no rush, no hurry, just sort of doing things as they come along. School is going well and it's crazy that we only have a few more months left until this year is up. We have a week of sports coming up, so no class, then more getting ready for the test that all high school seniors take (it can get them into the college here or not, it's in March), so that's a big focus right now. I'm still waiting on a few things to find out about next year, but I've decided to stay for another year. I miss many things from home, but I also know that things will change less than I think (for the most part) and I can wait another year before returning to the mainland, especially after seeing how fast this year is going by.

I uploaded a bunch of photos that I've taken into my facebook account, so if your on there, you can check those out. I'll have more up as soon as I can get back to some free internet. My funds have diminished here, so I'm operating on a tight budget, and just trying to be economical.

We had our WorldTeach mid-service get together a couple weekends ago. We went to a little island right on the barrier reef called "Black Coral". It's impossible to get pictures without a waterproof/underwater camera so sorry, but maybe on the next trip I'll try and snap a few. It is a tiny little place with just a few huts and a local nahs where you can hang out, and some really great snorkeling. Imagine a 40' deep olympic swimming pool that is teeming with coral and fish and sharks and rays on either side of the pool, and maybe that will give you a picture of the snorkeling. It's just a small channel from the lagoon to the open ocean and the setup is really amazing. you have to be careful though, the current there is quite frightening at times, but if you catch it on a slack tide time, you can have an hour or two of easy snorkeling. I was amazed to swim around with four quite friendly sharks, and a rather large (sting?) ray. We also did all the official type stuff for WorldTeach, but that isn't nearly as interesting, so I won't try and share...

Here, for example, is some basic pictures of the 'sakau' process. What is sakau? is something that I'm sure some folks would ask themselves. Sakau is the root of a pepper shrub, piper methysticum. It's presence looms large here on Pohnpei. I've heard a few stories about where sakau came from, including some about rats nibbling on the plant and getting a little stoned drunk and one story that shan't be repeated here, but involved the sakau coming from Kosrae in a special kind of package. Whatever the story is, or stories are as it may be, sakau is very popular here. It has a large role in traditional customs including funerals, birthdays, feasts, and weddings. These days, sakau "markets" or bars have opened up and people come to drink sakau or get takeout in bottles. Basically what happens is someone takes up the sakau plant and cleans them. A special sakau stone is used and the roots are pounded into a sort of pulp. Some stones are quite large, and all make a ringing sound when being used. There is a kind of rhythm to pounding and specific rhythms that I've heard.
Wet hibiscus bast (part of the bark) is made into a kind of mesh and the sakau is squeezed through the hibiscus. It sort of tastes spicy and bit muddy and has a slimy thick viscousness at first. Strong or good sakau will numb your tongue and lips and send a warm cozy feeling through your body. They say that sakau is stronger than alcohol, if you get really drunk on sakau, you end up kind of "playing the piano" as I like to say, that is, you get really shaky and can't walk well at all. Ill effects include not wanting to get up, feeling kinda sluggish in the morning. A lot of people like to kapopo here, which basically means to have one drink of alcohol after you drink sakau. It's like a mixing of local and U.S. custom...

Here are some pictures to illustrate the process:

Cleaning and sorting the roots

Kneading the sakau, on the rockPlacing sakau into hibiscus.
Twist and squeeze

Into the cup, then drink it.

One of my students is yearning to be outside and not in school, just an average day at Madolenihmw High School

Out student body president is pretty awesome. Here she is at the Christmas party at school making some serious style.

It's not uncommon to see hands and maybe feet hanging outside the bus to and from school. The students just pile in, it's little things like this that illustrate big differences I think between the mentality of the U.S. and here. Here is the students standing or hanging out the door as well:

School has been a bit crazy because of the bus situation here in Madolenihmw. Things break, there aren't enough buses, and things run at a different pace than I'm used to here. The school buses (or bus often) is packed with students. I took a ride one day and snapped this photo to attempt and illustrate:

An average day at work

Some Random Pictures

Happy Birthday Es.

Matt's new Canoe out on Joy Island

Some after school pool games


Me and Es...

Me and Relian

Matt my roomate bought a canoe and it was finished this last Friday, it is pictured above. We took it out to Joy Island inside the reef. It was also Es's birthday on Sunday, and there was a small celebration (aka cake and ice cream). The pictures are from the weekend. I'll have more pictures up soon, I've been taking more.

Another short but sweet sweet update

I will have more pictures posted soon, i've been working on taking more pictures, or just taking my camera along for the rides.

Life on the islands (or this one in particular) has been an incredibly interesting and varied experience. I have been here just about five months, roughly half of the school year. We are about to break for Christmas vacation (which is a break for christmas undoubtedly, but also not much of a break if you ask me. We technically have school until the 24th of December, then about a week, the have a staff party on the 3rd of January. I am not complaining about having a party to attend, but it would be nice to just sort of shut off from work for awhile. I am coming to realize that on a small island community such as this, there really isn't any shutting off. It's like trying to fool myself into thinking that I can somehow "get away" from it all, even for a day, that's an illusion. There is literally nowhere to "get away" too (ok, that's not entirely true, but without a double engine boat, a car, and tons of cash, it's nearly impossible)

A few things that I have been growing accustomed to include:
taking every opportunity to ride in the back of a pickup, particularly on nice and days, but especially when it's twilight and clear in the skies. There isn't much that can compare to driving along the edge of the island with the moon overhead and the tropical twilight air in you lungs.
learning how to take flexibility to a whole new level and also gaining an entirely different view of what a schedule means, or doesn't mean. If its raining, the schedule is adjusted, and dealing with classes and school when busses arrive after school has supposedly started, staff meetings in the middle of the day, and a plethora of other little nudges and changes to how school goes.
a total lack of resources for education. a systemic waste of resources for eduction.
roosters crowing, dogs mating, and dogs barking.
a usual pace of walking that would make even a midwest or southern pace look ridiculously speedy.


Matt bought a canoe, which is thrilling, really really thrilling. It will make the water that surrounds this place much more of a reality. Sometimes it feels like we are being mocked, its hot, we are on a pacific tropical island, and without a beach to speak of, getting into the water to just cool off, or swim, is a much bigger ordeal than one would ever imagine. so a canoe is going to rock the world that we live in.
I am working on still acquiring a car, it's coming along and I may have one in the next few days. It's been a process and a half, and often times really frustrating, but it will end well I believe, it's just a huge test of my patience and keeping my sanity. I've been a bit stir crazy as of late, add on the fact that the holidays are here and it feels strange and distant to be removed from my friends and family, all that has been familiar up until now. And it's summer in perpetuity here, and that is really really odd, I'm not used to it at all, I'm not complaining though or trying to gloat.

A bit of snapshot of the Pohnpeian language from a learner (sometimes frustrated and slow). or just my impressions, some of them

there are some letters and sounds that english uses that pohnpeian do not use, included in these is the "H" sound in english. english "T, like tea" is a pohnpeian "tch/sh" sound to me. some sounds in pohnpeian are not used in english, like a sort of "ng" sound that's not super throaty or anything, but sometimes hard to get for myself.
tangentially, when we were still in our orientation process a few months ago, our instructor, Johnny, taught a lesson that came off more like a SNL skit than anything else here so far (I think, yet), about that very letter combination and sound, "ng" "and the" "regular" "n" "sound" "in" "english". it was amusing, partly because of the amazingly awesome qualities that surround the teacher in this instance (maybe a bit smurfish, not blue at all though...is that a nice thing to say? what's the deal with the smurfs anyway, anyone have an idea?)

a few vocabularies:
hello/goodbye greating --- kaselehlia
man --- ohl woman --- lih
what's up/going on/what are you doing --- dakot, damenkewiwia, and more
ihmw --- house

Madolenihmw means "space between the houses"ish and it draws it name from the Nan Madol ruins which lay on Temwen island, about a ten minute walk from my house.

There isn't a "be verb" which throws an native english speaking brain for a loop, at least mine. It makes me realize things about language and how it shapes our thinking of the world though. english does an awful lot of describing how something "is" and how you are "being" is very important. Given my limited exposure to Pohnpeian (and lack of "formal" linguistics education, of sorts), it seems that it is more centered around where you are placed in the world than how you are being in the world. who knows though, not me, it's just an observation

So instead of searching for something, like, meaningful or something to say/write, I thought I might just give a brief update about my comings and goings.

School goes along, nearer and nearer to Christmas (which I guess officially starts Dec. 1, at least the "merry christmas's"). Classes are good, the schedule is still chaotic often, and things are still a challenge at times, but things there are well. Students are endless sorts of entertainment as well as work (like reading an endless stream of papers of a huge variety of topics with some interesting responses and phraseology). What will we do for the Christmas party one wonders...?

I've seen some pretty cool fresh water river eels as of late. Some were as large as about four feet long and as thick as my wrist and forearm that came to a sort of fishy flat back. I can get some pictures and post them soon, which I will. In a "frenzy" for some canned mackerel, they were slithering and swimming around the rocks on the shore of the river. The eel is a clan animal and sort of a sacred creature of some sorts, so most people don't eat the eels.

I've returned to Nan Madol a number of times and hopefully will again soon as well as dive there. Matt is about to get a canoe, probably sometime next week, so we'll be able to access the water a whole hell of a lot easier (it'll be really really nice) can I say that?

Thursday (thanksgiving) there was an uhm (that's a Pohnpeian rock/earthen oven) turkey, of which I did not imbibe, but I did make some gravy from the giblets. I had some canned tuna, rice, and uhm yams (local food). Saturday a number of folks (expats and volunteers) had a "traditional" thanksgiving dinner (i.e. the food, right?). We went out after that, it proved an interesting evening...

Last week we ventured into the local dance club "The Flamingo", it was late, smokey, and loud, but we all ended up dancing for a few hours. It's of course inevitable to be seen by someone who knows you or who you know (and not see them) and deal with any 'consequences' about your character that may/could arise.

I got a random package without a customs sheet or return address. It was a flat rate box, filled with things like spices, coffee, and such. Who it's from remains a mystery, any leads?