Nan Madol pt.1 - Lucas and Veronica crossing and struggling in the rain

Six Waterfalls hike - Lucas and Regina plus other random folks

Six Waterfall Hike again, spectacular

Nan Madol pt.1 - Lucas, Veronica, Nick, Kate

More Random Photos for your enjoyment.

Classroom view number 1

Classroom view number 2

Shoes outside house along with one of the many dogs around (dinner of defender, I'm not sure)

First trip to Nan Madol in crowded CRX... Emily, Kate, Lucas (not pictured, Regina, Veronica, and Nick)

Sunset view from our front porch

Dial This Up
So the adventure of being in the boonies (I use this as a term of endearment, just for clarification) never ends. We finally got our phone hooked up which is great, so now we can call other volunteers (if they ever would get their phones hooked up) and locals if need be. With the phone line comes the ability to get onto the Internet via dial-up. This puts me back to younger years when the Internet was built for dial-up. These days though, everything seems to overwhelm us with images, both still and moving, and just huge files that take eons to download. It's good though for basics, like checking email and doing small, quick searches. I guess that is if the dial-up actually works. It seems that with so much here, you have to try at least four times to make anything actually connect and work. Then of course, it kicks you off for hangs up before you were finished. So although I am appreciative to have access to my email because of the lack of access to town, it is sometimes and often probably more frustrating than exciting.
Getting into town too has been thus far quite an adventure. With the rising cost of gas, most taxi drivers don't want to drive the 30-45 minutes up to the PATS campus where we live. So, with at least six or seven taxi companies and what seems like at least a hundred drivers, there is probably only 2 or 3 who will drive to our home. Add onto that fact that the cost is $8-10 each way and it seems that going into town will have to be on an as needed basis, if only because of the cost (I think that the waiting game for taxis, and I'm talking like waiting for 2-3 hours to get a ride that you call for, while being a test of my patience, is not that bad, in fact, it's probably a good counter-lesson to the frantic pace of life most of us experience in the states). I was seriously thinking about buying myself a little motorbike or scooter or something to be able to get around, but things like that are generally way out of my budget range even on the mainland with a steady paying job.

The pictures here are of my classroom and some other random things, not in any particular order though.

Nan Madol...view of ocean from top of wall

Me at Nan Madol

Last room standing at Nan Madol....imagine a hundred or so of these in ruins

Psychedelic Tree on way to Nan Madol

Kaproiah Waterfall

Spirits of Nan Madol
School starts this week, tomorrow actually. Things here are good, and always an adventure for sure. We spent yesterday back in Nan Madol with some of the volunteers from town (they came and spent the evening). We finally made it to the most photographed waterfall on the island. It was pretty good, although I would say that the waterfall hike that we went on weeks ago was far more exciting, more opportunity to swim in far cleaner water. Kaproiah (SP) is about a fifteen minute walk from our house and just at the base of a long river. I didn't venture into the pool below the falls although the housemate Matt jumped right in. (in the future now...no scary skin rash though!) I am wary of waterfalls that are so low and close to the coast, there are a number of villages above this fall who use the rivers for all kinds of cleaning activities (and prob. a few other things as well, the brown 'sudsyness' around rocks in the pool didn't seem to inviting to me). It is pretty amazing in its height and sight though. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea. Overall I think that this waterfall is kind of overrated, but it is a great place to spend an afternoon just reading and sitting soaking in the beauty, but not much else really.

Another view of Kaproiah

After the waterfall we walked for quite a ways in the beating down equatorial noon time sun to Nan Madol. This is the ruins of many (90 plus) islets built hundreds of years ago out of giant basalt rock logs. The one room that still stands is amazing and a testament to the accomplishments of this small Pacific culture. The complex was home to a number of ruling families before being abandoned before the Spanish arrived with their missionaries to proselytize themselves and their religion. The ruins are hard to describe and hard to imagine, but all the separate islets/islands are separated by small canals that are sometimes chock full of water (at high tide) and sometimes nearly empty (at low tide). You can wade between many of the ruined islands and some you would need a boat. It is possible to swim and snorkel here as well (and it is a scuba sight somewhere).
It is interesting to see what is probably considered the most "tourist" thing to do on the island. There are no signs directing anyone to the location and the road to the path is interesting and like many roads, dirt and full of potholes. We arrived at the entrance to the complex, which is just a family's home, where we all paid the $3 fee (in addition to the dollar you pay the family that lives up at the top of the road down to the path entrance) and made our way through jungle/mangrove swamp to the complex. The picture of the one last room that is still standing is below, but better pictures can be found on google image by searching for Nan Madol. The other picture gives an idea of what the rest of the complex looks like (although not really). This place is nearly impossible to describe, and the feeling of otherworldliness that it has is incredible. (H.P. Lovecraft used Nan Madol in his writing to describe it as one of the places that exists on the planet that contain some kind of gateway to another world, or a more dramatically inhabited ancient world)
There are many a legend and story about this place which I tend to believe and subscribe to. One mystery is how the place was constructed and how people managed to bring giant basalt rocks from the other side of the island (where they have found the quarry where the building materials came from). Brining the things there was one thing, but another was how the rooms and islets themselves were built. (I mean, you try crisscrossing two ton basalt logs on top of one another for upwards of 20 feet) Many locals tell the story (and the guidebooks) of what are called "wizards" or maybe more aptly named "magicians" who flew the stones into place. Many in our group are skeptical of this version and imagine complex systems of pulleys and lifting machines. Believe what you will is my philosophy, nothing can be proved, just conjectured at this point. Another thing about the place is the fact that it is protected and inhabited by spirits (many such sprits exist around the island, in particular around waterfalls and pools in the jungle). People are not allowed by the family/caretakers to spend the evening, and start taking visitors (what few there are) out well before the sun begins to set. There is a story of a man who spent the evening there are promptly came out the next morning mad as the hatter! Many such stories that have actually happened and are able to be proved have occurred in many of the spots where spirits protect pools and waterfalls.
All in all the trip was great and the place is spectacular to visit, i will be returning again soon, not only because it is a great place to get into the water, swim around, and snorkel as well. It seems surprising that on an island in the middle of the largest ocean in the world, there are surprisingly few places along the coast to just "get into the water". Most of the time, this would involve lugging through inches if not feet deep mud and mangrove root systems that look like something out of a film set. There were some great things to see on the walk as well and here are some pictures (above) to try and give you an idea of what it looks like around these parts.

So, I'm just going to paste all this writing into my blog. Apologies for not putting up some pictures with it. I'll get to it real soon though, am just a bit rushed in the Internet place today.
oh, and pardon any spelling irregularities, like most things spelling here is "flexible".

Salupwhuk - The Six Waterfalls Hike

During our three week orientation the group went on a six waterfall hike into the jungle. After a short car ride we arrived at the entrance and with a few Pohnpean guides and about 15 of us we started our walk. The jungle here reminds me of the pacific northwest forests but there is more giant plants, ferns, and an array of different animals (although not as many as one might imagine). We hiked for about an hour and found ourselves at the first waterfall which was welcome after wading through rivers, heavy rain, and lots of mud. I think we all had permagrins when we came around the river bend and saw the first waterfall and pool at it's base. We all jumped in for a short swim and after about 15 minutes we carried on (this was only one of six after-all). It would take a whole book to describe all of the falls and rivers, but after the first amazing fall, we hiked about 15-30 minutes in between each of the other five falls. Each time we came to another, it was more impressive than the last one. The pictures do a better job of showing how cool this journey was. Not all of the falls had pools to swim in, but about four of them did. We hiked and swam and hiked and swam then scrambled up a few muddy hills and down a number as well. There were rocks to climb up and jump off into the pools, or you could just swim against the current to the base of the falls and sit-grip-fall underneath the crashing water. The third fall was incredible in that there was a small recessed cave behind the waterfall where a few of us just sat before diving under the water and swimming underneath the fall getting ready to continue the hike. The last waterfall was by the far the most impressive in its height and sheer amount of water. It came down from the jungle into a rock cave before falling to the pool where we swam. The hike was incredible, and at times more like a rock and mud scramble. In total it took us about six hours from start to finish and coming back was welcome, but most of us will brave the hike again soon. Of all the things I have seen and done this was the most stereotypical "tropical islandish" one. I was later surprised to learn that many folks from the island have never been on the hike or seen the waterfalls. Although there are a number of folks in outer villages who have not been into the town here, Kolonia, either.

Nic and Nick
Just a bit on two of the other volunteers, Nic and Nick, one British and one American. We enjoyed what came to be called "The Nic and Nick Show", more for the clever banter between the two than the energy they gave off. A number of us decided that they should end up married, although I am sure neither is really interested, but hey, at least there are a few states that would help them out just in case they ever decided (although the Federal Government wouldn't even try to let British Nic immigrate for the wedding). It was just one thing during our orientation that kept many of our spirits up and helped us to transition (although the transition will go on for awhile). They did start to write a spectacular song one day during a shopping excursion to the bootleg named "Wall Mart" (no affiliation thankfully) which I think might be somewhat inappropriate for a public communique.

Phone
Hooking up our landline phone has been an adventure and still has yet to occur. I take it as a small example of the way that things here operate on a bureaucratic level. We filled out of application a week and half ago and still have yet to see any movement, in fact, our landline phone went from having a strange dial tone that told us that our number was disconnected to a completely dead line (this is post-application process). Little did I realize that hooking up the phone involved filling out the application, but then returning to the Telecom office each day thereafter and making sure that progress was being made. I think the application got filed away promptly after filling it out. So now we are moved out into our house which is a trek and a half to town where Telecom is located and very little access to the internet (which will be dial-up but better than no access at all, this is my spoiled American self talking). Thankfully, the folks who were in our municipality last year left us there cell phone, which is prepaid and already had minutes left over, all I had to do was buy a new battery and charger (the humidity here does a number on anything electronic).
On a side note, our house is currently having it's power paid for by the landlord and his parish (he's a deacon) and he informed us that he asked the power-utility company to come install a meter box (electricity here is pre-paid which is strange), so we're hoping that the massively crazy way that things work will facilitate us not having to pay for power for awhile. Just so you know, electricity here is 50 cents per kilowatt hour (which is expensive), for some perspective, in Guam power costs about 17 cents, not sure of how much ya'll pay, but probably is not that much, although I could be terribly mistaken. I am still not sure how the power is produced though, so that's one piece of info. i'll be interested to find out. The whole phone/power thing is one of those instances I guess where we can't have our cake and eat it too. Speaking of cake, our kitchen is a bit thrown together but very very functional. We have a handwashing sink for dishes, a conventional toaster oven to bake/broil things in and three electric plug in burners and a fridge/freezer as well. I'll be doing some fancy footwork to get some great meals cooked here, Matt has agreed to wash the dishes when/if I start cooking up a storm which is awesome.

Kosrae folks (Kate, Emily, Veronica, Nic, and Nick) and Nic, we weren't lost...

Our link to the world outside Pohnpei

Nadan, Tanja, Beth, Lucas on our way to Nahlap

Watch where you spit the Betel Nut juice friends!

Keep in mind that "here" below means Kolonia (the only real town on island, about a 30-60 minute drive depeding on your courage and speed in driving) only and for the most part...

Things easy to get here:
gross old candy bars/candy
movies of all sorts (mostly pirated via the Philippines or the grand People's Republic of China)
instant coffee
ramen noodles and KoolAid (which some younger and not locals mix, yummy)
amazing bountiful local foods fresh from the jungles and hills
horribly cheap cigarettes (1 pack of Winston's=$2.25)
the best sashimi i've ever had


Things hard to get here (if not impossible without loads of $$):
strong black coffee beans, ground or whole
any dark beer besides Guinness which only resides in one tourist trap hotel-bar
any six pack of 'cheap' beer for less than $13
dry, sometimes/usually/especially at night
pretty much anything done in what might be considered a quick or speedy fashion
fast


More interesting (I hope) things to come:
All high school staff meeting/school and associated events in general
Nahlap Island
Nan Madol
departure of half of the group we flew with to Kosrae, another island part of the FSM to the east of us
the fantastic host family
Kolonia

The Fam. Nadan and Jaymore swimming at Nett Point














Kolonia
After living in Kolonia for a few weeks, I think I was ready to depart to a more "out in the boonies" part of the island. My dual personal view of the world is torn of course, the outer municipalities are more traditional, less english is spoken, people are more active, and generally just even more laid back. Kolonia is bit more "hectic" (although I hesitate to use that word) and more a clash of cultures which I am also incredibly interested in. Of course there is a local "menwhi" (outsider/white person) bar which quickly became a bit of a home away from home, partly owned by a 'gone local' Aussie (I think their all over the pacific) and his Pohnpean wife. So there are pieces of my new home I love and parts of the place I just left which I'll miss. Getting into town without our own vehicle will quickly become a test in the ingenuity and cleverness of our wits and intelligence (both personal and social), or maybe just a test of how much we can learn Pohnpean which I am putting energy into as well. More on Kolonia to come later. There are a few pictures to hold your curiosity over.












Post Office
Small fish market
Matt, Nic, Beth, and Tanja hiding from downpour
Local License Plate

Matt


Moving in and more...

Matt and I moved into our house yesterday. The journey so far has been an experience in and of itself and the whole teaching gig has yet to even begin (minus a "potluck" after student registration today and an all high school staff meeting last week). Today was exciting as it was student registration and we were welcomed (yet again) and there was a potluck-feast where tons of food was served. Just a short note on local foods (which most eat in combo with imported food like rice, which there is beginning to be less and less for more and more money). The food here is amazing, I'm sure that not everyone would agree. But I could eat a literal ton of breadfruit cooked in about anyway you can think. I won't even begin to try and describe it (yet) in all it's complex taste and texture. The fruit on the island is spectacular as well, although not as present as one may imagine. Limes abound for sure, and a few others, but it's not really a fruit island particularly. All the land on Pohnpei is owned/occupied by some family or clan so it's a no-no to just pick stuff off a tree (which I think is a standard misconception of the pacific in general, along with all that 'white sandy beach' and sexual freedom galore crap), particularly if you can't climb with super dexterity that many folks here seem to possess (a.k.a. many have a knack for anything kinesthetic).


The house is small but amazing. The couple who lived in it last year were incredibly organized and left us with a plethora of household things which is incredible and is making our lives fairly convenient for now. We are living in the municipality (read 'kingdom' really) of Madoleinihmw (SP?). I'll leave the pronunciation up to you, it took us about a week or two to finally figure out how to shape our mouths around it, not because of any particular difficult in saying it, but maybe our lack of something... The toilet in the house is a bit iffy, but we should have it all sorted soon. The phone went from saying it was a disconnected number (yet another story about the smooth movement of bureaucracy here (and anywhere for that matter)) to a complete dead line, and we had about 22-23 hours of electricity today. I am kicking myself for not gathering more posters and such and bringing them with me, just cause it's nice doesn't mean the wall decorations are cool, plus I want to create habitat for the gecko's to live and stay under during the day. Gecko's rule the walls and ceilings which is probably not that incredible, but I have a strange fascination with lizards and amphibians in general, so I like it.



We have an incredible view from our small covered front porch. The other side of the harbor, or possibly another smaller island inside the lagoon, I have yet to establish that, is right out our front windows and door. The picture doesn't do it justice, which I will blame on a combo of my old digicam and a lack of photographic sense of the world around me. I'll work on getting a better picture up. It hasn't rained since we moved in, but it will, it always does, not really rains but dumps buckets from the sky, thrilling exciting enticing buckets of water. I love it too. We spent some time this morning hacking away with our machetes to keep the view and possibly expand it. The jungle encroaches on everything here, the road, your house, the ruins of Nan Madol (look that one up folks, it's about an hour walk from our house to the main section), and everything else. The combination of being the wettest place in the world and loads of pretty-much equatorial sunlight make for a paradise for many a different fauna which often grows to what I see as prehistoric sizes (maybe i'll take a picture with a quarter in it for scale's purpose)

Matt is off exploring to find a fish pond and swimming spot which is somehow affiliated with the agriculture program at the high school we are working at, hopefully he will return with successful news of spectacular snorkeling and swimming in warm calm ocean waters, I'm sorta counting on it. He's got a towel on his head in the picture below, that's him in a case/nutshell/sentance/picture. My prediction is smooth sailing on the housemate/roomate front considering we are possibly the two most laid back unconcerned folks on the trip (just my opinion though). He will be teaching math and myself teaching english speaking and writing, both of us to Sophomores and Juniors.

Email me with any specifics you wanna hear about. It's always easier to respond to a prompt than to write on a blank screen/paper.