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.