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