Three Weeks Flew By

Colonia, Yap - Oct. 4th, 2009

My time in Madolenihmw has gone by in the blink of an eye. Pohnpei, Madolenihmw, PATS (the defunct Pohnpei Agriculture and Trade School where we did our training), my host family and twenty-three of my fellow volunteers will be gone from me for a year. We're onto Phase II of training. Today we meet our host families. Stayed in a hotel last night – hot shower! And now it's outrageously comfortable, temperature-wise, outside. It's about 7:45am, and I'm sitting on the balcony of my hotel room, looking out over the Colonia bay and watching the last remnants of a beautiful sunrise.
The last week in Pohnpei was an eventful one. Starting the week, we headed into Kolonia Monday and Tuesday for 'Water Safety Training Day'. We were split into two groups, one of which did the boat and life vest training while the other went to town for a brief training session, supply gathering, and some R&R. I did the boat stuff on Monday. While I can't say I feel much more prepared to behave safely in and on the water, I can say snorkling around after the official training and hanging out on the water all day was a good time.
While in Kolonia on Tuesday, I got to see Jo after the training session. We ate the sandwiches and bananas she brought for lunch and talked about our experiences in Pohnpei. Unsurprisingly for anyone who knows Jo and I, she had more insightful , meaningful and eloquent things to say than did I – a product of her stronger ability to reflect as well as greater amount of time spent in the FSM. However, I got to flex my advantage in experience when we played cribbage and took home a narrow victory – the only one to be had since before she left for Pohnpei (August 2008) and till she's able to visit me in Yap (probably not till June 2010). Oh yeah, it feels nice.
After Jo headed back to work (she's a teacher), I walked around town, picking up some needed supplies, which included a flashdrive and a hat. I realized that I really have to protect my face from the sun during the boat day, but I sure wish it was with something other than a ridiculous dark blue trucker hat, originally from Wal-Mart – don't like supporting them in any way, even when all my money goes to a local merchant that's reselling their merchandise. After that, I figured I wouldn't be able to find any other trainees interested in grabbing a beer. So I bought three cans of beer from a market (San Miguel pale pilsners out of the Philippines) and headed back to the causeway. Along the way, I ran into Ap, my fellow 25 year old trainee, and he decided to join me. We split the beers down the middle, relaxed in the shade of coconut palms and causeway breezes, drinking, talking about life and what's to come in our futures – near and distant. Neither of us has that much of an idea what's to be for the latter, but we're each stoked about the former. Ap later gifted The Perfect Storm to me, which I finished yesterday. On the first, blank page he simply wrote: “Porter- go strong bro.”
Quick aside: I'm shocked a book about a Northwestern Atlantic fishing tragedy could seem so pertinent in the Southwest Pacific. Fishing is as much a way of life in Micronesia, and more so in general terms, as it is for the people of Gloucester, Maine. Storms are storms, and they threaten people who fish for their livelihoods all over the globe.
Wednesday came and went unremarkably. Thursday, on the other hand was more eventful. We had an appreciation dinner at PATS for our host families, after a long-ass day of training. The quote of the day comes from Ap, who during our Phase I wrap up activity, said to the group of trainees: “You keep me in touch with the pulse of my soul.” A group of trainees arranged to meet up at a sakau bar in a neighboring municipality, which I tried to join but wasn't able to. Instead, I spent a short time over at Mike's family's house for a second dinner. He lived in a beautiful location, right on the water, with an amazing view of each morning's sunrise. I left before food was served to book it back to PATS in hopes of joining the sakau bar team. That didn't pan out, but I did get to hangout with Lauren and Mollie at Lauren's house. We watched Legends of the Fall – far from the best movie I've seen. I walked Mollie home, and then turned around and started the long walk to my own.
From PATS it's about a fifty minute walk to my house. Mollie's is another ten in the opposite direction. So under normal conditions it'd take me a little over an hour to get home. Well, this night it was very dark and the batteries on my flashlight failed with about 15 minutes left to go. I bought a diving flashlight, because it's waterproof and the climate in Micronesia wreaks havoc on electronics that aren't. A design feature I was unaware of is that it gets quite warm, which overheats the batteries. I'm guessing this isn't a problem underwater, but on land... So I stumbled home the last bit down the old Japanese military road. The bonus of the night was that small white mushrooms line the road somewhat regularly, and at night they glow phosphorescent green, acting as a crude set of runway lights – kept me from walking straight into a tree.
We said goodbye to the Kosrae and Pohnpei volunteers on Friday. Kosrae is east of Pohnpei and the plane goes east on Monday, Wednesday, Friday – west on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Pohnpei volunteers went to Nahlap, a picnic island near Pohnpei, for the weekend. The Palau, Yap and Chuuk volunteers hung out for a bit, had lunch and a group then headed to a swimming hole with a rope swing. It was a blast – swimming, joking, swinging, and hanging out with some local kids. The swing was impressive, but some of the kids were even better. These kids, about 13 years old, would climb the tree, scoot out onto a wobbly limb, put the bottom rope knot between their toes and proceed to do HUGE, straight-bodied back-flips, missing the opposing bank (read ROCKS) by about ten to fifteen feet.
The next day, I'm in Yap. Wild.