First 3 Weeks

9/27/2009
Well we made it! We’ve been in Pohnpei for about 3 weeks now. The trip went fine. We had a nice layover in Honolulu. Had a great dinner in Chinatown and then went down to Waikiki beach and watched the sunset. It was really nice. We had to get up at 3:30am to get to the airport to get on our flight to FSM. Plane left at 7am on Friday morning. We were in the air for about 5 hours or so before we made the first stop in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. After about an hour there we continued on to Kwajalien, a US military base also in the Marshall’s. These were pretty crazy stops as you can’t see any land whatsoever until the plane lands. The runways are super short and are built up out of the ocean. Makes for pretty wild take-offs and landings. The next stop along the way was the first state in the FSM(Federated States of Micronesia), Kosrae. It looked really nice, more mountainous than the other stops, which were just tiny atolls. After about an hour on the ground there we reboarded the plane one last time and continued on to our final stop –Pohnpei. We had a great view of the island as the plane came in on approach and the clouds had cleared away. It’s the biggest island in the FSM, with an area of about 150sq miles and is about 15miles across. It’s very mountainous in the center and covered in jungle. At some point along the way we crossed the dateline, so it then became Saturday and we touched down around 2pm Saturday afternoon, about 10 ½ hours after we had left Hawaii.

We got off the plane and immediately started sweating! It is extremely hot and humid here! The Peace Corps staff and some of the current volunteers greeted us at the airport and we loaded up our bags on a couple trucks, boarded an old rickety school bus and headed into Kolonia, the main town on Pohnpei. On the way we experienced our first rain shower. The rain doesn’t mess around here. Supposedly it’s the 2nd rainiest spot in the world and it’s pretty much guaranteed to rain torrentially every day at some point. We arrived at our hotel, unloaded, got our room keys, and then started off right into a couple hours of orientation meetings and introductions with staff.

We stayed the first 2 nights in a hotel. It was quite nice with cable tv and AC!! We were able to get really caught up on sleep and get adjusted to things. Monday afternoon we headed out of Kolonia to head to our host families and begin training on the much more rural, opposite side of the island. It took about an hour to get there, but it was fun to see more of the island. There is basically one big road here that loops around the perimeter of the island. That afternoon we were introduced to our host family and then departed with our things to get settled into our new home.

We’re pretty fortunate I think with our house and family. We have an indoor bathroom, electricity, and a fan! We were pretty excited about that fan because it makes sleeping at night so much better. We have a pretty big family. Most nights there are 9 or 10 people sleeping here including us. We have our own room which is pretty big given we don’t have much stuff. Most of our family members speak English really well which has made the transition easier and also for some good conversation. We’ve eaten a lot of fish. Mostly smaller reef fish, but also a lot of fresh tuna and crab. Big crabs! Like the size of a football and they’re $2.50 each! We also eat a lot of rice, hot dogs, breadfruit, ramen, and pancakes. It’s really an interesting blend of foods here. Definitely missing fresh fruits and vegetables, though. Some things we’re really liking, others, not so much.

We’ve just finished what Peace Corps calls phase 1 training. 3 weeks of basic stuff with everyone here, 30 of us in all. This weekend everybody left to go to the state that they will be assigned to for phase 2 training. Our permanent site is here on Pohnpei, so we’ll be staying here. There are 10 of us staying in Pohnpei state, 3 went to Kosrae, 4 to Chuuk, 6 to Yap, and 7 to Palau. Now we have 6 more weeks of training with about half the time being spent on language training and the rest split up between technical skills (teaching, community development, etc), cultural lessons, and other random stuff.

The main island of Pohnpei doesn’t have any beaches. It’s surrounded by mangrove forests -big trees with huge root structures that creep up out of the water. Basically its like a big swamp all along the coast. It’s no good for swimming, but good for the island because it keeps it from eroding away. Pohnpei also has a huge barrier reef about 2-3 miles off of the coast, which completely surrounds it. You can hear and sometimes see the waves breaking, out along the reef, but inside the lagoon the water is pretty calm. Those of us staying in Pohnpei were given a special treat Friday night to Saturday afternoon. We were taken to Nahlap Island, just off the coast and still inside of the lagoon. It felt like we were finally on an island – there were places to swim and snorkel. There still weren’t any waves since we were inside the lagoon but we could see and hear them. (Where we live is very pretty, but reminds us more of a jungle.) Friday night we got in the water and used the slide, but didn’t get out the snorkel stuff. We did, however, see a huge manta ray that at first we thought were 2 sharks since the tips kept poking above the water a few feet apart. On Saturday we snorkeled and saw tons of cool stuff – fish, sea cucumbers, an octopus and also a stonefish. That was something on our long list of sea creatures to avoid.

All in all, things are going well. We’ll be happy to be done with training as the days are long and things tend to drag on. It’s a very interesting country and we’re excited to learn more about it. Will try and go into more details in upcoming posts as its relationship with the US is also very unique. Hope everyone is doing well. Miss everyone. Kerry and Nate.

FYI: Our mailing address is still the same. It is part of the US Postal system and postage is regular domestic US rates. Email and internet is still really spotty. So probably best to contact us by snail mail for now.