So I haven't updated this in six months and that means that I've got to parce down six months of tears and jears into a tid bit. So here goes.
1) We moved to Dominica, not a surprise but still surprising. We are living in a village on the Hibiscus Highway (aka the island road) called Colihaut. Colihaut is known all over the island as being the noisiest village in Dominica and this is totally appropriate. Dogs, roosters, competeing sound systems, whistles, bullhorns, car horns, dump trucks, hurricane force gusts...all competing at 8am to be the one to wake me up.
2) The caribbean is has a completely different set of rules for politeness. Which I've been learning but still forget. You have to say hello to everyone and everyone wants to say hello. But if you aren't in a hurry on your walk to the beach you may end up with a bag full or limes, a rum drink or a beer. Dominicans are very generous.
3) Oh we live in Dominica not the Dominican Republic. Dominica is a former British, French, British territory that became a Commonwealth of Britain before gaining independence a few months before Hurrican David demolished the island so that Britain didn't have to do anything for the people. The caribbean is full of stories like this.
4) And the Rum. Rum Rum Rum. Bush Rum, Bay Rum, Fruit Rum, Herb Rum, by the glass or by the bottle, mixed with coke...who cares. Rum is alive and well on Dominica. My neighbor, the Doctor, gave me some bush rum that stripped the enamal off my teeth and made me go blind for 10 minutes.
I could go on about the island, but I won't because this is just a refresher about where I am. Last thoughts...I appreciate everyone's well wishes and as they say here "I hope for many happy returns to you in the new year." Check.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Countdown! #3, and ONE month exactly.
I will say nice things.
Details:
We leave Pohnpei soon (separately, as a result of a long story that I will not tell because it is not a nice story)...I leave July 2 (not June 25th, which is another story that I won't tell) for Oregon and Jonathan leaves mid-August, probably for an Oregon/Oklahoma tour. Then, I move to the Caribbean at the end of July.
I think I'm going to ask for an August 1 departure (from Oregon to Dominica) date. So let's get our kicks and our hugs in while I'm around! Jonathan will catch up with me in the Caribbean whenever he's done with his visiting; probably September sometime, so this will be the longest Jonathan and I have gone without seeing each other since we met.
Nice things: (We'll do a countdown of these, too)
3), the one that brought tears to my eyes:
Jonathan and I have a rather elaborate system for collecting and categorizing rainwater: The rain catchment tank has the best water, but since the collection system doesn't work (the pipes leak), it's rarely used (only during Rainageddon), and then only for bathing. In front of our house we have three garbage cans placed kinda' strategically to catch the run-off from our roof. Two of the garbage cans are metal, and they both now have to be used for toilet water, since they are super, super rusted. The third garbage can is Rubbermaid, and it's bright red. That's our favorite one, and we use it for bath water. Unfortunately, the metal cans were in the rainiest run-off spots--they never ran out of (toilet) water; the Rubbermaid was sitting in the stupidest spot for collecting water, so we'd run out of good water fairly frequently, and would have to resume our daily early-morning trips to the creek to collect bath water. I know the neighbors watch us, and we watch the neighbors, and we all love each other, but I was not prepared to come home Monday and see that they'd switched our Rubbermaid garbage can out. They moved it over to the rainiest-runoff place and moved a stupid metal can over to the dry place. They noticed that we only went to the creek when that water runs out of the Rubbermaid. And then they fixed it so we wouldn't have to go to the creek as often. I still am amazed, but I'm not sure why it amazes me so much. I guess: Who watches each other like that? Like, just quietly looking for ways to improve things for each other?
Man, if we hadn't moved to Kitti...
In other happy news! My friend Gina's coming to visit in four days. And a couple of days after she gets here, we start housesitting for some awesome friends who also, incidentally, have the sweetest pad on the island. (I know you might think it sounds weird, our being so excited to move out of the house after loving on the neighbors so much, but you only think that because you don't know how it feels to have no running water for seven months. I'd rather have no electricity, by a lot, and I am super excited to: Be clean, have clean dishes that also don't taste like bleach, avoid ingesting parasites, and share all of this loveliness with my friend Gina. Plus, in our housesitting place, we can shut the bathroom door and have the light on at the same time, which is extra important when you have guests.)
Okay, more later.
TM
Details:
We leave Pohnpei soon (separately, as a result of a long story that I will not tell because it is not a nice story)...I leave July 2 (not June 25th, which is another story that I won't tell) for Oregon and Jonathan leaves mid-August, probably for an Oregon/Oklahoma tour. Then, I move to the Caribbean at the end of July.
I think I'm going to ask for an August 1 departure (from Oregon to Dominica) date. So let's get our kicks and our hugs in while I'm around! Jonathan will catch up with me in the Caribbean whenever he's done with his visiting; probably September sometime, so this will be the longest Jonathan and I have gone without seeing each other since we met.
Nice things: (We'll do a countdown of these, too)
3), the one that brought tears to my eyes:
Jonathan and I have a rather elaborate system for collecting and categorizing rainwater: The rain catchment tank has the best water, but since the collection system doesn't work (the pipes leak), it's rarely used (only during Rainageddon), and then only for bathing. In front of our house we have three garbage cans placed kinda' strategically to catch the run-off from our roof. Two of the garbage cans are metal, and they both now have to be used for toilet water, since they are super, super rusted. The third garbage can is Rubbermaid, and it's bright red. That's our favorite one, and we use it for bath water. Unfortunately, the metal cans were in the rainiest run-off spots--they never ran out of (toilet) water; the Rubbermaid was sitting in the stupidest spot for collecting water, so we'd run out of good water fairly frequently, and would have to resume our daily early-morning trips to the creek to collect bath water. I know the neighbors watch us, and we watch the neighbors, and we all love each other, but I was not prepared to come home Monday and see that they'd switched our Rubbermaid garbage can out. They moved it over to the rainiest-runoff place and moved a stupid metal can over to the dry place. They noticed that we only went to the creek when that water runs out of the Rubbermaid. And then they fixed it so we wouldn't have to go to the creek as often. I still am amazed, but I'm not sure why it amazes me so much. I guess: Who watches each other like that? Like, just quietly looking for ways to improve things for each other?
Man, if we hadn't moved to Kitti...
In other happy news! My friend Gina's coming to visit in four days. And a couple of days after she gets here, we start housesitting for some awesome friends who also, incidentally, have the sweetest pad on the island. (I know you might think it sounds weird, our being so excited to move out of the house after loving on the neighbors so much, but you only think that because you don't know how it feels to have no running water for seven months. I'd rather have no electricity, by a lot, and I am super excited to: Be clean, have clean dishes that also don't taste like bleach, avoid ingesting parasites, and share all of this loveliness with my friend Gina. Plus, in our housesitting place, we can shut the bathroom door and have the light on at the same time, which is extra important when you have guests.)
Okay, more later.
TM
Monday, April 5, 2010
Birthday, Easter, Tumultuos Torrents.
Hey Y'all,
I know, I know. It's been a while since you've gotten a word from Temptation Island, so I thought I'd give you what you need. AN UPDATE!
Update Number Un: Health.
I've been hitting the weight bench at the local gym, The Hide-away Gym up in Pokirat. I'm huge! I lost a lot of weight over the last few months, but I've been packing it on and I'm feeling good. My ringworm is gone, no liver damage done, and I can crack a coconut between my bicep and forearm. RAWWRRRR!!!!
Update Number Deux: Birthday.
My birthday came and went. It was okay. I realized that I really missed my friends from home, wherever home is these days, so it was bittersweet. We had a BBQ at the white people apartments and had a huge spread. There was wahoo sasimi, pizza, BBQ, CHEESE!, and a million other things. If you were going to ask if we went to karaoke, you can bet your bottom dollar that we did. I tried to sing a medley of TopGun classics: Highway to the Dangerzone, You Lost that Lovin' Feelin', Take My Breath Away. But they only had Take My Breath Away, so I began with the finale and need I tell you that there was not a dry eye in the house.
Update Number Trois: Rain.
The drought was interrupted by a week of non-stop rain which filled our tank halfway and has been flooding the creek behind our house. Very exciting. But we still have a leak in the tank so we'll see how long it lasts.
Update Number Quatre: Puppies and Easter.
I realized that I hadn't ever mentioned that we had two puppies at our house. Well...three if you count Reggie. Their names were Reggie, Orangie No-Name, and Ruby, and our favorite was Ruby. Well Ruby disappeared, Orangie No-Name became Ruby Two, then disappeared. And finally around Easter day Reggie disappeared. Now it's no secret by now that Pohnpeians eat dogs. It's a fact of life...so it's our best guess that Reggie became an Easter snack for the high ranking people of the Church and village. But I still miss all three of those little bastards.
Easter week was our Spring Break so we went to Cancun. Psych! We sat around and read because it was rainy. But we also went to church with the neighbors a lot, ate a lot of food at the church feasts, and the highlight was going on a great, and arduous, hike called "Six Waterfall Hike," which, aptly enough, has six waterfalls. Swimming, hiking, scrambling, sliding, cliff jumping... this thing had it all. It was a lot of fun, and I'll post pictures as soon as I can.
Well that's a lot of updatin' and some of it may be as hard to digest as a dog rib so I'll leave it at that for now. In the mean time take a warm shower and have a cold beer for me.
Il Duce
I know, I know. It's been a while since you've gotten a word from Temptation Island, so I thought I'd give you what you need. AN UPDATE!
Update Number Un: Health.
I've been hitting the weight bench at the local gym, The Hide-away Gym up in Pokirat. I'm huge! I lost a lot of weight over the last few months, but I've been packing it on and I'm feeling good. My ringworm is gone, no liver damage done, and I can crack a coconut between my bicep and forearm. RAWWRRRR!!!!
Update Number Deux: Birthday.
My birthday came and went. It was okay. I realized that I really missed my friends from home, wherever home is these days, so it was bittersweet. We had a BBQ at the white people apartments and had a huge spread. There was wahoo sasimi, pizza, BBQ, CHEESE!, and a million other things. If you were going to ask if we went to karaoke, you can bet your bottom dollar that we did. I tried to sing a medley of TopGun classics: Highway to the Dangerzone, You Lost that Lovin' Feelin', Take My Breath Away. But they only had Take My Breath Away, so I began with the finale and need I tell you that there was not a dry eye in the house.
Update Number Trois: Rain.
The drought was interrupted by a week of non-stop rain which filled our tank halfway and has been flooding the creek behind our house. Very exciting. But we still have a leak in the tank so we'll see how long it lasts.
Update Number Quatre: Puppies and Easter.
I realized that I hadn't ever mentioned that we had two puppies at our house. Well...three if you count Reggie. Their names were Reggie, Orangie No-Name, and Ruby, and our favorite was Ruby. Well Ruby disappeared, Orangie No-Name became Ruby Two, then disappeared. And finally around Easter day Reggie disappeared. Now it's no secret by now that Pohnpeians eat dogs. It's a fact of life...so it's our best guess that Reggie became an Easter snack for the high ranking people of the Church and village. But I still miss all three of those little bastards.
Easter week was our Spring Break so we went to Cancun. Psych! We sat around and read because it was rainy. But we also went to church with the neighbors a lot, ate a lot of food at the church feasts, and the highlight was going on a great, and arduous, hike called "Six Waterfall Hike," which, aptly enough, has six waterfalls. Swimming, hiking, scrambling, sliding, cliff jumping... this thing had it all. It was a lot of fun, and I'll post pictures as soon as I can.
Well that's a lot of updatin' and some of it may be as hard to digest as a dog rib so I'll leave it at that for now. In the mean time take a warm shower and have a cold beer for me.
Il Duce
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Valentine's Day, Whoa!
So as you may or may not know, I've had a month long love affair with a little fungal infection known as ringworm. Trieste knows all about it, we're working through it and I think we'll be okay in the long run, but for now I'm on meds that make me CRAZY. So while Valentine's Day is normally a day for luv...this year it was mainly a day of rest and relaxation. To that end, we had several adventures I will describe now.
Adventure 1: COCKFIGHT!
I finally got to see a cockfight at my neighbors house. Cockfights here are not like what I imagined a cockfight to be. For one, it was conducted by two boys, maybe aged 8 and 10, under the supervision of Souwel (the 8 year old's father). Second, no betting. Third, roosters are pretty valuable so they don't do stupid stuff like attach razors to the rosters feet. The winner is determined by the fact that the loser stops fighting from being tired...at which point I say "WINNER!" and point to the winner and two young boys and my adult neighbor look at me like I'm crazy. The End.
Adventure 2: Awak Pah Marin Bork!
We went for a little R 'n' R at Awak which we hadn't been to in a long time. There were lot's of people, this place gets crazy on Sunday afternoons...but it was fun. We hung out with some friends, I got to cool off in the lagoon then we headed for dinner.
Adventure 3: The Village!
We ate at the Village because we were both in desperate need of some Cheeseburgers and so far the Village has the best on island. One side affect of the pills I have to take is an insatiable hunger so I ate a cheeseburger, fries, a broccoli salad, a bowl of icecream, and drank a coconut water. We read and watched the sunset. Saw some geckos fighting, mating, or eating each other (tres romantique) it was hard to tell.
Adventure 4: A Movie "The Book of Eli"
Okay this was a movie that I did not enjoy. I mean I liked eating popcorn and drinking rootbeer, and I liked the spinning colorful lights, but other than that, I can't really remember anything good about this movie. Except for its extreme improbability. I mean for one, his eyes never looked weird until the very last scene where he's on Alcatraz? and he's dressed in white? and it took him thirty years to walk west? and she was dressed like somebody from Williamsburg or Glisan and 23rd? And he rowed a boat half way to alcatraz with gunshot wound in the stomach before the girl from Wicker Park decides to help out? LAME!
And that's the end of out Valentine's Day adventure.
jp
Adventure 1: COCKFIGHT!
I finally got to see a cockfight at my neighbors house. Cockfights here are not like what I imagined a cockfight to be. For one, it was conducted by two boys, maybe aged 8 and 10, under the supervision of Souwel (the 8 year old's father). Second, no betting. Third, roosters are pretty valuable so they don't do stupid stuff like attach razors to the rosters feet. The winner is determined by the fact that the loser stops fighting from being tired...at which point I say "WINNER!" and point to the winner and two young boys and my adult neighbor look at me like I'm crazy. The End.
Adventure 2: Awak Pah Marin Bork!
We went for a little R 'n' R at Awak which we hadn't been to in a long time. There were lot's of people, this place gets crazy on Sunday afternoons...but it was fun. We hung out with some friends, I got to cool off in the lagoon then we headed for dinner.
Adventure 3: The Village!
We ate at the Village because we were both in desperate need of some Cheeseburgers and so far the Village has the best on island. One side affect of the pills I have to take is an insatiable hunger so I ate a cheeseburger, fries, a broccoli salad, a bowl of icecream, and drank a coconut water. We read and watched the sunset. Saw some geckos fighting, mating, or eating each other (tres romantique) it was hard to tell.
Adventure 4: A Movie "The Book of Eli"
Okay this was a movie that I did not enjoy. I mean I liked eating popcorn and drinking rootbeer, and I liked the spinning colorful lights, but other than that, I can't really remember anything good about this movie. Except for its extreme improbability. I mean for one, his eyes never looked weird until the very last scene where he's on Alcatraz? and he's dressed in white? and it took him thirty years to walk west? and she was dressed like somebody from Williamsburg or Glisan and 23rd? And he rowed a boat half way to alcatraz with gunshot wound in the stomach before the girl from Wicker Park decides to help out? LAME!
And that's the end of out Valentine's Day adventure.
jp
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
This is the story of the eels who loved me.
Well it's not really a story about eels at all, but I'm sure that the eels in the creek behind our house do love me very much.
This is the story, however, of the last month of our lives sans water and other things. You might be tired of hearing by now how we haven't had running water for the last month. Actually I'm tired of it too.
In other news:
Item 1:
I got a wicked case of ring worm. I'm not sure where I got it. All I know is that I thought that I had the worst peeling sunburn in history. So now I have to take a prescription to get rid of a fungal infection that is feeding off my dead skin cells. It's gross. Also, the pills I have to take may damage my liver. So that's awesome.
Item 2:
For the last few days there have been 40 knot wind gusts all over Pohnpei. I actually have no idea what 40 knots is, but I do know that I thought that our roof was going to get ripped off a couple of times last night. It also means that there have been huge ocean swells on one of the passes on the reef. They were predicting 20-30 foot waves and surfers were flying from all over to kill themselves. Part of the northern reef will probably be damaged in the process of being tormented by the ocean. I guess that's life.
Item 3:
We've made it 8 months on this little island. Crazy.
That's all.
This is the story, however, of the last month of our lives sans water and other things. You might be tired of hearing by now how we haven't had running water for the last month. Actually I'm tired of it too.
In other news:
Item 1:
I got a wicked case of ring worm. I'm not sure where I got it. All I know is that I thought that I had the worst peeling sunburn in history. So now I have to take a prescription to get rid of a fungal infection that is feeding off my dead skin cells. It's gross. Also, the pills I have to take may damage my liver. So that's awesome.
Item 2:
For the last few days there have been 40 knot wind gusts all over Pohnpei. I actually have no idea what 40 knots is, but I do know that I thought that our roof was going to get ripped off a couple of times last night. It also means that there have been huge ocean swells on one of the passes on the reef. They were predicting 20-30 foot waves and surfers were flying from all over to kill themselves. Part of the northern reef will probably be damaged in the process of being tormented by the ocean. I guess that's life.
Item 3:
We've made it 8 months on this little island. Crazy.
That's all.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Holidays are finally over!
So it's the new year and what a crazy month it has been since the last posting. Where to begin?
The Christmas season was a good one. We had a lot of birthdays to celebrate and we ended up missing most of the holiday parties, but that's okay because there's always a Pohnpeian celebrating something somewhere. Christmas Eve we went further down to Kipar, Kitti to witness the celebration of our friends Tony, his visiting brother Tito, and Celeste signing a traditional carol about being far away from home on Christmas Eve. Fitting. The afterparty at the church was pretty much as amazing as it gets. Three Santas showed up to give candy to the kids. I say give candy but it was more like throw candy as hard as they can into a crowd of 50 screaming kids and watch the insanity ensue. My cuts and bruises from the sugar shrapnel are healing nicely.
Christmas day we had a party at our house which was pretty fun too. We had a Christmas Crab Extravaganza with lots of food, a random guy from the Marshall Islands and more friends than you could shake a stick at.
A couple of days after that I had the good fortune to find myself on the Caroline Voyager, the so-called field trip ship that took a few fellow volunteers and a few Peace Corps members to the outer islands of Mwokiloa and Pingelap. Although our destination was the latter, four of us could not tear ourselves away from the unbelievable Mwokiloa atoll, so we stayed there three days sunning, swimming, and snorkeling. We saw perhaps forty turtles, schools of snapper, sharks, and more fish in one place than I have ever seen. It's pretty amazing to witness a well managed reef. Pohnpei's reef is in pretty bad shape considering that most of it is fair game for fishing. Mwokil has only 127 people so the necessity for preserving it's resources is paramount.
The field trip ship itself was an adventure. I'll just say that pigs squealing, chickens squawking, and people heaving is not a sure fire way to get good sleep. The ocean this time of year is really rough. I don't think that I have a good way of describing this being from the flattest part of Texas.
I got back to Pohnpei on New Year's Eve and spent it with some friends and some crazy surfers...have I said how much I hate surfers. And that is all I'll say about New Years.
Now it's back to school. I'm fresh and my style looks good so I'm confident that this semester will be a success.
Yours
jp
The Christmas season was a good one. We had a lot of birthdays to celebrate and we ended up missing most of the holiday parties, but that's okay because there's always a Pohnpeian celebrating something somewhere. Christmas Eve we went further down to Kipar, Kitti to witness the celebration of our friends Tony, his visiting brother Tito, and Celeste signing a traditional carol about being far away from home on Christmas Eve. Fitting. The afterparty at the church was pretty much as amazing as it gets. Three Santas showed up to give candy to the kids. I say give candy but it was more like throw candy as hard as they can into a crowd of 50 screaming kids and watch the insanity ensue. My cuts and bruises from the sugar shrapnel are healing nicely.
Christmas day we had a party at our house which was pretty fun too. We had a Christmas Crab Extravaganza with lots of food, a random guy from the Marshall Islands and more friends than you could shake a stick at.
A couple of days after that I had the good fortune to find myself on the Caroline Voyager, the so-called field trip ship that took a few fellow volunteers and a few Peace Corps members to the outer islands of Mwokiloa and Pingelap. Although our destination was the latter, four of us could not tear ourselves away from the unbelievable Mwokiloa atoll, so we stayed there three days sunning, swimming, and snorkeling. We saw perhaps forty turtles, schools of snapper, sharks, and more fish in one place than I have ever seen. It's pretty amazing to witness a well managed reef. Pohnpei's reef is in pretty bad shape considering that most of it is fair game for fishing. Mwokil has only 127 people so the necessity for preserving it's resources is paramount.
The field trip ship itself was an adventure. I'll just say that pigs squealing, chickens squawking, and people heaving is not a sure fire way to get good sleep. The ocean this time of year is really rough. I don't think that I have a good way of describing this being from the flattest part of Texas.
I got back to Pohnpei on New Year's Eve and spent it with some friends and some crazy surfers...have I said how much I hate surfers. And that is all I'll say about New Years.
Now it's back to school. I'm fresh and my style looks good so I'm confident that this semester will be a success.
Yours
jp
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Just hear those sleighbells ringaling, Please turn off the Christmas Music.
The Christmas season is in full force on our little island home. I like Christmas as much as the next guy but there is just something not quite right about an 85 degree December. All the businesses have their halls decked with holly, the Nativity on top of Ace Hardware is massive and impressive, and Trieste saw a shirtless black Santa in board shorts as a decoration. Ho Ho Ho, I love it all. But I don't like Christmas music, call me a Grinch, but it's irritating. All those years of working retail probably. Oh well three weeks to go.
So we had our first Micronesian thanksgiving, or I should say our first Thanksgiving in Micronesia, because this is not a Micronesian Holiday as lot's of people pointed out to me. Even if the College Campus on Chuuk got the day off, I'm not bitter because we went to TWO Thanksgivings, one on Thursday and one the following Saturday. We had all the standards, Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, because apparently you can import just about anything. After the Saturday Thanksgiving we went to a variety show. Our People we know here did a lot of crazy and silly things and it was fun, more or less. I didn't do anything because my talent for annoying Trieste doesn't really translate to a audience situation, even if my art is superb.
I feel like I have more to say, but that's it.
jp
So we had our first Micronesian thanksgiving, or I should say our first Thanksgiving in Micronesia, because this is not a Micronesian Holiday as lot's of people pointed out to me. Even if the College Campus on Chuuk got the day off, I'm not bitter because we went to TWO Thanksgivings, one on Thursday and one the following Saturday. We had all the standards, Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, because apparently you can import just about anything. After the Saturday Thanksgiving we went to a variety show. Our People we know here did a lot of crazy and silly things and it was fun, more or less. I didn't do anything because my talent for annoying Trieste doesn't really translate to a audience situation, even if my art is superb.
I feel like I have more to say, but that's it.
jp
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