First Impressions

Four planes and a total of 24 hours of traveling (not including our mini-vacation extended layover in Honolulu) and we arrived in Pohnpei, Micronesia at 12:30am local time which felt like it might be 7am our time after not having slept. The airport is the size of an American fast-food restaurant and as we deplaned we were looking all around to get a first sense of our surroundings. A light breeze of fresh and sweet air brushed against me, which is not what I was expecting on an airport runway. We waited for 45 minutes in the passport line and after gathering all our luggage we were waived through customs We were picked up by an employee of the college who is in charge of finding housing for the first month after a professor’s arrival. On the way to the apartment he apologized profusely for the substandard accommodations. The room was so filled with smelly mold that my lungs stopped each breath short in a response of involuntary preservation. After sleeping on dirty foam pads on the floor I insisted the next day that we find more suitable accommodations. We looked at three places and chose the least expensive because it was easily the nicest. A cozy house out of town and up a very steep hill on the mountainside with an amazing view, great couches and ready with cooking equipment. Surrounded by fruit trees such as papaya, lime, mango and coconut, we easily adjusted to our immediate surroundings.

Our first day on island and we had already found a house. Now we needed bed sheets, so we went on a search to 17 different stores (best price was at Ace Office Supply.) We added money to the cash power account and signed up for internet and phone service, with more on those topics in subsequent posts. After a long busy day we were exhausted so I made a quick and easy dinner of curried lentils and rice with a side of fresh cucumber. Our new landlord stopped by for less than a welcoming greeting and we were then able to drift off to sleep.

Having vowed to try, for the first time since we can remember, to go without an alarm clock we were more than disappointed when the wild chickens had a crow-off a good hour and a half before the sun rises. The sun rises at 6am and I am happy to wake naturally with it. I thought roosters crowed to announce the sunrise. Their internal clock is about as maladjusted as mine being from nine time zones away. How do you relocate wild chickens? I am happy to watch the sunrise over the mountains and the valley mist sway away.