The Artless Dodger

Last week, some scumbag(s) broke into our house and stole my laptop and Jamie's camera. We were home at the time, sleeping. The only windows we had open were in our bedrooms; everything else was locked. They took out the screen in our bedroom, quietly slipped past us while we were sleeping, went into the living room and took what they were after, then went back out through the bedroom window.

The dog that hangs out around our house was in heat and had been attracting a number of male suitors, all of whom had been barking like crazy all week, so they were of little help in alerting us to intruders. Not surprisingly, when we reported the break-in, the police were also of little help, and the best they could offer in terms of consolation was to tell us that this kind of thing happens all the time, especially to Americans. They also said that around Christmas, they tend to see a significant increase in the number of break-ins, so we should watch out.

They did say that every once in a while, the stolen goods are recovered, but it sounded like they were just as surprised as the thieves must have been. In any case, Jamie and I have taken a more proactive approach by putting up flyers all over the place, offering a reward for the safe return of our stuff. Several people have taken the tear-away phone numbers, but we've only gotten a couple of phone calls, none of which have yielded any leads. We've also taken to locking our windows at night, forfeiting a basic liberty that I'm not at all happy about having to give up.

It's a small island, so in theory, our stuff couldn't have gotten too far. However, in talking to other people who have had things stolen (I personally know of at least five other expat instructors at the college whose laptops have also been stolen since they've lived here), there seems to be a correlation between a regular increase in the number of break-ins and the arrival of a ship at the port. In other words, it's likely that these scumbags, who are probably kids or teenagers, steal stuff out of people's houses and then sell them on the ship right before they head back to Japan. It makes sense. In fact, there was a ship that came in the day after we were robbed.

It's sad to say, but it seems that if there's one thing that globalization and capitalism have taught the youth of Micronesia, it's to covet what they cannot afford. According to the police, in this case, it's likely booze, which was probably purchased after they unloaded our stolen goods for a fraction of their actual value, with no consideration whatsoever for their personal value. That's right. Every piece of writing I've done, every song I've written and every picture we've taken in the past several years is probably worth no more to these assholes than a bottle of bottom shelf liquor.

Nahlap Island

I used to have a small Japanese zen garden on a carved wooden tray in my office, the kind with

small stones and a little wooden rake with which to comb the sand. My board of directors gave

it to me and I wondered at the time if their purpose was to appeal to my design aesthetic or in

knowing I was too busy to take a vacation try to provide me with a tranquil environment.

Whatever the reason, the small tray was appreciated if not actually used.

Recently I had an adventure that made me feel as if I had stepped into a little zen garden surrounded by a clear, calm ocean and alive with tropical fauna.

Nahlap is a small island protected from waves by Pohnpei’s outlining atolls.

We journeyed with friends by car for 40 minutes from Kolonia and then by boat for 15 minutes before arriving.

My first impression was that it looked peaceful and I was happy we chose to spend the day there. I took my daughter out of school for the occasion because while academics are important to us, there are some things (making great memories being one) that are more important than school.

The island is speckled with little blue cabins and interlaced with paths lined by coral, shells and volcanic rocks. We walked through tunnels of trees on paths of

freshly combed sand on our way to the beach. The water is shallow for a long distance out and the kids had a blast finding shells, sea cucumbers and bright blue starfish.

We had a fun picnic before walking back across the island to use the ocean slide. The slide is little more than half of a large pvc pipe, but so much more in terms of fun with speeding down and splashing into the ocean then swimming to the ladder to repeat the process.

I jogged back across the island to tell the driver we were

ready and I noticed that the path was again freshly raked. In fact, upon my return to the dock the footprints I had made ten minutes prior were gone, replaced by even rows of mini furrows. It seemed a strange phenomenon, as I had not seen anyone on

the island hurriedly tending the sand. The boat driver told me a woman lives on the island to take care of it and she is the one who comes the sand after people walk on it. I wonder if she likes to erase marks in the sand or if she feels like I do after I sweep and mop and then something is spilled on and tracked over the floor to make my efforts useless unless repeated.

Then I wonder what the invisible caretaker would think of a tabletop zen garden and if it might look like more work to her. If someone is raised in a tropical paradise, do they see the beauty in it as much as an outsider, or more?

To plan a trip to Nahlap from Pohnpei: Contact A&P Construction( 320-6388 ) to reserve a boat to and from the island. The cost is $5 per adult and $2-3 per child with those under two being free. It is recommended to call a few times to reconfirm the boat appointment or they might not follow through. The small blue huts for rent are $10/night. You can have small fires for barbeques and there is a tank of fresh water for showers. Bring drinking water and camping gear. Camping hammocks (like Hammockbliss)with built-in mosquito netting and rain cover are ideal.

The Dog Without a Name

When we moved into the house where we currently live, our landlords asked if we wanted to keep the dog that they had tied up in back. We respectfully declined, but we soon learned that there was another dog that also came with the house, who lives there but doesn't really belong to anybody. Like a majority of the strays here, it's a yellowish mutt, and as is the case with most female dogs on the island, she had recently had puppies.

Our neighbors have continued to look after the puppies, and whenever Chloe and Alexander don't eat everything on their plates, the mama dog gets a treat. This is the extent of responsibility that we've taken for this dog. We don't want it to depend on us for food, but we also try to provide it with something other than vermin and street garbage whenever we can.

In return, the dog no longer tries to bite us when we walk to our front door, but she continues to hang out around our house most of the time, which discourages people who don't belong there from entering our yard. I know she's also keeping a watchful eye on her puppies, which are already getting pretty big themselves. Unfortunately, this also means that whenever we have guests, we usually have to escort them through our yard so that the mama dog - and now the puppies - doesn't try to bite them. 

I wouldn't say that I particularly like the dog all that much. As I'm relatively certain that this animal is infested with insects and parasites, and since I know she has a predisposition to bite anyone who gets too close, we don't pet her. We also maintain an emotional detachment by not naming her or interacting with her beyond the occasional, "Hello, dog," or, "Stop barking, it's me."

Ever since Chloe was two, she's been asking when we're going to get a dog, to which we usually respond with the standard, "Dogs are a big responsibility..." Since we've lived here, though, she's stopped asking. Maybe it's because she's gotten to see some of the frustrations that come with having a dog without the return of getting to enjoy the benefits. Of course, maybe she also understands, on some level, that most dogs here aren't really domesticated that way that we're used to, and that perhaps it's the domestication that appeals to her. In other words, I think what she really wants is a dog who knows her name, too.

Postal Service

Micronesia, being a United States protectorate, enjoys the services of the U.S. Postal Service. Mail is not delivered door-to-door as there are no addresses, so a P.O. Box is highly recommended.

When mailing from the U.S., using the flat-rate boxes, it is not expensive to mail things here, especially considering the distance. It is important when filling out the customs form to checkmark next to air mail or it will take a two-month sea voyage before arriving at its destination. Being able to receive mail is excellent and of great comfort to us. Before we left the States we packed eight flat-rate boxes and when we got a P.O. box, my brother, John, was kind enough to mail them all to us. It only took about 16 days for the boxes to arrive. Air mail comes in on Sundays and Wednesdays so it would stand to reason that mail is promptly in its slot by later that day. This is not the case. Mail, like many things here in Pohnpei, will appear only when convenient for the employees. If there is a parcel, a notice of pi

ck up is given. A trip to the customs office behind the post office is in order. Customs closes at 3:30 while the post office closes at 4pm. I checked my mail slot for the second time one day to find a pick-up notification being slid through after the Customs office had closed and the box had been there all day. When I picked it up the next day, it had been ransacked by rats who ate their greedy little hearts out of all my dry beans, quinoa, wheat bran and herbs. When I mentioned this to the postal workers they looked at me like I was boring them and said, “Yeah, it’s a problem. We tried to get rid of them, but…” I waited for an inordinate amount of time for a conclusion to this, but there was not an end to that sentence. I wonder if this was the same woman that told me she could not tell me over the phone whether I had a package or not and I would need to check in-person. From our first house it was a 40 minute walk (more if Xander wanted to walk on his own and not be carried part way) and so we would usually take taxis.

My dear friend, Sandy, would also drive us to the post office to check for mail and took us to retrieve seven of the eight boxes we sent ourselves of which two had been gnawed open by, you guessed it, the rats.

Parcel Day

When a package from friends or family arrives it is like Christmas. The box is placed on the dining ro

om table to admire until Zach gets home from work and we can all gently shake it and make conjectures as to the contents before opening it together. I would have never imagined two people being so excited about a gift of cotton swabs. The few I brought did not last long and we refused to pay $12 for Q-tips so we asked our parents to send some. Popcorn kernels, chocolate chips for baking, dried yeast, onion soup mix (for seasoning sauces and soups a pinch at a time) and nuts, glorious nuts. Almonds, peanuts, you name it and we lov

e it. We just don’t love it enough to justify spending $25 on a small bag.

We mail letters. We make lots of letters and handmade cards and send them out weekly. It takes about ten days for a letter to make it to New York from here. We want everyone back home to know how very special they are to us and a handwritten note on a handmade card is a great way to display that affection. The Holidays are just around the corner and we are now assembling a few boxes to send to family. Finding just the right things and arranging them in just the right way to be efficient with space and sound when shaken is part art and part physical science. With the amount of care that goes into the packaged boxes we'll send, I hope they are enjoyed even half as much as we appreciate the ones we receive.

May all our cards and boxes arrive safely and post-haste.

Even the empty boxes themselves are used to organize our closets and for toy bins- very useful.

Getting Around

Before coming here I was adamant about bringing our bikes. It is a tropical paradise and it seems such a shame to pollute it with the burning of hydrocarbons. When we arrived, I then agreed with my husband that having bicycles here is a really bad idea. Unlike many places that we love, Pohnpei is not good for bicycles. I do not believe that civil engineers had much of a hand in designing Kolonia. It is not the very steep terrain that is daunting, but the fact that roads are narrow, winding and cars barely have enough room for two lanes, so they maneuver around potholes by crossing into the other lane. We see cars ditched or swerving that we commonly attribute to alcohol or sakau use. There are only a few sidewalks in town and certainly no bike lanes. I might be more willing to ride if our precious cargo were not in tow.

The first two months we walked most everywhere. Places that are too far can be reached by taxi, which is absurdly cheap at $1-2 for a 15-20 minute ride, but we have waited for over an hour for a taxi or, “Taxi Crab” as our two-year-old calls them. Being places on time is important to us, so we resolved to get a car. We bought one from someone at the college, but the engine seized five days after purchase. There is a long story therein which involves the seller agreeing to reimburse us, but failing to make the contracted payments within the agreed upon timeframe. So…

Buying from a dealer here is more expensive, but there is a warranty of one month and you can pick up your car right away. Ordering a car from Japan costs less, but is more hassle and you wait for one to three months to receive the car. We decided to order a car from Japan – who knows why, maybe for the experience. There are several websites we studied before deciding on a gas efficient Mazda Demio.

We received the car six weeks after ordering it.

Before we could pick up the car we had to get local drivers licenses. You are required to study the small book of road laws for one full week before getting a license. There is no test involved, just a nod when asked if the book was studied. The speed limit on Pohnpei is 25 miles per hour (even though the speedometers are in kilometers per hour), pedestrians have the right of way, use common sense and don’t park in the middle of the road, except for all the people who do. That is the gist of the booklet that took fifteen minutes to read. Once we had the form from the police station, we went to a different location to pay a $6 fee for a stamp at the Treasurer’s Office, then went to a printing company to get photos before returning to the police station with the stamped form and picture needed to make the paper driver’s license. In a place that rains as much as Pohnpei, a laminator would be a useful tool.

The Five Stamps of disorganized bureaucracy

After your car arrives, but before you can pick it up you must retrieve the golden fleece. Not really, but almost as epic and painstaking are the gathering of the five stamps from five different mostly unmarked buildings on the island. On the Bill of Lading sent by the car dealer you need the following stamps, in order:

1. Pohnpei Transfer and Storage. This is the only marked building but a bit tricky to find in the maze of buildings behind the airport. No fee for this stamp.

2. Shipping Company Office. Pay a fee based on the weight of the shipment.

3. Treasurer’s Office. This unmarked office is at the end of a long corridor of doors without signage.

4. Custom’s Office. This is not the customs office at the airport or the one behind the post office. It is located across from Wall Mart in an unmarked building. There is a duty of 4% of the cost of freight (CIF.)

5. Pohnpei Port Authority [shown below].

Located behind the airport and where the minimal wharfage fee is paid.

With all said and done this will take the better part of the day and you can then pick up the vehicle – if the port is still open. Do not leave the car too long or an additional storage fee will be imposed. We are grateful to our awesome neighbors who drove me around to get the stamps. Thank you Lloyd and Juvelina!

Driving on Pohnpei is not so bad once you learn where the potholes are (they are some of Pohnpei's most famous landmarks). Drivers often stop to allow for other people to turn left, and traffic is easy going. Car horns are only used to signal that you are passing or that your taxi is waiting. Our bank has a drive-though designed for cars with the driver on the left, but our car and most cars on the island are Japanese with the driver on the right side. Everyone using the drive-through actually then has to get out of the car and walk up to the window. It is a bit odd to drive on the same side of the car as the driving side. It is safer for the driver to be closer to the opposing traffic so as to ascertain the distance between. In this case each driver is on the opposite side of the cars from one another and guessing as to the amount of room they have between the two.

Car Safety

People do not generally wear seatbelts here, which is to say that I have not seen a single native person use a seatbelt.

Here in Micronesia it is considered safest for a baby to be in the front seat of a vehicle in the

arms of an adult. On more than one occasion, I have seen an infant sleeping against the shoulder of a driver. Kids hang out of the windows or stand up in the back of pick-up trucks all while in motion, on the road with other drivers. This is very much opposed to my culture of car seat restraints and over protection. I am not saying the Micronesian custom in this case is wrong or bad, but so different from what I am used to that it is difficult to get used to.

We are thankful to have a car. We no longer have to walk 30 minutes each way to retrieve our five-year-old from school, which has substantially brightened my outlook on life here. We have also done a driving tour circumnavigating the island with the kids buckled into their little booster seats. It is great to be free to go places. Without a car, this small island seemed more claustrophobic than it does now with a car.

Safe driving to all.

Cash Power

I found myself pondering the necessity of the tiny light bulb in the refrigerator. The freezer does not have a light bulb and I am able to find things in there. Both are organized. Could I possibly do without the fridge light and retrieve perishables from memory and feel? As you can imagine, we have become hyper-conscious of our power consumption. For years I have done what I thought was my best to decrease our carbon footprint, but only now am I making a significant improvement.

There is a hydroelectric power plant that sits dilapidated with disuse. No one I have asked can provide a reasonable answer for the closing of the hydroelectric plant. Maybe during days of draught several years ago it did not generate enough power to keep it going. Here on Pohnpei, electricity currently comes from diesel burning generators. You can only smell the horrible stench of it when very near the power plant. Some off shore wind power would be ideal, but to date is just a dream.

Power is paid for in advance by giving the meter number to the teller at the power company and then typing the number from the receipt into the control panel of the meter. You can actually see how many kilowatts of energy are used per day and the red panel light will blink faster with more energy expended. Does the light next to the frowny face illuminate when you run out of power or just before? In our first house on Pohnpei, we would turn off the water pump when not in use and saved a lot of energy at the cost of annoyance every time we went to wash our hands.

We do not use our water heater or air conditioners, we turn off lights as we exit a room, we occasionally enjoy candlelight dinners (usually during power outages), our room light bulbs are fluorescents, sometimes our nightly story time is by flashlight, we have a propane stove/oven, and we rarely use the dryer, opting to hang our clothes to dry. Hanging clothes on our covered back deck reduces wrinkles and we don’t need to use an iron. Good thing, too, because while in my mind the phrase ‘domestic goddess’ is something to aspire to, this does not include ironing.

Electricity here is very expensive, but due to our efforts we have a comparatively low electricity cost at about $65 per month and at $0.56/kilowatt hour, we are using about 116 Kilowatts per month. There is one state-run company from which to purchase power known as PUC (Pohnpei Utility Company, AKA Cash Power). Cash Power has undergone strategic policy changes resulting in a 60% increase in the cost of power over the past year. It is a publicly owned company, which can be of great benefit to a nation’s people if and when said people have shareholders rights, votes and opportunity to elect board members. I suppose the second part of the equation is forming a protocol and forum for people to voice their concerns, votes and comments. It is easy to stand by while World Bank mandates (however good in intention) change in public services and utilities into for-profit machines incapable of hearing damages caused. A good business model is not interchangeable with a good social services or utilities model without harming the public to the benefit of the powerful. O.k., stepping off the soapbox…

[The congratulatory award display from Pohnpei to Cash Power with love.]

I find myself thinking of ways to reduce carbon emissions even further and looking at little things in a new light. We brought a battery back-up for the computer which displays the power draw of whatever is plugged into it. Luckily, a fan only draws 25 watts at each setting and I can have it blowing air on high without feeling the impulse to suffer through low speed for The Cause. I am thankful for the energy efficient LCD nightlights we brought, but in hindsight realize that we should have brought our LCD camping light and head lamp as well. Even though I don’t have a hair dryer, dish washer or vacuum here on island, I know there is still more I can do to improve our cost to the planet. We walk or carpool whenever possible and coordinate errands with other families as well. The clothes washer is safe in fulfilling its function – I don’t want to wash clothes by hand. The refrigerator and its tiny light are safe too. There is a limit to what I am willing to endure. I do still need to function in raising the kids, working on my projects, socializing and working my way toward being crowned a goddess of domestic wisdom amoung other goals.

Now tell me, don't you want to preserve this too?

Halloween

For some reason I was surprised to learn that Halloween is celebrated here on Pohnpei. For me, Halloween was always about getting candy and being amazed at the the transformation of whole houses - inside and out. Families transform the night and whole neighborhoods into a magical realm of mystique. Styles range from autumn-themed scarecrow-topped haystacks togiant spiders crawling over a haunted house with a creeping fog that covers the porch. The Halloween costume has developed into a show and symbol of one's self. You can be anything you want on Halloween. What do you want to be for a night of pretend?

On Halloween, kids here recognize the "costume" as a means to an end, the end being candy. Most kids I saw were not dressed up, but instead were sporting marker or make-up on their faces. Not pictures or the sort of face-painting that results in looking like somethings else, but a few lines or half the face painted as an extreme sports fan might display. The question of, "What are you for Halloween" resulted in some confusion on the parts of the kids and teenagers I asked. Maybe they did not see themselves transformed for the experience as the second most popular response to "I don't know" was "We put the paint because you have to do paint to get candy." "Happy Halloween" is the chosen phrase over "Trick-or-treat" (and the optional "smell my feet, give me something good to eat").

We received a head's up from our neighbor that many truck loads of kids would come to the house for candy. We stocked up on a enough candy to fill a great big bowl. Due to the prevalence of major tooth decay in children, I wanted to throw in some tooth brushes as well, but was told these would not be used let alone appreciated. I do care about their teeth, but I don't want to tick off the neighborhood kids especially since I do not know if the practice of Halloween tricks has been adopted here as well.

On the night ofthe holiday we ate dinner early (sesame seared yellow fin tuna steaks and ginger noodles) and went to a fun Halloween party before venturing out to a couple of houses for the big night. No one was coming to our house and I did not want to be left with a mound of candy, so I took the bowl to the street and handed it out in person. Most of the "costumes" maintained a peculiar similarity to one another. I just hope that wasn't permanent marker on their faces.

Over the years, some of my own costumes have included: tooth fairy, mother nature, queen bee and when I was a hobo at age three. Zach was once Edward Safety-Scissors Hands. Now I concentrate more on the kids costumes than on my own. In an effort to allow my children to be anything they want to be for the occasion, I ask them for their requests. Alexander's was the simpler of the two as he wanted to be Superboy Alexander. Not Superman, not Superboy, but Superboy Alexander which I guess is a version of himself with a cape. It is nice to think that even at age two, he is self-assured enough to want to be himself, more or less.

Chloe first said she wanted to be a waterfall. A waterfall? How on earth would I manage that?Thankfully, after a trip to the fabric store, she was inspired by a particular fabric and decided instead on being a mermaid. Fabric is inexpensive here, between $1-3/yd. The creation of the template involved her laying down on top of the fabric allowing me to measure and mark it where necessary. My sewing machine is in storage in the U.S., so I took the cut fabric pieces to a seamstress (MJ Tailors) who did a much better job of sewing that I did of designing. $5 for fabric and $6 for sewing, the costume ended up being less expensive and of a much better quality than a store bought option (and roughly the same price as a pack of permanent markers).

Telecommunications

There are no addresses here in Pohnpei. Our first day on island we signed up for internet and phone service and in lieu of an address gave the name of the landowner from whom we were renting. I am amazed at the cab drivers knowing all the land owners names and
locations. Imagine jumping into an unknown taxi and saying, “take me to Robert Wilson’s house please” and they just take you there no questions asked. Without addresses the national phonebook, with three additional islands’ phone numbers in it, is but a small magazine. All of the land-line phone numbers on Pohnpei begin with 320-. When recalling a number you need only memorize the last four digits. Cell phones cannot call landlines and landlines cannot call cell phones. I have given up asking why this is as it does not seem to bother locals and telecom employees say, “that is just how it is” much like a mother ending a child’s string of questions with, “just because.”

Getting service…

When we first moved here we met other professors at the college who had been waiting for up to four months for internet service and still didn’t have it. Telecom is the state run communications company and we would go there everyday to ask about internet service and everyday we were told “maybe tomorrow”. After three weeks we had made such a nuisance of our selves that we were given service. We moved a week later and so the ritual of visiting the telecom began again. We waited an additional three weeks for service. What they were not willing to admit to us was that there are not enough modem boxes on the island for all the people who want service. Instead of ordering more to accommodate new customers or replace broken boxes, the waiting list is to assume the boxes of the people who do not promptly pay for service. An employee told me that once someone is on the waiting list they must call or visit telecom at least once every two weeks to renew their request or be removed from the list.

Paying for service…

The cost of Telecom’s services was recently increased by 60% across the board. There are a few hypotheses for the reason behind this exorbitant adjustment. For example, FSM telecom has been exempt from taxes for the last 20 years. Soon they will start paying taxes and have not put aside money or gradually adjusted rates to prepare for their new taxes, hence the steep and sudden price increase.

Keeping service…

We first ordered the basic internet package which was as slower than a sloth race up a tree. I requested and upgrade and paid the upgrade fee to seal the deal. Only afterward was I told that if connectivity speed was not increased to my liking I would have to wait a full year before I could downgrade. What? It is literally the press of a button on their end to change the speed.

As I write this, our internet service has been down for the past three weeks. There is a short on the line and started to have sporadic problems whenever it would rain. It rains everyday, so this is a problem. When I go into Telecom the lovely women at the front smile at me and greet me by name. Each know my husbands name, landowner’s name, telephone number and our adsl number by heart and they know why I am there. They are friendly and do their best to coax the repair and tech departments into looking into our internet situation. I have, by Telecom’s preference, waited

at home for four full days waiting for line repairs that have not come. I am told it is not policy for technicians to call first, but I can make a request. Request made, but I won’t hold my breath for a call.

The scenery is breathtaking and the people are friendly here, but it is not a place to require or expect that things happen on a diligent schedule. I don’t want to scare people

who wish to visit or live on Pohnpei, many places do not have any trouble with their internet. I just seem to be in the process of learning lessons I must be in need of.

For example, the phrase “island time” has new meaning for me it is more about exercising patience than about kicking back and relaxing worry free. I have a new found appreciation for so many things I have previously taken for granted.

P.S. Thank goodness for small miracles. I will post this today, three days after writing it. I love you internet and will not soon forget it.