Back in Kosrae!

 

Back again!  Arrived on Saturday Jan 20 on the Island Hopper from Honolulu.  It was windy over Kosrae, we circled the island some before landing.  Coulda been that we skipped Kosrae and went on to Pohnpei – so glad that did not happen!

A nice note for my transfer in Honolulu: I was lugging an 88-key digital piano in a box B had outfitted with wheels.  Still a challenge.  A wonderful gal offered to help me check my bags in, making all the difference for me and the piano.  She is a US State Dept staffer specializing in small embassies in the Pacific. A gem. She offered to connect me with funding agencies who could try to get rid of the Merremia vine covering Kosrae.

Nick and Stella met me at the airport with a car Nick has bought for $2000.  A station wagon!  All my bags fit in.  We stopped along the way for wine and beer at one store, groceries at Nelson’s store, cucumbers and a small tuna ($2.50/lb) at RJ’s, eggs at Mic’s, a new sim card (so efficient, the person who did this for me) and finally to Kennedy’s. 

Kennedy’s family was celebrating their family Christmas with a huge spread of food they invited us to share.  We lugged my stuff upstairs, then sat with them for a little bit.  Stella found steamed corn on the cob.  I had some spaghetti and meat sauce.  Nick sampled the pork that had cooked 5 hr in an ‘om’ (pit in the ground with coals at the bottom).  It was all delicious.  The Kennedy family was so welcoming and happy to have us join them. 

Now, here’s the thing, the very Kosraen thing.  Kennedy had shown Nick two apartments, one upstairs without good water pressure, one downstairs, fine but a bit weird.  When we arrived, Kennedy said he had cleaned the upstairs apartment – but it was a different one, on the front of the building, windows on three sides and views of the jungle all around!

Notes about these plush accomodations (in case you recall the shock of our moving in to Fred Skilling's place last year):  Three AC’s (I turned them off), a ‘coffee maker’ that heats water on demand in the shower (I unplugged it), two bedrooms, fresh light pink paint on the walls, no rat holes, the tiles are clean and grouted onto the floor, the mattresses new (but springs are close to the surface), new red curtains on the windows, a rice cooker, microwave, frying pan, stew pot, plates and cutlery.  Clean frig with freezer. It’s (nearly) perfect!

 The view out my front door toward Lelu and its lagoon.  The view out my kitchen window.

    

Sunday Nick and Stella took me to church; it was wonderful to be back there again, so familiar.  It was Memorial Day (celebrating liberation from the Japanese) so there were many choirs and lots of singing. I was glad to see some people I knew and be welcomed back. 

Afterward we went to Hiroshi’s point for the best snorkeling I have ever done.  Absolutely amazingly beautiful. Water cool.  Big ornate formations.  Giant clams and giant ‘snail’ shells.  Plenty of fish but not as many or as colorful as in the lagoon.

The rest of what follows may too much detail for some.  I am learning about brevity in blogs, one subject, one or two photos.  I'll keep learning!  For now, here you have it, what I did until Tuesday.

Sunday afternoon I mostly finished unpacking.  Really, brought too much stuff.  I am SO glad I brought a mattress cover though.  It makes a difference on the bed.

Monday morning the power went out while I was chatting on the phone with my sister Jesse.  9 am here.  So … I unpacked the piano.  It seemed to be unharmed by the travel, but I had to wait a bit to plug it in and see if it really works. 

Meanwhile, I talked with Kennedy about renting a car.  He told me he had set aside the hot PINK one for me. He told me it was new.  OH MY.  I asked if he had something less bright.  He gave me a black Vitz.  Later in the afternoon I took it for a spin, hoping to see Mary (she was out), and saw Noerma (Skilling, from our old apartment) and she told me to go find Fred in his office (he was out).  It was fun tooling around.  Not too many potholes between my apartment in Sansrik and Tofol. 

Once I got home, I waited for the power to come on.  I went down to chat with Kennedy and his wife Srue and their daughter Tolpe.  They were lying on the tile floor in their outside living room – it was cool there.  Tolpe told me the power would come back on around 6 or 7 pm. She sounded so sure.

Then, it did! Around 5:30.  I went to tell Tolpe she was magic.  Then, since I didn’t like the Vitz I exchanged it for the PINK car and now I’ll be driving in style.  It’s newer, runs better.

Earlier in the day I had filet’d the tuna so with the power on, I cooked it all, some for the frig, some for the freezer.  

While it was cooking, I plugged in the piano. No sound.  Rats. Then I discovered I had not disconnected the headphones, and once I did that, it played!

I sat down with a beer and my tuna dinner, feeling pretty pleased with myself.  All that, and a PINK car.

Then the power went out again, and didn’t come back on until midnight.  Not much time to catch up on the internet, and no convenient time for a chat on the phone.  So I read my J. Maarten Troost (Headhunters on my Doorstep, a follow-on from The Sex Life of Cannibals) and enjoyed his recounting of following Robert Louis Stevenson’s travels in the South Pacific.  Troost is a good writer, he hits the delights and miseries of living on a South Pacific island spot on.

This morning the power went off again at 9 or so.  I had managed to cook a couple of eggs and make coffee before that.  Sort of swealtering.  Dripping sweat.  I think I may need to find another place to be during the days, with some AC and internet connection.

This is all what I came back for.  I’m glad to be here.  

Promising to post short blogs in the coming days.  So much to share.  Wish I could share it all with you!