Kosrae 2024

Tridacna gigas Last Saturday, Nick's class had a field trip to the Kosrae Aquaculture Center (Clam Farm) and I was invited to come along!  Amazing. Nick's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrEjllv1yLQ) sums up the trip well. The Clam Farm also has an Instagram account at clamfarm_kosrae Here are some of my pictures and comments. Above you see one of the formerly extinct giant clams ( Tridacna gigas ) in a tank at Martin's clam farm, and beside that photo is one of a shell of that type of giant clam.  They can grow quite large (3-4 ft) and live for many years (100+). A mainstay of the farm is this not-quite-as-giant clam ( Hippopus hippopus ).  These are reproduced at the farm and placed out in pens in the Lelu lagoon, at the Okat Marina, and in Utwe.  The clam farmers are successfully reproducing and repopulating the local area with these clams.   Hippopus hippopus                 ...

Last Monday I decided to go on a shopping trip to most all the stores I frequent so I could share them with you.  This could be a weekly trip, it took more than 4 hours!  I had more than I needed by the time I got home.  Shopping, or provisioning, I find is one way to feel in control of things.  At first, it almost seemed like a challenge, maybe I would not be able to eat?!  Surely that's an over-reach.  But having what I want in my kitchen and house satisfies.  It is now easy, and fun, if every so often frustrating.          I started by driving north and stopped for gas at Steiner's but they were out of gas.   Uh Oh, I thought, do I have enough in my tank for this trip and then some?  I figured yes and kept going.  My first stop was almost to the airport; HT & Sons usually sells box wine.  I wanted to get some for dinner with Nick and Stella on Thursday.  But HT was out of box wine?!...

Last Saturday we went kayaking, Nick and Stella and I, in the estuary behind the Nautilus.  This is brackish water host to mangroves, epiphytic ferns, birds and fish, and a wonderful time. Our day was overcast and rainy, that made for a lovely afternoon that was cool (almost cold!).  We stayed out for 3 hours.  It was Stella's first time kayaking, and as is her wont, she led us for some amount of the trip.   We borrowed boats from the Nautilus and put in at a kind of low tide, meaning we needed to pole with the paddles to get us through the mangrove roots and over to the deeper water.  Once we got there, it was easy paddling for the rest of the trip.  The tide had been low, changed to incoming and high, all at the same level, which meant there wasn't any current.  The open waters led us to narrower channels and finally to the inlets from local streams.  We discovered to Nick's surprise a sulphur-rich upwelling of fresh water on the last strea...

Morning comes predictably when the sun comes up at 6:30, the roosters have been crowing for a while before it gets light.  It’s very quiet at Mr. Kennedy’s, hardly any cars on the road from 10 pm until after 7 or later in the morning when Sansrik Elementary School kids arrive by bus at 8. I get up and enjoy a cup of cold coffee (Nescafe instant made the night before and stored in the frig) and a donut, catch up with whatever the internet brought in overnight. Sometimes I get calls early in the morning, always fun when it’s a friend with no idea they're reaching me in Kosrae.   Always delicious, to talk on the phone, because often the internet goes out in the morning and that’s the end of the phone connection! Morning sounds always include sweeping.   Mr.  Kennedy’s wife Srue sweeps her floors and outside, the neighbors sweep, probably everyone is sweeping all over the island.   Mr. Kennedy powers up his weed whacker some days, overrides the sweeping.   ...