Last

Thanks to everyone who's been reading our blog over the past year. It's been a month since we left Pohnpei, and Pete and I have really been enjoying our time back... although we miss our family and friends we made. Kalahngan en kupwrumwi, oh ih pahn kilang uhk pileou. Kaselehlie!

Sakau en Pohnpei

And here is a step-by-step tutorial on sakau en Pohnpei, as demonstrated by our friends and family in Diahdi:

This is the sakau from the funeral. The roots are the part that are pounded to make the sakau.

Large, flat stones are used as the base for pounding. The smaller, rounded stones are used to pound the roots into a finer, mulch-like consistency. The pounding can be highly ritualized, as is the pounding during a kamwadipw in the presence of the Nahnmwarki.

While the men are pounding the sakau, others prepare the hibiscus through which it will be squeezed. The bark is stripped from the trees and torn into long shreds.


The hibiscus is soaked in water and worked, creating a slimy liquid that lightly flavors the sakau.



The hibiscus is laid out and the sakau is placed inside.


Once the sakau is rolled inside the hibiscus, it is squeezed and the muddy liquid is caught in a half-coconut shell to be consumed. The first few squeezes are extremely potent and are usually reserved for the Nahnmwarki or those with the highest titles or guests.
After that, more and more water is added to the pounded sakau roots before they're squeezed, so the drink is more diluted for the rest of the crowd.


And here is a picture of the final product. Looks like chocolate milk... unfortunately it doesn't taste the same!

Diahdi

Tay here again, posting a couple more pictures whilst we're in town.

This is at Nahlap, a small island off the coast of mainland Pohnpei. Pete's holding a local speargun, getting ready to swim out past the breakers and shoot some fish.

Part of our family lives next to our house most of the time, but also goes back to their rural house in Diahdi every so often. One of the children was having her 1st birthday party back in February and Lilly invited us to come along. We drove down the ring road a ways, and then started a 2 mile trek straight into the jungle to get to the house. This view greeted us at the top of a hill, looking back where we'd come from.

Nano, Malakai, Pete, Lilly, and Sinana lead the way.

Once there, the family went out fishing and caught our lunch.

While we stay there, we only eat freshly caught fish, fresh breadfruit, the occaisonal freshly caught crab, and rice. And everything is cooked with coconut milk, which is made from the coconuts the boys climb to get.

And here are some of the kids playing games with us in the kitchen.

Kaselehlie! We're in town for the weekend, so I thought I'd take the chance to put up a couple of pictures.

The crystal clear water at Black Coral.

The jungle reclaiming a broken down car.

The sakau offering for our host father's younger brother's funeral.

Grating coconuts for a curry dish and some freshly caught fish.

The stones at Nan Madol.

COMET results!

Finally, after 3 1/2 months of waiting, we got the results for the COMET!

As I'd said before, apparently only 8 students passed last year. I'm pretty sure that means that only 8 got into either the National or Degree program. Well, this year was much more fruitful. Here's the breakdown:

Of my 74 students...
11 are going straight to COM National Campus
23 are accepted into the Developmental Education Program
24 are accepted to the Certificate Program at COM Pohnpei Campus
15 did not pass
1 did not take the exam

So the COM Nat'l Camp is an actual accredited college, so they'll basically be going to a regular college. The Dev-Ed program is for students who were close to Nat'l level, but need a class or two first. So they'll take some remedial English classes for 6 weeks and if they improve, they can go straight to Nat'l from there. The Certificate program is mainly a vocational program and is for those whose English wasn't quite up to par, and the 15 who didn't pass the first time have the option to retake it in May or November. I'm going to have an extra class for them a couple times a week to help them get ready for the retake.

Also, three of our students got the 3rd highest score on the math section in the whole FSM and one of our students wrote an almost perfect-scoring essay (49 out of 50 points).

I'm so proud!!! I've been having students come into my room all morning just to shake my hand, take pictures with me, thank me, or bring some music and have a random celebratory dance party. It's been great. I'm really proud of my students and excited that I could help them out so much this year. Apparently these are the highest scores in a number of years. I just hope that next year's WorldTeach volunteers can take all the hard work that Pete's put into the Junior class and help them achieve similar results on next year's COMET.

Anywho, I'm sure we'll put up some more stories and pictures later!

Ant

With less than two months left in Pohnpei, Pete and I have been taking more advantage of the adventures this island (and its outer atolls) has to offer! We've both been buffing up on our spearfishing skills at Palikir Pass (complete with world class surfing waves from November-March) thanks to our friend Tyler's connections. We went out once with the Pohnpei Surf Club, a somewhat pricey but luxurious option with larger boats and coconuts and snacks to share when we were out of the water. We went out another time in a local boat with Tyler's friend Ancher, and it we got soaked by the waves long before we even reached the Pass. The coral was decent at the Pass and we saw a plethora of animal life, including a large family of squid and $5 floating through the water. I have a shot-to-kill ratio of exactly 0% as of yet, but just getting to shoot the spear gun was enough excitement for me. Aiming will have to come later. Pete has shot several fish, including trigger fish, squirrel fish, a spotted red grouper, and parrotfish. Tyler, who spends most of his free time spearfishing around Pohnpei and has a pretty badass speargun, has shot too many fish to count.

This past week, Tyler's mom and sister came to visit from the states and he planned a vacation for them that was chock full of the kind of adventuring we were looking for, so we joined them on some of their outings. The first day we went out with Ancher to Palikir Pass. After snorkeling around for a while, we asked him to take us to a more local spot that tourists don't come to, and therefore will have better coral and bigger fish (the advantage of going out with a local guide). We swung around inside the reef to a shallow spot that was teeming with wildlife. The water was amazingly clear and its depth ranged from just 3 feet to around 30 feet. The boys took their guns out to the deeper waters and hunted fish while I was content paddling around and observing the fish. The shallow areas were particularly cool because I could get up close and personal with the sea stars, crown of thorns, angel fish, clown fish, and giant clams. Upon returning to the mainland, we realized that our SPF 55 sport sunscreen did not protect us very well from the noon sun and that we were in fact extremely burnt. A week later, I'm still nursing the burn on the backs of my legs!

The next morning, we set off with the Pohnpei Surf Club for Ant Atoll, approximately 8 miles off of Pohnpei's shores. There was a storm brewing and large enough swells that by the time we arrived I was feeling a little queasy and was ready to jump into the water. Allois and Jerry, our captains for the day, dropped us off near one end of an island and advised us to drift along with the current and he'd pick us up at the other end. Tyler and Matt were the first to jump in, and the first thing they did was yell, "This is amazing! Get in the water!" Tyler's mom, sister, Pete and I jumped in and found ourselves staring through crystal clear water at a 70 foot wall of coral and exotic fish. The sandy lagoon floor gave way to coral that stretched up to plateau just two feet under the current water line. It was absolutely breathtaking. We drifted along and gaped at the complex coral structures and the dazzlingly colorful and bright fish inhabiting them. We swam up and down the wall for a while, and then the sharks started coming. The ones I saw were just 3-4 ft. white tipped reef sharks, so pretty harmless. But one of them happened to be swimming up the wall perpendicular to my position, and just being able to see her mouth and the jagged edges of her teeth coming up at me were enough to hasten my departure from the beautiful coral wall.

Allois and Jerry then took us to another island that had a beach. A real live beach! A sandy beach! Small though it was, it was the first beach I've stepped on since being in Pohnpei, and it felt great. The water was shallow and sandy and stretched out to a rock "cliff" where the floor dove down into the surrounding ocean. I started out to the rocks with the boys, but the outgoing current was stronger than I would've liked and so I turned back. Along the sandy floor, a few sharks were perusing in search of a snack and a healthy population of fish was avoiding them. The best part were the giant clams, of which I saw so many that I lost count. They are truly beautiful creatures, with colors encapsulating all those of the rainbow, and the ones I saw ranged in size from a few inches to a foot across. Some coral housed up to 8 clams on one surface! They were quite remarkable to watch. On my way back in, suddenly all coral gave way to a completely sandy incline leading up to the beach. Now, I knew there could be stingrays in the sand, so I was careful. For whatever reason my attention wandered and resulted in me almost putting my hand directly on top of a burrowing stingray 2 feet in diameter with angry looking barbs on its long tail! The water was only about 2 feet deep at this point, so the only way I could get a comfortable enough distance was swimming away sideways from it, hoping that my flippers wouldn't accidentally disturb it! I payed much more attention to the sand after that.

After a short break on the beach where we barbequed some of the fish Matt, Pete, Tyler, and Jerry had caught we moved on. A heavy storm opened up right above our boat and it was freezing. The feeling of "cold" is novel in Pohnpei, but it still wasn't all that welcome. We boated over to our last snorkeling destination which was on the oceanside of one of the islands. The water was about 50 feet deep where we were and the visibility was impeccable. Tyler caught a pretty big grouper almost as soon as we got there, and the sharks were very interested to see if he'd share. One glimpse of a 7 ft. long grey reef shark coming up from the depths was enough to send me back to the boat in a fit of swimming that I'm sure would've qualified me for the Olympics, if they had a category for "flailing/desperation." The waves were rocking the boat so much, though, that pretty soon I was feeling sea sick and ready to go home. All of the sudden, Tyler was yelling for Jerry to throw him a buoy and line- there was a school of dogtooth tuna nearby and he wanted to eat one. I new I couldn't miss that, so I jumped back in with the sharks. Tyler ended up spearing one that looked like it could easily be a 75 pounder straight through its gills. It immediately dove straight down, taking all 300 ft. of line with it and plunging the buoy 40 ft. underwater. Then, without any fight, the buoy, gun, and line began floating back up to the surface. The tuna had wrenched the barb off of the spear and gotten away, surely now pursued by the nasty looking sharks that had been eying us earlier. So the big tuna was the fish that got away that day, but it got Tyler's excitement up for his next run-in with a tuna.

We got back in the boat and it took almost 2 hours to get back to the shore, with me feeling sea sick the whole time. I was very grateful to feel my feet back on solid ground, but totally pumped about everything I'd experienced that day. After we showered off we caught some dinner at a asian-fusion buffet, saw Shutter Island at the island's only movie theater (with air conditioning!), and turned in for an early night. The next day we got some pizza and then headed back to Madolenihmw to get back to teaching. I mention each of these things, because FOOD and ENTERTAINMENT are not things we come by easily in Mad-town. There are no building except for houses, churches, and schools, and there's nothing even remotely resembling a restaurant in the whole municipality. So it's nice for us to get into town every now and then and fatten ourselves up.

So here I am now with only 5 weeks of school left! I've opened this last quarter up to learning anything and everything they've wanted to learn but haven't yet, including drama, poetry, dance, human bio, how to bake a cake, and about the Iraq War. It should be much more interesting than grammar and thesis statements! I'm still waiting to hear the results of the COMET, although what I've unofficially heard so far is that 26 students passed, our school ranked 3rd in the FSM (for what, I'm not sure), and one of our students got the 3rd best math score in the FSM. Are any of these true? I highly doubt it, but I'll let y'all know when I get the official word.

Kaselehl,
Taylor

Rain Dances

It finally rained!!! Forget those weatherpersons, they don't know what they're talking about. For the past couple days, it's been raining on and off, which is bringing us new hope that the drought will be cut short. We still don't have any running water in our house, but a new pipe built out front is supplying us with all the water we can carry. So there's the newest update! As well as the fact that I, Taylor, have my return date booked. Pete and I'll be leaving the island on June 9th, stopping in Hawaii for a week, then stopping in LA for a few days, and flying into IAD on June 20th. I'm pumped!! See you all soon,

Taylor

Class Pictures

Kaselehlie! It's Taylor again.
Since people are worrying about whether or not school will finish if this drought continues and worsens (no, we do not have water back yet), I decided to take a couple class pictures just in case.

All of my students are seniors, and there are 4 different tracks in the high school- A, B, C, and D. The tracks are chosen for them based on their performance on a high school entrance test, and they can switch around somewhat but mostly they stay in their sections until graduation. My sections are all pretty even- around 20 students- and then there are some sections, like Pete's 11D class with 60 students (they split them up into 2 separate classes to spare him)!


This is my 7th period 12C group. They're the business track of the school, and my smallest (and most estrogen filled!) class.



This is my 5th period 12B class. They're the second academic track. This is the class I had a fight break out in, a "love letter" written to me, and all sorts of other wonderful surprises.



This is my 2nd period 12A class, posing outside. They're the first academic track, and for the most part they're the most gifted at English and academically driven.



And finally, this is my 1st period 12D class. Or at least some of them. Having English as their first class of the day isn't necessarily the best for them, as many of them get to school late and then miss my class. There are 17 boys and 1 girl, quite the opposite from my 12C class. These are the vocational students, and they're focusing on agricuture, mechanics, engineering, and home arts (for the ladies, of course...).

Title Ceremony

Hello all! It's Taylor. I meant to write this up a while ago, and it just popped into my head the other day, so I guess getting around to it late is better than never, neh?

Now I'm not an expert on the title system of Pohnpei, but here goes nothing...
The Pohnpeian culture is built on a hierarchy of titles, with each of the five municipalities (Madolenihmw, U, Nett, Sokehs, and Kitti) having their own mini-system of titles, and each having their own Nahnmwarki and Nahnken- the man with the highest title and his second, respectively. Madolenihmw is the largest and the "highest" municipality, so the Nahnmwarki of Madolenihmw is the most powerful traditional leader on the island. At kamwadihps and other ceremonies, tribute is paid to the Nahnmwarki by bringing sakau (kava) plants, yams, and pigs. Therefore, a man's wealth is measured in the amount, size, and age of his sakau, yams, and pigs. As men acquire more wealth, they can apply for higher titles and therefore gain higher positions in society and the traditional government. Recently, money has been added as a tribute. Wives receive a complementary title to their husband's.

Anyway, I bring up my own botched understanding of the culture to explain the ceremony Pete and I were invited to wherein our host father was receiving a higher title. It was back in our old neighborhood, Nahnponmal in early December and 12 men were receiving titles as part of this ceremony. It was an all-day event, and Pete and I showed up somewhere near the beginning of it, around noon. It was an extremely hot day, but everyone was in good spirits. Sitting in the nahs was the Nahnmwarki of Sokehs, other high titled men, and their wives. The sakau rocks were already in use when we showed up and didn't stop until well into the night.

To the right of the nahs was a collection of yams. The yams are dug up, strung up between two or more poles for carrying, and propped up by a series of old oil cans. As you can imagine, these yams are supposed to be a statement of how wealthy you are and how much you respect the Nahnmwarki, and thus they are huge. Then there was some other random tribute items, including pillows, mattresses, chickens, rakes, just many household items.

To the left of the nahs was the pig area. These pigs, also huge, are hogtied and brought to the ceremony early in the morning and then remain hogtied and lay around in the heat without water or food, waiting to be slaughtered. When their time was up, I watched as men walked up to the prone pigs, some already dead from heat stroke or exhaustion, and stabbed them inceremoniously in the side with machetes. The pigs were very much still alive after the initial cut, alive enough to attempt to run away and make the more horrible raptor-like sounds I've ever heard, and had to be stabbed again and again with the machete. When they finally succumbed, a man walked through the hog crowd with a blowtorch and sizzled them. Removing the hair? Getting the skin ready for pig skin treats? I have no idea. But it was kinda cool to watch. Then the professionals got in and started gutting and dismembering the pigs. At the end of the ceremony, everyone left with a piece of pig. The higher your title, the bigger piece of choice meat you left with. The whole head, even, if you're lucky.

Much of the ceremony was sitting around, waiting, but there was some entertainment and no shortage of food. At pretty much any event you go to, your lunch will be a "take-out" which is basically a huge platter or bucket filled with food and ceran wrapped, or sometimes a modest takeout container packed to its brim with food. All the women involved in the event prepare a large amount of their delegated food/drink and put a little in each takeout bucket. At the appropriate time, the woman picked up the largest buckets and danced in a long line to deposit them at the feet of the Nahnmwarki in the nahs. After the highest title holders had their food, every last person at the ceremony was handed a box of takeout.

Afterwards, it was time for the presentation of the yams and sakau. The men grabbed their offerings and lined up to bring in their yams, one by one, and present them to the Nahnmwarki. They started with the smaller ones, and eventually were bringing in yams so large that four or more people had to carry them. They removed these from the nahs and began the same process with the sakau plants. For traditional ceremonies, it is important to leave the whole plant intact, even though it is only the roots that are pounded. I had seen larger (meaning older, and more potent) sakau plants before, but these ones were just absurd. The last sakau brought in were as large as two people crouching together on the platform they were carrying, and I'm sure whoever drank them in the end got messed up.

Finally, the men and women getting new titles were invited up into the nahs. They sat facing each other, got smeared with coconut oil on their neck, shoulders, and arms, and a coconut shell of sakau was passed along them as they were given their new names.

After that, the official ceremony petered out, as did our energy. No amount of water was enough to keep us hydrated, and we were glad the whole ceremony was taking place just down the road from our host family's house. Our host father's title when we arrived was Sedin and his wife's was Sehd Pein. The ceremony was to gain the higher title of, what sounded to us, like Nano RRRrrrRRRrrrr en Sokehs (we'll definitely have to get them to write that down for us...) and Sehd Pein is now Nanopei. At the same time, though, everyone still pretty much always calls them Sedin and Sehd Pein. But that title's there, waiting for when they need it.

We live on a tiny island.

Still no water, but we're focusing on bigger and better things these days.

Such as the local fads.

With a population of only about 30,000 people, Pohnpei is about as big as a state university. What this lends itself to is trends spreading like wildfire throughout the entire island, and no one knowing exactly by whom or why it was started. When Pete and I first got here, we noticed a lot of students walking around between classes holding their cheeks. It looked kinda funny, so it was pretty noticeable. We only just found out that it's a sort of game that they've been playing: you have to hold your cheek, and if you don't, anyone around you can slap you in the face really hard. Are we having fun yet??

The next fad wasn't so much as a game, but more like an annoying call. Anytime someone says something jokingly, or if you even think they're joking or should be joking, you yell "kaing!" at them. This is just to say, "Yeah right!" or "Liar!" They say it in a very nasal, loud way, and it's kinda hilarious.

And now, we've entered the Budget Phase. Any time someone asks you a question and you say/indicate "Yes," they yell "budget!" at you and then you have to do something for them, if they ask it. It's pretty innocuous, but also ridiculous because our students often engage in budget wars with each other or, even better, with us during class. So Pete and I have had to be really careful about answering our students, and they're getting more and more sneaky about weasling a "yes" out of us, haha.

That may be all the wisdom I have to expound on this fine afternoon. We had a little bit of on-and-off rain this morning, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that it'll come back in force soon!

Water!

It's Pete

There's no water. They're saying this will be the worst drought in 15 years and that we may not have water untill May (el nino and stuff). The generator for our section is on and off and definitely on its way out... Well running water and electricity, it was nice knowing you.

No Water

It's Taylor again, on day 2 of Championship Week. Our teams have... well... lost pretty much every game so far, but it hasn't dampened our spirits. We still have the loudest cheerleaders! Our girls softball team is playing now, and last I checked they were actually kicking some butt, so we'll hope for them to be the one team that pulls it through for MHS!
Interestingly enough, the rainiest place on earth can still have its dry spells, and we're experiencing one of those right now. There haven't been any heavy rains since the New Year, and the past 2 weeks have been completely dry. So yesterday afternoon, just as we got home and were readying ourselves to dive into our massively neglected pile of unwashed dishes festering in our sink, we watched as the stream of water slowed to a trickle and stopped.
Sohte pihl! No water!
As of now, we have no water at all in our house, and the number of houses in Madolenihmw with water is rapidly dwindling. We went up to the high school campus last night to take advantage of a small bit of water for a shower. But sooner or later that water will dry up, so we're all doing our own versions of rain dances to encourage a massive downpour that will hopefully replenish our ranks.
Well I'm going to go cheer on our team some more, and hope that we can take one win for MHS this year!
Soutik mwahu.

Just Stars

Well heloooo there! It's Taylor again, back from a long absence.
Things have been crazy around here for me, as the College Of Micronesia Entrance Test (COMET) approached. The date was originally set for sometime in mid-November, got pushed back to January 29th, and then pushed back again the week of the 29th to... sometime in February. Finally we found out the date, February 5th, which has (thankfully!) come and gone.

This test has somewhat been the bane of my existence, especially recently, when the administration decided the seniors needed intensive English and math classes only for the 2 weeks leading up to the test. This meant that my 4 classes of seniors were collapsed into 2 classes (40 students each) that met for 2 1/2 hours instead of the usual 45 minutes. It was difficult, but we got through a surprising amount of information, so I guess it was all for the better. The test is broken up into 4 sections: math, writing (essay), grammar/vocab, and reading comprehension. Each section is between 40-60 minutes long and is supposed to test the students' aptitude for each of the sections on a college level. There's no real "passing" or "failing," but the students need to get certain scores in each section to be accepted to the COM National Campus- a 4 year university. If they do not get satisfactory grades, they can go to the COM Pohnpei Campus- a community college. Last year, Madolenihmw High School only had 8 students get satisfactory scores while the other two high schools, PICS and NMHS, only had a total of 9 students get unsatisfactory scores. Our school was very upset by this, and determined to change the outcome for this year's students. I've been working extremely hard with the students and pushing them to learn everything I could teach them to help them with the test, in an attempt to help as many pass as possible. Early on, however, there began to be grumblings that we could not have so many people fail again this year, it would be terrible for the numbers you see, and maybe the solution should be to only let the brightest and most-likely-to-pass students even take the test this year. Obviously, I was not a fan of this idea. I am not a numbers gal, I'm all about the people. Ultimately, all the students who wanted to were able to take the test. And now it's over! And now we can all relax a little bit! YES!!!

Now we're revving up for Championship Week, a 3-day tournament for the three public schools, and somewhat of a celebration for finally getting through the COMET. We'll be competing in events such as baseball, volleyball, track and field, and an essay contest. The competition is being held in Madolenihmw, so everyone will be heading out this way to watch the games. This will certainly be an exciting event for Madolenihmw and all of the staff/faculty at our high school, where the games will be held.

Of course, school has not been the only thing we've been up to out here in the Pacific. As Pete has written about, we spent another awesome weekend at Black Coral seeing sharks and fighting with the raging winter currents. We've gone into Kolonia a couple times to eat at real restaurants (oh, the thought of it makes my mouth water!) and see the other WorldTeach and Peace Corps volunteers. Mostly, however, we've simply been enjoying the beauty and quiet of life in Madolenihmw. We've taken a short break from drinking sakau en Pohnpei, although we're itching to get back into it soon! Our friend down the road has opened up a nightly Bingo game at her house, so we've partaken a couple of times. Although let me tell you- Pohnpeians are not messing around when it comes to Bingo! They have very intricate rules and different types of games you can play, all under the heading of Bingo... suffice to say I haven't yet won a game.

Pete and I have also been hosting some of the Peace Corps and WorldTeach volunteers out at our house, giving them a taste of life outside of Kolonia. But most of the time, it's just Pete and myself. Most of the time, we just hang out with the family or take long walks down the road to end up sitting on the sundial at PATS and watching the sun set behind the mountains overlooking Madolenihmw Harbor. Most of the time, life moves slowly and quietly forward.

The other night, we lost power around 5 pm. This isn't a huge deal, we frequently lose power for long stretches of time. This time, however, it stayed out for a long, long time. We cruised through the food we could make without cooking for dinner, and then were confronted with the question of "So... what do we do now?" Pete and I went down to hang out with the family for a while, and then wandered over to the steps outside our family's sometimes-open-store. From there, without any lights or noises, we sat under a blanket of a billion stars and talked about religion, stars, the single-serving pre-packaged insanity of life in the US, the Universe, and what foods we were craving most. I've been reading a lot of National Geographics lately (thanks Grandma!) and in one it talked about light pollution. It said that if you can see only 8 stars in Orion's constellation, you are in an area of heavy light pollution (that is, if you can even see it at all). However, if you are in a clear area, you can see upwards of 50 stars in the constellation. That night, I'd say we could see much closer to 50. Just being without power for those 5 hours made me realize how harmful so much light and noise all the time can be to one's system. Just sitting and looking at the darkness can be an amazingly cleansing experience. I would recommend it.

Well I'm off to go do some laundry and clean up the house in case we have visitors this week. Until next time!
Kaselehlie,

Taylor

Sharks Part 2 and other assorted goodies!!

Wow, I sure am sorry it's taken so long to get back to you on that one... don't worry, I haven't been eaten, and it WAS a white tip although apparently they get the occasional great white inside the lagoon (or so I hear).
This is Pete by the way. So, allow me to elaborate on that last post: we went to a little island off of this island. The little island is called Black Coral. It is private property, just land owned by a family. If you know the guy or if you get ahold of his phone number you can go. It's really beautiful. By many accounts the best snorkeling around Pohnpei. This is because fishing is forbidden. So, the fish population and coral are left fairly untouched and teeming with life. And where there's a teeming fish population, there's a teeming fish population, there's a teeming shark population!
Black coral consists of two TINY pieces of land with a small channel between them which has the bluest water I've ever seen. The channel can get some pretty strong currents going, regardless what the current is like in the greater lagoon because, well... it is a channel. It is easy to be a happy and sated snorkeler after a long day of simply swimming in this little channel, but I decided to explore so two other guys and I went out a little further.
As we swam away from black coral, the coral beneath us got deeper and deeper down until it was perhaps 80 feet down (at which point the bottom was still clearly visible). On the swim out we saw a shark or two just resting on the bottom. I can safely say the rumor that sharks never stop swimming is bullshit. Anyway, when we got too close they would get up and swim away. Black tips and white tips maybe 5 feet long. When we got to a certain point the coral just dropped off into the deep abyss of ocean. At the edge were thousands of fish!! We saw a school of Barracudas, maybe two or three dozen of them. A giant school of fish with hundreds of members just sitting there in the shape of one giant fish. It was fun to dive as deep as possible and stir them up.
Then we saw more sharks. Up to this point we'd seen three or four swimming alone, but now we saw a pack of four or five grey reef sharks. Those things are big and sleek and these ones were circling. We were all really pumped at the prospect of seeing an actual shark kill. We waited for a while but alas they moved on.
We saw the water from the channel was getting a little murky indicating that the current was turning against us so we decided to head in. We made our way back, and as we approached the head of the channel the current became considerably strong (the easiest way to land is through the channel). So we've reached the channel (we're in like 6 foot deep water) and I'm going only slightly faster in my direction then the current is going the opposite direction. I turn my head to the right as I prepare to cross the channel to land and there, no more than 10-15 feet away from me, swimming with the current and with unsettling ease, possessing a body longer than my own is a white tip shark. I watched it for a second, raised my head to tell my friends, looked back and it was gone.
Shortly thereafter we made land and told stories over our fire and under the infinite stars.

I realize I shifted to 1st person, but it just felt right. Ok, I'll have to get back to you with the "assorted goods" promised by this post's title.

Much love