Okay, Okay

Hello:)

So, a few things:

1)  We DID see the eclipse the other day and it was really cool.  It didn't get totally dark here but it was cool to see the crescent sun.

2)  YES, this IS the rainiest place in the world, and YES it does rain everyday, usually 2 or 3 times.  Sometimes it sprinkles, but sometimes it DUMPS.

3)  Always carry a machete, you never know when there will be a delicious coconut lying in your path.

4)  We are living with a host family for the first 3 weeks (until the 4th of August), then we move to rural, rural Madolenihmw where we will have our own house, and will be teaching in the local high school.  Once we move, access to internet may be scarce.

5)  Breadfruit is tasty, we eat lots of delicious fish (Tuna Sashimi is an everyday affair) and often it is just sitting there WHOLE on the plate which is cool.  There are other weird foods and I'm having fun with all of it:)

6)  Everyone's so SOCIAL!

Okay, please, if you have questions let me know and I WILL respond because right now there's WAY too much going on for me to be able to think of what to say...  I'm not sure if that makes any sense but it's true.

Kaselehlie! Taylor here, posting a few pictures of our trip. This is a pic of Pete and myself on our boat ride out to Nahlap Island for a relaxing day of snorkeling, kayaking, and exploring.

This is a panoramic view of a beautiful marine park we went snorkeling in. It was the first time we finally got to go in the water. One of the hardest things to wrap my mind around is the idea that we are on an island, but there are no beaches and the rivers are too dirty to swim in! Our new house will have more opportunities, though.

And here is a picture taken from Nahlap,of a storm that rolled in over the main island. Storms can come in pretty quickly and last a long time. This storm came over to our island eventually, and we escaped the cold(ish) rain by diving into the water and snorkeling around!

This last picture is of the waves once we finally reached them. We crossed lowtide beaches and trudged through sea-grassy, marshy mangrove swamps to get to the coral reef where the first waves we've seen yet are constantly crashing. The two men in the picture were some local spear fishers.

Kaselehlia!

Kaselehlia maing ko! Hello everyone!

This is Pete writing from the beautiful pacific island of Pohnpei. Though it's only been a week since we left it feels more like a month. Umm... I have absolutely no idea where to start.
I guess the biggest difference (cultural or otherwise) that I've observed so far is the local perception of time. Time is viewed totally differently here and I'm only beginning to understand it. Here, time is not seen as limited and thus a commodoty like money, here it is an unlimitedly abundant rescource to be used liberally without worry. What this amounts to is a lot of sitting out: sitting out on the nahs (open aired space with thatch roof), sitting out in the shop, sitting out at the Sakau rock, sitting out on the street. Just sitting and talking, or just sitting. It is not weird or awkward here for a group of friends to just sit around together in silence with perhaps an occational remark about something that happened today. I like it. I could continue about time and silence for hours, but in the interest of covering more ground, I will move on.
Let's see... kids are WAY independant here from a very young age. It is not uncommon to see one or more children walking on the street or playing in the field with no supervision. It is not because they do not have families, but rather it's because the whole society of the island is SO close knit that wherever they go they can't be far from caring hands (that's my guess at least). Also kids get their own machete hear pretty much as soon as there hans are big enough to hold it. It is a staple particularly for procuring coconuts.
Umm... There's soooo much more, but I've sort of got to hurry. Our host family (with whom we will be staying for the next 2 weeks) is AWESOME! They are sweet and they walk slowly, like everyone, and care about us and are teaching us lots of Pohnpeian. Once we move to Madolenihmw, we will be in a very rural area in a house with just the two of us. It rains really hard 2 or 3 times a day here and it scorches all the other times.
Ok, the battery on this computer is dying so I've gotta go, there will be more to come.

Kaselehlia!