Beginning with my June 2008 post "It's Been Five Years," the following is the continuing story of my travels from the United States into Micronesia ~ Pohnpei, Guam and Saipan ~ and my life since June 2003.
Monday, August 25, 2003 ~ Pohnpei
The "Mehn Why Band" plays a variety of music. We jammed last night (Sunday night here, it's Monday night now). They practice/play on Sunday nights. It was fun. I had a borrowed steel string guitar, and seem to be pretty well accepted into jamming with them. So, I guess I'm in a band, or so I'm told. The band does a variety of things. We're all around the same age, in terms of musical influences from the 60's and stuff, so we know a lot of the same kind of music. The best stuff we did was jamming on some basic blues riffs. Fun. A good, healthy way to spend Sunday nights. I need to spend more time with ex-pats, as going "local" is too chaotic and tragic at times, especially if I need my rest on the weekends, or on weeknights. But I'm finding the balance.
I ate crow the other day. Literally. Tastes like rabbit. Not much meat on a bird like that, so it was just a couple of nibbles. (Birds and cats are quite small, here.) Uncle Lyndsey, the man we were visiting, his 14 yr. old son killed it with a BB gun, then made a fire, spitted it, and cooked it. You should've seen this kid with a machete', cutting up firewood, and making fire. Not a wasted movement at all. Lynn kind of took over at one point, and I got her to show me how to use the machete' their way. Theirs is a Japanese/Phillipino influenced style of using a large "knife," using the part of the blade close to the haft. The Korean way of wielding a blade, which I've been taught when I was studying martial arts, use it differently, using the end, which is weighted heavier and should have more physics cutting power. But their way works very well, especially with a well-grinded machete'. When in Rome....
Last Saturday, Lynn and I took a short drive to her deceased grandfather's property. And we went into the jungle with the machete' to see what was left of the land she spent some formative years on. I felt like I was in a Tarzan movie, just walking up a few dozen yards from the dirt road. All that was left was some concrete from the foundation, covered with vegetation, the outhouse, a water tank of sorts. And she climbed a lime tree to cut down some limes with my machete'. Later that day, we ate red snapper, that was caught the day before. (Still haven't tasted dog yet....) I think we used to call it "squirrel fish" on Kwaj, but it's good. Parrot fish is still better. And the big gray fish with the rhinoceros hide skin is better still, if you're going to eat your fish cooked.
Lynn says I'm losing too much weight and need some meat on my bones. I think it's just all the fish I'm eating, as I rarely have or even crave red meat anymore. Occasionally, I'll have some, like an Australian steak or something, overcooked hamburger, just for the red meat, protein and iron, and to have something different. But I don't crave it at all, and had cut it out of my diet a lot before I came. Still, in the States, you eat a lot of crap that fattens you up. With not much to choose from here, you find the freshest stuff you can, which is fish. Still no fresh vegetables or fruit on the island at the moment. There's not another shipment expected for another couple of weeks. Lynn says she can't find decent breadfruit, and I don't care for taro. Avocado grows here, but the locals don't eat it, it's fed to the pigs. Monstrous portions of white rice that is served with every meal has little nutrient value other than starch calories. When it comes to groceries, I'm getting accustomed to buying up stuff when I see it, as it may not be there tomorrow.
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