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.
Thursday, August 7, 2003 ~ Pohnpei
I'm finally starting to dispose of garbage the local way: by throwing leftover foodstuffs out in the front yard. Plenty of dogs and cats wandering by that come and clean it up, and you'd never know I did it. A cat that I thought I'd run off has come back. It mews all the time. But Lynn says it's good luck to have a cat ("ketch") that you don't own adopt you, so I've changed my attitude about the cat. It has a ringed tail, like a raccoon. So I'm going to call her Rocky.
My sister asks whether I feel funny not being an expert in anything anymore, with all the new things I'm learning here. It is actually very different being back in learning mode. And I'm loving it. Practicing law here is like what it must have been like practicing in the old west... by the seat of your pants. The guy that moseys into town with a law book or two gets to set himself up as a lawyer. That's just how it's done. Everyone does it. So, once I got used to that idea, things got more and more interesting, relaxed, and fun.
During work hours I learn new law; after work, I learn to speak Pohnpein and about Pohnpein culture, customs and traditions. I haven't been a student in a long time.
Lynn's Mom and four year old daughter are flying in today. I'm driving Lynn to the airport to pick them up. They leave Sunday. Should be interesting in the days and weeks ahead.
Last night, Lynn and I were sitting on the porch steps, talking, listening to music. Full moon, starlight sky, just the light coming from one bulb in the kitchen coming through the windows, a tender breeze every once in a while. Lynn told me to go get the flashlight, quick!! I went, couldn't find it immediately, found it, gave it to her. She shined it on a crab that had been crawling toward me up the steps. A red thing, hard shell, about the size of the Maryland soft shell crabs, maybe a little larger, nothing like the humongous Mangrove crabs. It would've pinched me on the butt, if I hadn't moved. We laughed about that. I asked if we should cook it. She made a look of disgust about the crab. I asked if they ate that kind; she said no. Later, my neighbor K'nease came by. My age, but looks 15 yrs. older. He said those crabs were good eating. People from different clans have different attitudes and superstitions about what can and can't be eaten.
More on K'nease: I'm a few months older than him. He was injured. Some say he fell asleep drunk on the side of the road and his head was rolled over by a car. K'nease says he was attacked from behind by someone with a sickle. Both stories plausible. Injured badly in the head, in the motor function area. He recovered for the most part. He and my boss, who lives nearby, walk together a lot, and K'nease hangs around him a lot. He appears as a sloppy lazy drunk, and he does get drunk quickly. Bums smokes. Doesn't work his land, which offends the other locals. But Lynn and Peter sense there's a lot more to him, and we've been talking to him about culture and tradition here, and learning a lot. Two nights ago, Lynn and he were talking and he said to her to speak in English, so I could understand. I told them it was OK, because I was actually rather following what they were saying. They mix English in with their language at times ~ it's not pidgin, it's just the way the speak, because there aren't Pohnpeian words for a lot of things that come from America ~ and I could pick up some nouns and names of places, and ideas, and inflection. So, I was perfectly happy listening without knowing word-for-word what they were saying.
Sex roles. So interesting for the "liberated" American male to adjust to. Lynn doesn't want me to clean. We share cooking, but she cooks for me more than I do for her. It's what America must have been like in the 50's. A Pohnpeian version of Ozzie and Harriet. But I think it's important to her for her to do that kind of thing for me, because it's her contribution, and she says feels bad otherwise. Didn't really realize that until yesterday, after a talk I had with my young friend Peter.
We've been together a month. All the locals assume we're married, but we're careful to try to disabuse them of that notion. Try, anyway.
My sister and mom think I've got a talent for learning languages. I don't know about that. It's not like I've ever been fluent in anything. But it's just about a desire to learn, to understand, to be understood. Being somewhat empathic helps. As does having a self-taught musical ear. People speak softer here, I speak softer, everyone does. Maybe it makes you listen closer.
I bought myself a guitar on the way home from work yesterday. A cheap, cheap, cheap almost toy-like thing for $60.50. It needs new strings, and I'm not even sure the island has any. The only way to get decent sound out of it is to be real soft and gentle with it. But then, for the most part, that's true of everything here.
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