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.
Wednesday, August 26, 2003 (continued) ~ Pohnpei
I was in Sokeh's Shopping Center, a grocery and department store (sort of, on both counts), on the way home from work. Island life here teaches you to check every place on the way home for fresh produce, or different products that may not be there tomorrow. No such thing as a real all-in-one store here. I don't really expect to see anything fresh for a couple of weeks, until the next ships come in. All veggies are gone except potatoes and carrots. Haven't even seen onions or cabbage recently. Some limes, a few other things. Even dried substitutes like onion powder are gone from the shelves.
Anyway, I'm at the checkout line, and I hear this terrible wail from a child. The worst I've heard on the island. I looked around and saw a child, maybe three or four, pushing on an automatic exit door. I think she wasn't heavy enough to have the automatic part of it open the door for her, and it was pushing back at her. My first thought was that her foot had been caught in it, maybe tearing on the top of her foot or something. A man rushed over and got her, and picked her up. Her father. And soothed her, but she was terrified. But the fascinating part was the reaction of the other patrons, male and female. They heard a child in pain, located it, and you could see everyone in the place making the decision to go help, just that they saw the father get there first. The look of empathetic pain on everyone's face for this child, the immediate instinct to rush to help. Who would not want a child raised in a place like this?
Sexual mores are decidedly un-western. There doesn't seem to be a homosexual taboo, here, but I can't exactly tell. Lynn is totally non-plussed about whether someone's gay or not, but I'm not sure if that's her, or everyone. I've not encountered any hint of homophobic animus among anyone else I've talked to, and it's not an issue I even bring up. I've seen young adult males holding hands walking together returning from church. Not sure if that's sexual, or just male friendship in Micronesia. Unfortunately, although there are laws, I think that sexual relations with teens and younger is not that much of a taboo as it is in the west. The impression I get is that they're not sure what the big deal is about. Could be wrong. (I've also seen copulating dogs in the middle of the road twice. Peter and Lynn thought it hilarious when I leaned out the window and yelled at them to get a room already.)
I need to go to Chuuk in the next few weeks. I'll be doing more immigration law, customs and fishing violations stuff. I need to meet the staff out there. Get them to know me. I released some Taiwan fishing vessels last week because I couldn't get a straight answer out of someone in charge out there. The violations were more serious than I would have released them for if I'd had straight answers instead of the Micronesian runaround and delay. 'Can't have that. I need to be friendly, gentle, but firm, that there are certain communications that need to be delivered.
The Fiji trip fell through. The acting-AG said he wanted someone from the "law" side to go the convention. I'm "litigation." It's a mistake to separate "law" from "litigation" that way, but a lot of attorneys general offices do that. We should all be doing all the work, so the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. My litigation experience is valuable input on the administrative side, or so I've found from my days in the AG's office in Alabama. But hopefully, the old AG will be re-confirmed by Congress this week, and we'll get it straight. There'll be plenty of opportunity for all sorts of trips like that in the months to come, so I'm in no rush. This is an important convention of countries from Australia east to Polynesia, north to the top of Micronesia, carving out how to deal with tuna fishing in international waters. (Just speaking of tuna, I want some sashimi....)
Not too terribly a busy day today. I put together some settlements for fines on some vessels that had improperly documented sailors and crew aboard, expired seaman's cards. I looked into a deportation matter I've been given, for an American who's overstayed his entry permit. He's married to a local, and has been ignoring notices from immigration to leave or renew his permit. I need to decide whether to deport him civilly, or make an example of him and put him in jail for a year or two. I stroked the chief of immigration and customs a bit. I talked to someone in the insurance department about a personnel matter. I reviewed some pleadings from a defendant in the Chuuk case who is trying to disqualify the entire AG's office for bias and conflict. Not a bad day. Actually pretty light, work-wise.
Didn't go to lunch. I had some fried rice and scrambled egg for breakfast on the way in, that I picked up at Mobil Oil and wasn't that hungry. I usually drop by one of the Mobil Oil stations for fresh coffee on the way to work.
I spent some time after lunchtime with a couple of the secretaries letting them quiz me about Lynn, and then learning some Pohnpein phrases from them. I'm really trying, but it takes hearing and repeating a word or phrase many times for me for it to click in my brain. But the secretaries like that I'm trying. With the females, I speak more Pohnpein, because I know they're local. With the males, I'm not always sure they're from Pohnpei, so I speak English unless I know they're from Pohnpei. Right now, I'm trying to remember "K'med-med-eh-way-yuk?" (ph) ("Do you miss me?").
I told them funny stories about my experiences here and some interactions with people. They seem to like my humor, poking fun at myself. We laughed a lot. I love laughing with Micronesians. It's like the rain here: It's soft and gentle, and brings a breeze and fresh air.
There's an investigator with the National Police who steps out to smoke, in his 50's I think. He always looks so serious, uncommon for the people here. His name is Johnny-Boy, I'm told. I went up to him and told him he always looks so grim, so serious. He said he has ten children and must set an example. The secretaries, and later Lynn when I told her, thought that was hilarious. Hard not to laugh at the little things here, as that's no real reason to be so grim out here. One of the secretaries comes from a family where there are 12 brothers and sisters. They think nothing of that here. Imagine. But then, that wasn't that uncommon only a few generations ago in Europe and America.
Lynn and I are well at the moment. Everyone on the island ~ Mehn Why and local ~ tells me I should be seeing other people. We saw each other for a couple of hours this evening. I've shared a lot more about us than I would otherwise, but this is my way of journaling what I'm going through, and she's a big part of what I'm going through. Had I not met her, I'd have been gone from here a month ago. How long we'll stay together depends on her more than me, but we're making an effort, and it's sinking in that that's what it takes.
I'm working with some good people, for the most part. One of the guys in my "section" (of three) is a bit quietly manic, and worriesome to me. To others too. Good at pursuing white collar crime, but he gets a look in his eye sometimes that's troublesome. He really screwed up these cases that I said could get me killed on Chuuk. I don't think that's going to happen, now, but I need to tread lightly and undo a lot of damage he's done that he's totally oblivious to. I have the support of the former and hopefully to-be-reconfirmed AG and support of the chief of litigation, so to speak, in the manner I want to approach these cases ~ conciliatory, respectful, apologetic for past errors that may have been culturally insensitive, that kind of thing. So, that's good. My instincts are good, and are confirmed by people who matter, professionally and locally.
Lynn is going to clean my house for me, for pay. I think we've negotiated a far more than reasonable price from my perspective. I need the house cleaned. Floors mopped, house dusted, trash taken care of. She needs the money. I've been giving her money as it is, and don't like feeling piece-mealed about doling out cash without knowing where it's going or what it's for. She knows it offends me, at least I think she does, and she says she doesn't want to ask more than she has to.
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