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.
Friday, August 29, 2003 ~ Pohnpei
We went to another waterfall the other day, halfway around the island, with Lynn, the AG (still waiting to hear if he'll be confirmed), and K'nease (who Lynn tells me later was trying to hit on her on the ride back). It's the third different waterfall I've been to. I think I like the first one I went to the best, but this one is really nice. Sometime, Peter's going to take us on a three-hour hike (each way) to some place that has six falls.
Here is the shell, a trident, I got for $40!! I imagine it would costs hundreds in Hawaii. My friend from the office, Peter, is holding it, so you can see some scale. A really beautiful piece. Some relative of Lynn's got it. She tried to get him down on the price for me, but he was firm, and I think it's definitely worth it.
If my boss does get confirmed, we're going to buy a boat together. He's a really nice guy. It'd be a real shame to lose him. He got grilled hard, but gently, from the Chuukese delegation to the confirmation committee about the way the cases I've inherited were handled before I got them. Totally mishandled. These are the ones that'll get me killed, if I don't find a conciliatory way to bring the parties to the table. American John Wayne mentality is just not the Micronesia way, and I'm more and more peeved at the way the lawyer who brought these cases handled the arrest and search warrants.
I've gotten word my household goods set sail on the next vessel, estimated departure date, Sept. 15; estimated date of arrival, Oct. 6. Should make for a nice birthday present, although I have no idea how they'll get a truck up the little incline to my house.
Slow work day today. Was late to work (some Mondays in Micronesia, some people don't even bother to come in). 'Woke up to no power. On Pohnpei here, there is what is called "cash power," where you pay in advance, get a code to punch into a unit on the wall, and you've got electricity until the cash is used up. I've found not running the A/C lasts me more than a month on $100, which is about close to 500 kWh. So, I had to drive to town, drive back, punch it in, it didn't work, couldn't find a number for the electricity company, was just about to drive back to town, when Lynn got it working, then dropped her off, and went on to work.
Once again, a spectacular sunset. I really need to take some 35 mm pictures of the place. What a view I have. Too bad some of it is obstructed with phone or cable lines.
A lizard just crawled across my toes. My first thought was it was a roach. Just a lizard. There are some big spiders here. The only thing poisonous are the centipedes, which I've not seen, and the frogs or toads which come out like a plague where I work when it rains.
A slow day. So I spent most of it brushing up on local statutes and case law, just "reading the law," something lawyers used to do for recreation in the old days. I started to focus on some admiralty/maritime stuff. I am so enjoying the diversity of what I'm learning, especially the maritime, customs, and immigration stuff. It's a pleasure to be able to apply the experience I have from my former government work in Alabama out here, and to be able to see issues in other areas like personnel, insurance, and administrative law, not to mention my civil rights work, on both sides. Reading civil rights, property, and land use/ownership cases with the Micronesian touch is really interesting.
I had my first craving for food from home, today: A BBQ sandwhich from a place called Sams BBQ in Montgomery. But, as usual, I had sashimi, fried tuna (always very tasty, would make a great fish sandwhich for McDonalds), miso soup, and cucumber salad, and, of course, rice. A typical meal for me, here. Last week, I picked up some chicken for lunch, and banana leaf wrapped "yam," which is purple here. And tasteless.
I was scanning the NY Times and Washington Post online today, and saw a picture of a former client, the Montgomery Co. Sheriff, dragging some older guy away from the Alabama Suprerme Court Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monolith sitting in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Participating on the ACLU trial team together with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State in the case against Roy Moore was the last case I was involved in, in the States. I'm glad to see at least one of my former clients is enforcing the law. What a great country I'm from....
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