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.
Tuesday, September 2, 2003 ~ Pohnpei
Mae sung Mwau (ph) ("Good morning")
I haven't felt this way in years. It's so nice to have someone to be close to, to be intimate with; and the work is interesting and challenging; and I feel useful around here again; and the people are worth working for, not the kind of idiocy I see in the states with our current political leaders at the national and state level, and political demagogues like Roy Moore. And this place (and its women) is just so damned beautiful, even when it rains. There's politics and corruption here, sure, but there's not the foolishness that I've seen in the states the last many years.
My sister asks whether I have a TV? Do I get any American channels? Do they have Video Rental? Yes, there's TV: ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, PBS, come taped two weeks late from San Francisco. CNN and BBC are current news but it's weird listening to the news with British and Aussie accents. I don't watch TV for the news, here. I check a few papers on the Internet, like the NY Times, and Washington Post. There's a Chinese channel, a Japanese channel, a music video channel, Cartoon network, that only seems to play those raunchy cartoons, and Popeye, which is strangely appropriate. And there's the Hallmark Channel, broadcast in English, with Chinese subtitles. Also a "premium" channel that plays movies, not as good as HBO or Cinemax or Showtime though.
My sister has noticed that all of my emails lately are addressed to her and Mom, but not to Dad. She asks whether something happened or whether he gets his own. He does get some separate email of his own. But I've noticed some silences to some of the things I've said. No responses to the last few sets of pictures I've sent. Not a word in response to my openess about Lynn and other things. So, I'm not always sharing some of the more personal stuff with him anymore. I think he thinks I've gone nutz. (As various members of Lynn's family think she has). That I'm over-romanticizing the place and my experience here. Could be. So what? At one point, when I was explaining my perceptions of how children are raised here and how I could see raising kids here, at least the first ten years of their lives, he wrote and said not to go through the looking glass, that America's the greatest country, etc. My father has become exceptionally "patriotic" since 911. I'm 43, a little old for fatherly advice about my love life, or how great my country is.
My sister has been researching sakau. She says a website reports that it sounds like it tastes terrible though and the consistency doesn't appeal. She says it sounds like people get mellow instead of obnoxious like with alcohol. Yes, sakau is quiet and mellow. I don't think that it's addictive. I certainly don't crave it, like I do sometimes with alcohol. Though there are those here who abuse it. I can't comment on the taste other than to say it's "earthy," very. The reason I can't comment is because Lynn says you can never speak ill of sakau. Powerful magic in sakau, so you don't do it. I can tell she doesn't like its taste though. The locals are quite impressed that I drink with them. It's not something I care to do a lot, just occassionally, when I'm in the mood to be local, and my stomach's up for it.
My sister asks whether there is much drug use out here like we were exposed to when living on Kwaj. I haven't seen or heard much in the way of drug abuse out here other than local "maru," marijuana. Very cheap here. You can buy a joint for a dollar if you know where to go. Lynn and her mother are very much against it, as it seems to have destroyed some people's lives. Haven't heard much about harder stuff, although I did hear something once about crack cocaine that got on island. Apparently, people who didn't know any better used it for makeup, or as a dried lime substitute to wrap with the betel nut in banana leaf to chew. As to what the mehn why are doing in the recreational chemical department other than booze and pot, I wouldn't know.
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