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.
Saturday, December 27, 2003 ~ Pohnpei, Chuuk, Guam
Lynn and her girls, Brined and Renay, and I went flew from Pohnpei to Chuuk, and from Chuuk to Guam. Everyone had to get off in Chuuk, but women and their children were allowed to stay on the plane. The girls were already seasoned travelers by the time I had met them and were no trouble at all. But the flight from Pohnpei to Chuuk, and Chuuk to Guam was already seeming long and drawn out to me. Having said my goodbyes in Pohnpei, I just wanted to get wherever I was going to.
Flying into Guam was impressive and reinvigorating after living in Pohnpei only six months. It looked positively metropolitan from the air. We were met at the airport by Lynn’s half-sister, Lynette, who had been adopted as a baby by Lynn’s mom’s older brother and his wife. Lynn and Lynette chattered away, catching up with one another, while I took in the sights and tried to get my bearings.
I was tired when we arrived, but also energized by the sense of being back in a western world that was familiar to me, with more than one brand of gas station, fast food chain franchises I recognized like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, four lanes of traffic, even the traffic lights themselves gave me a sense of comfort. There is an energy here that is absent in Pohnpei, of people who know what they’re doing and where they’re going, and why.
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