Ubud, Bali

Megan and I were in Ubud, Bali from 24-28 Dec. We had a lot of fun.

We rented a motor scooter for two days so we could get around town a little faster. The hotel we stayed at wasn't in the middle of all the action but rather located near a farm and it was very peaceful. December to March is the rainy season in Bali and so we weren't surprised that it rained a lot of the time we were there. We bought some ponchos, took a cooking class, and stayed out of the rain pretty well.

Here we are with our ponchos near a canyon that was terraced to grow rice...


Twice during our stay in Ubud we went to the monkey forest. This is a small piece of land that is set aside for a monkeys and a temple. It was a lot of fun to visit. One thing about monkeys, they don't like it when you stare at them too long...


They do like it when you give them bananas...


We had a lot of fun hanging around the monkeys. Several times Megan had monkeys crawling all over her, I believe she said it was a childhood dream. One of them thought my beard was fruit, so he cautiously climbed up my leg and sat on my shoulder for a few minutes. Then when he thought he had gained my trust he pulled it pretty hard and then jumped off. It didn't hurt too bad but it sure did startle me. Here is a pic of Meg with a monkey...


Behind her is a very old temple you can see a monkey in the foreground...


There were also cute baby monkeys...


A tail is as good as a leash...


We also went on a long walk and got really muddy...


But we saw some beautiful rice terraces...


To get out of the rain we also took a cooking class. It was really more of an eating class as we didn't do much of the cooking but we did do a LOT of eating...


We had a wonderful time in Ubud...

Kebun Indah

Our favorite hotel in Bali was Kebun Indah in Ubud. We stayed there four nights. The room was about $20 a night and that included breakfast and a complimentary pickup service. This allowed us to walk around and explore Ubud then call the hotel and someone would come pick us up. We used this on several occasions. We spent Christmas morning at this hotel and opened presents in our room. At around 1000 a hotel employee came to our room and gave us Christmas presents. Megan got a silky scarf and I got a candle, I guess Megan got two presents.

The breakfast that we got was incredible...


We each got fresh fruit with either yogurt or muesli or both, toast or a croissant, a fresh fruit drink, tea or coffee, and a main course. The main course was either a fresh fruit pancake with honey and coconut or a jaffle. A jaffle is a lot like a grilled cheese sandwich, it had either just cheese or cheese, tomato and avocado. Yikes! That alone was worth $20 a day!

Another neat thing about our room was the door, it was beautiful...


Here is a pic of the bed. We needed that mosquito net...

Bali is CHEAP!

This morning I went to a few Internet cafes to try to find one that has Skype. Once I found one I decided to go inside and check my email. I read and sent some emails, checked the news and read some blogs. All told I spent about twenty minutes. The clerk said that I owed 3000 rupiah for my time. I pointed to a sign that said 4000 rupiah per hour. He replied saying that I didn't use the full hour. Yes, I said so I shouldn't have to pay 4000 rupiah. He looked kind of frustrated and said 2000 rupiah. I paid him and went on my way.

On my way back to the hotel I realized that I had saved myself about 10¢.

1 US$ = 9434 Rupiah

This can be very confusing when purchasing things. There are a lot of zeros after merchandise. Megan would usually put her finger over the last two digits to find the price in dollars. One our first day we walked by a McDonald's with a sign for 1534 rupiah ice cream. I said to Megan "Is that 15¢ or $1.50?" It was of course 15¢ (17 after tax).

When we first arrived in Bali we went to the ATM to get some money. I withdrew 2,500,000 rupiah. This was giving to us in 50,000 rupiah bills. That makes 50 bills, that fills up your wallet really fast. At first I thought this was good because then we wouldn't have to worry about breaking a big bill. It turns out that 50,000 is a big bill. The first thing we tried to buy in Bali was a large bottle of water (1.5 L). It was 2500 rupiah, I handed the clerk a 50,000 bill and he didn't have change. Also, he was by himself so he couldn't get change. We went to another store where they asked us for something smaller and when we said that was all we had they looked around and one of the clerks ended getting enough change but we had to buy 3 bottles.

Here are some of the highlights of cheap stuff:
McDonald's ice cream 1700
Bootlegged DVD's 10,000 (Buy 10 get 4 free!)
One Hour massage 50,000
Motor scooter rental 25,000
One Liter Petrol 4500 (3.8 Liters in a gallon that makes a gallon of gas 17100 Rp or $1.81)

Kuta, Bali

Megan and I had a full day today. This morning at 0900 a driver came pick us up so we could go parasailing. So far every thing in Bali has been very inexpensive. For us to go parasailing, including pick and drop off from our hotel and a half hour transport, was $15 total. Once we arrived we went out on the boat with a few other groups of tourists. There was us, some other Indonesians, and some Japanese. It was interesting to hear one of the employees of the parasailing place speak with all the different tourists in their native language. He would seamlessly switch from English to Japanese to Bahasa (Indonesian) to Balinese. His English was far from perfect but he could definitely communicate very well. Para sailing itself was fun. I thought it would be a little scary but you ascend and descend very slowly so its actually very peaceful.

There were a lot of boats on the water that day...


In the afternoon we each rented a motor scooter and went to find a temple. Riding a motor scooter in Bali is a very interesting experience. First of all Balinese drivers drive on the left side of the road. This is not a problem most of the time however because there are many one way streets and also most of the streets are very busy so you can just be a cow and follow the herd. The problem starts when you are on a rural road. There were several times when I turned right from the left lane then went into the right lane. One time I did this there was oncoming traffic we each went the right (from my perspective) until I went into the gutter. Oh well, it's only a rental!

After an hour or so of motoring we did find the temple. It was busy place...


and there was a beautiful sunset...


Here we are on our hogs...


Random pic: Here we are in from of surfing Santa!

Welcome to Bali!

Megan and I arrived at Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, Indonesia at around 2200 on 20 Dec 2007. We stayed in Kuta which is a resort town a few miles south of Denpasar, the largest city in Bali. There is a large beach (our hotel was about 1/2 a mile away) with nice waves and every kind of restaurant you could imagine, from Mexican to sushi, Italian to McDonalds. The streets are small and congested and we saw people from all over the world.

Everything in Kuta revolves around getting money out of tourists pockets (obviously this is an overstatement but you'd be hard pressed to prove me wrong). Early on the 21st we went outside before breakfast to get an idea of our surroundings and as soon as we walked out of our hotel we hear

"Yes, please come to my shop. I give you nice price."

A little further.

"Yes, Hello I give you morning price. Please look here."

"Transport?"

People were selling goods like bootlegged DVDs, paintings and other artsy stuff, and fake brand name merchandise ( watches, clothes, sunglasses...etc). There were also selling services like guiding, transporting, and massages.

We were able to amuse ourselves at there cleverness and joked back with them frequently. One thing I found worked particularly well was to just repeat everything they said. This usually frustrated them, made them think you were an idiot, or made them think you didn't speak English and then they would leave you alone.

There are many "real" stores in Kuta also. When I say real I mean they had name brand stuff and real prices.

Here is a picture of Kuta Square...


The other thing we noticed was the prevalence of motor scooters. I use the term motor scooter and not motorcycle or scooter because they look like a scooter but are fairly fast like a motorcycle. Most had 100-125cc engines and could comfortably carry 2 (or more in some cases) people around the mountainous island. We figured there there were about 5 motor scooters for every 1 car. There are many advantages to having a motor scooter on a small island in the tropics. They are able to go around cars when the traffic backs up, get 100+ miles per gallon, take up very little space in parking lots, and are very inexpensive (new ones are $1100-$1600). Since the weather isn't cold the only disadvantage is having to ride in the rain from time to time. Most people were traveling by themselves but we saw up to 4 people traveling on one a few times and 3 traveling many times. Motor scooters are much better than a public transit system due to their compact nature, efficiency and independence.

Besides the motor scooters and the barrage of sales people we noticed a lot of offerings that are put up in front of peoples shops, houses, and everywhere in between. These add a very nice touch to everything. The offerings were very different in type, size and color. The most typical ones were about 4 inches square made of some type of palm leaf. On the leaf was a few different flowers, some rice, a cookie, and some burning incense. Usually I don't like the smell of incense but I discovered that when it is outside incense is much more tolerable, even pleasant.

Why the quadratic formula?

At the community college I attended and the state university I graduated from most students were only required to take one 100 level or higher math class. This usually meant they took College Algebra. The most challenging thing for students in college algebra I would say is the quadratic formula although this is only my opinion.

Why is this? There are much more useful things to learn in mathematics that don't have to do with the quadratic formula at all. Things such as geometry, trig, probability, comby, vectors or even the ability solve many different kinds of problems in my opinion are more useful than the quadratic formula.

Granted the the road that leads to the quadratic formula may help develop a students analytical abilities. And they don't ONLY learn the quadratic formula. But even so in general just solving equations is really boring and really uninteresting to teach.

I don't understand why being able to solve a polynomial of degree 2 is the pinnacle of mathematics for non-science and non-engineering college students. What do you think?

Please comment with any input you might have.

Moses?

Recently I took Oliver for a walk in the afternoon. I stopped for an ice cream cone and someone made a comment then laughed. I didn't understand him but wanted to be in on the joke so I asked him what he said and he replied.

"I didn't know Moses ate ice cream."

We both laughed. I suppose he was referring to my facial hair and the fact that I walk around with an 8 foot stick.

P.S. I carry the stick to protect Oliver from the many dogs that attack him.

Merry Christmas!

On Friday, December 7th, I came home from school to a wonderful surprise from Andrew. He dug me a Christmas tree. He actually went out with our little trowel, dug up a papaya tree (a little taller than me), and potted it. Then he decorated it with various lights (the colored ones aren't working in this picture), construction paper chain, and some ornaments he borrowed from our friends a week before. There were even presents underneath! He also had Christmas music playing and everything was clean. The whole thing sure made me happy. I had been a little bummed that we wouldn't have a tree. It seemed silly to buy an artificial tree, since we wouldn't be around to enjoy it for Christmas.
The next day, the tree was completely wilted, but our stick is still standing with all it's decorations.

I heard a funny story about why there are no real (non-artificial) Christmas trees for sale here. A few years ago, some stores tried to import some trees. The shipment arrived late... too late... after Christmas. So the stores had some firewood and a large bill. No one has tried since.


Now, some dog pictures: Oliver likes to bite my leg.
He looks and acts a little goofy at times.

Rocky, the neighbors' dog, gets into a lot of fights. Here he is pathetically nursing his wounds.
Moments after this picture was taken, he heard some dogs fighting, and darted over to join the action.

Grades

Well the semester is finally over. Here are the grades for the classes that I taught.

Business Math; these students where fairly advanced and none of them was in there first year.

a	6
b	9
c	7
d	2
f	3
w	2

Developmental Algebra; begining students with little motivation.

a	2
b	1
c	2
d	1
f	4
w	0

Note that none of the algebra students withdrew, contrary to their instructors advice. I filled out and signed three drop slips to three students who received f's and gave them to the students on the last day to withdraw.

The night that wouldn't end

Megan and I had been getting up pretty early maybe around 0530. I suppose this is due to the end of the semester and also we like to walk Oliver while it's still cool. So one recent evening I went to bed around 2030.We have been having mosquito problems in our house so before I went to bed I lit a mosquito coil. We usually talk about our day and drift to sleep around 2200 or so. This particular evening my night ended at around 0130. As usual the neighborhood dogs got pretty riled up due to a female. And the barking ensued. Usually this goes on for 10-15 minutes, which can seem like forever in the middle of the night, but this particular time it seemed to last quite a while. After 40 minutes of barking I went outside to scare off some dogs (I actually went out side with a big stick and a lot of anger to hurt some dogs). The dogs however weren't anywhere near our yard they were at the house behind us. I threw a few rocks hoping to break up the pack and retreated. I lay awake for another 30-40 minutes and then drifted back to sleep.

At around 0300 I heard an interesting noise. I wasn't sure what it was only that it probably needed my attention. Upon gaining my coherence I realized that Oliver was making a sound that indicated that he would soon vomit. I hustled to get him out of the house but I was too late.

Lights on. Put Oliver outside. Clean up vomit. Let Oliver in. Lights off. Stare at ceiling.

Once again I tried to regain my slumber.

The next incident occurred at around 0430. The mosquito coil only lasts for eight hours so I was awaken by a very loud buzzing in my ear. I dragged myself back to usefulness, turned on the fan and lay back down only to realize I had a half dozen mosquito bites on my back.

I usually sleep later than Megan and she does her best to let me sleep. She must have done so because I was awaken by a rooster at around 0630. After a little bit of yelling I went outside thinking that a chicken breakfast would be nice. The first thing I saw was the neighbors dog so I threw a rock at it. I then found the rooster and chucked a large rock at it. I missed. I'm going to look into getting a pellet gun.

Creating a Camp 2

Megan and I once again went to the island of Mawnd to clear out some of the jungle. Not much to report but I though I'd share some pictures with you.

The boat was supposed to leave at 0800 so when Megan and I showed up at 0815 and no one was there we thought that we were too late or that the work day had been canceled. Here is a shot of the lagoon from the boat dock...


In true Micronesian fashion the rest of the work crew arrived at around 0840 and the boat arrived at around 0900. At around 0930 we departed for Mawnd. This time Oliver accompanied us. He didn't want to get on the boat though so I had to carry him on. While we were there we worked mostly on cutting down small trees and large bamboo shoots. FYI, a recently cut bamboo shoot is very sharp. I got a small cut on my finger and it bled profusely, kind of like a cut from glass.

Here is a picture of the cleared jungle. The smoke is from the piles of refuse...


We also worked on making a path. This involved moving a lot of rocks and a lot of pinching of fingers. Unfortunately Megan's wedding ring got a little misshapen...


Here is a shot of Oliver on the boat...


Here is an upclose shot of Oliver and Megan...

Crazy Dogs

I know next to nothing about the mating habits of dogs. However one of the neighborhood females is in heat so I'm getting an uninvited lesson. For the past 4 nights there has been a lot of barking and growling, sometimes very near our bedroom window. This occurs between 2100 and 0300 or 0400. Needless to say it can make for some very long nights. There is one dog in particular that has a very peculiar growl. The only description I can give is that it sounds like a demon. After hearing the demon dog last night at around 2100 and hoping that I could get a long nights sleep I went outside to scare it away. I grabbed a long stick and a flashlight for a bit of security. I went around our house to see a small pack of dogs, maybe 5, and a lot of growling and biting. The only dog I recognized was Rocky. And it seemed like he was being attacked by two or three other dogs. Hoping to break up the pack I yelled really loud and hit the stick on the ground as hard as I could. This scared the dogs a little but it also broke my stick. So much for security. At about the same time our neighbor, Eugene, emerged from his house and scared the dogs a little further. Our neighbors house has a street on two sides and between the house and the street are some bushes that act as a fence. As I approached the dogs with my broken stick they ran through the bushes out onto the street. I pursued out of curiosity and to see if I could further scare away the dogs that where attacking Rocky. As I emerged onto the street I saw an image that will be forever burned into my head. About 15 feet ahead of me was Rocky. He was viciously fighting two dogs at the same time. The amazing thing was that his penis was in a female dog that was trying to run the opposite direction. When I saw this I stopped pursuing thinking that Rockies problems where way beyond me. Just then a car drives by and with help from the headlights I see more vividly what I had seen before. The car also scared away the attacking dogs. Rocky and the bitch (c'mon it's a female dog that's what there called!) were trying to unattach. I still couldn't believe my eyes. I was not going to help Rocky with this problem. After a few seconds a dog resumed attacking Rocky. At about the same time Rocky was freed from his date and ran home, while the attacking dog and the bitch ran off together.

After seeing all this I was sure that Rockies days as a stud were over. There is no way that he could perform his male duties after the strain he put on his reproductive organs. I was surprised this morning then when I once again heard growling and barking in the back yard. I went out side to see what was happening. In front of me was a scene exactly the same as last night. Only this time I could see everything. Rocky was attached to the same dog. While fighting off two or three other dogs. Having nothing to fight with I walked towards them while yelling and making a lot of noise. I managed to scare the other dogs away but Rocky was still attached to this other dog. The bitch had dragged Rocky into the bushes that bordered the street and it sounded like she was getting attacked on the other side. They finally parted ways and I got a good look at Rocky. He had scratches and blood all over him. From the blood stains on his teeth it seemed as though he had given and received quite a beating.

The whole situation still makes me speechless. The only conclusion I can draw is that Oliver will be an inside dog while he is under our care.

Movies

Megan and I don't have cable, we don't even have a TV. But we do rent a LOT of movies. At a video store less that 200 yards from our house we can rent four movies for three days for three dollars. This movie store has a very interesting business plan. When new releases come out they only purchase one copy. Then they make 10-20 copies of the movie and only rent the copy. Then when the popularity of the movie goes down they sell the copies for $1. If you rent a copied movie it's $1 but if you rent an original it's $1.50. I'm not sure how international copyrights work but this has be illegal. However, cable is $25 a month and the channel selection is not that great so we enjoy watching a lot of movies.

Since we rent a lot of movies we see a lot of terrible movies. The worst movie I've seen in more than a year is "License to Wed". I hated all the characters so much that at the end I was hoping it would turn into a slasher movie. We do see some really good ones from time to time here is a short list of movies we really liked:

In America - My favorite movie that we've watched since we've been here. About a Irish couple who moves to New York.
Rescue Dawn
Rain
The Wendell Baker Story
Perfect Strangers
Premonition

Thanksgiving

As I write this post it has just begun to rain really hard. Besides the random down pour the weather hasn't changed much since we've been here. I was sitting in class on Thursday (Thanksgiving) while my students were working on a problem thinking about how one major difference between Thanksgiving this year and last is that, as usual, I'm sweating through it.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Micronesia but due to the fact that there are a lot of ex-patriots (why am I an ex-patriot? I'm still patriotic!) that live here I was reminded throughout the day that it was Thanksgiving. People would say "Happy Thanksgiving" to me but since I was at school getting ready to teach they mind as well have been saying "Happy Secerataries Day!". Just saying Thanksgiving a few times during the day (I did) and having turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner (I also did, and it was delicious) certainly doesn't make it Thanksgiving. This may sound lame but giving thanks doesn't even make it Thanksgiving. What makes Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is taking time out of our lives to connect to with the ones we love. So I celebrated Thanksgiving this morning, Friday, when I got to talk to my family with the newest member of my family, Megan.

Thanks Megan. Thanks Family.

Around our house

In August I posted some pics of our house in Pohnpei. Here are some more.

Our washer is located outside of our house. This picture is to the 'right' of our house if looking at the front. In the background you can see a some banana, coconut, and bettlenut trees. Notice the rice cooker, we also cook rice outside due to the steam and heat it generates...


If you look at the above picture(if you click on it you can see a much larger version of it, this goes for all pictures that we post) you can see a blue metal thing in the background and also a large yellow disk. They are in the foreground of the next picture and in the background are the tombs of previous residents of our house. That's pretty weird...


One nice thing about living 7 degrees north of the equator is that when the sun is shining bright our clothes dry really fast. This is the front of our house. The sheets on the line dried as fast as if they were in a dryer. The negative side is that it rains frequently and without notice so these could have been soaked if we weren't home to bring them inside really fast...


Here is a picture of the pig that lives 10-15 feet from our bedroom window...


The pig is pretty quiet. The only annoyance is when the wind blows a certain way we get to smell the pig pen. It could be much worse though, our neighbor cleans the pen every morning.

Here is a picture of the pig pen with our house in the background. If you look close or click on the picture to enlarge it you can see our bedroom window it's directly above the pig...

Oliver Update

When we first brought Oliver home we felt a lot of pity for him. All he did was eat, sleep and scratch himself. When he was awake he had absolutely no energy. He would mope around and eat very slowly. He looked as though he felt he was in our way. After a few days though he seemed to perk up ever so slightly and after a week or so he was actually playing with us...



He will nip at our hands, feet and ankles when he wants to play. At first this was very pathetic and he would quite after 10-15 seconds. Lately though he has had a little more energy and will play for a few minutes. He is usually most active in the morning and evening. Though rare, sometimes his nipping will be too much for us!

Needless to say we are adjusting quite nicely to having a pet in the house. I only teach two classes so when times are slow it's nice to have a friend at home with me. Our other dog (not ours at all but we'd like to think so) Rocky is also adjusting nicely to his new neighbor. Here they are sharing their common interest, scratching and licking...


Parting shot 1:
For the last few months we have been at war with ants. These critters will find the smallest morsel of food and converge on it in swarms. We take out our trash every day and sweep the floor two or more times per day but we are never perfect...


The above attack was because we didn't clean out a can of dog food thoroughly enough and they found it in our trash. We put the empty can of dog food in the trash at around lunch time and this pic was taken at 2100.

Parting Shot 2:
Here is a pic of my new hairstyle...

Places I've been

I love Google maps. When it first came I spent many hours just looking at different places. Then when the satellite feature came out I spent even more time on it. I've made a map of some places that I've visited. I plan to add pictures to it eventaully. But slow internet makes that process, well, slow. Enjoy...


View Larger Map

Note:

• This list is by no means comprehensive.
• Most of the dates are pretty close but not exact.
  
• Some of the locations may be way off. I didn't spend too much time perfecting them. (slow internet)
  
• It is a fully functional google map so you can drag the above and click on all the markers
• Blue means I have only been there once or a few times. Yellow means I've been there quite a bit. And green means I lived there for a while.
  

OOP's (Only On Pohnpei)'s

Here are a few funny things that we've observed about Pohnpei...

• Coconut oil used in diesel engines ($2.50 / gal coconut, $4.55 / gal diesel)
• Moldy hair
• Moldy hair treated using coconut oil
• Neighbors castrate a pig 10 feet from bedroom window
• Neighbors eat a female dog because of to many gentleman callers
• World class Yellow fin tuna $1.35/lb, box of cherios $8
• A dog that you feed for three months won't be pet and a different one follows you out of the jungle
• A kid walking in the mud with no shoes on won't pet your dog because "he'll make me dirty!"
• 11 flavors of spam available in the grocery stores
• Canned tuna and mackerel is a big seller. (Ironic as it may have been caught right off the coast of Pohnpei, shipped to Japan for canning, shipped back here, then resold.)
  

We realize that these probably happen in other places as well but "Things that happen in Pohnpei as well as other places" isn't as catchy as "Only On Pohnpei".

Oliver

Andrew and I were worried about leaving Oliver outside to fend for himself overnight because there's some mean packs of dogs around here. So, we decided to let him spend as much time as he likes inside, which happens to be most of his time. Of course, this means housebreaking is involved.

I don't think he's been indoors before, because the first few times we took him indoors, Andrew had to push or carry him in. Now he thinks he can go inside anywhere - the video store, the fast food place, the library - we have to be careful not to let him slip past us. He is beginning to learn where he must wait outside, and where he can enter. He seems to be a naturally at doing his business outside.

Our first night with him, his LOUD pudding like bowl movement woke us up at 2am. He was in obvious discomfort and not in control. The next day, he didn't poop all day, so we were prepared for another cleaning project the next night. But, he made it to the morning. We took him on a walk when we woke up, and after a little while, he pooped.

Here comes the awkward part. Every time Oliver does his business outside, we must coo and praise and celebrate his poop with him. This is kind of embarrassing to do in front of people in the U.S. - but absolutely humiliating in Pohnpei. Locals do not have indoor dogs here. They think it's weird that we let a dog follow us around, and unsanitary that we keep a dog in our house. Needless to say, we get some pretty strange looks when we cheer for Oliver's poop.

The following morning, Oliver woke me up with some whimpers. Was he begging to go outside because he had to poop? I stumbled to the front door and opened it. He darted out and did his business immediately. The fact that he even left the house without me impressed me. He hadn't gone more than 10 feet away from Andrew or me since he entered our home. Incredible, did he really learn and understand that fast? Well, it's been one week today since we met Oliver, and the only mess inside occurred that first night. My only guess is that he'd instinctively rather go outside for some reason. Whatever the reason... I'm amazed and pleased we don't have messes to clean.

Ok, enough potty talk. Let me brag some more about how great Oliver is. We don't use a leash. He just follows us everywhere like he did in the mountains. One of us does usually carry a stick to scare off all the dogs that hassle ours. He's calm, and well-behaved with the dogs that are nice to him. We did catch him flirting with Rocky's baby-mama. He was even nice to our friend's dog who wouldn't stop barking and growling at him. I take him to my high school English class with me, and he sleeps at the front of the room. He follows me to the grocery store, and waits outside the glass door, watching me until I return. I've notice other people have to dog-proof their house. The only changes we've made were finding a place for his food, and bowls. We haven't had to move anything out of his reach. He's good with kids too. There's a 6-year old that plays with him at school, and he's been calm when my 11th graders give him a hard time.

He does bark a couple times at night, so we have to figure out what to do about that. I'm hoping soon to start teaching him to stay, come, sit, etc.

Oliver spends most of his time sleeping. I think his body needs the rest to digest all the food and get healthy. If he's not sleeping, he's most likely scratching. He has fleas. Andrew's done an excellent job of picking off most of the ticks. He's most energetic early in the morning and in the evening. When he's feeling playful, he'll push is shoulder into you to push you around a bit, and sometimes he'll nip at your fingers or ankles. If I pet him and stop before he's satisfied, he'll give a little lick and then start nipping my fingers.

Lu, a Chinese teacher at the college told me today, "He will be a very good dog because you rescued him."

Welcome to the Jungle

On Friday November 2 Megan and I headed into the rain forest of Pohnpei. A few months ago we asked rather casually in Megan’s office if there was any good hiking on the island. It just so happened that Megan shares an office with a Biologist who used to frequently go into the jungle and take some surveys of butterflies, lizards, dragonflies, …etc. Don, Megan’s officemate biologist, told us he take us out on the first three day weekend of the semester which happened to this past weekend.

A taxi ,reserved by Don earlier in the week, picked us up at 0630 and dropped us off at the trail head. For the first few hours the trail we were walking on was nicely defined. The trail is used by sakau farmers because it grows best on hill sides. We past a few sakau plantations and as we did the quality of the trail deteriorated. Several times we lost the trail and needed to back track a little. At around 0930 I noticed a dog about 20 feet behind Megan. The dog followed us for quite awhile. It didn’t seem that the dog intended to harm us but we were a little leery because of the other dogs we have met on Pohnpei. At one point the trail seemed to dead end so we had to cross a stream. The dog didn’t seem to want to get wet so we parted ways. About ten minutes later he was back. The next time we took a break I put some trail mix on a rock and the dog ate it very gingerly. He followed us a little closer now.

After we pasted a big sakau plantation the trail pretty much dead ended. We now bush whacked our way through the jungle while following a stream. As we gained elevation this became more difficult. At one point we were wading in the stream at an angle that made it more of a waterfall than a stream. We had given up trying to stay dry anyway as it was now sprinkling. Even though I was drenched I was not uncomfortable because it was warm out. As we ascended further the stream actually became a waterfall that was very beautiful. The dog was still following us although he didn't seem to enjoy it anymore. He was having a hard time on the slippery rocks. A couple times I didn't think he was going to be able to follow us due to the terrain but he always seemed to find a way that better catered to four legs.

After scaling a large boulder I realized that there was no way the dog would be able to follow us anymore. Once the dog realized this he started backtracking, looking for a different path. As soon as I had all but given up hope I spotted the dog. He was actually above us about 10 feet but couldn't get to us. Thinking he would eventually figure out how to get to us we continued up the waterfall. When we had left his sight he started whimpering a little bit. I felt bad but thought surely he would find a way to us. A few more minutes went by and he started howling as if he where really in distress. Don said that there was a dry spot up a little further and that we could take a break there. Immediately I went back down to see if I could help the dog. The howling got louder as I got closer and I was afraid that he had hurt himself trying to get to us. Fearing the worst I continued descending. As I neared the dogs distress calls my mind was racing; “What if he fell and broke his leg?”, “What would I do if he was immobilized?”, “Why did I give him the @#!$ trail mix?", …etc. I was now in a position that I believed I would be able to see the dog. I couldn’t. My mind continued racing. Hearing and not seeing the dog I was pretty sure I would have to put the dog out of his misery. Now I was racing down toward him stumbling along as I went. At once the howling stopped. I stopped fearing the worst. I looked up to see him in the same spot I left him, he was looking at me. My presence seemed to calm him. The dog didn’t look distressed in the least. He looked bored. I went about searching for a way to get him down. Once I did this he seemed to start looking again too. I found a way to get to him but it involved wet, slippery rocks. I was pretty sure that if I could get to him I would not be able to get down and definitely not be able to help him down. Megan now joined me and she felt that the situation was pretty hopeless. Although oblivious to this until now I realized that it was raining very hard. Megan retreated to the dry spot. Ten minutes later Don showed up to see what was going on. I had pretty much given up at this point and seeing Don I realized that we should continue on our way. Don shrugged his shoulders and I was ready to continue on the hike. Just then the dog walked up right next to me. Seriously folks I couldn’t have made this stuff up if I tried.

We continued over broken terrain up the hill. Now the dog was at my heels. Periodically I would hit the dog in the face with my heel he was so close. We pasted a few vistas that offered beautiful views of the forest and even a waterfall. After quite a long climb our journey seemed to plateau, though still ascending the elevation gain was negligible. Noon arrived and we took a lunch break. The dog benefited as we all took pity on him and shared our lunches with him. I fed him some more trail mix and after I had finished my apple I gave him the core, he ate it. Not many dogs will eat fruit and I suppose there are even less that will the core of an apple. He sat in front of all us, pretty evenly spaced waiting for a handout. After Don fed him some of his bagel that contained meat he sat a little closer to Don. As we continued I remarked that if the dog followed us up a waterfall for a few nuts and some cereal he surely wasn’t going to leave us after we fed him so much. Knowing that Megan wouldn’t be against the idea I said that if he followed us all the way home we’d keep him.

At the end of the days journey we came into a large meadow that was filled with ferns. This is where we would camp for the night. The meadow…

The campsite…

After setting up camp we headed to a stream to get some more drinking water. Don snapped this pic of us with our potential new dog (he’s pretty scrawny)…

Notice on the left of the previous pic there is a stick next to Megan. We each had a walking stick that was very instrumental to our getting up and eventually down the mountain. Here is pic of Megan ascending the fern meadow…

This is what the view from our campsite was. Here you can see the mangrove forest at the edge of island, the outer reef of Pohnpei, and the farthest thing you see is Ant Atoll…

We had a pleasant evening enjoying each others company and reliving the events of the day. Dusk set in around 1830 and we decided to go to sleep for the evening. Megan and I talked about a possible name for the dog. We settled on Oliver after the title character in the play Oliver Twist. “Please sir, can I have some more?” was what he seemed to be saying as he followed us during the day.

Believe it or not we shivered throughout the night. The combination of damp clothes and fierce wind kept us very cool. Despite this we felt well rested in the morning. A nature call finally made me emerge from the tent. I was curious to see if the dog had decided to stay with us. The spot he was the previous evening was vacant but Don was up and motioned over near his tarp. At some point during one of the many night rains the dog had cozied himself up to get escape the rain. I didn’t get a picture of the dog but he was curled up in tight ball kind of like he is in this pic…

After packing up the tent we decided to skip breakfast since it was raining, we hoped it would clear a little or we could find some shelter in the forest. The first thirty minutes of the morning I was miserable. The rain was pounding us pretty hard. I had a small pool of water in my shirt where the waist belt from my pack was wrapped around me. The ferns we were walking through made sure our legs were equally saturated. I had a hard time warming up since the ferns grew very thick we walked pretty slowly. Once we were out of the meadow we picked up some speed and the canopy of the forest helped shield us from the downpour. At around 0830 we found a small shack that Don guessed was a temporary shelter for sakau or banana farmers. We decided to have breakfast there. Once again we all gave a portion of our breakfast to the dog. Since we each shared so much with him he may have eaten more that any of us individually.

Up until breakfast Oliver had followed me very closely. However after Don shared a hardboiled egg and part of a bagel that had salmon on it the dog decided to split his time behind me and Don. After a mid morning break and more of the salmon bagel, Oliver followed Don exclusively…

I had to sneak the previous pic of Don as he seemed a little camera shy. Notice how close Oliver is to Don. That is how close he always follows. Sometimes he will stop and smell something foe a few moments but he never goes in front of the person he is following.

Our destination was the COM national campus, pictured here…

At around 1130 we arrived and used the facilities to wash up. Originally we planned to take a taxi from COM to our house in Kolonia but now that we had a dog we figured this wouldn’t be possible so I headed to small store and bought Oliver a can of tuna to prepare him for the 5 mile walk. As we were about to embark another one of Megan’s officemates, John, offered us a ride in his car. This was relief to us. Especially our feet.

I’m sure we’ll have a lot to write about in the next few days with the new house mate and all. I’ll leave you with a pic of Oliver in at his new home. His scrawy spine has earned him the nickname “stegosaurus”…

Creating a Camp

A few weekends ago Megan and I had a chance to visit a small island in the lagoon about 1 mile off shore of Pohnpei. A portion of this island was given to a member of our church and he in turn gave it to the church. It is to be used as a camp by the church and also by a school that is run by the church. Eventually they will construct a handful of grass huts for sleeping as well as a large meeting hut. Before this construction can take place the land must be prepared, water must be installed and money must be raised. Our job was to clear the jungle.

We arrived with ten to twelve others in two boats with two chainsaws and a dozen machetes. As it is custom here the men set about to the chopping and clearing while the women piled the brush and prepared lunch. The jobs of the men and women where equally interesting to me. Armed only with a machete I chopped down banana trees, bamboo trees and bread fruit trees along with grasses and shrubs. Watching some of the locals fall large trees with only a puny machete was very interesting. We would drop banana trees 20 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 8 inches with one swing! Meanwhile the women started a fire and using various leaves and stems they created the tools with which to prepare lunch. Among other things they made tongs to turn and pickup meat on the grill and a brush to add the marinade sauce. It was very educational to watch them use things from the jungle to accomplish basic tasks. For example, one man cut himself on a piece of bamboo ( FYI the edge of a recently cut bamboo shoot is as sharp as glass) he then cut up a part of a banana tree trunk squeezed some liquid out of it then tore a piece of his shirt to wrap the cut and then he went back to work.

Unfortunetly I did not bring my camera so I don't have any pictures to share with you. I did however find a fun picture that I took of Megan quite some time ago. Hope you enjoy!

Pohnpei is beautiful

This picture was taken yesterday. This is how it looked I didn't do any crazy photochopping to get these colors. Also notice that the body of water pictured is the ocean. It really is this beautiful...

...and another...


...but we really miss home.

Hello from the land of perpetual summer! As you may or may not know Megan and I keep in touch with our family with Skype.(if you use and want to talk to us we're usually on on Saturday between 0900-1300 our time ( good luck figuring out what time that is for you!)) If the person we are trying to contact has Skype this is free for us and them and if they have a webcam we also get to see them. If they don't have Skype it only costs us a few cents a minute (it is supposed to cost $.341/minute but there seems to be an error) so we have been very fortunate to be able to keep in contact with everybody. One popular topic as of late is the changing seasons. Currently it is really rainy in Oregon (why are you surprised mom and dad you've lived there 30 years!), unusually warm and now cold in PA, and becoming more tolerable in Riverside, CA. In Pohnpei it's the same. Really humid and uncomfortable for most of the day, every day, every season. The weather never changes. This is by far the hardest thing to deal with for me.

I love the people here. Their culture is rich and unique. I've talked to our neighbors and other locals for hours asking question after question. The pace of life is slow and forgiving. The traffic is very courteous to foreign cyclists. The food is very unique. We eat a little more fish then we'd like but also really enjoy it. Here is a picture of last Fridays dinner (thanks for the supplies Sachiko!)...


But alas the weather is unbearable. I am amazed at my inability to entertain myself during the heat of the day. I am a fairly active person and the weather has a tendency to sap the life out of me. This is especially evident on weekends when there no work to be done or AC'd office to be occupied. Being the person that I am, I am not content to sit inside and read a book all day.

I guess that'll be enough whining for today. But stay tuned for more there is weekend every 5 days!

I do enjoy anything that has to do with a boat. On Sunday Megan and I once again got to go out with our friend Dennis. We had a wonderful time swimming...


And exploring the mangrove forests...


It was a boatload of fun. You can't see but I'm actually smiling, even during the heat of the day...