It is so hard to start writing when your first few days of break have been packed with a bunch of really fun things…Originally I thought that this Christmas was going to be a totally awful, meaningless...etc…because I am…very far away from both family and friends…and in a completely different country, in the state of Pohnpei (yes Pohnpei is a state, a very beautiful and rainy one actually). But as I am finding out this might actually be one of my favorite Christmases…like something I will really want to remember…hence why I am writing about it.
Thursday was my first day of vacation, and I was ready to be completely and totally free of all teaching and school related things…except for the fact that I had to do grades…I wandered down to the office to see if they had any whiteout…I messed up on my grades the night before and needed to whiteout a bunch of grades, this often happens when you put the reading grade where the language grade is suppose to go…anyway as I came back to my apartment I saw the guys, Mitch and Jay (you might recall that I mentioned them before), they had just arrived from the Pastor’s house and were wandering around campus…in a rather confused manner I might add…I waved and continued on to my apartment…after all I was a teacher on a mission…to complete grades. 15 minutes later I walked back down to the office and found the guys sitting outside the office door…again I said hi, went inside…returned the whiteout and walked out the door and talked to the guys…they were waiting to go on the day trip that Mr. B had planned so that the “friends” as he puts it could see the island…Jay wanted to know if I would go (after all I have been there before...and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go yet again), I had a tough choice to make...I stood next to the yellow truck and thought about it for about 30 seconds. To sit in my apartment all day doing grades or going to the ruins and waterfall...15 minutes later I found myself in the back of the yellow truck bumping down the “main street” of Kolonia and generally wondering what I had just gotten myself into.
The truck ride to the ruins takes forever…and well before you get there your bottom is very sore from sitting on the wooden benches in the back of the truck. Maggie and I kept moving around, complaining about how hard the benches were and how rough the road was. Eric and his girlfriend were standing holding on to the roof of the truck and just chatting away (they by the way are the cutest couple ever…so adorable), Maggie and Seth (her boyfriend) talked together, Jay, Mitch, and Seth’s friend (I can’t remember his name) were all talking together and I just sat and watched the scenery go by. Everyone kept asking Maggie and I if we were getting closer…but every time they asked us we had to remind them that we had never driven to the ruins before…(we went by boat the first time)…soon the guys were shifting and grunting as we hit bumps...it seemed to have dawned on them that their bench wasn't really all that comfortable...it is hard not to find a comfortable possition in the back of those trucks...either way by the end of the trip you will be sore…Too soon we reached the end of paved roads and found ourselves bumping along Pothole Lane and Trench Road...The ride was generally awful and there were small groans that could be heard from those sitting on the benches…Anyway once we got to the ruins I realized that I had forgotten my money…so Maggie paid for me, $4.00 really isn’t that bad of a deal. The trail through the mangrove swamp wasn’t bad, we past a little house that had a sea turtle swimming around in a bucket…poor thing…as we past I thought about Mr. Harshman and turtle soup…it was such a cute little turtle…in a big and awesome way...such a shame that it most likely was going to become supper. Finally we were at the ruins and all we really had to do was wade across the small channel and we would be there…or there was a boat, but hello the water only came a little past my knees and I wanted to get wet…so Jay and I waded in and climbed up the opposite bank and went off exploring. Now there are things that we do here that would never fly in the states…can you even imagine what state park rangers would think if they saw a bunch of people climbing up the walls of very ancient ruins? They would have a cow! But here no one cares…all the people care about is that we pay them $4.00 and come back again with friends. So Jay and I climbed up the walls and wandered looked at the view…then we climbed back down and I went off to find Mitch. He was on top of the wall…he has a really nice camera and well had to take a picture of me (I doubt that it was a very good one)…then asked where the wall went…I told him that it was just a square, so he climbed down…being careful not to fall on me…then we wandered to one of the outer walls…once up there we took as many pictures as we wanted and then just enjoyed the view. Soon Seth’s friend started waving at us and told us to hurry over, well the quickest way to get there was to climb down the wall, which is probably 10ft-15ft tall…Mitch didn’t want to at first, but I threw my flip flops off the edge and started down…telling him that it wasn’t bad, rather easy actually. At the bottom I waited for Mitch and then we headed over to where Seth’s friend was shouting…down in the water was a ray…just cruising around, probably looking for lunch. I took a picture of it, but I know that it isn’t the best picture. And since we were there, we decided to wander on the broken up ruins, the boys found a nice large rock to sit on and I joined them. We talked probably for an hour before it was time to go.
Once back at the truck all of us in the back decided to eat a mango. Now I have never eaten a mango like an apple, first you peal off some of the skin, cause you don’t want to eat that. Then you just eat it…and soon my face was sticky, my hands were sticky, and I had mango fiber stuck in my teeth…for some reason Seth’s friend brought floss…which was much appreciated. At the waterfall we all paid and then walked down a little path and then there right in front of us was the waterfall…the widest one in Pohnpei (not the highest though). I pealed off my camelpack and literally fell into the water…it was so refreshing…I just tried not to think about the possibility of eels. Then I saw Mr. B’s oldest son leading those that wanted to up the side of the waterfall…not to be outdone by Maggie I clambered after them…the hike turned into a straight climb up slippery rock. (I’m sure that this is something that every parent wants to hear). It took a lot of effort and patience but soon I was at the top. Mitch was talking to Mr. B’s oldest son and Jay was lying on a rock (he isn’t big into rock climbing), I asked Mitch if Jay was tired or something…he shook his head and informed me that he just broke his little toe (I never found out how) and was feeling rather sick. Poor boy, two days into break and already stuck with a broken toe…also stuck at the top of a waterfall. We sat up there for awhile and then I followed Mitch down (he took the easiest route down) and then decided that I was rather muddy and decided to jump back into the small pool of water under the waterfall to rinse off. Maggie had climbed back down earlier and was now enjoying the water. I joined her and we splashed around for quite some time…and then we climbed out of the water hoping to dry off before having to get back into the truck.
Mitch and I sat on a rock and talked about scuba and life guarding and other things too. Then it was time to go. Maggie was getting sunburned so she and her boyfriend sat inside the truck. Jay and Seth’s friend sat on one bench and Mitch and I sat on the other. Jay told me all about his adventures in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and what all they did down there. I told of what I did in Mississippi and about past mission trips when asked about them. Then we joined Mitch’s conversation about school subjects and soon all of us were laughing and talking.
As soon as we got back I got tape for Jay so that we could tape his little toe to another toe, then Jay asked if I had any pain killer…Mitch was like “She’s a lifeguard she has everything.” I told them to come on up and I would see what I had. I filled their water bottles, gave Jay some Tylenol and then invited them over for games later that night…actually they kinda invited themselves over, but that was alright.
That night we played card games and had so much fun…Mitch was really sun burned, but then so was I…since I forgot to put on sunscreen…but sometimes a little sun is a good thing...
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