Today was my first full day on Pohnpei. My morning started out with a wonderful surprise: hot water! The house that I'm staying at installed solar panels and a hot water heater in the year that I have been gone. No more cold showers! Although, it doesn't quite feel like Pohnpei without cold showers! After that surprise, I had some great local bananas and instant coffee for breakfast, like I used to do all the time when I was teaching here. I then ventured out of the house and quickly ran into some friends and old co-workers. Can't get far in Kolonia without running into someone I know.
After walking around for a bit, I went to the JV's apartment and hung out there for a while. I had some more wonderful conversations with them and they invited me to join them on a hike to visit Lehnpaipohn waterfall in Kitti which I had never been to before. Kitti is the southernmost municipality in Pohnpei and is on the opposite side of the island as Kolonia. To get to the waterfall we had to drive about an hour to Kipar in Kitti. There we met up with some World Teach volunteers who live at the trail head to the waterfall. To reach the waterfall we had to hike through the jungle for about an hour. The trail for about half of the way was a muddy driveway, but eventually it became a very narrow, windy, slippery path through thick brush in the jungle. It was quite an enjoyable hike but I was extremely muddy afterward, especially since I hiked it in my slippers (flip flops), like most Pohnpeians do. The waterfall was very nice and had a lot of water flowing down it because of the recent rain. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall was also quite large for Pohnpei. It is also supposedly the deepest freshwater pool on the island (maybe 30 or 40ft deep). There is a nice spot to jump into the pool from the nearby cliff side since the pool is so deep, but the 40ft-ish drop was to much for me, so I just hiked down to water. Swimming in the water was very refreshing after the hike because the water is cool since it comes from the mountains. The current was quite strong because of the rain so I did not swim long, but we stayed there enjoying the view for a couple hours, then made the hour hike back. I uploaded three photos from the hike and would have uploaded more, but the internet is quite slow here (think fast dial-up internet).
In other news, I had uhpw 'drink coconut', mahi 'breadfruit', and local banana chips again, which I have been really missing. Now all I need is breadfruit chips, karat `a variety of banana' and fresh tuna sashimi to complete my list of favorite local foods. Maybe I can accomplish that tomorrow. I also made a few promising connections to the Ngatikese community on Pohnpei, which I will follow up with early next week.
After walking around for a bit, I went to the JV's apartment and hung out there for a while. I had some more wonderful conversations with them and they invited me to join them on a hike to visit Lehnpaipohn waterfall in Kitti which I had never been to before. Kitti is the southernmost municipality in Pohnpei and is on the opposite side of the island as Kolonia. To get to the waterfall we had to drive about an hour to Kipar in Kitti. There we met up with some World Teach volunteers who live at the trail head to the waterfall. To reach the waterfall we had to hike through the jungle for about an hour. The trail for about half of the way was a muddy driveway, but eventually it became a very narrow, windy, slippery path through thick brush in the jungle. It was quite an enjoyable hike but I was extremely muddy afterward, especially since I hiked it in my slippers (flip flops), like most Pohnpeians do. The waterfall was very nice and had a lot of water flowing down it because of the recent rain. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall was also quite large for Pohnpei. It is also supposedly the deepest freshwater pool on the island (maybe 30 or 40ft deep). There is a nice spot to jump into the pool from the nearby cliff side since the pool is so deep, but the 40ft-ish drop was to much for me, so I just hiked down to water. Swimming in the water was very refreshing after the hike because the water is cool since it comes from the mountains. The current was quite strong because of the rain so I did not swim long, but we stayed there enjoying the view for a couple hours, then made the hour hike back. I uploaded three photos from the hike and would have uploaded more, but the internet is quite slow here (think fast dial-up internet).
In other news, I had uhpw 'drink coconut', mahi 'breadfruit', and local banana chips again, which I have been really missing. Now all I need is breadfruit chips, karat `a variety of banana' and fresh tuna sashimi to complete my list of favorite local foods. Maybe I can accomplish that tomorrow. I also made a few promising connections to the Ngatikese community on Pohnpei, which I will follow up with early next week.
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