Swimming with Sharks, and the Wonder of Coconut

Dark clouds over Ahnt

 One of my favorite things to do here in Pohnpei, is go island camping. We had postponed our trip to the island of Ahnt for quite some time now and finally the weekend we had finally settled on was here! Our departure time from school was 1:30pm, so of course we didn’t leave until 2:30. The weather was an off and on sprinkle, and the clouds didn’t look too promising. But never the less, I was excited for the weekend. We took off to Kitti and met with the old couple that owned Black Coral, and the two boats took off for Ahnt. Because of the weather, the waves were bigger than usual and it was a rough ride. The rain thankfully held off until we were all settled into our big hut. Before going to bed, we were able to watch one of the most awesome lightning and thunderstorms happen. The flashes of light were absolutely brilliant! The storm lasted all night, but quieted down enough to let us sleep.

Friday Sunset, before the storm

What I love about island camping, is being able to just relax. No children running around screaming on campus, and no responsibilities. I woke up to the light pitter-patter of the rain on the roof of our hut. I was disappointed at the sound of rain, but was not surprised. After group worship, we each got our own breakfast and just relaxed in our hammocks, reading, or dozing off. For a while, the skies cleared, and some of us went out snorkeling. Despite the lack of large reefs, I was in awe of the beauty of the ocean. Every time I go out snorkeling, I see fish that I had never seen before! Some time after we had started off on our venture, I noticed that I kept getting water in the top of my snorkel. I popped my head out of the water to find that the wind had picked up and the waves were getting larger. So we all headed back to shore and spent pretty much the rest of our day napping and reading. We kept seeing these little reef sharks near the shore and since I had not seen them before, I wanted to get up close. So Brendan and I stood in the water waiting for them to come near. They were quite shy but I was able to get a pretty good shot of one because Pastor Tim decided to throw food in around Brendan and I to bring them closer. It was so cool to be so close to them though!

Here Sharky Sharky...

I have discovered something quite fantastic about coconut. It’s good in literally everything. We grated lots of fresh coconut while on Ahnt and put it in nearly everything we cooked. Saturday night, I was not very hungry, so I just took some rice and soy sauce. Franky said, “Hey Ms. C (not really sure why he never just calls me Clarissa when we are not in classes), put some coconut milk I just made in the rice too.” “Seriously Franky? Coconut milk with rice and soy sauce?” “Just do it. Trust me it’s good!” Deciding to trust him, I pour some in my rice and soy sauce bowl. And let me just tell you, it was DELICIOUS. I don’t even understand it! Coconut goes in curry, drinks, rice, chicken dishes, even in our potato and corn soup! I ate a lot of coconut this weekend. Plain, and in a lot of my food! Franky brought along this nifty coconut grater and Ellie had a splendid time grating lots and lots of coconut halves.

My future little doctors!

Sunday morning was quite promising. The sun was shining, and the ocean crystal clear and different hues of blue and green. I jumped out of my hammock, changed into swimming attire, and hopped into the ocean. Ellie, Jen, and I headed down to the end of the island to enjoy the sunshine and shallow water to lie down in.  Because the sand here in Pohnpei is a lot more course, you always find shells and little hermit crabs in each handful of sand you grab. The tiny pocket of my shorts was soon filled with cool little shells and we headed back to get our snorkeling gear to go out again.

At 12:30, Franky surprised us all by telling us to pack up our stuff and go. Because of the tide, we don’t usually leave from camping till around 2 or 3 o’clock. So at about 1, we all piled into our baggage boat and headed for the channel. We sat on a very tiny island waiting for Urchin, the man from Black Coral, to show up with his boat like he was supposed to. After quite a long time, he never showed, so Franky took the boat back to Ahnt, asked the owner of the island to come get us and take us back to Kitti. The ride back to Kitti was really rough. The waves were about 15ft-20ft tall and made us get some good air in the boat. I was quite enjoying the ride! I thought it was quite exciting, although some people didn’t really think so. J  Needless to say, most of us had sore bottoms and backs for the next couple of days! We even saw a dolphin jumping out of the water, which I somehow managed to capture on video.

Twinning it!

After a mix up of lost truck keys, flat tires, and what not, we got back to school at about 5:00pm. We were all tired, salty, itchy, and SUPER hungry when we got back, but it was still an amazing and relaxing weekend.

This week is Spirit Week! Because of our limited supplies and wardrobes, coming up with fun costumes can be difficult. Unless you’re Kim, because Kim is one of the most creative people I have ever met! Career day was on Monday and I was dressed as a college student, because hey, that’s what I am right now! Plus I really had no other good ideas. Tuesday, Ellie and I were twins. We got more creative with our costumes and had fun with it!

Here are some funny quotes from a few of my students:

Haylee was dressed as a cardiologist for career day and at recess I said this to her:

My little Summer Bear :)

“Hey Haylee, go help Yuree over there. I think she hurt herself. You’re a doctor so you can go take care of her.”

“I can’t go take care of her Ms. C! I’m not a big human yet.”

“My house is 50 years tall!”

-Max, trying to describe how big his house is.

I’m going to miss my little hooligans SO MUCH! Please pray for us over here. Sickness seems to be spreading among the SMs yet again.