Animals

I was asked by a good friend of mine who's training to be a vet (and recently got one step further in doing so - hoorah!) to post some insights into the world of animals on Kosrae.

Being trained into the world of medicine and therefore human beings, although still enjoying very much all of the natural world, here's my best shot at the animal kingdom...

First up, there is a lot of surrounding water and therefore the most magical and diverse marine life I've ever seen. People say the coral reefs here are some of the best in the world, and some praise it more highly than the Great Barrier Reef. There is wide selection of tropical fish, reef fish, rays, turtles, star fish and eels which I've only seen a tiny smidgen of. Here is a picture of the card you can take diving that features most of the sea life.

The most common fish seen on land is yellow fin tuna; fishing is a common past time here and tuna is one of the most commonly caught species. I haven't yet had a go at fishing but hope to before I leave. Pole and line fishing plus spear-fishing is practiced here.

There are an awful lot of crabs on the island too. Ranging from the tiniest of crabs that live in the rock pools and mangrove channels to some very large ones. Kosraean and Mangrove crabs are the larger species and are aggressive folk - know to capture pet cats by the leg with their claw and drag them into their hole to eat them. Ah, the circle of life.

These crabs tend to hang out on the roads at night time, and scurry out the way when car headlights hit them. I saw plenty the first time I was in a car when it was dark in my first week but havent seen so many ever since, despite several more car trips in the dark. I recently found out that the crabs only tend to venture onto the roads when it is a full moon! Spooky. 

Apologies for the low tone, but this is the only picture of a crab I have managed to get. 

(The living crabs run away too quickly!)

Moving from the sea to the sky, there's an interesting array of birds here. The one I have seen the most is a Honey Eater; a very attractive small bird with a big vibrant red chest, much more towards the red of Liverpool Football Club than the reddy-orange of the Christmas robin's chest. Alas, no pictures of these either. 

Also in the sky are bats! Fruit bats. They tend to be nearby to the mango and fruit trees on the island so only in a few spots. But they're quite large and make a lovely silhouette in the sky when they fly overhead. Fortunately, the bats here do not carry rabies!

Other birds - chickens! Chickens are often seen in people's front yards and there is indeed a group of chickens (a gaggle? Please comment below if you know the collective term for chickens) out the front of where I am staying. The male of the group is frequently heard doing a classic cock-a-doodle-doo every morning, starting from about 6:30am. 

Not much chicken is eaten on the island. These chickens are more for pets and eggs rather than meat. Since they roam free, they're therefore quite active and so pretty lean. The meat from them is therefore rather tough. It also means you've quite literally got an egg hunt if you want to collect any eggs they may lay. 

There are also a few pigs on the island. I've seen some roaming free and some kept in pens. The latter are used more for producing meat but even so, bacon and pork is not commonly available. Since the pigs are kept by single families, usually in the back or front yard, the meat is used by the family not for supplying the island with pork. 

Geckos feature a lot inside buildings and on pavements/pathways. They seem very comfortable around humans and come in all sorts of sizes and colours.

And there are of course the many many bugs that seem to take a liking of my ankles and shins. There are mosquitoes, ants (red and black ones) giant black ants in the rainforest, big spiders, cockroaches (it was a good laugh one day when I opened a kitchen drawer to look for cutlery and the only thing in the drawer was a medium sized cockroach that came scuttling out. Suffice to say I took a giant leap backwards and yelped at the shock of it), flies of various designs and beetles. 

Then finally, there are the dogs and cats. Both of which are particularly sick-looking. They sure aren't all that cute and fluffy. The cats are better than the dogs, and this is the owner of Treelodge's son's cat, Whitey. He's a nice cat and he has a whale of a time trying to catch all the birds around the house.

The dogs are less appealing. They are kept as pets but also killed for meat (shudder). You can buy dog meat on the island for $20 from a family but they charge $40 to kill it. And I'm told stories of people just taking a machete to the deceased dog to cut it up and the meat is distributed still with the fur on it (wince). The dogs sadly don't get the best of lives here; as well as wondering when their time might be up, they roam the streets looking particularly dishevelled and sad. Most have limps and some kind of open wounds somewhere, often their ears. But before you start to get too sympathetic just yet; they don't treat the humans all that nicely.  When walking or cycling down the road, you're always advised to take a stick and not be afraid to bonk a dog on its head if it tries to chase, jump at or bite you. They've been the cause of several cycling accidents I'm told and several nasty injuries to people's toes. 

And this reminds me of the frogs! (This is last one, I promise). The highly dim frogs. These are quite big frogs and come out at night to sit in the road. But, unlike their sensible friends the crabs, the frogs are stubborn silly things that don't move out the way when cars approach. They like their spot so much that when being a pedestrian, flattened dehydrated frog is a frequent sight. 

Behold the zoology of Kosrae! 

Turning Point

I feel a corner has been turned!

After two and a half weeks of being on Kosrae, I finally managed to change the background picture on my blog page! Success. Hooray. The picture is still alas from the blog page template selection but is uncannily similar to some of the sights I see here.

And it's all thanks to the internet at the hospital. I'm now on the computer network here and things are looking bright for the prospect of more posts. These days I'm on the inpatient unit, being supervised by the very friendly and excellent teacher that is Dr Tholman Alik (senior doctor in Internal Medicine). I'm learning lots from him and he gets me involved with the ward round every morning (I actually get to take part in it - writing notes, suggesting what I think is wrong or what should be done next - which is a nice novelty!). However, ward round is over with by the mid-morning so hopefully there will be chances to write some stories from my latest adventures from the hospital's speedy internet.

Today also marks a significant point because it is exactly the halfway point of my time here. 34 days stay in total and this is day 17. I was reminded of this because, very sweetly, the little son (Oci, nearly 7 years) of the owners of where I'm staying and another little lad on the island (Cosmos, 6 1/2 years) had counted down the number of days I have until I leave because they didn't want me to leave (!). I was very touched. I'm normally a bit on the useless side with the little people of this planet.

There are still lots of things that I want to explore on the island in my remaining 17 days and this week's adventures are a good example: later today I hope to go on the mild-moderate hike to Menka Ruins (I don't know much about what it used to be but hopefully will do after this trip - I will tell all soon!), I'll visit some waterfalls on my way up too, Saturday I'll be going on a scuba dive where I hope to see the amazing marine life in the ocean, and sometime in the near future I'm hoping to climb to one of the two high points of the island - Mount Oma or Mount Finkol. This is all on the back of daily ward rounds and work at the hospital and having completed the challenge of my first twilight shift (4pm-midnight) at the hospital last night. (it was great fun, and I only started to flag at about 11:30pm). This week I'm certainly burning the candle at both ends but I'm thinking it will all be worth it - there's not much chance I'll ever come back to the island (it's so far away)....and I can sleep on the plane back home, right?

Along with these turning points is a shift in my cofidence that I can feel happening. Medical confidence that is. This week, having been in the new setting of the inpatient ward, I've been feeling like I actually know some things! I've been asked questions on the ward round by the senior doctors, in front of patients, and for the most part I've got them pretty much correct. Yippee! My supervisor (Dr Tholman) was kindly giving me some encouragement on how well I have been doing so far and I said to him that I'll take it as a reflection that all the work from this year in med school seems to have paid off a little. This isn't just information I've learned for exam purposes; here I am demonstrating knowledge that has a real application to the patient in front of me. And I haven't remembered it just to pass an exam, but because it genuinely helps me figure out what is wrong with the patient. It's been a very positive few days. And, given I found out about 4 days ago that I'd passed all of my medical school exams far better than I thought I might, well...everything's coming up roses. Saying this, there is always more to learn in medicine and get better at; I need to work this week on how to present a summary of the patient's case on ward round. I'm not so good at this right now. And I need to learn a bit more about all the tropical diseases that they have here that I'm not so familiar with: Leptospirosis, Dengue fever, Shigella, Giardia and Leprosy.

Fun times continue to lie ahead!

Church Time

I just got back from church (!)

Kosraean church. 

Which was quite an experience.

I'm not a regular at church in the UK, although I am very fond of my times with the choir of Hendon, St Mary's (a fine church choir in North London who I shall miss very much as they go to Germany on tour this summer whilst I'm away). 

But given how important the church is to society here in Kosrae, I jumped at the chance to attend a Sunday morning service with my friend Janise who sometimes goes with the host family she's staying with. 

They go to Lelu church, on the little island that's just off the side of Kosrae but is connected by road. This is a Protestant church and is one of the big ones on the island. 

(Each of the five villages in Kosrae has it's own church then there are several other churches/places of worship spread around the place: Catholic, Latter Day Saints/Mormon, Jehovah Witness, Seventh Day Aventist, Assembly of God, plus a whole lot more that I'm probably not aware of).

Lelu church

The building on the left isn't a church hall as I suspected at first but is indeed the children's church. They have a completely separate service to the adults and meet up with the grown up congregation at the end of the morning. And it's not so much Sunday school as I recall from my childhood days but is a full on whole service. 

There were sill a few children in with the adult service though. Babes in arms and the like...

When we arrived, the service had already started (!). Despite it being a few minutes to 10am. Who knows what time it actually started but this is quite typical of Kosrae life; to just start or finish whenever most folk feel like it. 

But there's a very nice environment at church here for latecomers. You wouldn't even be labelled as a latecomer really. It's totally fine whenever you turn up. 

You just have to politely wait at the back/outside until the current hymn or prayer has finished and then you can walk on in. And no one minds. Honestly. There's no tutting or rolling of eyes as you try to creep into a row at the back. Just walk on through to find a seat wherever there is one and no one is really bothered. I thought this was very refreshing.  

And when I did sit down - my word! 

The comfiest chair I've sat on in the last 2 weeks!

It was blue. And had a handy wire shelf underneath for your bag and belongings. But was padded (both seat and backrest). And had a slight recline. 

It was bliss. Haha. I remembered at this point that a lot of the power and money on the island is tied up with the church so no wonder the nicest chairs on the island might be here.

With this thought I began to look around and the decoration. There were no lavish paintings or wall hangings of Jesus or biblical stories but it was white, plain and clean. The cleanest place I've seen on the island so far. People take a lot of care of this place.

Up at the front was a stage with some white-sheet-clad tables, one with a microphone arising from it, and a central banner that said 'Mutual Mutual Mutual' (?). So the set up was more like a church hall rather than alter, nave, lady chapel etc etc. 

A lot of people wore white. The typical clothes in Kosrae are moo-moo dresses for the women and many were wearing an all-white version for church today. I was later told that white was the colour for women part of the church's 'Women's Group'. The other ladies wore their standard floral patterned moo-moos. Men wore either normal clothes or a white buttoned collared shirt and black suit trousers. Many wore sunglasses which caught my interest. 

I, wanting to respect the culture of covering the knees/shins and shoulders, didn't wear a moo-moo you'll be pleased to know but wore a plain tshirt with cap sleeves tucked into a long skirt with feathers on it. I think I fitted in okay!

The men and women sit separately in church. Something I noticed only about half the way through. 

And it wasn't as jam packed as I thought it might have been. Alike to back home, the front few rows of chairs were completely empty. No one wanting to be the keen-bean sitting right up front. There were probably about 100 people there (a lot for British congregation!) but in a room with a capacity for about 300. 

There were hymns a plenty and lots of speaking from the two men in white suits on the stage. A few times people looked to their bible and read along, silently or aloud, to a reading from Colossians. The congregation just had one prayer in unison - the Lord's Prayer. 

And then there was of course the singing! I liked this bit very much. I didn't get to sing sadly (you have to buy and bring your own hymn book here) but fortunately I could get a peek at one in front of me. And to my amazement it had music in it! Two part harmony. And even more amazingly the congregation were singing it in near-perfect two part harmony. I do so wish I could have recorded some for you but it didn't quite seem respectful to get out my phone and record. I'm sure if you were able to google 'Kosraean church choir music' you might get something close. 

No organist or pianist, no choir at the front leading the hymn singing. Instead, there seemed to be confident singers (perhaps part of the choir?) randomly distributed amongst the congregation.... When it was time for a hymn, one brave sole started off singing the first line when they felt like it and then others nearby started too, with the whole hall singing by the end of the first verse. It was a different lone singer who started off each one! 

As for the number of hymns, I lost count fairly close to the start. But there must have been about 7 or 8 in total. None more than three (short) verses each. 

And I knew the tune of one them! I've no idea what it was called, being someone who remembers tunes and pictures much better than names of things, but I sure knew the melody and so hummed along. (The words were lost on me as I couldn't see a hymn book close enough)

Of course, I nearly forgot. There was communion. Rather than going up to the front, a team of about 10 helpers collected plates of firstly bread and then, what can only be described at tiny shot glasses, of wine. There was a group of ladies to present the dish at the end of the ladies' rows and men for the other side. And people just reached to the dish and collected the communion rather than the person giving it out. There was a person at each end of a row and multiple aisles so no one was ever too far from a dish. It was all very civilised. 

Done just after communion, a similar thing happened with the collection. And I'm pleased to say that collection here went a lot more successfully than the last time I went to church in a foreign country. But only just.

Collection etiquette always seems a little different with each church you go to. And here there was a church helper at each end of a row who, starting from the back, made their way down the aisle. Of course, you can't quite tell when they're going to turn up and, being new to this, I didn't know there was a person at each end of the row. Nor did I know there was a basket for collection (although I assumed this would be the case as it's fairly standard). When, then, a church person came to stand next to me (I was at the end of a row), I rightly assumed he was the collection man. However, being just him who arrived at my row, I wrongly assumed it was him I was meant to give my donation to despite the fact he didn't have a basket. 

Turns out the blokey who was meant to be at the other end, who actually did have a basket, was about two rows behind his partner and so I hadn't seen him or knew he was coming. Doh! 

Fortunately I had been subtle enough in offering up my donation to this basket-less man and he wasn't really looking anyway so no offence created. And it wasn't too much longer until a basket was actually passed to me. 

Deary me. I was glad that bit was over and done with. It never goes smoothly. 

Towards the end of the service, two ladies, dressed in white, around the age of my mum, came up to me. They looked so happy to see me, and a little surprised. They were two ladies from the hospital, Sepe and Annie, nurses whom I had worked with during parts of this week in public health and antenatal clinic. They came up to me and immediately held my hand in that 'it's a joy to see you, you are so welcome here' way. It was a wonderful moment: to be recognised after such a short time with these people at the hospital and being so new and different. And to be so warmly accepted into a native's special place of worship. It was lovely.

Oh, and the whole service was in Kosraean.

At the end of it all (actually only 40 minutes - a lot shorter than usual I was told), I stepped out into this view to continue my Sunday and walk my journey home with Janise. 

 

Additional observations at the hospital

Hello everyone,

I wanted to start this one by thanking all the folk who are reading this. It is a really big help to me whilst I'm out here, far far away, to know that people back home are following what I'm up to and thinking it's pretty neat (from the tone of your comments). So thanks!

...

This here post is a collection of items from the hospital that have either caught my interest or amused me over the last week, as I start to get more familiar with the place and spot new things. Hope you enjoy. 

First up, some things that reminded me of home and the hospitals there. 

These blood bottles are the same ones we med students practice taking blood out of fake arms with (and the occasional real person). It was fun to see them 8000 miles from home and comforting to know they use the same system here.

And they've got these! Everyone in healthcare's trusted friend - the blood pressure monitor and oxygen sats probe.

This here is the paperwork stock cupboard. This is the full range of forms that the hospital has. It's a dream to see that it fits into just one bookshelf! There are reams and reams of forms flying around the NHS, haha. And this is what a few of them look like too: they have all the necessary info, but in a nice succinct format. 

(This one's pretty similar to ones back home)

Around the hospital, they've got a number of the local school students' efforts towards health promotion. Diabetes is a big problem here due to a low-physical-activity lifestyle, the introduction of American imported food (which is all sodas and sugary stuff), a lack of vegetables on the island and a lot of sugary fruit available like bananas and bandanus (see my Week 1 post). 

In fact, it's fair to say that the concept of avoiding 'double carbs' is pretty much non existent here on Kosrae. It's more like 'yes to quadruple carbs'. Haha. People eat a lot of rice, bread, breadfruit (a bit like potato) and noodles here. Often all in the same meal. The island equivalent of super noodles is a common breakfast constituent!! Plus a side of bread! And then there is a local food called taro which is sort of like potato again and can also be made into bread (!) And people really do love their soda. Cola every day is a regular occurrence. And then the lifestyle is pretty sedentary. Most people either don't work or sit down for their work. There's lots of sitting at home all day and watching tv. And with no real exercise available on the island (I think the nearest gym must be at least two time zones away), people don't get a regular cardiovascular work out.

So the folks like carbs. And don't do much exercise. So most of them get type 2 diabetes. And are overweight. It's a big problem. (No pun intended)

But fortunately the healthcare bodies are well aware of the problem and are trying (questionably how hard I'm told) but are trying none the less to tackle the problem. And here at Kosrae hospital, they got some of the school kids to make posters about preventing diabetes...

This one was my favourite...

I thought some of you might be interested in the following statistics that are up for public reading in the reception area of the hospital. It covers the number of admissions into hospital and what sort of problems are most prevalent for the month and year thus far. It also might help give you an idea of the size of the hospital. For example, around 60 people visit the hospital each day for some reason or another. Top 3 reasons for visiting as an outpatient are URTIs (things like sore throats, ear infections), diabetes and hypertension but diabetes tops the board for most common reason people are admitted. Similarly to the UK, the most common groups of people presenting to the hospital/gp are children and the elderly. And amazingly, the occupancy rate for their ward is about 50%!!

Here's a sneaky look at the inside of the one and only ambulance at the hospital. 

Now, mental health has a place on the island and within the work of the hospital but alas the hospital has no specialist trained psychiatrist. It does however have some very capable general practitioners and internal medicine doctors and the following handy poster from the WHO, specifically designed for hospitals with limited resources/staff.

I was quite in awe of how they had managed to get pretty much most of the field of psychiatric diagnosis onto a single poster! I slightly wish I had access to this poster during exam time - it would have made revision for psychiatry a whole lot simpler! 

The doctors use this poster to diagnose the patients with suspected mental health problems and the poster signposts to 'modules' which then explain the appropriate treatment. 

I liked this poster very much. 

...

On to the amusing stuff, 

Following on from the knowledge you now have about sedentary lifestyles here, you too may also find this poster, stuck up next to the pharmacy counter, a cause for laughter...

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Every hospital, office and company's got one. And Kosrae State Hospital is no different. For all your 'try turning it off and on again' needs, yep, you guessed it, it's the IT department! 

It made me laugh when I had to go here on my second day for induction to logging onto the system. I guess some things you'll never be able to get away from! Haha.

...

A nice bit of wall decoration I found while sitting in a clinic this week was this, a collection of principles highly applicable for all healthcare staff I thought. 

...

And here's a collection of other posters from around the place that have made me do a double take (or a little giggle) through the week...

(Leprosy is a significant problem here. But it's not quite the stereotype of people with their legs, fingers or toes falling off) 

(As I'm discovering, alternative medicine from local village people or 'quack' doctors they're apparently called has a strong presence in some people's lives. Hence this page in a book about leprosy I found)

Now, I'm not quite too sure what it is about this that made me giggle. Family planning is an important issue here. But it still made me giggle. Hehe.

The hospital's own intranet! See, it's pretty modern in some respects.

However, not so much in the anaesthetics equipment..

And this is what the modern ones look like:

Thats all for now folks. 

If there's any specific questions you have about the island or hospital, or anything, feel free to request a theme for a blog post. It 'll be fun do look into something I haven't thought of yet.

Week 1

It's currently the middle of Saturday and I'm sitting on a rock with my feet in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean so it felt apt to write about my reflections and tales from the first week of being on Kosrae. 

First up, it's pronounced a little more along the lines of kosh-rye. And is a this a lot softer than the harsh 'koz-ray' I've been giving it with my British accent. But no one really seems to mind. There's actually quite a lot of variation in how people say it here anyway.

The overall feeling so far is, in a good way, there's not much to do. It truly is pretty remote and laid back. People don't run to much of a schedule, there's not many island activities going on each day apart from the more touristy sights to see (only a few) or diving.

But alas much of that hasn't been achieved yet because the theme of this week has been rain.

Contrary to what I hear has been going on in the UK, when I arrived on Monday here they had just had a tropical storm so most of the week has been the aftermath of this: strong winds and a lot of heavy rain. It's still been warm but, because of the winds, not ludicrously so. 

The lack of sunshine and luggage meant that it's been a bit too risky to get my limited supply of clothes wet by exploring places in the wet weather. Therefore, I've been trying to embrace the summer holiday spirit and take advantage of the opportunity to sit and read. I'm well into two of my books so far. (NB. By 'well into', for me that means chapter 3).

Differently to what I expected, people rely on cars a lot here. I figured it would be easy enough to get around by foot or bicycle but things are fairly spread out here (and there's only one of everything) so everyone drives everywhere. This didn't help much this week either because, without a set of wheels and it being too rainy to walk about, I was a bit limited to hanging out where I was staying.

But fortunately for me, where I'm staying, the Pacific Treelodge Resort, appears to be the hub of social activity for ex-pats on the island. Hooray hooray because this has meant there's been a good amount of people to meet and talk with. It's restaurant also gathers people from all over the island nightly so thankfully I've got access to a social scene whilst I'm here. 

Because, from observations so far, the native Kosraeans generally tend to keep themselves to themselves. They'll say hello when you go past and say hi, but only if you make the first move. I'm thankful therefore that I'll be working at the hospital where the majority of folk are Kosraean - this should hopefully mean I'll get a good exposure and understanding of the native community. 

...

People I've met along the way this week;

On the same flight as me and staying at the same place was a fellow from neighbouring Pohnpei island. He works for the UN small grants programme and was visiting Kosrae this week to check up on how some of his projects on this island are going. A very happy bloke, he kindly gave me lots of advice about island life (such as: when walking or cycling down the roads, take a stick to wave at the dogs that might chase you. But don't worry, they don't have rabies. Hilarious!) and get your groceries at a place called ACE Groceries (which I keep calling Ace cafe after the place just off the North Circular).

Maria, the wonderful Italian lady who, with American husband Mark, own the place where I'm staying. She has been a huge help this first week with introducing me to people, letting me know where I can find things on the island, other general practical advice and, outstandingly, lending me flip flops and clothes and sun block to tide me over until my luggage arrives. What a star.

A fellow 20-something girl from LA who lives and works on the island as part of the US Peace Corps. I happened to meet her as Maria was giving me a lift down the road to the immigration office (see picture!) and she was walking up the street. 'Where are you heading!?' 'Want a lift' 'hop in''this is Rodina from the uk' was how the conversation went. These sorts of encounters are very common on the island.

I've also met a few missionaries: one lady from a lesser known branch of the church from the US (I cannot remember the church's name unfortunately) and a man who is a Muslim missionary, about to leave after spending 6/9 months on the island. He has also been very helpful in giving me lots of island advice as he's from the States and appeciates the shift in lifestyle between home and Kosrae.

And then of corse there are the staff at the hospital where I went for the first time on Wednesday. I'm going to do a whole separate post about the hospital, and hopefully soon, so more information to come. 

As for things I've been up to, it's been quite varied. Although, and perhaps this has been because of a lack of my luggage or perhaps it's just my slightly reserved demeanour, but I haven't got any wild stories of exploration to tell i'm afraid. No 'gaaap yeaarr' style tales of self discovery and amazement. That's not really what I'm in this game for, I don't think. But experiences which, in my own way, have astounded and fascinated me. And I guess most importantly, have been hugely enjoyable and satisfying. 

The first has to be on Tuesday afternoon. The nice fellow from the UN kindly invited me to go and see possibly one of his most special projects: the Ka (pronounced 'car') tree conservation forest at Yela. This is an area of the island that is only accessible by boat and is the home to the world's only collection of Ka trees. They're currently building an education hut and walkway to access the forest and of course setting up proper conservation strategies. There's some more info two thirds down this page.

http://www.visit-micronesia.fm/attraction/index.html#01

It was an incredible experience - to see the unique trees and to be one of the handful of Brits to venture to this part of the world. And the journey by boat to get there was brilliant - I got completely soaked In ocean spray but speeding along with the wind and salty air in my hair was a dream. 

As is where I am staying, just set back from the ocean front. It's making me realise how much I love being by the sea or some sort of water. This bodes well for next year as I'll be living on the Lytham sea front in the North West. 

Every day I can see this view 

And can listen to the waves crash gently into the fringing reef just beyond the near waters. 

It's brilliant. 

And here's the view from the restaurant attached to the Treelodge resort (also the social hub place I was mentioning)

(The restaurant from the other side of the lake)

Tuesdays night was movie (and pizza) night at the Treelodge venue which was fun. We watched 'Unfinished Business' with Vince Vaughn in it. Not the world's greatest film but a really nice way to spend the evening and meet some more people.

Funnily enough, not much jet lag. I think because of the crazy flight here and catching sleep wherever I could get it, once I was here, I was able to slip pretty much right into the island's normal schedule. How fortunate! :)

Always a fan of the natural world and science, the creepie crawlies and critters have been interesting me:

Wednesdy's dinner was a highlight: traditional Kosraean food. Yellowfin tuna, breadfruit, and banana mixed with coconut milk. All things that are grown locally.

(Breadfruit - raw)

(Breadfruit - cooked. Boiled I think)

It was all really tasty! I'm always a bit skeptical because, as my close friends will know, I have incredibly bland tastes but this was all really yummy. And the bananas they have here taste amazing. 

There's a thing called Kosraean soup which is basically all the above ingredients put into a soup (minus the banana). Also pretty good. 

I've also tried bandanus (sp?) which is a sweet fruit that you bite a bit off, chew, then spit out like gum. Good to try but I don't think I'll be having it again voluntarily.

Bandanus

I've also been on a boat that sails around the harbour inbetween the main island and the little one (Lelu island) off the side. This happened at dusk on Thursday night and, although there wasn't much sunshine, it was still a pleasant trip which took us past an amazing mango tree set on a little peak of land. The thing with this tree is that, the black dots around the top of it in the picture aren't birds. They're actually fruit bats! A number of them flew overhead too. They're a lot bigger than you think they'll be!

Friday's highlight was of course being reacquainted with my suitcase, which I hadn't seen since England 6 days previous. Yippee!!!!

And then there's where I am writing this - amongst the rock pools about 10/15m off shore from the beach. I haven't been snorkelling yet but will be hoping to next weekend so this is the nearest I've come yet to marine life. And it sure didn't disappoint. Check out what I've seen this lunchtime...

A blue starfish!! Amazing!

Later on today there's a BBQ and social as it is, of course, the 4th of July today. Whilst not part of the USA, it's got close ties to it and there are a number of American people who live here so plenty of reasons to celebrate. Although, without any apples I think it's going to be pumpkin pie rather than uncle sam's traditional dish! 

 

(I'm still working on getting connected to Internet properly, after which I can hopefully write more frequently, saving you all from these mammoth posts. Thanks for reading!)