A Midnight Arrival

 Today was our first day here.  We arrived late yesterday due to a blown tire on the airplane, so we were stuck in Chuuk for 8 hours.  By the time we got back in the air, it was dark.  I could periodically see lights on the islands as we flew over, and some were just black masses in the ocean.  I woke from a jet-lag stupor to find that we were landing in Pohnpeii, the island before ours.  After take off, I watched out the window.  All of a sudden, I looked out and saw a dark and mountainous island with a small lighted runway in the distance.  I knew instantly by the shape of the island that it was Kosrae, and sure enough we headed that direction and landed on the short strip.  It was about midnight at this point, and we were tired.  Back home, we would have been just waking up for the morning.  After a rough landing and getting our bags from the sketchiest baggage claim I have ever seen, we walked outside into the hot and sticky night.  We were instantly greeted by a jolly man wearing a white pollo.

“Are you expecting someone?” he asked.

“Yes, a Pastor Tarra. Do you know him?”

“Yep, that is me!”

I was relieved to know that we wouldn’t have to find a way to get to our school in the dark by ourselves.  His wife came over and placed flower rings on our heads, smelling very sweet and pungent.  He led us to his car, which was a overly-foreign white pickup, and helped us toss our heavy bags into the back. 

“All right, you next!” he proclaimed.

We rode in the back bed with his son and niece out of the lit airport and into the dark jungle road.  As we rode through the hot night air, we could see and hear locals calling out to us and the driver from their houses.  Native eyes stared at us when ever we passed a group walking down the road, barely visible in the night.  We could smell campfires and could see people out on their porch, laughing and eating while their kids swung on palms and walked down the narrow road.  I tried to make conversation with his son, but we were soon interrupted by a sharp turn onto a dirt road heading deeper into the jungle.  Potholes filled with rain water were everywhere, and the trees were alive with bugs and frogs.  Soon we arrived at the school and church compound.  We were led up to our “apartment” where we would be staying for the next year.  They had laid out fresh bananas and tangerines, as well as banana bread and jam for breakfast the next morning.  He showed us around the apartment, and was proud of the new toaster he just put in. 

“Can we drink from the tap water?” I asked.

“No, it comes from the river.”

The shower and toilet had its share of “river scum” in them, and I watched as a gecko scurried across the wall.  The rooms are hotter than the outdoors, since there is no air conditioning.  We spent some time unpacking, and finally went to sleep around 2:00 am.  The next morning, our body clocks woke us up at an overly decent time, and I jumped up to look outside at the scenery I couldn’t see the night before.  Right outside my window, someone was chopping down coconuts from a palm, and I looked up and saw a jungle-coated mountain against the deep blue equator sky.  I could hear crashing waves in the distance, and the roosters were hard at work being annoying.  After some bananas and homemade bread, we got ready for church and met lots of locals as they all piled out of pickups in front of the church. 

“Hi, my name is River! I am the new student missionary.  What’s your name?”

“Kjinquauw.”  They would say indecipherably.

“Very nice to meet you!”  I will never remember your name though.

Church lasted for a long time, and after we went out with the church family to local shacks to sing and pray with the sick elderly.  They somehow found out I had a guitar, and I was instantly recruited to play along with them.  We went to a couple homes, which usually consisted of one small empty room, some palms holding up beams, a water pump, and lots of chickens and dogs.  People don’t have much here.  After singing, we were able to borrow the pastor’s bikes to ride around on the island.  It was about sunset, and we rode down the neighborhoods on the main road.  It was fun to stop and talk with the locals that hang out in their yards and by the beach.  They were always pleased to hear that we were at the school, and that we were new.  “If you need anything, just let us know!  We can fish sometime and maybe find you a virgin island girl to marry!”  We even tried to pick a coconut, but a local man came and helped us get a ripe one.  Upon our night arrival back to the school, an older, skinny church member named Larry greeted us at the road by his house.  “I was about to come look for you, I was worried!  Have you eaten?  My wife just made this banana coconut rice.  Come try some!”  We didn’t argue.  “Would you like to eat local style?”

“Sure, of course!”

“Ok, so no forks, just hands.”

We ate delicious rice and fried whole fish with our hands, and talked about his family in his little one room shack.  After eating our fill, we had barely made it back to the school when the pastor told us to come to a feast at his wife’s parents house.  We hopped in the back of the pickup, hoping we could fit more food in our stomachs, because it would offend the host if we didn’t eat their food.  We arrived and were given each a coconut with a drinking hole drilled in, and we saw a whole roasted pig on the table, along with three different types of fried fish, raw tuna, teriyaki chicken kabobs, sirloin steak, pork ribs, beef rolls, chocolate cake, cucumbers, yellow watermelon, tara, breadfruit, more fish, and literally a bin of cooked rice.  We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore and then they made us fill two more plates to take back home.  We thanked them, and returned to our apartment and hung out with some of the sixth graders, who were pleased as punch when we tried to say their names.  That morning, I had been struggling with the thought of being here for 9 whole months.  I didn’t know anybody, and the whole place was strange, and I wanted to go home.  Now, I already feel like they are family.  Pastor Tarra, Peewee, Larry, Kun, Shawn, and Enclaou and all the other church family have already treated us so much like family, I can imagine that it will be very hard to leave come spring.