Kosrae, The Oven.

"Knocking!  Knocking!  Knocking!"

Ryan and Tyler and I are all in our beds on the one morning we can sleep in.  It is around 7:00 AM, and there is a voice at the door.

We play the age-old game of waiting for someone else to get up to answer.  Finally I hear Tyler come out from his room and open our door.  I wait a few seconds.

"River, its for you."

Ah, so close.


I roll out of bed and approach the door.  Soon I see that it is the pastor's wife and her two little first graders, holding a big cake covered in M&Ms.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Teacher River, Happy birthday to you!" They sing, with little Opa and Jessa hiding behind their mother's legs.

All of a sudden I felt bad for not springing out of bed sooner.  "Thank you so much!" I say with sleepy jubilance, taking the cake pan with my hands, which will inevitably be our breakfast, and probably lunch.  I ate a nice slice of cake, amazed at how the generous locals remembered my birthday before I did.

Drip coffee from a coconut shell

Sunday was hot.  It was one of those hot days when you get out of the cold shower, already sweating before you are completely dried off.  Our upstairs room was baking in the midday equatorial sun, and it was time to do SOMETHING.  We discuss our options while standing directly in front of our fan.

"We could stand in front of the open refrigerator door for a while?"
"We could just stay here and accept our fate of heat stroke?"
"We could fry eggs on the concrete outside?"
"We could hike to the taro plantation?"

After a very brief and apathetic debate, we decide on the fourth option.  Donning Keens and grabbing Nalgenes, we bravely shoot into the jungle on what we thought was a trail.
Exactly 158 seconds later, we emerge back to where we started, soaking wet.


"Alright, lets try that other trail.  Hopefully it won't end in a swamp."

"When we pictured the taro plantation that we knew was back in the jungle a ways, we thought of a neat little field with rows of taro (used for its root as food).  But after a few steps down the trail, we find that is not the case.

"Alright don't step there.  its about 3 feet deep."
My ears receive this information about 51% into my stride.  My foot makes contact with the "ground" and keeps going, sinking thigh-deep into thick, brown, stinky mud.  I grab hold of a flimsy taro leave to steady myself, which ranks among the top 5 worst things to grab for stabilization.  From my understanding, this list of "things not to grab for stabilization" goes as follows:

1. A bee's nest
2. An electric fence
3. A spider web
4. Ryan's leg
5. A Taro branch

The thorny Taro stem immediately gave way and threw my other leg into the mud.  Almost simultaneously my face catches a full, beautiful, National-Geographic-photo-contest grade spider web.

This is a wonderful experience.

The rest of our hike went the same as we realized that the swampy "trail" was the taro plantation.  After climbing a cool tree that could have been found in The Jungle Book, we trudged straight back and walked directly into the ocean to wash off, disregarding the judgmental stares of the Protestants coming out of their church service.


Today found us a similar experience, although maybe a bit more exciting.  We keep hearing about this waterfall in Tafunsak, but no local teenager is excited enough to take us.  Finally, we convince Cooper Jr. to show us.  Saddling up in our tiny Japanese "truck", we dodge children and dogs and potholes and make it to the trail head.  It turned out to be a beautiful hike, and the trail was half in the river.  After passing a "do not pass" sign, cliffs rose above us on both sides.  Jumping in the cool, fresh water of the river was amazingly refreshing compared to the ocean!  I will let the pictures tell of our hike.

Life is moving along here.  We have discovered how to make biscuits and gravy, the termites leave new piles of dust around various places in our house every day, and my kids now have pen pals from Spokane.  It is hot as ever here, until the torrential rains come.  We were graced by a storm surge in the night last week, and we think we got the very edge of the hurricane that hit the Philippines.  Our tomato and zucchini plants are growing well, thanks for asking.  The holidays loom daunting on our horizon, but I think that we will try and find a little palm tree to hang christmas lights on.  I am going to get Ryan and Tyler coconuts for christmas, don't tell!

Peace from the tropics,

River