My Pahpa dismanteling the part of the house that was local
thatching. Also showing off his beautiful skirt.
My favorite picture of Jayheart so far. He proceeded to
smash and break this snorkel the next day.
Paulino and Kotaro burning the hair off the piglet they
slaughtered. Manit? Style.
I learned how to weave a coconut leaf into a mat like this
for roof thatching. My Nohno started me off on this one, and I did the rest.
Three guesses which side is mine…
Jayheart’s classic three-fingered Style. I think he is
trying to say Phantom of the Opera.
Action shot from making the shower house from local
materials. I was fascinated!
Tadaaaaa! The inside: a bucket.
Our
house on Osetik – my family says Pakin is superior to Pohnpei in almost every
way, except for the house. We actually “fortified” it the second day with more
tin roofing cause we had lots of rain and wind during the night. Note the part
we re-thatched, previous renditions of water catchment tanks, the free roaming
pig, and the outside “table” – excellent for stashing swimming stuff and
“drying” clothes (nothing was ever really dry), and the barbecue (the metal
barrel – you put wire mesh fence on it). I’m pretty sure most of the non-local
material is stuff that was washed ashore, not deliberately brought from
Pohnpei.
Lobster breakfast! My Nohno is always super nice about
opening lobster and crabs for me so it’s easier for me to eat
This
is the seaward (non-lagoon) side of Osetik. The reason you see so many bare
coral rocks is that a) there have been unusually low low tides (my guess is
climate change and El Niño) and b) there has been severe erosion of the sand,
which lays the coral rocks underneath bare (definitely climate change and sea
level rise)
Donas
Ponopon (island donuts) made by my host sister Manit, she’s the expert. For
some reason Nohno insists on slicing them up and putting peanut butter inside
for me and Jayheart (baby + foreigner food?). The scene: the elevated concrete
foundation of our house with the kitchen area in the background.
When I
wasn’t swimming, I was chilling in one of the hammocks (Kotaro built this one
for me!), often drinking coconut, and writing on my book in the fantastic
Moleskin notebook Kate gave me. I have about half of it full by now and it’s so
much fun to write with a fountain pen instead of typing!
Manit
pounding shofar (coconut meat). Very old coconuts don’t have water in them
anymore, but a thick layer of copra on the inside of the shell (the generic
“coconut” material and also what is used to make coconut milk and coconut oil),
and then at the core there is the coconut meat from which the coconut
germinates. It’s fibrous, a little bit watery, not very sweet and slightly
green on the outside.
Local
“ice cream” (pennen nüh) is made by taking either a young coconut and mixing
the soft copra with condensed milk and sugar, or pounding the coconut meat and
add the same ingredients.
Me and my Nohno on the bench (made by machete) that day. Note the bigs in the background O.O
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