Island Time

Weekly Research Report

So that meeting with the chiefs?  Didn’t happen.  I show up early to Dr. EJ’s office in what I call “smart island casual” attire (knees and shoulders covered) and print out study materials in triplicate for the meeting.  Dr. EJ is held up with truck trouble, so a very smiley man with no teeth and no English escorts me across the street to the hospital administration where I wait near a secretary for the chief’s meeting.  Dr. EJ and Dr. Jim and Dr. Hedsen arrive but the director of the health department Dr. Keller does not arrive.  So there is no meeting and my ethics approval letter from FSM is still not signed.  But I did learn how everyone went at the fishing tournament on Saturday.  I show Dr. Hedsen the picture of the tuna I caught and secure an invite out on his boat, so not a complete loss.

My next responsibility is to give a presentation to all the hospital physicians, about 20, at their Continuing Medical Education meeting Thursday afternoon.  Boris tells me to make a powerpoint and clearly outline how they can assist in study recruitment.  Thursday morning, Dr EJ calls to inform that the CME is postponed because of Easter.  Ummmm…..  So apparently Easter is a big deal and a 5 day celebration.  Everyone takes a half day on the Thursday which also meant that there was no one at the telecommunications building to receive my home internet application.

However, on Wednesday I did manage to meet with Lisa who runs the laboratory.  Much of my study revolves around the cooperation and assistance of the lab, so I want to build a good relationship early.  Lisa is Australian, married a local Pohnpeian and has been living here for 10 years.  She helps to remind me that the long shorts I’m wearing do not quite cover my knees.  We discuss shipping protocols, really interesting local disease outbreaks, and her concern for my safety as a single menwai.  She’s pretty concerned that I’m living alone and that I’ve been jogging alone (especially in jogging shorts) and that my residence at Tino’s house will soon be widespread public knowledge.  I’m not too worried.  Kevin, who’s been researching here for 10 years, says Pohnpeians are the sweetest people around and that if I’m really freaked out then I can get a machete.

So most of the menwai researchers can’t seem to adjust to the speed at which things get accomplished (or don’t get accomplished).  Doesn’t bother me, I’m on island time.

The Treasure Hunt

That’s what Kevin called it.  It’s where we go on a tour of town of all the places where you can consume things.  Here’s where you fill up your water, here’s where you pre-pay your electricity, here’s where you buy bootleg DVDs.  I think my favorite part is that a 5 gallon bottled water refill is $1.50.  So there’s more stuff here than I ever imagined.  The 3 types of stores are markets, container stores, and grocery type stores.  And then the 3 Ace stores.

The market sheds sell all the local products which include the following: banana, papaya, taro, avocado, mangoes, 10 foot long yams, other assorted gourds, coconuts, cucumbers, chinese cabbage, limes, fish, and crabs.  And don’t imagine an equal amount of these things.  Cucumbers and bananas outnumber the other items by 500:1.  If you want any produce –any fruit or vegetables—outside of these listed products, forget it.

Container stores.  Imagine a shipping container, the kind that goes on an 18-wheeler, that got left on the side of the road and then became a store.  Here you can find soda, chips, candy, donuts, canned meat, beer, and cigarettes.  And beatlenut, which when consumed properly, turns teeth black before they rot and fall out.  And along the road –there’s only one road on the island—there’s a container store located every 100 yards.  I wonder if the same people who distribute these crap products are in business with the pharmaceutical companies that market drugs for diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Every grocery type store is just like JobLot.  Same size, same random assortment of house and food items.  The exception is that each one has its own variety of limited specialty item.  Right now the Ace Commercial has frozen DiGiorno pizzas, the Palm Terrace has Kashi cereal, and the Wall Mart has Haagan-Dazs ice cream.  About once a month a shipment of food items comes in from the US.  This shipment will contain whatever survives a 3 week boat trip.  “So, how do you know when the shipment comes in?”  It’s in the paper.  There’s also a food network which I’ll describe when I talk about the ex-pat circle.  So if I make friends with the US ambassador’s wife Amy, then I can vie for a position in the food network.  So with the exception of fresh vegetables, fresh meat, and dairy products, you can basically get everything.  I stocked up on V8 and ivory soap.

I am beyond impressed with the Ace stores.  Chock-full of new shiny American products.  There’s an Ace grocery type store, an Ace Hardware, and an Ace Office Supply.  The latter 2 are comparable to Home Depot and Staples.  For a developing country with few tourists they sure do have an extensive and affordable range of office supplies.

Yesterday I put all my treasure hunting skills to work with my first dinner mission.  Now, one would think that in a small tropical island country where fishing is the main economic industry, there would be really well defined ways of procuring fresh fish.  Not so.  Since Kevin is a marine biologist, he’ll just bring home fish that he happened to catch that day.  He doesn’t buy fish.  The first day we went to the market shed called “Simon’s,” they had 2 wooden crates full of colorful fish (that were not on ice).  I was instructed to always check the fish’s eye condition (yeah they’re all whole) before purchase.  So I get to Simon’s, the people stare at me as I pull up, they watch me carefully as I walk inside, and they stare at me as I ask for assistance.  “What is your freshest fish today please?”  The fish comes in off the boats early in the morning.  I think it was noon.  A tall, slender young man with black teeth leads me to the wooden crates to show me 6 fish.  Only 6.  All of different size, color and shape.  “These all come today.”  He doesn’t know what kind they are so I pick out one that’s about 18 inches long that looks like a black snapper.  I ask him nicely to filet the fish and he agrees.  My 4.5lb fish cost me $4.50.  I make a side salad of chinese cabbage, cucumber (of course), avocado, mango and lime and then grill the fish on the cute little deck weber while drinking a corona and watching the sunset on the water.  Dinner success!

Hello Tropical Island

Friday April 15th

Flights all fine. Bags all arrived. Too nervous to inspect surfboard condition.

It’s Friday afternoon and I’ve just arrived to my new home [Tino’s House] which I’m renting from Kevin who forgot to leave the key in the dryer like he described. [In the event that neither Boris or Kevin could pick me up from the airport, I was to instruct the taxi driver to take me to “Tino’s house.”] His email said the place had an ocean view and a yoga platform. I did not hold high hopes for either of these. Welp, guess who’s pleasantly surprised. The view is unreal and the yoga platform is, well, what you’d expect from a tropical yoga retreat, complete with little thatched roofing. Even the birds look tropical. Bright red parrots singing to each other from the breadfruit trees.



Yes, it’s 100 degrees and yes, it downpours with rain everyday which it’s demonstrating right this very moment.

Boris [my World Health Organization field supervisor] collected me from the airport and we go straight to the Department of Public Health for introductions with EJ, the head of surveillance. We drive by the new fancy fortified Taj Mahal US Embassy. I joke about checking in with the embassy but then Boris informs me that the ambassador has already requested a meeting with me and we laugh and laugh but he’s not joking. We drive by random tanks abandoned by the Japanese and the Spanish fortress wall that now serves as the boundary for the baseball field. I attempt to phone my father and leave a voicemail which doesn’t go through.

Boris’s wife is back in Canada taking the MCAT so I’m driving her car until the extra WHO truck can be fixed which is not likely. I tell Boris about my MCAT mediocrity and how I’ve resolved to become an excellent Infectious Disease researcher without an MD but Boris tells me to “just keep telling yourself that.”

The chiefs of the Health Department meet on Monday mornings, but since Boris will be off island for the next two weeks, I have to arrive to the chiefs meeting, present my study, and gain their approval which will be sent to the University of Auckland Ethics Committee. Somehow meeting with the chiefs seems anthropological and also very adult. Seriously, I’ve got a car, an apartment and a meeting with the chiefs on Monday.

So the study can’t technically start until we gain ethics approval which could be 2-3 weeks. Boris suggests I take advantage of the late season surf and take a couple days off next week. Will do.