Prom
I’m gonna go ahead and classify menwai prom as an adventure activity. “What is this? Oh all the foreigners get dressed up in ridiculous outfits and have a dance party? And Boris was prom king last year? Ok I’m in.” I keep getting confused trying to balance my serious epidemiological investigation with the regular shenanigans of the menwai community. I’m here to conduct serious research. I’m here to consume soursop daiquiris at the village hotel? I’m here to educate the local community on local disease prevention. I’m here to sing karaoke every weekend?
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| prom queen |
The dress code for prom is island formal. This means going down to the local secondhand Supersaver shop and conducting an archeological dig through the discarded items imported from Hawaii. Sadly, I must admit I have yet to venture to the Supersaver, but there’s plenty of evidence of its impressive stock. For example, at last year’s prom, Mollie located purchased and wore a child’s size Cinderella princess dress. Whenever you inquire about an outfit that’s both horrible and amazing, rest assured that it came from the Supersaver and cost less than $3.
I wore a pretty maxi dress that came from my suitcase only to spend the evening in Supersavor dress envy. The boys dig out three-piece suits and costumes that are far too warm for the tropics, but everyone looks amazing in their shimmery sweaty glory. We dance our little hearts out.
Sightseeing
We’re on a small island. It’s the size of Newport and Jamestown combined, but shaped in a circle with huge volcanic mountains in the middle and only inhabited along the outer ring edge. (See map link at top of page.) Man, I love that the interior is mostly still undisturbed, allowing thick, unforgiving tropical rain forest. And that means pristine waterfalls usually found in calendars and screensavers. Remember that scene in Jurassic Park when the helicopter is flying in over this massive waterfall through crazy mountainous terrain? Yes, like that. That scene was actually filmed in Kawai, but you get the idea.
So every weekend we take the ‘Pohnpei Ecotourism Travel Guide’ and select a destination to tick off. Pick a spot, figure out roughly where it is, drive there, find its white and red sign, pay $1-3 to the children hanging out near your car, ask the children to serve as your guide, watch the children shrug and motion in one general direction and walk off in the other direction. The added challenge is determining which of these spots is safe for swimming. Since I’m the Pohnpei leptospirosis researcher, I make a general effort not to get lepto. If there is potential for animal/pig effluent to drain into a river or swimming hole, then it can be classified as unsafe for swimming. There’re actually signboards around town identifying safe from unsafe.
The Pahn Takai [pon-chi-KAI] waterfall is also appropriately called the Bat Cave. The trail brings you to this giant cave with bats behind the waterfall. We followed the treacherous steep and slippery rocks down the river and almost swam if not for the eels. I mean, the eels probably weren’t going to bother us but they were just too slithery.
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| waterfall and bat |
In addition to natural spots of interest, there are also the manmade kinds. As an anthropologist, I particularly enjoyed our venture to the petroglyphs. These are pre-historic rock carvings. Well I enjoyed it until it became clear that some carvings were archaic and some were quite recent, but made to look ancestral. So by the hundredth sword-like carving, we gave up on trying to identify the legit glyphs.
The best part about the sightseeing is that you never see other people. No tourists, no locals, no children guides. Yes, may I please travel to a tropical pacific island in which the natural rain forests are mostly undeveloped, and where everyone speaks English and American goods are consumable, but where I can sightsee and surf without ever running into other people? Ok thanks. Incredible.
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