The Delayed June Adventures

Boating mishap

Surftrip success.  The ride home, not so much.  Captain Marko’s engine wouldn’t start which left us stuck on the mooring at Palikir Pass.  And with a busted phone, he can’t call up his backup boat men who are only a mile away.  This is the point where we start sharing survival man techniques, tales of local drifters lost at sea, and the sea turtle story from Life of Pi.  I mean, we were still anchored, but the stories are fun.  Oh and it also starts downpouring and blowing a gale which makes the temperature drop like 20 degrees.  So we’re freezing cold and the rain hits us sideways so hard that it hurts.  Mollie and I jump overboard not to abandon ship but to gain sanctuary in the warm waters below.  

Then the unlikely rescuer arrives.  A salty and weathered fishing man pulls up in his saving skiff.  Looking not quite Pohnpeian, he could have come straight from the Bedouin nomadic tribes of Africa with his head wrap and beard.  He could have been a mirage.  He tows our boat to safety?  He tows our boat to Marko’s larger long-line fishing vessel which is attached to an even larger mother ship, like a sea lamprey attached to whale.  Here is where we find Marko’s henchmen who can fix the engine.  While we wait attached to the lamprey and the whale, thousands of (ok maybe 50) fishing men peer down on us like prey, crawling out of every last crevasse and hole that both ships can hold.  The men all smile and invite us to come aboard in all of their varying broken English languages.  While it was still freezing cold on the skiff, I politely decline “no, no thank you, no kidnap.”  The engine ignites and we speed off back to the pier, crawling out like drowned frozen rats.

Flat tire fiasco

So that same night we drag our sorry selves to Michael J Coleman’s house at Nihco Marine Park for dinner.  One of the World Teach volunteers, Will, is celebrating his last night in Pohnpei, so we rally and regroup.  After a fun night at MJC’s, we head out to join Will and gang for karaoke.  Oh I have a flat tire.  This is Boris’ Opel Tigra that I’ve been driving.  We all know that I can change my own tire, but it’s midnight and MJC is an eagle scout and would be more than happy to assist a couple damsels in distress.  Sooooo the jack is broken.  And the full spare tire is also flat.  Awesome.    

We abandon ship yet again and join the caravan to karaoke.  Tires can’t get patched in Pohnpei until Mondays, so little Tigra slept soundly for the weekend at Nihco.

Pohnpei Cinema

Definitely counts as a weekend adventure.  Honestly, I can’t believe there’s a working cinema in a small remote pacific island playing quite current movies.  Three at a time with one rotating out every Friday.  For real??  Too good to be true.  While I’m usually pretty particular about films, I am so thrilled that I will watch anything that comes to the Pohnpei Cinema.  Thor, Pirates of the Carribean 4, The Hangover 2 (twice), and Super 8.  I mean, The Hangover 2 wasn’t that good, it was just that I wouldn’t turn down another opportunity to go to the movies.  You can’t even find movies this recent in New Zealand.  It’s incredible.  Oh, and the best movie theater popcorn I’ve ever had except for that IMAX in Munich with the sugary salty popcorn.

Sokehs Ridge (Pohndollap)
“Mt. Sokehs is located just behind Sokehs Rock and is quite accessible.  The old Japanese Army built various facilities here and the ruins have been quietly sitting deep in the jungle ever since.  15 minutes by car from Kolonia.  2 hours from the beginning of the mountain path to the peak (even after wandering around the battlefields).  About 1 hour to get down if you walk slowly.  Firm soled shoes such as hiking boots are recommended.  Be sure to bring rainwear and enough drinking water.”   -Pohnpei Ecotourism Travel Guide, 2010

In February 1944, WWII allied forces began air attacks against the occupying Japanese.  120 tons of bombs, over 6000 in number, were dropped on Pohnpei.  Where did all those bombs go?  Oh, they’re still here.  Live.  Living.  Here, let me describe some of the protocols for ammunitions recovery.  (I don’t know the difference between munitions and ammunitions.)  So when local Pohnpeians find old bombs in the ground they find utility in the metal.  A long grenade may become the base for an outdoor firepit or even the base on which to pound sakau (local kava).  If such artifacts are reported to local authorities, they are carefully moved to a bunker underneath the state legislature building in the middle of town for routine detonation.  I can’t make this stuff up.  Also, these bunker holes are open, allowing a fun hiding/playing area for local kids.  I know.

Misko Beach

A fun beach day activity, until it rained upwards.  There are no naturally occurring sand beaches on the island of Pohnpei.

Pahnaker

Directly across from my house, there is the old dredging site which has become a swimming lagoon.  It only took me 2 months to discover this recreation paradise.  Despite the fact that we live on a small tropical island, there is little in the way of water access.  Almost the whole island is surrounded in a buffer of thick mangrove, and almost all of the land is privately owned so these public access spots are appreciated.  Imagine living on a very small island but hardly ever swimming.  So the girls and I finally investigate this lagoon spot.  Mollie and Cori Jo play with sea cucumbers and I pry live oysters off the rocks.  We swim in local swimming attire which means covering knees, thighs, and torso.  We don’t want to offend the neighbors or draw any unwanted menwai attention.  

Cash Power

There are approximately 34,000 people living on Pohnpei.  I would have said like 2,000 but let's not split hairs.  All the electricity on the island is powered by four giant rotting diesel generators.  Two of them are dead.  One of the working generators works sometimes.  As a result we get to participate in these really fun rolling brown-outs everyday.  My village scheduled outage is 9-12 which might actually be 8-2:30.

The Pohnpei Utility Corporation (PUC) controls the electricity, not unlike holding the Electric Company property in Monopoly.  All electricity is purchased on a pre-pay basis in a currency called "cash power."  You go to the little PUC building in town and walk in and buy cash power in whatever denomination you want.  Electricity costs $2.43 per kilowatt hour.  Local families often run a house on less than 10 kWh.  Menwai houses have thousands of kWh. I use about 8 kWh/day.

Running out of cash power does happen and is kinda like running out of gas.  Today when I stopped by Public Health to talk to Dr EJ he was examining a patient outside because the power was out.  I laughed so hard when I learned that the building had run out of cash power.

So when you buy cash power they give you a receipt with a 20 digit code to punch into your cash power box, and then it does a little song and dance.  The whole operation is very user friendly as demonstrated in the clip below. 

Mid Study Review

Participants Enrolled	31
Surf Missions	3
Marriage Proposals	2
Infectious Diseases Contracted	0

The study is going great!  Let me begin by saying, I love the State Hospital.  It gets a bad rep but the physicians are well-trained, and they make do with the resources available.  I’ve worked in several hospitals in varying degrees of developing/ed countries, and what impresses me is the cohesion of all the hospital departments.  The services are efficient and affordable.  The operation is nearly flawless, and the staff works together well with a tone that is calm, competent, and comedic.  Before morning rounds, the nurses and doctors joke and tease in a combination of English, Pohnpeian, and Filipino.  There’s an absence in haste and stress and irritability that I remember from many US hospitals.  Sadly, my menwai compatriots give the impression that the State Hospital isn’t safe or trustworthy.  That any injury or illness should bring you to the private Filipino hospital or med-evac’d out to Honolulu.  I disagree.  I know the staff and I know the physicians and I trust their care and judgment. 

I also love my job.  It's a pretty sweet routine.  Mornings, I head to the medical ward to check for new patients to enroll.  New participants are interviewed with my growing Pohnpeian vocabulary.  The patients are receptive to the study, and I think they appreciate that someone is taking the time to understand more about their illness.  If participants are returning for their scheduled follow-up blood draw, I head down to the markets to buy local fruits and assemble their compensation fruit bowl.  I pop into the emergency department to ask if anyone has fever, including the physicians.  Haha, I asked one nurse this morning if he had fever, and he replied that he had a fever of the heart.  I peruse the medical records department to search for missing patient info.  I check into the laboratory for test results and to see if I missed any patients who were ordered rapid lepto tests.  In the afternoons I schedule follow-ups and manage data in my gorgeous database.

Then there’s the fun detective part of my job.  If I find rapid tests run on patients who are no longer at the hospital, then I have to track them down.   From the lab records book, I have a name.  With the name, I can ask the ladies in the coding department to look up the hospital number.  With the hospital number, I can look into the medical records to confirm eligibility, and then I have to locate a phone number to contact the person.  Not everyone has a phone, so sometimes it’s locating a relative who has a phone number.  This expertise is best left to the ladies at the check-in desk.  They must know everyone on island and every relative and all the most recent family gossip.  I bring them a list of unknowns and some home-baked muffins, and they provide the family phone numbers.  Perfect.  This study would never be as successful if not for the amazing supportive hospital staff, which is precisely why I bring baked goods to each department regularly. 

The study works.  But what makes me even more delighted is how this project combines my fascination with infectious diseases and my love for indigenous cultures.  Medicine meets Anthropology.  No one loves their job as much as I do.

Lois and Elise, Outpatient Dept Triage Nurses. 
In the first photo Lois was slouching and Elise teased her into hysterical laughter

Monique and Elnora, Medical Ward

Dr Khristain and Dr Franklin, Medical Ward

One of my fantastic lab techs Johnny