The island of Kosrae is very different from the atolls of the Marshall Islands. The picture above was taken as we approached Kosrae. It is lush and green no doubt due to the at times never- ending rains during the winter months. Indeed, during the almost three days we spent there, it rained heavily for all but the first afternoon. Kosrae is known as the home of the Sleeping Lady. Can you see the Sleeping Lady below in another somewhat fuzzy picture of Kosrae? It is difficult to take these pictures from a plane flying at high speed!
Kosrae is a 109 km2 (42 miles2) island surrounded by a reef. It is circular in shape, measuring only 16 km (10 miles) across at it widest point. The single island that makes up Kosrae is a dense jungle mountainous island with lush green interior and several white coral beaches.
Whereas the road on Majuro ran down the middle of the atoll, Kosrae’s one road hugs the ocean shore. The road is paved and smooth its entire length, but it doesn’t go all around the entire island, only from the airport near the village of Tafunsak through to the village of Utwe, the five western coastal villages. After Utwe there is a rough gravel road that goes a bit further around the island, but then one must journey by boat the remaining distance to circumnavigate the entire island.
Kosrae is very small, both in physical size and population-wise. It has just over 8 000 people, and the elementary school-aged children go to one of six public schools on island. There are also a couple of small, private schools mostly with connections to the one church or another. There is one central high school in Tofol, the state capital, that will be housed in a new, huge three-story structure. Why such a large school is being built is one of the many mysteries of these Micronesian islands. The reason it seems, though no one said this out loud, is that the money provided for a new high school was sufficient to build such a massive structure so that is what is happening. Some Kosraeans I spoke to about it just shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders as only Micronesians can do.
The changes that have occurred on Kosrae in the ten years we’ve been going there are impressive. The first change that we noticed was the condition of the airport fire engine that sits by the runway for every landing. Ten years ago there was a single, old red fire truck parked by the runway. It had two flat tires, one wooden ladder, and we were told that pumper on the truck didn’t work! Now each of the FSM states has a state-of-the-art, enormous yellow fire truck, sometimes two of them. The one on Pohnpei, that is the same as the one on Kosrae, is shown in a picture at the end of this posting.
The second change is the fact that the road is paved, something that still has not occurred on Chuuk, but that is a story for a later posting. And Kosrae is a very clean island— many of the old rusting cars have been cleared away, there is regular garbage pick-up service, and the people take pride in keeping the main road clean and tidy.
Perhaps the largest change, however, is Kosrae’s access to the world, and the world’s impact on Kosrae through television and the Internet. Ten years ago neither technology was available. Even phone service was spasmodic. Today cell phones are ubiquitous, the Internet is widely available, and television programming is only a week behind the mainland. The afternoon we arrived on Kosrae, I taught (with much help from Joe Zilliox) my graduate course sitting in a gazebo by the ocean shore just across the road from our hotel. It was a wireless connection, very strong, that was used by all Kosraeans who had portable computers. We would see cars/trucks parked in the evening along the road near the gazebo with people sitting with computers on their laps accessing the Internet. Some were even sitting in the back of their pickups.
The hotel owner had situated his hotspot so that it sent a strong signal towards the gazebo area so that all people on the island could make use of it. We were going to get some pictures the following day of all that activity, but then the rains came and we didn’t get out of the hotel for almost two full days.
We mentioned before that Sandy’s suitcase didn’t make it to Kosrae. His baggage tag was put on another man’s bag and that’s what arrived. So Continental Airlines said they’d get Sandy's bag from Kwaj and bring it over on the next flight, two days hence. They gave him a $50 voucher to buy a few clothes, and provided a complimentary Continental toiletry kit. There’s really only one small store on Kosrae so Sandy had a very difficult time finding a pair of shorts and a couple of tee shirts that would fit him. We decided there are no ‘big’ Kosraean men, or if there are they had bought up all the Sandy-sized clothes. There are definitely no pictures included here of Sandy in his ‘make-do’ Kosraean shorts and tee shirts.
As well as preventing us from getting many pictures, the heavy rains washed out the big sports day during the Friday we were on Kosrae. Sports are a huge part of Kosrean life, so the rain storm caused great disappointment among adults and children.
When we woke Saturday, it was still raining but regardless we headed off to the airport the required three hours ahead of the scheduled departure. That amount of time is needed because every, and I mean every, piece of luggage is inspected by hand. Typically, the entire contents of one’s bag are put out on the table and then repacked by the inspector! It takes a long time to check in 40 people for one flight. And then you wait for the plane to arrive. On this particular day, we waited and waited and waited only to be told five hours after we got to the airport that the plane had broken down on Kwaj. It was announced that a ‘rescue’ plane would be sent from Guam and we could expect to be picked up in about 5 hours. True to their word, that’s what happened so we were ten hours late getting to Pohnpei, and it was some 14 hours since we stood in line to check in for the flight. So ‘kulo’ (thank you) to my Kosraean friends for their hospitality during our wet 2 plus days on your island.
BUT, Sandy’s suitcase was on the rescue plane so come good came out of the day. He could put his Kosraean clothes permanently to rest! We went to sleep on Pohnpei secure in the knowledge that when we woke the sun would be shining brightly, and we’d have a wonderful view of Sokehs rock that stands at the entrance to the Pohnpei harbor (see picture below).
Kaselehlie (hello, said with a slight bow of the head), and welcome to Pohnpei, the largest island in the FSM at 334 km2 (129 miles2) that boasts a towering, rugged interior and is of volcanic origin. The island is a deeply indented, jagged circle, some 21 km (13 miles) in diameter, and some 112 km (70 miles) in circumference. The main island is ringed by 25 smaller widely scattered coral atolls, one of which is Pingelap, an atoll that Sandy’s students know well from taking an imaginary trip there to learn to count as the Pingelapese would. If you’d like to read about Pingelap search out the book by Oliver Sacks titled The Island of the Colorblind. The picture below shows the road on Pohnpei where many of the Pingelapese migrate to from their home atoll.
Pohnpei’s population of around 34 000 lives mostly on the main island and are engaged in subsistence agriculture and a variety of small farms and handicraft industries. Pohnpeian pepper, though expensive, is regarded as the finest in the world. The island abounds in tropical forests, cascading mountain streams, hidden pools, and exquisite flora.
Most interesting and astonishing of all Pohnpei’s many sites are the ruins of Nan Madol, an ancient Venice-like city, the construction of which commenced around 500 AD and some buildings have been dated to as recently as 1,500 AD. We didn’t go to Nan Madol on this trip but have been there several times on previous occasions. It is truly a remarkable place, amazing in that it was constructed using hexagon, stone logs of basalt, each weighing several tons. The walls of the city rise as high as 12 meters and are up to 5 meters thick. Nan Madol was the governing center of Pohnpei till about 1650. The picture below was taken on a previous trip to Nan Madol and shows the massive corner of one of the remaining buildings.
Elementary schools are scattered about the island with the primary high school, PICS, being located in the center of the main town of Kolonia. The schools are modern and relatively well equipped. The vast majority of elementary teachers have two-year associate degrees from the local community college. In recent years, elementary teachers who somehow manage to complete their bachelors’ degree are assigned to teach in the high school, because it is felt that the best educated teachers should work with high school students in order to improve the chances of the students graduating from high school.
But now we have to board the Island Hopper once again to jump over to the next FSM state, namely Chuuk. As we leave Pohnpei with a heart felt Kalahngan (thank you), we see one of those brand new yellow fire trucks that situate themselves at the end of the runway for each take off and landing. The fact that the runways in the FSM are notoriously short--the pilot has to 'hit' the first white mark on the runway, or s/he will never get the plane stopped before it falls off the far end of the runway. Maybe it is a good thing those fire trucks are there!
Very interesting. Your pictures make each entry worth several thousand words! Soon you will become ROADS scholars. ( smile) Bill.
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