It’s almost completely pointless doing my laundry. Today, Thursday, is my laundry day for no particular reason. I washed my two white t-shirts, my four other t-shirts, a couple pairs of shorts, my school pants, about four pairs of boxers, and my towel after getting back from the Track and Field games in Tofol at three. That short list is most of the clothes that I brought with me. The weight of my check bag didn’t allow me more. Thankfully, I have become very strategic about how and when I wear certain clothes. About an hour later I pulled out the clothes and hung them up to start the -- sometimes-- long drying process. It’s a very green way to do it.
Not long after that I went and played some basketball with some of the guys. I put on a still damp shirt and pair of gym shorts and played three games. My good friend Jerrod would be proud of me for finally giving in and liking it. I even pulled off a miraculous three-pointer (of which are becoming more common). I already sweat plenty back in the states, but here it’s almost like a leaking hose. So, my shirt damp with clean water and a more fresh smell quickly became much more damp with sweat and a similarly suiting smell. To top it off, it takes me a whole lot longer to cool down after exercising (whatever form that may come in). Even after a shower, which normally does the trick, I will keep sweating if I don’t get the fan on right away. Exercising in the middle of the day in any form is about the worst idea someone could have here. Even the locals, such as the Track and Field athletes, get up at four in the morning to do their practices.
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| This is where I do my usual swim. |
Speaking of that,
I’ve finally made jogging a part of my morning routine. I get up thirty-five minutes earlier to do an ocean-front jog. I learned from one of the locals, Pa Cooper, that it’s best to soak in the ocean after exercising. I soak for about ten minutes afterwards, now. It cuts my cool-down time from thirty to ten minutes and it’s a convenient way to partially clean my sweat-soaked clothes, as well. Each morning I get to see some good ocean life by doing this. One morning, five baby swordfish, another two sea snakes, another I let hermit crabs traverse the creases in my palm, and the list will only grow. If anything, it’s a really great excuse to experience nature before the day starts; a little bit of God’s beauty in nature.
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| It's quite fun; you should try it sometime. |
After basketball I did just what I do in the morning to cool off, and took a dip in the ocean. It was dark by then, at 6:30, and I walked into the water seeing a small flash of green not too far from me. I thought it might be someone under water looking at a watch, but then it was pulsing and appearing in different places much too quickly for it to be human. After getting a closer look I discovered that it was a bunch of jelly fish floating past! Part of their bodies were pulsating with an AWEsome neon green color. Off, then they would float a couple more feet and then on. Awesome might be not as good of a describing word because of its over-use, so maybe magnificent. Whatever word, though, it was a great amount of it. I can only hope to get a picture sometime.
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| Hm, Kosraen tangerine. |
The local food is really great. I say local so as not to necessarily include my own cooking. At the races today I had some fresh pickled es (papaya). It was really spicy but sweet at the same time. They pickle it all sorts of ways. Pa Cooper’s wife just soaks hers in kool-aid and sells it for 50 cents per Ziploc bag. Mos (breadfruit) is usually boiled or baked in the uhm (ground oven), is kind of dry, and has just a slight sweetness to it. There are something like twenty different kinds of usr (said “oosh” and meaning banana). Apple bananas are the sweetest, monkey bananas are very much like the bananas I could get at home but with green peel, then other kinds that have a purple flesh and you have to boil otherwise they are too hard to eat, and so many more. They use all parts of the coconut. The old tree trunks are used for building, the leaves for making baskets and brooms, the husks and shells for firewood, and of course the milk and flesh for food. They use fresh squeezed coconut oil to sweeten a lot of their foods. Both taro (I’m pretty sure it’s not the kind used for tea) and tapioca are like potatoes and have to be dug up. Then they grind them up, mix them with banana and/or coconut oil, wrap in banana leaf, and bake in the uhm. I should say that you have to get used to the taste of the things baked like this. The outer layer, of course, taste like the leaf and fire. It’s just the same as getting used to camp stew or fired corn on the cob, though.
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| I'm about twenty feet up. |
Sapanese Muh (Japanese Orange is what they call tangerines for some reason, which I say because we have kinds here unique to only this island) are so delicious and in plenty. I pick the ones that are just under ripe so that they are pretty tart. My younger brother Taylor would understand this choice. I’ve always been one to enjoy climbing trees, ever since I was young and Taylor and I would climb with wonder up the skinny limb of a local oak. My first approach to climbing the tangerine trees was a cautious one. Then I see Pa Cooper monkeying up the tree, skirting across tiny limbs, and bending them down until he can get onto his roof. Later he told me that they used to use the wood of the trees for baseball bats. Ha! I’m definitely going out on a limb each time I get tangerines now. They use the baby ones for seasoning. They are very strong, like lime juice, so they use them to flavor anything from water to sasimi.
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| Sasimi with tangerine juice to dip. |
Ah, now sasimi is very tasty. It is basically Kosraen (said “Koshryan”) sushi (one of my good friends would be quite jealous
). They cut little fish into small pieces or cut chunks off of big fish and let them marinate in a mixture of baby tangerine juice, onion, and chili (which they also grow). They will use whatever they have. Sometimes the island runs out of things, and the island only gets shipments every two weeks. They are all very good at making do. I really like that about this place, and am learning to make do and be creative myself.
The next thing I would mention is my class and all that entails, but I really don’t like making people wait for me. I’ll try to update every time I get interwebs, and that’s when I’ll have to fill in more details of that as well as others. If you didn't get the memo, my address is
Travis Sandidge
c/o Kosrae SDA School
PO Box 94
Tofol, Kosrae 96944 FSM
and don't be afraid to use it.
