A Wildflower Morning

   As I walked up to the front porch porch of Pohnpei SDA Church, I was very happy to find piles of and piles of zorries still there.  Church is considered a holy place, the place to meet with God, and just like Moses at the burning bush, shoes are removed before entering the church.  For those of you not from the islands, zorries are what Americans call flip flops,  except for the Pohnpeian ones are much more durable, and cost less then those at cheap department stores in the states.  Unfortunately I missed getting a photo of those practical foot protectors, but I have the memory strong in my mind. The church looks much the same as when I taught at the school in the late 80's.  They added a lovely stained glass window, and some new curtains.  But the benches are still the same, as is the fellowship hall, which was just built when I was there before.  I sat down and a flood of memories overwhelmed me.  Did anyone else sense wh...

For those of you who remember jolting around in the back of a pickup truck over those horrible, un-paved roads around the island of Pohnpei, I have good news.   The road that rings Pohnpei is now completely paved.  The whole way!   Except for some of the older sections that need repaved again, the road is pretty smooth and nice.  It only took a couple hours of driving to get completely around the island.  Some of you might remember how we rated the jolts on the Richter Scale, as if we were measuring the power of an earthquake.  I believe that we would have called it a 10.0 if someone had been launched out of the back of the truck.  Thankfully that never happened, but I do remember some potholes taken at great speed that bruised up most of us, shaking our brains real good, likely causing the poor memory I have today. One of the coolest things we saw on the trip around was the Kittie Church.  Some of my sweat was i...

Keproi Falls, on the island of Pohnpei, could be one of the most lovely waterfalls I've ever seen, especially when you add in the warm water, and the refreshing pool for swimming.  It falls over the rocks like a lacy curtain I would have gotten in myself, but when I sat down on the rocks with my feet in the water, all of sudden I was surrounded by dozens little curious fish.  That unnerved me, and all of a sudden I was out of the water, remembering when a fresh water eel had nibbled on my foot in a Pohnpei river long ago. None of the other swimmers seemed to mind though.  The pathway to the falls was colorful, and lined with flowers. In the States you can by this plant in tiny containers to grow in your house.  This is what it would look like if you would give it enough heat and humidity.  I found the little white flower above growing by the water in Guam too. I've seen no country grow nicer Hibiscus then Pohnpei.  They s...