A Wildflower Morning

 Before we went to Pohnpei, my husband, Rob Frohne, had been in communication with Ray Betz, a current teacher at the school, to set up some special projects that need his expertise while we were on island.  Ray was one of Rob's former engineering students, and had been an SM a while back.  He returned again to Pohnpei teach after graduation.  He has been there for a total of 5 years, with no plans of stopping. Rob was asked to set up a radio communication system so the main school can talk to  the little school out on Supwafik, an outer island, about a days journey away by boat.  (Where Solomon died - for those of you who knew him.)  Right now their only means of communication between the two schools is a regular paper letter, the kind we used to send home, back when we lived on Pohnpei. I'm sure you have never forgotten that it cost $3 for every minute you talked on on the phone with your Mom.  Painfully expensive phone calls were seldom...

(Note to those who weren't with me on Pohnpei in 1988.  You are welcome to listen in, but I am writing mainly for my fellow teachers, myself, and my family.  There will be some things you won't understand.  Just skim those parts, if you wish.) We stayed in this lovely building.  I think it used to be painted blue.  The lower floor used to be Mr. Quail's house.  The lower left apartment was Mr. Keith's.  Remember him?  The maintenance man?  We stayed in his apartment.  The building is still in good condition, but the cupboards and cabinets need help.  The particle board has swelled after all these years, and the drawers no longer work.  The building behind "Mr. Quail's place" is a cafeteria on the ground floor with  girls housing up above.  The boys are in the building that the nice Philippino lady, I think her name was Ramie, who taught typing lived in.  And there are a couple guys in the apartment in th...

   The first thing we did after moving our luggage into a little apartment at the school, and taking a look around, was to borrow the old blue Toyota van for a little shopping. Rob got to try out driving on the "right" side of the car.    Our first stop was the banana store.  Wow!  There were bananas, limes, cucumbers, sour sop, breadfruit, yams, and a few greens.  I don't remember having all those things available to buy.  I found out that in town at another stand you can buy fresh local pineapples!    We didn't get this stalk of bananas.  We got a stalk of the tiniest banana's available, because I remember them to taste the best.  They were only $0.35 lb.  But we missed getting a photo of them.  Wow!  They tasted good!  I think that of all the places I've traveled, Pohnpei has the nicest bananas. These bananas were different then any I had tried before.   They were soft ripe, a...

View of the reef surrounding Pohnpei  On Wednesday morning, March 20, 2013, we left Guam and flew on the "Island Hopper" to Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.  Rob's engineering design project on Guam was at a successful stopping point, and now we were headed out for a week on the island where I had taught 3rd grade in 1988 - 1989.  Pohnpei As the island started to come into view, I couldn't believe I was seeing it with my own eyes.  It was all so familiar, but I hadn't seen the island for 25 years.  I almost felt shock that I was there.  I shiver again as I look at these photos.  They feel fresh to me, and yet a huge part of the far, almost forgotten, but oh, so important past.  Sokehs Rock, Pohnpei, from the air. I crowded my daughter's window seat view to soak it all in.  There was Sokehs Rock, right before my eyes!  It was real, almost touchable.  No, I was not dreaming.  It was a dream come true....