A random thought about the positives of life on the island

Two cars were parked at the side of the intersection on my way to work the other day. Passing by, it looked as though there had been a fender bender. It dawned on me that this was the first accident scene I had driven by in the year and half I’ve been here. By contrast, an ‘intersection accident’ was something I passed weekly, if not daily, in Phoenix. In Oregon, accidents were less common but certainly not rare.

As an ex-pat, I’ve noticed that the things we miss from home come up in conversation much more than the things we are happy to escape from. Similarly, my blog entries may have discussed the negatives more than the positives but there are plenty of positives about living here.

It has been nice living a life that doesn’t include the omnipresent stress, fear and annoyances that are part of everyday life in the U.S. Driving here is stress free and the rate of speed so slow that there is little fear of getting seriously hurt in a car accident. The constant sound of car alarms and cell phones which in the states had turned me into a Grinch-like creature grimasing the words “noise, noise, noise” is gone. The bombardment of advertising and telemarketing simply doesn’t exist. In fact, advertising isn’t really needed at all. When a ship arrives and grocery store is restocked, word gets around.

There is minimal crime on the island and less acts of random violence. Without the media coverage that exists in the U.S. the crime that does occur here doesn’t result in a culture of fear. In fact, fear is replaced by friendliness. As one longtime ex-pat remarked to me, living here he has gotten use to chatting with strangers. When he goes to the states and out of habit starts to strike up a conversation with a random stranger, he is treated with suspicion and mistrust. Parents don’t worry that their children will be abducted and kids in first or second grade can safely walk to school or the corner store alone.

Weno - A study of contrasts

Written on a recent trip to Weno, the main island of Chuuk State.

The beauty of Weno lies not on the land but on top of and beneath the lagoon that spreads out below and before me. In front of me clouds rise from the horizon in multi-hued brilliance like a canyon wall closing off the outside world. They lay, one on top of another, stacked from the sea to the sky in all shades of blue and grey during the twilight hour. Westward, the sun lingers somewhere behind the wall of clouds. A few strong rays penetrate a layer of clouds producing swirls of a pinkish salmon color that peak through blend with the blue-gray curtain of clouds.

I didn’t bring my camera on this trip and now wish I had. For the last three nights I have sat as the minutes passed by watching the horizon as the sky changed from blue to black. On past trips to Weno I had brought my camera but the lense only focused on the road. Rainfilled potholes as deep as ditches are as prevelant as holes on a piece of Swiss cheese. Dirty water washes into and out of the potholes until the road is covered in a layer of slimy mud. The potoholes are so common and so deep that no one travels more than 15 miles per hour. Every few feet drivers brake so the car can gently roll into the ditchlike potholes. When possible, they turn into parking lots or the oncoming lane to avoide the holes. The joke on Weno is that the way you can tell if a person is driving drunk is if he is driving in a straight line.

When the road is behind me, beauty is in front. Between my 3rd floor hotel balcony and the clouds, the calm lagoon water sits. Digesting and reflecting the color, a purple hue spreads across the surface. The water, disturbed only when a small boats skims the water heading from Weno back to a lagoon island, produces the occasional ripple but otherwise is as still as the full moon at midnight.

Beneath the surface another type of beauty exists. Spread througout the lagoon are 40 Japanese ships sunk in battle during World War II. Nature and time have removed the ugliness of war and few remnants of battle remain. Brightly covered corral decorate the ship’s sides hiding the dull gray steel. Schools of fish now occupy the spaces where sailors once stood watch. They are peaceful, silent, and present everwhere. Their numbers suggest that the lagoon is healthy, vibrant, teeming with life.

Behind me, the opposite is true. There is nothing healthy looking on the island. Litter lines the streams feeding the lagoon. Abandoned cars rust and tin shacks rust on the side of the road and everything seems in need of a fresh coat of paint.

Weno – A study of contrasts.

Beware sleeping drunks

Not to long ago National Geographic had a one page article on unique warning and other signs from around the world. My favorite, a warning of deep crocodile-infested waters, pictured a wheelchair speeding down a ramp. Another, aimed at teaching rural residents the correct way of using a toilet, had a picture of a person squatting on top of a toilet seat with the universal diagonal red line across the sign.

If I were asked to design a unique roadside warning sign for Pohnpei, it would show a man laying in the road asleep (as indicated by those little z’s used in cartoons to depict a sleeping person) with a half empty botttle of booze at his side. As with most developing countries where the traditional lifestyle is evaporating and many men are unemployed, alcohol is a problem.

I can understand the alcoholism. It’s the falling asleep drunk in the middle of the road that confuses me. I can’t imagine being so drunk that I wouldn’t first move to the side of the road before laying down for my night’s sleep. But it’s true…
Driving at night, especially a weekend night, one must be on the lookout for people asleep in the road. One friend reported that on two occasions, as he turned from the main road onto his street he has had to stop and wake someone up. On a cloudy night a few weeks ago, while driving home on a rural road a different friend didn’t notice a sleeping drunk until it was too late.

If the story is true what happened afterward is even more amazing then a drunk guy lying down in the street. According to the driver, after running the man over, he stopp the car and knocked on a neighbor’s house. The neighbors were aware that the guy was asleep in the road but hadn’t bothered to move him. The police were summoned and my friend then had to convince them that they should take the run-over drunk to the hospital to be checked out. Fortunately, his injuries were not life threatening and the man survived.