Day Four on the Island

And then the rains came.

We experienced eight showers on the island today. Most of them lasted for only a few minutes, but they tend to appear out of nowhere so we are being continually caught off guard. One even occurred while the sun was shining. The cloud was passing by so quickly that it didn’t even have time to darken the sky. We had a series of one-hour interviews with various people on campus, and two of the showers occurred during one of those hour-long blocks. Apparently, it tends to rain every day between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. or so. The island has been experiencing drought lately—almost two months without rain—so the residents claim the island is typically lusher than it is now. Having come from California, I think it’s a matter of perspective. The drought in my home state is certainly more than just two months long.

By the way, the arrival of rain is supposed to be a good omen, so anyone who arrives just before a rainfall is considered a blessing. The fourth day in a row of rain makes all of the team a blessing for the island, or so we’ve been told multiple times.

A shower can catch you by surprise here, and it may end within seconds or minutes. I had another tremendous feeling of sense memory before one of the showers, though. I could smell the rain coming, and it was there within ten minutes.

I picked up a t-shirt and a couple of caps at the college’s bookstore today. Cash only. I’ve not decided which one The Boyfriend gets and which one is mine. I suppose that will be a debate for another day. The t-shirt is all mine, by the way. The mascot for the school is a shark, so I get to get back in touch with one of my childhood fascinations, sharks. Yes, that was partly due to Jaws, but that movie just meant that more information was suddenly available to learn more about these creatures.

The team, which really has bonded to the point that we do almost everything together, went to dinner at a beautiful Cliffside restaurant called Cupid’s. It is a very romantic spot, perfect for a wedding. The food was okay, but the views were spectacular. I got some amazing sunset photos here. We were almost devoured by bugs for a while until the restaurant staff turned on a fan that apparently dissuaded the bugs from coming into the patio area.

I got to sample some fried octopus, which was okay but not spectacular. For dinner, I had the shrimp sauté with potato wedges. By the time we got the dinner—after the appetizers and the salad—the shrimp were almost cold. The potato wedges were really more like sliced baked potatoes, well-cooked but a bit dry. The best part of the meal might have been the two glasses of wine. The place reminded me of a certain Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood (oh, how I’m missing Mexican food) where the food is pretty bad, but the more of the margaritas you drink, the less you care about the taste.

One of our team members did stay behind at the hotel to participate in the making of something called sakau. I wish I could describe it. A group of men gather and talk while one of their number uses shredded leaves to squeeze a dark liquid into a cup. There’s a lot of scooping and moving and twisting, none of which matters to the men, it seems. They’re just there for the sedative properties of the sakau. It acts as a narcotic and tends to mellow people out. I’ve not yet found out if our colleague partook of the drink or not, but I fear he might be in bad shape tomorrow.

By the way, one of the men participating in the making and drinking of sakau was the President of the Federated States of Micronesia himself. He apparently owns the hotel where we are staying, and whenever the police show up, that’s supposedly a sign that the president is in residence. Small world.

Another habit on the island is the chewing of betelnuts. It’s kind of like chewing tobacco or snuff except it leaves your teeth stained black and reddish-brown. And people spit it everywhere. There are numerous signs prohibiting the chewing (and especially the spitting) of betelnut juice. It’s not difficult to see why. It leaves a dark reddish-brown stain on whatever it hits. Apparently, the betelnut gives its chewers a bit of a buzz, kind of like a hit of caffeine.

On the way to the restaurant tonight, the roads were more crowded than usual. People walk almost everywhere, so after dark, there are sometimes hundreds of people crowding the narrow streets. We passed by a church tonight with a full congregation, and the chair of our team jumped out to take pictures. I was the only one to follow here. About 50-60 people, at least, were crowded into and under a thatched hut listening to a man using a loudspeaker. Naturally, I didn’t understand what he was saying, but the crowd certainly was listening intently. There are churches everywhere on the island, including three for the Latter Day Saints on the road to the college campus. Another Mormon church is under construction. I’m not certain why you’d need four different churches for the same religion on one stretch of road. Unless the culture of walking means that the church has to be within walking distance. Many of them do not have significant parking areas.

A full day of interviews and revisions takes a lot of energy, and the Wednesday of an accreditation visit (the middle day) takes even more effort. It’s usually the longest day, so tomorrow’s post might be even less eventful. I typically need to wind down a few minutes before going to sleep, but the television reception is so bad here that some nights you can’t watch the same channel from the night before because of the signal interference. Like internet access, television reception is quite hit-and-miss. Some nights, I’ve been able to watch Turner Classic Movies. Other nights, the image is so fuzzy that it’s tough to tell what you’re watching.