Week 3 in Pohnpei

Time flies and it's week 3 already, We have moved to our house for 2 or 3 years and our personal affects have arrived from Australia.

I worked really hard for 3 days to unpack and arrange our stuff so We will feel at home at last. With our stuff inside this house We defenitely feel at home. Before come to Pohnpei I have printed and framed some Canberra photos I took, those photos will remind us on our home in Australia.

I'm still adjusting and settling in but so far I can say that it's been good. Although there are compromises and sacrafices that We have to make, well it's a small island in the North Pacific after all it's not developed country like Australia.

Fresh produce is a bit hard to find, the supply depends on the shipment came to this island which is every 2 weeks. Sometimes the shipment didn't bring any fresh produce but something else like canned food and other stuff, then We have to wait until the next shipment comes. There are local produces like cabbage, eggplants, banana, cucumber, papaya, kedondong (I don't know what you call it in English but the locals call it toys) that We can find all year long. Apples have steady supply so usually in the big shops you can find it everyday, but with variety quality some are good some are bad. Good tomato is really hard to find even after the shipment came, usually the tomatoes are moldy when it gets here. After the fresh produce shipment came the shops will be full with fruit & veggie like lettuces, capsicums, red cabbages, broccoli, nectarines, peacheas, carrots, celery and bakchoy and etc. I went to the shops last Tuesday after heard the news that shipment came on Sunday, and when I walk in to the shop I was in panic mode seeing all those fresh produce, I want to buy it all :D. Easily available doesn't mean the price is cheap, some are bloody expensive some about the same price with Australia. A big and beautiful looking nectarine cost $5.75/pounds so when I pay at the cashier I was in shock to find that 4 nectarines cost me $14.70. Sometimes I just don't care about the price and just buy it because I really want it and I don't know when that stuff will be on the shelves again.

Meat & chicken supplies mostly frozen, so there is a special trick to see which one has good quality and edible. The fish mostly fresh and the best place to get fresh fish is Simon market. We can not scale & gutted the fish so when I go for fish shopping I always ask Simon to do it for me, I miss fish fillet like in Australia. I bought yellow fin tuna once and ask him to fillet it but when I got home I find that he cut it in big cube. Canned fish like tuna sardine and mackarel are everywhere, so we stock that up too for alternative of fresh fish.

Most food in this island came from America which I find it too sweet for my liking. All the cereals are American products with full of sugar, even the baked bean is sweet. Good thing We brought over 12kg of weet-bix from Australia. Even the bread is sweet here, but the good thing is we can go to Grace's bakery and order wheat bread without sugar, although you have to buy more than one for special order like that.

There is no fresh milk here, but there are heaps of long live milk. There is an Australian and New Zealand brands like Pauls and Anchor milk. We have 2 cartons of Anchor milk to stock up because people keep saying that stuff can dissapear and won't be back until God knows when.

Doing the groceries shopping is an adventure because you will not find everything you want in one shop, usually I have to go to 4 different shops for every groceries shopping, it's fun hey. The trick is grab and stock up. When you see something you like just grab it and stock it up, because if you think that it still be on the shelves next time you go to the shop you are wrong. Well you might be lucky if they're still there but mostly they won't be there. I was looking for canned mushroom the other day and can not find it in 3 shops, so I have to go to every shops just to get canned mushroom.

Good cheese is really hard to find and really expensive too. Like other stuff most cheese are American's product, the cheddar is in orange color which we're not used to. And no blue cheese :((.

There is one asian store called Yoshie, but they sell mostly Japanese products.

It takes time but I am sure that we will used to this stuff eventually, bear with us.