My Project Update

Sam helped me to do the dirty job, preparing the potting mix in each pot and plant some seeds. I also started to plant more seeds yesterday so hopefully in couple of weeks I can see it grows, fingers cross.

Saying goodbye in Pohnpei

This post triggered by my book club reading last night about the Grief Ministry, so We shared about what We know about death and how we handle the funeral as the last effort to say good bye to the deceased.

In Pohnpei, the funeral feast is the largest and most important form of feast held on the island today. Interment usually takes place within twenty-four hours of death. The funeral feast lasts for four days. Family members, fellow clanmembers, and close friends remain together for an additional three days of feasting.

One good example of Pohnpeian culture is funeral or "mehla" in their language. When a person dies, the family has a lot of responsibility to do. The family with some members of the community will get together to set up their place before the big crowd comes in. They will clean their place, set up the cooking place, etc,etc. In the meantime, somebody representing the immediate family will go to the radio station and put up an announcement of the deceased. Some men will go to the king or "nahnmwarki" for invitation or "luhk". This invitation goes to the nahnmwarki of the place the funeral will be held at. For example, if the funeral will be held at U municepality, the invitation will be given to the nahnmwarki of U.

My Project

As you know from my previous post that finding fresh produce is a challenge in Pohnpei, so I decided to start veggies garden.

I have brought over the seeds from Australia: cucumber, capsicum, iceberg lettuce, cos lettuce, italian parsley, curled parsley, tomato, oregano, corriander, thai chilli, broccoli & dwarf beans.

The gardener has cleaned up the 6 unused pots I found in the garden, what I need to do is to buy the soil and the potting mix from Ace Hardware and it ready to go. The soil around the compound isn't good for growing things as it full of rocks, well maybe if I go to the drive way and get the soil from there it could be work but I'm too lazy to do it so I will settle with buy the soil instead. Another thing I need to buy is the glove for gardening, mind you that I don't like my hands to get dirty with soil :)

I have succesfully grown chilli and basil back in Canberra but no luck with the tomato, I don't know what went wrong with the tomato. The basil and chilli has grown beautifully, but when the Winter is approaching I have to give up my basil and chilli before it all freeze and dead from the cold.

Let see how it goes this time, hopefully I will be success with my veggies garden. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Wish me luck!

Flower Power

 Enjoy the flowers that grow in my garden, you will see that there are some flowers grow in Indonesia.

My First Book Club

I went to my first book club tonight and it was fun eventhough I haven't read the story but the ladies were welcome and nice.

The Book club started in February this year if I'm not mistaken and become regular activity for some women who like to read and interested to get together and discuss about the reading. The book club is a regular meeting every week on Wednesday night. Since we would like to meet more often than once a month so the administrator choose short story instead of a book for the reading material. But usually in every book club meeting we are not only discuss about the reading but we also talk about anything. Mind you we are women, we like to talk!

Tonight's story is about Cactus. Don't ask me about the story because I haven't read it yet, because PW told me about the book club at 4pm when I was in the middle of my exercise and since we're going tonight so I have to cook dinner earlier. Yeah that was my excuse :)

Mr. Husband and I have different interests in what kind of book we read, yeah of course I like to read girly book (his nick name for my books) because there are no car chasing or fighting or blast or whatever men like to read. So this book club is a good opportunity for me to meet new people, share thoughts about the reading itself and about any things related to living in Pohnpei since I'm the newbie.

So who said that living in Pohnpei is boring?

It's so far than boring, there are a lot of stuff that I can do. Book club every Wednesday night, volunteer at the public library every Thursday, tennis lesson every Saturday, hiking every Sunday and functions yes lots of functions.

I will write more about my other activities in the coming posting, it's my bed time now. Ciao!

It's a tough life

Living in a small island in the North Pacific like Pohnpei can be a tough experience.

Especially if the scenery you see is something like this on a daily basis ;)

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.

The Journey Begins

Alright I know that I have been really slacked in updating my blog but hopefuly it will change soon, so please bear with me :)

My journey to Pohnpei begins on 9th September, our flight was at 1.35pm Jakarta time and then transit at Singapore for 20 minutes before finally heading off to Manila. Flight from Singapore to Manila was 30 minutes late, We were thinking yeah We still have enough time as the time gap is 2 hours. We arrived in Manila at 9pm local time and our connecting flight to Guam is at 10.55pm.

How We were wrong. The international departure is actually in different location from international arrival! The stress starts to kick in, because We have to wait for our luggage before We head off to the terminal 2 (if I'm not mistaken). It took forever for our 3 big suitcases to arrive, I was praying to God to let us be on the connecting flight, because if We misses the connecting flight to Guam that means We are going to miss our flight to Chuuk & Pohnpei. There are only 2 flights in a week to Pohnpei from Guam so if We missed it that means We have to wait for 3 days for the next flight. We need to take taxi to go to the terminal 2, so after got out suitcases We were waiting at the airport shuttle and after 5 minutes passed there is no indication that the shuttle will arrive soon. We asked the guy what time is the schedule for the shuttle, and He said there is no fix schedule. Oh right, perfect!

Now the stress has really kicked in. We were so afraid that We couldn't make in on time. But then the guy said "oh you can take taxi and it cost 100 pesos", but We don't have peso so We ask the guys if We can pay with USD and he say yes absolutely, just pay US$5 phew We relieved. But the drama is not yet over. It took 10 minutes to be at the terminal 2 so We only have 1.5 hours until departure, ticking ticking ticking. There was a long line for the xray because they do body check too but the good thing that the girl who checked our tickets told us that We need to check in first as it's only 1 hour until departure. So I was running to the Continetal counter to check us in while Sam still at the xray machine.

There was another drama at the check in counter as the guy won't check me in because I don't have return ticket. There is no problem with Sam because He's using the diplomatic passport and me, of course I'm using my Indonesian passport, what else and there is no diplomatic stamp on my passport. According to the rule I need to have return ticket because they are worry that I may be working in Pohnpei and I won't be back. We have explained to them that We're going to Pohnpei for official work (Sam) and I am his wife, We also provide them with our marriage certificate but they won't let me on board the plane arghhh... So finally We have to buy $700 return ticket, they guarantee that the ticket is fully refundable, ah well let see.

After We checked in then We walk down to the gate and OMG We found another security screening. This time they take everything out from the bag and investigate each stuff carefully. They even do body check and We have to take off our shoes and hat, dear oh dear talking about high security. Mind you that We have 2 carry on bags and 2 laptop bags, so it took awhile for them to clear us out.

Oh and when We were in Manila, every single person that We met was talking to me in Tagalog :)). I have to explain to them that I'm Indonesian and I don't understand Tagalog, I guess my face can be mistakenly as Philippino :)

The flight arrived in Guam at 4.30am local time or around 9am Jakarta time, so We're pretty much dead tired and feel like zombie. Guam airport is small and at that hour not many shops open so We hang out at the food court until departure time at 8.30am. The airport was full with Japanese tourist who will catch early flight home (I guess) and I feel like I'm the ugly duck seeing all those Japanase women in full make up and dress up. Thank God the Continental in Manila has checked our bag in thorough Guam so We don't have to go thru Guam security which I'm sure even worst than in Manila.

On the way to Pohnpei the flight from Guam has to transit in Chuuk. And finally We arrive in Pohnpei at 1 pm or 10am Jakarta time.

What a long flights and dramas that We have to go thru to get here, but We are so happy that We finally arrive in our home for the next 2 or 3 years.

And the journey begins......

Let's pack and send it

The uplift for international was on Aug 2nd, Allied Pickfords came, pack our stuff and send it to Pohnpei. I know it's still 2 months away why on earth we send our stuff that early, well since they'll send it thorough sea freight it will reach Pohnpei in 2 months if we're lucky or 3 months if we're not lucky. So you know why we are willing to sacrafice living in Canberra with limited stuff until the day we leave the country on 19 Aug.

The Allied Pickfords team came at around 8am and only 2 guys showed up, I was a bit pesimistic that they will finish at around 12 noon as there were about 20 people showed up when we move from Jakarta to Canberra and it took 2 days. Can you believe 20 people and they need 2 days to pack 3 bedrooms apartement? We had 79 boxes back then.

These 2 men from Allied Pickfords worked really fast and just before 12 they were almost done, ah well before they forget 1 or 2 cupboards with full of stuff in it. But still, just before 1pm they were all done with the packing, I'm in awe.


In total we have 74 boxes to be sent to Pohnpei, from 1 bedroom apartment.


Now we are living in an empty apartment with only basic kitchen utensils and 4 person dinner set. And we will move to mum in law's house next week after the uplift for storage.

It's getting real... I'm excited, a little bit sad, happy and nervous at the same time...

When passions collide

Thanks to Mr. Husband who got me early birthday present although it was 3 weeks early. So I can take these nice photos of delicious food I ate during my "transition" time from Canberra to Pohnpei.

Yes, my latest passion is photography and my old on going passion is food, meaning I like eating them not making them ;).

So, enjoy the combination of my old & latest passion: food & photography. Mind you that I still have a lot to learn as a photography enthusiast, so your comments are welcome.

Bon apetite....