Lost Houses

The road between our house near Sokehs and the college in Palikir is a windy, hilly one with jungle pressing in on both sides. Houses are scattered here and there along the road, but the view to either side of the road is usually impenetrable jungle.

Once in a while people will clear the side of the road and suddenly the skeleton of an abandoned house will appear. They are always concrete shells with holes where the windows and doors were and no roofs.

It is amazing how common these houses are. It makes me wonder, what happened in that place? Obviously someone put a lot of work into each of those houses at one point, but then they just let the jungle take over. Why?

The ruins of Nan Madol may be much grander and more ancient, but I find these houses equally mysterious.

Another mysterious thing is that once they have cleared the house out of the jungle, they just let the jungle grow right back and in a few months the house is gone again. Hmm...