Bye-bye, Kosrae

Earlier this week I printed up a list of things I am selling before I leave Kosrae tomorrow. I gave a few copies to the Filipino teachers I share my office with and they immediately agreed to buy everything.

I insisted that everything must be picked up on Friday (today) between 11:00 am and noon. At 10:45 the brigade arrived like ants at a picnic. I set out everything I was selling on my kitchen table, but that didn't stop them from scouring the entire house trying to buy everything that wasn't nailed down.

When there was nothing left, they hauled in the food. Whew, so much food! We all jammed ourselves around my kitchen table inhaling pizza and pancit while they chatted away in Tagalog.

Now I only own clothes.

Tomorrow begins an adventure which I think I will be more appreciated in the past tense than in the future or present ones.

Tomorrow (Saturday) my flight is due to land in Pohnpei at 2:00 pm. At 4:00 pm the gun goes off for the half marathon: from Kolonia to The Village and back. Hopefully I'll be at the starting line and hopefully I will make it to the finish line. I've been running pretty much every day - I've even gone from my house to the airport and back in the pouring rain, so I should be able to make it.

But the real adventure begins on Monday. I have a plane ticket to Majuro and then a connecting flight on Air Nauru to spend a week in Nauru. Unfortunately, Air Nauru has just suspended service to Majuro, so I won't be going to Nauru.

Nevertheless, I came up with a unique, once-in-a-lifetime "vacation." But it is scaring me to death!

I am going to spend a week on Ailuk Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Me. One week. An Atoll. Holy cow.

The longest I've ever spent on an atoll is two days on Ant, and that's just three miles from Pohnpei - you can always see the mountains of Pohnpei looming in the east.

For permission to go to Ailuk, I had to contact the mayor through her son who lives in Majuro. It took a couple of weeks to get through. Then I had to book a flight on Air Marshall Islands which flies to and from Ailuk once a week (that's why I'm spending a week).

With all the difficulty involved in getting this trip organized, I didn't have time to think about what I was getting into.

Now I'm told that my lodging is $10 per day (where will I be staying?) and I have to bring my own food (what?). This place isn't even in the Lonely Planet travel book, which implies to me that it is not a tourist destination. I have visions of getting off the airplane and standing on a desolate, wind-swept beach alone, not knowing where to go.

Ten thousand years ago my forefathers and foremothers domesticated plants and animals so that people like me could make a living out of putting together sounds. Now I have no practical survival skills. What am I doing?!?!