The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

or, Things I Will Miss about Pohnpei and Things I Will NOT Miss!

Things I Will Miss:
· Speaking Pohnpeian
· The jungle
· The ocean
· The weather
· Island Time
· The rain
· Nights lit by stars and nothing else
· 27 varieties of banana
· 5,000 diffferent shades of green
· Dancing like no one is watching you at the Flamingo
· Amber’s cooking
· Kate’s kindness
· Heather’s stories
· Amanda’s wry humor
· Mollie’s spirit
· Ap’s seriousness
· Amber’s elbows
· My host father’s wicked jungle survival skills, superhuman strength, and broken English jokes
· A certain librarian
· Movie nights with “Merlin” and “Guin”
· The 75 students of Salapwuk School
· Drinking fresh coconuts
· Eating fish so fresh that it was alive hours before!
· Riding in the back of pick-up trucks

Things I will Definitely NOT miss:
· Roosters crowing at all hours of the day and night
· Pig-feeding time
· Ants, cockroaches, and giant moths
· Sakau
· Island Time
· The mud
· A diet consisting of two food groups: starches and meats
· People spitting beetlenut juice at my feet
· Pohnpeian “dating” practices
· Attack dogs
· My polyester wardrobe
· Indirect communication
· The Coconut Wireless (a.k.a. idle island gossip)
· Pohnpeian taxis
· Inertia
· Cold showers
· Washing laundry by hand
· Ramen and rice