‘Round Kolonia Town

From Lin:

Much of what we see as we walk about in Kolonia Town can’t adequately be put into words.   The pictures do a much better job.

That being said, I will let the picture do most of the talking, but I can’t resist a few comments about a few of my favorite things.

First…the dogs.  I am a dog person.  Leaving Digger for a year has been really hard for Roger and me.  Dogs in Pohnpei are not pets.  They wander freely everywhere, and they have little interest in people.  Most of the female dogs show evidence of the last bunch of puppies, and male dogs all seem ready to pounce.  There seems to be no such thing as neutering here.  The dogs are thin and unhealthy looking…I wish I could help every one of them.

Then there are the pigs.  We went for a walk last Sunday down a street we hadn’t been on before.  We heard pigs grunting (I think it was feeding time) right there in town in a pen in someone’s side yard (along with the abandoned cars).  No zoning in Kolonia.

Posted on a bulletin board outside a grocery store.  Hope the pig didn't see it....

I can’t leave out the chickens and roosters.  These guys are free ranging just about everywhere, and some of them are really quite colorful.  And, of course, we hear the roosters crowing all day long.

From Roger:

Lin notices the critters; I will note the buildings, street scenes, and occasional oddities.  As Lin said, zoning is not a concept that has caught on here.  There is little distinction between commercial and residential, between wealthy and less so. 

There are two main streets in Kolonia Town, Kapwar E Sou and Kaselehlie.  Most of the larger hotels and businesses are on or just off these two.  At one end of Kaselehlie is the Spanish Wall; at the other end the Pohnpei State Offices.  At the south end of Kapwar E Sou is Ace Hardware and the U.S. Embassy; at the other end the causeway to the airport.

Kaselehlie Street

Fish for sale near the water on Kapwar E Sou

Pohnpei State government offices

Our street - Daini Sreet - with our apartment on the right and Daini Baseball Field on the left.

Containers (from Container Ships) are all over the place and have been repurposed into all sorts of buildings.  Often times they form the basis for the many small Mom and Pop grocery/convenience stores.

And then there are the few oddities I find amusing, from the “Paradise Car Wash” located at the church next to our apartment to the island’s love for Spam—not the internet type, but the real thing!

5K Color Run

In honor of the International Day of the Girl, the U.S. Embassy sponsored a 5K “Color Run” here in Kolonia.  The four Peace Corps Response Volunteers all decided to take part, with Roger running and Linda and the others walking.  It was a unique experience—unlike any 5K run we’ve ever participated in.

Perhaps the best description is “casual.”  The registration was scheduled for 6:00-7:00 a.m.  We arrived at 6:15 and there must have been 500 people milling around.  The registration lines only had a limited number of pens, and shortly after we made it through the process they ran out of registration forms, t-shirts, and give-away sun glasses.  But no one seemed particularly upset.  There were no numbers to pin on shirts, no chips for you shoes—none of that official stuff.  Instead everyone wandered out to the start line (an orange cone in the road).  The U.S. Ambassador stood at the line, held up a starting gun, and began counting down from 10.  Unfortunately, when he got to zero the gun didn’t go off but people just started running anyway.   

Since there was no attempt to line up the runner first, the first quarter mile (for Roger) was dodging walkers and kids, strollers, etc.  Every little way along the route there were young people whose job it was to douse runners with colored “dust.”  We’re still not sure what a “color run” is, but by the end of the race we were covered with orange, blue, and pink dust.  At the finish line there was a young lady shouting out times using her smart phone.  After he left the course another young lady ran up to Roger and asked him his name.  Later, just before the awards, she asked him to come to the podium and asked him what his time was (which she had forgotten to write down).  Seems he was the first obviously old guy to cross the finish line, so was named the “Masters” class winner.  As a result, he will go down in the annals of Pohnpei athletic history as the old fart who won the 2016 “Masters” category 5K race!  Pretty damned exciting!

All in all, a fun event.  The only really bad move on the part of the U.S. Embassy was in the awards area.  Even though this race was in honor of the International Day of the Girl, and the T-shirts proclaimed “Strong Girls Strong World,” the first place male finisher received a bicycle; the first place female received a basketball.  What were they thinking!  As for Roger, he received a table tennis set.  Unfortunately, we would be hard pressed to fit a ping pong table in our apartment….

The Registration Line

Before the race, the local Zumba group warmed up in their own unique way.

The Starting Line

Peace Corps Response - well represented!