It's weird. I leave in about an hour to go to the airport and fly to Honolulu. It's about a 10 hour flight, and we get in around 3:30 AM. Then I sit around the airport until around 9am and I take a little plane out to Kauai. From there a taxi to our hotel and I wait for my brother, sister in law, and two nephews Jack and Ridley to arrive!! I will be on diaper duty for a week. Soaking up the sun and the cooler temperatures. My hotel is across the street from starbucks, safeway, taco bell, and a million other American comforts. It's going to be crazy. Only an hour to go and my heart is pumping - boom, boom, boom. When you go to an Island, it's so isolating. It's all you know. We took a trip around the whole island once - it took about an hour. The food here is all from the philipines, and there is no dairy products that are worth eating for the price (except for cheap scoops of ice cream!). A small square of cheese here costs about $7-10. When you only get a stipend of about $250 a month that's a lot of money to spend on crappy cheese!
The people too. I have been surrounded by 22 of the same people every single day for five months. I interact with my kids, and the locals, but most of my time is spent hanging out with them. We go eat, watch movies, go swim in a waterfall, play UNO, monopoly, etc. My mind is about to be blown. People - different- people! I am trying to imagine the feeling in my stomach as my plane will lift off! My island. My home. I'm actually leaving it! I think this will be a little tiny taste of what it will be like when I leave for good, in May. I remember landing here in Pohnpei. Honestly, it felt like I was landing on a new planet. I was transformed into "pohnpei Kelsey" or as I should more accurately call her, "Pohnpei Kdub" (I am not called Kelsey here, David coined this weird nickname which I respond to more quickly than my own name). It's like
In a blink of an eye this amazing, wonderful, exciting trip will be over and I will be back here - attempting to tackle 20 more weeks of teaching, struggling, and quiet peacefulness in Paradise.
But now I'm just in heart-pounding- nervous stomach - anticipation!!! Thank you God for all of your blessings. I really don't know how to thank Him OR my parents :) How about a phone call when I land in Hawaii? fair trade? :)
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Micronesia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Micronesia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely