No call back from the boat people, so no camping / diving on black coral. After packing all the gear (Stacy had come to town prepared to dive and camp for a few days, and I just don't travel as lightly as I should) we drove over to the Jesuit Residence House to catch a ride with Greg (the school director) back to PATS. Before leaving we decided to wait for Sue (another volunteer, Stacy's roommate, and our travel partner for the next five plus weeks). Sue had been on the "Eastern field trip ship" for the last six days. This is the local ferry that does a monthly run out to the outer islands. This way Sue got a ride back to the school and we got to hear about the trip - important as we're hoping to take the ten day southern trip in about a week.
Stacy and I decided to kill some time by hiking up to a water fall. While driving over we went past the movie theater and stopped to see what was playing when (we had about 5 hours to use up). Bad Company was supposed to have just started, but they were having some technical difficulties. We sat around for a while then watched the movie (entertaining). When we got out it had cooled off a little and we continued towards the falls. From the parking area a short hike got us to a very nice set of waterfall fed pools. We hung out talking and soaking our feet in the cool water. On the hike back we stopped at the upper tear and talked with some odd Peace Corps trainees - very strange people.
By the time we got back to the car the timing was perfect to go meet the ship. Unfortunately at the dock there was no sign of it. We walked next door to Misko's restaurant - barely getting drenched by a flash storm. While waiting for our sandwiches to arrive we sat and watched a wind and rain outside - there was a little excitement as we watched a plane try to land at the airport. It was skewing all over the place - it aborted the landing at the last minute and probably returned to Guam. This was exciting because we were right next to the airport - at one point it looks as if it were going to crash directly in to us! Just as our food arrived the ship sailed by. We rushed through the snack and went down to the docks to watch her unload. The chaos was actually fairly organized in a completely un-understandable bureaucratic kind of way. Sue and Matong were, of course, nearly the last people off.
When we got to PATS (Pohnpei Agriculture and Trade School - where the marine lab Stacy runs is) we unloaded the truck and had a couple glasses of wine in Stacy and Sue's room. Well after the power was cut off (it stops at eleven) I raved the big frogs to walk back to the guest rooms - same place I stayed last year, except that they have hot water now!
