After having spent the first ten days here in Kolonia getting oriented with my work I had this weekend a chance to explore the area a bit more.
The weekend schedule gets some more entries and I meet increasingly more people. On Saturday afternoon I went with Jhun, a lovely Philippino guy, his brother Rea and their friends to a beautiful swimming spot just 10 minutes outside of Kolonia. It's a well-maintained place with some cute huts that can be rented for a few dollars from the landowners. Of course we had to try my new underwater cam, but on that day the sea was not too clear. Anyway, great fun!
In the evening the catholic church community had their yearly belltower-christmas-celebration. From the old German church the belltower is the only remaining part and it was illuminated beautifully. I had for the first time this year a slight glimpse of a Christmas Feeling, when "silent night" was sung by all people in different languages. Ah, and guess, who did the German part…
A contrast to the surreal European Christmas athmosphere were the performances of the different Island state communities: Chuukese, Yapese and Pohnpeians. They had put on some local dresses and some of them made a traditional type of dance. Please note the Santa-Claus and the illuminated background - very nice fusion!
On Sunday morning I went to church and met at 1pm two of the Jesuit volunteers for a hike. We took a cab to the meeting point of the expat hiking group and I was surprised how many people came around to take part in this. We were a group of about 15 people, all American expats. In general the "western" expat community is mostly American, the few Europeans are German and hardly Latinos, few Australians. Asians have a big Philippino community and as well as Chinese, some Japanese. I am surprised how different the American-dominated community feels in contrast to the Australian expat community in PNG. You can bet that my English accent now will be changing rapidly from the Ozzie-style to US...
Anyway – the hike was great – we got some young guides to show us the way up to the mountain top. It was an easy, slightly steep hike through the jungle with some breathtaking views when we reached the top. It's fascinating that one finds old Japanese war equipment there. Our guides certainly liked it!
This morning I accompanied two of the MicSem staff to Palikir, the capital of FSM and we did some Photo research in the Information office of the President. The national government complex is relatively new and all centered in a compound-like area... really liked the president's parking lot.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen