Truckin my way to Truk (Chuuk) 10/12/10

I have been assigned to spend the next two years of my life in the state of Chuuk in Micronesia. Chuuk (formerly Truk) is the most populous state in the FSM and is composed mainly of large lagoon with small islands scattered throughout. There are a few outer atolls and smaller lagoons such as the Mortlocks, but the Chuuk Lagoon is where I will be located is the heart of Chuuk. Chuuk has the infamous reputation of being the problematic area of Micronesia. In a speech to us a couple of weeks ago, the US Ambassador referred to Chuuk as a “spectacular failure.” On of my host brothers on Pohnpei likened Chuuk to the “hood of East LA”. It has the negative stigma of corrupt government, mismanaged education system, rotting infrastructure, and violent citizens.

Although its reputation is by no means sterling, I am confident that these rumors I have heard are highly exaggerated. The majority of the negativity stems from the problems on the main island of Weno. It does have a fairly high crime rate and its infrastructure sucks. However, I am going to be on the rural farming island of Fefan. Fefan along with the rest of the lagoon islands are safe, clean and happy. They have remained rather undeveloped and maintained their traditional roots of island lifestyle. I am in no danger of violence or crime and the lack of roads, electricity and facilities does not bother me. The only thing that might irk me is the crappy education system. I might become frustrated when I realize the lack of resources and misallocations of money in my school when I arrive. But I will cross that bridge when I come to it. As of now, I am very happy with my placement in Chuuk and am assured that its disapproving naysayers are simply ignorant. In my opinion, it is a beautiful paradise that is just struggling with its adjustment to the modern world.

Nonetheless, my trip from Pohnpei to my current location was no walk in the park. We were supposed to leave on Saturday October 9^th at about 2pm. I left my Pohnpeian host family at about 9am and drove to the Kolonia to the airport. There were 21 Peace Corps volunteers plus a few staff members departing that day to the respective islands, so it was quite a production to coordinate us all. Everybody had about 100 pounds of luggage and had just given tearful goodbyes to their Pohnpeian friends and families. When we got to the airport, we realized that our flight was actually scheduled for 3pm, so our 11am arrival time was a little premature. It was fine though, because we were cherishing the last moments with the other volunteers that were about to ship out to specks of land in the vast ocean. We played games, said our goodbyes and went through security to board our flights.

As we were waiting in the terminal, a big storm burst open in the sky. The sky suddenly turned dark, thunder cracked and the rain poured down in torrents. The plane was scheduled to arrive in about 5 minutes, but we became worried that it might not be able to land in this weather. Sure enough, a man walked in after about 20 minutes and reaffirmed our premonitions that the plane was not able to land. It had passed over Pohnpei and continued on to Chuuk and Guam. The rain had stopped by now and the skies were clear and blue. We were kind of bummed but laughed it off and continued to revel in our last moments as a group together.

After about an hour or two of waiting, we were told that the plane would come back around 8pm and fly us to our locations as scheduled. We had no problem with this scenario and got a ride with our stuff back to the Peace Corps office then scattered around the city of Kolonia to grab some dinner and drinks. We went to local café; ate burgers, watched sportscenter and drank some rum. It was actually pretty fun to get a little liquored up and watch sports before I headed out to the undeveloped jungles of Chuuk. We joked about whether or not the flight would be delayed again and even threw out the crazy idea that we might arrive at the airport again and have our flight cancelled at the last moment.

Right before we left for the airport a second time, we received news that the flight was delayed further and wouldn’t come in until around midnight. So we strolled down to another bar and got ourselves mentally prepared for a long flight ahead. The rain started up again and our fears were recurring about flight cancellation. However, we received no more bad news and crammed into a few vans with our gigantic pieces of luggage to drive to the airport. We drearily waited in line with the other cranky passengers and waited to check in once more for our midnight flight across the great dark ocean. As we were approaching the front of the line, an airport officer stood up in front and announced “the flight will arrive on time and depart at 12:30 am…….but it wont be stopping in Chuuk”. The flight was planning on skipping over our destination in Chuuk and flying straight to Guam. All of the other volunteers needed to go to Guam before they took smaller flights to Yap and Palau, but the 7 of us were supposed to just take the 45 minute puddle jumper over to Chuuk. I guess not.

We booked flights for the next night, said goodbye to our friends and went to go find a hotel in Kolonia for the night. Luckily, the majority of the worldwide tuna convention attendees had just left town so we were able to get a room at Yvonne’s (the same place we stayed our first night in Pohnpei). The Chuuk volunteers decided to down a couple bottles of rum and try to enjoy our stranded endeavors for the night. We awoke the next morning and spent the entire day doing nothing at all. We slept, used computers and slept some more. Our flight wasn’t until 1 am the next morning, so we had plenty of time to waste.

To our pleasant surprise, our 1am flight was on time and whisked us away towards Chuuk. We only arrived about 38 hours late and crawled into our hotel rooms at about 4am on Sunday morning. The hotel was actually fairly nice and we were happy to get hot showers and air conditioning. It was my first hot shower since I’ve been here and I don’t expect to get another one any time soon. We struggled out of bed in the morning and went out to see the beautiful sites of Weno! I now got a better idea why nobody is clamoring to come to Chuuk. Weno is not a picturesque tropical city. The roads are decayed and flooded. You never drive for more than 25 feet of flat pavement. Potholes, ponds, quagmires, refuse and mud compose the majority of the streets. It is difficult terrain for any vehicle to traverse that is not a 4 x 4. The buildings are crumbling and it seems like unfinished construction projects are ubiquitous. It pretty much resembles any third world city you will run across. However, it does have its charming points. It is in the middle of a pristine lagoon of tranquil waters and majestic views. The island is covered in lush vegetation and has punctuated spires of rock protruding towards the billowing clouds in the sky. There is also one very nice hotel/dive shop called the blue lagoon. This place embodies the stereotypical tropical paradise resort. Wooden condos are placed on grassy knolls next to clean beaches with palm trees reaching out over their shores. It provides a stark contrast to the dirty bustling city a couple of miles away.

After an afternoon of getting acquainted with Weno, we jumped on a boat and zipped a few miles over to the neighboring island of Tonoas. Tonoas is the location for my 5 week part two of session of training. Here on Tonoas, I will be undergoing intensive language classes and acclimating to the Chuukese lifestyle. My island Fefan is only about a mile away and can be seen from outside my house, but I probably wont go there until my actual service begins in mid November. Tonoas is my home until then. Tonoas (formerly Dublon) is famous for being one of the major Japanese naval headquarters during WWII. The entire island was cleared of all trees and vegetation and made into a fully functioning Japanese war base. The ruins of the Japanese bunkers, communication centers, gun towers, roads, airstrips, and buildings are scattered throughout the island. They are mostly reclaimed by overgrown bushes and eroded from the salt and sea of the Pacific, but their presence is undeniable. The Japanese also conglomerated most of its navy in Chuuk lagoon towards the end of the war. Then in a massive attack called “Operation Hailstorm”, the US bombarded the lagoon and sunk most of the ships. It was a crushing blow to the Japanese and put them on the run until the end of the war. The attack sunk over 70 ships along with countless planes. For the convenience of the modern scuba diver, these wrecked vehicles became hotbeds for coral growth and have created the best wreck dives in the entire world. Fortunately, I am scuba certified and totally plan on exploring the sunken ships in the depths around my new home. The bulk of the wreckage is between Weno, Tonoas, and Fefan; so I am perfectly situated to take advantage of these sites.

My time in Tonoas has been short, but I have enjoyed it immensely. On Pohnpei, the villages are up on the hillsides in the jungle and vast stretches of mangrove forest surround the shore. Most of the time, I forgot I was on a island at all. On Tonoas, there is no doubting that you are on an island. My language classes are in an outdoor building about 30 feet from the water. The language teacher is in the foreground, and in the background I can see miles of tranquil blue water and a few lumps of green outcroppings amidst the sparkling sky. The houses are smaller, the amenities are fewer, the cars have vanished, and the people are more sparse; but nonetheless I enjoy it more than Pohnpei already. People are living a slightly more traditional lifestyle and seem to be more in touch with their ancestral roots. I live with a wonderful family with a mother, brother and father that all speak perfect English. My mother attended college in the US and now teaches at the elementary school, my father works at the hospital in Weno, and the other members of my family all seem to bright shining young people. It is kind of nice to have a much smaller family than in Pohnpei, I will have much more alone time and not be constantly bombarded with sakau drinking and the screams of young children. I will immensely miss my Pohnpeian family and already am sad about abandoning the innocent hearts of little brothers and sisters, but I have to admit that it is more relaxing to be on Tonoas. Tonoas is similar size, similar population, similar location, and similar population to my island of Fefan; so this is a good warm-up to get me ready for my final location. I am working hard to learn the Chuukese language and hopefully will be a pro in no time.