After spending 4 days (more or less) in Hawaii, we had to leave at 3 AM Hawaii time which meant that we were gonna be even more messed up with the time changes. It was kind of sad because we got to meet some really great people (unfortunately, this is where my short-term memory with people's names and faces kicks me in the butt since I can't seem to remember names for most all of them) like the Reals and other pastors and SM's.
We got to the airport only to find that the ticketing area didn’t open until 4 AM. So we broke out some lunches and I joked around telling Michael Cain that one of us was probably going to get a pat down since there were so many of us and chances were, it was going to be a minority. The ticketing people got us thru fairly efficiently and even waived our $30 2nd checked bag fee. We said goodbye to Mrs. Moore (our SM coordinator) and got in the line for security. While going thru, I got to go thru the special x-ray machine that basically gives an outline of your body underneath your clothes.
While going thru, they stopped me for about 5 minutes while letting other people behind me go. During this time, they pulled a can of Off out of my carryon. Strike 1. They then pulled me over to a private 7x7 foot room because they couldn’t see something. Strike 2. When we were there, the TA officer told me that he was gonna basically going to touch me, well, everywhere. Not really having any choice, I let him (even held my tongue from saying anything stupid like, "aren't you supposed to buy me dinner first") do his job even with a Hawaiian gorilla of a man watch (security officer or cop). After he was done, he wiped his gloves on a cloth and then ran it thru some chromatography machine to get a quick reading of the chemical bonds (didn’t say anything there either) and then surprise surprise, since nothing weird showed up, I was let go. I said Mahalo to the cop and went on my way to the gate.
While there, I finally got to see Stitch in Hawaii. I wish I could take a photo but some girl had a life-sized stitch at the airport. Some of us got some coffee and then we boarded the plane to go off to the Eastern Islands. Lucky for me, I got to choose an aisle seat and even better, I got to sit in a group of SM's. I got to sit next to Sophie Anderson, Michael Cain, and Kelsie Keller. When we weren't sleeping (I drifted in and out) we talked and joked about this and that or watched the movie (I forget what they played (sorry, I've been playing catch-up with writing these blog entries). I really began to enjoy the group of people that I'm going with because they all laugh at my lame jokes haha.
We first arrived at Majuro. I remember my apartment-mate Scott Young telling me about his mission experience in Majuro, I think it must have been interesting living on an island that's only 4 square miles (or so I've heard) and shaped like a rib. Half of the plane had to get off (for whatever reason) so that they could inspect that side - of course, it would be the side that I'm on. We got back on in like 30 or so minutes and took off again, this time for Kosrae. We weren't allowed to take pictures or even get off if Kosrae was not our destination but some SM's got off there (they had to take a boat ride to wherever they still had to go to). We stayed on and touched down in Pohnpei an hour or so later (but since we crossed some time zones (including the international date line) we arrived around 1pm (I think) on Thursday (we left Wednesday at 7 in the morning). Pohnpei decided that it wanted to give us the traditional greeting of rain so that we would get accustomed to it better. When we got thru customs (I did everything to look away from the "quarantine room" and didn’t crack any jokes. In fact, I just kept my hand over my mouth for the better part of the wait in line. After we got our baggage, we met some customs officers. My officer had a pretty cool eye mutation where there was a chunk of his iris missing on both sides.
When we got thru that, we came out into the pickup area of the airport where (of course) there were people from the Pohnpei school waiting for us with flower halo's. (I believe I should be able to snag a picture from someone later). This is when I realized that I was the only one in t-shirt + shorts so I quickly went to the bathroom to change so I wouldn’t be the only one that was out of "uniform". We got on small bus (driver's side is on the right side) and left to go to the school. We got to see some interesting stuff on our way in like a Wall-mart (not a typo, subtle isn't it?), fruit stands and other various stands.
After a quick 10 minute drive, we finally got to the Pohnpei SDA School and unloaded our bags into an apartment called the Mosquito Lagoon (or something like that, I'll change it if I'm wrong). Hopefully it's just one of those names that doesn’t necessarily reflect the type of living arrangement that it is haha. Since David and Marcus decided that they wanted the bottom, Michael, Carl, Brandon and I took the upstairs. It's a separate apartment with its own fridge, sink, bathroom and 2 bedrooms with 2 beds in one room and 3 in the other. It also has linoleum floors with some furniture (pictures to probably come later). It may not be much, but it'll be home for the next 10 months :)
*Funny Story(not really, just another one of those - of course this would happen to me - stories)* So besides getting that pat-down and taking the longest to get thru customs, I forgot to wear appropriate first impression clothes. I rushed into the non-air-conditioned bathroom and frantically tried to find a collared shirt with long pants - i took the wrong suitcase the first time so I had to put EVERYTHING back in. I popped back out and got the right suitcase the second time. By this time, I'm sweating buckets and I look like a mess when I come back out wearing khaki pants and a button up shirt. Unfortunately, by this time, the only people still at the airport were just the SM's. Yay for first impressions!
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