Going Postal

One of the vestiges of Micronesia’s status as a former U.S. Territory is its possession of a prized United States zip code (Yap’s is 96943). Still considered to be a U.S. possession according to the USPS, it’s amazingly inexpensive to mail letters and packages to and from here. A standard letter makes the long trip from Yap, to Guam, to Hawaii, and on to the U.S. mainland for the price of one stamp. As the crow flies (and that would be one tired crow), Yap is about 7,200 miles from Denver. For a standard letter, that’s only .006 cents per mile – a bargain at any speed!

The emphasis, however, is on the bargain, not the speed. Parcel post – which apparently translates to steerage class in the world of the mail service – is cheap, about a dollar a pound from Denver to Yap. They tell you when you drop your package in the mail that it will wing its way across the Pacific – perhaps stopping off to sun itself in Waikiki or do a little bit of surfing on the North Shore – in about 11 days. Don’t fall for it! We did, and as a result sent care packages to ourselves on February 1, foolishly assuming that they would arrive about when we did, on the 13^th. We’re still waiting, and as a result made several demoralizing trips to the post office this week,

before finally experiencing a bit of a breakthrough on Friday. (Note the handicapped parking sign in front of KC in this photo. We’re pretty sure that this is the only one on the island, and must have been installed by the ADA compliance sticklers at the USPS. Nevermind the fact that you may have trouble getting your wheelchair up the stairs – you’ll have great parking!)

On Friday, we finally got some packages from the mainland – none that we had mailed, mind you, but instead some that had been sent priority mail from Matt’s family. The rumor on the island is that Continental Micronesia, which must have a contract with the USPS for mail delivery, was unable to deliver packages from Guam for about a week due to a fuel shortage (some conspiracy theorists claim that Continental imposed a unilateral embargo on Yap for a week, perhaps the result of a related dispute over fuel contracts). Priority mail has, well, priority, and so our poor care packages, sent by lowly parcel post, will presumably languish in Guam until someone feels sorry for them (or the food inside them runs out) and puts them on the flight to Yap.

This week wasn’t all bad. We’re getting settled into our jobs, and on Wednesday bought a car, a Suzuki Alto:

It is, needless to say, not fancy, lacking even a dome light. But it does speak to you in Japanese when you start it, an unexpected bonus. Unfortunately, the owner’s manual is also in Japanese, and so we are unable either to understand the car’s admonitions or plan preventive maintenance until we’re able to find a suitable translation. The car did compare favorably to many of the other options on the island. Nearly every one that we test-drove made ominous noises in the region of the CV joint or felt dangerously unstable at speeds approaching 12 miles per hour. Fortunately the Suzuki, with its 996 cc engine, has trouble besting 14 mph (more on downhills!) and so instability is not a major concern.

In other tropical news, KC, who has previously lived only in the desert, is slowly coming to grips with the profusion and resourcefulness of Yapese insect life. We have a wonderful set of Tupperware and Snap-Tite containers on the way (likely being put to magnificent use in Guam at the moment), but in the meantime we have taken to keeping in the refrigerator every food item even remotely accessible to ants. If the ants figure out how to access and utilize our major appliances, look out!

While we’re waiting for running shoes to arrive we’ve made an effort to do some hiking and exploring around Colonia and the rest of the island. It’s hilly here, and we recently found a route to a panoramic view above town. The port, marina, and government offices of Colonia are located largely on the peninsula in the upper left of the photo, with the remainder of the town stretching back around the bay peeking out on the far right. The coral reef surrounding Yap is just barely visible, marked by the surf break in the upper right.

Here are a couple more pictures from the high point. It really is a beautiful island!

We hope everyone has a great week!

Our first week in Yap.

Last Sunday was our first day in Yap. Suffering from jet lag and hunger, we woke up at 4 a.m., and with no stores or restaurants yet open, made use of our time by unpacking and looking around our new home. We headed up to a local restaurant for breakfast a few hours later. All was quiet on the patio where we ate – in fact, the only other visitor at breakfast was a rat that must have been a foot long from tip to tail. In

all fairness, it was an outdoor restaurant and the rat didn’t really bother us, but it was another sign that things will be different here. Here’s another, spotted on a recent hike:

We followed up breakfast with a driving tour around most of Ya

p, provided by Matt’s co-worker and his girlfriend. The island is

beautiful, and we’re looking forward to exploring it more.

We also started our jobs on Monday – the work looks like it will be interesting, although it may be difficult for us to adjust to the pace here. The other expats tell us that it just takes a little while to slow down. We’ll work on it, and have a good feeling that the pace will catch up with us sooner rather than later.

We’ve had a couple of requests to explain better where we are, so here goes. Yap is the westernmost of the four Federated States of Micronesia. Our island borders the Philippine Sea on the west and is 9 degrees north of the equator. The entire FSM, along with a number of other Pacific Islands were part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific following WWII, and then U.S. Territories until 1986. The four states of the FSM voted for independence that year; other islands, including Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Marshalls, remain U.S. Territories to this day. Although it is an independent nation, the FSM maintains a close connection to the United States. Through the U.S. Compact of Free Association, the U.S. provides substantial monetary aid (KC and Matt would like to thank you, the American taxpayer, for continuing to pay their salaries) in exchange for military and naval rights. The depth of the relationship between the U.S. and FSM is hard to figure out. Mail service is administered by the USPS (here’s a picture of Matt in front of the FSM Postal Service Building, impersonating the plane that will hopefully bring our packages someday):

but you need to get a passport to here. Work permits and visas aren’t necessary for U.S. citizens. Strangely, as Matt recently learned, the FSM is still considered a United States possession under the U.S. tax code. International e-filing isn’t allowed, and is even prohibited from some U.S. Territories (including Guam and American Samoa), but is permissible from the FSM. Two years here will probably shed additional light on the relationship between the two countries, but at this point much of it is a mystery to us.

Aside from work, we spent the rest of our week hunting down edible groceries, starting to look for a car, and making devastatingly fruitless trips to the post office. The mail from off-island only comes three times a week here. With this in mind we mailed ourselves care packages with what we thought was plenty of time to spare. As it turns out, we probably should have considered sending them sometime last July. The hardest thing to go without has been running shoes, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll have better luck this week. After a run-in with airport security in Denver, our toothpaste

situation has also been dire:

On Sunday, we had finally squeezed every molecule out of the tiny tube we’d gotten in Hawaii, and had to break down and buy more.

Our hunt for a car has been interesting. American driving laws apply in Yap, but most vehicles here are from Japan, with steering wheels on the right and all sorts of other oddities. We’ll try to snap some pictures of some of the more interesting automobiles in future weeks.

On Saturday, we attended a bbq that ended up in karaoke. The karaoke machine is from the Philippines, and its makers didn’t break the bank on accuracy in translation. Our favorite song of the evening was John Denver’s classic hit, “Libyan on a Jet Plane.” Matt wanted to write additional lyrics based on the title, but KC, in a spasm of political correctness, has vetoed the idea.

Kammagar.

The first couple of weeks...

February 5, 2009

The movers came today, and suddenly our move to the other side of the world became very real. Between the holidays and the wedding we have really never had a chance to sit down and think about what we’re doing. I suspect we won’t really have that opportunity until we’re sitting on the runway next week.

The movers were great – they brought a 200 cubic foot plywood shipping container to our door, and packed as much as they could into it. Here’s KC in front:


The picture above is of Ainslie Bell at Rocky Mountain Overseas, Inc., overseeing the packing process. I’d highly recommend him next time you find yourself in the midst of a move.







February 9, 2009

That was a rough 48 hours, but once we took off for Portland, we were able to let some of our worries go. All right, that’s really not true. Once our cell phones don’t work anymore, then we’ll be able to throw our hands up and stop solving problems that aren’t that important anyway.


It started on Friday night, when we realized that we hadn’t made nearly as much progress as we’d been pretending. We’d done some packing for the trip -->




but we hadn’t done nearly enough work on storage. Packing for Hawaii is much more fun than shoving all of your belongings into the garage.

The hordes of help started pitching in on Saturday, with Jeremy tackling the plumbing,






Kellen making repairs in the garage, and Kathy – Grime Destroyer – taking charge of the cleaning end. We, in the meantime, mostly ran around flapping our arms helplessly until KC’s mom and Cynthia showed up. (Matt’s mom had also spent the previous weekend at the house packing and sorting). With this crack team in place, we packed more than I ever knew we owned. Goodwill was the happy recipient of 15 bags of purge, and there’s no doubt we would have tossed more if we had more time.

On Monday morning, Matt was calm while KC was panicked. As it turns out, panic was the more appropriate response. We headed back to the house, and Matt mailed packages and ran other last minute errands while KC tried to wedge the last few items into storage in the garage. There are no pictures of this carnage, fortunately.

Amazingly, everything fit and, after altering our plans for getting to the airport, we arrived with a few minutes to spare.


Farewells are hard,




but we got on the plane and were off to Portland before we knew it. KC’s dad met us there and we were off to McMenamin’s Edgefield Inn, a quirky establishment in a Portland suburb.



After a failed attempt at snooker and some delicious pizza, we were off to bed, anticipating our flight to Hawaii the next morning.



February 10, 2009

We both feel like we’re reasonably well-traveled, but we realized this morning that neither of us has ever ventured farther west than dipping a toe into the Pacific. Today changed all that as we boarded a flight bound for Honolulu. We touched down after an uneventful 6 hours, and headed off to pick up our rental car, a fabulous Toyota Yaris. We had grand plans to drop off our luggage at the hotel and head out for some hiking and sightseeing, but we gave these up after seeing our beautiful hotel,
and realizing that we didn’t want to venture back out into the Oahu traffic. After a walk on the beach, Matt laid down at 7 p.m. to rest up for just a minute before venturing out to dinner. We woke up at 1 a.m. with the lights still on.

February 11-12, 2009

What a great couple of days! We stayed at the Marriott Ihilani, a resort out on the west end of Oahu, away from the Waikiki crowds.

We started Wednesday with a trip to the Arizona Memorial (pics below), and followed up with a visit to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (a/k/a The Punchbowl). Here are a few pictures from Pearl Harbor:





Part of the memorial wall, which marks the site of the tomb for hundreds of American sailors killed when the USS Arizona exploded and sank.



Oil still seeps up from the hull of the Arizona.




Looking back across toward the Arizona Memorial and Ford Island.



After visiting the Arizona Memorial, we took a tour through the USS Bowfin.




Our entry was somewhat delayed when Matt threw out the tickets along with his hot dog wrapper. Unfazed, but also unexcited by the prospect of digging through mustard-related trash, we went to the office and begged ourselves a new pair of tickets.















More than 50,000 American servicemen are buried or interred at the Punchbowl, which is located in an extinct volcanic crater overlooking the Waikiki area.




Visiting the two memorials in succession was a moving experience, and we thought an appropriate way to pay our respects.











After spending most of the day at the two memorials, we braved the Honolulu traffic and headed towards Waikiki, where dinner, and fruity beverages awaited at the Halekulani awaited.





The Orchid restaurant came highly recommended, and neither the sunset from the patio nor the steak disappointed.


On Thursday we decided to do some hiking, and scrambled up to Manoa Falls, a popular hike just north of Honolulu.



We then drove to the North Shore with the hopes of seeing surfers on the big waves, but had to settle for the spectacular scenery. Unfortunately, it was too dark for pictures, so we will ask our readers to just rely on our detailed description, immediately preceding.



February 13-14, 2009

We ended up losing most of today to the International Date Line, but we still managed to cram in a catamaran ride,



some snorkeling, and a plane ride to Yap.

After spotting a few whales we sprinted to the car in order to make our 3:30 departure for Guam.




The Honolulu airport has a strange developing-world feel to it, so spending time there before our flight departed seemed like good practice for the next couple of years. In one last



effort to satisfy his craving for junk food, Matt stuffed his face with Pizza Hut, while KC settled for a Quiznos sub. We boarded for Continental Flight No. 1 a short time later,







and after 7 ½ hours in the air found ourselves in Guam. We had a quick connection, so we didn’t get to experience all of the wonders that Guam has to offer (including the world’s largest K-Mart). Maybe next time.




Our flight to Yap was only an hour, and we landed in a rainstorm (not surprising). We were whisked through customs after announcing who we were (somewhat surprising).



One of Matt’s colleagues and KC’s new boss met us at the gate, and the police department showed up to transport our luggage (very surprising). No red carpet or military band, but we did get a few odd looks from the tourists.




We’re in an apartment until renovations are finished on our house next month. We’re each about a block from our workplaces. Here's the view out the window. It’s nice.