November 2007

The Hansons have had a busy last couple of weeks here on Pohnpei. We have made some of our favorite discoveries on our little island out here in the Pacific and thought we'd share a couple of our recent adventures.

This is Lehn Paipohn, a gorgeous waterfall we were lucky to find. The 2 mile hike through the muddy jungle and slippery slopes (Isabelle only lost her flipflop in the mud 5 times, to be recovered by her heroic Dad) brought us to this lovely cataract. The water drops about 30 feet in the deep pool below. Seth, Cole, Caleb and Uncle Jon (who was here to visit) climbed to the top of the falls and jumped to the refreshing pool. The girls and Rebecca just enjoyed the swimming.

We also enjoyed visiting another local waterfall called Pahnsile. We hiked through dense jungle hoping we were following the right path. After walking around the jungle for more than an hour, we finally hired a guide. The guide didn't seem to know where he was going either, but ultimately, after fording the slippery moss filled river 5 times we were finally able to enjoy the falls.

Again, the boys enjoyed the climb up the falls as much as the cool swim.

Claire was overwhelmed by all of the excitement.

While Uncle Jon was here, we traveled out to the nearby island of Kephara (Tourists call it Black Coral Island) where we snorkeled. We had our first encounter with white and black-tip reef sharks in the lagoon. We counted 6 sharks in all. The boys even saw a 6 to 7 foot gray reef shark. All those sharks reminded Seth of some of his professional collegueas and he felt right at home.

Here's what the channel looked like in the daytime.

The kids enjoyed relaxing on the islands hammocks.

This is the cabin we spent the night in on Black Coral.
















Here are some examples of local food. We buy a bunch of bananas each week and eat them as they ripen. They are much smaller than the banana you find in the states and taste much sweeter. We also thought we would share the island version of the oreo cookie.

"Hello Mr. Wonderful!"

Here is another local island called Dekhetik. It is located just off the main island near the ancient city of Nan Madol. We enjoyed the beautiful boat ride and the kids loved the exploring. Cole also got into clam digging while we were there. He eventually caught one.

Here is the boat ride to and from Dekhetik.

Caleb wanted to announce that he lost his first tooth.

Claire celebrated her 3rd birthday on October 4th with a pink ballerina cake.

We were also able to celebrate Halloween, it is a big holiday here on Pohnpei. People come from all over the island to trick or treat. The local stores and residence hand out candy by the handfuls. We got more than our share between the four kids.

Cole as a mummy Claire our ballerina


Arrgh says Pirate Caleb and hi saysPrincess Isabelle

Here is the group of American kids we all trick or treated with.

Caleb says, "Let me show you how a real pirate eats them."

We thought we'd title the following picture: "Hey Caleb, I think I found a pig jawbone" or "The Lord of the Flies, Part II"

To conclude our post with a well-established tradition, here are some of Seth's sunset pictures.

August 2007

The Hansons greet everyone again from our island home here in Pohnpei. We meant to update our blog a while ago, but one thing after another seemed to get in the way. Here are some pictures of our recent escapades.




Another sunset. We know we've posted a lot of sunsets (as Rebecca has reminded Seth) but they are so pretty we couldn't help posting one more.

Isabelle would also like to tell everyone Kasehlelie (Pohnpeian for Aloha) from the sands of Micronesia.

Our most fun adventure lately was visiting Ant Atol, an outer island group about 10 miles away from Kolonia Town by boat.

We had a memorable 2 hour boat ride to and from this uninhabited and pristine island. On the way back to Kolonia Town, the wind whipped up a bit and the ocean became quite rough. As we were bouncing over the white caps and had waves washing over the sides of our little boat Cole, with white-knuckled hands gripping the side of the boat, kept repeating, "I don't think this was worth it!"

Isabelle loved hunting for fish in the clear blue water of the lagoon. Luckily the shark that Cole and Seth saw on the other side of the island liked the deeper water next to the coral reef drop-off. On the other side of the island the boys also had fun chasing after all of the eels. Eventually they wore one out enough that they were able to catch the poor creature.

Like father like son -- Caleb and Seth enjoyed climbing some of Ant's many coconut trees.

Cole loved the snorkling. He especially liked the eagle ray he saw with Seth. The sting ray was about 5 feet long and let them look at it for several minutes before it flew away on the ocean floor.

Claire didn't like the sun in her eyes. (Or Claire imitating a shark.)

Caleb found some star fish to play with. Pohnpeian legend has it that if someone takes a blue star fish out of the ocean that a storm will come. Maybe that's why the ocean was so rough on the way back.

Isabelle loved the view.

Rebecca's sister Wendy came for the month of July and enjoyed all the adventures with us.

Here's a peice of stone money. For centuries the people of Yap have used stone money to trade for land. They still use it to this day. One of the benefits of 1,000 pound coins is that you don't have to put them in the bank for safe keeping. You don't have to worry about relatives squandering them in slot machines either.



Seth was incharge of the youth conference for all the youth on the island the first weekend of August. Here are some of the activities the youth were involved in.

The youth's service project was cleaning the local high school. Here they are using machetes to cut some overgrown grass. To the right is a picture of what the typical classrooms look like from the outside.

The Chief Justice of the FSM Supreme Court came and spoke to the youth and they had a variety of other classes. They also spent much of the time waiting for food to be ready. We have found there is much waiting in Micronesia.



In July, we took Wendy, along with some other families in the church, to another of the outer islands called Nalap. It is about a ten min. boat ride from the mainland.

Claire spent some time with her friend Rian. Here is a local fish we saw snorkeling.


This was our primative yet beautiful sleeping accomodations. It is called a Nahs and is built from mangrove wood and has a thatched roof made from coconut palms. It was quite cool with the breezes coming through at night. But it sure wasn't the Hilton.

We did celebrate the 4th of July with a BBQ and sparklers at our home. We invited pretty much every American we know here. As you can see, most are missionaries. One of the most memorable moments was when we brought out the American flag and sang the Star Spangled Banner. It's funny how it meant so much to all of us on a little island thousands of miles away from home.

Seth also took a group of young men from our branch to the island of Black Coral.

Here they enjoyed water tug of war. They also showed us how to eat fish
"the right way," head and all.





Here are the Hanson boys bidding you adieu from the shores of Black Coral "until the next time we update you."