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."
