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."

May/June 2007

Kaselehlie Family and Friends,

After living on Pohnpei for over almost three months we've decided we'll stay. We even added some permanent fixtures. Seth made a daring climb up a slippery moss covered breadfruit tree in our neighboring jungle and installed a rope swing for our little tarzans and Isabelle Jane.

All of Seth's exertion was well worth while when Cole said, "Dad thanks for risking your life for us." All the kids enjoy it. Even Rebecca has been known to jump on, let out a bird-rousing scream, and swing out into the jungle.

Our other new addition is "Alex" (short for Alexander the Great). We brought home this little fur-ball recently and the two in this picture have not parted ways since. Caleb has even found a new use for the girls' doll furniture. He and Cole have also braved the mosquitos to sleep out on the back porch with Alex.

As the following pictures show, we are not at any loss for shopping in this "developing" country.

The only difference between the Walmart here and the one in Roseville is the lack of elderly greaters. As Walmart, Target, and Best Buy may have discovered, there are no trademark laws here. We are adjusting to the diverse shopping experience we have had here. We are so excited each time the boat with American goods finds its way here across the vast ocean. We are even more excited if the goods have not passed their expiration date.

Here are two pictures of food you can get fresh here.

Here is one of the waterfalls we have visited recently.

This waterfall is named Pan Taki (meaning under the rock). This picture was taken from the back side of the waterfall looking out into the Pacific Ocean. If you look closely, you might see a bat or two flying around. The picture on the right is of the Bat Cave near Pan Taki.

Here is another waterfall -- Liduhduniap.

Here are a few pictures of the Japanese guns on top of Sokehs moutain. The guns overlook the harbor in Kolonia. Old timers here say that when the American planes bombed Kolonia, they simply flew below the altitude of the guns. The Japanese made the guns to aim upward but not downward. In the picture on the right, Caleb is trying to figure out how Cole is doing that neat trick with his fingers.

Here is a bunker the boys intrepidly ventured into. Isabelle wasn't quite sure about this one.

After the boys saw so many weapons of destruction, they decided they would rather have brotherly love than war.

This is one of the several catherdrals on the island.

This is Isabelle saying goodbye until our next post.

Our First Month in Paradise

Our cargo container with all our belongings finally arrived! It did not take us more than a day to get all the many customs stamps to get it out of port and delivered to our house. Everyone was most excited to get our beds. Second on the list was sporting goods, followed by our washer. Amazingly, we were able to unload the container in about an hour with the help of all the strapping youth from our church. We just happened to call the branch president on the night the youth were looking for a service project. We were so grateful for the help (as we told the youth, it was truly charity in action.)

These are the fine youth in our branch. There are no seatbelt laws here.

After getting settled, we decided it was time to explore the island. Our new friends the Joels, have taken us around to see all the great local places. First we explored the ancient city of Nan Madol. Legend has it, it was built by magic several hundred years ago. It is located right out on the ocean on top of the coral reef. The big mystery is how all the monolithic columns the city is built of were transported, since the closest possible quarry is several miles away and the people only had small canoes for travel.

This is an underground chamber inside Nan Madol. The kids nick named it the "timeout room."

This is looking from the main temple at Nan Madol over submerged ruins toward a nearby island.


This gives a sense for the size of the stone columns used to build the city. They don't build them like they used to.

This is the start of the trailhead to Nan Madol. Cole decided he could hold it a little longer.

After our trip to Nan Madol we decided to cool off at the nearby Kapirohi waterfall. The waterfall was gorgeous, and we really enjoyed swimming right next to it. Seth and the boys had fun looking at a fresh water eel slithering through the rocks.

This is were Seth works at the FSM Supreme Court.

Here is our church building.

This is where the boys have attended school the last month or so. The Hanson brothers had to double up on a few bullies who were targeting Caleb. Cole and Caleb approached the bullies. Cole picked up Caleb and Caleb began kicking his legs as fast as he could. Then Cole began chasing the bullies saying "this is my kicking machine . . . this is my kicking machine." The bullies have left Caleb alone since then, which has made school much more enjoyable for him.

This tank is located downtown right next to the post office. We're guessing it was the Japanese way of reminding people it is a federal offense to tamper with mail.


Here is Claire exploring more of the local animal life -- some one's pet sea turtle available for the viewing public outside their house.

This is just a random beautiful picture to entice potential visitors.

These are views from the back porch of your potential accomodations, the Hanson Hotel.

The best news we have to report this month is that Claire is officially potty trained.

We are continuing to adjust to our new world. The boys finish school this week so we are ready to start our summer break. The weather here is consistant upper 80 degrees during the day and upper 70s at night and very humid. It rains at least once per day, with frequent torrential downpours -- it seems that it will rain an inch or so in a matter of minutes.

We are truly blessed by the Lord and grateful to have each other, and to have such good friends and extended family. We love you all.