My First Days on the Island

Greetings from the beautiful island of Kosrae! Tu wo if it’s the morning, lwen wo if it’s the afternoon, and ke wo if it’s the evening. I am out in the Pacific Ocean with 6,600 people and a bunch of tropical fruit. The draw to Kosrae was my cousin Matt and his ecofactory, Green Banana Paper. He came out here for WorldTeach after college and never said goodbye to the island life. A few years ago he started a factory making wallets from the fibers of banana tree trunks that would otherwise rot. Now the factory is up and running with 25 employees and Matt is one of the largest private employers on the island. In addition to Green Banana Paper, he also runs Simpson’s Import Company, importing technology things to the island and also a very popular tshirt design and printing company. All of the tshirt happenings are here on site with Green Banana Paper.

I left Massachusetts early Thursday morning and flew from Hartford, CT to Denver to Honolulu. I spent the night in Honolulu and was off to Kosrae the next morning, crossed the International Date Line and arrived on Saturday afternoon. At one point on the island hopper flight from Honolulu to Kosrae (pronounced kosh-rye), I got distracted by a movie and every so often consciously looked around the plane to remind myself that I was really on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean to an island that I would soon call home, and no I wasn’t dreaming. It was pretty surreal. After about four hours of deep blue sea, an island suddenly popped up, and then more and more green dots appeared. We landed on Majuro, an atoll in the Marshall Islands. I got off to stretch and check out the colorful one-building airport. In one corner of the room was a table with handmade artwork and shells. As the wheels started to roll away from the parking spot, one of the traffic guys with the orange directional sticks gave a wave and off we went. Planes and big ships are the islander’s connection to the mainland, the planes come, drop off some people, and then off they go. The next stop was Kwajalein, a US Army base. After another hour or so we touched down on Kosrae! I was seriously living a dream at this point. At the customs in Kosrae, I did as Matt instructed and told the customs official that I was “staying with Matt Simpson at Green Banana Paper.” He smiled and then another official meandered over and looked at the paper. His face lit up and he looked at me and excitedly commented on the Green Banana Paper part.

A couple of minutes later I put my bags in Matt’s new truck and then the first thing I noticed when I got in the car were two coconuts and a camera in the front console. He proceeded to use all of the items, cracking open both coconuts and photographing my first moments on the island. The island is gorgeous. There are pointy mountain tops and some of them together resemble a sleeping woman, Kosrae’s nickname The Island of the Sleeping Lady.

We went back to his house, passing coconut tree after coconut tree and other plants, all a very luscious green. Driving is a bit funky because everyone drives on the right side of the road, but the cars are all Japanese so the driver’s seat is on the right. We stopped at one grocery store, which to me resembled a gas station market in the US. Apparently they have the best frozen veggies on the island. We went to another grocery store, which resembled more of a traditional supermarket. I was surprised by how cheap the products were, it turns out the import tax is very small. Then a little while later it was time to take to the waves. I’d been on the island just a few hours and was watching the sunset while cruising on a wave!

Kosrae is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, comprised of Kosrae, Yap, Pohnpei, and Chuuk. The Federated States of Micronesia has the status of a freely associated state with the US. This means that the US gives FSM money for education and government, and in return the US gets land and water for military use. FSM have their own government system. Big ships come every 2ish weeks and all four islands have runways that accommodate big 737 planes, a benefit of the military presence out here. A couple of Matt’s friends came over in the evening and he proudly showed off how stacked his fridge is considering there hasn’t been a big ship in a while. They were impressed. Most of the people here are Kosraean, with some Philippino’s and some American’s. Non-natives mostly come for WorldTeach or the Peace Corp.

My second day here was Sunday, and on Sunday nobody works. You’re not supposed to do any kind of work, make loud noises, and there’s even no surfing on Sundays. There’s a Catholic Church right next door, the spot to be around 10am. Matt was hard at work (he works on Sunday) preparing to launch a Kickstarter for the snazzy new slim wallet. I went to the beach and walked around for a bit. The sun is sweltering hot here so I found comfort in the shade of the coconut trees. I sat captivated by the turquoise waves crashing one after the next, far out on the edge of the reef with deep blue/purple water along the horizon. After lunch Matt fixed up a bunch of surfboards—

Me: “Is there a surf shop on the island?”

Matt: a little chuckle, “You’re looking at it!”

One of his boards has a big “Green Banana Surf and Dive” sticker on the bottom.

I am loving the tropical fruit and learning to open coconuts! I’ve opened a few, but my cuts aren’t very clean yet. My first breakfast here was a fresh papaya drizzled with lime juice. I took advantage of my jetlag the other morning and went across the street to the beach to see the sunrise! JJ and Bradda, Matt’s dogs, came too. It was pretty wild watching the sunrise out here because we are some of the first people to see the sun. 

Today was my second day of working in the factory. I’ve been an extra pair of hands for Mia, the floor manager. One part of Mia’s job is the quality control for the wallets. I’ve been checking wallets, organizing wallets, and various other things. Everyone is very smiley and friendly. Yesterday evening we went surfing and when we got out of the water a guy came over and gave us coconuts. Such a treat! 

Last note, the internet is not as speedy as in the states and I'm still figuring out the best method for uploading pictures. Stay tuned! All the best to everyone back home and those of you on your own travel adventures! 

Fong wo (good night),

Claudia