Happy December!

Seasons Greetings to One and All!

Although seasons here really only vary from rainy to super rainy--we're getting in the holiday spirit nonetheless, and thought you might like to see some pics of our little abode. Despite some quirks (as in no kitchen, really low wattage of electricity, and a pack of very noisy neighborhood dogs), we're really enjoying having our own place.

Our current landlord is super friendly (much improved from back in October) and very involved in the community. We're impressed by all his family does for the local Catholic church (fund-raising, mowing lawns, leading worship, etc.) It's been great to be able to walk to school, although we're looking forward to one day doing exercise for "fun" instead of necessity. The walk comes out to about 4 miles each day--on the way to school it's all uphill.

We've also included some pictures from our belated Thanksgiving celebration with World Teach, Jesuit, and Japanese Peace Corps workers. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home!

We're grateful for the giant mesquite tree that provides us with
both storm-protection and shade.


A view of our house from the road; notice how close the road is to our house (sometimes it sounds like trucks are going to hit our house)


Our porch: site for laundry, schoolwork, hammock hanging, and dog fights over leftover food


Another view of our house from the road; neither the garbage (overflowing barrel) nor the car are ours. Our front lawn and driveway are used as a parking lot for our landlords and their visitors.

The view from our porch before we went to work with the machetes


Thomas at work


Carrie at work


The finished result. Pretty view, huh? Since this picture was taken, we've added Christmas lights to our porch. It almost feels like a restaurant patio on the harbor in Long Beach. :)


Our banana tree (unripened bananas are in the center of the photo)


One of our potted garden plants--green onions


View of the kitchen facing south


Another view of the kitchen facing south so you can see our cooking station better; the toaster oven (white object on table) was a gift from Rosewood and is our most-prized kitchen possession. We've used it to bake brownies (which staff and students love), pizza, burritos, and more. When Thomas' sister's chocolate chips arrive we hope to make our first cookies.


View of kitchen facing north


Thomas attacks the freezer with a knife again!
Our freezer produces a massive amount of frost (enough to create a snowball every two days); thus we have to chisel our way in and out each time we want to retrieve a frozen item. The fridge, however, works great!


Our pre-rinse dishwasher cycle


Since there's no kitchen, we wash dishes outside. Rusty, the dog, and Boca, the cat, often try to help. We learned that dishes shouldn't be left outside over night the hard way (several dog's marked them as their territory).


Our bedroom facing south; we've pushed two twin beds together to make a master bedroom set. The mattresses don't fit on the beds however, so sometimes if you're not careful you can fall out of bed (while still on the mattress). There are screens on our windows this year, but we'll still use a mosquito net on rainy nights to keep off the mosquitoes that get through the screens' holes.


Our bedroom facing north. Our overhang on the porch isn't big enough to keep clothes out of the rain when it storms, so we often hang clothes inside so that they can fully dry in 1-3 days depending on the humidity.

Wardrobe (how people store clothes here); about every 3 weeks it needs to be emptied and bleached to remove new mold build-up. All clothes smell nasty unless just pulled off the clothesline.


Our indoor bathroom. This year we have running water--a shower with great water pressure and a toilet that usually works.


Thomas and Rusty on a Saturday afternoon looking through some newspaper clippings Thomas' mom sent.

30th Birthday Party! Thanks to Lori (Carrie's best friend from high school) we had cake, frosting and even candles!

The frothing of Rusty Jr.'s mouth isn't from rabies (there are no known rabies on the island). It's flour! The dogs and chickens are crazy about it. Since flour molds in less than a month here, we often have to throw excess unused flour out.


Our belated Thanksgiving Celebration at the World Teach Field Director's house. It was a fun mixture of American, Pohnpeian, and Japanese food.