Trio Day

I'm a couple of weeks posting this one, but better late than never.  One weekend Lori told me that a few of the high school programs were going to have a program at PICS.  I love being at community events, so I said I would go with her.  I had no idea what it would be, but I walked up to find hundreds of high school students milling about the road and track in their team colors.  It looked kind of like a mini-olympics.  We were immediately invited up to the seats of honor, which was so kind of them.  The morning program consisted of parading in the teams one color at a time, speeches, singing, and reading of poems and essays by the students.  The programs are designed to help high schoolers achieve and reach higher education.  It was really cool to see the students involved in something like this.  I could tell that it was changing lives and making big impacts.

Brown team

Run Green team!!!

Nice try!  They were soon forced to go back in the
steady rain

Nicely lined up by color despite the relentless rain

Director of the Trio Programs

Of course, no event is complete without good food.  We were so graciously served a lunch take-out of bar-b-que chicken and rice with cucumber kimchi.  Hundreds of takeouts had been prepared for the day by many wonderful moms and women from around the island.

The afternoon was filled with fun and games.  The teams competed against each other in fun events such as human pyramids, loop the loop, and other similar races.  It was great to see them competing and having fun and also getting covered in mud!

Human Pyramids

Grey team wins!

An interesting pyramid by the green team

 

So many students get to be part of this fun day!

Loop the Loop

Get through the loop as fast as you can, but don't let go!

Lori forgot her umbrella.  I'd say she got a
little bit we ;)

Another fun event in Pohnpei!

COM Fundraising

Students have been working hard recently to raise money for Founding Day.  The money will go towards a fund for the college.  I'm still a little fuzzy on all the details, but I know that different groups are competing to raise the most money.  They've been raising money in a couple of different ways.  The main source of fundraising that we've seen on campus has been bake sales.

Hmm...now I know where you were instead of coming to class!

Baked goods and chilled coconuts!  I'm loving these sales.

Quite the saleswoman!

 Then yesterday we got to enjoy new form of fundraising: A Variety Show!  Students sold tickets beforehand and at the door to raise money.  There were also concessions as an additional money maker.  Our tickets said the show was from 1pm to 6pm.  We decided to show up shortly after 1 expecting that it wouldn't start exactly on time.  Little did we realize it wouldn't start on time at all. 

1:30 rolled by...

2:00 rolled by...

At about 2:30 they were finally ready to start.  I say this not to complain, but to just share the humor of how things work.  It was a good time of mingling and realizing that I've gotten very use to feeling very lost a majority of the time since I often don't know what's being said or what the plan is.  It was worth the wait.  The acts were lacking a bit in the variety aspect, but they were most certainly entertaining.   I caught glimpses of mos to the acts on video:

Yes, you did hear the Cotton-eyed Joe, and it seemed to be the most popular song of the day.  It was played at least 5 times, and people loved it!  I loved it too!  Plus they have the most interesting re-mixes of songs here.  I'd like to find out where they come from.  It was quite the enjoyable Sunday afternoon entertainment!

Coconut Crab

I've been wanting to do some short posts about the great foods we get to enjoy in Pohnpei, so here's the first: Coconut Crab!  I was inspired to do this one first because just a couple of weeks ago Maryanna totally spoiled me will 3 of these delicious creatures.  It's still crazy to me that we can get these huge crabs for a mere $2/lb.  This same meal could easily cost me $30-50 in the states at a fancy restaurant, and I can guarantee it wouldn't be nearly as tasty as Maryanna's! :) 

I finally got to be part of the cooking process to see how it's all done.  The first night I just watched Maryanna in action.  I caught it on video for you, so you can experience the process too:

The second night I got to grind my own coconut on the grinding stool.  With many years of experience, of course Maryanna is WAY faster than me.  But I had a lot of fun, and I think Maryanna got a good kick out of watching me do it.  Here it is again in just picture form in case you didn't get enough from the video:

Use your machete to pierce the crab

Have a little fun with him :)

Split him in 2

Squeeze the ground coconut to make coconut milk

Pour the milk through a very fine strainer

Repeat coconut milk making process

Boil the crabs until they...

turn red!

Then eat up...

and crack away!

Check out that claw!

 It's hard to believe that one of the pickiest little girls in the world now gets so excited about dissecting a crab to make sure I get all the rich meat!  My how I have changed!  This is definitely a social meal.  It takes a good hour to work on a crab this size.  And beware of flying shell!

Here are the various crabs I've had the privilege of enjoying during my time here in Pohnpei:

They show up at feasts!

They're cooked for guests

My mom & dad got to enjoy the fun of the huge, tasty crabs!
Yes, a hammer is sometimes required

Not only is the big claw filled with some of the best meat,
it's also the most fun part to play with :)

Another one from Maryanna just for me

Even more amazing when served with two of
my other favorites: breadfruit & mangoes!

 Oh the joys of living on an island!

Pancake Day 2012

Yes, I celebrated National Pancake Day in Pohnpei!  Pancakes are one of Jay-Jay's favorite foods, so when I saw that the holiday was February 28th, I knew we had to celebrate it.  I waited until the weekend before to let Maryanna and the rest of the family know my plans.  It was one of the funniest conversations I've had here.  I doubt I can even come close to explaining why it was so funny to me.  I was simply sharing with Maryanna that Tuesday would be National Pancake Day and I planned to make pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  There was also an older gentleman sitting outside the store who couldn't help overhearing the conversation.  Before I knew it, he was more excited than me about the day.  He was insisting that we need to let all of Pohnpei know.  We need to make an announcement on the radio.  Everyone should be celebrating!  I loved his enthusiasm so much that he definitely got an invitation to my pancake celebration.  Every time I saw him over the next few days he made sure to say, "Tuesday!  We will eat pancakes!"  They were all so much more excited about it than I anticipated, and it made me even more excited.

So Tuesday came, and the pancake making started bright and early before everyone needed to head off to school and work.  For breakfast we had 5 options: blueberry, honey wheat, chocolate chip, banana, and cinnamon oatmeal raisin.

I was so thankful for the box of pancake mix that came in
my last box from Grandma.  It saved me a lot of time and
it was a delicious base!

Flippin' away!

Jay-Jay began the celebration!

Maryanna came up to enjoy next

Obviously you have to try one of each!

Even Pahpa Samuel joined!!!  I was
quite happy :)

We actually got a bit of a smile for a picture

Maloney was already put to work in the store, but she still
got her variety of pancakes to try

And my new enthusiastic friend did show up!

Pancake Day was already off to a great start!  My favorite of the morning would have to be the cinnamon-oatmeal raisin.  After we all had a fill we scurried off to work and school.  

It was midterm exam day for me, but I managed to sneak away for a pancake lunch.  I had planned to make pancake sandwiches; creative and fun, yet simple.  So I ran home and started cooking up the rest of the honey wheat pancakes.  My thought was that everyone could come up and make their own sandwich with peanut butter, jelly, and bananas.  When I went down to tell the family that I was ready I found Maryanna setting up a small feast.  Pahpa Samuel and my new friend were barbequing some fish and Maryanna had a bunch of other food prepared too.  Apparently this pancake lunch was going to be bigger than I had anticipated.  I ran back upstairs to prepare my pancake sandwiches to contribute to the feast.  I decided to make 2 kinds of sandwiches.  One set was peanut butter and mashed bananas.  The other set was peanut butter and strawberry jelly.

So tasty with Pohnpei bananas...

I made them with this new banana that Pahpa Samuel just
brought home.  Totally new to Pohnpei!

The assembly

The final product

Adding my pancake sandwiches to the feast...

that just kept growing!!!

I have to admit that I was not sad to have something other than pancakes to eat.  My fish was udahn yo!  I was also a big fan of my peanut butter and banana creation.  We all sat down to enjoy the tastiness together.  Before I knew it we were also sharing with some of the neighbors.  It was great!  Spread the celebration!  

I had also thought I would be able to make mango pancakes for lunch, but the sandwiches were such a hit that I ran out of batter for the mango ones.  But I had told Laurel that I would bring her a mango pancake back to work after lunch.  I didn't want to have to tell her that I didn't have any.  And I didn't want to got the whole day without incorporating mango.  I managed to save just enough batter for one mango pancake.

Specially made because I love my roomie!

She's so good about getting into my crazy
ideas and celebrations

 Surprisingly I was able to have all this fun and make it back to school just in time to give my English final.  

Side note: It was a 2 part final.  The first part was in the classroom.  Then there is a computer lab component which also had a midterm.  Just as we were getting started on the computer lab portion, the power went out.  I'm sure you can imagine my students were just devastated.  *Wink, wink*  What can you do?  Try again on Thursday!  So my students practically danced and cheered their way out of the classroom, but it gave me even more time to get home and prepare for the pancake dinner!

After you've eaten pancakes all day, you want to get a little creative for dinner.  You definitely need something different and a little more savory.  This year I found recipes for Flaedlesuppe (Pancake Soup)
 and Potato Eggplant Pancakes.  Not your typical for sure!

For the Flaedlesuppe:

First cook some crepe-like pancakes

Cut them into slices

Add them to a pot of heated vegetable broth and top
with chives

For the Potato Eggplant Pancakes:

Roast potatoes, eggplant, and onion in the oven
and then blend together in a blender

Still loving my blender; probably my best
garage sale purchase ever!

Cook them in a little coconut oil

And that makes a pancake dinner...

to share with loved ones

The pancake soup was better than expected, but the Potato Eggplant Pancakes were the best!!!  Even Laurel (not a big pancake fan) was giving them raving reviews.  I would recommend giving them a try next time you're craving a savory pancake.  They had excellent flavor!

I felt kind of bad that the dinner wasn't very kid friendly.  I had to make just one more kind of pancake that I knew the kids would love!  Some of the neighborhood kids were waiting around outside asking if they could have one of my pancakes.  I couldn't disappoint them!  So what better time than this to try out the Cinnamon Roll Pancake?!?!

Pour the regular pancake batter and wait until bubbles start
to pop on top before you swirl the cinnamon mixture

Attempt #1: Cinnamon disaster!  Ahh!!!

Getting a little better

Drizzle with cream cheese frosting while
still warm

Are you drooling yet?

We sure were!

"Can I have 2?"

I think JS is happy

So bashful but excited to get one of the
special pancakes

Some of my favorite neighborhood friends!

 I don't think I even need to tell you that the cinnamon roll pancakes were a hit.  They were devoured withing minutes followed by a lot of finger-licking.  A nice end to a wonderful Pancake Day!

In case you didn't keep count along the way, there were 11 different pancakes made throughout the day.  I had to look back at my blog from a year ago.  It was really fun to compare the two celebrations: Colorado vs. Pohnpei.  Even though I wasn't able to beat my record of eating 15 pancakes last year, I did exceed last year's count for different kinds of pancakes.  I'm not sure how I'll ever be able to top this year.  It far exceeded my expectations, and I think it's largely due to the enthusiastic friends I got to share it with!

Just like a year ago, at the end of the day I felt like I didn't want to eat another pancake until Pancake Day 2013! :)

If you're interested in making some of the more unique ones here are the recipe links:

http://holycannolirecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/flaedlesuppe-pancake-soup.html#more

http://www.thatsjustme.com/2011/08/meatless-monday-potato-eggplant-pancakes-recipe/

http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/