The Subsistence Living Plan

Day Two:

School was tough because the entire school got ice cream cones at 4th period break. Imagine, 550 students slathering their faces with vanilla ice cream and you can’t partake. Trying to teach 30 cone-gobbling kids chemistry while other teachers are stopping by just to gloat. The Great Ice Cream Delivery hadn’t happened yet this year, and probably won’t happen again. Woe is me.

We got home, and harvested about 40 tangerines from the jungle behind my house, with the help of my host-brothers. They’re excellent tree climbers, and while we held the branches they’d scurry up and grab the biggest tangerines.

Then, we went to harvest proteins. I went to the pier and dove for about 50 oysters, armed with a hammer, a screwdriver, a snorkel and a mask. Tyler tried fishing nearby, with little luck. Our fishing excursions have so far yielded nothing, and it appears the larger, more appealing fish don’t want much to do with the hermit crabs. So, we’re waiting to catch a chicken. Then, we’re going to use chicken fat. Chicken fat more closely approximates spam, which is essentially the most magical bait of all time.

I came home and shucked some more coconuts with my host-brothers, then cooked the oysters in the oven. I cooked them until they were essentially crispy. Still, they were delicious. Hopefully they don’t make me sick.

In other news, since everyone on Kosrae has a rat tail, I've decided to cultivate a new, more alternative look. The halfbeard had its origins in a bet I made with my students, and I decided to make it a permanent fixture. What other job could you have, where you could have a halfbeard, and no one questions you at all?




I'll leave you with this picturesque shot of a Kosraean sunset, taken from the water during a dusky swim. It's not so bad, living out here.