Lost at Pohnpei

I woke up earlier today with a few messages in my phone. Okay, I lied, it was already seven in the morning and the rest of the staff of the hospital was already awake. I just kept squinting my eyes and wished that it was still evening.

It feels unfair to waste my time on the island asleep, but I do miss my afternoon naps.

A cold shower did miracles in waking the nerves up. My morning routine still had not been adjusted.

Dr. Sue and I continued our endorsement. Well, it was actually one sided because she did most of the endorsing. I just listened to her. I was amazed with her clinical eye and how she caught perplexing diseases on the island. TB meningitis, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and even Leptospirosis. These were some of the things that an Internist was supposed to see on this island and I started to get conscious of my own practice. Holding a private practice limited my cases.

This was the time for me to learn the wisdom of someone who had more experience not only with the layout of the island, but also of the people who came in the emergency room doors.

This is the life of an islander doctor with the limitations of the surroundings. Such limitations were acceptable, but sometimes, it would be better not to miss anything for the doctor’s and the patient’s sake.

The shadows of the clouds seemed to have peaked in the last couple of paragraphs, so we move on to a much lighter topic. I told Dr. Sue that I was interested in acquiring a driver’s license. Having been able to drive the flat bed encouraged me to take one more step and finally own an official license to drive.

I had my leave and it was up to me to ask Aileen to bring me to the Police station. Her daughter Noeleen tagged along as we made our way out of the hospital. I found out that Aileen had several tries to get her driver’s license. She only learned to drive on the island and I noted that she was a safe driver (abiding by the speed limits and making the necessary precautions on the road).

We reached the police station soon enough and I approached the officer on duty. A big and tall man with a mustache. I didn’t quite get his name.

“Mensang mau (Good morning), I would like to apply for a driver’s license,” I said trying to speak as cool as possible.

He smiled and said, “You come back next week, we ran our of booklets.”

I looked at Aileen who heard what the policeman said. She then told me, “Doc, tell him you have been driving in the Philippines.”

“Right,” I replied.

“Sir, this is my driver’s license. I have been driving in my country,” I told him as I presented my driver’s license.

He inspected it and even asked one of the other policemen to look at it. There was a younger man in uniform who spoke, “With this license, you can drive around Pohnpei for thirty days.”

“Cool!” I said. But deep inside, I would have wanted to get an official driver’s license. Well, if he said so.

Then off we went to Aileen’s original itinerary. We stopped by Visual Impact, a T-shirt store on Kolonia Road where she placed an order for T-shirts that would be used in Doc Sue’s going away party next week. We met a Filipino named Jun who was working for the Australian owned business.

The order was verified and we went to our next stop. This time, we just dropped by the Post Office down the road.

For $8.00 annually, a resident of Pohnpei can have his or her own P.O. box number. Any packages from anywhere in the world would go there. I was told that a few years ago, there was no internet on the island. There wasn’t even mobile communication. The only way to get in touch was by using snail mail, telephone, or telegram. Those were the days and Pohnpei is simply raising itself out of the the low tech era.

After a short tour of Kolonia, where I saw the Western Union, the FSM Telecoms (again), and the laundry shop, we headed back to the hospital. It was already around lunch time.

At the parking, Kit told me that we would go see Mr. Allois.

Mr. Allois was the owner of Pohnpei Surf Club, located at Nett (it’s on the same road as Genesis). Sometimes, the place is also called PCR (darn, I forgot what the acronym stood for). There was a Japanese restaurant that serves food for $6.49 eat-all-you-can.

There were boneless chicken, tuna sashimi, vegetable (eggplant) tempura, noodles, spring rolls, and soup. Since Cha was off that day, we forced her to come with us.

While we were savoring the delightful Japanese dishes, Kit pointed at a Caucasian. “That’s Allois,” he pointed to one of the two men across our seats.

I approached him and said, “Excuse me, are you Allois?”

“Sorry, I am not him, this is him,” the taller of the two men spoke and pointed to the man on his left.

“I’m sorry,” I said then turned to the other man. “Allois?” I asked.

“Yes, I hope I don’t own you any money,” he replied.

“I hope you did. I’m Zorlone, the one who commented on your blog post,” I told him.

“Oh yeah, I remember, there aren’t a lot of people commenting there,” he said.

“I told you I’ll drop by, now I’m here,” I said. “I am a doctor at Genesis Hospital.”

“You know for some reason, I thought you’re going to work at the Telecoms,” nice to meet you.

“Are you a surfer,” asked the first guy.

I said, “No (only online), but I would like to learn if I am given a chance,” I told him honestly.

“Good,” he said, “by the way, I’m Howard, I teach at COM (College of Micronesia).”

“I’m Lorenz,” then shook his hand.

We chatted for a while then I went back to my meal. Cha was surprised that I knew someone, rather acquainted with anyone on the island even before I got there. That was thanks to the internet.

Before we headed back to the hospital, the three of us passed by South Park, a peak situated on top of a hill overlooking the airport. We also looked at the local gym and mind you it looked really local. The equipments there came from the Philippines.

It took us only fifteen minutes for the South Park and gym detours and we reached the hospital at one p.m. Just in time for my OPD schedule.

Time flew fast and it was already six in the evening. Time for my roommate and I to go jogging at the oval.

I made a quick trip to the patients under the service of medicine then got my stuff to meet Doc Lino at the parking area. Jay, one of the staff nurses lent us his car. It was Doc Lino who drove to the Oval, that was located at the Peak. This is one of the landmarks that I saw from Google maps when I first searched this island.

There were several joggers there and we met two Filipinas and a foreign national. Aunt Grace (the owner of Grace’s bakery) and Aunt Jasmine (Cha’s aunt). Milan, their lawyer friend was also there. It was always a warm and fuzzy feeling to meet other Filipinos in a foreign land.

After ten rounds at the oval Doc Lino and I decided to go back to the hospital. It was already dark and the posts were all lit when we left the oval. I drove on our way back.

Dinner was fried Lapu-lapu and noodles. I didn’t eat rice cause I decided not to buy new clothes with bigger sizes.

When I got back to my room, Cha and Jordan were already getting ready for our trip to FSM Telecoms. Kit let us borrow his car. Of course we didn’t leave the hospital without teasing Jane at the pharmacy. She was left behind because she still had to work.

The Telecoms was full and almost all of the sockets had computers plugged in. Good thing they let us charge our laptops there. My only regret is that they charge per byte received. No wonder my $1 flew so fast after sending a few pictures via e-mail.

Jordan was teary eyed when he spoke to his parents and siblings, Cha was chatting with her dad, and I kept sending pictures and videos. Later, I tried to let my mom view my video cam, but for some reason, it wasn’t a feature of my mac.

Eight dollars later, I was able to do what I was supposed to and we decided to call it a night.

It was Jordan’s turn to drive home. I assisted him and even got a little concerned when he tried to maneuver the car to the gutter and the parking lot. I guess it takes a while to get used to.

When I finally settled in bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. Not because I was worried that my patients needed attention, not because of home sickness, not because of the lack of unlimited internet connection (which still bothers me), but because my roommate snores.

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