I see why so many expats live here, life is easy. It is also a temptation for Americans of means to have a wife from here who is more subservient than the more liberated women from the US. While I am much more interested in strong women who are educated and can hold their own in a debate, most men I have met don't value that. Anyway...
Tuesday started with another long leisurely breakfast I had another scrambled eggs with bacon. They serve toast without butter or jam which is unusual. There is a huge ship 
coming into port. It is the cable laying ship from Kwaj. They will drop off a pair of fibers here and move on towards Guam. The counter overlooking the bay was where I would put my food when I ate. Many tiny (about an eighth of an inch long would come scurrying about in search of food. To keep them off 
of my plate I would put out a drop of sugar water. After they had cleaned off the majority of the liquid, even tiner ants would appear and clean up what is left. The picture on the left is of the "larger" ants and the right the "smaller". Some one referred to these ants as "crazy" ants for their scouting pattern. They walk about 3 inches then change direction arbitrarly. The remind me of staggering drunk. Anyway they were part of my breakfast entertaiment. If they weren't there, then I knew it was going to be a rainy day. Most sugar ants of my aquaintence that find a rich food source mark a trail back to the hive and others show up to haul the treasure back home. These seemed to just drink their fill then wander off home. There were always 20 or so ants there but never a long line of replacements. Their are tiny flies about the size of the ants too but are not much of a bother like they are on Kwaj.
Another sailboat has come into the harbor. Another put up a sail then took it down. There are 26,000 islands in the South Pacific and many people with too much money who just sail from place to place. There is a large island in the distance with an extraction process going on. I wonder if this is phosphate that has often been the temprorary wealth other islands have experienced. The South Pacific is misnamed since the majority of these islands are in the Northern Hemisphere.
I went back to my room to read, study my lines, look out the window, nap, be lazy. I clicked on the TV and flipped through the channels. Choices included Al Jazeer news, CNN news but Asian flavored, BBC news--which often included the cricket championship highlights (Yawn!!!), a Russian station which seemed to be focused on how great Russia was going to be and isn't Putin a really nice guy. There was a channel with no audio. The Discovery channel seemed to show the same 4 programs over and during the day. The AMC movie channel was pretty good. I did watch some old episodes of Desperate Housewives. Ones I had seen three years or more ago. Another channel was tape delayed about 15 days as near as I could figure out. There were a number of Korean stations and one Japanese.
Since I could not recharge my phone card I walked to town to the Telecom building to get another one and to check my email. I went looking for the museum but only found an empty building. 
I did find an area called the Spanish Wall. Finding history of Pohnpei online has been a bit of a challenge. There are little bits here and there but no authoritive source that I have found yet. Exploring at dialup speed is challenging anyway. It seems that Pohnepi was settled probably around 2000-3000 years ago. There is question as to whether the current residents are the descendents of those early settlers or represent a later migration. Apparently, the Spanish conquored the area in the 17th century and built the wall as part of a fort in 1897-1899. Not sure why it would take 200 plus years to build a fort, but maybe they hadn't needed it. After the Spanish-American war Germany became the dominate power. There was an unsuccessful rebellion against the Germans in 1910 and there is a mass grave somewhere near here (I could not locate it on foot and those I asked looked at me with confusion.) In 1914, Japan took over the area. There is still some resentment towards the Japanese but many Japanese tourists come here. At the end of the WWII the US took over the island as a protectorate. They became independent nation, again, in 1986. Financial independence will come in 2024 when the US no longer subsidizes the government. Prior to the Spanish, the islands were governed for at least a thousand years by the builders of Nan Madol and their descendants. More on that later.
Now there are no signs to tell you what you are seeing. Asking the locals produces a shrug. Not sure what's up with that. I did continue on and found the German Tower and an interesting grave yard. I see that Santa is welcoming people to come look. I assume these were two different priests from the 20th century but could not really read the one on the right. It appears that there may still be the remnants of an Abbey nearby. I didn't want to traipse through a garden and private property to find out so I moved on.
I did find a larger cemetery near the first two graves. These were more modern and seemed to be friars or whatever title might have been used there. The building behind this cemetery is the building I believe is still in use for priests and possible nuns too. However, I saw no clergy during my stay.
Behind the German tower there was a jungle. Reminds me of scenes from Lost. South Pacific Islands are for the most part nearly Paradise. There is plenty of fruit to eat all year long. The sea provides a bounty still, at least for subsistence living. The only danger is from other people and probably speeding taxi drivers. There are children but not as many as you might think and I saw no beggars. I had read of reports of prostitution being a problem in FSM but saw no evidence of it. They do have minor drug problems with tobacco, betel nut and alcohol. The Areca nut is the seed of the Areca palm (Areca catechu), which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is 
commonly but perhaps erroneously referred to as "Betel Nut." I did not see any in the jungle but you can purchase it in most of the road side markets which are very abundant. The effect of chewing betel and the nut is relatively mild and could be compared to drinking a cup of coffee. I didn't try it but about half of the cabbies chew it. You are suppose to cut the nut in half, put lime on it (not the fruit), wrap it in betel leaf and put it in your mouth. Spitting the juice out the window or into a container. Some users add a bit of tobacco to it. In any case it stains your teeth and lips red. There were many signs against spitting. However, I digress.
The German tower had a strange crèche in it. There is the typical manger scene of course but the large animal in the front looks like deranged hyena or a dwarf giraffe. 
I did look inside the tower and it is climbable, if you want to risk your life. The rusting steel stairs did not look worth it. But from farther away it still looks nice.
I did see two Japanese women photographing some flowers. I was walking towards them and they must have gotten suspicious of me because they moved off rather quickly. Later I saw them in town and said "Hi" to them. I did meet Alan from California who is supervising volunteers who are building a Seventh Day Adventist church. Lots of dark clouds began forming as I walked back with only my trusty fold up umbrella but I did not get rained upon. My existence on Pohnpei and the peace that there is there reminded me of the wisdom of Zoroaster for each day: Read a little, write a little, think a little. That is certainly possible here.
The TV is full of news of some idiot that tried to blow up a plane inbound to Detroit. That means there will be even more pointless security at the airport when I leave...probably forever.
Cindy P from Kwaj was at the hotel and I joined her for a long four hour dinner. She had met Eric and Tina an engaged couple. Eric is from Arno, an island near Majaro in the RMI and she is from Pohnpei. Tina was quite tired but Eric was quite talkative and interesting. He is trying to raise sea cucumbers in the RMI including Ebye a tiny island about three miles from Kwaj. He was telling of his frustration of trying to get an agreement with anyone in the government. Eric had fresh piece of pepper from the Sei pepper plantation which he gave to Cindy. It was quite awesome.