By Faith Bishock, September 18, 2008
Mural on wall of Kosrae Museum showing traditional houses.
It’s exciting to get back into the field, having done this type of travel in my youth and again with the International Palm Society. With this type of field work, one really has to be prepared for anything: rain, mud, streams and rock climbing in rain and mud through streams. But the thrill of discovery makes one forget all the hardships.
Kosrae is nine time zones from Florida, across the International Date Line – so it’s tomorrow here already. This small island has ruins of an ancient culture built in the thirteenth century. It’s a slow moving island with friendly guileless people. The Federated States of Micronesia (of which Kosrae is a state) is a US protectorate so dollars are the currency and English widely spoken, although the islanders have their own language.
Local food is basic pacific island fare: fish, chicken, occasionally pork and, we suspect, sometimes dog. Vegetables and fruits are taro, bananas, breadfruit, yams and coconut that the people prepare in various ways. We feel much safer eating at the hotel restaurant which is uniquely placed at the end of a boardwalk over a mangrove swamp. It leads to an open palm thatched building overlooking a broad channel with a mountainous backdrop – spectacular!
It’s pouring rain now and we preparing to get back out into the field this afternoon. In our previous fieldwork we discovered two populations of Ponapea ledermanniana, many Nypa fruiticans, and we hope to find much more.
