Just the beginning..

Thankfully all those storms on the East coast had cleared up and my 1:00 flight on Sunday carried through without a glitch. Five hours later, my flight stopped in Los Angeles and right before jumping on my next leg to Hawaii, I walked out side of the LA airport just to experience the Californian air. Arriving in Honolulu brought back the familiar feeling of excitement that I felt when I had been there to visit with my cousin Mike McGonigle a year ago, while he was task forcing at Hawaiian Mission Academy. Though then I had stayed for a month, this stop was for about 12 hours.
My Newark to Los Angeles trip was probably the best, not only was the airplane fully equipped with cheeseburgers and entertainment but the flight attendants were angels, at least one of them. Being a long flight, I spent a good amount of time out of my seat and the flight attendants were a lot of fun to talk and joke with. Southern University had purchases my ticket, in that process they also requested vegetarian meals for me. Normally this isn’t so bad, but when people on both sides of me are eating a cheeseburger, that is my weakness. So the flight attendants were nice enough to give me a cheese burger as well, though I later found out they had labeled me as a “fake vegetarian” until they heard my story. Apparently there are a good amount of people out there who fake there vegetarian identity in hopes that the food is fresher and a better deal than one with meat. I also realized on this flight that I was missing a toothbrush, I don’t need much to stay alive, but having a clean mouth, that’s crucial. Next thing I know the amazing flight attendant I met, Angel, had a tooth brush and tooth paste for me. This toothbrush came into more use you’ll see as you read on.
In Honolulu I had planned to just sleep in the comfortable airport, I say that without sarcasm as I continue my story. As I was settling in on some nice comfy seats, with friendly people from all over the world passing by, a security guard decided he had some advice for me. He said “Why don’t you go get your boarding pass, then come back and you won’t have to get it in the morning.” I was like alright, that sounds pretty genius, that would mean I could sleep right up to the moment boarding took place. A good ten hours of sleep at the least. So I had to exit security to get to the place he directed me to, I should have made him give me a piggy back there. So I show up at the counter, and you guessed it, they were closed and didn’t open until shortly before my flight the next morning. No problem, I just go back in the airport and sleep till morning like my original plan, eernnnnt WRONG. =) since I couldn’t get a boarding pass the security wasn’t allowed to let me back in. Now you see why the airport seemed so comfortable to me. So then my adventure started. After meeting a bunch of friendly people traveling all over, I met this really awesome Bus driver his name was like Kali. Each time I had him say his name I think he added a few K’s, L’s and U’s, but he was the man. He let me jump a board his bus route and brought me to this awesome little restaurant that is open 24/7. There I met a few girls from Micronesia and they gave me bit of a culture ‘low-down’. One of the things for the Island Chuuk, which is the stop right after Pohnpei if your flying the Continental Micronesia trip. The info was that if you’re a guy and your sitting down at the table, your sister is not allowed to walk anywhere near the table until you stand up, this signals she is allowed to approach. This seemed much more interesting at 3 in the morning. That night I also tried sleeping in the baggage claim area, where it was beautifully air conditioned, an hour into my sleep I was woken up by security on bicycles. They were like “excuse me sir this place is closed your not supposed to be sleeping in here” I was thinking “excuse me, you’re the ones riding your bikes inside, just let a young lad sleep” So they directed me to their recommended area that I slumber. As I arrived at this square of benches all facing each other I realized that this treasured sleeping ground was no secret, and I spent the rest of my night spooning with the homeless people. Even though my level of sleep wasn’t quite what I had aimed for, I wouldn’t trade this night in Honolulu for anything. The excitement and hilarious and entertaining people I ran into, I’m sure was just a preview of the adventure that is to come.
So I arrived Tuesday at 1:50 PM, nearly half an hour earlier than scheduled, these pilots were great. We stopped at nearly a thousand different Micronesian islands for the one word I understood out of the whole trip, Pohnpei, was announced. Once getting of the plane the brought us our baggage, though I was some how cut out of the ‘us’. My luggage was somewhere else in the world, but honestly I was just glad that I wasn’t the one lost on some other random country. Also thankful I still had Angel’s tooth brush. Then I was met with an awesome surprise of Tommy and Kristina, I had thought they were still teaching, but they had gotten substitutes just to come greet me. I then met Mr. B, who is the principal at this school I am working at. I can tell Mr. B and I are going to be good buddies. So after Tommy leiing me with an island necklace, and Continental giving me 50 dollars to survive with until my luggage came, we were off. The rain was just pouring down, the streets were flooding, the kids were frolicking in the puddles with their school uniforms, and the playground was buried in about a foot of water. Tommy and Kristina tried telling me that this wasn’t normal, but after reading that this is one of the wettest places on earth, some parts of the island measuring at 400 inches of rain a year, this is exactly how I had imagined it to look like. The school is just awesome, I’m going to be finding more out today, but I met many of the terrific staff yesterday. I really am honored to be apart of this team, If your still reading thanks for stopping by and hearing what’s going on. I’ll do my best to keep you all updated. Love you guys. God Bless.. drop me an email at Todda@southern.edu