Transportation 104

I leave work early (about 3:30) and head over to the Peace Corps Office Complex. Bear, a member of my group has flown in from Haapai for a medical issue. He has a scratch on his leg that despite all the antibiotic ointment and band aids it has started to really go south.

I find him laying on the floor of the medical apartment. He is plugged into an IV. He relates that he is getting massive doses of IV antibiotics, plus taking horse pill sized doses of orals.

He is looking great, considering, and it is wonderful to visit with him. Several other PCVs wander by. Later we will go out and bring back some Chinese takeout for a group dinner. This is the height of excitement here in the Kingdom.

I mosey down to the office. I have a package. I'm expecting some books from Amazon, but instead I find a big box from my sister Jeanne.

Back up to the medical apartment where we dump the foam peanuts into a sheet and sort though for stuff. Lots of pens, some cologne, but the really good stuff was Bike Stuff.

I now have a real helmet that fits. We passed it around and everyone sniffed the new bike helmet smell. We so seldom see anything really new and clean here. Alexis tries it on and marvels at the fit. The PC issued helmets are too small for most, if not all, of the volunteers.

I also received some plastic mud flaps. I put those on last night. You can see them in the photos above. It is raining as I write, so it is likely that I will benefit from them today. In fact they will make a significant difference most days here.

I took the pictures above at breakfast. As you know I usually go to a spot on the ocean next to the Palace and eat some cheap bread rolls. (Yes, I know eating a bunch of white bread is unhealthy, but we are on college kid budgets and exist mostly on bread, ramin, and chicken franks.)

In one pic you can see a fishing boat that recently bit the dust in a storm. It has a rock through the bow. In the second you can see a rainbow as one of our frequent showers approaches. It rinsed me as soon as I started off to find shelter. Both pics have been enhanced by Piccasa, in reality it is really gray here in the morning. The sun is just starting to rise.

I sit across from the Police Station and read my Greenspan book as I wait for the coffee shop to open. I chat with a couple of New Zealand tourists. They are just in on the ferry from Eua and really need to find some coffee. The Eua boat departs for Tongatapu about 05:30 and they look bushed. This coffee shop opens at 07:30, the earliest in the Kingdom. Not much of an early morning rush here. Actually not much of a rush any time of day.

Not much else to post. Thursday (today here) is Hash. This is a group of folks who get together to either run or walk for a bit, then we drink beer and network. Networking is everything here, so I hope I can make it. It is a bit out of town and the other attendees all have access to cars. As long as the rain isn't too bad I should be able to make it on the newly updated bike.