Second day of autumn/spring

Last night Ed was dead as soon as he hit the bed so we didn’t go to the entertainment which we later heard was pretty good. He will be appearing again so we’ll catch him then. I prepared the laundry to go out and then read a lot in the book on Einstein.
Rabaul
The sun blasted through the drapes a little after I felt the ship slowing down. When Ed stirred I opened the drapes to a glorious view of the volcano with the plume going straight up and then curving with the sun illuminating the eastern side with its rays. Last time we were here, the volcanos plume was gray and fluffy and full. Moreover, we could hear the boom of the explosions; there is no sound coming from that directly this morning. I recall that last time, many of the passengers were upset with the booming noise and wanted to get away from the volcano; Ed and I just found it fascinating.
The water is placid and surrounded by the rim of the old caldera. You can see what look like tanker ships in the distance and near shore various sizes and types of small boats. The temperature outside is in the low 80s but with the humidity, it is oppressive. This is probably a day where we’ll want to shower when we return unless God gives us one while we’re out. I don’t mind that so much but Ed doesn’t like to get wet.
Room service arrived promptly at 7 am a few minutes after our wake up call. I have been impressed by how they come exactly on the time we put on the slip.
The Captain came on to welcome us to Rah-bah-uul (so maybe I’ve been pronouncing it correctly after all). We may have showers today but not steady. We’ve had good luck with that before.
At first, the TV said we had a poor signal for anything but FOX news and the shipboard channels. It didn’t take long before Ed had a rugby game on so I could see it (just a pile of brawny men all with flailing legs; not much different from football players grasping for the football except for the uniforms). Rugby is more bloody I suspect. Eventually, CNN was reporting on the politics on the Hill surrounding the upcoming vote on health care reform. I listened to an advertisement (yes, we do get the ads!) from the insurance companies where they were arguing that the cost of insurance is not a very large percentage of health care costs; the greater costs are those to physicians and drug companies (it appears they’ve identified their enemies; so much for a coalition). It is such a disingenuous argument and a great example of how one can mislead or outright lie with data selectively chosen and presented in a specific manner. They never give aggregate numbers of course or look at value for the money spent. Please understand that I’m not defending the costs of all the vendors in health care but the insurance companies consume up to 33% of the premiums paid. That’s hardly efficient particularly when we have examples everywhere in the public and non-profit sector where the administrative costs are 1/10th of that amount.
Eventually, I turned it to a channel where they’re playing a movie: The man from snowy river. This is an iconic story in Australia and we missed the beginning and will miss the end as our call for our tour is soon. I don’t know when or if it will be shown again. Too bad as we’ve been told about it before (though I’ve forgotten almost all of the story).
As I write this, I can see a small plume of steam coming from a hillock between us and the larger volcano. They are both reflected in the sea between us. As I look closer, I can see craters at the top of mountains in that direction but because of the wind pushing the plume over two of them, I can’t tell if they are also contributing to the ash. And you can smell the sulfur even this far away which is perhaps a few miles.
Today’s tour
Well this was an experience as much for the heat and humidity as for the ash everywhere. It had rained last night so early in our tour, the ash/dust wasn’t bad but later it was especially annoying. Much of this was due to the fact that we were in the last seat in a minivan with a sign that said it seated 15. They would have had to be midgets is all I can say. There were 10 of us plus the driver and guide. Air conditioning is au natural here and for reasons I’ll never fathom, they would close the windows when we left the van.
And a word to the wise: when you have some ability to select a van, do not take one where they have seat covers obscuring what you’ll be enduring. We could feel every bolt in the seat and the back of the seats and the van hasn’t had springs or shocks since it left the factory 15 years ago. Furthermore, there are mostly rutted roads through the ash, which is 3 meters deep from the 2006 eruption, so if you have back trouble, this is not your experience.
So first we were taken to a site where local ladies had set up their wares to sell while we enjoyed the beautiful view---and truly it is gorgeous even though the volcano isn’t belching as we recalled 2 yrs ago. Much of the area we first visited looks so desolate: a few sticks here and there but everything else clearly covered in ash and denuded of foliage. The “roads” are simply sticks stuck in the ash with colored plastic trash bags as signs to guide you. Along the way we saw a very old computer with a solar panel right next to it. I couldn’t tell you if it was functional or not. I think Ed got a photo of it on the way back.
At our first stop, there were some darling kids with leis and they were giving them to some of the ladies who then provided them with a donation, usually a dollar. There was no pressure or suggestions at this point. Soon, a choir of kids formed and they sang several songs for us all (there is no dearth of kids here; the average family is 13-14 kids and the gov’t is considering limiting family size). They were clearly of church origin but I’m not sure if they were Catholic, Christian, or 7th Day Adventist. They were child appropriate and accompanied by hand and other body motions. Really cute. Pretty soon and older woman laid a colored cloth in front clearly suggesting donations which came soon enough. I believe they are a communal culture so the money is shared or at a minimum would go to the church.
From there, we retraced our path and went to bubbling springs nearer the volcanos. This required a long walk across the ash surface. There are ruts everywhere and the surface is not very steady. It wasn’t quite trekker stick country but it wouldn’t have hurt. In some places, the locals had cut out stairs to go up and down the arroyo sides but they quickly crumbled. Guides, who were dressed in red hard hats and orange reflector vests, were at various places to be sure you stayed safe.
The ocean water is 170 degrees Centigrade where the vents surface. You can see the sulfur in the bottom of the inlets. There was a boat up on shore but no one nearby.
All along the way, we saw many houses and a few churches. Many are cobbled together from whatever is handy and the word “hovel” sounds glorious as a description. Most are on stilts and have been newly built since the really powerful eruption of 1994 (Northridge anyone?). Many are made of corrugated steel and they have the rust to confirm their content. Occasionally you’ll find a concrete building that was constructed by the Japanese in WWII. These buildings were made to last (unlike those erected by US troops) and were nigh onto indestructible. They often have walls and ceilings that are 2 feet thick.
There’s laundry hanging everywhere attesting to large families and lots of babies. We saw infants in arms some of whom clearly were only a few weeks, not months, old. I saw many visibly pregnant women underneath their mumus but it is difficult to determine anyone’s age here. The only men we saw, other than boys and youngsters travelling by foot (and by bike in one instance) across these ash flats, were the drivers. Most of the guides were women.
The next stop, again retracing our path backwards in a caravan (I often wondered why they didn’t spread out the number of vans going to any one place at a time as probably half the ship was at each stop; the other half were on the tour of the military sites and large tunnels. This time we were taken to a WWII Japanese plane wreck this shows it’s years at this point. The locals have excavated it from the ash and so it appears to be deep down. Again there were hoards of kids with a few women. The children were somewhat shy but very friendly and we heard “ha-llo” all along our routes. Some children were dressed in their native dress and had a sign asking for a dollar for a photo. I only saw one dollar but there might have been more after I left. I felt sorry for the little kid as this isn’t a fun job in the sun and humidity.
After this, we traveled back over the same bumpy flat, this time at a higher rate of speed so that we could really get the fillings jarred out of our back teeth. We came through town and eventually there was a little paved road into the hills nearby. This took us past the marketplace we visited last time which was closed because it is Sunday. You see lots of groups of folks sitting in the shade of trees, and other clusters of folks walking under umbrellas most of which seem to be red and black, the national colors of Papua New Guinea.
On the way to the volcano tracking station at the top of the hill, we passed many of the Japanese tunnels from WWII. Several times during this day’s tour, women would demand that we stop for photos. This meant that the other vans would whiz by us stirring up more ash (not fun for my contacts) as we travelled in caravans of about 20 vans. In one instance, the driver and guide acted like they hadn’t heard the request (thank you Lord , Jesus). It turns out that the volcano monitoring site, where we were headed then, has probably the best local view for photos. We finally had a restroom stop here. One never knows in these places if you’ll ever find a restroom and certainly what shape it will be in when there is one. This one was western style but didn’t flush.
There wasn’t anyone in the volcano monitoring office so I guess the equipment was taking care of itself. There were some laminated posters here and there talking about volcano activity.
This took us back to the ship and we were all ready. Ed and I showered and made 2 more bags of laundry to send out. His shoes were full of gray ash but mine seemed to be OK. Still there was grit over everything and when Ed wiped his face with the cold cloth offered as we boarded the ship, it had gray grit on it. We had been warned not to wear clothes we cared about and certainly not white (though my tennis shoes are white). We also each drank a bottle of water and continued this at lunch. Both of us had clothes drenched with sweat but Ed loses a lot more fluid than I do. What a blessing a fresh shower is after this morning.
Lunch
We sat with folks with visited with over lunch in the past. Some really should only go to ports where they are resorts. I’m not sure what they expect in these primitive places (and now listen to me complaining about the bolts digging into our backs and behinds in the buckboards we travelled in today). Six of us were from California and the other couple has homes in Las Vegas and Florida. I usually eat three solid meals on days like this as a reward I guess. I’ll have to watch it other days. One of the ladies at the table was watching her diet as her husband took her up to the gym to weigh. It was actually funny.
Port talk: Chuuk
I’m not sure I understand much more about this place but it wasn’t the fault of the speaker who did a great job and simplified things. But there are so many reefs and islands and it’s hard to keep track of what belongs with what. However, there is a resort on the island where we’re going (and I never was clear what that was called) so some of our fellow travelers should be happy. I’m not sure what Ed decided to do at this stop as I looked at all the tour offerings for ports in the next several weeks and passed the information along to him.
Well as it turns out there’s SOOO much to do in Chuuk that the ship isn’t even offering any tours! We are in port for about 5 ½ hours. All of this leads me to wonder why we’re even stopping there except that it’s tied to the US. We have these kinds of stops occasionally that make absolutely no sense to any of us though I do think it’s fun to see unusual places no one else would ever think of going to (except perhaps to dive for Chuuk is a prime scuba and snorkeling site because of all the military hardware in the bottom of the harbor and the resulting reef effect which means lots of interesting animals down there to see).
Dance classes
I often go up to the Pacific Lounge to upload the blog and save our favorite space for trivia. The dance classes are often being held during this time and so it is today. The teacher, John (of whom I’ve spoken before) is an Aussie and today’s he’s teaching the square dance. It just seems strange. Ha.
So now I’ll spend some time editing photos.
Trivia
There was just the 4 of us and we tied for 2nd place…with 3 other teams. The winners were 2-3 points ahead of all of us. Reckon they cheated? Though I don’t see how. I think we did pretty good since we were handicapped.
Dinner
We’ve switched around each evening so that different people sit next to each other. I think most folks like it as they’ve begun to do some stuff like that as well. There is another table near us and everyone is hide bound to their usual places. This is particularly funny when there are only two couples at a table for 8 and they are at each end with all the dead space in between.
Mind Magician
This guy was funny and he was really good. I don’t believe folks can really read someone else’s mind but he’s impressive and his schticks were not ones I’ve seen before done quite that way. I also appreciated the fact that though he had audience participation, he didn’t do anything that was embarrassing to anyone. Ed’s thinking of going to watch it him for the second show; I’m sure he thinks he can figure out how he does it.
Today’s photos
I haven’t finished editing all the photos but Ed did ask about one in particular. While we were very close to the volcano I told him we should take some pictures of each other where it looks like the volcano is spewing from the tops of our heads thus “blowing our tops”. So I did search that one out and the one he took of me is simply too perfect. I didn’t do so well with him (frankly I can’t see well enough to get that done) but I also told him I now know how to edit it in photoshop to make him “blow his top” as well. I just have to get to my computer at home with Photoshop on it and play around. I wonder how much time it’s worth. Ed told the table that photo is our Chirstmas card photo.