24 Dec - David and Huyen's Xmas Eve

The 'in-crowd' was called up again for yet another party in Pohnpei. Off we went to David and Huyen's place for a 'seven fishes' dinner. It was meant to symbolise the seven sacraments but after looking at the quality of the food we wanted more sacraments. It was good....

The TV was on and the kids were happy.

Huyen cooked up a storm, with prawns, mussels, calamari, tuna and mahi mahi and in different forms of edible delight.

Desert looked (and tasted) great as well.

David welcomed us all and told us to eat up. Don't need to be told twice, don't mind if I do.

Standing back wasn't isn't an option; no need to be shy. Dig in!!!!!!!!!!

David and Huyen could find a suitable place for a tree so they came up with this idea. They say necessity is the mother of invention......

The US Ambassador Peter Prahar and his wife Ami kicking back after a feed.

The girls checking out Huyen's pics.

Sam in the middle of a very unruly lot.

If only we didn't have to get up at day break to open presents I would have had more beers and taken less photos.

Nelson had the right idea; kick back on the couch and watch cartoons with the kids.

Yet another great night in Pohnpei. Home in bed about nine and ready for the onslaught the next day.

23 Dec - Compound Christmas Holidays

Being the season to be jolly resulted us in hosting some friends over for Christmas Carols in the compound. The 'Pohnpei Google Group' was sent out an invite and they turned up in good numbers noting that a lot of people are off island for the Christmas break.

This year we stepped into the 21st century and did away with cutting trees down for the words and used fossil fuels instead to power the projector and laptop.

A little bit of work over the previous couple of nights saw the music loaded onto the IPOD and the words typed into a 'Word Doc'. Seemed to go okay.

Tanya loved the night and belted out the tunes.

We gave the kids little torches instead of candles - Good idea Mummy.

They can be cute and loving sometimes..... Santa might be watching.

We recently purchased some torches for the compound and they helped set the scene quite nicely.

A small but quite vocal group.

Not a bad family photo. It took about ten photos to get a good one though. Children and animals......

After the carols we packed everything up and headed up to our house for a few snacks and beverages. A great end to another great night on Pohnpei.

Compound Compilation

As always with photos some just don't seem to fit into any one topic. So I've put this blog together to cover off for the last little part of the year.

Nothing like a good feed of raw yellow-fin tuna and rice.

Jaxon and Indi can't get enough of sashimi.

We looked after a friends dog for a couple of hours. Indi was quite distressed when it started chewing on her toys. Dogs do that Indi.....

The ole blow-up sprinkler ball trick. Hours of amusement.

A good kids exercise tool. Off you go Indi. Run from Daddy around the ball and back as fast as you can.

'Daddy, I'm the Mummy and this is my baby'. Bloody Hell!!!! There is definately no need for me to hear that again from Indi for another 25 years at the very least.

Everyone take your places for the tea party.

I'm not sure if cookies are being decorated or eaten here.

Smart boy Jaxon. Let the girls do it first and then copy them.

Now we're getting into it Indi. Make as much mess as you can for Daddy to clean up later.

Leap Frog is always a hit with kids.

Lower Alex Lower. You're a braver man than me.

Guess how this ended.......

That's Playgroups ended for our time on the compound. Both Jaxon and Indi will be a school next year. We'll still have some sort of get together for the kids but we'll be varying the location a little.

21 Dec - Jaxon's School Christmas Party

Christmas time means the school Christmas concert at Jaxon's school. The teachers do their best to get all the kids to learn their roles and songs. A massive challenge I would think.

The smiley boy in the middle (aka sheep boy) has been talking about this for a month.

Ready for the concert to start.

And we're off with Joseph and Mary leading the proceedings.

And baby Jesus is born.

Look out here come the sheep.....

A proud crowd of families and friends.

Mike and I felt safest at the back corner.

Indi needed an 'outside break' mid concert. She needed to check out the food.

I couldn't quite make out the words but I'm sure it was a nice song.

Concert over and the most important part of the day. Presents!!!!!!!!!!

Mummy I'm going to be 'cute' until you pay me some attention.

Oh Yeah. Presents. Thanks teacher.

Lunch is served.

Does that look like Nic is enjoying that to you????????

Indi will eat it, no matter how warm it is.

A bit of a play around to help the food go down.

Lucky Indi didn't eat too much, she might have fallen out of the slide.

19 Dec - Driveway Kids

As soon as you drive out of our great compound you are instantly reminded of how good we have it here in comparison to the majority of the population. Getting Jaxon and Indi to understand how lucky they are is a little beyond their grasp at this stage. On the driveway from the main road into the compound is about seven to ten families getting by the best they can. Within those families are a heap of children that are more than happy to play 'chasie' and seem to giggle and laugh every time we see them. They were standing at the gate of the compound peering in so I opened the gate and invited them in for a little while. Only one of them spoke english so once they were convinced they weren't going to get into trouble it was straight to the playground.

Gangsta cool.

I'm not sure if they have ever been on a swing made out of plastic before. Car tyres and wooden planks have served the purpose before now.

Loving the best playground on island.

Happy as Larry.

There's a little white kid in there somewhere. Even though they couldn't communicate through language Jaxon and Indi got on really well with them all.

White kids just aren't as 'cool' as pohnpeians.

More Happy as Larry.

Loving having the trampoline limit pushed to the max.

Danger Will Robinson. Time to go home before I have to deal with 'broken' neighbours.

Now they are Jaxon and Indi's 'friends from outside' and the flood gates have been breached. With Jaxon and Indi pestering me on the inside and the locals lining up on the outside. Oh well, there are many worse problems to have......