kelly leseman
Alaska Engineer who loves God, family, banjos, airplanes, and racquetball. Oh yeah, and that fishing thing too. AKbanjo
Travel Blog Posts
February 3rd 2011
Feb 04: Final day in Micronesia. I’m looking forward to being home and seeing the family. We tied up some loose ends today; met with the Governor, his staff, and the U.S. Embassy for a debrief meeting. Other than that, went for a quick hike and scouted out some old WWII relics (Japanese anti aircraft guns, bunkers, etc…). Anyhow, a hodge-podge of photos from the last week or so, including a couple action shots to prove that I am actually doing some work down here. ... read more
February 2nd 2011
Feb 02: Ron Kolpak and myself went for an early morning hike/climb on Sokeh’s Rock today (see Jan 27th blog – Harbor photo from Hotel). What a blast! It one of those hikes where the vertical outgains the horizontal. Sokeh’s rock is a granite pillar remnants of an old volcano. About half of the hike is climbing using a rope and old electrical conduit pipe up the face of the pillar. ... read more
February 1st 2011
Feb 01: Well just like Alaska, the weather can affect all things here on Pohnpei Island. Today I saw the effects of Typhoon Yasi which is hitting Northeast Australia. I’ve never seen such intense rain. It rained for about an hour that flooded the streets, overflowed the rivers, and just created havoc everywhere. This afternoon is much nicer and the sun is starting to shine again. ... read more
January 30th 2011
Jan 30: Well today we attempted to kill ourselves hiking through the jungle. Went to a place called 6 falls. I expected it to be rough but I was wrong. It was killer. Six hours of forging rivers, climbing waterfalls, bush whacking jungle, dangling from ropes, swimming up rivers, and climbing slippery rocks through strong currents. It definitely was not a dry hike. It was incredibly beautiful though and chance to see what most people never do. It was also cool that another 50+ gent and I kicked butt on a bunch of young’ns. Old age and treachery triumphs over youth and vigor once more. Of course they’re probably out drinking in the bars tonight and I’m at my hotel popping advil. ... read more
Nan Madol, snorkeling, and much more Jan 29
Published: January 29th 2011Oceania » Micronesia » Kosrae
January 29th 2011
Jan 29: Wow, what a day. There was no work lined up today so we had a play day. We took a boat ride out to some ruins called Nan Madol, also known as the Venice of the Pacific. It is a city built on about 100 man-made islands by placing columnar basalt on coral reefs. The basalts are stacked up like a log cabin. Some rocks weigh several tons. The islands have water channels between them; we scooted around in sea kayaks to explore them. After that, we had lunch on a beautiful white sandy beach, hiked up to an awesome water fall, and then went snorkeling out towards the outer reef where it drops off about 200m deep. Words can’t describe how beautiful it was. ... read more
January 29th 2011
Jan 27: We were invited and had dinner at the US Ambassador’s house last night. Most of the food came from his wife’s garden, except for meat which was either caught or raised locally too. Today’s kind of a slow day with only a few meetings. Went for a nice hike to a high spot on the island, beautiful view. ... read more
January 26th 2011
Jan 26: We toured the island today conducting site survey for the medical team. I like these because we typically use schools as our site; and I always have fun with the kids (being a big kid myself and all). These photos are from the Lipok Elem. School on the east side of the island. When we got there, one of the classes was singing “this little light of mine.” They got a kick when I joined in singing with them. This is the fun stuff. ... read more
January 25th 2011
Jan 25: We arrived at Pohnpei Micronesia yesterday. Back to reality. Our bus ride to the hotel took about an hour to go about 4 miles because the bus kept breaking down. The humidity is so thick you can cut it with a knife. I woke up early and decided to go for a run. It helped to start the day getting all of sweat out of me. It helped keep me cool the rest of the day. This place is absolutely the tropics. Very beautiful. Much cleaner than Dili. ... read more
January 25th 2011
Jan 23 Well a lot has happened in the past few days. We left Timor on Jan 20th and got in late to Singapore; then an early flight to Guam. What a change! Going from one of the poorest third world nations to plush 4-star surroundings. I was out walking about in Singapore and watched a Hindu celebration. Part of me was in awe of the cultural aspect but the other part of me wanted to introduce them to Jesus. Guam was absolutely beautiful. Lush and green with lots of reef that surrounds the island so the big waves never reach the shore. Unfortunately I did not get to take advantage of the great snorkeling. I did swim around in the ocean and play in some waves though; bathtub temperature. Wow! ... read more
January 19th 2011
We made another remote via helicopter today. We went to an isolated section of Timor called Oecusi (O-Cue-See) which is west of mainland Timor. It is separated from the rest of Timor and is surrounded by Indonesia except along the coast line. Apparently, this is where the Portuguese first landed when they came to Timor. This region also has one of the highest concentrations of leprosy in the world. Given these short comings, it is the most beautiful place I’ve seen in Timor. It still has a lot of old colonial structures and feel. The community has adequate water supply and is clean. Drove around last night with a chicken in the back seat. ... read more
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