Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Touring Chuuk (Late Post)

I had been lazy about a few posts mostly because I needed to transfer pics from my phone to my computer to make it easier.

Since most of you have probably never heard of Chuuk, it is one of four states of the Federated States of Micronesia. (Pohnpei, where I had been before, is another one of those states.)  The state of Chuuk is made up of many islands and is very, very poor. 


There were many houses like this that I hadn't seen before.  They were given by something similar to FEMA after the awful typhoon that hit about five years ago.



It is also beautiful.



Chuuk Lagoon was the area of the main Japanese base in the south pacific during WWII. Over 250 planes and ships were destroyed in the lagoon during the war.  It is a wreck divers paradise today.  I have been fortunate enough to do several of the planes and ships (and even one ship that had a plane crash in it after in sunk) over the years 

An old bunker on the beach


Chuuk is also home to Xavier High School, a Jesuit Boarding School in the Pacific.  Admission is through a rigorous testing and recommendation process.  (I have visited the school several times and even attended their 2012 graduation ceremony as one of my youth was graduating...I ate sea turtle that day.) The site of the school and many of the buildings on campus were home to the Japanese Communications Center in the Pacific during WWII. 





This is where a bomb went through the building during WWII

I wouldn't mind teaching there with that view!

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