I started out the day at the Utwe-Walung Marine Reserve, with a small tour in a traditional outrigger canoe (equipped with a not-so-traditional outboard motor).
The reserve is composed of a meshwork of small waterways winding themselves through a gigantic mangrove forest. The waterways closest the ocean are paved in luxurious corals, the mangrove trees propped precariously between the coral clumps, with multicoloured tropical fish darting amongst the coral heads and large sting rays gliding amongst the mangrove roots.
Further in, and the corals gave way to fine brown silt, the flat surface of the water being broken only by drips from the trees and the random gas bubble freeing itself from the mud below.
Then back out into deeper canals near the reef edge, mushroom corals disappearing into the dark blue depths, while swarms of sea terns called from their nurseries in the trees.
As we skimmed across the flat waters, we got to talking, and, as always, the main point of interest was how and why I had made my way to Kosrae.
And this is how I met Tadao Waguk.
Tadao was a high-school student when my father worked in Kosrae for the Trust Territory, and fondly remembers Mr. Grossmann as being "not very tall". I took that to be a compliment, coming from a himself not extremely tall micronesian.
His father, Moris, has unfortunately passed away, but also used worked at the school.
Heading back inshore, we stopped off at the end of Utwe village, where Tadao left off and his son and I took off to the mountains to see the Menke ruins, thereby completing a 3-generation cycle.
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