Wednesday 14 February 2007

Nature vs Machine (1)

When a car dies here (which they do in vast, ever increasing numbers - Pohnpei is a bit like the Hotel California for vehicles) they lie where they fall. Nobody has insurance here. Not that you'd guess that by the way they drive, but that's another story. Once a car is damaged, it's usually cheaper to buy another car then to have it repaired - and the rust is so invasive and agressive it's not worth it anyway. So cars are abandoned at the side of the road (or, in the case below, ON the road - until someone gets fed up and moves it over). This car appeared 2 weeks ago (and that's when the picture was taken).


It's already being reclaimed by the jungle. Which is really what this post is about - yes, roll up roll up, it's NATURE VS MACHINE. Not too many points for guessing which always wins. The results are amazing - so we've decided to feature one each week. The example below is pretty lame, but I don't want to set the bar too high (like in high school cross country running- you got the best mark if you walked the first, power walked the second, jogged the next and ran the final one.... life is all about improvement).

Stay posted!
ps my work computer has died. So no email for me for a while. So if you've emailed me, it's not my fault I haven't replied! I've brought the laptop into work and can access my hotmail account....
Jo

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've been loving reading this blog, not only because it's great to be in touch with you both, but also because it reminds me SOOOOO much of my experience in Vanuatu, and thus brings back fond memories. I swear they have all the same rabid but harmless vines and one of the pictures you put up is almost exactly the same as one I took.
The other thing that amazed me about Vanuatu, and might be the same in FSM, is that the jungle was generally much safer than the Australian bush. Spiders and snakes were regularly harmless and people would go walking through waist high "scrub" in bare legs and sandals. Something I definitely wouldn't do in Oz.