One tropical day melts stickily into another around here with little differentiation between them. Suddenly 365 days and then some have stickily strung themselves together and I realize that I haven’t posted a real, proper blog update. I realize that I’ve likely left those important to me wondering what in the world is going on in my remote corner of the world. I realize that although I came here ready to pour myself out in service, I’ve acted very selfishly these last 15 months. I’ve lived on the inside, struggling to process what it means to be an American in a cultural context that is so far removed from American culture; struggling to understand who I am in this context. There’s not always a lot happening in my external world here, and it leaves plenty of time to dwell on the internal. I haven’t reached out sufficiently beyond the confines of my tropical lagoon in the last 15 months; and so for my last 7 here I would like to make an attempt to live a bit more externally.
So with that, let me welcome you back into my world – a world where the following has become my norm:
- wearing skirts (everyday; sometimes used for swimming, showering or sleeping as well)
- taking off shoes before entering a room, including the main office, the library, the business office and the computer lab at my school
- saying “tirow” and bending down slightly when walking in front of anyone sitting or between two people talking
- eating with fingers
- opening a drink or snack, taking a small sip or handful and immediately passing it around to everyone in sight; or grabbing for someone’s food/drink without asking (why ask? of course it’s shared)
- taking cold showers (delightfully cold, most of the time)
- taking two showers a day
- sleeping with a headlamp next to my pillow
- bucket flushing
- sleeping on the floor (not every night by any means, but let me tell you after this experience I can sleep comfortably on most any surface).
- wearing mumus
- eating the most delicious tuna sashimi you can imagine (and gutting/filleting a 10 pound fish on my own, too!)
- seeing the ocean every. single. day.
It’s just a quick glimpse, but one that reveals much about my life here. Here are some other points of interest, worthy of their own separate paragraphs.
Students:
Last year I taught Junior and Senior Literature as well as an Environmental Science elective. I loved the content of the Senior lit class and although I loved the senior students, I felt more connected to the junior class. Throughout last year my attachment to the class of 2012 grew steadily as I helped with fundraising car washes, participated on both junior retreats and coached juniors in debate. I knew coming into this school year that I wanted nothing more than to teach the senior class. Initially I wasn’t assigned to teach senior lit, but decided that it was worth fighting for and after some finagling finally ended up with Senior and Freshman literature. As ever, the class of 2012 is amazing. They show a wonderful sense of unity and initiative that makes me so proud of them. There is not a single student among them who isn’t involved with school activities. I am utterly delighted to be able to “graduate” with these amazing young men and women.
One of these students showed up a few weeks ago at our door dragging a large palm branch over his shoulder. He had come to show us how to make palm skirts for the first day of our school’s spirit week which was themed as the “Cultural” day. So, for about an hour we sat and sang along to Bob Marley while pinching apart palm fronds and whittling notches in palm branches. This particular student also happens to have an amazing voice and can frequently be found in our apartment or one of our teacher’s offices recording on Garageband, often while providing his own harmonies and back-up music. He has absolute raw talent that is incredible. Listening to him sing and learning to make a palm leaf skirt are both activities that cause me to stop and ask myself, “where am I, and what have I done to deserve such a life?”
Another student invited me to join the senior girl dance for the Newcomers Entertainment (where all of the upper grades put on skits and performances for the freshman and new teachers each year); so for two weeks I spent after school hours practicing my hula skills with seven of my students. Although I never gained the hip-shaking skills that seem inherent to all of them, I had a wonderful time building relationship and learning some islandy dance moves (despite the fact that hula is Polynesian, not Micronesian.).
Host Family:
For those of you who don’t know, I have a host family who lives on a nearby island called Tonoas. Ideally I would go out to visit them once a month, but scheduling and circumstance always seem to keep it to a once every 2 or 3 month excursion. At any rate, this past July I spent a wonderful weekend on Tonoas and finally crossed the threshold from feeling like an awkward guest to feeling like part of the family. The weekend was filled with nights of bingo with my host mom and the village ladies and good conversation with my host dad (who works at the Department of Education). One of my relatives caught a baby sea turtle and I got to sit around the makeshift aquarium she created with all of the kids and admire it. I took a walk with four of my host cousins (two of whom are my students) around our village of Enin and we enjoyed a lovely picnic with a spectacular view of Weno in the background. As we circled around we even enjoyed fresh guava and mangoes right off the tree. I spent perhaps the coldest day of my Micronesian life with about 10 of my cousins swimming at nearby dock. Despite the fact that they live on an island, a lot of people around here (especially girls) don’t necessarily swim all that often. We spent nearly three hours in the pouring rain swimming, diving off the dock, and having a hoot of a time. By the time we left my teeth were literally chattering and my fingers were going numb with cold. I also sat on the floor for two hours with one of my cousins pointing to things around the room and identifying them in Chuukese and in English. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.
I returned again in mid-October, and again felt a natural ease that had been absent during my first few visits. I still feel awkward in that I don’t really speak much Chuukese, and most of them don’t really speak much English, but it’s very satisfying to have those cousins who used to not eat with me or sit near me readily lounge around and share a meal with me. Even though I still feel like an awkward outsider at times, I feel like their awkward outsider. This last visit happened to coincide with a Catholic youth gathering in my village in which each geographic region of the village (three in total) dressed in their own colors and everybody spent hours and hours singing and dancing and eating. Everyone was packed in an outdoor meeting house (an uut), shoulder to shoulder, with people peeling away between songs to cool down out by the banana trees. Even though it’s open, the uut was stifling with so many people inside). I was included in one of the dances, which happened to be the same one I had learned for New Comers Entertainment. Most of my relatives where surprised and delighted to realize that I knew the dance.
New Community:
The Jesuit Volunteer Corps is a two-year program (internationally), but volunteers rotate in and out of each other’s lives in 1-year chunks. So, as last year came to a close Charles and I sadly bid farewell to our amazing second-year volunteers: Caro, Jess and Tyler. We weathered a solid day or two of mourning before it was announced that we would be hosting two college students for the summer. We quickly rallied ourselves back into community mode and welcomed them into our lives. Six short weeks later Tara and Kelly were back on a plane heading home while our new community mate, Paige, and the two new volunteers at Xavier High School, Jay and Gabe, arrived. The combined Xavier/SCA community has been great and we enjoyed some wonderful adventures together during our “Phase Two” orientation to orient and welcome the new volunteers.
Adventures:
Speaking of adventures, as mentioned the arrival of the new volunteers provided just the right excuse to partake in some local activities that us second years had never experienced or had only experienced once before during our orientation. Included on the list were: hiking Witapon (the highest point on the island), doing the “backhike” from Xavier to Blue Lagoon Resort (it’s the “backhike” because it’s on the side of the island with no road), having a picnic on local picnic island, Pisiwi; hiking up to the Japanese Lighthouse to take in the incredible view of the Lagoon, and traveling about an hour by boat to the island of Tol to join Assumption Parish for their Feast of the Assumption festivities.
Going to Tol was absolutely amazing. To start off, we left Weno at sunset so the entire trip was drenched in dusky sunset colors (which only serve to make more brilliant the already spectacular views of islands and ocean). Additionally, Tol is unlike any other island in the lagoon, in that it is made up of several island connected by mangrove channels. As we turned into what appeared to be the main part of the island, we slowed the motor down and quietly aimed ourselves into the eerie and incredibly beautiful channels. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before. Upon our arrival we were welcomed with open and incredibly inviting arms by Father Fernando and his crew of local parishioners. We were fed wonderful food (chicken, breadfruit, rice, veggies, pineapple, bananas, coconut) and had wonderful little rooms made up for us, complete with soap and shampoo set out, à la a fancy hotel. We spend the next day partying with the parishioners of Assumption and enjoying more wonderful food (including some to-die for sashimi), we were generally treated like royalty.
Other exciting activities include two (yes, two!) trips to Pisar in the last two months. The first was an excursion inspired by the visitation of our Peace Corps friend's sister’s visit, the second as a going away shindig for one of the Peace Corps volunteers I’ve become closest with while here, Andrea. Speaking of Peace Corps, the PCVs here in Chuuk have become close and dear friends over the course of the last 15 months. We generally don’t think of each other as Peace Corps Volunteers or JVs, but rather as “Team Chuuk”.
Another great excursion was led by six of our students on a Sunday afternoon, and included a hike up to the top of one of the “mountains” on island, which afforded fantastic views; this time of the island itself rather than just the lagoon (although that is always a breathtaking view). We also visited some of the old abandoned Japanese caves leftover from the Japanese occupation during WWII, complete with rusted guns poking out from inside. The hike was wonderful, and interspersed with breaks to rest during which one of our students would shimmy up a nearby tree and cut down coconuts to quench our thirst. It was fantastic to spend time with our students outside of the normal classroom setting.
Reflections:
Believe it or not, I have spent over twice as much time in Micronesia as I have left. What?!? When did that happen? Somewhere amidst teaching classes, grading papers, riding in boats, drinking coconuts, sweating and sweating and sweating, stumbling along in Chuukese (and making no progress), laying around, processing and reflecting, I have ended up at the point where home is just over the horizon. It both feels as if I just arrived and as if I’ve been here forever. As mentioned in the beginning of this post, the passage of time is not easily noted. And in a lot of ways I feel like my mind has been as stifled as my body has felt in the tropical heat and humidity, and productive (written) reflection of my time here doesn’t seem to come easily. Suffice it to say that this experience has been everything I didn’t expect it to be (and, I suppose, a few things I did) in both good ways and bad. The good has been delightfully surprising and the bad has been more draining than anticipated. I never feel as if I can do either the good or the bad justice on this blog, so I’ll leave it at that.
Thanks for visiting, and I’ll see you in another couple of months for an update (and another 7 or so stateside!).
