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!).
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
October - March, and some thoughts on Teaching
* Disclaimer* - This was also written quite a while ago, but also wasn't published because it felt incomplete. Oh well, it's a good overview of some major events in the past several months!
Because the climate and the length of the day here is so uniform, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when in the past certain events happened. I’m going to highlight some of the more interesting things that have happened since October in the order they appear in my memory, which may not necessarily be the order in which they happened in reality.
Ok, I’ll start back in October. October brought Caroline’s parents and with them a trip to the tropical island paradise of Pisar. I suppose it’s difficult to imagine escaping to a tropical island paradise when you all might assume I live on one (and it would be a correct assumption); however my paradise is crowded, polluted, run-down, and dirty whereas Pisar is pure, unadulterated tropical bliss. It’s a tiny island at the edge of the reef, about an hour boat ride from Weno. It takes all of about a minute to walk across the island at any point, and maybe about three to walk its perimeter. Pisar is white sand, hammocks, fresh coconuts and snorkeling. It is relaxation at its ultimate expression. While there aren’t amenities you might commonly associate with paradise (electricity, running water, air conditioning) it is all the better for it. It’s camping Chuukese style and it’s perfect. We spent three days and two nights snorkeling, reading, lounging, napping, eating and staging photo shoots on the beach. We even invented and spent hours playing both coconut bocce and coconut golf. Recently Jessica’s parents came to visit and they treated us to a similarly wonderful experience. Truly, Pisar is heaven on earth.
The JV community and Peace Corps volunteers here in Chuuk form a tight group. Back in October/November we had several memorable adventures together. One lovely Saturday we decided to walk the entire perimeter of Weno. We made a stop at local resort Blue Lagoon for some breakfast and a stop at the other JV placement, Xavier High School, to rest, but other than that walked for about 6 hours in order to circumnavigate the island. Along the way, we discovered a completely different side of Weno (both literally and figuratively). The main road on the island only extends along the western side, therefore the eastern side is considerably less populated and quite different from “downtown” where we live; surprisingly different, even. It was really nice to see a calmer, friendlier area, as downtown tends to be a bit rough around the edges and can seem unwelcoming at times. Along the backside of the island people greeted us warmly and kids ran with us along stretches of the path. Contrast that with when we made it back around to Nepukos, our lovely village, where we were mooned by children who were simultaneously shouting “f*@# you!”.
Another fun PC/JV adventure happened a few weeks after that when several of us headed out to visit our PC friend John on his island Eot. We spent the day hiking around the island then enjoyed a very generous, if not slightly awkward, feast and performance for us put on by John’s church community.
A few weekends before our visit to Eot, the five of us (Ty, Charles, Jess and Caro) went out to Udot, an island neighboring Eot, with one of my coworkers, Kiki. Kiki is a huge friend to JVs and her family is incredibly kind and generous to us. We went out for her grandson’s first birthday (first birthdays are a big deal) and spent the weekend hanging around, helping in food preparation, eating, and enjoying the peace and calm of island life off of Weno. While there I got to pound taro for the first time. Taro is the root of a large plant that is grown in marshy areas. The root is dug up and boiled for a long time, until it becomes soft and can be pounded. It’s then pounded, using a large mortar-like tool, into something that has the consistency of refried beans. It’s hard work and people often spend hours pounding. It’s delicious, and is a major staple of the local diet; especially when breadruit (another starch staple) is not in season.
In November I also visited my host family for the first time. They live on a nearby island called Tonoas, which is about a 30-minute boat ride from me. I went on a weekend that happened to be the 1-year anniversary of my host mom’s mother’s death and so there was a huge celebration and a ton of relatives there, easily 100. It was kind of nice to experience the family for the first time amidst the craziness of that weekend because although I didn’t get to spend a lot of one-on-one time with them, I got lost in the melée of food preparations and it was less awkward than one might expect the first night staying with a family of strangers would be. My host family consists of my mom, Derusa and dad Augustine. Their four kids are all in Hawaii. There are plenty of cousins around though, including three of my current homeroom students, so there are always a lot of people around. I’ve only been back once since, but hope to go more frequently as the school year comes to a close and summer approaches. Although the culture here is very shy and difficult to break into, once you’re considered part of a family, you’re truly in. When students ask me where I’m from, it’s almost just as often they mean where I’m “from” in Chuuk as where I’m from in the U.S. I can say I’m from Tonoas and no one would consider that weird, or justify it by saying “you mean your host family’s from there” – I’m truly “seni Tonoas” (from Tonoas).
Christmas was spent here on Weno with Charles, Jess and Caro. Tyler went back to the states for the month of December to be with his family while his brother and mom underwent surgery. On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to Mass at the church next door to our school, and it was a beautiful service. It was wonderful to share the experience with the local community. On Christmas day, our ICC (in-country coordinator) Fr. Marc came down from Xavier HS to pick us up and bring us back up to spend the day with the other volunteers and the boys who can’t afford to go home for the holidays (Xavier is a boarding school). It was a gorgeous day and was so nice just to lounge around and relax. We also helped decorate local style, by collecting huge piles of ferns and braiding them into garland, which we then decorated with plumeria and other local flowers. We also enjoyed an excellent dinner, mixing local and more traditional American foods, and had a great time watching the boys receive their presents and sing karaoke afterwards.
January brought another trip out to Tonoas to administer the entrance exam for SCA and another chance to visit my host family. In the beginning of February the local archdiocese celebrated the 100 year anniversary of Catholicism in Chuuk, which brought a lot of great cultural performances and a ton of people to our school campus. The high school I live and work at is part of a complex that includes the church, the local Catholic college and the gym. Therefore, everyone who came from other islands for the two-day celebration stayed on the complex, including the high school, which meant our home was temporarily transformed into a bit of a hotel for the weekend. It was loud, crowded couple of days!
March brought the end of third quarter and thus the beginning of the final quarter of my first year here (craziness!) and final quarter with three out of my four roommates. It also brought the first of two Emmaus retreats with the junior class. Emmaus is a three night, four-day retreat that (almost) every student looks forward to from the beginning of his or her freshman year. It’s an intense and moving experience for most of them and is one that I felt privileged to be a part of. It was really great to be with them in a context outside of the classroom. I truly love my students, and feel blessed that they make up such a significant part of my experience; I don’t know what I’d do without them!
And finally, the classroom. I’ve kept my work experiences for the end of this post for no other reason than the fact that they are the most difficult to thoughtfully and succinctly express. Therefore, prepare yourselves for some lengthy rambling!
My classes are going all right – I often struggle to find a balance between letting the students be themselves and disciplining their behavior. I’m definitely a softy in the classroom and have a difficult time being a strict disciplinarian. It’s a delicate balancing act between disciplining and forming personal relationships, made all the more precarious as the whole experience plays out in a foreign culture. Every time I have a bad day here I think fondly of how much better I’ll be as a second year teacher. Whether or not that’s true, it’s comforting to think about!
One thing that’s repeated often to us JVs, and that is echoed in other writings about international service or mission work is that one often encounters feelings of ineffectiveness in what he or she does. As an American, it’s so easy for me to be results-oriented, to seek praise to affirm that I’m succeeding, to expect direct communication about what’s expected of me so that I can rise to that expectation. However, using my American standards to frame this experience only sets me up to feel like a failure, and let me tell you – I’ve had my share of feeling like a major failure in all sorts of contexts this year. I say all this to share that although I have often felt like a failure and often feel as if my presence here is of little consequence, it’s all part of the experience. In seeing the problems that face this school and the problems facing education in Chuuk in general, perhaps I’m the one who is supposed to be affected, and to bring that renewed perspective back to my life at home. Perhaps I’m the one who’s supposed to be truly changed rather than assuming my presence here is changing anything or anyone. Often it feels like it’s not – like I could leave at any point without many people other than my students noticing.
Because the climate and the length of the day here is so uniform, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when in the past certain events happened. I’m going to highlight some of the more interesting things that have happened since October in the order they appear in my memory, which may not necessarily be the order in which they happened in reality.
Ok, I’ll start back in October. October brought Caroline’s parents and with them a trip to the tropical island paradise of Pisar. I suppose it’s difficult to imagine escaping to a tropical island paradise when you all might assume I live on one (and it would be a correct assumption); however my paradise is crowded, polluted, run-down, and dirty whereas Pisar is pure, unadulterated tropical bliss. It’s a tiny island at the edge of the reef, about an hour boat ride from Weno. It takes all of about a minute to walk across the island at any point, and maybe about three to walk its perimeter. Pisar is white sand, hammocks, fresh coconuts and snorkeling. It is relaxation at its ultimate expression. While there aren’t amenities you might commonly associate with paradise (electricity, running water, air conditioning) it is all the better for it. It’s camping Chuukese style and it’s perfect. We spent three days and two nights snorkeling, reading, lounging, napping, eating and staging photo shoots on the beach. We even invented and spent hours playing both coconut bocce and coconut golf. Recently Jessica’s parents came to visit and they treated us to a similarly wonderful experience. Truly, Pisar is heaven on earth.
The JV community and Peace Corps volunteers here in Chuuk form a tight group. Back in October/November we had several memorable adventures together. One lovely Saturday we decided to walk the entire perimeter of Weno. We made a stop at local resort Blue Lagoon for some breakfast and a stop at the other JV placement, Xavier High School, to rest, but other than that walked for about 6 hours in order to circumnavigate the island. Along the way, we discovered a completely different side of Weno (both literally and figuratively). The main road on the island only extends along the western side, therefore the eastern side is considerably less populated and quite different from “downtown” where we live; surprisingly different, even. It was really nice to see a calmer, friendlier area, as downtown tends to be a bit rough around the edges and can seem unwelcoming at times. Along the backside of the island people greeted us warmly and kids ran with us along stretches of the path. Contrast that with when we made it back around to Nepukos, our lovely village, where we were mooned by children who were simultaneously shouting “f*@# you!”.
Another fun PC/JV adventure happened a few weeks after that when several of us headed out to visit our PC friend John on his island Eot. We spent the day hiking around the island then enjoyed a very generous, if not slightly awkward, feast and performance for us put on by John’s church community.
A few weekends before our visit to Eot, the five of us (Ty, Charles, Jess and Caro) went out to Udot, an island neighboring Eot, with one of my coworkers, Kiki. Kiki is a huge friend to JVs and her family is incredibly kind and generous to us. We went out for her grandson’s first birthday (first birthdays are a big deal) and spent the weekend hanging around, helping in food preparation, eating, and enjoying the peace and calm of island life off of Weno. While there I got to pound taro for the first time. Taro is the root of a large plant that is grown in marshy areas. The root is dug up and boiled for a long time, until it becomes soft and can be pounded. It’s then pounded, using a large mortar-like tool, into something that has the consistency of refried beans. It’s hard work and people often spend hours pounding. It’s delicious, and is a major staple of the local diet; especially when breadruit (another starch staple) is not in season.
In November I also visited my host family for the first time. They live on a nearby island called Tonoas, which is about a 30-minute boat ride from me. I went on a weekend that happened to be the 1-year anniversary of my host mom’s mother’s death and so there was a huge celebration and a ton of relatives there, easily 100. It was kind of nice to experience the family for the first time amidst the craziness of that weekend because although I didn’t get to spend a lot of one-on-one time with them, I got lost in the melée of food preparations and it was less awkward than one might expect the first night staying with a family of strangers would be. My host family consists of my mom, Derusa and dad Augustine. Their four kids are all in Hawaii. There are plenty of cousins around though, including three of my current homeroom students, so there are always a lot of people around. I’ve only been back once since, but hope to go more frequently as the school year comes to a close and summer approaches. Although the culture here is very shy and difficult to break into, once you’re considered part of a family, you’re truly in. When students ask me where I’m from, it’s almost just as often they mean where I’m “from” in Chuuk as where I’m from in the U.S. I can say I’m from Tonoas and no one would consider that weird, or justify it by saying “you mean your host family’s from there” – I’m truly “seni Tonoas” (from Tonoas).
Christmas was spent here on Weno with Charles, Jess and Caro. Tyler went back to the states for the month of December to be with his family while his brother and mom underwent surgery. On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to Mass at the church next door to our school, and it was a beautiful service. It was wonderful to share the experience with the local community. On Christmas day, our ICC (in-country coordinator) Fr. Marc came down from Xavier HS to pick us up and bring us back up to spend the day with the other volunteers and the boys who can’t afford to go home for the holidays (Xavier is a boarding school). It was a gorgeous day and was so nice just to lounge around and relax. We also helped decorate local style, by collecting huge piles of ferns and braiding them into garland, which we then decorated with plumeria and other local flowers. We also enjoyed an excellent dinner, mixing local and more traditional American foods, and had a great time watching the boys receive their presents and sing karaoke afterwards.
January brought another trip out to Tonoas to administer the entrance exam for SCA and another chance to visit my host family. In the beginning of February the local archdiocese celebrated the 100 year anniversary of Catholicism in Chuuk, which brought a lot of great cultural performances and a ton of people to our school campus. The high school I live and work at is part of a complex that includes the church, the local Catholic college and the gym. Therefore, everyone who came from other islands for the two-day celebration stayed on the complex, including the high school, which meant our home was temporarily transformed into a bit of a hotel for the weekend. It was loud, crowded couple of days!
March brought the end of third quarter and thus the beginning of the final quarter of my first year here (craziness!) and final quarter with three out of my four roommates. It also brought the first of two Emmaus retreats with the junior class. Emmaus is a three night, four-day retreat that (almost) every student looks forward to from the beginning of his or her freshman year. It’s an intense and moving experience for most of them and is one that I felt privileged to be a part of. It was really great to be with them in a context outside of the classroom. I truly love my students, and feel blessed that they make up such a significant part of my experience; I don’t know what I’d do without them!
And finally, the classroom. I’ve kept my work experiences for the end of this post for no other reason than the fact that they are the most difficult to thoughtfully and succinctly express. Therefore, prepare yourselves for some lengthy rambling!
My classes are going all right – I often struggle to find a balance between letting the students be themselves and disciplining their behavior. I’m definitely a softy in the classroom and have a difficult time being a strict disciplinarian. It’s a delicate balancing act between disciplining and forming personal relationships, made all the more precarious as the whole experience plays out in a foreign culture. Every time I have a bad day here I think fondly of how much better I’ll be as a second year teacher. Whether or not that’s true, it’s comforting to think about!
One thing that’s repeated often to us JVs, and that is echoed in other writings about international service or mission work is that one often encounters feelings of ineffectiveness in what he or she does. As an American, it’s so easy for me to be results-oriented, to seek praise to affirm that I’m succeeding, to expect direct communication about what’s expected of me so that I can rise to that expectation. However, using my American standards to frame this experience only sets me up to feel like a failure, and let me tell you – I’ve had my share of feeling like a major failure in all sorts of contexts this year. I say all this to share that although I have often felt like a failure and often feel as if my presence here is of little consequence, it’s all part of the experience. In seeing the problems that face this school and the problems facing education in Chuuk in general, perhaps I’m the one who is supposed to be affected, and to bring that renewed perspective back to my life at home. Perhaps I’m the one who’s supposed to be truly changed rather than assuming my presence here is changing anything or anyone. Often it feels like it’s not – like I could leave at any point without many people other than my students noticing.
Observations on beauty
* Disclaimer * - The following post was written maybe a month after I arrived, but I never posted it because it felt incomplete. I recently reread it and realized it's fine, so enjoy!
Chuuk is a beautiful place. Its natural environment is stunning. From the roof of the high school where I both live and teach, I can spin in a circle and slowly take in views of rainforest drenched mountains (large hills, really) and the Pacific Ocean dotted with neighboring islands. The ocean always has an amazing hue – sapphire blue when it’s a clear day; deep, dark, angry grey when it’s about to rain; purple-ish as the sun sets behind a smattering of clouds. Just the other day, I was on the roof after school with a few of my community mates, and we witnessed perhaps the most beautiful and intense sunset I’ve ever seen. The color began to appear behind us, hot pink clouds nestled between two large hills. Slowly it spread across the sky – the entire sky – streaking it with oranges, yellows, pinks and purples. The longer we stared, the more it appeared to intensify, until it slowly faded into a dim strip of light on the horizon and the stars came out to begin their dazzling show. A few weeks ago, we came up to the roof just in time to witness an entire rainbow stretched above the hills. The whole arc was clearly visible, end-to-end, and the colors nearly pulsed with intensity; the most amazing rainbow I’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say that Chuuk is rich in beauty, a beauty that is big and intense.
Once you climb down off of the alternate reality offered by the roof and its views, there is another Chuuk. It’s still beautiful - because on an island this size you can’t ever escape seeing the ocean and the ocean is always stunning - but it’s something else, too.
On the flight here we took the island-hopper from Hawaii; as a result the flight crew knew us pretty well after our third deplane-reboard procedure. As we neared our destination, one of the flight attendants finally asked where we were stopping. When we replied “Chuuk”, she asked “Why would you want to go there?” and when we told her we were staying for two years, she said, “Oh, you’ll be back on this plane in two weeks”. This seems to be the general feeling about Chuuk – why would you want to go there?
It’s true that here on the island of Weno, things aren’t in the best condition. The road that runs from one end of the island to the other is more pothole than not. When it rains, the potholes fill up and cars plow through lakes of water; people through fields of mud. Power is intermittent, ranging from 4 hours in a given day to 12 plus (or even 24, on one unique weekend) from my understanding not due to lack of resource, but due to mismanagement of it. Although I’ve never felt unsafe here, it’s generally understood that you probably shouldn’t walk around much after dark – alone or otherwise. You can often hear drunk men shouting as they wonder the streets and sometimes those drunk men wander carrying knives, looking for a fight.
There is so much that is good here – tight-knit families, the beautiful simplicity and relaxed pace of everyday life, an abundance of awe-inspiring nature, the spirit of sharing; but that good often seems overshadowed by the problems faced by this state.
Chuuk is a beautiful place. Its natural environment is stunning. From the roof of the high school where I both live and teach, I can spin in a circle and slowly take in views of rainforest drenched mountains (large hills, really) and the Pacific Ocean dotted with neighboring islands. The ocean always has an amazing hue – sapphire blue when it’s a clear day; deep, dark, angry grey when it’s about to rain; purple-ish as the sun sets behind a smattering of clouds. Just the other day, I was on the roof after school with a few of my community mates, and we witnessed perhaps the most beautiful and intense sunset I’ve ever seen. The color began to appear behind us, hot pink clouds nestled between two large hills. Slowly it spread across the sky – the entire sky – streaking it with oranges, yellows, pinks and purples. The longer we stared, the more it appeared to intensify, until it slowly faded into a dim strip of light on the horizon and the stars came out to begin their dazzling show. A few weeks ago, we came up to the roof just in time to witness an entire rainbow stretched above the hills. The whole arc was clearly visible, end-to-end, and the colors nearly pulsed with intensity; the most amazing rainbow I’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say that Chuuk is rich in beauty, a beauty that is big and intense.
Once you climb down off of the alternate reality offered by the roof and its views, there is another Chuuk. It’s still beautiful - because on an island this size you can’t ever escape seeing the ocean and the ocean is always stunning - but it’s something else, too.
On the flight here we took the island-hopper from Hawaii; as a result the flight crew knew us pretty well after our third deplane-reboard procedure. As we neared our destination, one of the flight attendants finally asked where we were stopping. When we replied “Chuuk”, she asked “Why would you want to go there?” and when we told her we were staying for two years, she said, “Oh, you’ll be back on this plane in two weeks”. This seems to be the general feeling about Chuuk – why would you want to go there?
It’s true that here on the island of Weno, things aren’t in the best condition. The road that runs from one end of the island to the other is more pothole than not. When it rains, the potholes fill up and cars plow through lakes of water; people through fields of mud. Power is intermittent, ranging from 4 hours in a given day to 12 plus (or even 24, on one unique weekend) from my understanding not due to lack of resource, but due to mismanagement of it. Although I’ve never felt unsafe here, it’s generally understood that you probably shouldn’t walk around much after dark – alone or otherwise. You can often hear drunk men shouting as they wonder the streets and sometimes those drunk men wander carrying knives, looking for a fight.
There is so much that is good here – tight-knit families, the beautiful simplicity and relaxed pace of everyday life, an abundance of awe-inspiring nature, the spirit of sharing; but that good often seems overshadowed by the problems faced by this state.
Monday, May 30, 2011
8 months later...
Well, this is embarrassing.
Nearly 8 month without a blog post? Yikes.
Well, now that the dust has settled around the end of year number one of teaching at SCA, I'm hoping to update this baby a bit. In fact, I'll be offering a 7 month retrospective touching on what the heck I've been up to, and how I've been feeling about it. Yes, a little late, but hopefully this will satiate those of you whom I promised a once a month update. And hopefully it will revive me out of the non-communication vacuum I've been drifting in.
So, apologies to all for my absence and keep your eyes peeled for updates throughout the summer. I'll be sticking around here on the island of Weno teaching half-day summer school, which means I'll have PLENTY of time to update all of you on my life.
Love to you all!
Nearly 8 month without a blog post? Yikes.
Well, now that the dust has settled around the end of year number one of teaching at SCA, I'm hoping to update this baby a bit. In fact, I'll be offering a 7 month retrospective touching on what the heck I've been up to, and how I've been feeling about it. Yes, a little late, but hopefully this will satiate those of you whom I promised a once a month update. And hopefully it will revive me out of the non-communication vacuum I've been drifting in.
So, apologies to all for my absence and keep your eyes peeled for updates throughout the summer. I'll be sticking around here on the island of Weno teaching half-day summer school, which means I'll have PLENTY of time to update all of you on my life.
Love to you all!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
One update (long overdue), 3 days without power, and 20 mice; or: Adjusting to Simple Living
Yes – I’m still alive here in Chuuk, Micronesia. I know those of you who check this regularly have probably all but given up on me. I apologize – and hope that this post makes up for it!
Life here in Chuuk has been all sorts of things in the time since I last posted; wonderful, challenging, confusing, hilarious, random, exciting, humbling, hot (most of all hot). Since I last posted, I’ve become a full-fledged teacher, teaching three courses at a private Catholic high school. I teach Junior and Senior English Literature and Environmental Science (also to juniors and seniors). It’s definitely a challenge – not only as a first year teacher, but also as a first year teacher in a new culture. The kids are both wonderful and exasperating. There are a lot of days I leave the classroom feeling more ineffective than not, or bewildered as to why they insist on continuing to absolutely disregard my requests to stop talking and listen. The seniors are wonderful most of the time, and I feel much more comfortable with what I’m teaching them, making for a better overall experience than the juniors. I really enjoy the juniors as well, but I’m less confident about my lessons and the combinations of their personalities result in more behavior issues. I hope to move onto something more interesting next quarter; hopefully both the students and I will enjoy the change.
As for where I live: Chuuk consists of a large lagoon (one of the largest in the world), and several “outer islands” that can take a day or more of boat travel to reach from my island. My island, Weno (pronounced “weh-duh”) is the biggest and most “developed” (I’m using that term very loosely here) of the lagoon islands. The state government is housed here as well as most businesses, the hospital, the airport, etc. Again, the terms “hospital” and “airport” are used loosely. The airport is a single airstrip with a small adjoining building. There are certainly no security lines to contend with nor any Starbucks to take the edge off of a long flight delay. The hospital, I’ve been told, is where people go to die, and was quoted in a travel guide (Lonely Planet, I believe) as being a “place to avoid”. All this is to say that Chuuk is quite underdeveloped; certainly more so than I had ever imagined before arriving here.
I’m sure many of you have images of me rounding out a rough day of teaching with a jaunt to the beach, coconut in hand. Not so much. There aren’t any beaches here (or at least no public ones – or public anything, for that matter), so any swimming done is off of a dock on the opposite side of the island, or when we visit other islands. Although there may not be beautiful, pristine beaches here on Weno, fortunately the island is surrounded by incredible deserted island paradises. These small islands are called “picnic islands”, since they’re (obviously) used mainly for picnics. Last weekend, because my community mate Caroline’s parents were in town, Caro’s host family took us out for a tour of the islands, including a stop at a picnic island with a wreck of a Chinese fishing ship about 20 feet offshore. We snorkeled around the wreck and the island for an hour or so – I swam through thousands of sardines and saw a decent amount of beautiful tropical fish. From there, we continued on to another (inhabited) lagoon island called Fefan, the one where Caro’s host family is from. None of the islands in the lagoon, except Weno, have cars, so they have an inherently peaceful ambience. While on the island we were treated to some great local food (butter fish, tapioca, watermelon, coconut), and (BEST of all), I got to hold a baby sea turtle!! Can you even image? I can check that off my bucket list now. ☺
Other recent adventures include an impromptu group shower on the roof, and the massive extermination the mice that have taken up residence in our kitchen. The stories unfold as follows:
a.) Group shower – The power situation here is sketchy at best. For the first 5 weeks or so, we were on a steady 4 hrs on, 4 hrs off schedule. Nice, predictable. Then, inexplicably, we had 24 hour power for nearly a week (joy of joys!). Power here is pre-paid, and the school we live at purchases our power for us. Occasionally, it just so happens that the school forgets to buy more and we run out. It just so happened that the school ran out of “cash power” at the same time that the power company’s system was down, meaning they couldn’t generate a new code so that we could access the newly purchased power. Now, what does this have to do with showering, you ask? Our lack of power (which lasted about three days) also just happened to coincide with our catchment tank running out of water. Normally when that happens we plug in a pump and it pumps water from the larger tank on the ground floor up to the roof (where our tank is located), and gravity does its work to deliver water into our pipes. When there’s no water, however, we’re S.O.L. This news was delivered to me at the end of a typically sweltering day, after I had already made up my mind that I definitely wanted to go for a run. It’s nearly impossible to imagine going to bed without showering – to imagine adding exercise to the equation makes it absolutely unthinkable. What to do? I decided to run anyway, and figured I could take a bucket shower down at the water spigot near the main office to the school (where I also live) afterwards. Women here shower wearing skirts pulled up around their chests, so I figured I’d make it an exercise in solidarity with local women and do the same for my spigot shower. After my run, I made my way up to the roof of the school building to cool off and stretch, and take in the view of the sunset over the pacific (always incredible). A few of my community mates were up there, too, but they made their way back down as a gentle rain started to fall. Figuring I’d make the most of the downpour that was descending on the island, I decided to stay and let the rain wash off the disgusting accumulation of a days worth of sweat.
Before I continue, a note about the rain: The rain here is amazing. A breeze starts to pick up as giant storm clouds roll in, engulfing the mountains. Drops begin to fall slowly, but within seconds have accelerated into a full-on torrential downpour, the sound deafening. I love when it rains.
Back to the story: About 5 minutes into this particular storm I was thoroughly soaked and starting to get cold, and wishing that I had had the foresight to bring my shampoo and conditioner for a quick rinse, considering the water situation. I decided to head back downstairs and as I opened the door to the stairwell was greeted by Tyler and Charles heading up – serendipitously equipped with soap and shampoo! Shortly after Caro came up to join us and within a few minutes we were at various levels of undress (the boys in their boxers, me in shorts and a sports bra and Caro keeping it local in a skirt), laughing hysterically and vigorously lathering ourselves in the downpour. We discovered strategic run-off spots from the overhangs above the stairwells to get the most “shower-like” affect and happily made use of God’s providence. It was one of many wonderful bonding experiences I’ve had with my community so far.
b) Mice extermination – About a week after arriving here, I spotted my first mouse in the kitchen. I was assured that this was a new phenomenon; that the apartment had never had any mice prior to the summer. Fresh from orientation and pumped-up on ideals of simple living, our visitors didn’t really bother me too much. Besides, there were far too many other things to adjust to bother being annoyed by a few mice. As the weeks continued, however, the frequency of the mice sightings increased, as did the discovery of little mice-sized holes chewed into ANYTHING not stored in a tuperware container or tin can. As this problem increased, our resolve to fight it did as well. Being the humane, animal loving folks we are, most of us were rather opposed to killing the little fellows. We figured a nice “trap-and-release” system was the way to go. This led to complex mazes of tin cans, tuperware containers, and board games in strategic points along our kitchen counters, artfully directing trapped mice into our humane version of a mouse trap – an oatmeal container with a mouse-sized hole cut in the lid. For a few weeks, we would catch one every couple of days and carefully run it out to the balcony where we would launch the mouse off (mice are surprisingly resilient, even after a two story fall!). Our number of trapped and released mice hovered around 4 for most of August. Then, one weekend in September, Charles and I decided to get serious. The mice were getting bolder and it was time to call on our superior minds to devise precise strategies for eradicating our enemies. As a result, Charles and I spent an evening carefully analyzing what tuna can needed to be slid into what gap, who needed to flip the light while the other ran towards our trap to maneuver the Pictionary box into the right position, who would slap the oatmeal box on top of our newly-crafted flat-rate box trap once a mouse was inside. It was an exercise in military precision. Every 30 minutes or so, Charles would look at me and ask “Do you think we should check?”, to which I always replied “of course!”. We would both get up from our game, and sprint into the kitchen – Charles heading directly to maneuver the canned goods and I flipping the lights on and following up to position the front portion of our contraption. It was a major success. That weekend alone we caught 5 mice, more than doubling our grand total.
A few weeks later, Caro’s parents arrived, toting mice poison and sticky traps. Now, several of us had been rather opposed to the idea of sticky traps up until this point. It seemed like a terribly inhumane way to go – can you imagine your entire body being stuck to a giant pad where you would be left to slowly starve to death? It’s a horrible thought. But at this point we. had. had. it. The mice had to go. We carefully set out the six traps in all of the places we well knew the mice liked to frequent and left to go out to dinner. A few hours later, we came home to three terrified, squeaking (and yes, adorable) little mice glued to the traps. Now what to do? We just couldn’t imagine leaving them there to suffer. A few minutes were spent debating whether smashing their heads with a blunt object or a much less messy drowning would be the appropriate course of action. We settled on drowning. With broom in hand to hold the bobbing traps down, Tyler tossed our first victims into our dirty dishwater bucket as the rest of us stood around, horrified and fascinated. After a minute or so we pulled the traps over, confirming the death of our little invaders. The rest of the weekend brought 6 more deaths, and yes, by the end of it, even I had participated in placing the traps in the water, holding them down with a broom handle, and rather unceremoniously placing the dead bodies (still attached to traps) in a plastic bag to throw out.
Our “Mouse Tally” in the kitchen sits at 20, and has rested there for the past week or so. Tyler saw a mice earlier this week, but one sighting in 7 days is a far cry from the 4 or 5 sightings a day we were at before. So, knock on wood, I think we’re free from our infestation for the time being.
Life here in Chuuk has been all sorts of things in the time since I last posted; wonderful, challenging, confusing, hilarious, random, exciting, humbling, hot (most of all hot). Since I last posted, I’ve become a full-fledged teacher, teaching three courses at a private Catholic high school. I teach Junior and Senior English Literature and Environmental Science (also to juniors and seniors). It’s definitely a challenge – not only as a first year teacher, but also as a first year teacher in a new culture. The kids are both wonderful and exasperating. There are a lot of days I leave the classroom feeling more ineffective than not, or bewildered as to why they insist on continuing to absolutely disregard my requests to stop talking and listen. The seniors are wonderful most of the time, and I feel much more comfortable with what I’m teaching them, making for a better overall experience than the juniors. I really enjoy the juniors as well, but I’m less confident about my lessons and the combinations of their personalities result in more behavior issues. I hope to move onto something more interesting next quarter; hopefully both the students and I will enjoy the change.
As for where I live: Chuuk consists of a large lagoon (one of the largest in the world), and several “outer islands” that can take a day or more of boat travel to reach from my island. My island, Weno (pronounced “weh-duh”) is the biggest and most “developed” (I’m using that term very loosely here) of the lagoon islands. The state government is housed here as well as most businesses, the hospital, the airport, etc. Again, the terms “hospital” and “airport” are used loosely. The airport is a single airstrip with a small adjoining building. There are certainly no security lines to contend with nor any Starbucks to take the edge off of a long flight delay. The hospital, I’ve been told, is where people go to die, and was quoted in a travel guide (Lonely Planet, I believe) as being a “place to avoid”. All this is to say that Chuuk is quite underdeveloped; certainly more so than I had ever imagined before arriving here.
I’m sure many of you have images of me rounding out a rough day of teaching with a jaunt to the beach, coconut in hand. Not so much. There aren’t any beaches here (or at least no public ones – or public anything, for that matter), so any swimming done is off of a dock on the opposite side of the island, or when we visit other islands. Although there may not be beautiful, pristine beaches here on Weno, fortunately the island is surrounded by incredible deserted island paradises. These small islands are called “picnic islands”, since they’re (obviously) used mainly for picnics. Last weekend, because my community mate Caroline’s parents were in town, Caro’s host family took us out for a tour of the islands, including a stop at a picnic island with a wreck of a Chinese fishing ship about 20 feet offshore. We snorkeled around the wreck and the island for an hour or so – I swam through thousands of sardines and saw a decent amount of beautiful tropical fish. From there, we continued on to another (inhabited) lagoon island called Fefan, the one where Caro’s host family is from. None of the islands in the lagoon, except Weno, have cars, so they have an inherently peaceful ambience. While on the island we were treated to some great local food (butter fish, tapioca, watermelon, coconut), and (BEST of all), I got to hold a baby sea turtle!! Can you even image? I can check that off my bucket list now. ☺
Other recent adventures include an impromptu group shower on the roof, and the massive extermination the mice that have taken up residence in our kitchen. The stories unfold as follows:
a.) Group shower – The power situation here is sketchy at best. For the first 5 weeks or so, we were on a steady 4 hrs on, 4 hrs off schedule. Nice, predictable. Then, inexplicably, we had 24 hour power for nearly a week (joy of joys!). Power here is pre-paid, and the school we live at purchases our power for us. Occasionally, it just so happens that the school forgets to buy more and we run out. It just so happened that the school ran out of “cash power” at the same time that the power company’s system was down, meaning they couldn’t generate a new code so that we could access the newly purchased power. Now, what does this have to do with showering, you ask? Our lack of power (which lasted about three days) also just happened to coincide with our catchment tank running out of water. Normally when that happens we plug in a pump and it pumps water from the larger tank on the ground floor up to the roof (where our tank is located), and gravity does its work to deliver water into our pipes. When there’s no water, however, we’re S.O.L. This news was delivered to me at the end of a typically sweltering day, after I had already made up my mind that I definitely wanted to go for a run. It’s nearly impossible to imagine going to bed without showering – to imagine adding exercise to the equation makes it absolutely unthinkable. What to do? I decided to run anyway, and figured I could take a bucket shower down at the water spigot near the main office to the school (where I also live) afterwards. Women here shower wearing skirts pulled up around their chests, so I figured I’d make it an exercise in solidarity with local women and do the same for my spigot shower. After my run, I made my way up to the roof of the school building to cool off and stretch, and take in the view of the sunset over the pacific (always incredible). A few of my community mates were up there, too, but they made their way back down as a gentle rain started to fall. Figuring I’d make the most of the downpour that was descending on the island, I decided to stay and let the rain wash off the disgusting accumulation of a days worth of sweat.
Before I continue, a note about the rain: The rain here is amazing. A breeze starts to pick up as giant storm clouds roll in, engulfing the mountains. Drops begin to fall slowly, but within seconds have accelerated into a full-on torrential downpour, the sound deafening. I love when it rains.
Back to the story: About 5 minutes into this particular storm I was thoroughly soaked and starting to get cold, and wishing that I had had the foresight to bring my shampoo and conditioner for a quick rinse, considering the water situation. I decided to head back downstairs and as I opened the door to the stairwell was greeted by Tyler and Charles heading up – serendipitously equipped with soap and shampoo! Shortly after Caro came up to join us and within a few minutes we were at various levels of undress (the boys in their boxers, me in shorts and a sports bra and Caro keeping it local in a skirt), laughing hysterically and vigorously lathering ourselves in the downpour. We discovered strategic run-off spots from the overhangs above the stairwells to get the most “shower-like” affect and happily made use of God’s providence. It was one of many wonderful bonding experiences I’ve had with my community so far.
b) Mice extermination – About a week after arriving here, I spotted my first mouse in the kitchen. I was assured that this was a new phenomenon; that the apartment had never had any mice prior to the summer. Fresh from orientation and pumped-up on ideals of simple living, our visitors didn’t really bother me too much. Besides, there were far too many other things to adjust to bother being annoyed by a few mice. As the weeks continued, however, the frequency of the mice sightings increased, as did the discovery of little mice-sized holes chewed into ANYTHING not stored in a tuperware container or tin can. As this problem increased, our resolve to fight it did as well. Being the humane, animal loving folks we are, most of us were rather opposed to killing the little fellows. We figured a nice “trap-and-release” system was the way to go. This led to complex mazes of tin cans, tuperware containers, and board games in strategic points along our kitchen counters, artfully directing trapped mice into our humane version of a mouse trap – an oatmeal container with a mouse-sized hole cut in the lid. For a few weeks, we would catch one every couple of days and carefully run it out to the balcony where we would launch the mouse off (mice are surprisingly resilient, even after a two story fall!). Our number of trapped and released mice hovered around 4 for most of August. Then, one weekend in September, Charles and I decided to get serious. The mice were getting bolder and it was time to call on our superior minds to devise precise strategies for eradicating our enemies. As a result, Charles and I spent an evening carefully analyzing what tuna can needed to be slid into what gap, who needed to flip the light while the other ran towards our trap to maneuver the Pictionary box into the right position, who would slap the oatmeal box on top of our newly-crafted flat-rate box trap once a mouse was inside. It was an exercise in military precision. Every 30 minutes or so, Charles would look at me and ask “Do you think we should check?”, to which I always replied “of course!”. We would both get up from our game, and sprint into the kitchen – Charles heading directly to maneuver the canned goods and I flipping the lights on and following up to position the front portion of our contraption. It was a major success. That weekend alone we caught 5 mice, more than doubling our grand total.
A few weeks later, Caro’s parents arrived, toting mice poison and sticky traps. Now, several of us had been rather opposed to the idea of sticky traps up until this point. It seemed like a terribly inhumane way to go – can you imagine your entire body being stuck to a giant pad where you would be left to slowly starve to death? It’s a horrible thought. But at this point we. had. had. it. The mice had to go. We carefully set out the six traps in all of the places we well knew the mice liked to frequent and left to go out to dinner. A few hours later, we came home to three terrified, squeaking (and yes, adorable) little mice glued to the traps. Now what to do? We just couldn’t imagine leaving them there to suffer. A few minutes were spent debating whether smashing their heads with a blunt object or a much less messy drowning would be the appropriate course of action. We settled on drowning. With broom in hand to hold the bobbing traps down, Tyler tossed our first victims into our dirty dishwater bucket as the rest of us stood around, horrified and fascinated. After a minute or so we pulled the traps over, confirming the death of our little invaders. The rest of the weekend brought 6 more deaths, and yes, by the end of it, even I had participated in placing the traps in the water, holding them down with a broom handle, and rather unceremoniously placing the dead bodies (still attached to traps) in a plastic bag to throw out.
Our “Mouse Tally” in the kitchen sits at 20, and has rested there for the past week or so. Tyler saw a mice earlier this week, but one sighting in 7 days is a far cry from the 4 or 5 sightings a day we were at before. So, knock on wood, I think we’re free from our infestation for the time being.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
I'm in Chuuk!
Ran Anim (sp?) from Chuuk, Micronesia! I’ve been on-island (as the second year volunteers say) for about a week now and have already managed to have a handful of adventures!
Last Sunday the seven of us new volunteers headed out together from Boston to begin our mega two-day travel extravaganza to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We flew Boston to San Francisco, where we had about 45 minutes to catch our next flight to Honolulu. After about 10 hours of air travel, we arrived in Hawaii where we spent the night and geared up for our 12 hour travel day that would bring each of us to our homes for the next two years. From Honolulu we flew to Majuro in the Marshall Islands; an incredibly skinny atoll that felt like a popsicle stick as we touched down on the plane. It was as wide as two, maybe three football fields at the point where we landed (!). From there we bounced to Kwajalein, a military base where we weren’t allowed to get off the plane for security reasons, Kosrae, the eastern most state in FSM, Pohnpei, another state in FSM, and finally, Chuuk!
We arrived to see all of our wonderful second years pressed up against the fence at the airport smiling and waving. It was so nice to finally touch down and meet the people we had been stalking through blogs and facebook for months! After some quick introductions, we piled into a van and headed to Saram, the school where I will teach and live with Charles (the other first year), Tyler, Caroline and Jessica.
We spent one night at Saram and shared in an end-of-summer-school BBQ with a few of the teachers and the principal. The next day, we all headed across the island to Xavier High School, where the other volunteers (Alex, Emily, Peaches and Mike) are placed. We spent several days at Xavier, hanging out and getting to know each other as well as adventuring around the island. On day one we hiked up to an old lighthouse from which we took in the most gorgeous 360 degree view of the entire those moments where I had to struggle a bit to believe that this was my new reality – that tropical island views are the new norm. After soaking up the scenery, we headed down to a dock to swim; it was refreshing, but only mildly so. The water was certainly the warmest non-bath or pool water I had ever swam in! Nonetheless, after pouring out buckets of sweat from the lighthouse hike, it felt wonderful. On the walk back to Xavier, we enjoyed our first tropical rainstorm and got thoroughly drenched by the time we arrived back – I loved every second of it (in fact, it’s been pouring all morning and I am continuing to love it!).
The following day, we took a longer hike into the rain forest back to some waterfalls. The first was a series of two falls that both lead into protected hot-tub-size pools and both of which required rather precise jumping so as to land in the deepest parts of the pool (don’t worry Mom and Dad, we all made it just fine). It was so incredible! Probably the most enjoyable waterfall jumping experience of my life (and yes, I’ve had a few). After we had our fill with the first pair, we hiked back to a smaller waterfall with a larger swimming area that was full of local kids. This waterfall was sloped at exactly the right angle, and covered with precisely the right amount of cushiony moss to be an excellent slide. And so, along with all of the village 5-12 year olds, we clambered up the rocks to the falls and slid down over and over and over. So much fun!
In between all of these adventures, we spent a lot of time playing games (bananagrams and Werewolves – basically the same as mafia), hanging out on the porch drinking out of fresh coconut, tossing the Frisbee and practicing (very well, if I may be so bold) the JVC value of just being.
On Saturday, the Saram community (that’s mine) headed back home to SCA (Saramen Chuuk Academy) for our first night alone as a community. Saram is “downtown”, while Xavier is off at the end of the island a bit removed from any areas of commerce. It was nice to get back home, and to experience a little bit more of the (very limited) hustle and bustle of town. We went to mass as a community that night, followed by stargazing together on the roof and dinner. Yesterday we all walked down to Blue Lagoon, a resort on the end of the island opposite from Xavier; definitely the most touristy spot of the island I’ve seent, though there weren’t that many people there. Touristy as in the spot most developed specifically to attract tourists. Micronesia (specifically Chuuk lagoon) is the number one spot in the world for wreck diving, and Blue Lagoon attracts a lot of foreign divers. While there we treated ourselves to lunch at the (mercifully) air-conditioned restaurant, followed by two hours lounging around and chatting, timed perfectly so that 50% of our hour long walk home was in torrential downpour.
Today is our first “free” day, so I’m taking advantage of the time to use the internet and start looking over materials for my classes. I’ll be teaching Junior and Senior English Lit as well as Junior Environmental Science; a schedule that could only be more perfect if I were able to teach a French class as well! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to my classes (looking forward to, though a bit terrified).
I think that about sums up my experience so far. Look forward to a forthcoming post about my impressions of Chuuk; this post is already far too long for me to include anything more today.
Thanks for reading this far, to those of you who made it! I miss you all, and hope that you’re doing well and enjoying the summer.
- Meg
Last Sunday the seven of us new volunteers headed out together from Boston to begin our mega two-day travel extravaganza to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We flew Boston to San Francisco, where we had about 45 minutes to catch our next flight to Honolulu. After about 10 hours of air travel, we arrived in Hawaii where we spent the night and geared up for our 12 hour travel day that would bring each of us to our homes for the next two years. From Honolulu we flew to Majuro in the Marshall Islands; an incredibly skinny atoll that felt like a popsicle stick as we touched down on the plane. It was as wide as two, maybe three football fields at the point where we landed (!). From there we bounced to Kwajalein, a military base where we weren’t allowed to get off the plane for security reasons, Kosrae, the eastern most state in FSM, Pohnpei, another state in FSM, and finally, Chuuk!
We arrived to see all of our wonderful second years pressed up against the fence at the airport smiling and waving. It was so nice to finally touch down and meet the people we had been stalking through blogs and facebook for months! After some quick introductions, we piled into a van and headed to Saram, the school where I will teach and live with Charles (the other first year), Tyler, Caroline and Jessica.
We spent one night at Saram and shared in an end-of-summer-school BBQ with a few of the teachers and the principal. The next day, we all headed across the island to Xavier High School, where the other volunteers (Alex, Emily, Peaches and Mike) are placed. We spent several days at Xavier, hanging out and getting to know each other as well as adventuring around the island. On day one we hiked up to an old lighthouse from which we took in the most gorgeous 360 degree view of the entire those moments where I had to struggle a bit to believe that this was my new reality – that tropical island views are the new norm. After soaking up the scenery, we headed down to a dock to swim; it was refreshing, but only mildly so. The water was certainly the warmest non-bath or pool water I had ever swam in! Nonetheless, after pouring out buckets of sweat from the lighthouse hike, it felt wonderful. On the walk back to Xavier, we enjoyed our first tropical rainstorm and got thoroughly drenched by the time we arrived back – I loved every second of it (in fact, it’s been pouring all morning and I am continuing to love it!).
The following day, we took a longer hike into the rain forest back to some waterfalls. The first was a series of two falls that both lead into protected hot-tub-size pools and both of which required rather precise jumping so as to land in the deepest parts of the pool (don’t worry Mom and Dad, we all made it just fine). It was so incredible! Probably the most enjoyable waterfall jumping experience of my life (and yes, I’ve had a few). After we had our fill with the first pair, we hiked back to a smaller waterfall with a larger swimming area that was full of local kids. This waterfall was sloped at exactly the right angle, and covered with precisely the right amount of cushiony moss to be an excellent slide. And so, along with all of the village 5-12 year olds, we clambered up the rocks to the falls and slid down over and over and over. So much fun!
In between all of these adventures, we spent a lot of time playing games (bananagrams and Werewolves – basically the same as mafia), hanging out on the porch drinking out of fresh coconut, tossing the Frisbee and practicing (very well, if I may be so bold) the JVC value of just being.
On Saturday, the Saram community (that’s mine) headed back home to SCA (Saramen Chuuk Academy) for our first night alone as a community. Saram is “downtown”, while Xavier is off at the end of the island a bit removed from any areas of commerce. It was nice to get back home, and to experience a little bit more of the (very limited) hustle and bustle of town. We went to mass as a community that night, followed by stargazing together on the roof and dinner. Yesterday we all walked down to Blue Lagoon, a resort on the end of the island opposite from Xavier; definitely the most touristy spot of the island I’ve seent, though there weren’t that many people there. Touristy as in the spot most developed specifically to attract tourists. Micronesia (specifically Chuuk lagoon) is the number one spot in the world for wreck diving, and Blue Lagoon attracts a lot of foreign divers. While there we treated ourselves to lunch at the (mercifully) air-conditioned restaurant, followed by two hours lounging around and chatting, timed perfectly so that 50% of our hour long walk home was in torrential downpour.
Today is our first “free” day, so I’m taking advantage of the time to use the internet and start looking over materials for my classes. I’ll be teaching Junior and Senior English Lit as well as Junior Environmental Science; a schedule that could only be more perfect if I were able to teach a French class as well! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to my classes (looking forward to, though a bit terrified).
I think that about sums up my experience so far. Look forward to a forthcoming post about my impressions of Chuuk; this post is already far too long for me to include anything more today.
Thanks for reading this far, to those of you who made it! I miss you all, and hope that you’re doing well and enjoying the summer.
- Meg
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
And I'm off!
And so it begins. I am officially beginning my trek towards Micronesia!
Tomorrow I fly to New York to visit some friends. From there I head to Boston for two weeks of training with the other international JVs (Jesuit Volunteers). August 1st I get on a plane with the 6 other FSM (Federated States of Micronesia) JVs to begin nearly 40 hours of travel towards my home for the next 2 years.
Oh. my. goodness! I am super excited to finally be embarking on this adventure. Although it hasn't even been quite 4 months since I was offered, and accepted, my position, it seems like this has been a long time coming. I am so ready to get started!
I know this post is brief - I'm hoping to get some sleep before my flight tomorrow (I can never sleep while flying). Hopefully I'll get at least one more update in while I'm still stateside, so keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you all for your support, I look forward to hearing from you and sharing with you all over the next two years!
Peace,
M
Tomorrow I fly to New York to visit some friends. From there I head to Boston for two weeks of training with the other international JVs (Jesuit Volunteers). August 1st I get on a plane with the 6 other FSM (Federated States of Micronesia) JVs to begin nearly 40 hours of travel towards my home for the next 2 years.
Oh. my. goodness! I am super excited to finally be embarking on this adventure. Although it hasn't even been quite 4 months since I was offered, and accepted, my position, it seems like this has been a long time coming. I am so ready to get started!
I know this post is brief - I'm hoping to get some sleep before my flight tomorrow (I can never sleep while flying). Hopefully I'll get at least one more update in while I'm still stateside, so keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you all for your support, I look forward to hearing from you and sharing with you all over the next two years!
Peace,
M
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