For those of you that don’t know me well, here’s a basic fact: I love birthdays. Cake, presents, the celebration with friends and family, what’s not to love? My birthday is definitely my favorite holiday, and I love celebrating friends’ birthdays too.
There are 4 of us expats that had September/October birthdays, so naturally a joint birthday party was in order. To celebrate, a group of 12 of us decided to go camping for a night at Utwe Ma. Utwe Ma translates directly to “old Utwe” and used to function as the capital of the village of Utwe. As it stands, Utwe Ma is a small island about a 15 minute boat ride from Utwe marina.
Our group had tried to organize an Utwe Ma trip last year, but it was rainy for a few days leading up to the weekend and we had to cancel. This time we had sunny days leading up to the weekend, and throughout the morning skies were blue. About an hour before leaving there was a bout of torrential downpour, but lucky for us it didn’t reach as far as Utwe.
Our friend and Nautilus owner Doug gave us a lift on his boat from Utwe marina to Utwe Ma, and our plan was to get picked up the following afternoon. I wasn’t expecting much as far as amenities go, but I was happily surprised. There were somewhere between 5-10 local huts with elevated platforms for sleeping, a bathroom (with a toilet! It was just the kind you have to pour water into to flush), a basketball hoop and ball, and an obvious place for a fire pit.
That night we kicked off the celebrations with the drinks and food we had brought along. We had everything from crab to spaghetti to the camping food of utmost importance- s’mores. A couple of local guys were there trying to hook up the generator for a while, and they eventually got comfortable and decided to stick around for the party. Later on in the evening I saw a couple of the guys chewing betelnut, and decided it was time I finally give it a try.
Flashback to my first week in the FSM: I was riding around with Wayne in Kolonia and we stopped at one of the roadside stores (which is basically a shipping container with a window cut out and shelves inside). Wayne got out of the car and was back in the span of about 30 seconds. He threw a small bag of white powder into the center console and we continued on our way. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I mean, a small bag of fine white powder.. what else was I supposed to think it was? Surely my host uncle did not just purchase illicit drugs, at a drive-up store, like it was no big deal. Right? I mentally added that to my list of things to discuss with my fellow Peace Corps Trainees. What I soon learned was that no, Kolonia did not have a booming cocaine industry. That fine white powder was actually lime, used for chewing betelnut.
When I had it at Utwe Ma, the betlenut itself (which wikipedia tells me is actually called an “areca nut”) was opened up and hollowed out. My new local friends gave me pointers as I naively prepared the nut, filled it with the tobacco from a cigarette and some lime (the chemical, not the citrus) powder, wrapped it in a betel leaf, and plopped it in my mouth. The nut itself acts as a mild stimulant and more so when paired with the tobacco. The leaf is supposed to mask the taste of everything else, but it does a pretty poor job. Chewing the leaf also makes your spit turn red, which is super attractive when all of a sudden you’re spitting out excess saliva every 5 seconds. Betelnut is pretty common, but I was neither particular keen or reluctant to try it out, so I just never got around to it. In Kolonia both women and men chew, but in Kosrae you really only see men doing it. This was especially evidenced by the amount of entertainment our Kosraean friends were getting out of me chewing for the first time. Overall it wasn’t that bad (kind of like sakau… tolerable if only for the experience of it), and I had another one, but eh, the spit was kind of gross and I think the second one made me sick. My experience with betelnut will probably remain limited to ‘that one time at Utwe Ma’.
The next day we woke up with the sun and cooked beans, eggs, and coffee over the fire. An immediate trend we noticed was that everyone was feeling itchy and had red dots over some part of their arms/legs/face. I had been prepared for the mosquitoes, I had even been mentally prepared for all the crabs running around (I’ve developed an unsubstantiated fear of land crabs.. ugh), but none of us had been prepared for the sand flies. Tiny black creatures they are, you wouldn’t think they could pack much of a punch. Apparently they aren’t deterred by normal bug spray, and most of us had, without much success, fought them all night.
The only way to get away from the sand flies was to get in the water, so most of us spent the entire day out on the sand bar. I reapplied sunscreen 3 times, and still had the sunburns to show for it L. From at least 8-12 the tide was low enough to sit or lay in the water, and it wasn’t until after that that we actually had to swim. It was nice to have just our group there and not have to worry about wearing a normal swimsuit and showing too much skin.
Around 3 o’clock Doug dutifully returned to pick us up and we reloaded the boat with our bags and a significantly lighter cooler. A successful trip and fantastically fun birthday celebration for the books. I definitely want to organize another trip back, but a lot of us were plagued by sand fly bites for about a week after the trip. Danny, a PCV in Walung village said they get really bad right at new moon (when we went) and full moon. Oops.. lesson learned.
Yikes! It looks like my internet had a hard time dealing with the photos and text for my last blog. Try to ignore the technical difficulties, and when I get access to a stronger connection I can go back and clean it up a little bit.
This year I have made the transition from 6th grade to 8th grade Language Arts. My school splits each grade into 3 sections (A, B, C -yes, education folks, you may recognize these as tracks). At the beginning of the school day, students have a homeroom they go to for attendance, and then 15 minutes of Oral Communication practice. Following Oral Comm, they stay with their homeroom teacher for their first period of instruction. Each grade has 3 different classrooms, so over the course of the day, each teacher is visited twice by the same group of students. In the middle of the day, students have a 15 minute "lunch break". After 6th period, students return to homeroom for a 20-minute health and nutrition class. My schedule looks like this: 8-8:15 Oral Comm 8:15-9 Section B Reading 9-9:45 Section C Reading 9:45-10:30 Section A Reading 10:30-11:15 Section B Writing 11:15-11:30 Recess 11:30-12:15 Section C Writing 12:15-1 Section A Writing 1-1:20 Health & Nutrition A huge advantage that sections give us teachers is smaller class size when students need them. My Section A has 18 students, B has 15, and C has 12. On days where my coteacher and I have a detailed plan and are really prepared, this means the students are getting a great amount of individual attention.
One of my recent obsessions is teacher blogs. Sundays are low-key here in Kosrae and keeping myself "busy" usually means napping in my hammock all day, finding a good book to read, or watching episode after episode of tv from my external hard drive (I've recently gotten into Breaking Bad). Lately I spend my Sundays reading blogs of teachers around the US and Canada. Not only am I getting great insight into fun activities other teachers have used, but I am also learning from their mistakes. Sometimes I am also a little mystified by (jealous of) all the technology US classrooms have these days. (Smart board? Whats that? All I have in my classroom is a chalkboard. No, but really, I would kill for an overhead projector, which seems to be a relic of the ancient past in the US)
Reading Olympians is a program I stumbled upon recently that helps students learn affixes and root words. I am a Greek Mythology nerd, so I've been super excited about this and hope it goes over well with my kids. This program divides affixes and root words into sets of 10, and each set is given the name of a Greek God or Olympian. The first set is Nike, which covers a- anti- bi- bio cent -less post- pre- sub- and un-.
I went over to good ol' Ace Office Supply, purchased folders for each of my kiddos and made sure each folder had all of the necessary materials for the Nike set. Materials include flashcards that can be cut out (though I probably won't have my students cut them out because they will lose them right away. Unfortunately Ace doesn't sell those binder rings that open and close- if anyone wants to send about 50 my way, that would be super helpful), a worksheet, and a rhyme that goes with each root/affix to help students remember the meaning. At the end of the unit, all students that pass the assessment with 80% or higher move up to the next set- Poseidon.
These posters will go up on the wall in our classroom. There is a Greek column for each student, and when a student successfully finishes one set, they will add a sticker to their column with that Greek figure's name. Tomorrow I plan on introducing Nike, the winged Goddess of Victory to my students and we'll go from there. I'll leave you with this hilarious picture I found on the back of one of my 8th grader's exams a few weeks ago.
As my friend Liz put it, “Liberation Day is the closest Kosraean women get to dancing.” Basically it’s a good time all around. To celebrate the Liberation of Kosraeans from Japanese forces, the villages celebrate with a state-wide 4-day weekend. See that, America? Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend, but it’s got nothin’ on Kosrae. (Note: Kosraeans also celebrate Labor Day, but at an earlier date.)
If you’ve been following my Peace Corps journey, you may have noticed that a common theme with local events is that usually none of the asits (myself included) have any idea what is going on ahead of time. All of us have the following conversation with a Kosraean in some form or another:
Asit: I hear there are going to be events for *insert holiday here *
Kosraean: Yes, it will be fun. Make sure you come.
Asit: Great, when will that be taking place?
Kosraean: I think 8. Hmm. Maybe 9.
That might seem like a semi-straightforward answer, except for the fact that nothing in Kosrae happens before about 10 am. Then begins the game of guessing just how late things will be kicking off.
We eagerly try to corner Kosraeans into giving us exact times and dates, yet continue to fail helplessly. The funny thing is we are so far removed from our schedule-obsessed first world, but still can’t seem to drop the habit of needing to know exactly what is happening and when.
On Thursday, September 5th, a couple of local farmers were selling vegetables from 10-11 am. As far as I have been able to discern, that was the extent of Thursday’s events. Friday morning around 8- or maybe it was 9?- the different neighborhoods of Lelu gathered in uniform at my school for races and games. My neighborhood, Sea Siders, got decked out in actual uniform –matching skirts and shirts- while the others wore their neighborhood color. It is a sweet coincidence that Sea Siders and UO share the color green. I had the perfect water bottle, sunglasses, and fan for the occasion.
It was kind of like a field day for adults. There were multiple heats of footraces for men, women and teens. I also got roped into competing for Sea Siders in a game called “Pass Ball” in which teams of 10 work to pass a softball down the line without using their hands. This is done by holding it between your chest and chin, moving in for a close hug, and hoping your partner doesn’t drop the ball. As the token asit for Sea Siders, I was designated the role of 1st in line. “What happens if the ball falls?” I asked my teammates. “We lose.” Haha, that’s straightforward enough. Let me tell you guys though, I think I found my calling. I was totally born to play Pass Ball. Not only did my team come in first place, but we all won a bag of sugar! Okay, okay. If I’m being honest, everyone that participated in every event ‘won’ a participatory bag of sugar. Since I ran in the footraces, I actually went home with 2 that day.
Saturday was the day for water events, and because it was hot as hell on Friday, it was, of course rainy and windy on Saturday. The canoe races were quick, more like canoe sprints. They were also a little bit harder to follow because contestants weren’t as dedicated to their uniforms as they had been the previous day. My friends Liz and Lindsay competed for the Pansre neighborhood, but I was too much of a wimp to get in the water.
As far as I can tell, there was never really a “winner” of the games. Never mind though, because my neighborhood has proclaimed themselves the champion, and we’re having a picnic at the end of the month to celebrate. Haha, I like the way these people think.
This summer I was lucky enough to get to go home for a few solid weeks of R & R.
I was home last Christmas for a brief period of time, but most of my trip was marred by an unpleasant Dengue Fever recurrence. Spending NYE in the ER- I don’t recommend it to anyone. This time around I made sure I didn’t get sick, and spent every minute of it with friends and family, eating shopping or drinking. The irony of living on a tropical island and vacationing in the United States isn’t lost on me, I promise.
It was so nice to be back home in Portland. River floating, bar-hopping, shopping, and movie-watching were just some of the many activities I was eager to partake in. A lot of Starbucks was consumed too, let me tell you. I was occasionally overwhelmed by the amount of people I encountered and often mistakenly believed I recognized people when I actually didn’t. I think this is a symptom of living on an island with 10 other Americans and knowing all of them pretty well. My logic was something like- Surely I know someone in this massive group of people my age here in the airport/at the bar/in line for ice cream.
Highlights from my vacation included side-trips to San Francisco and Seattle. On our drive South, we spent the night with Gma in Klamath Falls. I was hoping to see Gpa and hand-deliver the breadfruit chips my host-family had sent his way, but he was out working on a forest fire. Grandma made some delicious food, and of course spoiled us with lots of goodies before sending us on our way.
In San Francisco, Kate, my dad and I attended Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. We got to see some amazing performances including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul McCartney, Vampire Weekend, Fishbone, Phoenix, and others. We also spent a few hours cruising around the city and taking pictures at the Palace of Fine Arts. I was even able to snag breakfast one morning with my friends Vince and Donna!
Within 8 hours of getting back to Portland from San Francisco, I was Seattle-bound. Muscle memory has engrained the Portland-Eugene route in my head from my University of Oregon days, so I had a little laugh when I realized I was actually on I-5 SB instead of NB. Oops. In Seattle I got to meet up with an old high school friend, (what? It’s been 5 years already?) and talk about her exciting move to the Pacific Northwest. I also spent some much needed time with my bestie Lindsay at her old stomping grounds right off the UW campus. Fellow ducks: skip the next 3 sentences. Interestingly enough, UW was actually the main reason for my Seattle trip. I’ve been looking into graduate schools lately and as it turns out, they have a pretty nice MPA program up there. It was no Eugene, but overall a nice visit.
Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Micronesia. See you next summer, Portlandia!
One of the bars I went to sold "DIY S'Mores!" Nom.
Jump fail
Fireworks at the end of Paul McCartneys set
Painting playhouses for Habitat for Humanity
I'm not entirely sure whether Ron Swanson is a Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan or not
Love this guy's sign!
....and a photo of our cat UltraLord for good measure.
Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is something I have been excited about since joining Peace Corps. The PCVs that have held Camp GLOW in Pohnpei open it up to 8th grade girls exclusively and take the opportunity to hold sessions such as HIV/AIDS Awareness, Sex Ed, Nutrition, Substance Abuse, Changing Bodies, and Teambuilding. There are also panels that bring local female community leaders together to talk about leadership and education.
Camp GLOW in Kosrae was a little bit different. I don't know how it got started, but Kosrae has an active Girl Scout chapter and each village has their own troop of girls. I did some background research, and Girl Scouts USA (the cookie-selling ones) only exists internationally for expat children. Somewhere along the way it caught on here and the name stuck, so local girls get together as Girl Scouts and participate in different events around the community. I am still unclear on how things have worked in the past, but every summer the leaders gather all of the Girl Scouts for a week of overnight camping in some capacity.
The Girl Scouts range in age from 6-18 ,so right off the bat I knew we were working with a different kind of animal. Though I personally feel it is extremely important for Camp GLOW to include sexual health sessions and information, it is not an appropriate topic for all of the age ranges we would be hosting. Srue, the Girl Scout Board President and I worked together to schedule programming and workshops that would be beneficial (and duh, FUN!) for everyone involved.
As for programming, I think we did a pretty good job. We had local representatives from KIRMA, a local NGO, come to talk about waste reduction, the environment, and they even gave out prizes to the extra good listeners. We had some public health speakers come to talk to the girls about hygiene and first aid, one of the Girl Scout leaders talked about the importance of education, and a pastor's wife (esteemed community leader) discussed alcohol abuse with the girls. I also invited the 2 female US Army soldiers that are currently on island (a group is here working on different projects around the island) to talk to the girls about what a great, and unique, opportunity the US military is for them. (Micronesians are allowed to join US military per the Compact Agreement) They had a great time with the girls and even came back later in the week to teach them basic marching skills! We also had cultural sessions on plate-making and cooking.
I was excited about camp because not only was I once a Girl Scout, but I have also been a camp counselor. As Camp GLOW got closer, dreams of silly songs and games filled my head. One of the most important thing I have learned working with kids in the US is that keeping them busy is super important. Extra down time is an opportunity for the kids to get bored and their energy levels go completely out the window, along with their moods. Rest is important, too, but nobody wants to sit around at camp, right?
The thing with kids in Kosrae, though, is that they aren't familiar with the "getting bored" concept. Kids here can't just go to the movies or sit down and play video games, so they get creative. More often than not, as soon as there's down time you'll see kids crowd together for a game of jacks or marbles, or a volleyball will randomly appear. If they don't have those, the girls will sit around and literally braid each others' hair for hours (not joking). So while I was eager to teach allll these new songs and allll these new games, the girls were just as happy hitting a volleyball around. And understandably so, because volleyball doesn't require a translator and 5 facilitators for the younger girls, haha. After the first day I realized that it was okay to have time to sit around and play cards (for hours on end) between the scheduled workshops. It was actually a nice opportunity for me to get to know some of the girls that came to Lelu from the other villages.
Overall I think we did a good job taking advantage of our resources. My hope for next year is to start the planning earlier so we can secure outside funding for extras (Tie dye! S'mores!). I would also like to facilitate separate sessions for the older girls that address the sexual health issues that often go ignored.
My favorite photo from camp. The young woman in the middle was an outstanding role model for her fellow girl scouts. Here she's teaching the younger girls how to make local plates from palm fronds.