Every once in a while, when something especially un-American, or out of my comfort zone happens, I add it to my mental list of Things That Make Me Feel Like a Real Peace Corps. Not that I usually feel like a fake PCV, but it’s easy to fall into a routine of teach-eat-read-sleep and forget what I’m doing here. This week yielded a prominent addition to my list…

At the beginning of October, Kosrae had a Dengue Fever outbreak. In two short weeks, there were something like 29 reported cases. Fliers about prevention were passed around, and Peace Corps sent out emails as outbreaks hit other islands in the FSM as well. School was even canceled one Monday so that students would stay home and clean up potential mosquito breeding grounds around their homes. Main symptoms of Dengue Fever include fever (duh), intense headaches, and a rash that covers the arms and legs.

I awoke Sunday with a fever that hovered around 102.6 for the following three days. I contacted my PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and since I didn’t have a rash or headache, we decided I should take acetaminophen for the fever, drink plenty of fluids, and rest until it broke. On Tuesday, my eyes started getting a little sensitive to light, but that was about the only other symptom I had.

Teacher absences are a significant problem at my school. Out of about 30 teachers, we had a total of 41 teacher absences for the month of October. Thursday my fever was gone, and though I wasn’t back to 100%, I felt guilty about missing yet another day of school. I lasted one period before apologizing to my co-teacher and vice principal, and thanking the heavens that someone in the office offered me a ride home.

Friday I was really feeling better, so I was set on going to school and lasting the whole day. I went through my standard morning routine and got ready to leave. No more than 15 seconds after going outside and putting on my sories (flip flops), I noticed my arms and hands covered in red splotches-there it was, the telltale rash. It didn’t itch or hurt at first, but I got kind of freaked out and started shaking. I called the PCMO, who I’d been in touch with all week, and he decided that I ought to get a ride to the hospital and be tested for Dengue.

I’m usually a pretty good sport about doctor appointments/hospitals/needles, but the rash already had me anxious, and getting blood drawn in a developing country's hospital wasn’t something I was especially excited about. At the hospital I reveled in the air-conditioned office where I filled out paperwork (Parents names. Okay, does it make sense to put my actual parents’ names here, or should I be putting down my host parents?) before I was sent to a line of chairs to wait for an available doctor. Eventually I was called, my vitals were taken, and I was directed to the lab to get tested for Dengue Fever.

Of course the actual blood-being-drawn-part went smoothly and negated my worries. One of the lab techs left the room with my blood as a younger one came in. The younger lab tech told me it would take about half an hour to process, and started asking me questions…

You World Teach?

Nope, Peace Corps.

Oh. How old are you?

23

Really? I would’ve guessed 30’s.

Heh.

You look older than me, and I’m 25.

Just 23.

Hmm. I wasn’t in the right mood to engage in polite small talk, so I pulled out my iPad and continued my reading of the history of ESPN. Soon enough the first lab tech came back with my results-positive on both accounts (I don’t know the specifics, but they always run two separate tests when looking for Dengue Fever).

Things That Make Me Feel Like a Real Peace Corps

• -Riding in the backs of trucks in lawn chairs
• Not having internet access at home
• Being told "Kosrae wangen atros"=The island is out of eggs
• hiking Menke
• Getting Dengue Fever
  

Much like the rash, though I was no longer in any pain, the actual test being positive made me uneasy. If you read the story about the spider, you know that I usually start laughing or reacting in an inappropriate manner  if something is making me feel uncomfortable or nervous. First words out of my mouth?

Positive. Well, that’s cool.

Until this point, all of my forays into Kosrae had been cultural ones. I’d attended a handful of funerals, birthdays, and even a wedding. The time had come to explore the great outdoors. Most, if not all, of the hikes here require some form of a guide. Generally speaking, it’s good to have someone around that knows where they’re going. On top of that though, they take care of all the machete-yielding and path-clearing. Most of the guides share an anecdote or two about the history of Kosrae, as well.

Similar to Nan Madol in Pohnpei, Kosrae has a couple different ruins sites. The particular site we investigated was the Menke ruins site. Menke is within short walking distance of Alyssa’s house, and a couple of the boys in her family were willing to take us. Liz and I stayed the night Friday, and we set off with our 3 teenage guides into the jungle Saturday morning.

Every once in a while, we’d offer a (thinly disguised) water break to the guys. They would oblige, for our sake more than theirs. This gave way to some insightful discussion..

Funny, look at us. This is so representative of American culture. We’ve loaded up a backpack with sunblock, bug spray, bandanas, cameras, water, and snacks. Meanwhile our counterparts are hiking barefoot with one thing: a machete. We’ve done everything to “gear up” to spend the day enjoying nature.

That isn’t to say that they the things we’d packed were trivial, or that they were critical. It was just kind of an interesting observation.

Nan Madol had a lot to look at in one central area. Menke, in contrast, was much more spread out. The hike took only a couple of hours, and provided some much needed-exercise. On our way back, Alyssa’s brother, Robert, decided to go ahead of the group. The plan was for him to cut down bananas, so I figured that’s where he was headed.

[Background info: Alyssa had gone on this hike before with a couple of American scientists. At a certain point, they noticed some wild pig tracks and had to change their route.]

Throughout our hike, we’d been joking about stumbling upon wild pigs. The order of the line was Robert somewhere far ahead, Jacob, me, Liz, Alyssa, and then Jones. At some point behind me I hear Alyssa gasp, and notice that her and Liz have both frozen in their tracks. They heard some rustling in the leaves, and then snorting. One of them let out a surprised scream as Jacob jumped out from the brush. I hadn’t been the intended target, so I got a good laugh out of it along with the boys. 

The school where I teach, Lelu Elementary, has been under construction for the past 5ish years. There are a handful of sides to the story, but essentially the reasons for taking this long can be boiled down to money and the slow pace of life here. Our new school building, though we have yet to move in, was dedicated on October 17th. The 17th was a Wednesday, so school was cancelled for both Tuesday (for preparation) and for Wednesday (for the ceremony itself). On Tuesday the teachers met at our usual time, 8 am, and discussed preparation plans until about 10. At 10 it was decided that the group would disperse and reconvene at 5 pm, when it was cooler, to decorate for the ceremony. When it comes to things like this, I do my best to help, but it is hard to contribute as my language skills are still quite limited. I start to feel like more of a hindrance when people have to stop what they’re doing to translate. In the end I think I did a decent job of blowing up balloons and setting up flowers. Just as I was about to get a ride home that night, one of my female co-workers asked if I had my uniform ready.

[Sidenote: Uniforms are a huge thing here. Any group is automatically legitimized by matching outfits. This is pretty easy when all you have to do is make a bunch of muumuus out of the same fabric. 4 of my 6 muumuus are uniforms. (Yep, that’s right.. after 3 months in Kosrae, I’ve already acquired a solid 6 muumuus)]

“Uhh.. we have uniforms tomorrow?” Apparently a whole lot of assuming had been going on, and it had never been communicated to me that we were to wear a uniform at the school dedication. What I felt was a stressful, last-minute operation was apparently no big deal to the other ladies. Yeah, it sucked that no one told me what was up, but this teacher had extra fabric, and that teacher would sew me up a muumuu that night. It was all to do be done without any effort on my part, which I felt a little guilty about, to tell the truth. By the time I awoke the next morning, my lifesaver had already dropped the new muumuu off at my house.

The 3 crucial elements to any formal event in Kosrae are food, speeches, and singing- in that order. Uniforms would probably be the 4th. For 95% of the ceremony, I stayed in the classroom designated for serving refreshments with the other female teachers. Community members and parents (and a surprisingly minute group of kids) gathered on the chairs and bleachers set up underneath a series of canopies. At one point, I was ushered to the stage- apparently the teachers were to sing a song. It was inevitable-being the asit Peace Corps- that I was pushed to the front. Kosraeans get an absolute kick out of asits doing typical Kosraean things. The best I could do was show off my supreme lip-syncing skills (as I had never before seen or heard the song we were singing), but a handful of people came up afterward and complimented my singing regardless.

Soon enough the program was over and it was time to serve food. Most of the food was set up buffet-style. Once someone had gone through the line and had a full plate, it was my job to give them a saran-wrapped plate (some combination of rice and chicken) of food to add to their cache. Two full plates of food may sound like a lot, but the meal wasn’t complete without a bowl of “soup Kosrae” (Kosraean soup) to boot, which the younger girls passed out to guests after they’d been seated. In preparation, each teacher and PTA member had been asked to donate 10 of these saran-wrapped takeout plates (this is also standard procedure for formal events). Our ceremony certainly hadn’t been lacking in terms of guests, but there was a huge surplus of food. As I got ready to leave, the other ladies filled my arms with literally 10 of these plates. 

Since first arriving in Kosrae, Alyssa and I had plans to get together for a dual-birthday celebration in mid-October. As new PCVs, the idea of being here for a whole 24 months can feel a little insurmountable. Having the birthday weekend to look forward to for 2 months was our way of breaking up that time into manageable chunks. Peace Corps has a pretty solid relationship with Treelodge Resort, and we stayed their our first few nights on island. Mark and Maria, who own and run Treelodge, were quick allies and have always been eager to go the extra mile for us. Treelodge was a natural choice for our weekend of birthday festivities. We decided to stay 2 nights, basking in wifi, “aircon”, and hot showers as much as possible.

Alyssa’s actual birthday is Oct 4th, but for all intents and purposes, it was celebrated our first night, Oct 12th. Friday nights are happy hour at Treelodge, so we had a good time with the usual crew of expats that turns up. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I have no photos of Friday’s shenanigans. Saturday I had the opportunity to Skype a few friends and family members back home, and before I knew it, it was time for our sunset cruise. Maria graciously presented us with champagne and a bucket of ice to celebrate the occasion. It was a solid turnout of World Teach volunteers, us PCVs, two of the JICA (Japanese Peace Corps) volunteers, and a couple expats filling the boat. Afterward a bunch of us washed up and had my birthday dinner at Bully’s, the Treelodge restaurant. (Thanks Dad & Nicole!) We told Maria ahead of time that we’d take care of the birthday cakes, but she insisted on taking over at least one of them. There was a humorous dichotomy between the  two nights, as Saturday’s post-dinner events were of a much classier variety. We all sprawled around the hotel room, scattered amongst our electronic devices sharing and transferring e-books. Champagne, ice cream cake, good company. Not a bad way to start year 24, I think.