totally unrelated picture, but i thieved it off of another's blog (thanks regina)

brian, nick, beth, lucas, dani, regina, scott, kate at Rusty Anchor

Empty Promises

I feel like my blog is sort of a little baby compared to other volunteers. I got some good pictures but don't have the time to upload right now. I'll make a vague promise to get more up this weekend.

There was a big catholic women's party this weekend where we live. More to come on that. It was a weekend of drinking sakau though. It seems that that's becoming a common thing for me around here.



Staff Meeting

We had a staff meeting today, it was during lunch and we just went ahead and kept meeting through our fifth period. Half the time was a big discussion of when to have the staff welcome party which was highly amusing. Seemed like serious business, i just laugh... Maybe half English half Pohnpeian this meeting was. I can sort of understand what people are talking about (sort of), but mostly by context, tone, etc, not knowledge of what they literally say. It's frustrating at times, OK a lot of the time, not speaking the local language, especially since my students like to take advantage of the fact.

case in point
In Pohnpeian, during class the other day "let's both guess and see who gets the most right"...In English "teacher, they're talking about guessing"...

The other half of the meeting was a fairly intense discussion about 20 students who were suspended (for the whole year!, yikes) after the Welcome Party we had last Friday. These students (10 of whom are my juniors) were caught drinking or were drunk at the party. Stupid mistake on their part for sure, probably not the best discipline policy in my opinion though.
Some teachers want to let them back in, most want to be firm in the school's policy. I agree with both, the punishment is too harsh in my opinion, but also the school shouldn't back off something it's already chosen to do, especially if it's a policy. What to do? As an outsider and a guest, I think it's best to just see how it unfolds, of course, I do have an opinion, but in a culture where confrontation and going around/above authority figures is kind of a no-no, where I'm a guest and an outsider, I think it best to just sit and watch, for today.

World Teach Micronesia (minus Andy and Erin)

Bunch of us in Telecom when we first arrived

More Pictures.
These are mostly of my students in class.


Marla, Judyleen

Tracy, Etriana

Marla, Marquez

sorry for the sideways'ness of it. This is Nathan

Me, Bryan, Giftleen relaxing a bit

Randomness I'd like to share

• We burn our trash. Which makes me think each time, atmosphere or ocean, atmosphere or ocean?
• There is only metal recycling and that is really not utilized much.
• Teaching English as a second language with few resources is hard work.
• When it rains, it more like dumps (although thus far we have had fairly atypically dry weather. I say this as I sit outside on my patio while its still dripping from the days downpours and rain kind of blows onto my laptop)
• A battle with mold and mildew is inevitable. (If someone wants to buy me a little dehumidifier that you can just plug in to recharge I would love your forever, it might save my laptop from certain death).
• Gecko's shit from the ceiling and walls onto lots of stuff.
• It is humid.
• It is really really green and things grow like mad.
• The municipality where I live is a 'dry' one (yikes for me).
• You can't legally send beer here. (why is this, does anyone know?)
• It is hard to find an easy place to access the water for swimming (although I have resolved to go snorkeling near the ancient ruins which are only about an hours walk from my house and not too bad for this activity. But should I really have to pay four dollars just to swim in the ocean on a tropical pacific island?)
• I am posting most of my pictures on my Facebook account in the coming couple weeks, its just too easy to upload them from iPhoto. So only some on the blog but probably most of the ones I take on Facebook.
• I now actually experience and realize how much the clothes washing machine freed up time for women (although the vast majority of people here don't have one)
• I really appreciate having a kitchen with an actual kitchen sink now that I don't have either really.
• Even in another culture, I don't appreciate having to take out my various piercings for anyone or anything and this is something I don't think will change anytime in the near future (or at all).
• Hot running water is a luxury that I can live without.
• I wouldn't mind being an ex-pat.

Leon looking sly

Brandon, Rueben, Bryan, Sami (my students)

Welcome Party

Madoleniehmw High School (that's where I am working) had it's "Welcome Party" last Friday. It was quite interesting to say the least, and hopefully I can get ahold of some of the video that was taken to bring/send home to give a more full picture (or video as it were) of what it was really like, but some pictures and description will have to suffice for now.

The day started late, I slept in a whole extra 15 minutes but somehow didn't feel rushed in getting to school. Maybe the fact that we were only supposed to have first and second period and the rest of the day devoted to the party motivated my reasoning in that. In any case, I made it to school to find a simple note posted on the office door that actually we were only going to do homeroom and then just go ahead and party the day away. A relief really, because trying to actually teach for only two periods would have been a cruel joke (at best). I sat around with the teachers in the staff room for a bit and then headed down to my classroom to unlock my door. My Junior classes (I have all the juniors throughout the day) were going to use my room to prepare for their bit of enertainment for the day. More on that in a few...

A few students trickled in to sit and hangout for a bit and we started the day off with me showing off a few juggling moves (of which I don't have many) with the three rubber baseballs I have in my classroom. They seemed impressed by the under the leg juggle and we just spent some time hanging out. Eventually a student brought in their stereo (from where did this appear I'm not sure) and started to play some music. As I am next door to a number of elementary classrooms, I ended up turning down the stereo a number of times, but who can blame high schoolers for wanting to listen to loud music?.
Eventually I herded the students in my room into the cafateria where the party would shortly commence. There were already most of the students there, so I waited outside while the rest went in. Eventually the MC (one of the teachers) called in the "World Teach people". Matt was absent at the moment, so I went in and was placed in the front of the group along with the vice principal and another teacher. I had been informed earlier that guests typically "open the dance floor" so I was slightly nervous at the whole thing. Some short welcomes commenced, including a welcome to the World Teach people and freshmen (still no Matt, I was a bit worried). Matt found his way into the cafateria soon enough though, and after a couple more welcomes and horray's for the school year, the entertainment started.
Groups of students from each class as well as the different sections of the municipality where we reside (Madoleniehmw) started doing some routines, singing mostly which was nice but also short skits. Eventually it was the Juniors turn.
A couple weeks ago, my students were thinking they would do some kind of skit, which eventually morphed into a "fashion show" featuring couples from different parts of the world (Hawaii, the mainland, Mexico, and Pohnpei). In great style, the boys played the part of the women (complete with wigs, dresses, and makeup, and other props) and the girls played the part of the men. It was a big hit and although could have been a bit more rehearsed, it went off well and everyone got a real kick out of the whole ordeal.

The Best Dressed

The dancing part of the party had started with different classes dancing at different times and the first person to come pick me up to dance was a senior boy who has a great personality. This of course got screams and laughter from everyone (the whole school) in the room as I shook it nasty with him. When the Juniors were doing their cross-dressing skit, one of my students playing the part of a super trendy Mexican woman of course picked me to do a little dance with him. A few other people (including some of Matt's sophomores) came and picked out me (and Matt) to join them on the dance floor to some pretty catchy Pohnpeian Pop music. All in all it was a great time. After the entertainment, we ate lunch (rice, fish, chicken, hot dog, cake, ice cream) and then proceded to dance for the next couple hours. All in all the day was really good, I had a good time and got a number of compliments on my dancing (which honestly I don't think is anything special).

Obviously this can't really capture the event in its entirety and I hope to get the video, if only to look back and laugh after a few months. I am looking forward to the Christmas party (which will be more of the same) and practicing my dance moves and will help my Juniors to prepare something to top their funny performance at the Welcome Party.

Me Dancing with my students

Erin

Sunset view from the hosts balcony

Ira (lawyer friend in town) and Beth

Michaela looking bemused at the BBQ

Picking up Nic and the arrival of the Peace Corps

Last weekend, Beth, Tanja, and myself went to the airport to meet Nic, one of the other World Teach volunteers. He was returning for a short trip to Kosrae (also a state in the FSM where seven WorldTeach folks are working this year). He was happy to see us at the airport, maybe just pleasantly surprised in a better way to put it. With him on the plane were 28 new Peace Corps Volunteers, so we sat around in the lobby of the airport in hopes of catching a glimpse of them and maybe meeting a few (I swear we didn't have any ulterior motives). These same PCV's are now living with host families near to me and Matt and doing there training close to our house (like maybe two hundred yards). So after two months of seeing outsider faces maybe once a week at most around our house, suddenly there seems to be hoards of them around.
As we waited the rest of the airport emptied out (maybe one flight a day here leaves and arrives, maybe) so we were sitting just sort of waiting. When they started to come out of the doors into the lobby, I think they saw the first four foreign (or not foreign?) faces and came over to us to introduce themselves. It was funny and overwhelming and they were quickly herded away from us by a Peace Corps staff person. The whole ordeal was highly amusing and the feeling of it all is hard to capture is this short little bit. The Peace Corps is awhole'nother beast from World Teach, this much is true.
To entertain ourselves while we waited for Nic and the PCV, we (mostly Beth) made up little thought dialogues for the rest of the people coming off the plane (OK, so you probably had to be there for this one). Just a bit of a tangent, Beth, and I are sort of like Nitrous Oxide when we are together, meaning that we make each other laugh hysterically, which is you know how crazy my laugh can be, you can imagine is pretty funny. She also a a really great laugh that sometimes comes out like a santa type ha-ha-ha which just sets us both off even more. All that laughter without any sort of altered consciousness too...

After picking up Nic and ogling the PCV's at the airport, we took ourselves to a BBQ at the home of two menwih folks, Boris and Karien (sp?), who work for the World Heath Org. and Red Cross, respectively. They were gracious to invite all the World Teach people to their house to have some R&R. We spent the late afternoon and evening drinking, talking, and eating, and just generally having a good time. This experience led me to consider the life of ex-pat's in general and sort of think that it would be something that I could see myself doing with a chunk of my life. In any case, there are a few photos of the event above. (and a random picture of Tanja and Beth doing up some gnocchi the other night, unrelated event, below)

Liberation Day Games

Pohnpeians celebrate their Liberation Day (from the Japanese) on September 11. So that Thursday, we trekked down into town to spend the day at a track and field competition between the three high schools. We arrived at the track in Kolonia and walking around, I thought the whole event had the feel of a sort of "county fair" kind of atmosphere with food booths and lots of people.
MHS might be something of the underdogs of Pohnpei's high schools (in sports and academics), so unfortunately our runners didn't have uniforms but the students attending and participating did have spirit. We ended up third at the end of the day but did come in second in a number of events and won the last and final relay race. I realize that in my own home (i.e. when I was in high school in Steilacoom) these kinds of events are exactly the things that I really didn't have an interest in, but as a guest of another country, I feel like its partly a respect to attend and participate (which it is), but also fun and interesting. Just strikes me as interesting the way the context of something can really change your perspective, although I am still just not really a sports person. I might get involved with the ping pong team though if it takes off this year, that is one game I love to play.
The day was pretty hot and really sunny, and a number of students were taken away because of heat exhaustion, so you can imagine that for my white skin, the sun was kind of brutal and I ended up with a sunburn, although not a terrible one. My skin did peel like a reptile molting for few days though. Here are some pictures of some of my students and myself at the games.

Three of my students (on right)

The student body president of MHS

The event lasted the whole day and I was tired by the end. Thankfully we had Friday off of school, so I stayed in town for a long weekend with the other WorldTeach volunteers. As a side note, Matt bought himself a vespa-like scooter and ended up being "pulled over" by three police. He managed to allude being taken into the police station along with his bike (what would have happened is anybody's guest, but as one crazy ex-pat put it, he probably would have been hung up on the cross as an example), by some fancy and clever footwork on his part. His crime...not wearing a helmet, not having the correct license type, and not having the bike registered. Thank god they don't have three-strikes your out laws here. I think thus far, he has gotten a helmet, but still no registration and extra license to ride.

The student I first danced with

Warm Ups

Me at the games

A Day In The Life

I thought I would get around to putting up something about what my average day looks like here. It is easy to write about "exotic" things like Sakau and experiencing another culture, but also powerful I think to give an impression of what day to day life is like (or at least a bit funny I hope, and cathartic for me). At least for a foreigner, oh and for a nice disclaimer, No, I do not drink sakau every night, although that's not to say that I wouldn't, it's just probably not a good idea...
So far I have been going through some cultural adjustment and getting used to teaching so I have gone to bed early and slept many hours which is not super usual for me. I think as things get easier I will need to sleep less and not be so tired at the end of the day.

Weekdays
6:50 a.m. - Alarm clock (really unnecessary but helpful to get my lazy ass up, there are roosters and heat to wake you up) goes off
6:51 a.m. - Alarm clock gets shut off and I lay back in bed
7:00 a.m. - Roll out of bed and put on a pot of water for a cup of coffee.
7:03 - Find clothes for the day and put on. Lay back in bed waiting for water to heat up
7: 08 - Make a cup of coffee and watch it happen. Also use same grounds to make a travel mug to take on the way to school.
7:13 - Drink coffee on porch and stare at water and wave hello to any neighbors that are moving around .
7:23 - Finish Coffee and get stuff for school ready, put in bag, fill water bottle, maybe put leftovers in tupperware for lunch.
7:30 - Leave house for school. Walk about 2 miles to school. It's hot or it's raining, one or the other
8:00 - Arrive at school, sit in staff lounge or air conditioned "office" if I am really dripping.
8:15 - Homeroom starts, either in my class, or walking to class. Read Bulletin, was there a bulletin today?
8:30 - 11:45 a.m. - Teach three classes of English, or attempt to teach for classes of English. Have one free period before lunch. Do attendance, write stuff on board, dry off, wait for electricity on the campus to get turned on at some point, usually around 9 a.m. (the high school is on it's own campus and then also shares buildings about 1/5 mile down the road with an elementary school, that's where I am) Hopefully by 8:45 most of my student's have arrived. Didn't class start at 8:30?
11:45 - Lunch time, sit in my classroom with some of my students and chat, eat my lunch if I brought it, realize how tired I am already. Be thankful there are only three periods left in day
12:45 p.m. - 3:15 - Attempt to teach three more classes of English, I have one class that comes once in morning and once in afternoon. Be grateful (usually) that they are the highest level. FYI - I am teaching Juniors and one class of sophomores.
3:15 p.m. - Do attendance for the office, maybe grade a few papers and tidy up my room. Soak it all in that the school day is over. Maybe think about what I'll do tomorrow
3:40 - Head to office, turn in my attendance, chat with counselor (really school secretary, the magic man behind it all). Sit at bus stop across the street or in staff lounge and chat with other staff (or just sit and listen to them chat in Pohnpeian usually)
3:50 - Walk home, maybe stop at a little store front attached to someone's house for a soda, candy snack, or other vice of my choosing.
4:15 - Arrive at home, maybe have a little drink to unwind and relax, stare at water from patio.
5:00 - If I'm feeling feisty and there is food, maybe cook something that would be boring in the states but is tasty and delicious here.
6:00 - eat that tasty something or else just have some ramen. Maybe visit some local folks, get fed something tasty (maybe rice, canned tuna, maybe fresh raw reef fish, probably rice)
7:00 - Think about what I'll do for the next day, grade some papers, be tired from teaching all day and tip my hat to all my hardworking teachers and all hardworking teachers.
8:00 p.m. - Think about maybe going to bed, taking a shower first to cool off. Sit and write an email to send the next day or write something for the blog. Or maybe I'll just go try and drink sakau tonite with some people.
9:00 p.m. - Drink Sakau or go to bed to read or watch a movie.
10:00 - Am I still drinking sakau...or am I falling asleep already? Why I am in bed so early and it's so quiet?!?
11:30 - How many glasses of sakau so far...?
12:00 a.m. - sakau......sleep......sakau......quiet
12:40 - s...a...k...a...u...
1:00 a.m. - Pleasantly Dream
6:50 a.m. - Alarm clock goes off

Weekends...
Oh yay, finally I can sleep in. But wait, wait. There is that damn rooster again, and it's hot and I can't sleep in the heat. Maybe I should think about eating chicken. If ever there was a place to do it, it would be here. The chickens are so happy, they just wander around free. It's like some hippie vegetarian's dream world for chickens or something. Talk about free range, especially after reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which will make you think twice about what exactly "free range" and "organic" mean, but I digress, this isn't a socio-political blog on the rights of animals and the terrors of modern industrial food production...
It's 8:00 a.m. and I am already up and it's hot. Same routine, make coffee, drink coffee. If I am feeling really ambitious (or someone hasn't offered and I've taken them up on it), I will set out to do some laundry the ol' fashioned way (or the local way as they say here), with two basins, a brush and a pile of dirty laundry. Let's hope it doesn't rain today so these things actually dry. I should probably burn the trash today too, it seems the ants have built a small industrial complex around the bags (think of it as bait for geckos, right). Easy enough I guess if not a bit guilt ridden as I inhale burning plastic and watch it melt into the ground...
If I am not feeling ambitious, I will drink a few cups of coffee and eventually get around to eating something. Maybe I'll go for a walk, or I might have drank a bit much sakau last night and will just sit and watch the water and drink some more coffee. I usually end up reading on a Saturday or just relaxing. I ponder walking the hour to Nan Madol, the ancient ruins and snorkeling. Next weekend I'll go to the waterfall, it's only a fifteen minute walk, much closer but less spectacular.
...unless of course we will try to get a taxi into town. I will call the first taxi company at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. and pray/beg to the mighty taxi gods (New York Yellow Cab might be the right name, or something similar, maybe there is an idol I could buy online that would bring me good fortune) that someone will care enough to drive from town to our house (about 20 miles or so) to pick us up. Maybe it'll even happen within the space of two hours. Probably though, we'll end up waiting about 4 hours, and three taxi companies later, and something like 7 phone calls to get the taxi. "what, that guy already came into town and left again and his cell phone doesn't work now?!!!"
"Is that taxi still coming?" "How much did you want for this ride? $20!" (insert sympathy for $6 per gallon gasoline in a country where there seems to be next to no jobs/wondering how much markup it is for not really speaking Pohnpeian, "but come on, I'm trying, can't you tell by how much of a fool I sound")
What the hell, I think I'll try a different taxi. Maybe someone is going into town today and we can just catch a ride.
In town, after being up in the quiet part of the island, it seems like the hustle and bustle of a cosmopolitan city (ok, maybe not quite San Francisco). But there is a bar to go to, no wait, two bars! A plethora of restaurants. a couple grocery stores, a bunch of foreigners, friendly familiar fellow volunteer's faces, and an air conditioned internet telecommunications building I can go to 24 hours a day! Long conversations on how to save the island environment, the madness in the lack of any bus system here, and the latest and greatest in World Teach Micronesia gossip! We will probably end up staying in town, maybe I'll swing by my host families house and sit with them to chat, unless somehow scoring a ride back the same night is doable, which hasn't happened yet, though it will. All we have to do is borrow a minibus from school, and why haven't I done that yet?!? I'll make it back eventually to start school tomorrow...right...

Apologies and promises

I am going to apologize again for not having more up on this blog sooner, but also give myself an out. The Internet connection using dial-up from our house (where currently our phone stopped working) was driving me crazy and wasn't going to let me upload pictures or wait 30 minutes for the page to load to even upload some writing (because of speed or lack there of).

Amazingly enough, my roommate Matt had his laptop at school last week and there was a wireless signal! Yay! So I will be able to upload things from there and have some more frequent contact and writing and pictures up for the world to see. Technology can be really nice sometimes.

So, I make a promise that I'll take some more pictures and post them really soon (I have some to post but need to organize and resize them, etc). Let me know if there is something you really want a picture of and I'll try and get it. Also, not related at all, my home cell phone is not working so I am missing like a hundred phone numbers. If you know I had yours you should feel free to email/facebook it to me so I can have it again. We had a party today at school, more on that early next week along with a slew of updates, it was pretty interesting for sure...

Sakau en Pohnpei
Pre-apologies for the lack of pictures here, it would help to give you an idea of what exactly I'm trying to describe

Sakau (better known in the U.S. as kava, although this is the similar plant from the South Pacific, i.e. Fiji... remember, Micronesia is a few degrees above the equator so part of the North Pacific) is an incredibly important plant here. Traditionally, sakau (pronounced sock-ou (like ouch)) has held a high place in the customs and spiritual beliefs of Pohnpeans, and even today, it infuses much of the life here. So, the skinny on this thing is that number one, you drink it (you don't smoke it folks) and it is pounded on a large rock then mixed with water and massaged and worked until a nice thick gooey drink is produced. The watery, mucusy pulp is strained through hibiscus bark as well. What is it? you may be asking. Sakau (and kava) is the root of a plant in the pepper (like black pepper) family (pardon my lack of botanical knowledge here). The plant is harvested roots and all then the roots removed from the green leafy part and then trimmed. The roots are then pounded with a few rocks on a large flat rock until broken up then mixed with water and the process above is generally followed.
There are a couple of different ways in which sakau is prepared and used. Traditionally, sakau was prepared and drank at any ceremonial occasion like birthdays, feasts, funerals, etc. The whole process of preparation and drinking was fairly ritualized with all kinds of rules of who gets the first through fourth drinks. Because Pohnpei has a "chief/king" system similar to South Pacific or Polynesian cultures, the "chief" (the Nanmwarki) is always the first to drink, then he passes the drink to the next three in line for partaking, but then anyone can drink. Sakua has a calming affect on the body and mind, the effects are subtle and not super intense, but after a few rounds and glasses you definitely feel like you just want to relax, sit back, and enjoy life by just being.
As with all cultures and places, things change. Sakau has moved from an entirely traditional drink to being a recreational one as well. Most people here hold the drink in incredibly high regards and it is considered to be a way to enjoy the evening, welcome newcomers, but also is still used in the traditional ways (at funerals, celebrations, etc.) Interestingly, when conflict arrises and needs dealing with (usually among various families, for instance if someone has been harmed, murdered, mortally offended, etc) the first thing that all involved do before even talking about whatever particular incident or crime is drink a few rounds of sakau, this is also a traditional use of the drink. I haven't noticed much of any conflict around, but avoiding conflict and not bringing this out into the open is part of the culture here as well. Not to say that conflict and violence are not here, of course they are, and domestic abuse is becoming more and more an issue. This seems to be mostly the result though of the breakdown of the extended family living situation and the adoption more and more of a western-style "nuclear family model" (any gasps of surprise here?... not from me).
The extended family here is still incredibly important, and family is priority number one in the lives of pretty much everyone. Being such a small island (about 30,000 population), everyone knows everyone and many people are related in some way or another (usually by some kind of 'cousin' relationship). It is disconcerting at times because lots of people have begun to recognize me as I walk around, most of whom I have never met before. I digress from sakau though.
There are two ways to drink sakau, 'from the rock' as they say, or from a bottle. The differences are slight but profound, any traditional use of sakau is done 'from the rock' meaning that the sakau is prepared at the particular local, from root to drink all in one evening and session. You drink sakau out of a coconut shell in this instance and it is much thicker and dense than drinking from the bottle. When families prepare sakau in bottles it is usually done on the same day as well, but the mixture is strained before being put into old alcohol bottles or just glass bottles that come from where I am not sure. You have to purchase these bottles for a few dollars, whereas drinking from the rock is usually done with sakau provided by the participants or your own sakau from your own land (again, all the land in Pohnpei is owned in some fashion or another by families and most agricultural plants, like sakau, breadfruit, bananas, mango, have been either recently but more often seeded long ago).

Among our group of volunteers (total there is 10 of us on the island from WorldTeach), there is mixed eagerness about sakau. I think I am probably the most enthusiastic of the bunch, because I enjoy the relaxing mellow affects, don't mind the taste (which is sort of earthy creamy), and feel like it is a simple and effective way to embrace the local culture (people really like it when menwih (say men-why, which is the word for outsiders i.e. white people mostly) love their sakau). Not that everyone in the group doesn't like it, but they don't seem super excited about it, especially after trying it a few times, maybe it upsets their stomach or they don't really enjoy the flavor let's say, but either way, we are a flexible bunch and have taken the occasion to drink with locals. I had by first experience of sakau off the rock a few days ago which was much different and more traditional than drinking from the bottle. They even have local sakau "bars" where you can drink your fill for about six dollars.
Alcohol here is not that respected for a variety of reasons, in fact, the municipality that my roommate and I live in is a dry municipality and there is no alcohol available and really it isn't allowed (although if you don't go wild and drunkenly roam the road or forest it's tolerated). Alcohol has caused many problems here in the past and currently as well and many people feel that it's something that islanders haven't had around for any period, don't really know how to handle, and just generally is a bad thing. I take comfort in both that many of these people have such knowledge of how alcohol affects them and limits it's intake and also in the fact that my ancestors have been drinking for a long long time. This lack of alcohol consumption is partly the reason that any good beer is such a hard to come by thing (and the fact that importing a microbrew here just doesn't make any sense economically). Speaking of, I think that there is the potential for developing a great Micronesian beer if someone is interested (ok, so I am, but it's really just a pipe dream more than likely, especially with my great affinity for business and capitalism..ahem)