Just some random pictures. no writing today
Sarah at Nan Madol
It's the welcome center!
Matt arrives at the staff party
the water is so blue and warm, i'm getting out to this little island asap
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
More from Ant
Just a short note, I am relishing in the fact that I had (and will again) the chance to go snorkel in probably one of the more remote and pristine coral atolls in the world. Micronesia being so expensive to get to and what not, I promise to try and not take it for granted. The whole day trip made me really crave a dive or two on the coral wall we snorkeled in. I could see all the way to the bottom, what a change from diving the chilly waters of the Puget Sound...
Coral coral coral
attempt to document the ride out to Ant
We finally are swimming in the ocean off a beach!
Just a short note, I am relishing in the fact that I had (and will again) the chance to go snorkel in probably one of the more remote and pristine coral atolls in the world. Micronesia being so expensive to get to and what not, I promise to try and not take it for granted. The whole day trip made me really crave a dive or two on the coral wall we snorkeled in. I could see all the way to the bottom, what a change from diving the chilly waters of the Puget Sound...
Coral coral coral
attempt to document the ride out to Ant
We finally are swimming in the ocean off a beach!
amazing coral
approaching the atoll
On the way out, its wet
erin, captain, lucas, ira, sarah, isaac
Ant Atoll
Last weekend a group of ten of use decided to take a day trip to one of the atolls outside the reef of Pohnpei. A brief geography (or is it hydrography?) of many pacific islands and what the hell and atoll is... After part of volanic islands sink into the ocean, a fringe of coral reef is left surrounding the remaining island. This reef forms a barrier around said islands, protecting them and their shores from the battering that the ocean puts on such islands. Atolls on the other hand, have almost nearly completely sank beneath the ocean and all that remains is a sort of string of land in the open ocean. Ant atoll is a serious of small islands (maybe three or four) about sixty miles from Pohnpei. The atoll is uninhabitated although at one point about or over a thousand people lived on there. Now, the place is a day trip or overnight visit for tourists and locals who can manage to get out to it. We took a trip with a boat and paid way too much money to go, but the trip was well worth it, at least for the first time. Even though it was stormy and rainy the whole way there and while we were at the atoll.
Ant has probably some of the most amazing pristine coral reef in the world. Very few visitors go the atoll, so we saw only two other people and their guides while there and didn't ever actually interact. We started the day just swimming and snorkeling off the beach checking out coral heads in spots. Lots of fish and interesting coral were there and we managed to spot a large sting-ray who was sort of chilling at the bottom covered in just a bit of sand. The eyes on this one were amazing and the whole thing sort of blew my mind.
After visiting another small beach and drying off in a shelter of sorts and eating lunch, we decided to head back, and stop at a coral wall near the channel leading out of the atoll to snorkel. This channel was the most amazing thing I have ever seen with plenty of various kinds of fish that I can't even begin to name. A shark, or maybe it was two were lazily swimming back and forth maybe 20 feet below us the whole time which was absolutely breathtaking. I have learned, or started to, to not fear these amazing creatures as they are most often not a threat to humans and there are next to no stories of any kind of attacks on humans on Pohnpei or the surrounding atolls. There are some pictures of the trip that a kindly guy, Ira, snapped some photos of on the trip (those waterproof 10 ft. depth cameras are the best thing is this climate and region).
our boat captain..."no pictures please"
Side-note, on the way out, still in the lagoon, one of the boat engines wouldn't start which delayed the trip by maybe 45 minutes. After returning to the dock and getting everything working. Our captain took us speedily out of the lagoon and into the open ocean, this boat ride was akin to a roller coaster but with lots of splashing ocean water and oft-times pelting rain on us. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and found the whole thing fun and amusing, not so sure about some of my fellow riders however. Many of them found that they were actually shivering and cold which is a bit of an odd feeling when you are residing nearly on the equator on a tropical island. The ride back, although the waves were larger, was much smoother as the captain of the boat took the ride much slower and expertly navigate up and down the large swells that we encountered.
the way out, wet as hell
Nice beach....about time
Again, sorry the delay or lapse in getting anything up on this blog. I find myself torn between just experiencing the whole thing and also the business of teaching and actually doing stuff and sitting down to write about the things that I do/am experiencing.
Also, I find myself walking a fine line between sort of making the people I am getting to know and the places I visit into strange objects to post about on the internet for the world to see. It raises interesting questions about the role of outsiders in observing and participating in other cultures and sort of integrating to another place and culture. I've begun to realize the harsh reality of coming to know people as friends and colleagues and then returning to my "home" to forget the whole experience or let it drift into memories. On that note, I am still seriously considering staying here for a second year, despite the fact that I have begun to miss my family and friends and the things they are doing. Overall though, the experience is worth the expense of missing out on so much (no offense to the friends and family I am not around and the things I am missing, have missed, and will continue to be absent from)
I have numerous things to write about in the moment, realizations about culture, outsider status, and more, but often forget to write then can't recall those thoughts when I sit down to type out something to share on this blog. (total tangent, but hello to any U.S. officials and WorldTeach folks who check up on their respective members who are traveling and writing on the internet, I hope you enjoy everything I share as well, wink wink, nudge nudge, and don't worry, I wouldn't put anything I didn't want the world to see up on the internet for anyone's eyes who can lay there hands on a computer and search for Pohnpei, worldteach, volunteer, etc...)
The first quarter of school is drawing to a close and I still find myself struggling with the whole being a teacher, teaching esl, and general classroom management issues that many new teachers probably face. I am learning a lot about all of these things, as well as how to survive without a sink big enough to put a plate in, how to wash clothing by hand (and appreciate the revolution that the clothes washer made for, mostly, women), hot running water, and numerous other aqutrimants (SP?) of a more privileged live in the United States that I a used to. I am also realizing much about class and how that affects ones perspectives of the world and how my perspective is often radically different than many people who do volunteer work such as this (and how much they have traveled the world).
Also, I find myself walking a fine line between sort of making the people I am getting to know and the places I visit into strange objects to post about on the internet for the world to see. It raises interesting questions about the role of outsiders in observing and participating in other cultures and sort of integrating to another place and culture. I've begun to realize the harsh reality of coming to know people as friends and colleagues and then returning to my "home" to forget the whole experience or let it drift into memories. On that note, I am still seriously considering staying here for a second year, despite the fact that I have begun to miss my family and friends and the things they are doing. Overall though, the experience is worth the expense of missing out on so much (no offense to the friends and family I am not around and the things I am missing, have missed, and will continue to be absent from)
I have numerous things to write about in the moment, realizations about culture, outsider status, and more, but often forget to write then can't recall those thoughts when I sit down to type out something to share on this blog. (total tangent, but hello to any U.S. officials and WorldTeach folks who check up on their respective members who are traveling and writing on the internet, I hope you enjoy everything I share as well, wink wink, nudge nudge, and don't worry, I wouldn't put anything I didn't want the world to see up on the internet for anyone's eyes who can lay there hands on a computer and search for Pohnpei, worldteach, volunteer, etc...)
The first quarter of school is drawing to a close and I still find myself struggling with the whole being a teacher, teaching esl, and general classroom management issues that many new teachers probably face. I am learning a lot about all of these things, as well as how to survive without a sink big enough to put a plate in, how to wash clothing by hand (and appreciate the revolution that the clothes washer made for, mostly, women), hot running water, and numerous other aqutrimants (SP?) of a more privileged live in the United States that I a used to. I am also realizing much about class and how that affects ones perspectives of the world and how my perspective is often radically different than many people who do volunteer work such as this (and how much they have traveled the world).
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
The Uninvited Guest
So last night I was watching a movie with Robert Dinero, sort of a thriller-creapy killer kind of flic. I heard some random noises from the kitchen but hey, figure it is just the "wind". I go to grab a small bit of chocolate before heading off to bed, walk into the kitchen room and go to unplug my cell phone from charging.
Thump... and a good sized (not the biggest I've seen, ahem dish pit wall hole...) friendly rat thumps it way down from the cupboard area, onto the scuba gear bag, and down behind the refrigerator (quaintly referred to by many as "ice boxes", is that British, where does that come from?!?.).
So needless to say the next day or two will be a revamping of food storage, clean up project, and general feng-shui'ing of the place. I do like rats, something left over from that book R.T. Margaret and The Rats of Nimh, but I'm thinking that an uninvited guest, who I'm certain was trying to nibble, and did, on the taco shells (ever heard the phrase, "don't shit where you eat") needs to banish itself to the outer worlds of the homestead... rat poisen traps anyone, an early christmas gift maybe?
not quick enough for a picture of this one... sorry, maybe when it's dead
So last night I was watching a movie with Robert Dinero, sort of a thriller-creapy killer kind of flic. I heard some random noises from the kitchen but hey, figure it is just the "wind". I go to grab a small bit of chocolate before heading off to bed, walk into the kitchen room and go to unplug my cell phone from charging.
Thump... and a good sized (not the biggest I've seen, ahem dish pit wall hole...) friendly rat thumps it way down from the cupboard area, onto the scuba gear bag, and down behind the refrigerator (quaintly referred to by many as "ice boxes", is that British, where does that come from?!?.).
So needless to say the next day or two will be a revamping of food storage, clean up project, and general feng-shui'ing of the place. I do like rats, something left over from that book R.T. Margaret and The Rats of Nimh, but I'm thinking that an uninvited guest, who I'm certain was trying to nibble, and did, on the taco shells (ever heard the phrase, "don't shit where you eat") needs to banish itself to the outer worlds of the homestead... rat poisen traps anyone, an early christmas gift maybe?
not quick enough for a picture of this one... sorry, maybe when it's dead
Women's Weekend by the house
local bananas
earth oven "uhm" baked pig
The other weekend there was a large gathering on the campus where we live.
...tangent...
We live on the campus of what was once the "Pohnpei Agricultural and Trade School" aka PATS (sounds like some guys property whenever I say it... "I live at Pat's") The school was a sort-of private high school set up by a Jesuit priest many decades ago. Unfortunately, the school closed down about 10 years ago, money issues I hear, so many of the buildings sit empty and unused. Many of the houses are rented out to families (the church parish on Pats runs and up-keeps the property) and one or two of the class buildings are still used as well (that's where the PeaceCorps does it's training for new volunteers). I'll take a few pictures to put up of the place. The house we live in is nothing to write home about, even though that's sort of what I'm doing... it's tiny, an old dorm room (2 of em, attached with a bathroom with two doors, weird) and one of the bedrooms is now our "kitchen", but that might be a bit of an overstatement. I'm adjusting to it though, it still sucks to not have a proper kitchen sink though.
Back to the gathering. About 200 or so women (catholic I think, from all over the island) came this weekend to spend three days and two nights doing something. This meant that usually what is a quiet place was turned into a thriving center of activity. On Saturday night, the women performed some dancing and singing routines for about three hours which was pretty entertaining. I drank sakau with the neighbor's family and then went up to check out the festivities. Was pretty interesting and I walked up to find one of the new PeaceCorps dancing it up in the midst of all these Pohnpeians, which was pretty highly amusing. I perused the crowd, chatting here and there with some friendly locals and some of the Peace Corps volunteers.
The next morning I went to the church almost next to our house to find the place packed with a ton of women all dressed in white. Instead of going in and sitting down, I hung out outside the front door with a few locals for the service, it was way to hot and I didn't want to crowd in next to a bunch of people. It is interesting to sit through a church service in another language, but it makes it go faster I think. It always strike me as somewhat ironic that people who have been missionized to hell (no pun intended) by Christianity from whatever native spiritual beliefs tend to be the quite "religious". In any case, going to church here is really common and sort of expected. Then the question comes of course "are you catholic or protestant?". I usually read the situation and answer what I think the person is most interested in hearing, but if I feel like a bit more honest, I say something to the affect of not really believing in divisions, and "it's all the same god" kind of thing.
After church, there was a day of eating, more dancing, singing, and drinking sakau in the community nahs here (i'll just have to get a picture of this thing, because describing it wouldn't do it justice really), but basically an roofed open-air room for gathering. I spent the day listening to some speeches, drinking sakau, and being pulled up to dance once (which everyone got a kick out of, maybe residual humor from the welcome party dancing, news of which made it half-way across the island in about a week).
By the end, large amounts of cooked pig, skirts, ramen, coconuts, and other such items were distributed by an old woman to various groups of people, the logic and nature of this distribution I have yet to figure out, but my guess is that it had something to do with personal titles (which I won't try to explain) and previous years gatherings as well. Part of the culture here seems to be giving things away in mass quantity to other people, which I would guess makes sense on an island in the middle of the pacific, sort of like a kind of social-economic equalizer of sorts.
...tangent...
We live on the campus of what was once the "Pohnpei Agricultural and Trade School" aka PATS (sounds like some guys property whenever I say it... "I live at Pat's") The school was a sort-of private high school set up by a Jesuit priest many decades ago. Unfortunately, the school closed down about 10 years ago, money issues I hear, so many of the buildings sit empty and unused. Many of the houses are rented out to families (the church parish on Pats runs and up-keeps the property) and one or two of the class buildings are still used as well (that's where the PeaceCorps does it's training for new volunteers). I'll take a few pictures to put up of the place. The house we live in is nothing to write home about, even though that's sort of what I'm doing... it's tiny, an old dorm room (2 of em, attached with a bathroom with two doors, weird) and one of the bedrooms is now our "kitchen", but that might be a bit of an overstatement. I'm adjusting to it though, it still sucks to not have a proper kitchen sink though.
Back to the gathering. About 200 or so women (catholic I think, from all over the island) came this weekend to spend three days and two nights doing something. This meant that usually what is a quiet place was turned into a thriving center of activity. On Saturday night, the women performed some dancing and singing routines for about three hours which was pretty entertaining. I drank sakau with the neighbor's family and then went up to check out the festivities. Was pretty interesting and I walked up to find one of the new PeaceCorps dancing it up in the midst of all these Pohnpeians, which was pretty highly amusing. I perused the crowd, chatting here and there with some friendly locals and some of the Peace Corps volunteers.
The next morning I went to the church almost next to our house to find the place packed with a ton of women all dressed in white. Instead of going in and sitting down, I hung out outside the front door with a few locals for the service, it was way to hot and I didn't want to crowd in next to a bunch of people. It is interesting to sit through a church service in another language, but it makes it go faster I think. It always strike me as somewhat ironic that people who have been missionized to hell (no pun intended) by Christianity from whatever native spiritual beliefs tend to be the quite "religious". In any case, going to church here is really common and sort of expected. Then the question comes of course "are you catholic or protestant?". I usually read the situation and answer what I think the person is most interested in hearing, but if I feel like a bit more honest, I say something to the affect of not really believing in divisions, and "it's all the same god" kind of thing.
After church, there was a day of eating, more dancing, singing, and drinking sakau in the community nahs here (i'll just have to get a picture of this thing, because describing it wouldn't do it justice really), but basically an roofed open-air room for gathering. I spent the day listening to some speeches, drinking sakau, and being pulled up to dance once (which everyone got a kick out of, maybe residual humor from the welcome party dancing, news of which made it half-way across the island in about a week).
By the end, large amounts of cooked pig, skirts, ramen, coconuts, and other such items were distributed by an old woman to various groups of people, the logic and nature of this distribution I have yet to figure out, but my guess is that it had something to do with personal titles (which I won't try to explain) and previous years gatherings as well. Part of the culture here seems to be giving things away in mass quantity to other people, which I would guess makes sense on an island in the middle of the pacific, sort of like a kind of social-economic equalizer of sorts.
sakau roots being sorted
sakau roots and plant
sakau being pounded by some neighbors
sakau being kneaded to drink
What do you do at school, some of you might be wondering, or what are your classes like, so I'll give a short description of each of my six classes (thanks to Regina's blog from Kosrae for the inspiration to do this).
I rotate through all the juniors in the school each day and one class of sophomores. The students are divided into sections sort of by "majors", but this doesn't necessarily correspond to their english speaking level which makes things interesting (although it does sort of generally). My impression is that of the three high schools, the english level in Madoleniehmw is on average the lowest. These are in chronological order.
11-D
My first class of the day, it has gone from being my second largest to my smallest, right now I'm down to about 12-13 students who show up every day. I should be thankful, most of the volunteers on the island have big classes (ranging from 25-45). These guys are probably the most respectful generally, they are the vocational group, so the least academic. They work hard though and are a smart group but need help with their english.
11-C
My second period is a class of all girls (14 of them) which proves to be highly interesting. They are the business majors, and again are generally pretty respectful. I think I misinterpret their attempts at flirting for disrespect a lot, so they end up saying things (in Pohnpeian) and laughing a whole lot which leaves me flustered and frustrated sometimes. I am learning to just roll with it and realize that they just like me and I interpret it in really strange ways.
11-A
I have this class twice each day which is sometimes a struggle for all of us, there are about 20 of them. They are the top academic students of their grade which of course is good and bad. Smart students who have been treated like the smartest can sometimes be the most self-rightous and "know I'm smart" of all. I'm making a generalization about a group, so it's not true down to individuals (although maybe sometimes, yes). They are generally highly amusing, but they want to teach me Pohnpeian as much or maybe more than I teach them english, which is frustrating. I might be getting a squirt gun to start enforcing some english only days in this class. They are high achievers though and generally there english is the best of my classes.
11-B
My class after lunch is oft-times so crazy I don't what to do with them. About 20 students, I would say that regularly about 6-8 come in almost halfway through class (the bell is pretty much inaudible during lunch and the elementary students have lunch for about 15-20 more minutes after our classes have started, so I usually have an audience and peanut gallery outside my windows). I have struggled with these students, some of whom I really like and enjoy. A few of them like to laugh uproariously and sometimes they set me off laughing which is not the best thing, but it's almost uncontrollable (my laughter that is).
10-D
This class is probably the craziest and least disciplined in all the school (don't ask me why I ended up with them, my discipline skills, as I'm sure you can imagine, are not super honed). Numerous other teachers have said as much and they have struggled with this class. There are about 30 of them and it's the end of the day when I get them. Couple this fact with their lack of english textbooks and I'm left to sort of fend for myself (of them off) for the period a lot. I have learned to find amusement in this class, but many times I just leaved pissed off. I've resorted to using a lot of journal prompts for them (most recently, if you could have any superpower what would it be).
A general note about education here, for someone who likes to do things in a not very traditional way, this school system is a super-challange. Students here expect to copy everything down, question and answer included, and do a lot of work right out of the book (which is not very useful for ESL students, the book that is), but they do get something out of it. I am still surprised when I give book exercises my students are the best behaved and respond fairly well. Discussions, lectures, games, or other such activities are way outside their bounds and they often times don't know what to do with these things. They also strive for perfection, so often times will just start over on new paper if a couple things go wrong for them.
I rotate through all the juniors in the school each day and one class of sophomores. The students are divided into sections sort of by "majors", but this doesn't necessarily correspond to their english speaking level which makes things interesting (although it does sort of generally). My impression is that of the three high schools, the english level in Madoleniehmw is on average the lowest. These are in chronological order.
11-D
My first class of the day, it has gone from being my second largest to my smallest, right now I'm down to about 12-13 students who show up every day. I should be thankful, most of the volunteers on the island have big classes (ranging from 25-45). These guys are probably the most respectful generally, they are the vocational group, so the least academic. They work hard though and are a smart group but need help with their english.
11-C
My second period is a class of all girls (14 of them) which proves to be highly interesting. They are the business majors, and again are generally pretty respectful. I think I misinterpret their attempts at flirting for disrespect a lot, so they end up saying things (in Pohnpeian) and laughing a whole lot which leaves me flustered and frustrated sometimes. I am learning to just roll with it and realize that they just like me and I interpret it in really strange ways.
11-A
I have this class twice each day which is sometimes a struggle for all of us, there are about 20 of them. They are the top academic students of their grade which of course is good and bad. Smart students who have been treated like the smartest can sometimes be the most self-rightous and "know I'm smart" of all. I'm making a generalization about a group, so it's not true down to individuals (although maybe sometimes, yes). They are generally highly amusing, but they want to teach me Pohnpeian as much or maybe more than I teach them english, which is frustrating. I might be getting a squirt gun to start enforcing some english only days in this class. They are high achievers though and generally there english is the best of my classes.
11-B
My class after lunch is oft-times so crazy I don't what to do with them. About 20 students, I would say that regularly about 6-8 come in almost halfway through class (the bell is pretty much inaudible during lunch and the elementary students have lunch for about 15-20 more minutes after our classes have started, so I usually have an audience and peanut gallery outside my windows). I have struggled with these students, some of whom I really like and enjoy. A few of them like to laugh uproariously and sometimes they set me off laughing which is not the best thing, but it's almost uncontrollable (my laughter that is).
10-D
This class is probably the craziest and least disciplined in all the school (don't ask me why I ended up with them, my discipline skills, as I'm sure you can imagine, are not super honed). Numerous other teachers have said as much and they have struggled with this class. There are about 30 of them and it's the end of the day when I get them. Couple this fact with their lack of english textbooks and I'm left to sort of fend for myself (of them off) for the period a lot. I have learned to find amusement in this class, but many times I just leaved pissed off. I've resorted to using a lot of journal prompts for them (most recently, if you could have any superpower what would it be).
A general note about education here, for someone who likes to do things in a not very traditional way, this school system is a super-challange. Students here expect to copy everything down, question and answer included, and do a lot of work right out of the book (which is not very useful for ESL students, the book that is), but they do get something out of it. I am still surprised when I give book exercises my students are the best behaved and respond fairly well. Discussions, lectures, games, or other such activities are way outside their bounds and they often times don't know what to do with these things. They also strive for perfection, so often times will just start over on new paper if a couple things go wrong for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)