Getting in Shape

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As I mentioned before, over here in Micronesia I don’t do much except eat and sit. Between times of eating and sitting I usually lie down, eat some more and sit some more. My point is that I don’t do much physical activity. The reasons are two fold. The main reason is that it is ridiculously hot, so people do a lot of sitting in the shade. “The Dude” in the Big Lebowski has the title of the laziest man in Los Angeles County, which puts him up there for laziest worldwide. However, I believe that Micronesians are most likely the laziest people on earth. I think “the dude” would fit in just fine over here. I am not degrading Micronesians by pointing out their laziness; they happily admit to their indolence and actually take pride in their stubborn adherence to lassitude. Sometimes they can work with surprising vigor and enthusiasm to accomplish tasks of farming, fishing and food preparation. However, most of the time they prefer to sit or lie down during most of the hours of the day. I have come to accept this lifestyle and spend much of time sitting around in deep philosophical concentration or idle-minded stupor.

The other reason for the lack of sporting activity is the lack of space and resources to play games and sports. These small islands are dense with jungle and rise steeply from the shore to tall volcanic peaks. Flat dry land is hard to come by; the little portions that do exist are covered in houses or farms. There is no space for soccer fields, baseball diamonds or basketball courts. Fields and courts do exist in some places, but they are few and far between. The only two sports that people play over here are volleyball and basketball. Mainly volleyball. The youth loves black American culture and emulates it in dress, music and style; so naturally they are also attracted to basketball. They feel that it makes them gangster to play ball. Regardless of the reasons, I do appreciate that they like basketball over here. However, there a lack of courts so only a select few actually get to play. Volleyball on the other hand is much easier to organize. All you need is a small flat place with two palm trees to tie a net to. They are very good at volleyball and even the amateurs always seem to perform the standard “bump, set, spike”.

I do work out with stretchy bands and a single weight sometimes in my room, but only on some occasions. I do a decent amount of pushups and try to work in some situps, but not to the level that I maintained back in America during my rugby season. On another note, I was very disappointed upon my arrival in Micronesia to find they had no idea about what the sport of rugby was.

I was told that the main sport throughout the Pacific Islands was rugby. Fiji, Tonga and Somoa produce some of the best rugby players in the world. These large, strong, fast islanders are perfect for the quick moving, rugged game of rugby. Pursuing the hope that I would be assigned to one of these islands, I took up the sport of rugby in the year before I left. I had an amazing time learning this gruesome sport and found that I was rather good at it. I am very fast and love to tackle people. In actuality, it is probably better suited for me than football. My small stature is not as much of a disadvantage and the style of play utilizes my attitude of reckless abandon and utter disregard for my body.

To my chagrin, there is no rugby in Micronesia. As I explained, the landmasses are too small to support fields necessary for the sport. Also the population is segmented amongst thousands of islands, so it is difficult to get enough people together that are crazy enough to pound their unprotected heads together in a scrum. The third reason is that Micronesia has been controlled and colonized by America, not England or France. English and French play rugby, so they brought the sport along with them to their Pacific colonies. Americans play basketball and volleyball, so they brought those sports to Micronesia. The combination of the factors of small land, small population, and non-rugby loving colonizers led to the lack of rugby in Micronesia.

At my two training sites on Pohnpei and Tonoas, my house was situated in the very near vicinity of a basketball court. I could play anytime I wanted in my free time to satisfy my needs for competition and exercise. However on Fefan, the closest court is about 40 minutes away at the large church. I make my way down there sometimes, but it is a lengthy production to make it happen. I hope to maybe build a basketball here in my village of Ununno, but that will be a possible future endeavor after I complete the construction of the water tank. Luckily, I was presented with an opportunity to get more involved in basketball. I was invited to be part of a basketball league. I will be representing my mother’s home island of Parem, because our UFO team is already full. The games will officially start in the New Year and I am excited to ball up some Micronesians and show them how we do things around basketball courts in America.

My exercise repertoire was further enhanced by a chance event that took place a couple of weeks ago. I was relaxing down by the ocean and waiting for my family to return from Weno. The little kids were running races on the small grassy straightaway near the dock. Then a few older guys started getting involved. I was feeling rather lazy at the moment and wasn’t enthused to jump up and run with the group, so I just sat and relaxed. After a little while, one of the local boys challenged me to a race. Well, I am never one to turn down a challenge so I hopped up and sauntered over to the group of runners. We both took off and raced about 50 meters….zip, zam, zoom, I beat him by a landslide. Everyone was a little surprised and immediately another guy came up and challenged me. Once again, I left him in my dust. Then a third guy walked up to the starting line and demanded a race. He kept close on my coattails, but I still smoked him. Apparently, this third guy was the fastest man in the village. Everyone was amazed.

From that point on I have been bombarded with comments about my running abilities. I am expected to run in the Fefan Track & Field Games in January and lead my village to victory. I have begun to practice with the kids almost every day and work to get in better shape. Unfortunately, I strained by quad muscle and really haven’t been able to sprint since that first day of introduction races. However, I have now started jogging in the mornings to keep myself going. I know that I have always been fast and I enjoyed pretty good success as a sprinter in high school, but I am not sure that I can live up to the lofty expectations that my village has placed on me. They say that two other “Johns” have been the only island champions from Ununno in the past, so it seems natural that I will win all my races and add to the legend of John. I am excited about these upcoming races, but am a little bit anxious because I am in the worst shape of my life. All I do is eat, sleep, sit and eat. My pants don’t even fit any more. I honestly don’t button them anymore; I just use a belt to keep them up. I haven’t weighed myself since I’ve been here but I assume I am much fatter than at any point in my life. So, I might not showcase my peak performance at the track meet next month but at least I will be in a little better shape than now. I will keep you all updated with the results. 

Cheerful Chuukese Christmas Charm

This Christmas was the first time in my life that I was not in the company of my loving family in the comfort of a cheery home exquisitely decorated for the winter festivities. In fact, every member of my immediate family has been together for every single Christmas throughout our lives. This year, I broke the streak. I didn’t spend any time lying docilely by the fireplace sipping hot chocolate while I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I didn’t string my favorite ornaments on the brightly lit Christmas tree in the living room. I didn’t brave the crowds and go on a mad shopping rampage at the last moment to try to gather presents for all my loved ones. I didn’t eat prime rib or twice baked potatoes or any of the feasting delicacies that I have become accustomed to during the holiday season. I didn’t awake in the morning to find any presents from Santa Claus. I didn’t wear a Christmas sweater. (If I tried to wear a sweater, I would probably die from heat exhaustion.)

The lack of my beloved Christmas traditions and absence of family and friends definitely put a damper on the day; and for the first time I felt a little bit homesick. However, Chuukese Christmas still provided a wonderful day of fun and happiness. Some of the stores on Weno played Christmas carols in the days leading up to the big day and many of them were also decorated with fern leaf wreaths and sparkling lights. This provided a slice of the exciting consumerism that pervades the holiday season. This was also my first Christmas that had a strong religious significance. The birth of Christ isn’t exactly the central focus of my family’s Christmas at home, however things are a little more pious over here.

To get a taste of the American Christmas traditions, the volunteer community here in Chuuk gathered together for a holiday party on the 23^rd.  In addition to Peace Corps volunteers, there are Jesuit Volunteers (JVI’s), Japanese volunteers and Australian volunteers. None of them live with host families like we do, and none of them integrate into the society to the level that we do; nonetheless they are also sacrificing a year or two away from home to educate the youngsters of Micronesia. The Jesuit volunteers have an apartment on the main island of Weno and invited us all over for a Christmas party. Only a couple of us Peace Corps volunteers could make it, but there was a substantial group of other various volunteers in attendance.

We built a gingerbread house. We ate candy canes. We listened to Christmas music.  They even had a Christmas tree. We decided to try our best to make a holiday feast. We got some instant mash potatoes, stuffing and a case of frozen chicken. We pooled our resources and pulled together a pretty decent meal to celebrate Christmas. We drank some wine and danced to Christmas carols throughout the night. It was really nice to celebrate with Americans and get to fulfill some of our Christmas desires.

I returned to Fefan on Christmas Eve and ate a normal meal of rice, taro and fish. Not exactly the usual spread that covers my dining room table back in the states. At about 9pm we gathered as a family and began to walk down to the main church (Mission), which is about 40 minutes away. We arrived in the neighboring town of Onongoch and came together with hundreds of other Fefanese. At 10pm we all started a giant procession up to the fabulous church building. We were lead by a series of 4 giant torches and the group sang Chuukese Christmas songs as we ambled towards the midnight mass. We came to the giant church on the hill that overlooks the beautiful ocean, and then funneled ourselves into the building. I actually sat outside because it was so crowded, but I rather enjoyed my view from the exterior. There was a radiant waning moon rising above the shimmering white bell towers of the Church that created a brilliant ambiance around the area. A special Christmas mass then ensued with an extra level of ostentatious rituals. Everyone kissed a plastic doll of baby Jesus on the forehead and listened attentively to the priest until well after midnight. Then early on the Christmas morning we gathered together again and began our long walk back home. I slunk into bed around 1am and dreamed of sugar plum fairies and candy cane castles.

The next morning I was awoken by shrieks of young voices. However, these weren’t cries of excitement at the gifts that Santa bestowed upon the small children in my house, but instead screams of random arguments that often transpire in the early hours of the morning between the little munchkins. We relaxed for a while and then took off on another walk to the Church for Christmas day mass. We were entertained again by a flurry of white clad priests performing holy tasks in honor of Jesus birthday party. It was very interesting to have a Christmas entirely focused on the birth of Christ. I mean, that really is the reason that we have Christmas. The Christmas season has come to symbolize so much more like love, family, happiness, presents, Santa Claus and a whole mess of doodads and whizzlenuts. I guess it was kind of nice to remember true purpose behind celebrating Christmas.

We very leisurely walked back to our village of Ununno and took a couple of hours to complete our journey. We stopped along the way to relax and take in the serene beauty that surrounded us. The pathway was crowded with churchgoers and we had many conversations with people along the way. We came back to our village and attended a meeting that was full of long-winded seemingly meaningless speeches that characterize all of the meetings here in Chuuk. After an hour or two of listening to formal discourses on the something about something, we ate a big meal and then everyone scattered back to their homes. My favorite part of the Christmas day was a present exchange that was organized by the church youth. All of the youngsters (including me) were assigned a partner and bought a little present for their Christmas buddy. We all came together and a couple people led a ceremony of handing out presents. To accept your present you were supposed to dance your way up to the stage as they played a little snipit of a song for you. Most people were lazy and just walked up to grab their gift. However, I knew that the little girl that was my partner particularly liked dancing. So when it was my turn I boogied my way up to the presents and then grabbed her hand and brought her up to dance with me. The crowd erupted in laughter and I had the feeling that it made her feel pretty special. I guess it was good that I performed this little gesture, because she got me a way better present than I got her, haha. There was supposedly a $5 limit so I just got her a Christmas ornament and some candy canes. She got me a brand new fancy Hawaiian shirt and a gigantic basket filled with fresh island vegetables.

I returned home and relaxed with the family for the rest of the night. I put on some Christmas music from my computer and the little kids danced in circles to the sound of jingling silver bells. I also gave out small presents to my family of flashlights, can openers and candy. It was a good ending to Christmas and I fell asleep a happy camper. I was very worried that I would be upset because of the lack of Christmas spirit and traditions that are so prevalent in America, however I happily accepted the Chuukese style of celebrating this wonderful holiday. Undoubtedly I would have rather spent my holiday in the presence of my family and friends back home, however part of my Peace Corps experience is to challenge my personal status quo and step outside my comfort zone.

Merry Christmas to everyone back home!!!!!!!

Sleep?

My body has quickly made the adjustment to my different sleep schedule and my homeostatic levels have normalized into a regular pattern. In America, I could never fall asleep before midnight unless I was gravely ill. If I got into bed before midnight then I would just stay up and twiddle my thumbs until sleepiness finally came upon me. My normal sleep schedule was from sometime after midnight until 9 or 10ish in the morning. If I were somehow awoken before 9am then my entire day would be become worthless. I would be a sluggish blob of laziness and drag my feet through the daylight hours of the afternoon. I am fully aware that this was a very unique pattern that I developed based on my ridiculous college antics and job situation in the last 5 or 6 years. Nonetheless, these habits of late nights and late mornings were deeply engrained in my system.

When I arrived in Micronesia, I was greeted with the harsh reality of living by the sunlight. It gets dark around 6pm and the sunrises around 5am here in Chuuk every single day of the year, because we are nearly on the equator and there aren’t really seasons. When the sun goes down, it becomes very dark immediately. It is a curious phenomenon about life on the equator, the quickness that darkness descends when the sun drops below the horizon.  When dark comes, there aren’t street lights to cast a pale yellow glow throughout the village, and there is no electricity to brighten our houses and power the flicker of our televisions. My family usually lights a couple of kerosene lanterns and often run our gas-powered generator. We are fairly wealthy so we have the luxury of generator power, but most families just rely on flashlights and kerosene. However the generator only lasts for a few hours and gives us just enough electricity to power a few lights and sometimes charge the family’s 5 inch portable DVD player.

Basically the point that I am driving at is that due to the lack of lights, everybody goes to sleep when it gets dark. These days I usually go into my room between 8 and 9 to read and always fall asleep before 10. This makes sense because I am usually up at 6am. I know it is ridiculous to many of you that I am complaining about this. The majority of the people in America work 9-5 type jobs and adhere to a similar sleep schedule, but it is a horrific shock for me to adjust to this illogical system of waking up so early. I have adjusted and wake up rather easily in the morning, but it still defies what I think should be the standard of sleep in the world.

            Although none of you may pity me for my newly normalized schedule of rising early in the morn, I can assure you that my sleeping situation in Chuuk is far different from what most of you have ever experienced. I do have room of my own, which is rare for Micronesia where most people sleep communally in one large room. However, I do sleep on the ground. Well not entirely on the ground, I do have a straw mat that is approximately 7mm thick. Its kind of like sleeping on thatched cardboard. This was quite frustrating at first because I am side sleeper. Side sleeping is not conducive to sleeping on hard floor. My sore hips and shoulders can attest to that. Slowly I have adjusted to sleeping on my back, which I think is better for my lower back pain. I am trying to convince myself that sleeping on the floor is actually a blessing in disguise.

            I have a sheet, but I never use it. Even at night it is 187 degrees with 300% humidity, so covers are not necessary. However, this presents a problem. Sleeping without covers in just a pair of boxers leaves my body very exposed. The tropical regions of the world are infamous for supporting swarming hordes of tiny bloodsucking insects called mosquitoes. (“Nikun” in Chuukese, which I kind of think is a better name for them). Anyone who has ever been on a camping trip with me knows that I have especially sweet skin that is a delicacy to members of the mosquito family. They seem to flock towards me like the “salmon of Capistrano”. Luckily, because I have endured so many thousands of bites, now the sensation of itchiness is only fleeting for each bite. The bites only last for less than a day and usually only itch for about an hour. This is good because I receive about 10 or 20 bites everyday. My ankles and arms are constantly covered in little red bumps that I am trying to pass off as a fashion statement.

I have developed three good methods of dealing with these pests. The most obvious way is the use of deet infused bug spray to deter the bugs from latching onto my flesh and sucking the juices from my veins. At night I also employ the use of mosquito coils, which burn to produce a noxious smoke that is unpalatable to the insects. Those are methods of prevention; my solution to the completed attacks is hydrocortisone cream. I have enough tubes of anti-itch hydrocortisone cream to supply a small African village for a year. The quick application of this creamy white panacea and the avoidance of direct fingernail scratching ensure that the mosquito bites are impermanent and short-lived. Oh, I am also quite fortunate that Micronesia is one of the only tropical areas of the world that is entirely free of malaria. Which is very good for me because I would most assuredly have been infected due to the plethora of bites that I receive on a daily basis.

The rock hard ground, swarming mosquitoes, and stifling heat are only a few issues that plague my sleep. I wont even get into describing the spiders, rats, cockroaches and ants that make their home in my abode; because those don’t seem to bother me as much as you might expect. I also have a brother and brother-in-law that snore like boars. My brother has a gargoyle-sounding snore that resembles a vacuum cleaner with a Barbie doll head stuck in it. My brother-in-law’s snore is more animalistic and can be likened to an elephant playing a broken harmonic submerged in chunky mayonnaise. Together they make a cacophonous symphony that echoes through the walls of our small house. Sometimes they align their snoring cycles so that one’s inhale is simultaneous with the others exhale; this generates one continuous blaring snore. I also live with a 2-year-old baby who cries whenever the time strikes her right. (My sister is pregnant, so I also have another baby coming into my family sometime in January to add to the crying party.) The dogs outside erupt into ferocious barking at the drop of a leaf and can often be heard fighting and snarling in the distance. However, the one sound has been entirely novel to me here in Chuuk in the rooster crow. It is a foolish myth that roosters crow when the sun comes up. That is not true. They crow whenever they damn well feel like it. Sometimes at 4am, sometimes at 3 am, and every so often to they time it right at about 5:30 am when the sun actually comes into view over the ocean. The roosters crow in chains. I usually hear a “cock-a-doodle-dooooooo” off in the distance, and every rooster along the path repeats the crow until it reaches my house and then continues down the road. All it takes is one stupid rooster to ring his alarm at 4am and then the crowing will continue for hours in a continuous cycle until the sun is fully in view above the trees.

When I sat down to write this blog, I had no intention of describing my sleeping situation in such intricate detail. Rather I simply wanted to relay a short story from the other night.  I had fallen asleep around 9pm as usual and was sound asleep dreaming of pizza, football and bacon. Then at about 1 am I was awoken by pounding on my door, “John, John, wake up, wake up”. I sprung out of bed in surprise, thinking that we were being robbed by a monkey or a deadly typhoon was approaching. I quickly opened my door and was greeted by the smiling face of my brother. He simply said, “Eopus” and held up a bag of fish. I was brought into the kitchen and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes to surprisingly see half a dozen men in my kitchen eating voraciously. Grease was popping out the pan, dirty hands were scooping handfuls of rice, and bloody fish guts were lying in a bowl on the ground. Eopus is the Chuukese midnight meal. After a successful nighttime fishing expedition, the men bring back their fresh catch and feast upon their bounty in the wee hours of the morning. I was promptly given a 10 inch fish and a clump of rice. I tore the fish to pieces with my hands and devoured all the edible parts of the oceanic creature. I have become quite adept at extracting all the pieces of meat from a full fish and sucking each morsel of goodness from the bones and skin. I grubbed this fish heartily, wipe my hands off and crawled back into bed. This was my first “eopos”, but surely not my last. 

Feeesh & The Moon 12/10/10

My only regret so far has been the lack of fishing that I have done. I expected to be fishing all the time. I thought I would have nothing to do except lounge on the beach and stab fish with my knife while I sipped a mai tai. Well, there aren’t really any beaches on my island so that part of my fantasy is out of the picture. However, I was just enlightened to the paradoxical reasons behind the lack of beaches here on Fefan, which I will expound upon at another time. (Sidenote: As I am writing this, a soaking wet naked baby snuck up behind me and giggled as she stole my flashlight. I was lucky this time she wasn’t wielding a machete, which she often is)

I cannot control the condition of the beaches on my island, but the lack of fishing has been partly my fault. I have mentioned it numerous times to family and friends, but have not pushed it incessantly. Fishing over here is all about connections. You just have to know the right people at the right time. My main goal was to become a proficient spear-fisherman, but breaking the ice isn’t as easy as I expected. Spear fishing isn’t a constant activity as I expected and nobody has an extra spear to lend me. However, the main problem has been the “mechem”. Mechem is a series of large sticks that is placed around the reef as a funeral observance. When an important person dies, these sticks are planted around an area and it is proclaimed that there will be no fishing or swimming for an extended period of time. Well, some important guy who lives in Guam and hasn’t been here in years died a few weeks ago. As a result, we cannot enter the water for 3 months! No swimming, no fishing, no nothing. So needless to say, I haven’t gotten the chance to put on my snorkel and spear a fish through the head.

Since we cannot fish anywhere in the waters around the village, the alternative is to take the boat out and go to other places to fish. Fortunately, my family has a boat. It is the usual practice to fish at night. I have surmised that night fishing is popular for 3 reasons. Reason number 1: at night time the sun wont sizzle your skin like a burnt hot dog. Reason number 2: the fish like the dark. Reason number 3: there is nothing else to do at night.

As the full moon approached, my brother finally granted my request and organized a little fishing expedition for us that night. We took the underside of a large tuna and its intestines to use as bait. The fishing poles they use aren’t exactly fishing poles. In fact, they aren’t poles at all. The fishing line is just tied to piece of wood with notches in both ends. A small piece of metal is used as a sinker and the hooks are tied in the same style as in America. To cast the line, you swing the rope around like a lasso and let it fly. (To my chagrin, I was utterly terrible at this style of toss) To pull it in, you simply use your hands. The standard line is about 45 lb test, so it is thick enough that it doesn’t slice your hand as you try to pull in the fish.

We spent about 4 hours out on the boat fishing. I enjoyed the sport of it and caught a couple of decent sized fish, but I was more excited about the experience. We pulled our boat into the reflection of the moon on the water and anchored there to fish for a while. The full moon was like a lemon drop exploding with bright juices that splattered on the open ocean down below. It was an experience unlike anything I have felt before. The brightness of the moon was almost blinding and its rays formed a dazzling yellow brick road through the lagoon. The gigantic golden sphere shot a beam down to the water that started small in the distance but expanded to a river of flickering yellow ripples. I had never seen such an extensive reflection of the moon, and it was a breathtaking experience to be encapsulated in the expanding line of mustardy light that it exuded. Earth’s little satellite was putting on quite a show this night.

A couple weeks later, I got to go out another time on the boat to try a different type of fishing. This method is called bottom fishing. We used the same lines on the piece of small plywood, but this time we attached a 4 inch piece of rebar about a foot above the hook. We pulled away from the reefs and went into to the deeper parts of the lagoon away from the shoreline of the island. It was also necessary to bring a special anchor that would reach all the way to the bottom. We then plopped our chunks of rebar in the water and watched as they sunk quickly to the depths of the sea. When it hits the bottom, you stop the line there and await a bite. When you get a nibble, you must be sure to set the hook with force because you also have to yank the rebar off the seafloor before the hook will be engorged in the fishes mouth. This style of fishing takes slightly less skill than the other methods, but yields some of the biggest catch. Most of the fish are about 8-12 inches, but my brother caught one as big as an arm.

After both of these fishing excursions, we returned back to the house around 2am and feasted on fresh fish during Eopos. It is definitely a tradition that I can get used to. My brother asked if we have a name for the midnight meal in America, I thought for a second and then replied with a smirk, “we call it the munchies”. 

School (...kind of) 12/2/10

My official purpose while undertaking this daunting two-year task of living in a third world country is to teach English. People all over the world are yearning to learn the English language to give them job opportunities and the chance to move beyond their poverty-stricken lifestyle. In particular, Micronesians have a very strong bond with America and encourage English literacy with enthusiasm. Most of the people here have the goal of pursuing further education or jobs in Guam, Hawaii or the mainland. (Interesting side note: people in Guam have official US citizenship, so everybody over here just calls it America).

The school that I am assigned to has slightly over 100 students for grades K-8. My job is to teach English to the 5^th through 8^th graders. The main upside is that I only have about 10 or 15 kids in each class. Unfortunately, there are many more disadvantages that I am faced with. The school has two buildings. One is decrepit and crumbling to the ground as the tin rusts through and the wood rots. The other building is a two story concrete building. It has the potential to be a legitimate structure, buts it’s lacking a few things. The top floor is unusable because the floor is caving in. This floor could collapse at any moment and crush all of us down below, but we just pray that the day wont come anytime soon. There are no railings, no walls, and just a big empty space that has yet to be used since its construction. The bottom floor is a little bit better. There are windows with partial screens or plywood covering them up. Fortunately they let in enough natural light to let us see (because of course there is no electricity).

Some of the classes have a few metal chairs with desks attached, but most kids just sit in plastic chairs or wooden benches with no desk. Recently, my predecessor built \ bookshelfs for each room, so now we have a place to put things like books….but we don’t have many books. The books that we do have are American textbooks that are far beyond the language level of any of these students. Most students can’t even spell “cat” but they are learning about “endoplasmic reticulum’s” and “mitochondrial DNA”.  It makes absolutely no sense to any of them, but they memorize the phrases and definitions and can mindlessly regurgitate them. Even the teachers don’t understand what they are teaching.

There are no reading, writing, or grammar books. And my job is to teach reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the English language. This presents a unique set of challenges. Fortunately, I am awesome and can handle it. Haha. I have developed a system where I will not need books to teach. I will be basing everything that I do off of a series of themes. Every two weeks I will have a new theme; such as the “forest” or “ocean” or “home”. I will give the kids vocabulary words that relate to the subject matter and use those as the basis of my lessons. I will develop dialogues for them to practice, I will write stories about the theme, and I will come up with activities that integrate writing and grammar.

This may sound like a lot of work, but I think it might be easier than it sounds. The English language ability level of these students is incredibly low and the extent of activities that they can handle is rather simple. I can come up with 10 fill-in the blank sentences for the kids to do, and it will take me about 30 minutes to do that activity. Everything that I teach ends up taking a lot longer than in any American classroom. For example, I made up a story the other day and read it with my kids. The story was only 8 sentences but it took two days to read it and analyze it. I think I am creative enough to come up with activities that will fill the time for each grade level. The biggest challenge will be preparing things for the huge variation in skill level. The differences between 5^th and 8^th graders are huge and the individual differences within classes are even starker. It will be very hard to accommodate all levels.

The students are just as intelligent as American students, however they are extremely limited by their remedial English language skills. Students in Chuuk are supposed to be taught everything in English from 3^rd grade through high school. But Chuuk has one of the worst school systems on the planet, so this is not a reality. Teachers do not teach in English. Most teachers don’t even come to school. And when they do, most don’t give a shit. I am not saying that they are no good teachers in Chuuk, there are just few and far between. The students have not been given a fair chance to be at the level that is expected of them. I was surprised to see the low level of comprehension when I taught in Pohnpei, but Chuuk is far below even Pohnpeian students.

I am supposed to teach in entirely English, but this is very difficult because most of the kids don’t understand English. The 7^th and 8^th graders can comprehend most of what I am saying, but the 5^th graders have absolutely no idea. They have an amazing ability to memorize and repeat words and dialogues, but they aren’t actually learning any of it. It will be my task to change the style of learning that they have been doing their entire lives. I am not going to teach them in the “teacher centered” rote-learning environment that they are accustomed to. Instead, I will utilize all of my tools to get them interactively involved in the classroom. They say that many volunteers who have teaching experience in America are actually at a disadvantage, because teaching in Micronesia has no resemblance to US classrooms. Nothing that works in the US works in Micronesia. None of the strategies can actually be used; and organized systems and structure are nonexistent. Those American experienced teachers have to learn to throw everything out the window and start from square one. So I guess its ok that I am starting from square one.

Behavior in the classroom is out of control. In my observations during finals week, I witnessed students standing on their chairs and throwing test papers at each other. I saw students get up and smack others in the back of the head. I saw multiple students stand up and walk outside to go spit or snot rocket. When Ben would ask a student to do something they would simply say no, then he would yell yes and they would yell no and he would yell yes and they would yell no. It was utter mayhem. The students basically did whatever they wanted. I also heard many stories about fights in class, teachers punching students, and every kind of disrespect that you can imagine.

 I decided immediately that it wasn’t gonna be like that in my class. So on my first day, I laid down the law and scared the shit out of the kids with my booming voice and confident presence. I implemented a punishment/reward system that motivates students through positive reinforcement rather than punishment. I instilled some of the ideas that I have learned in psychology that will hopefully manipulate the young minds of my students. To my pleasant surprise, and to the amazement of all the other teachers, my first weeks of teaching have been flawless. Not a single kid spoke out of turn, not a single kid got out of their seat, not a single kid did anything wrong. In just my first week, I have already turned these little devils into model students. But we will see how long that lasts.

Another big problem with the educational system in Chuuk is the overall attitude towards school. Some people care about school and learning, but most don’t. Most parents don’t, which means that most kids don’t. Kids miss school whenever they feel like it. And teachers miss school whenever they feel like it. Attendance at school is purely optional and is only mildly encouraged.

Let me give some examples of the rigorous schedule that they follow in Chuukese schools. I arrived in UFO during finals week. Finals week consisted of two hours of testing on just Monday and Tuesday. Finals were simply an informal mishmash of extremely simple activities. School was then cancelled on Wednesday because the teachers wanted time to grade the finals. School was cancelled on Thursday because the teachers wanted time to do their report cards. School was cancelled on Friday because the teachers wanted to have a meeting. The following Monday, school was cancelled because we had a PTA meeting. School was cancelled on Tuesday because we had a teacher lunch. School was cancelled on Thursday and Friday for the thanksgiving holiday. (Even though nobody in Chuuk has any idea of what Thanksgiving is). And school was cancelled on Wednesday, because we couldn’t just have school on Wednesday. So in summation, my first two weeks of teaching consisted of two half days of testing and lot of cancelled classes for worthless reasons. Welcome to Chuuk.

There are some upsides to the crappy resources and school system that I have to deal with. The best thing is that I can pretty much do whatever I want. I have free reign to teach these kids anything I want in any way that I want. I don’t have to follow a book, I don’t have follow directions, I don’t have to follow anything. It’s just going to be my mind and these kids. Scary huh.

Just Chillin at the Top of a Coconut Tree

Pwen Mii Fenu (Walking Around the Island)

Fefan is a rather small island and is only composed of about 10 little villages that have sprung up along its coastline. I am on the northwestern corner of the island in the village of Ununo and had not explored much else of the area. I was eager to get out and see more of my new home. I talked to Ben and we got a couple of locals to guide us in a walk around the island. There used to be a road that went around the entire island and rumor has it that cars could even drive the entirety of the road.

Nobody seemed to really know how long it would take to walk around the island, so we decided to leave early in the morning. Some said it would take 30 minutes and others said 10 hours, haha. It was a perfect example of how Chuukese have no concept of time. It is just a general abstract idea for them that has no fixed meaning or significance. Even the intelligent, well-educated people do not have a firm grasp on time. They may tell you that a 15-minute boatride will take 3 hours, or they may tell you that a 2 hour walk will only take 20 minutes. Time just does not hold the same important as it does in American culture. However, I will have another extended blog entry sometime in the future about the relevance of time in Chuuk. I have a lot of philosophical ramblings to expound upon with relation to the concept of time around the world.

Anyways, we embarked on our journey around the island at 9am. Our group consisted of Ben’s two older brothers and my 8 year old brother Ennet. I brought plenty of water, a sweat towel and a camera as my essential supplies. The three locals brought one small water bottle to share amongst all of them. It is continually surprising to me how little water they seem to drink over here in spite of the debilitating heat.

As we walked along, we passed dozens of people and had short talks with them. When you walk anywhere in Chuuk, you are always asked “Kee war me ia” (Where are coming from?) or “Ka no ia” (Where are you going?). These questions are always asked. People are very curious about your whereabouts regardless if they don’t know you. Your destination and starting point seem to be very important. Whenever I walk anywhere, I formulate my response beforehand because I know I will be asked these questions several times.

Walking along the pathway/road, we were able to see the varying degrees of development throughout the island. In some places, the road was wide and relatively smooth. At other times it was just a rocky, muddy path that was overgrown with grass and plants. I cannot picture a drivable road in many of these places, but people have reassured me that cars once traversed this terrain with ease. The path would sometimes open up and fantastic views of the ocean and surrounding islands would be visible. Other times we were covered in a canopy of mango and palm trees that engulfed us on all sides. The road stretches primarily along the flat coastline, so we didn’t have to deal with much elevation changes. The center of the island is mountainous and dense with vegetation, so nobody really lives up on the inner hills. All of the civilization is along the coast.

We took this walk on a Sunday afternoon, so lots of people were out on their way to and from Church. I was greeted by many curious glances and friendly smiles along the way. I think Ben is the only other white person on the island, so the presence of a new whitey is quite a big deal. I introduced myself to as many people as possible and tried to remember as many names as I could. I already forgot anybody’s name that I met along the way, but I am sure that my foreign face will be recalled by most of them. It is much easier for them to remember one little white guy’s name and face, than for me to remember hundreds of similar looking people with obscure names.

We walked for 4 hours continuously, with only momentary breaks to sip our water bottles. We finally reached the village of Sapotaw. Sapotaw is on the northeast corner of Fefan and has many connections to my triple village of UFO. We stopped at a relative’s house and relaxed under the shade of a mango tree while a small boy climbed a tree to retrieve us drinking coconuts. We settled down for a while and talked about politics and history with a local fat man in glasses who spoke very good English.

After we were sufficiently rested, we were prompted to go over to the school and watch the volleyball tournament. An island wide volleyball tournament had been going on every weekend for the past month and many people from around the island come to watch. The players were actually very good and did the legitimate “bump, set, spike” every time. I was impressed to see over a hundred spectators watching the game. Each team had groups of cheerleaders that would clap and scream incessantly each time a point was scored. I was happy to see the enthusiasm of everyone towards the sporting event. It made me realize that this was their equivalent of our football and basketball games that enthrall millions of fans back in America. They don’t have TV here, so nobody watches sports on TV. They don’t have stadiums or indoor courts of any type. They don’t have leagues or endorsements or professional teams. So this is their athletic entertainment. I was glad to see that even without the resources and abilities to support large scale sporting events, people were still excited to participate and watch athletics.

As the sun began to drop behind the mountain, we decided that we better head home because we still had about an hour of walking. The last stretch of road was the most rural and undeveloped. It was a muddy, trampled footpath through the dense jungle. It’s still hard for me to believe that cars once drove on this little path. We arrived home right before dark and slumped down to rest. Our trek took about 8 hours, but we figured it was only about 5 hours of pure walking. I think the distance was about 12 miles. I am really glad that I toured the island in the beginning of my service. Now I know the land and the people know me. 

Moonlit Manual Labor

Over the next few months I will be responsible for the construction of a large water catchment system that is going to be built in our community. My predecessor Ben fundraised thousands of dollars and planned the construction of this water tank. It took longer than expected to organize the project and it is still in its nascent stages. Ben is also leaving in 2 weeks. So I am taking over the project and supervising its construction while handling the money.

After a confusing purchasing process that included multiple trips to multiple stores, the supplies were finally loaded onto a ship and brought to Fefan. They arrived at sunset last night. The ship needed to depart early the next morning, so it was our task to unload the supplies that night. We had a team of about a dozen community workers to help with the undertaking. These unemployed locals are going to be the primary laborers on the project over the next couple months.

Luckily, it was a full moon. Although it was nighttime, we didn’t even need to use flashlights in the unloading process. Instead we worked under the light of the bright moon. However, unloading the materials was no simple matter. There were a lot of materials.

The tank is going to be 14 ft in diameter and 8 feet tall, including a 16 foot square foundation. To build this huge water tank we needed: 72 bags of cement, 280 heavy concrete blocks, 150 twenty foot pcv pipes, 90 twenty foot rods of metal rebar, over 60 twenty foot 2 x 4’s, and loads of wire and other small accessories. Taking all of this off the ship by hand took hours of hard work. We formed a line and passed the materials in an efficient manner from hand to hand. Following Chuukese custom and the custom of construction workers around the world, we took plenty of breaks to lounge around and shoot the shit. A drunkard also wandered up and got in a fistfight with one of the workers. It was an unpredictably intense intermission for our work, but apparently its something that I will have to get used to in Chuuk.

Although it was hard work to unload all these materials, it was done in such a majestic setting that it didn’t perturb me at all. I took my time to admire the moonlight rippling on the calm waters of the lagoon and the thin clouds whisping overhead. It was one of those moments where I realized how lucky I am to be in such an amazing place surrounded by boundless natural beauty. 

Yummm....poisonous turtle

Turtle is a delicacy in Micronesia. It doesn’t matter that giant sea turtles are an endangered species and their numbers are dwindling rapidly. They are still captured and eaten as often as people can get their hands on them. Their shells are valuable materials to make jewelry and tools out of, and their meat is prized as tasty and delicious. One of the places most renowned for catching turtles is the Hall Islands in the western outreaches of Chuuk. This small lagoon is a turtle breeding ground, so they are easily caught and eaten at most special occasions.

A few weeks ago, my host mother on Tonoas went out to her original island of Murilo in the Halls for a funeral. At the funeral, there were of course a couple turtles that were to be feasted upon at the ceremony. Although I have not seen turtle prepared, I have heard about the gruesome process. It is very important that the turtle is still alive when the cooking process begins. If it is already dead, then it may be spoiled and the meat could be bad. So the turtle is killed immediately before its cooked. It is placed on its back on a stage and sharp sticks are stabbed through its eyes and nose to scramble its brain. The brain scramble is done to numb the turtle and supposedly make it feel no pain. Then they begin to disembowel the turtle while its still alive and pull out the entrails. After its been gutted, then it is thrown onto an open fire and roasted until it finally dies. The turtle meat is then ripped out from the shell and served to the willing guests.

Well, the process was slightly different at this funeral. One of the turtles looked different than most they were accustomed to and it was already dead before they began to cook it. The nervous cooks did not know how long it had been dead and were unsure if the meat had been spoiled in the blazing sun, nonetheless they roasted the shell and cooked the turtle anyways. When the meat was extracted, everyone noticed that it had a peculiar yellow tint to it. Many people felt that this was a sign of special turtle and grubbed it eagerly.

The following morning, two of the guests at the funeral didn’t wake up in the morning. They were dead! Dozens of other people also reported signs of nauseous ness and tiredness. Within two days, another three people were dead. Boatloads of sick islanders were rushed on the 30 hour bumpy boat ride to the hospital on the main island of Weno in Chuuk. Over 20 people were brought in the hospital within the next week. Three more died on Weno.

The government decided that this tragedy was worthy a full-scale investigation. Forty people from the Chuuk hospital, including my host father, and dozens of other researchers and doctors from Pohnpei, Guam, America and China were part of an emergency investigation team that was sent out to Murilo. They set up a makeshift medical tent on the far side of the island and tried to treat the rest of the patients. The team prevented any more deaths and contained the situation.

In totality, 135 people were infected and 8 people died. The cause was determined to be the turtle. There were rumors about a scientist who was conducting experiments on lizards on Murilo and injecting them with unknown chemicals. Many people thought that this was the cause of the poisonous turtle, but those rumors remain speculative. The team of researchers came to the conclusion that it was just a function of the type of turtle eaten.

It was a “Hawksbill Turtle”. This is a rare type of turtle that has a curved, pointed beak and sharp talons on its feet. The turtle feeds on a unique variety of sea life including poisonous sea anemones, jellyfish and man of war. The turtle’s toxic diet filled it with deadly chemicals that were eventually eaten by the unsuspecting funeral attendees. Also, the turtle meat could have been further lethal by being spoiled in the sun. The combination of its poisonous diet and unknown death date contributed to its tragic effects on the small community in Murilo.

My host mother and brothers were very fortunate to narrowly avoid being infected by the turtle meat. After the long boat ride, my mother felt sick and did not want to attend the feasting portion of the funeral. Her sons also stayed back and took care of her instead of going to the feast. Luckily, this serendipitous sequence of events allowed my family to forgo eating the turtle and return in good health. This tragic turtle tale is now contained and serves as a warning to others about ingesting spoiled Hawksbill turtle. 

Just Another Day at Church

Church is very important in Chuuk. It is the center of the community, physically and conceptually. Everybody seems to be highly religious and the vast majority of the people attend church regularly. In fact, a large portion of the population attends church 7 days a week. Church bells ring at about sunrise every morning and awake the locals to get ready for prayer. There is also an evening service before the sun goes down. I usually do not attend the daily services, but I am all but required to attend on Sundays. Everybody goes, so it would be a big deal if I decided to skip out and just lounge around.

The strong religious sense in the island was established by waves of missionaries. My family on Fefan is Catholic; and Catholicism seems to slightly outweigh the protestant religions present in Chuuk. The Spanish were some of the first foreigners to colonize Micronesia and they brought Catholicism along with them. Successive missions have come over the last century and further instilled a religious fervor amongst the locals. Religion has brought a lot of positive changes to Chuuk and gives the community a center point to rally around on a daily basis. However, there are some downsides.

Ancient traditions have been abolished and traditional customs and beliefs have been shunned in forgotten corners. In my opinion, it is rather sad to see the complete disintegration of old Chuukese culture. Nobody dresses in traditional fashion, nobody performs local rituals or dances, nobody talks about ancient folklore, nobody seems to be in touch with the generations before Christianity. There are stories of fantastical Chuukese magic that could accomplish amazing feats and transcend the reality that we have come to know. However, the Chuukese magic has been stamped out by Christians. Today, people in Chuuk have a vague recollection of their ancient magic traditions and tell stories of how their ancestors walked under water and communicated with the spirits of nature. Some people seem upset that they have lost touch with their roots, but most people happily accept that Christianity has destroyed those beliefs.

I am well educated on the history and theologies of various religions and have always been very curious about their effects upon societies. My perspectives often come across pessimistic and cynical about the egotistical self-righteousness that missionaries have used to manipulate and infiltrate the blindly accepting people that they touch. The persistent belief that one religion is entirely right while another religion is entirely wrong seems ignorant to me, because they all share the same goals, origins, purposes and often even the same “God” (they just have different opinions on his manifestation). However, although I do not agree with hardline unwavering faith in a belief system that is simply a function of the environment from which you were raised, I do acknowledge the wonderful things about religion. Actually, in the last couple months I have gained a greater respect for Christianity in some respects.

Anyways, I didn’t start writing this blog entry to ramble about my philosophical beliefs on religion. I could talk about that for ages. I wanted to talk about what an experience at church in Chuuk looks like. This past Saturday, we had a special church event at the large Catholic church on our island. So this description of church is slightly different than an average day, but I have been assured to expect similar occasions at least once or twice a month. However, I felt that my first real experience at church on Fefan was appropriate to retell.

….. I awoke early in the morning to the usual “cock a doodle doooo” that echoes throughout the neighborhood as the sun rises over the mountain. I rolled out of bed, put on some shorts and walked out of my room. It was only about 6am but there were already half a dozen people sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee. A flurry of naked little kids were running around the living room playing tag and screaming. I skipped my way through the mess of flailing naked bodies and entered the kitchen. A seat was immediately vacated for me as I walked in and I was accosted by demands to drink coffee and eat food. I was brought a hot cup of coffee with about 3 tablespoons of sugar. Then a plate of steaming rice and a couple salted fish were thrust in front of me. I ate as I listened to the Chuukese chit chat that is still utterly incomprehensible to me. After breakfast, more people were shuffling in and out of the house and more food was being prepared. I showered, relaxed for a bit, then got ready for church.

We were running late, the church is a half hour walk, and we had a dozen plates of food; so we decided to take the boat. We reached the dock right as the rain started to come down in torrents. Nobody flinched and nobody complained. Although we were all dressed in our nice church attire and the rain splattered in our faces as we sped across the ocean, nobody seemed to be perturbed. Rain is normal around here and fussing about it won’t make anything better. I have come to realize this fact and actually enjoy when a tropical downpour drizzles down.

We pulled around a outcropping of mangrove trees and approached the church from the sea. This Catholic Church is quite a site to behold. It is a behemoth white building that shines like a beacon against the dark green background of the lush green mountains behind it. The church is located on an elevated flat spot that is on the edge of the part of Fefan that juts out the furthest. This majestic white building is flanked by two magnificent towers that are adorned with crosses. The church property is a compound and is complete with a basketball court, school, grassy hills and a few large buildings. As we walk up to the church, there are hundreds of people scattered on the lawn and a group of red clad youngsters are dancing in unison to a Chuukese song about Jesus. There is a pathway leading to the church that is lined with flowers and vines that form a border along the aisle. But the most impressive thing about the church is its view. Atop the small point, you have a breathtaking view of the lagoon. There is a cascading perspective of the west side of Fefan and several mountainous islands are spread along the water. From this vantage point, you can really see the distinctions in watercolor caused by the underwater features of reefs, rocks and sand. Four or five different shades of blue are melded together at various levels that denote the depth of the water below. I can definitely understand why they chose this site for the church; just beholding its wonder makes you feel spiritual.

The occasion for the Saturday mass on this day was that a newly ordained priest from Tonoas was going to give his first sermon on Fefan. He arrived and walked down the flowery aisle shaking everyone’s hand along the way. His entourage followed him into the church and then we mingled around the lawn area for about an hour until the mass began. My friend Julie came over from Parem for the mass and my fellow Peace Corps Ben was also in attendance. It is always great to see other Americans and I spent the time catching up with Julie about our new host families.

The mass takes a couple hours and I have no idea what is going on the whole time. First off Im not Catholic, second I haven’t been to any type of church very many times, but most importantly I don’t really understand Chuukese. I stand when others stand, I kneel when others kneel, and I bow my head when others bow their heads; but basically I don’t know what’s happening. I think the mass followed basic Catholic customs and performed all the rituals in the correct fashion. It is all very precise and everything seems to be done in a particular fashion. Since I haven’t been baptized in the Catholic church, I was told to sit idly with Ben as everybody gets up to take the communion.

After church is over, its time to eat. It’s always time to eat in Chuuk, but especially at church functions. Chuukese are always looking for a reason to feast and this provided a perfect one. I sat on the lawn and ate a big plate of rice, chicken, taro, and a few mystery items. Right as I finish my meal, a large man approaches me and requests my presence inside. He leads me into the large banquet hall adjacent to the church and seats me at the head table. There are three long tables at the front of a room that is adorned with giant palm leaves and tropical arrangements of flowers and leaves. I take my seat at the main table along with the religious and political leaders that are in attendance. Since I am white and a visitor, I guess I will always be an honored guest anywhere that I go. Ben soon follows and is placed in a seat of respect as well. In front of us are enormous platters of food. My plate is full of 6 types of meat, 3 types of fish, pasta, rice, kimchi, potato salad, cucumbers, breadfruit, taro and a whole mess other things. It is enough food to feed a small village, good thing I just finished eating!

We munch on our food as people begin to file into the building and sit on the ground. After a few minutes, hundreds of people are seated before us sitting cross-legged. Then the speeches begin. As I have said before, Chuukese speeches are the most long-winded, lengthy, ridiculous orations ever. Five different guys get up and each give 15 minute speeches about something. I have no idea what that something is. I asked Ben what they are talking about, and he says nothing. He says that the majority of the speech is just thank you’s and apologies. That’s the Chuukese way. Kinisou (thank you) and omusano (sorry) are used in every interaction and every conversation that extends for more than 10 seconds. People are very humble and always try to be respectful.

Anyways, after the speeches then the energy level perks up a bit and things really get interesting. A big group of kids from Parem (including my Peace Corps buddy Julie) get up and start singing and dancing. They perform a few songs and everybody cheers and claps. Then the next group of kids starts into their singing routine. They start kind of slow, but then things pick up quickly. One of the priests jumps out of his seat and starts boogying down the aisle. The crowd erupts in laughter and claps furiously. Then an old lady hops out of her seat and starts to shake her hips and swing her arms. Again everybody bursts into elated screams. Next, a fat man runs into the middle of the room with a bag and starts throwing candy to everybody. Within minutes, half a dozen people are running around the room with bags of little candies and hurling them up into the air. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces of candy rain through the sky and come down into eager hands of the singing crowd. The singing continues and transfers to other groups of kids in the crowd. More people randomly stand up and do a little dance to the utter joy of the raucous horde of onlookers. Meanwhile, the priest has been dancing like a maniac the whole time. He is coming up with all kinds of dance moves and goes around the room motivating others to shake their stuff. The atmosphere then quiets down for a while and another serious, long, inane speech is given. The energy level has fallen off and I could see drooping eyes all around the room. Then a man in a loincloth and flower necklace bursts into the room and screams some warlike cries. His group of kids then get up and perform a wild song and dance routine led by this traditional island looking man. More candy is thrown out and the crowd goes wild.

           After the performances are done, final speeches are given and the banquet hall begins to disperse. However, dancing and music has now begun in the center of the room. My host mother comes up to me and demands that I go get Julie and dance with her. Julie and I make our way out to the dance floor and are immediately the center of attention. Within 30 seconds, a big circle of connecting hands is formed around us and we are in the middle of hundreds of people. I do my goofy uncoordinated dance moves and try to entertain the masses of on looking eyes. Then Ben is thrown into the circle and the three of us whities are dancing in the middle of a gigantic circle. By the third song, the circle finally breaks and others start coming in to dance with us. Flowers and sticks and leaves are hoisted upon us in droves and I try to use some of them as dance props. This dance exhibition continues for a little longer and then finally the music stops and we slip our way out of the circle. It seems like at any occasion, we will be expected to dance. So far in Chuuk, every time I have been at any type of festivity I am demanded to dance in front of everybody. Too bad I am a terrible dancer. Just like on Tonoas, I now have a reputation as “that guy who dances”. Everyone is constantly asking me about my dancing and waiting for the next time they can see me. It is also assumed that Julie and I are going to get married because we danced together. Word spreads quickly on these little islands and my dancing exploits are already famous.

Chuukese Wedding

On my first Saturday here I went to a wedding, Chuukese style. The wedding was on the neighboring island of Parem and I was very excited because my fellow volunteer Julie was just placed there. We dressed moderately nice and walked down to the shore to take the boat over to Parem. I was wearing zip off lightweight pants, a Hawaiian shirt and sandals…. I was one of the best-dressed people at the wedding. T-shirts and shorts were the norm. As we got down to the boat, I noticed that there were a lot of people but only one boat. The maximum capacity for these small motorboats is 7 people. We piled 18 people into this boat! We squeezed together and bounced our way along the waves to Parem.

The wedding was in a nice little church that was next to a sandy beach on the shore. The predominant religion in these parts is Catholicism, so the wedding was performed as a Catholic mass. They went through a rather traditional American ceremony with a few Chuukese quirks. The bride was wearing a nice white dress with a veil and everything. The groom was also in black suit, but was wearing some old Nikes. There were no bridesmaids or groomsman. During the ceremony, I took the time to do some people watching and observe the wedding party. There were dozens of small children and babies wandering around (some of them partly naked). There was a dirty dog sitting docilely along the isle. I saw multiple women whip out their boobs and begin to breastfeed their crying babies. And as I mentioned before, the attire was not exquisite. As the couple was pronounced man and wife, the groom lifted the veil from his new bride and consummated the marriage by shaking her hand. Public affection is taboo and kissing in public would be shocking, so a hearty hand shake seals the deal.

During the reception, we were all served gigantic plates of food. It is customary at Chuukese social events to bring way too much food. The size of the plate is determined by your status and some of the single plates were enough to feed a dozen people. The humungous plates are given with the intention that most of it will be taken home as leftovers. My family brought two large boxes full of plates for the party, and went home with the boxes filled with other people’s leftovers. Food is very important to the culture here and its abundance is a status symbol. The reception was similar to American style in that the important people sat a big table in front and the rest of the attendees were scattered around in a large room (but of course everyone was sitting on the floor).

Then the speeches began. Speeches in Chuuk are in a whole other ballpark and put our modest toasts to shame. Every speech giver has to thank every important person that attended the event. Just the beginning thank you’s can sometimes take a few minutes. After the thank you’s, then they say hello and go into the meat of their speech. I have no idea what anybody was saying, but they were saying a lot. Each person spoke for about 10 or 15 minutes and about 9 or 10 people stood up to speak. Apparently, these extended speeches happen at every party, meeting, funeral, and social gathering; so I have plenty to look forward to. The bride and groom both had their heads laid down on their hands and didn’t look the least bit interest. In fact, I don’t think I saw either of them smile during the entire event. Other people were laughing and joyous, but the couple seemed to be somber and serious. During the meal, a hungry pig came snorting his way into the crowds and was promptly guided back out….only in Micronesia.

HOME & all the responsibilities that come with it

11/17/10

Now its for real. Now I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. Now all the legitimate challenges of living in a third world country are about to be thrust upon me. Now I am away from the comfort of my fellow volunteers and trainers. Now I’ve been taught all that I need to know about teaching in Chuuk. Now I am done with language training. Now I am finally with my permanent host family. Now I am finally on my permanent island in my permanent village. Now I am finally at my new home for the next two years.

I am on the island of Fefan, in the Chuuk Lagoon, in the Federated States of Micronesia. My village is called UFO. So yes, I will be away in a UFO for the next two years…. I hope they don’t have any probes over here. UFO actually stands for the name of three villages that make up a larger community. I live in the village of Ununo, with Fongen and Onongooch down the road a little ways. I believe that the village has about 500 people in it, but the exact numbers are hard to come by. Most of the community is related in some way, and they all consider themselves one big family.

As you arrive in Ununo, you will pull your small motorboat to the side of a crumbling concrete dock that juts out into the blue waters of the lagoon. The boat is then tied to a tree and you turn around to see your majestic view of the beautiful paradise before your eyes. You can see half a dozen small islands scattered throughout the lagoon and the main island of Weno is easily visible several miles to the north. The view is facing westward and is ideal for watching sunsets drop below the horizon as they are silhouetted by the myriad of tiny islands. Unfortunately there is only a little bit of sand along the shore, but swimming is ideal off the edge of the dock. To reach my house you walk away from the shore on a dirty, grassy, coral road about ten feet wide. The road is lined with giant palm trees that bend inward to form a tunnel of tropical leaves towering overhead. My home is only about a 5-minute walk up this beautiful pathway through the cathedral of palm leaves.

My house is one of the nicest places that I have been inside during my time in Mirconesia. It is recently renovated and complete with tiled floors and curtains on the windows. Its pretty much a mansion by Chuukese standards. The property is elevated off the road by 10 feet of stacked boulders and is built into the hillside. The house has an indoor kitchen with a sink that has running water. We have cupboards and shelves lining the walls of the kitchen. It even has an indoor bathroom and shower! But don’t get too excited. The shower just means there is a trickling faucet and a bucket on the ground. The indoor toilet doesn’t have running water and is flushed by pouring a bucket of water into the bowl. This may seem ghetto by American standards, but it is plush and luxurious for Micronesia. It is far nicer than the living conditions I prepared myself to encounter. We also have a generator that powers a few light bulbs most nights and can play the portable DVD player that they have. My bedroom here is actually bigger than in America and has ample shelf space. It has plenty of natural light and is well protected with mosquito screens on every opening. They even gave me a table and stool. I am ridiculously lucky to be in such a nice place. It is far better than either of my two training sites and is comparable to a slightly shabby American house.

My host family is also great. My father’s name is Benisio Joseph and he works as a specialist for the Department of Education. My mother, sister and brother are all teachers at my school! I also live with 5 or sometimes 7 kids that range between the ages of 2-11 along with my sisters husband. I am excited to have a bunch of little kids to play with, but I hope they aren’t too overwhelming like with my family in Pohnpei. My grandmother and a few of the kids stay at our house sometimes or sleep at the other house farther up on the property. It is regular for a few other teenage kids to be hanging around our house and often sleep here at night. People are constantly coming in and out of the house to drink coffee or eat food. As I mentioned many times before, everyone here is family. Even if you aren’t officially family, you are still family. Everything is shared. Extra food is always made for meals, because undoubtedly others will come wandering through and be invited to eat. Care of the kids is shared by everyone and the chores are completed by whoever is around. Nobody is a freeloader. Everybody chips in and everything gets done.

The only unfortunate part of my situation is that my host father is going to Hawaii for the next month or two to have heart surgery. I don’t know the exact details of his health and hope that he will be ok. He is a highly respected member of the community and speaks perfect English, so I was looking forward to having him help me learn Chuukese and integrate with the locals. However, I will instead have to assume “man of the house” responsibilities and adjust rather quickly.

Another circumstance that will acquire me to expedite my adjustment period is the onset of a secondary project. A volunteer named Ben has been in my village for the last two years and is about to leave. He has been an amazing help in assisting me with the language and integrating into the community. He has guided me through everything I need to know and has made my transition much smoother. However, there is one problem. He has been working on constructing a large water tank system to help with the availability of running water in the village. This is a large-scale project that will cost at least $10,000 and require months of labor. Unfortunately, it is being built on Micronesian time. Which means that it is behind schedule. Actually, construction hasn’t started yet. The supplies haven’t even been bought yet. And Ben leaves the first week of December. So basically I will have to undertake this project. He has done the planning and fundraising, but now I will have to oversee the construction and make sure that everything goes smoothly over the next few months. Peace Corps strongly recommends that we don’t even think about doing a secondary project until we have been at our sites for at least six months. We are supposed to learn the language and be a legitimate member of the society before we even consider trying to handle the huge responsibilities of doing a secondary project. However, I don’t get this luxury of an adjustment period. I am doing it now. I am a little bit nervous about taking this project over and seeing its completion, but I really have no choice. I gotta step up and handle bizniz.

Matching Outfits that Barely Fit

My training in Tonoas has now come to a close and I am officially about to begin my Peace Corps service after the last couple months of intensive training. At this point, the seven of us Chuuk trainees will be sent off to our respective islands and truly begin our Peace Corps experience. So far we haven’t had to deal with loneliness, lack of English, lack of fun, or lack of structure because we have had each other to depend on. But all of that is soon to change.

Training has given us time to become ridiculously close and establish bonds that will surely last a lifetime. The type of person that is attracted to do the Peace Corps is a unique breed. We are all adventurous, all think outside the box, can all deal with hardships, and are all a little bit crazy. These commonalities unite us together and we share the difficulties of our experiences together in order to cope with the troubling adaptations that we are all going through. Nonetheless, allthough we all share certain core characteristics we are an extremely diverse group of individuals. We all have varying interests and vastly different personalities. Julie is the stereotypical All-American girl, Becky is a hyperactive go-getter, Farrah is a tough fearless woman, Naavid is a mysterious badass, Paul is a friendly New Yorker and Ben is an adventurous musician. Together we cover all the spectrums of young Americans and provide a complete package to bring to Chuuk.

Before we shipped out to our remote islands in the vast stretches of ocean around us we thought that it would be appropriate to have a party to send us off in style. Fortunately, our last weekend coincided with the birthdays of Julie and another volunteer Kirby, so we had a legitimate excuse to have a little shindig. We came into the main island of Weno and rented a few hotel rooms at the shnazzy Blue Lagoon Resort. Blue Lagoon is reminiscent of Hawaiian resorts with quaint wooden rooms lining a small peninsula on the tip of Weno. It is most definitely the nicest place on Weno and we thought it necessary to take a break of sleeping on the floor and eating taro to come in and take advantage of some western amenities. Since we are now all living in Chuuk, we got the local rate at the hotel and only paid half the price. We also thought it was a good occasion to celebrate Halloween, since we missed the festivities back in the states. We all pulled together some sloppy costumes and made it a tropical Halloween birthday celebration. We used lots of local materials and got pretty creative with inventing some island costumes. So needless to say, we partied amply and had a roaring good time.

The following Wednesday was our swear-in date. We had been anticipating this event for quite some time and it filled us with a mixture of pride and anxiety for the significance of becoming official volunteers. It is a Chuukese Peace Corps tradition to wear matching outfits for the swearing in ceremony. The girls had purchased fabric in Weno and our parents had sewn shirts and mumus for the occasion. The other day, volunteers were talking with my mom about making the shirts and discussing the different sizes that they needed to be. Everybody laughed incessantly when my host mother said that my shirt needed to be bigger than the rest because I am “husky”. Now it’s a running joke through our group that I am “my mamas husky boy”. In actuality, there is some truth to this. I have gotten much bigger. I am force fed multiple gigantic meals every day that usually consist of the fattest, saltiest, greasiest and most sugary food that you can imagine. Chuukese love fat and try to integrate it into every facet of their diet. Eating pure chunks of pig fat and slurping the oil out of tuna cans are common practice. Sugar is also mounded upon everything edible. Sugar water is preferred over pure water, and a standard cup of coffee has at least 3 or 4 rounded tablespoons of sugar poured into it. Hmm, no wonder Micronesia is one of the leading diabetic countries in the world. Bottom line is that I am gaining a significant amount of weight. I cant even button my pants anymore! Yes, I walk around everyday with my top button open and just the belt holding my pants up. This presents a serious problem because I only brought a couple pair of pants and they are all the same. My family is extremely proud of this fact and brag to other community members that their Peace Corps volunteer gets the best food. It is a sign of wealth and attractiveness in Micronesia to be fat, so I guess I’m on my way to further integrating into the culture. I will have to sacrifice my six pack and my health, but at least I will look like a respected Micronesian.

. Our swearing in ceremony was a big deal for the small island community. After intensive urging by our community members, the festivities changed location and were slated to be in our little village of Nukuno. The whole village prepared food and decorated a community center for our ceremony. They even cancelled school for the day. The Peace Corps Country Director of Micronesia, Kevin Carley was in charge of administering our swearing in. The Lt. Governor of Chuuk, Mayor of Tonoas, and all other important village members were also in attendance. Our families were all beaming with pride and were elated to see their host daughters and sons “graduating” as they called it. We all lined up in our black and purple flowered costumes and underwent our swearing in. We affirmed our commitment to the US and swore, “to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” I felt like a soldier, haha. After the oath was taken, we each gave a speech in Chuukese and thanked all of the people who helped us through the last couple of months. We went through the rest of the formalities and then officially became Peace Corps volunteers. That night we feasted for hours and enjoyed our last moments with the families and each other.

Now the real experience starts……

Dogs & Nigthcrawlers

Last Sunday, I was taking a walk with my host brother after Church. We were strolling through the forest along the water and enjoying the beautiful day in paradise. We were leisurely wasting away the day without a care in the world. The two of us then came upon a  house along the path and my brother suddenly put out his hand and stopped me in my tracks. He knew something was wrong. We were approaching a house that had a couple over-protective dogs that could be dangerous. He hollered to the owner of the house and the man came out to shoo the dogs under the house. We approached slowly and inched our way past the house as the man stood guard between the growling dogs and us. Suddenly, the mangy canines darted out from behind the man charged right for us. I had no rocks, or sticks or any weapons to defend myself with; so I figured the best defense was to stand still and exhibit no aggression. This was not the best approach. The first dog pounced at my brother and narrowly missed his leg. The next one twirled around my backside and quickly sank his teeth into my calf. We both went to smack the dogs but they retreated hurriedly and scampered off into the trees. The result of the encounter was a big gash on my inner calf. We continued our walk and left the property promptly. After we were a safe distance from the house, my brother took a closer look at my wound. He noticed that it was bluish-purple and swelling quickly. He squeezed the wound and blood began to flow from the bite mark. After sufficient squeezing, he found a small sprouting coconut tree and gathered a chunk of the soft pith from the inside of the bark. He rubbed the natural remedy into my cut and assured me that it would be a good temporary cure for the bite. My brother then began cursing angrily and swore that we were going to kill and eat that dog tonight. He was enraged that we didn’t have anything to beat it away with when it came to attack and assured me that he would stab it in the heart to avenge the attack. I told him that it wasn’t necessary to kill and eat the dog, but I wouldn’t stop him if he really wanted to do it (We never killed it). I later returned to my house and cleaned the cut properly. My host father is a nurse and helped make sure that it was suitably sterilized and free of infection. I have been vigorously applying Neosporin and hope that the wound doesn’t get infected with the flurry of contaminated elements that are present in this tropical climate. Even slight scratches on feet and fingers will get nastily infected within a day if not properly treated. So I must be very careful to watch my wound closely and monitor its healing process. Although it sucks to be bitten by a dog, I do feel like it’s kind of like a rite of passage for being here in Chuuk. Angry dogs have bitten most people here in Chuuk and I feel like more of local now that I’ve dealt with it, haha.

On my last night in Tonoas I partook in another Chuukese custom that seems particularly weird under American standards. It’s called night crawling. And it has nothing to do with the myriad of creepy crawly things that scurrying around our rooms at night. Rats, lizards, spiders, and cockroaches seem to be in every corner of every room; but my description of those night crawlers can be saved for another time. This type of night crawling has to do with courtship. Rules of courtship and relationships in Micronesia are extremely conservative. It is taboo to showcase any type of public affection, especially if you aren’t married. Holding hands or even direct eye contact are off limits between unmarried men and women. You aren’t really even supposed to have extended conversations or ever be seen alone with a member of the opposite sex. Men and women usually sit apart at social gatherings and stick to their own sex in almost all walks of life. There is no concept of dating in the western sense and you must be extremely careful not to exhibit any sexual advances.

Despite this strict cultural customs about relationships, people are people and still crave the presence of the opposite sex. So in Micronesia, its gotta be sneaky. Very sneaky. Sneaky to the point that would be considered creepy in America. Let me explain the standard method of courtship in Micronesia. It is called night crawling. This process is totally acceptable and understood throughout Micronesia, but would get you thrown in jail and labeled as a sex offender in America. Basically, men creep around at night at go to young woman’s houses. They approach quietly and tap on the window or splash water or doing anything necessary to wake up the girl of their desire. They must be extremely careful not to wake up the father or other members of the family. This can be exceedingly difficult, because in most Micronesian homes all of the family sleeps on the ground in one room. Nonetheless, the man will hopefully get the attention of the girl and be invited in or bring the young lady outside. From there, you can use your imagination to what happens next. Sometimes a romp in the jungle, sometimes a silent embrace under the covers, or sometimes just a romantic talk. The ancient Chuukese technique actually employs something called a “Chuukese Love Stick”. The Love Stick was traditionally slid through the thatched walls of the house and  poked the girl to wake her. Each love stick has a unique design on the sharp tip and the female looks at the artwork and decides if the craftsmanship is good enough for her. If she wants her suitor, she will accept the stick. If she rejects the love stick, then she pushes it back through the wall and stabs the night crawler to death. Talk about tough love. This method of the Chuukese love stick is really practiced anymore, but nightcrawling is more popular than ever. Nightcrawling is really the only way for men and women to have any sort of relationship. It is the only way they have privacy to talk. It is the only way that they have time alone. It is the only way that they can get to know each other. And it’s the only way that they can satisfy their inborn urges.

Anyways, on the last night in Tonoas I was walking along the shore with my brother and cousin and they snickered to each other in Chuukese and then pulled me along with them to go night crawl some girl. We approached the house softly and my brother began his process of slight taps and quiet whispers to try to wake the sleeping maiden. The three of us were standing outside the window and patiently trying to infiltrate the defenses and find a way to surreptitiously get the attention of the girl without waking the family. Suddenly, achooooooo!!!!! Despite my best efforts, I unleashed a booming sneeze and undoubtedly blew our cover. We hurried off into the forest laughing at my amateur move, and without a lady for the night. It was a funny introduction to the art of night crawling and I cant say that I was too disappointed that we didn’t wake up some random young girl. I wasn’t really intending to do anything with the unsuspecting girl; I just thought it was exciting to experience the trade of night crawling. Sometimes woman also venture out and night crawl men, so I am gonna bide my time and let them come to me, haha.

Fefan, my home island for the next 2 years.....not too shabby