I am taking a little “asesse” from Chuukese lifestyle and traveling around the world for the next month or so. My life has been going well on my tiny island, however I am ready for a break. I enjoy everything about Chuuk and I am by no means running away from anything. Its just my style to get an itch every few months and want to do something new and exciting. Regardless of how wonderful my existence is flowing along, an energetic and curious feeling creeps its way up through my nerves and tells my brain that its time for something new. Its time to see something new. Its time to do something new. Its time for a new adventure.
This new adventure of mine has begun with a Peace Corps conference in Pohnpei. All of the volunteers from the FSM and Palau came together to have our Mid-Service Training near the headquarters of our Micronesian office. More than a year ago, 31 of us embarked upon our service with a 5 week training session on the island of Pohnpei. At that time we were a sheep-eyed group of innocent westerners that got plopped in the middle of the Pacific. We had no frame of reference; we were like a child who wandered into the middle of a movie.
Things are a little different now. Our group has slimmed down to a rough and rugged team of crafty vets. In the past year, we have encountered things that none of us ever thought possible and dealt with problems that the average human mind will never conceive of. The stories of our trials and tribulations along with the triumphs and joys are truly inspiring. I have never been around a group of people that are so unique and accomplished in so many ways. M77’s!
Our conference/training/workshops took place at the Village Hotel on a lush jungle hillside that rises up from the sparkling blue waters below. The Village is a fancy place, but doesn’t fall under the standard view of “fancy”. It is an eco-friendly resort and is geared towards conservation of resources and the natural environment. The rooms are built in the style of local huts with palm fronds and forest branches covering the roofs. There is open air circulation drafting through the top and mosquito nets to keep the pests from biting. The houses are fashioned in the style of local huts, but I don’t think any Micronesian has ever lived in such a lavish and deluxe palm frond domicile. The huts are nestled in a spattering of little hideaways scattered in the dense jungle. A rock pathway leads you winding down the mountainside to your own personal luxurious island house. It is the perfect combination of comfort and culture. Visitors get to truly experience the tropical setting, but don’t have to sacrifice cleanliness and luxury.
We covered many important administrative training sessions during the daytime. From 8-5, we were in our classroom (a giant wooden balcony overlooking the ocean and the islands of paradise). We dealt with multiple sessions discussing sexual assault because Peace Corps is putting a huge effort towards increasing security and response measures after all the problems that recently erupted in Africa. The importance of safety and proper handling of serious issues was pounding it us with powerpoint after powerpoint. Besides the safety sessions, we also talked about teaching, secondary projects, communication and a myriad of other issues concerning our Peace Corp lives.
The workshops were important, but not as important as rekindling the relationships with our American friends spread across the 3000 mile expanse of ocean called Micronesia. The tales of bravery and perseverance coupled with accounts of hilarity and strangeness never ceased to amuse us. Society changing community projects, life changing interactions with students, deep integration into cultures along with heartbreaking failures, terrifying crimes and abuses, and unending confusion created dynamic conversations that lasted for hours. We laughed & cried, listened & blabbered throughout the nights. It was an amazing feeling of vindication and emotional release for people to be able to share their stories with fellow friends who can actually relate with the circumstances. Our volunteer community is an imperative part of the experience out here and its significance for our well-being and happiness cannot be denied.
The hospital in Chuuk is a joke and there are no qualified doctors or dentists to handle our serious medical issues, so it was a good time to take care of some things while I was Pohnpei. First off, I got a large cyst removed from my back. A lump of fat had been growing near my spine for the past year and it was about time to chop it out before it reached the backbone. The medical facilities in Pohnpei are fairly legitimate, but also rather humorous. I lied down on a table right next to the waiting room (in open view of everybody) and the doctor began inspecting me. He saw the nickel sized lump and chuckled as he snickered, “ooohh, its so small” The doctor continued making jokes to the people around the room and whistled while he worked. As he scraped the lump out of my back, he giggled and yelled “its a boy!” As he was stitching me up, he casually remarked to himself, “one smiley face, two smiley face….” each time that he applied a suture. It was a very interesting and funny surgery experience, but I think it turned out all right.
My time at the dentist was a similar encounter. They had no appointments to do a full cleaning, so they squeezed me in for a check-up. The dentist looked for 2 minutes and then told me that I had cracked a filling off and it was missing. I waited for another hour then went in with another more specialized dentist. She probed my mouth with her spiky tools and then looked at me with a quizzical face. She said, “umm, I think your filling is still there” We took X-rays and sure enough my filling was fully intact. She cleaned the area around the few painful teeth in my mouth and then sent me on my way smiling. It was kind of a debacle, but I was very impressed with her in depth explanations of my tooth issues and friendly examination of the X-rays (I also got a free cleaning of one tooth).
My trip to Pohnpei was not only valuable because of my medical fixings, interactions with friends and the skills I learned in the training, but I also gained a slightly new perspective on “perspectives”. I was shocked to see the condition and development of Pohnpei compared to the previous view that I held. When I first arrived in Pohnpei, my impression was less than stellar. I joked about the shoddy roads and the lack of stores and restaurants. However, on my return visit my perspective took a 180 degree shift. I was amazed by the clean buildings, smooth roads, constant electricity and a seemingly endless amount of stores and restaurants. Being stuck in rural Chuuk for the last 14 months changed how I view the world.
The reason why this perspective shift was important to my view of life is because it showed me the power of preconceived notions and misjudged expectations. Our impression of a place, or person, or thing is entirely shaped by our previous experiences. The way that something is seen is dependent upon what has been seen before. I know this is a common sense statement and makes intuitive sense to most people. However, most people don’t actually realize it in their real lives. We think our view of the world as the one and only correct world. We see what we see, and that’s that. But what if what you see is not the same as what I see. What if what I see is not the same as what other people see.
When I use the word “see”, I am not simply referring to the visual field that we observe with our eyes. I am referring to what we perceive and what we internalize about something. This philosophical rambling of mine roughly translates to the theory of relativism. More specifically cultural relativism. However, it has a new significance to me now because I have actually experienced it. Studying something in a book and thinking of little examples in my own life are one thing, but truly experiencing a sensation of perspective change is another thing all together. The alteration of my mind due to integration into another culture has changed the way I view things. My mind and hence my perspective of the world has undergone a seismic shift. And because of this shift, I have come to realize the power of experiences to shape other experiences. Life, and the way that we perceive, live and think is a complex network of experiences built upon experiences ( I have plenty more intellectual thoughts to spew out about this new “experientalist” philosophy that has been brewing around in my head, but I’ll leave that for another blog)
Never mind all that stuff, I really just wanted to write this blog so that I could tell everyone that I nearly had a heart attack of happiness when I came to Pohnpei and found out that they had tacos. Yes, I ate tacos. It was amazing! In my lonely nights of canned mackerel and cold rice dinners, the idea of Mexican food has been the primary thought that keeps me drooling and pushes my appetite along enough to scarf down some bland grub. The next month of eatery exploration is going to blow my mind.
Besides my rendezvous with volunteer friends and taco orgasms, I also got another fun experience while in Pohnpei. I extended my stay a couple of days so that I would get the chance to visit my host family from training. The family treated me with overwhelming love and respect and I felt it was my responsibility to stop by and pay them a visit. I have nothing but fond memories of them and was eager to spend a night getting reacquainted with my Pohnpeian relatives.
If you remember from old blogs, my Pohnpeian family has about 23 people living in one housing compound. There is my one toothed grandfather with a howling laugh that shakes the leaves off the roof and sends the chickens squawking into the bushes. There is also my 300 pound brother and his skinny “twin” that has a tightly curled mullet that hangs past his neck. There are also a few beautiful island girls who have lived in America and brought back a flurry of little kids.
There are kids, and kids and then some more kids. 13 little rascals running around like its Christmas at Disneyland. The energy of this bunch is unmatched by anything I have seen. I don’t think a preschool of ADHD kids sniffing cocaine could stand up to the constant energy of these little Pohnpeians at my house. Within minutes, I was back into my old routines with them of wrestling, swinging, and spinning. Two on my legs, one on my back, two on my arms and a couple crawling through my legs. That is my standard position at the Waltu household.
Playing with the kids was the second most memorable part of my original Pohnpei stint. The only thing that matched the consistency of the children’s energy was the consistency of drinking sakau with the older men. If you recall, sakau is the poopy mucus that is consumed on a nightly basis in Pohnpeian markets and household. This slimy substance, commonly known as kava, calms the nerves and relaxes the brain. You melt into a smirking blob of sweaty goodness and then trail off to sleep. The next morning, the gooey brown liquid will quickly find its way back out the other end, seemingly unchanged.
I spent about a day playing with kids, slurping sakau and catching up with my family. It was wonderful to see them again and enjoy the unique parts of Pohnpeian life. I am now about to take off on part 2 of my journey, Guam. After that I am headed towards Korea (not North) and then down south the land of the kiwis. I’ll do my best to keep you all updated on my travels.
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