I Sohte Wehwehki

I Sohte Wehwehki means “I don’t understand” in Pohnpeian, and I say it constantly here! My host family is remarkably patient with me, but there’s pretty much just a constant state of confusion in all our interactions. Lots of confused smiling and nodding. This language is going to be an uphill battle for me.

So, where to start? My life has changed dramatically in the last two weeks. I’m living in a rural village that seems worlds away from Kolonia’s bustling “city” life. Since Peace Corps volunteers always need to brag about the lack of amenities, let’s get that out of the way. The actual house only consists of two bedrooms – everything else is outside. I was told before I got here that my family had a “local stove” instead of an oven, and it turns out that “local stove” means “campfire.” I have electricity (most of the time), but no running water. I shower outside with a bucket wearing a “shower skirt.” My toilet is a water seal toilet, which is basically a concrete hole in the ground. It’s all very epic.



My home for the next two years

My new host family is huge! My host mom (nohno) is an elderly woman who is basically the matriarch of this huge extended family. She has seven kids that live on our family compound or nearby (and too many grandkids to count!). I’m having a really difficult time remembering all the names.



Family swimming with Roseleen, Clayton,
and Tracy (Roseleen is also one of my students!)

Two of my host nieces - Dene (6) and Tol (3)

Several of my family members are fishers, so I get to eat lots of fresh fish everyday! We also have lots of coconut trees, so I get to drink coconut water whenever I want!

I’ve been trying to convince them to let me help out with chores, which is a challenge. I’ve been given small tasks like raking or washing dishes, but a few days ago I finally got to help cook dinner. It was an experience, to say the least, since cooking involves so many more tasks here than in the states. I think my family discovered that the only thing funnier than watching me try to speak Pohnpeian is watching me try to chop firewood. It all started with two people showing me how, and 20 minutes later I had the entire extended family gathered around and absolutely dying of laughter. The experience reminded me of the most important advice I was told about the Peace Corps – always laugh at yourself.

I had a really fun experience with my first Peace Corps illness! (Part of the experience, right?) I won’t go into all the disgusting details, but let’s just say I learned the Pohnpeian words for lots of unpleasant bodily functions.

I’ve been at my school for two weeks now. I’ve just been observing so far, but next week I start co-teaching 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade language arts. The classes are huge – almost 40 students! The kids are hilarious – they love Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez (like, obsession level). Also, during lunch kids will voluntarily sweep the classroom floor – can you imagine that happening in the United States? Also, we’re all BAREFOOT in the classroom!

Several people asked me about donations they could make to the school and/or my classroom. If you wanted to help out, here’s a list of things that would be much appreciated.

1.      Magazines! The kids love reading/looking at the pictures in National Geographic, People, and Entertainment, but any magazines with lots of pictures would be very appreciated. (They don’t need to be recent!)

2.      Books! Low elementary reading level, for example, Goosebumps, The Babysitters Club, any Newberry Award book. Or any other books that you think the students would enjoy. Picture books for the lower grades would also be great!

3.      Madlibs, word searches, etc.

4.      Markers, colored pencils, construction paper, etc.

Oh, and I’m now officially a PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!! No more of that “trainee” nonsense.

The M78 Pohnpei team shortly after becoming volunteers!

After ten weeks of training, the M78s are on the verge of becoming Peace Corps volunteers. On Wednesday August 15^th, we’ll have our big swear-in ceremony and then our new host families will whisk us off to our permanent sites. Work starts on Thursday! Yikes!

Although the journey so far has been intense, the real adventure has yet to begin. We’ve been living in the capital “city” of Kolonia (population 7,000), where everyone speaks English, grocery stores carry all the comforts of home, and Western influence is everywhere. Now most of us are heading off to rural villages with fewer amenities and stricter gender roles. Plus, we won’t have daily interaction with our fellow PCVs anymore.

By the way, here is a picture of my training host family:

(These are only the people that live in my house. We have a huge extended family that lives on our street.)

I’m very nervous to start teaching – I hope I’m up to the task! I’ll just be observing my co-teachers for the first few weeks, thankfully, and I’ll also have help from Molly. She’s a current volunteer at my school and we’ll have two months of overlap before she heads back to the states.

I’m also incredibly nervous about my Pohnpeian abilities. The language is grammatically simple (aside from those crazy pronouns) – past tense is usually the same as present tense and there’s no verb for “to be” (we just say “I hungry” or “she pretty”). But I have a very limited vocabulary, I struggle to put sentences together, and I can’t understand anything that people say! So it’s going to be an uphill battle. If only I had been placed in a Spanish-speaking country, sigh…

I’ll be coming into Kolonia for monthly meetings the last Friday of each month, so that’s when I’ll definitely have internet access. I’ll have to see if there are other opportunities, but regardless I’ll try to update this blog monthly!

Here goes!

A Brief History of Pohnpei

Here’s a short compilation of everything (ie – very little) that I’ve learned about Pohnpeian history in the past few weeks. Sorry if this post is a bit dry – but there are photos!

Archeologists estimate that people came to Pohnpei between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Until recently, the Pohnpeian lifestyle was made up subsistence farming, fishing, and gathering.

The era between 1000 and 1500 AD is the Nan Madol Phase, when one central leader reigned over the island. The ruins of Nan Madol – the ancient city that was the center of power – are still standing. We went on a little “field trip” last weekend to check out the site. The government is working on getting it listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would be great for preservation of the ruins (and spreading awareness of the history)!

For a sense of scale...

Anyway, Nan Madol was mysteriously abandoned around 1500 AD (why are all ancient cities “mysteriously abandoned?”) and the central leadership gave way to various chiefdoms with control over different regions of the island. There are lots of legends as to how these chiefdoms came to be – incest, banishment of younger sons, etc (very juicy stuff). Pohnpei is still divided into five municipalities that correspond with the chiefdoms. The chiefs and “nahnmwarkis” still have ceremonial and social power today.

The recent history of Pohnpei, as with the rest of Micronesia, is a history of colonization. The language are culture are hugely influenced by the various colonizers – most notably the influence of Christianity. (Probably 99.9% of the population is either Catholic or Protestant – now the Mormon missionaries are flocking here to have their try, but I don’t anticipate them having much success.)

Boston missionaries first came to Pohnpei in the 1850s, which was the first time Westerners settled in the region. They were followed by the Spaniards in the 1880s. The Spanish government claimed Pohnpei as their territory. Their major influence: Catholicism. Following Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War, Spain sold the territory to Germany. Germany used the Pohnpeians for forced labor and, following the assassination of a German governor, exiled many Pohnpeians to Palau.

Germany abandoned the island during World War II, which allowed Japan to swoop in to build military bases. Japan held the island until it surrendered at the end of WWII. There are still lots of Japanese WWII artifacts and artillery on the island.

Along with the other islands of Micronesia, Pohnpei was made a trust territory of the United States in 1947.

Pohnpei elected to become separate from the United States and formed the Federated States of Micronesia along with four other states (Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae) in 1986. Although FSM is technically an independent country, the compact agreement with the United States maintains the tie between the two countries. FSM’s economy is entirely reliant on US foreign aid and the United States has military control over the region (FSM has no military, but many Micronesians serve in the US military).