A Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Trainee

I am not a Peace Corps volunteer – not until I swear in on August 15^th. In the meantime, I am a lowly Peace Corps trainee (PCT). I’ll then become a PCV, and if I complete two years without early termination (ET), I’ll become a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) for LIFE! If you can’t tell yet, Peace Corps has a bit of an acronym obsession!

As a trainee, every weekday is scheduled and structured – Peace Corps tells me where to go, when to be there, and what to do. (One trainee skipped the first hour of training a few days ago, and Peace Corps flipped out and contacted the police, looked for him at the hospital, and called Peace Corps headquarters in DC – we’re on a very short leash!) This will differ significantly from my schedule once I become a volunteer. So I thought I’d give a little snapshot of my day as a trainee, and I’ll do this again in September or so to contrast trainee and volunteer daily life.

6:30 AM – Wake up, take bucket shower, apply sunscreen (I apply at least 3 times a day but I’m still getting red!), eat breakfast (usually cereal, eggs, or spam)

7:30 AM – Walk to Ohmine School for training, which takes about 30 minutes

The view on my walk to school!

8 AM – Morning training sessions begin (in theory – we usually all arrive late and don’t get started until about 8:20)

Morning sessions are on teaching English as a second language, particularly in the context of the Micronesian classroom. We have this session with local Pohnpeian teachers that are taking the class to get certified. This week we begin “model school,” which is basically a two-week summer school program. More details on that next post!

Ohmine School with a RAINBOW!!!

12 PM – Lunch break! We only have a $6 daily stipend so we have to find cheap food! Luckily there are lots of food stands that offer chicken and rice for $2.50, fried bananas for $1, taro or breadfruit for $1, etc.

1:30 PM – Afternoon sessions begin (again, we usually start late)

Afternoon sessions are focused on safety and security, cross-cultural issues, and medical care. After we get our site assignments we will have language classes during this slot.

5 PM – Training ends for the day. I walk home with other volunteers, but we usually stop along the way, so I don’t get home until 6

Dinner is sometime between 6 and 9 – we don’t have a consistent schedule. My nohno typically makes fish, pig, or chicken with rice. Sometimes we get some vegetables. I do the dishes when nohno lets me, but she’s very resistant to the idea of me helping around the house.

After dinner I read, write in my journal, or play cards with the kids (they LOVE uno). Sometimes I help Leitina with her math homework. A few days ago they taught me “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” in Pohnpeian!

with Leitina and Galeb (not sure why the photo got stretched...)

Two more of Ruth’s kids have come back to live with her (I swear, each time I come back to the house there are new children living here). BJ and JJ are twins and are seven years old.

9-10 PM – I’m too tired to stay up later, so I take another bucket shower (it’s VERY necessary to shower twice a day here) and go to bed.

The weekends are very long – I’m not used to having so little to do! On Saturdays the trainees sometimes get together for hiking or exploring more of the island. Otherwise I play with Leitina and Galeb, visit the family relatives (they all live on the same street), write a blog post, etc. The people here are very good at simply being – I haven’t perfected the art yet and I get bored easily! When I can’t stand it anymore I trek over to an internet café for an hour to send emails and post this!

The Peace Corps, The Compact Agreement, and Why I’m Here

During staging and training, we’ve been getting lots of information about the Peace Corps and Micronesia. Here’s a little debrief on what I’ve learned so far and essentially why I’m here! Sorry if this post is a little boring for people – I promise to post snorkeling photos soon! 

The Peace Corps has three goals:

1. “To help the peoples of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained manpower, particularly in meeting the basic needs of those living in the poorest areas of such countries”
2. “To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served”
3. “To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the American people”

The first goal is related to our specific assignments – the Federated States of Micronesia has asked Peace Corps to focus on education, so I will be both teaching and training local teachers in effective interactive learning. The current education status is dismal – over 90% of students fail their standardized tests in 8^th and 10^th grade. Since English is the official second language of the country, classes from 5^th grade on are taught primarily in English. Although it sounds kind of imperialistic (and it is based on a rather imperialistic past with the United States), being able to speak English is essential for communication between the states (each has several distinct local languages), for getting a job in the government (80% of jobs here), and for any sort of future outside of their island (there’s only one university in Micronesia, so many come to the United States for college). We’re offering the students another tool to expand their options. Training the teachers is another important aspect because of the unique education challenges in Micronesia. All the textbooks are from the United States, so the content is often too difficult for ESL students (not to mention irrelevant – what Pacific Islander needs to read about the Alamo?). We’re currently being trained in how to adapt these materials into a format more applicable to ESL learners, and we’ll be working with co-teachers to implement them.

The second and third goal are much more vague. Basically I need to hang out with lots of people and give them a good impression of the country I represent. I need to integrate as fully as possible into the local culture and learn as much as I can about Micronesia. The Peace Corps encourages us to keep blogs (provided we include the necessary disclaimer – see below) because it can be an element of fulfilling the third goal. I can’t think of many people that know anything about Micronesia in the states – I certainly wouldn’t have been able to point it out on a map before I received my invitation! (I’m pretty sure some maps don’t even include the FSM…) But the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is actually incredibly relevant to the United States because of the Compact Agreement between the two countries.

The American ambassador talked to our group last week about this agreement (small country=getting to meet people with important titles – a former president of the FSM is speaking with us in a few weeks). The most important aspects of this unique agreement are:

-FSM is an autonomous country with self-government

-Micronesians can live, work, study, etc. in the United States freely and without a visa

-The United States military has full responsibility for the safety and defense of FSM

-Micronesians can serve in the United States military

-FSM cannot allow a third party’s military to enter their waters without permission from the United States

-The United States offers economic assistance to FSM through grants and federal services (United States Postal Service, Head Start, FDIC, etc)

The economic assistance is the only part of the agreement with an expiration date, so it’s technically a separate entity from the Compact Agreement, but I’m lumping them together because everyone basically thinks of them as one and the same. The amount of economic aid is truly astounding. We give about $200 million/year, which amounts to $2,000 per capita (Afghanistan, in contrast, receives about $50 per capita in foreign aid). Since its implementation in 1986, the US has given approximately $2 billion. 

Why do we fork out so much money to some tiny country most people haven’t even heard of? Location, location, location! After WWII, the United Nations “gave” the entire Micronesia region to the United States as a trust. When FSM sought self-government, the US really didn’t want another country to be able to swoop in and control the region (when you include the waters, the region is huge). $2 billion is a relatively small price to pay to control a huge strategic stretch of the Pacific. 

What’s the really bad part of all this? The money hasn’t really made a difference! It’s really only created a relationship of dependency. US grant money funds the entire education, health, and infrastructure sectors of the economy, as well as others. The Micronesian economy is almost entirely based on the public sector, which is basically paid for by us. Without any growth in the private sector, GDP has hardly grown at all in the past 30 years. The current foreign aid package to FSM expires in 2023. If we don’t renew the grants then, the entire Micronesian economy will collapse. And even if we do renew it, we will simply be perpetuating the dependency. It’s a huge problem, and the agreement really needs to be significantly altered (ie somehow promoting growth in the private sector) to make any of the impacts of our aid sustainable in the long run.

So how will my Peace Corps service solve these problems. Bottom line: it won’t. We were all warned that our idealistic notions of saving the world would come crashing down the moment we got started – our role is to promote small change one community at a time. I’ll be helping to motivate the students and teachers at one school to value education and to improve their English. Ren, our country director, told us that many of the Micronesians in the government who are trying to solve the country’s problems have said that they attribute their success in part to a Peace Corps teacher they had had as a student. The hope is that some of our students will be motivated to pursue higher education, and at least some of those students will choose to stay in FSM and work to improve the country in its weaker areas. Additionally, we hope the teachers we work with will be able to improve their English teaching. Hopefully our work here will have an indirect effect on the future of Micronesia.

One Week Update

The whole M-78 gang!

Wow, it’s been quite a week! I moved in with my first host family – I’ll be staying here probably until August, and then I’ll get placed in my permanent site. My nohno (host mom) is divorced, so for the first few days it was just the two of us in the house. Now two of her kids are staying here too, Caleb and Leilita. Leilita speaks remarkably good English for a nine year-old. She’s super sweet and always smiles. We've been playing lots of cards and marbles. Caleb only speaks a little English, and he gets frustrated when I can’t understand him. Leitina has been translating for him (although he mostly talks about worms and bugs, so the translation isn’t really necessary anymore). I don’t understand the custody agreement (or if there even is a formal custody agreement), so I’m not sure how often they’ll be living here. Hopefully a lot! All of Ruth’s family lives on the same street, so I’ve been meeting the extended family bit by bit. 

My family owns some HUGE pigs. They're like twice the size of me!

Our house has electricity and running water, but no hot water, so showers aren’t much fun. I really thought the cold water would feel refreshing since it’s so hot here, but nope – it still just feels really cold! I’m becoming a fan of the bucket shower, though, since I don’t need to be under the freezing water the whole time. Plus, once I’m done weather immediately warms me up. 

Kolonia is the biggest “city” in the Federated States of Micronesia, but it’s the size of a really small town in America. It’s so small, in fact, that you only have to give the taxi drivers the name of the person whose house you’re going to and they’ll take you there! 

The main street of Kolonia - big city livin' ;)

Each day all the trainees have training sessions from 8-5. In the mornings we have teacher training with local teachers who are getting their certification (the government is cracking down and demanding that all teachers be certified, so we’re with lots of people who have been teaching for 10+ years). In the afternoons we have sessions with the medical officers (PCMOs), safety coordinator (SSC), or some other person with an acronym for a title. I’ve quickly discovered that the Peace Corps LOVES acronyms. Training is sometimes helpful and often menotenous, but I always look forward to going because I get to hang out with all my amazing fellow volunteers!

This photo sums up my love for my fellow volunteers!

 Some random observations:

-Pohnpeian is difficult to pronounce when you only have the spelling. There’s a street on the map of Kolonia called Pohnumwpwamwpw. No joke. Your guess is as good as mine.

-Pohnpei and Chuuk (another state of Micronesia) have a not-so-friendly rivalry going on. Everyone here tells me not to go to Chuuk for Peace Corps (not that I have any say in the matter) because there’s lots of crime. Garrison, one of our Peace Corps coordinators who’s actually from Chuuk, told us that Pohnpeians used to always say “OIC” meaning “only in Chuuk” whenever they heard about the frequent power outages in Chuuk. Lately, however, Pohnpei has been having lots of problems with their electricity, so in Chuuk they started saying “AIP,” meaning “also in Pohnpei.” It reminds me of a high school rivalry or something. 

-When it rains, it pours! We Washingtonians may be very proud of our rain, but it’s nothing compared to the rain in Pohnpei. Pohnpei is one of the rainiest locations on earth, far surpassing Seattle in both number of rainy days and (particularly) amount of annual rainfall.

-Dogs aren’t pets here – they’re either guard dogs or wild dogs. You don’t pet them or play with them, which is depressing. We have three guard dogs at our house, and one of them just had puppies! I wish they were pet dogs so I could cuddle with them! As it is I just have to be content watching their adorableness from the window.

-Immigration to the United States is very relaxed for citizens of Micronesia (part of our Compact agreement with the country – I don’t know the details of it, but basically we get to use the islands for military purposes if we ever want to in exchange for lots of foreign aid and relaxed immigration rules). Tons of people have family members in the United States. A lot of Micronesians have served in the United States military as well. A lot of people talk about relatives that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

-The academic performance of students here is depressing, to say the least. There’s an entrance exam for high school, and more than 90% of students don’t pass it the first time. Some go to summer school and then retake the test, but a lot don’t continue to high school. 

-Instead of saying “yes,” people just raise the eyebrows. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why everyone was raising their eyebrows at me! I thought they were looking at me skeptically or judging me. I’m still not used to it. 

-There’s no public transportation on the island, but taxis are really cheap. It’s only $1 per person to go anywhere within Kolonia. Since my host mom doesn’t have a car, I’ve been taking taxis to and from training each day. 

-Most of the cars have the steering wheel on the right, but cars are still driven on the right side of the road. What?

-I thought I’d be confronted with lots of exotic pests, but the worst offenders are common ants. They’re absolutely EVERYWHERE! I don’t even know how many ants I’ve accidently eaten with my food so far. There are also a few lizards that live in the bathroom.

I'll try to post again next week! Love you guys and miss you all sooooooo much!

I've Arrived!

Kaselehlie, everybody! I’ve learned two words in Pohnpeian so far: kaselehlie, which means either hello or goodbye, and menlau, which means either please or thank you. I’m really liking the efficiency of this language!

Well, I’ve officially crossed the international dateline so it’s tomorrow here! This is message is coming to you FROM THE FUTURE!!!

But anyway, update since Hawaii. Our 10 hour plane trip was exhausting, to say the least. We had lots of trouble checking in at the airport and got to the gate after boarding had already started. We stopped at three tiny islands along the way, and half the plane had to deboard at each stop for a security sweep. The airports were tiny, open-air rooms with one runway. Only one flight comes in each day at most of the islands.

Kosrae airport

My favorite island we stopped at was Kosrae (where about three volunteers will be assigned). We had this amazing view flying in – it was surrounded by clouds and just had this mythical look to it. Plus, unlike the Marshall Islands we stopped at, it was GREEN!!!

View of Kosrae

I thought all the volunteers would be sitting together, but our seats were spread out. I was bummed at first, but it all worked out because I sat next to two really interesting people (unfortunately I’ve already forgotten their names!!). One guy was in the military and is stationed in the Marshall Islands (a territory of the United States just east of the Federated States of Micronesia, but still part of the geographical region of Micronesia – confusing). The other was from Kosrae, and he’s actually hosted a Peace Corps volunteer before! Plus, he serves on the PTA at his village’s school and they will probably be getting a Peace Corps volunteer this year – there’s a one in 24 chance that it’ll be me, lol!

Our arrival in Pohnpei was crazy. The weather was stormy so the plane was being blown about by the heavy winds (especially terrifying since the runway was a narrow strip of land with water on either side). It was pouring rain as we got off, but each passenger was handed an umbrella for the walk to the baggage claim – so sweet!

Then came the best part, as each volunteer passed through customs, all the current Pohnpei volunteers were there on the other side cheering our arrival. They gave us mwar mwars, which are basically floral wreaths (they serve the same purpose as leis in Hawaii). When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted with a fruit feast – pineapple, mangos, breadfruit, and coconuts! The office’s IT guy, of all people, chopped open our coconuts for us with a machete so we could drink fresh coconut milk!

The culture here is very welcoming and family oriented. In one of my interviews with Garrison, a member of the training staff, I mentioned the fear of feeling isolated. He said I was invited any time to come over to his house and hang out with his huge family (extended families usually live together). He also mentioned that the term “cousin” doesn’t really exist – everyone is called a brother or a sister.

Move in with my host family tomorrow! Yay! Probably won't have internet for another week or two... We'll see!

Aloha!

Greetings from Honolulu! Best orientation location ever, right?! We were joking all day that we won the "Peace Corps Lottery."

View of Oahu

I've had a fantastic time here (less than 48 hours). I arrived in Honolulu early and met Freya, another volunteer. She actually has a friend, Melissa, who lives in Honolulu. They invited me to join them on a drive around the island before registration. (Did you know that Honolulu is officially considered the worst commute city after LA? There's only one main road to take you where you want to go. Melissa said it takes her an hour and a half to get to work each day.) Melissa took us to a great lookout point and then to Pearl Harbor (both the historic site and the current naval base). We didn't have time to go out to the USS Arizona memorial, but we explored the wonderful memorial on the shore. They had a small museum, too - I learned a lot!

Pearl Harbor

Although we registered last night, our orientation started this morning. My fellow volunteers are just an awesome group of people. There are 24 of us in the training group (M-78, because I think we're the 78th Peace Corps group to come to Micronesia...?) I can't wait to get to know everyone more! The majority of the people are in their mid-20s (I'm one of the babies of the group), but there's a pretty wide range of ages and we're all coming from such different backgrounds and life experiences. There's one married couple that quit their jobs and sold their house in order to come - so brave!

One of the volunteers, Mariel, actually got to meet President Obama a few weeks ago at a fundraiser. She told him she was joining the Peace Corps, and he was really excited. When she said she was going to Micronesia, he responded, "Wear lots of sunscreen. And tell all your fellow volunteers to do so too!" So we all have an executive order from the president - we shall wear sunscreen!

Our orientation was a really helpful reflection process on why we're all doing this and what we want to achieve. We talked really explicitly about the challenges ahead. Although Peace Corps staff joke that Micronesia is one of the winning lottery numbers for the Peace Corps, the program actually has one of the highest "dropout" rates of all the Peace Corps countries. Peace Corps Micronesia is unique in that volunteers are spread out over many islands, so it has the potential to feel very isolating. The thought of being separated from this group of volunteers is already heartbreaking.

After orientation ended, a bunch of us went to Waikiki! It was ridiculously touristy and crowded, but it was still a ton of fun. We swam in the huge waves for about an hour, watched the surfers, chilled on the beach, and grabbed dinner before heading back to the hotel. Pics:

Half of our training group at Waikiki!

Waikiki

After swimming

Mandatory photo of palm trees

Tomorrow is going to be intense - we check out of the hotel at 3 AM and then take a 10 hour flight to Pohnpei (with three stops along the way). We leave Honolulu on Friday at 5:45 AM, cross the international dateline, and arrive in Pohnpei on Saturday at 12:45 PM. It's crazy. We begin training pretty much immediately upon arriving to Micronesia. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane! (Thanks, Caitlin and Cory, for the inflatable pillow!)

I don't know what my internet access will be like, so I might not be in touch for awhile. Just remember the Peace Corps mantra for families back home - no news is good news!

Here We Go!

Only a few more days before I head off! I’ll be flying to Honolulu for staging/orientation on the 6^th, and less than 48 hours later the whole gang leaves for Micronesia!

The most common question I’ve gotten for the past two months has been, “Micronesia? Where’s that?” So here is a map for reference:

The Federated States of Micronesia have a total land area of 702 km2 (to put that in perspective, Rhode Island is 3,140 km2), but the islands are spread out over an expanse of the Pacific Ocean about as big as the United States. Crazy.

We’ll have six weeks of training on the island of Pohnpei, and then volunteers will be divided up to serve in Kosrae, the Chuuk islands, the Republic of Palau, or Pohnpei for two years of service. Since each group of islands has its own language, we won’t know what language to start learning until several weeks in! (According to the Peace Corps website, volunteers learn either Chuukese, Kosraean, Mortlockeese, Mwoakilese, Palauan, Pingelapese, Pohnpeian, Sapwuahfik, Ulithian, or Yapese -  whew!)

At whatever site I end up, I'll be working as an English teacher and a community development worker. The community development side of things is pretty vague - it's going to depend a lot on where I end up and what the specific needs of that community are. 

I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated, but I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get internet access – it varies a lot depending on the island! We'll see if I even have electricity!

But even if I can't keep in touch through the internet, here's a great perk of serving in Micronesia - because of arrangements between the two countries, mailing a letter to Micronesia is only 45 cents! That's right - for the same price as mailing a letter to your next-door neighbor, you can send one to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 15,000 miles away! (Of course, it does take several weeks to arrive...) You can reach me at:

Mia Neidhardt
Peace Corps/Micronesia
PO Box 9
Kolonia, Pohnpei, FM 96941

Here’s hoping for a good adventure ahead!