My adventures as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

And now for something completely different…

To celebrate our one year anniversary on Pohnpei, Christy and I decided to get the hell off Pohnpei for a week. So we went somewhere the complete opposite of our tiny rural island – Tokyo, Japan.
Needless to say, the culture shock was a little intense. I mean, imagine going from this:
…to this:
We had a seven-hour layover in Guam to begin the adjustment process. During this “adjustment” time, we ate at Burger King, nearly froze in the air conditioning, and experienced a complete sensory overload with all the illuminated advertisements.
Then, finally we arrived in Japan and met up with Kassi, my friend from college. She is teaching English in a suburb of Tokyo, so we stayed at her apartment, visited her kindergarten class (so cute!) and did our best to navigate the train system into the city.
Since the signs didn’t always have English translations, we relied a lot on the kindness of strangers to find our way around. Luckily for us, the entire population of Japan is overwhelmingly nice, so we had no shortage of help! I was blown away how people would go completely out of their way to help us out when they saw our panicked faces. We also had people come up to talk with us just because they wanted to practice their English. I love Japan!
Lots of reminders of our pre-Peace Corps life (“oh my god, it’s an ESCALATor!!!”), but we also encountered new technology, like floors that heat up and toilets that are smarter than us (there were so many buttons – we couldn’t figure out how on earth to operate them!!!!).
There were so many highlights of the trip – visits to lots of temples and shrines, a karaoke night with Kassi and her friends, delicious sushi dinners… Here are some pictures of more favorite moments!
Feeling overwhelmed by the big city, we stumbled upon a beautiful iris garden in Yoyogi Park:

Before entering a shrine or temple, everyone needs to cleanse their hands and mouth:


Christy and I at the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the emperor who opened Japan to the West:

We went to Shibuya crossing, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world – traffic stops at the same time from all directions and the pedestrians swarm in. We watched the chaos from the 2nd floor of a Starbucks(!!!!):

We took a day trip to Kamakura to see the temples there. This is a zen temple:

Also in Kamakura, we saw this giant Buddha statue – it weighs over 120 tons and was constructed over 800 years ago:

This is my favorite picture from the trip – we were walking around outside the sumo stadium when these wrestlers came out and begrudgingly posed with us:

Amid the chaos of Shinjuku – more sensory overload:

Kassi took us to the Senoji Temple on Saturday – it was such a relief to have her as our navigator and translator on the weekend:

Another picture from the temple:

We walked around the outside of the Imperial Palace and Gardens, but weren’t allowed to go in L:

This is the Skytree, “the tallest free standing structure in the world.” We’re not exactly sure what a “free standing structure” is, but we’re pretty sure it’s some sort of architectural technicality that allows them to say it’s the “tallest.” (Despite the fact that it’s not even the tallest building in Japan, let alone in the whole world.):

We went to Harajuku to see the crazy fashion! These girls were taking pictures with tourists, so we joined in on the fun:

Saturday, June 8, 2013

MST

After the first year of Peace Corps service, all the volunteers throughout Micronesia (all 19 of us, ha ha) came to Pohnpei for "mid-service training," or MST for short. (Peace Corps loves its acronyms - it's like learning a new language.) The purpose of MST is to help us prepare for the 2nd year and review technical training, but for the volunteers MST is mostly about celebrating the big one-year anniversary and catching up with the other volunteers.

(This, by the way, is why I've had so much time in town to post blogs.)

I hadn't seen the other volunteers since last July. We've all been through so much in the past year, but as soon as I saw them, it felt like no time at all had passed. We talked for hours sharing funny stories and finding all the similarities between our unique experiences on the different islands. We all face similiar challenges at our sites across Micronesia.

We stayed in a hotel in Kolonia, which meant we had a week of hot showers, flushing toilets, and cable TV! It was a week of luxury!

Another special part of MST was the arrival of the new Peace Corps trainees. Hooray! We welcomed them to Micronesia with cheers and mwarmwars. They'll have two months of training and then they'll swear-in as Peace Corps volunteers!

It's crazy that one year ago I was one of those trainees first arriving on Pohnpei. I feel so much more confident and happy than I was back then. It's a relief to be at this point in my Peace Corps experience - I sort of know what I'm doing (emphasis on the "sort of") and I know I can do this. One year to go!

Snapshots of the Kids

Anyone who has met me knows that I love kids. So I lucked out big time to get a host family literally swarming with children. When I have a rough day, I can always count on those little troublemakers to make me laugh. They're what keeps me going when I feel like quitting and going home.

Anyone who has met me also knows that I love taking pictures. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I've taken lots of photos of the kids. They love having their picture taken! I was able to develop a few so now the kids have their first pictures of themselves (it made me a big hit with all the moms).

Anyway, here are some gems from my collection.

Jennette (age 2) plays peek-a-boo
No, that's not blood. The kids discovered lipstick,
and this was the end result.
The girls love to make a "style" pose for the camera.
JD, Jayleen, Jayan, and Jennette (J names are popular here...)
Say "cheese!"
JD, Jayan, Jennette, Maylon, Jayleen, Tol, Denaegan,
and Kalni

Camp GLOW

For three days at the end of May, the Peace Corps volunteers on Pohnpei led a summer camp for 8th grade girls. We had 109 girls from around the island. Needless to say, it was a little crazy - I think I only slept about one hour each night (we had to keep watch to make sure the girls didn't run off or go swimming at 2 am...). But we somehow pulled it off! (I slept for two days straight afterward – no exaggeration.)
Camp GLOW is a Peace Corps-wide program that stands for “Girls Leading Our World.” In addition to standard camp activities (swimming, volleyball, arts and crafts…) we had informational sessions and discussions about different issues facing young Pohnpeian women – puberty, hygiene, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault. Plus we had local health professionals give talks on HIV, substance abuse, and nutrition.
I took lots of pictures – enjoy!
The whole gang (can you tell why it was so overwhelming to
manage this crowd!?)
20 girls came from my school
Christy and Ben entertain the girls before lunch
The girls swim in the sunset
Making local baskets
A teambuilding classic - the human knot
Water relay for teambuilding
DANCE PARTY!!!
Nutrition talk
Everyone got a t-shirt and tote bag... and the chance to
pose like a thug...?


The school year draws to a close...

School's out for summer! (Thank god.) Not that I don't love my students, but I think I would have gone crazy if the school year had lasted much longer. I have a nice month off before we start summer school, so I'm enjoying the time to recharge.

All in all, it was a pretty successful year. I learned a lot! I learned that I am horrible at classroom management (but I definitely improved throughout the year!). I learned that 6th graders love to play hangman. I learned that you sweat a lot in a muumuu in a hot classroom. I learned that 8th graders can range from 13 years old to 19 years old. I learned that if a student takes out a knife during class, it just means they're going to sharpen their pencil (clearly an assumption that wouldn't apply in the American classroom...)

I took photos of my classes on the last day of school. (Try to spot the men wai!)

6th Grade Group A
6th Grade Group B
7th Grade (Can you tell which ones are the trouble makers?
8th Grade Group A
8th Grade Group B

We celebrated 8th grade graduation at the end of May. Many students don't complete high school, so an elementary school "diploma" is a pretty big deal here. We celebrated, in typical Pohnpeian fashion,
 with lots of food, mwarmwars/leis, and singing.


Buried under their mwarmwars


Our valedictorian wrote her own speech - in English! I was
so proud :)