Free Time

Last month an adorable 4^th grader in Massachusetts sent a thank you note to all the Peace Corps volunteers in Micronesia. He had lots of questions about life in the Peace Corps, like “Who do you save more – adults or children or both?” (Technically I think I’ve “saved” one person – I pulled a three year-old out of the path of a speeding car last Christmas…) and “Do you have time to read?”

The answer to question number two is YES, more time than I’ve ever had in my whole life!!! There’s a LOT of free time in the Peace Corps! And without internet to distract me, that means lots of reading! I’ve read 83 books so far. This was my reading stack for November:

I’m always trying to find new ways to pass the time. This summer I made lots of scavenger hunts and treasure hunts for the kids. This month I recreated the board games “Sorry” and “Candyland” using file folders and colored pencils. We’ve been having fun with them.

Sorry!

Candyland

Church

 When I first arrived, one of the first questions my family asked me was “What religion are you? Protestant or Catholic?” It’s not considered a personal question, like it would be in the states, partially because there are only the two possible answers. Probably 99.99999% of the population here is Christian – those missionaries did their job very well, to say the least. Other religions don’t really come up, and I doubt the concepts of atheism or agnosticism even exist here. (One of the Peace Corps volunteers in our group is Jewish, and she’s had a very interesting time trying to explain that to people.)

Needless to say, religious diversity doesn’t really exist here. One of the other volunteers asked her students if they know anyone who isn’t Christian, and one of them said, “Yes, I know Catholics.”

Just to give you a sense of how important Christianity is here, I’ll share the story of our mini English-Pohnpeian dictionaries. Peace Corps gave us dictionaries that are only about ten pages long – very concise, so clearly only the most important and commonly-used words could be included. Right along side words like “bathroom,” “to follow,” and “what” are the translations for “Only Begotten Son,” “crucify,” “baptismal covenant,” and “Eternal Father.”

My host family during training was Catholic, so I went to Catholic mass with them on Sundays. Now I live with a Protestant family, so we go to our small village church.

I love going to church because I love the songs – it’s a great way to learn Pohnpeian! Oh, and a fun fact: “dihp” means “sin,” but “dihpw” (with a stronger p sound at the end) means “grass.” Since I had learned the word for grass but not sin in training, I understood one hymn to be saying “I hate grass.” I was a little puzzled – what does this sect of Christianity have against grass? Turns out they were singing “dihp”/sin, which makes a lot more sense…

Last week baby Maia Jane Tom was baptized and I got to hold her for the baptism! Unfortunately, I was so preoccupied making sure she didn’t cry that I missed my cue to “accept” the baptism. The grandma quickly covered for me.

Here’s a picture of me and Maia Jane!

Pohnpeian Names

Names here in Pohnpei are an eclectic representation of the various foreign influences on the island. From the Spanish colonization, there are lots of Spanish last names (my host family in Kolonia had the last name Panuelo San Vincente, and some of my extended family here has the last name Miguel). Japanese presence during World War II also has continued influence on names (from my observations, not as much as Spanish influence). And, of course, as a territory of the United States after World War II and a country tied economically and politically to the United States, American names are everywhere.

But Pohnpeians have managed to make so many names completely unique. Earlier in the year I gave my 6^th  graders had an assignment to find out how they got their name (mostly because I was curious). They were so fascinating that I kept all of them instead of handing them back (I'm a greedy teacher!). Here are some samples.

Many of the names reflect the culture’s focus on family…

Oryan: "My father’s name is Bryan and his uncle’s name is Oliver. So my parents just took out the B from Bryan and the O from Oliver’s first letter so it becomes Oryan."

Daillia: "My brother’s name is Detrick my sister’s name is Sylvia. So it becomes Daillia."

Sherraine: "Erraine is my grandma’s name and She means a girl so we make is Sherraine."

Kapwry: "We take the first part of names Kasilda, Pwilikinslo, Rebeca, and Yunid."

Prayden: "When I was baby I almost died so my mom prayed for me that is why my name is Prayden."

JB: "I was born in the jungle behind our house no in Pohnpei State Hospital. Then my parents gave me J.B. as my name so J.B. stand for Jungle Boy."

There is also a biblical element to some of the names…

Zion: "They just name me after the city of Babylon. They want me to be holy and they take the name from the bible."

When I saw that one of my students was named Jericho, I assumed it was another biblically-inspired name. Nope! Movies are even more prominent in the naming process…

Jericho: "My mom watch a movie and the man named Jericho. The man was handsome so my mom name me Jericho."

Jimmy Jack: "My mother gave my name immy Jack because my father name Jim. Then they saw the movie of Titanic. Jack was the lover guy. Jim my father and Titanic Jack. That’s me Jimmy Jack!"

And then there’s Simion’s explanation…

Simion: "My parents name me Simion because they just run out of names."

Yup, that’s what happens when you’re kid number 7!

October: Witches and Waterfalls

It’s been a relatively eventful month. I went on some hikes, took the GRE, and celebrated my birthday and Halloween. (Oh, and I taught everyday… I always forget about that aspect of my life when I write this blog!)

At the beginning of the month, I went with a few of the other volunteers up to the mountains of Pohnpei to a tiny village called Salapwuk. There, we took an epic all-day hike to see six different waterfalls. So just in case you haven’t believed me every time I’ve gushed about how beautiful Pohnpei is, here are MORE pictures to prove it!

 

For my birthday, I went with some of my host sisters/cousins/nieces/whatever to another waterfall – less epic, smaller, closer to home… but still really fun. We had a picnic with cookies and frosting!

At the waterfall, even though you can't see it in

the picture...

Frosting Face!

 

 

One of the highlights of school this month was reading “Rumpelstiltskin” with the 6^th graders. They made puppets and put on puppet shows to review the story events. It was pretty funny. I took pictures, but the kids all got super shy the moment the camera came out…

Also this month, the 7^th graders read about the Titanic. Like any country with a significant American pop-culture influence, everyone was familiar with the movie. And even more so than the movie, with the Celene Dion song. They LOVE that song. I’ve heard it more  times than I can count since coming to Pohnpei. You know how it’s sort of become a joke in the United States? How everyone starts laughing the moment it starts playing? Not so here. Most of the 7^th graders knew all the lyrics, despite their varying English abilities. We couldn’t get very far into the reading before all the students wanted to sing the Titanic song!

The state of Pohnpei recognizes a holiday called "Education Day," which we celebrate by… not having school. I was complaining to some of the other volunteers about how ridiculous this is, when one of them pointed out, "Well, what do Americans do on Labor Day?" Ah, touché. Anyway, all the teachers had a celebration in Kolonia – here’s a picture of some of us volunteers in our school uniforms:

To finish off October, Halloween! My parents sent an awesome Halloween care package with face paint and LOTS of candy! Halloween is celebrated American-style in Kolonia, but is unrecognized out in the villages. So I introduced "trick-or-treating" to my family, which was a blast. I gave candy to all the homes on our compound and the kids (after practicing saying "trick or treat!!!" sufficiently) went around to get their candy! I got lots of good pictures!

 

Baby Lebron as a cat

Donn and Gayson looking scary!

 

Jenet as a butterfly

 

 

"Trick or treat!!"

 

We also played "Halloween Bingo" and made skeletons!