Summing up the Peace Corps Experience

Well, we’re getting down to it – only six days until my COS (“close of service” – gotta love Peace Corps’ obsession with acronyms). I dedicated two years of my life to this experience, so I’ve been doing lots of reflecting this month.

Most importantly, would I do it again? Yes and no. If I were able to go back in time and talk to myself two years ago, I would absolutely say “YES!” But looking ahead, I don’t want to do Peace Corps for a second time in my life – two years is just too long.

The best part of my experience was undoubtedly been building relationships with the kids in my host family and at school. I’ve gotten to watch babies learn how to walk, students graduate from high school, elementary school, and ECE (the equivalent of Kindergarten), plus lots of goofy dancing and singing. I don’t think I would have made it through without the kids – I relied on their smiles and laughter when I was struggling.

And to be honest, I struggled a lot. I don’t remember how many times I went down to the river to cry. I was frustrated almost daily at school dealing with cross-cultural attitudes to teaching, treatment of children, work ethic, etc. I missed home and never really found a way to discuss my feelings in a meaningful or deep way with my host family (I relied on my fellow volunteers for that). I confronted aspects of the culture that were truly horrifying to me, and came to truly appreciate America’s gender roles and attitudes. I survived some very unpleasant illnesses (and even got a free trip to Thailand as a reward for my suffering, he he).

Overall, though, it was a positive and life-changing experience (sorry for the cliché). Like many volunteers, I think I got much more out of it than I was able to give to my community. I think it’s an inevitable paradox of volunteering.

Also like many volunteers, I am constantly questioning whether or not I made a difference. Once again, I think the answer is both yes and no. I know that I had an impact on my students. Over the two years, they improved their English and, more importantly, they developed their abilities to think critically and express themselves creatively. The 8^th graders that participated in GLOW and BoyzIIMen camps learned the skills that will hopefully help them transition to healthy, respectful, confident adults. Some students started reading for pleasure and others gained a concept of world geography from our Magic Tree House/World Map project.

But helping my students was only half of my task in Micronesia. Peace Corps’ larger goal is SUSTAINABILITY, meaning that, after I leave, the progress will continue from co-teaching and “skills transfer” (Peace Corps’ favorite phrase). In that sense, I don’t know if my work will prove at all sustainable. It depends on what the teachers choose to do when I leave. One of the other volunteers described it well – we are only the catalysts for change, but the actual change is up to other people. I am very lucky that my school is receiving a new Peace Corps volunteer in August, so the progress will continue for at least another two years!

The Micro Games

I’ve missed out on two Olympics while I’ve been on Pohnpei, but this month I got to watch Micronesia’s version of the Olympics – The Micro Games!

I can’t really overstate what a big deal this is here. There’s been a countdown outside the government buildings for the past year (since I knew I would be leaving Pohnpei around the same time as the Micro Games, it was a strange reminder of my impending COS).

The four states of FSM, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, Kiribati, Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam all competed here on Pohnpei. There were standard events like track and field, basketball, volleyball, swimming, etc, and also traditional Micronesian events like spear fishing, canoe racing, and the “Micronesian All-Around” that consisted of coconut husking, swimming, tree climbing, spear throwing, etc. (Pohnpei won gold in the all-around, by the way.) 

Speedy coconut husking

A rainy day for a canoe race

The crowd watching the volleyball game

Pohnpei did quite well in the medal count – I think 2^nd in gold medals after the mighty Guam. But this was little comfort to many of my family members who were focused solely on volleyball and basketball. Guam swept both of these sports in both the women’s and men’s divisions.

This being Pohnpei, the crowds always showed the most excitement for the dancing spectators during breaks in the game. The first thing my nohno would ask when I got home was not “Who won?” but “Did you dance?” They need a dancing event at the next Micro Games! 

Pohnpeian Weddings

On Sunday my host sister and her husband got married. He was already her husband by Pohnpeian standards. Sort of. The whole thing is kind of confusing, but I’ll try to explain based on what I’ve seen in my village. Things vary a lot on different parts of the island, so this post probably doesn’t represent Pohnpeian culture as a whole.

Generally, when a relationship becomes public (when the parents find out about it), a traditional Pohnpeian “wedding” takes place. The wedding is just a sakau ceremony between the families. Then usually the woman goes to live with the husband’s family (although sometimes the man moves instead – of my nohno’s five married daughters, only one lives away from her family compound). 

Since the arrival of Christianity, however, couples need to have a second wedding in the church. (One woman translated the traditional Pohnpeian ceremony as an “engagement” in English, but most people translated it as a marriage.) This second wedding isn’t rushed at all – it happens whenever the couple gets around to it. Often, the church wedding happens several years later after the couple has started a family and built their own house.

So anyway, congratulations to Padian and Jetny! (I had been putting the pressure on them to get married before I left Pohnpei .)

The family

Boyz II Men (Not the 90s band)

I made it through my third camp of the year, this time for 8^th grade boys. Surprisingly, it went better than either of the girls’ camps. This was surprising first because we planned it at the last minute, and second because it was for 8^th grade boys. I expected lots of behavior problems, but the boys were great (it helped that we had less than 30 boys, whereas the girls’ camps had 60 and 70 each). Plus, this camp was the most fun because the boys got so into the teamwork and leadership games. The enthusiasm was just off the charts.

The gang

Human knot

Acid river: cross without touching the ground!

BoyzIIMen focused on five pillars: respect, community service, leadership, teamwork, and ambition. We also had some peer educators from the high school talk about drugs and HIV/AIDS. They brought ukuleles and sang some awesome songs – the boys were singing the “say no to drugs” song on the bus ride home!

Improvised CPR lesson

Discussing goals

The best part of the camp was our evening bonfire. We introduced the all-American s’more, which was a huge hit (how could it not be?), and glow sticks (which I guess would have been more appropriate for the girls’ camp, considering it’s called Camp GLOW).

This camp served as a “pilot program” for BoyzIIMen on Pohnpei (we got the framework from the Chuuk volunteers have been doing it for several years), so hopefully next year the remaining Pohnpei volunteers will be able to expand the program to more schools. 

Summer Science

We’re halfway through my last Peace Corps project! It’s a cross between summer school and day camp that focuses on hands-on science. Unfortunately, science in Pohnpei is very textbook-focused due to a lack of materials and teacher training. My principal is trying to get more support from the Department of Education, but in the meantime I decided to give the students and some of the interested teachers an introduction to scientific experiments. It’s nothing fancy – just a very rudimentary overview of the scientific process and some fun experiments.

We’ve already conducted classes for 5-7^th grade, and during the next two weeks we’ll be focusing on 2^nd-4^th grade. I originally was going to teach a computer class for the 7^th graders, but the computers aren’t working (what else is new?). They were disappointed, so I they joined in first week and they served as my assistants the second week.

(By the way, a huge thank you to those of you who donated money for supplies!)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first two weeks:

Learning about density by layering liquids

Gak! Is it a solid or a liquid?

Neither! It's a POLYMER!

Landslide simulation

Egg drop experiment!

Explosive baking soda and vinegar volcano! (Probably the
most popular experiment of all)