week one

I have now been living at my permanent site for a little over one week. Just when I thought that I had adjusted to living in Micronesia, I was proven wrong. Not seeing other Americans on a daily basis is a big adjustment. Not having a jam packed schedule from 8AM to 6PM everyday is different. Not having snack time at our training site at 10AM and 3PM everyday is missed. And my status change from PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) to PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) means that people expect a lot more of me, especially when it comes to speaking Pohnpeian. And speaking Pohnpeian in my language class is a lot different than it is out in the real world. My new host family and co-workers realize that I am not fluent, but they sure want me to be. So for every conversation I have, I need to decide if I am just going to nod along and laugh when it seems appropriate or ask for a translation. Translations are always given, but I can tell that people think that I should only need this for a little while. So one day soon, I will hopefully be able to hold my own in Pohnpeian.

Next week I will begin teaching and also celebrate my first Thanksgiving abroad! The Country Director has kindly invited all of the volunteers on Pohnpei to his house for dinner so I will be enjoying at least some American dishes (I think? I hope?).

Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be thinking of all of you!

Swear In

Mollie and Ruthanne

Amber and Kate

Micro 76 Pohnpei being sworn in

Nate, me, our language teacher Anterro and Amanda

I'm a Volunteer!

I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was sworn in yesterday with the 9 other volunteers who make up Micro 76 Pohnpei. We are the 76th class of volunteers to serve in Micronesia since the Peace Corps came here in 1966. Our swear-in was held at our training center and our training host families, permanent host families, principals, co-teachers and the current volunteers all attended. Our country director and program assistant made short speeches and the country director gave us the oath of service. At the end we performed a traditional Micronesian stick dance. I have a video of it which I will hopefully be able to post soon.
I am very happy to be done with training and to begin my service. My house in my permanent community is very nice and it is great to be fully unpacked finally. Next week I will go to my school and meet my class! I am nervous but I am not going to begin teaching right away, I will observe for a few weeks to see what the kids know and what they need help with. We also have Monday and Wednesday off next week, so it is good to know I will be eased in to the school week. Pohnpei has a lot of holidays in November. :)
I will write again soon about how my first week at school went. Today I am meeting up with the volunteers who are leaving for outer islands on Monday to say goodbye. We won't see each other for at least 3 months and probably will not be able to talk either.

Scuba and Swimming

Last weekend I went scuba diving for the first time. It was really strange at first to go under water and not hold my breath. But once you get used to it, scuba diving is amazing! We were mostly practicing different skills but at the end of our dive we got to explore a little and saw some coral and fish. We only went down 20 feet though; going down to 60 is going to be a lot different. Amber and Ap are taking the classes with me along with some volunteers that are here through World Teach. I have another dive this weekend, and 2 more next weekend… then I will be certified! This week was the same as most in training. We went to an elementary school and observed an 8th grade English class. Next week I have to teach 2 lessons in the class. I am very nervous. I still don’t know what I am doing a lesson on and the more I look at lesson ideas the more I realize I do not know about English grammar. (As you may have realized from reading my blog) I probably should have brushed up on my own English skills before I came to teach it. Amber will be teaching with me (and she has teaching experience) so that is helping calm my nerves a little bit. I will let you know how it goes! Yesterday we had a nice day off of regular training and went to a nearby island for a picnic. We also learned how to weave baskets and start a fire. The fire starting involved a lighter and a sytrofoam ramen bowl so clearly, western influences have reached the islands. We asked our language teachers to show us how to light a fire with just 2 sticks but their reply was, “When are you ever going to be on an island without a lighter?” Very true, except possibly for those going to the outer islands. We also had a lot of time to swim around the island. There was a sandy beach which was very nice as all of the swimming spots on Pohnpei involve walking on some pretty sharp coral. After all, I joined the Peace Corps for luxury, not scraping my feet up. I have not been very good at taking pictures lately but I am receiving an underwater casing for my camera this week from my sister so I will take more then!

Mouse Update

Earlier I may have stated I did not mind the mice in my room. My feelings have drastically changed. A few nights ago I awoke to a mouse on my leg. In my bed. At 5 in the morning. Aren’t mice supposed to be afraid of people? Shouldn’t they run away from me? What are they doing climbing in my bed? Well, to say the least, I did not appreciate it. Somehow, I did not scream. In fact, all I did was sit up and shake my leg until I heard it scurry off my bed and back into its hole in my wall. Then rolled over and went back to sleep. I would have had a way different reaction a mere 2 months ago. I guess I am getting used to my critter friends in a way. But if one joins me in bed again, I am going to have to buy some traps.

3 weeks left...

3 weeks of training left and then i will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! Right now, I am only considered a Trainee. I am excited to get to my site and see what my new host family and school are like. At the same time, the end of training is going to be very sad. I am not going to see the friends i have made here as often. Especially Kate, Heather and Ap who are all going to outer islands of Pohnpei state. That will definitely be a tough adjustment. Not being around Americans daily will force me to integrate into the community more than i have during my first 2 months here though, which is good.
Learning Pohnpeian is going okay. It is a tough language. And living with a host family is definitely helping me practice, but i still usually have no clue what they are saying to me. I hope that I improve during the last 3 weeks. I know that I will continue to learn when I get to my village as well.
Today we had "Cross Cultural Thursday" which was a lesson about how to clean and gut a fish. Ugh. It was disgusting. I was not very good at it. I managed to de-scale the fish... I couldn't bring myself to cut open the belly and pull the guts out. Amber had to step in and help me out. I guess I'm not really surprised, I can't even cut the fat off of a packaged chicken breast without gagging at home. I guess I will be offering to help was the dishes instead of cook dinner most of the time.
Last night I started scuba classes. The next 3 weekends will be filled with training dives. There are a lot of great dive spots around Pohnpei so I am very excited about learning. And once certified, your scuba license never expires so it is worth the small fortune it is costing me (when living on a peace corps salary).

Some pictures:

Snorkeling

Kate and I watching the sunset

birthday

I'm 23!! I realizes that this may have been my first birthday spent outside of New York. At least that I can remember. Nonetheless, I had a great birthday here in Pohnpei. On Friday the trainees in my group had a card and chocolate cake (with icing!) for me. And on Saturday, Kate, Amber, Ruthanne (trainees) and Morgan (Pohnpeian friend) went to Nan Madol for the day. Nan Madol is a site of ancient ruins near our village that also has a great swimming spot. The funniest part of the day was probably the hour walk home (which included an unplanned hike down a mountain). Kate was not expecting this part of the adventure and made it clear the whole way through the jungle/path. I too, was complaining in fear on twisting my ankle on the steep hill. Little did we know that Morgan had actually taken us this way because it was a great shortcut! (**Please see Amber's blog for a much better account of this journey... on the bottom right of my page) My birthday was made complete on Sunday by calls with my mom and sisters.
Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday cards, letters and packages! I am still receiving them. Miss you all!