A Bit About My Life in Pohnpei (so far)

Just so that you, my faithful 1.5 readers can get an idea of how it is here in Pohnpei, I thought I'd blog a bit about that. So far, the foliage is super vibrant. This is most definitely due to it being one of the wettest places on earth (I think its in the top 3) since it rains (almost) every single day. This also makes it so that the humidity is almost unbearable when you first get off the plane. It was so bad that for the first week that I was in Pohnpei, I had to change shirts at least twice a day. It did, however get much better with time.

The people here are amazing. At times, it reminds me of the states and other times it reminds me how truly lucky we are in the states.

I always feel kind of at home when I'm talking with parents because just like in the states, parents want their children not just succeed, but to thrive in school. When I was thinking about coming here and teaching, I was actually worried that parents wouldn’t really care about their child learning anything or not so this was a huge relief to me. I also get reminded of America when my I get to see my Island family. Pictures to come later when I can steal someone's camera to take pictures of them.

Raime - She is my Island mother. Unfortunately she was diagnosed with breast cancer some time ago and has lost a significant amount of weight. Although I only get to see her on weekends, her positive attitude and courage is always a source of strength for me.

Yosuko - My island sister. I have to say that I love seeing Yosuko around school. On occasion, she's brought me various fruit that she's picked from the tree's in front of her house (which by the way are absolutely delicious). She has such a great smile.

Shawanna and Sharisa - Probably 2 of the cutest girls on the island and I get to be their American "uncle". They both have the cutest smiles even if Sharisa's comes with some rashes because even though she has a mango allergy, she loves them so much that she just keeps eating them anyways.

Sean - My island nephew. This kid is by far one of the coolest kids his age on the island. It's always easy to spot where he's ducked off to because he's sporting a short mohawk (PICTURES TO COME LATER WHEN I STEAL SOMEONE's CAMERA I PROMISE!!!!).

However, despite all the ups, Pohnpei does remind me that I really do have it good in the states. When we were told about how much our stipends were going to be, I really didn’t quite believe that it when they said that we were going to be upper middle or even high-class here on the island (I really have a hard time believing it when I'm shopping for groceries and it costs some exorbitant amount for waffle mix >:[ ). However, once every other trip or even more some times, at least one of us gets approached by someone who either wants to sell us something or asks for money. (By the way, funny story - we got approached by a slightly crazy looking woman the other day who kept asking us for money and she was wearing a mad hatter hat [from Alice in Wonderland]. That has to take the "Random" award of the month)

I must say though, some of the experiences here are just amazing. The fruit markets have some of the best fruit (I'm eating around 5 bananas a day to keep up with them yellowing and going bad). The fish in the fish markets here rival some of the most colorful fish I've ever seen (sorry Tom - RIP). There's parrot-fish, grouper, snapper, skipjack, tuna, jack, and mahi mahi just to name a few. Here's a list of stories/blogs to come though -
Run-in's with the law - I got stopped by the local cops… twice

We are now 1 full week into school - I've made 3 kids cry already and for 1, I wasn’t even there

Hanging out in hammocks - STOP… Hammock time

Food in Pohnpei - Chicken hotdogs...

Nalap - Our snorkel trip

Sufficool's house - Awesome peeps: Tia Tanya and Uncle Ron

My students - 11 boys 2 girls - 3 of the boys were supposed to be separated as much as possible… guess who got all 3? :)

My fellow SM's - Gotta tell you about my hi-5 buddy… 14 for 14!