Mid-Service Training in Pohnpei

So last week I attended a week long Peace Corps conference on the neighboring island of Pohnpei. It was the first time I got to see the origional group of volunteers that first came to Micronesia with me. Here are two pictures:

(To my left is Trevor, serving on an outer island of the Mortlocks in Chuuk and my right, Kirby, who is on the lagoon island of Chuuk.)

From Left to Right: Dan, serving in the Mortlocks

in Chuuck, Me, Chrisa, serving in Palau, Catherine, serving on an Outer Island of Ulitithi in Yap (and from Santa Fe) and Rob serving on an outer island of Palau

Upward Bound

As a secondary project I am a tutor and part time instructor to the Upward Bound program on Kosrae. We meet for study hall two nights a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every Saturday the students attend extra classes. I typically only assist for the study hall but whenever a teacher is absent on Saturdays I fill in.

My UP Students singing a christmas song with my classrooms piano.

My First Graders

So far this year I have been teaching 1st and 8th grade. Here are two pictures of my 1st graders.

These are my 1st graders during our Oral Communication class. We memorize questions and answers like How old are you? What is your favorite local food? What months are we in...

From Left to Right: Diana, CJ, Ludia, Jeff, EJ, and Lipnae.

MO and KOA

Here are two more additions...

Oranges (MO in Kosraen) are delicious and are only found on Kosrae. Whenever Kosraens travel to a neighboring island they always bring Oranges as gifts. These oranges are outside the front door of my house.

In my last blog post I showed images and coconuts. This is the Coconut Stake (KOA) that Kosraens use to husk the coconuts. This task is only performed by Kosraen males. My host dad can probably husk ten coconuts a minute.

Pigs...

Another very important thing to Kosraen are pigs. These pigs are approxomately 20 feet behind my house. It's always fun chasing them when they break down the fencing keeping them in.

The little red Piglet is my host mom's.

Kaki Continued

Since Coconuts are so abundant here, Kaki, the meat or insides of the coconut is a very valuable resource.

This is what Kosraens sit on to grate the Kaki out of the coconuts.

This is a coconut with all the Kaki taken out. We then use this for lighting fires when me make "oom" for Breadfruit, or Fafa, or Crief, just to think of a fiew.

Fafa and Kaki

Continuing with the food theme, here are two more things I eat on a regular basis.

Kaki

You take the insides of a aged coconut and squeeze it with with tiny ropes put together from the outside of Coconuts. It creates a liquid substance as shown in the basin. Kosraens use this for many dishes such as below.

Fafa

A traditional Kosraen dish with the Kaki squeezed on top. To make Fafa you pound Taro with Bananas and sugar in a traditional Kosraen fashion.

Usr (Banana) and Tempura

I will over the next couple postings be trying to provide a flavor of the Kosraen local food I have become accustomed with. To start off I realized perhaps the most cherished food on the islands is bananas. There are over 55 different types of bananas here on the island. Not all of them are eaten. Many are used simply for cooking. Kosraen's hang their bananas in the "inum" cooking house as pictured above. Also pictured is a breakfast Banana fried Tempura style. It is a staple for breakfast in "RayDoor's restaurant" as my host mother likes to say.

My Beach...

So I need to make a correction. In the various letters I have received over the past year it has commonly been assumed that I live on a very exotic beach. In Malem, my village, this is the beach. It stretches all the way to Utwe and Lelu the neighboring villages. Even though it's not a white sandy beach like some may have assumed it's still cool to live so close to the water.

Kosrae State Fair

A little over a month ago two of my students were asked to compete in the Kosrae State Fair organized by my host Dad, Remos Livaie. They competed with other students from Kosrae in making traditional Kosraen baskets with cocnut leaves. Having almost mastered the craft myself I can say it certainly is not easy and I was really happy they both won.

I performed at the fair, using a plastic bucket, peices of bamboo, and a tin pot. I drew quite a croud but wasn't sure if it was for me or for the much revered Kosraen soup that was provided by the Kosraen womens association...I'll hopefully have a picture to post soon.

Remos, my host dad, also entered some beans grown from my garden under my name without telling me. It was very funny since, he was also the announcer, he called my name to come forward and collect my prize of $15, which my host mother Torro quickly claimed was my "living tax" of the month.

Sepe and Sahi

The Music Keeps a Rockin

Here are some recent albums I have also been listening to trying to keep my musical ear "sharp" so to say.

Abbey Road-Beatles

III- Led Zeppelin

Acoustic and Unreleased-Counting Crows

1812 Overture- Tchaikovsky (my music teachers would kill me for this spelling)

Lavy's Dream- Davka

Academic Festival/Tragic Overtures- Brahms

Axis: Bold as Love- Jimi Hendrix

For Those About to Rock We Salute You-ACDC

Pictures at an Exhibition- Mussoursky

Harvest-Neil Young

Gish-Smashing Pumpkins

Tommy-The Who

The Fame Monster-Lady Gaga (quite popular this summer in Kosrae)

My Host Mom and Dad

For the past 9 months I have been living with Remos and Sepe Livaie. They have made this experience for me, the greatest adventure in my life to date.

Sepe "Torro" Livaie is by far the funniest person on this island. She posed this question to me recently: "Do people in New Mexico not take showers because you have to pay for the water?" She said it was good I came to Kosrae because the custom here is to take at least two showers a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

This is a picture of Remos cutting up Sashimi at a family picnic. He has an incredible laugh that you can hear from any distance.

Recent Reading List...

Here are the book titles I have been reading over the past few months:

The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin
The Bridge by David Remnick
The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Murder City by Charles Bowden
The Flies by Mariano Azuela
A Mighty Heart by Marianne Pearl
The Bosses by Mariano Azuela
The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Dreamland by Charles Bowden
The Iliad by Homer
The Labrynth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
My Michael by Amos Oz

Teachers vs. The Police...YIKES!!!

Back home in Malem I was recruited to play in the summer Baseball tournament. Prior to this game I had been a disgrace. No one knew about my excellent, hidden, credentials waiting to be rediscovered from little league. But alas, 3 hits, 2 rbis, 2 tags, and only one overthrow (according to motherly statitician) thrilled my teamates. I am now back in the startling line up and the teachers defeated the police to squeak our way into the quarterfinals next weekend. Stay tuned...

Cairns

After our adventures in Sydney we moved on to Cairns. Since my camera died on the voyage to the Great Barier Reef I have no pictures of that ocean water adventure...wait a second...the last 10 months I have lived 10 feet from the ocean in one gigantic advnture. Here are 2 pictures from an art exhibit I visited while there along with a coffeeshop that caught my attention. Music is still on my mind.

Sydney Conservatory of Music

Sandwiched in between the Sydney Opera House and the botanical gardens is the Sydney Conservatory of Music. It originally was the stable grounds for the British Governor of New South Wales in the 1850's.

Summer Vacation in Sydney

Feeling the need to leave my stetle, I met my mom in Australia for a 10 day workshop/vacation into life outside the 3rd world. We stayed downtown Sydney in the middle of 4 million people. A bustling melting pot of people representing the diverse culture of down under. Realizing it was winter there our first stop was to purchase 2 sweatshirts (made in China). We caught a saturday night show at the Sydney Opera House, A Little Night Music. We took a ferry to Manly Bay. Visited the historic area in Sydney called the Rocks, and walked around the Daurling Harbor the night before the World Cup final between Holland and Spain.

Where Sydney broadcasts World Cup games.

A view of the beach from Manly Bay

Spent sometime being entertained by street artists in Sydney. This particular performer caught our fancy when he was able to select 4 strangers from the crowd to hold him up on a bicycle while he juggled flaming torches, knifes, and swallowed a baloon. Yay.......

Sydney Opera House

My Office...

Preparing lesson plans for summer school while enjoying the breeze outside my house. This is perhaps my favorite spot in Kosrae...

Memorial Service

Last saturday I attended a memorial service for a previous Peace Corps Volunteer on the Island. Midlred, was a volunteer from 1981 to 1983, and 67 years old at the time of her service. She passed away this past April and in her will requested her ashes be scattered in the ocean by her family she lived with while in Kosrae.

I went to the service and it was amazing to see 40 people attend. Mildred left Kosrae over 20 years ago and still people remember her. It was a very amazing event.

Mildred's ashes being scattered in Lelu, where she stayed as a volunteer.

Pastor Madison Nena (My Boss) leading the memorial service with the Peace Corps car in the background.

More Pictures Of My Students

8th grade girls lining up for the 100 meter dash on Field Day.

"The Gangsters" as they call themselves: Tuesy, Dale, and Roben trying to cut class in my room...

My 9th graders Leleen and Masumi in the MES computer lab.

Kosraen Speech Contest

Last April, the Department of Education put on an island wide Speech Contest for 7th grade students throughout the island. It was organized by one of my Peace Corps coworkers in the village of Tafunsak. Each school had to select 2 students to participate in the final competition held at the Governors office. They both had to prepare a speech 5 to 10 minutes in length on the topic, "How to Make Kosrae A Better Place." The speeches could be presented in either English or Kosraen. I worked with selecting the students to go to the competition and then helped them on their speeches and presentations, along with their 7th grade English teacher Genie. It was a very good feeling to have both students win awards at the competition. While I was very happy for Rina who came in 1st place for her English speech, I was even more pleased that Sepe came in 3rd for Kosraen. Genie is Pohnpein and has about the same fluency of Kosraen as my self. Without any other help I worked tirelessly with Sepe on her Kosraen speech and was very satisfied that she was able to place. It was an amazing experience. The FSM Telecom taped the contest and I can still watch reruns on the local Kosraen channell...

7th Grade Teacher Genie Jonas, Rina Rabauw (1st place-English), and Sepe (3rd place-Kosraen)

School Base and Field Day

Two events that my school hosted before Graduation was School Base and a Field Day. The field day pictured directly below was a variety of sports activites (relay races, basketball, baseball) that's the kids and parents participated in. Each teacher had a role to play. I was "flag man" No. 2. The first, second, and third place finishers always recieved a prize...money. It became quite a competitive event and since I was the one to determine who was the first runner up in each case I slightly felt the pressure. 1st place was given a dollar, 2nd 75 cents and third 50 cents. At the end of the day the school spent $500. I was all for giving them books but this is the culture...

The school base was a day for all the clubs at the school to showcase what they had done over the school year. I had two students from my music club perform Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Amazing grace on piano.

3rd grade 100 meter relay.

Renee Ann "crunching" her way through Twinkle.

Coteachers

Here are 3 of my fellow teachers at Malem Elementary School that I work with the most. There are a total of 23 teachers and staff members at Malem Elementary School.

Arlene Jonas teaches 9th grade and is also a tutor for the Upward Bound program for high school students. I tutor with her.

Arthur Talley teaches 8th grade Social Studies (US History) and Mathematics.

Rusty Anton teaches 8th grade Science, and Health. He is my official coteacher so I work with him the most. He is the most experienced teacher at our school and has been teaching for over 30 years.

My Names...

So one thing that I seem to have accumulated over the past 7 months in Kosrae is a lot of names to go by. There are maybe 5 people on the island who knew my name BEFORE I was bestowed with my Kosraen names. (3 Peace Corps Volunteers,Peace Corps Boss, and my host father Remos Leviae)Here is what everyone else calls me:

Likiak Phillip

Aaron Phillip

Ari

Arlan Lakau

Likiak Kurr

Peace Corps

Appa

Walunga Man

Papa Bamboo

Papa KunKun

(KunKun means to pinch in Kosraen...a relative named likiak use to pinch people)

Mexico

Richardson

White Kosraen

The Ice Cream Buyer

These are the names that I can think of. However I am sure I have forgotten a couple...

Some Students during their Graduation

Kathy Phillip is "related" to me. She always always quiet in class but worked really hard.

Angelo "DN The Commander Talley". I have been on many daring missions with him. He always is an adventurer. His fathers nickname for me is "Richardson" because he followed the 2008 Presidential Race and remembers Richardson was from New Mexico. He's probably the only person on the island who knows I'm from the United States and not Mexico...his son was one of my hardest working and most enjoyable students this year.

Nena Mackweang

Nena was not one of my most dedicated students and he was not very interested in school. His parents have both passed away and he is living with his grandfather. He was one of the first kids to befriend me when I arrived in Kosrae. Outside of school he continues to be a great friend. Being in Peace Corps is not always about wether you can measure success. I was more excited for Nena on graduation day than anyone of my students.

The Future...

Last Friday was our 8th and 9th grade Graduation Ceremony at Malem Elementary School. I was on the set-up and break down committee responsible with preparing everything. It was a crazy 3 days of setting things up, participating in the ceremonies, and then breaking everything down. Right before the ceremony I had maybe a dozen of my boy students come to me and asked them to help make their ties. They had never worn one before and no one in their family knew how to wear them either...they all knew the American would know. It's funny because I really only learned how maybe 3 years ago. I remember my 8th grade graduation having a fellow graduate (Ryan Houpt) help me out.

Recent reading list...

Here are some more books that have kept me buisy over the last several months:

The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong

The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan

Black Box by Amos Oz

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

John Adams by David McCullough

Andrew Jackson by John Meecham

Team of Rivals by Dorris Kearns Goodwin

Fools Rush In by Bill Carter

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

Blink by Malcom Gladwell

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Lies my Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

A Short History of Mexico by J. Patrick McHenry

Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

More coming soon...

I know it has been many months since I have updated this blog but I plan to provide many updates shortly. Lots has happaned over the past months that I will bring everyone up to speed with. We just had our school graduation on Friday and I am just in the process of finishing grades while preparing to teach summer school which starts in 2 weeks. Please stay tuned...

Joe's Crab Shack

Early in 2010 I was in my bedroom playing on my practice pad when a Crab named Joe challenged me for control of my room. He waltzed right up to me from under my bed and issued the challenge. A great battle commenced. Underwear was thrown. Limbs lost. But in the end the Acet (Kosraen for white person) triumphed and Joe was out on the street looking for a new place to rest his tired claws.

Casulties

Say it ain't so Joe.