Cake Pancakes!!

So it’s been a while since I last wrote to everyone. It’s been a fun couple of weeks between my birthday celebrations, hula dancing shows, touring the Mercy Ship, getting ready for new students to arrive, etc.

Last Friday night (weekend before my birthday) we went down to Saramen Chuuk (the other JVI site in Chuuk) and celebrated my birthday, along with two other volunteers’ birthdays. Ellen, Katie, and Meg made delicious chocolate chip cookie cake and the birthday trio wore silly party hats we found at the grocery store for 25 cents. I picked out the Little Mermaid hat – I felt like I was seven again. I ended up sleeping at Saramen that night even though the rest of my crew went back and I’m glad I stayed. We went to brunch the next morning and then hung out, playing hearts and this crazy board game called Settlers of Catan. Even though I like all the workers and volunteers up at Xavier, it’s nice to get off the Xavier campus, see new faces, and hang out with other volunteers sometimes. As well as, the meal routine at Xavier quickly becomes routine, so brunch was nice.

To get back up to Xavier, I walked about a mile and a half to the airport to meet up with the Xavier truck picking up incoming students. After a couple minutes I noticed that I was seeing way more white people than I normally see walking down the street in Chuuk, and then I remembered the US Naval Mercy Ship had docked the day before. I talked to a couple of the Navy people and we scheduled a tour day the following week. So on Wednesday I got to tour the ship. Definitely the biggest ship I have ever stepped foot on. It was pretty cool to see. It is a converted oil tanker- now a hospital that usually tends to casualties but it currently doing a humanitarian effort in the Pacific after being denied by Myanmar. Since the beginning of June, the ship has performed a little over 900 surgeries in multiple countries in the Pacific. It has pretty new technology from what I could see and uses sea water for steam power and drinking water (purified first of course). 2 of the Xavier students actually volunteered on the ship as translators for the doctors.

Last Saturday I watched my first hula show. These girls can shake their hips! The show had about 6 women and then a little girl maybe age 4. She was lost the whole time and not very good at shaking her hips yet, but already in training. Pictures to come.

Well, as for my actual birthday- It was relaxing. I had 2 teaching workshops, ran, and then celebrated with the rest of the staff here. Now, there’s nothing like a welcome to Chuuk than cake pancakes! Yup, you heard me right. Not surprisingly the propane didn’t work to light the oven so we couldn’t bake a cake. Instead Katie had the ingenious idea of making the cake mix into pancakes. So I got to blow out candles on top of a giant stack of pancakes. I think that will make for an unforgettable birthday. They were actually delicious- topped with icing, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. You all should try it sometime if you want an unhealthy alternative to your breakfast pancakes. I.P. (Island Power) blessed me that day because it stayed on all night, making watching a movie possible, and having my fan on through the entire night! I think that was the first night that happened since I have been here so that was a tremendous gift. I didn’t wake up dripping in sweat. So while, my birthday might have been a little more chill than my 21st, the staff made me feel loved!

Switching topics a little- I want to talk about running here. You would think it would quickly become mundane being able to only run on the same road to and from Xavier every day. Well, to say the least every day brings something new and interesting – whether it be harassment from men, being offered a coconut or water along the way, smiles and laughter from children who try to have conversations with you that you don’t understand at all, being asked my name by every 3rd child I pass, finding my name spelled in water in the ground, or what has happened lately, having Chuukese people tag along while I run so that by some point in my run I have anywhere between 2 and 8 kids following behind. People don’t just run to run here so the locals think I am crazy. So now I have a little running team going. Yesterday after my run I had 3 girls – maybe ages 8, 14, and 22- ask me if they could continue to run with me. Of course I said yes. There isn’t much to promote health here, especially for females, so I think it will be a good avenue to connect with them. While I was running yesterday, I talked to the girls about how it is healthy and good for their bodies. Louisa, who is probably 15 or 16 understands me pretty well, and translates to the younger kids. The 8 yr old impressed me the most. While I ran about 4 miles, and probably only had the girls with me for about half the run, the youngest kept up the whole time. What’s even more amazing is that they all run either barefoot or in sandals. We worry about not having enough treed on our running shoes in America - we wouldn’t think to go out for a run barefoot.

Now I’m just putting on the finishing touches to my office, classroom, and planner before the school year starts. I put up 2 bulletin boards in my classroom yesterday and then several others around campus. Hopefully they will be respected for the majority of the year. From the looks of the ones I took down from last year, they are a prime spot to tag “So and so was here,” etc. I tried to put up laminated posters instead of paper as much as I could in my classroom to deter such, but we’ll see.

Today, the Navy band is playing downtown and the ex-pats are meeting at the Oriental restaurant so we will go “downtown” for that. All is well, but missing everyone. Keep in touch.
-Steph