One week of teaching down …topped off by rainy weekend camping

What sounds better than a successful first week of class topped off by a weekend of camping? Not much. I was actually surprised how smoothly the first week of classes went. I’ve learned about three-fourths of the students’ names and am having much more fun teaching than I thought I would. Learning names isn’t as easy here as you would think. I’m typically good with names, but here students go by names that are radically different than what might be written on the roster. And when you ask them to repeat their names because you can’t understand them or move closer to hear them better, their voices get softer. Crazy phenomenon that makes all the teachers laugh somewhat. It’s almost as if they get embarrassed to say their names. I teach 2 sections of sophomore biology and 2 sections of junior chemistry. It seems that my first class everyday is a dry run – everything gets a little smoother after it, but at least the students in my first class are pretty enthusiastic. My juniors seem much more reserved, at least thus far. Plus there are fewer of them.

What better luck than to have the school generator break on the first day of school! So while Xavier is usually fortunate to have power at least during the school day, it didn’t for the first 2 days. My class room got pretty dark when it started raining. Nobody could read the chalkboard- which I barely use anyway since it doesn’t work very well. All of its surfacing has chipped off so the chalk doesn’t stay on the board. It’s a lost cause for the most part. It’s supposed to get replaced soon- but that just means it’s on a long list of future repairs and improvements. We’ll see. At least it forces me to branch out and come up with more creative ways to teach. My students are pretty eager to learn and well behaved (at least so far – I’m still new to them so hopefully I’m setting good classroom management boundaries now); however, they work much more slowly than students that would be 10th or 11th graders in the US. They also seem to struggle with basic problem solving and critical thinking skills. We are working to improve on those. I am using a textbook for both my classes. The Biology book is pretty good and updated. The Chemistry book is pretty decrepit. It seems that almost half of the books – my teacher editions included- are falling apart or missing whole chapters. So the students here are very accustomed to sharing books and it helps that the boys are boarders.

Yesterday was pretty notable for my days thus far in Chuuk. 1. It was my 1-month anniversary of my arrival! 2. I started playing volleyball with the locals. 3. I went hiking to Witipong (a nearby village) and went camping.

Now, as for volleyball, I really enjoyed it. I broke out of the Xavier bubble a little and walked down to the nearby village of Penias. The woman, Margaret, who invited me to play, is a first grade teacher at a local catholic school and she speaks pretty good English. I met her because I run through that village a lot and one day when I was wearing my old volleyball shirt, I go the courage to ask if I could join sometime. So the people only know me as the strange American who runs through the street everyday. Remember running to run is such a foreign concept here. She told me that the kids were very excited when I asked to play and asked her if I playing in the NBA or the National US Volleyball team. That made me laugh! For one, if you have ever seen me play basketball, I’m pretty terrible and for two, how are the NBA and me wanting to play volleyball in any way related. Well, I played for about an hour and a half before I had to go back to get ready for camping. It was a lot of fun, even though most of the time I didn’t know what people were saying to me. My Chuukese is coming along little by little and hopefully this will help. The court they play on would be the cause of hundreds of lawsuits in America. There are rocks – huge rocks- all over it, and since the net is tied up to coconut trees, they provide a good obstacle to dodge as well. Not to mention it is a couple feet from the lagoon so every once and a while you have to fetch the ball from the water with huge coconut leaves. At the end, Margaret cut me open a fresh coconut- a hospitality and peace offering here- and talked to me about how this will be good for everyone. I will be seen as their friend soon, rather than “the American,” and as Margaret said, “At least in Penia, people will not want to bother me.” Also, I can help them with their English as I learn Chuukese.

After volleyball, a group of us volunteers hiked to Witipong. It was about an hour and a half hike. Pretty rugged too. The machetes came in handy as we tried to truck through way-overgrown grass and shrubs that were probably a couple of feet taller than me, etc. It got even more interesting when we got to a mini-cliff we had to climb. We all made it up and back safely- but it was pretty slippery – and I did not enjoy that part of it. Although very physically uncomfortable, it was a fun night. The sun went down at 6ish like clock work and then 3 of the male volunteers built a mini-fire with the few pieces of dry wood they could find, while the rest of us broke open the peanut butter and tuna sandwiches. Not soon after the sun went down, the gray clouds rolled over. Perks of Chuuk! It rained the whole night! We came with a couple of mats and some of us had rain jackets, but for the most part we were highly unprepared. And even rain jackets can only withstand so much. So by midnight everyone was soaked. I would have never thought I would have been this cold in Chuuk, not mention within the first month of being here, but I was shivering the whole night. We counted down the hours until the sun would rise so we could start warming up and head back. Luckily the good humor and spirits of everyone kept the night entertaining. Some of the second year volunteers were just happy to be away from Xavier on the annual “Capture the Flag” night, where the boys lather themselves with coconut oil and try to scare the freshmen. Unfortunately, we could still hear their screams and laughs all the way from Witipong. Every time the rain would start, most of us would laugh followed by an uncomfortable groan. God must have been laughing at us. When we first got to the top of the mountain, we all thought that sleeping straight on boulders would be the most uncomfortable part of the night, but oh! We were so wrong. So while a couple of people took shrubs and literally built themselves a nest to sleep on, by sunrise, we were all cuddled together in an attempt to get each other’s body heat to warm us up.

At 5am, we all started hiking back to Xavier. It was a much quicker hike back since it was all down hill. I took some more beautiful photos of Chuuk. It was a new view of Weno- tall grasses and palm trees that almost remind me of Africa (except for when you look to either side you see the lagoon of endless water), some more Japanese artillery abandoned among the grasses, tapioca plants, etc. By the time I got back I was drenched and covered in mud from slowly sliding down the cliff we climbed to get there. I had small paper-cut-like-cuts from the grass all over my legs and heads. And about 100 meters from my house I slipped in a huge pile of rotten breadfruit! Disgusting! Rotten breadfruit may be something none of you ever experience, but it is gross. Just take my word for it.

So while I was supposed to make it down to Penia for the weekly volleyball games, I was too exhausted this week. I had my first official Chuukese lesson instead and planned for classes. All is well and I hope to hear from you all soon.
Take care.
-Steph