Something brought me all the way to a small dot in the Pacific...

From the moment I accepted my placement in Chuuk, Micronesia (after I smiled with excitement), my immediate afterthought somewhere inside of me was, “Why the heck have I been placed in Micronesia?” I had been studying the Spanish language since middle school, studied abroad in Madrid, become so interested in the language that I had considered majoring in it in college (however I ran out of time), and had passed the Spanish interview. Yet, despite my love for Spanish, my desire para dominar la lengua (to become fluent), and my hope to be placed in Central or South America, I had been placed half way across the world in a country that spoke Chuukese. Now, my second afterthought was, “What the heck is Chuukese?” So I trusted the decision on behalf of JVI- trusting that for some reason, probably many reasons, somehow Chuuk was the right place for me. I remained optimistic, even though my gut wanted to be disappointed, that my experiences in Chuuk would be different, but worthwhile.

Typical of myself, going with the wind, I departed from the US on Aug. 4, calm and contained, yet excited and anxious. I’ve almost been in Chuuk for 3 months. Now I am certain that all I have to learn has not yet been presented to me- I may not recognize or piece it all together until even after I leave this place, but there is one thing that I can saying is already brewing inside of me. Growing up, I have repeatedly heard the phrase, “God works in mysterious ways.” And I would say this applies to this. Why did I need to come all the way to Chuuk to learn this about myself? Who knows? Well you are probably wondering what the heck I am talking about by now so I’ll end the suspense.

The last month and a half or so I have been experiencing uncomfortable rashes all over my body. In the last 2 weeks they have been the worst, until about the last couple of days. They are on the tops of my feet, my ankles, calves and thighs, my butt, back, and stomach, my forearms, wrists, and shoulders – you probably are getting the point that they are practically anywhere and everywhere on my body. They itch a lot and are like little red bumps. No it is not heat rash- its suspected to be a bacterial infection. I have been recently treating it with Neosporin and a steroid and they have been improving. However, last week my skin problems culminated with a boil on the back of my upper-upper thigh. It hurt! I was sitting lop-sided-ly to avoid putting pressure on it and walking awkwardly when students weren’t around to watch me. No, I didn’t give up showering when I came here - this is just what happens when you shower with bacteria-filled water and sweat a lot.

Since the beginning of the year, when I started teaching biology and chemistry, I knew that my love for science had been reignited. It was my favorite subject growing up and somewhere during my young adult search for what to do with my life, I somewhat abandoned it. I realized within a couple of weeks of teaching that I really did always like it along the way and wanted to be able to incorporate it more into my future career plans. These feelings, intensified by my frustrations with the poor water situations in developing countries, helped me to realize that I wanted to pursue something related to human health and environmental impacts. Flirting with the idea of medicine (although it would incorporate a lot of science) just didn’t entirely feel right. Besides my 5-year old aspirations to “continue my daddy’s private practice,” the idea of listening to medical tapes about gross bowel problems and looking at nasty photos of diseases has never thrilled me. Overall, I think medicine would be hard for me to be passionate about. With some more thinking – I recalled how my cousin Monica had introduced me to “public health” when I helped out at the office for the Association of Schools of Public Health last winter. Well, thanks Monica, I think you may have planted a seed.

I started researching more in the last month and came across environmental health sciences- a branch of public health. This fits me! I have started researching graduate school programs and while the internet takes forever and the progress is slow- I am getting more and more excited. It seems like a great field that fits all of my interests- I can pick a program based on the amount of science I want. I can apply it to international contexts and it is something that I am passionate about. We cannot have healthy people without healthy environments.

So why did I have to come all the way to Chuuk to connect the dots? Your guess is as good as mine. I guess I am hard-headed. I figure that if I start researching schools now I am on schedule. It’s this time next year that I would need to apply- and well the progress is pretty slow with the resources here (and you know me- this of course is not written in stone).

As for me being in Chuuk, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. And that's okay for now.

Anyways- enough about my future-

This past weekend was the “Girls’ Gathering” at Xavier. So on Friday, all of the girls stayed on campus inside of driving back to their host families. They spent the night, didn’t sleep, ate lots of junk food, and picnicked on Saturday. It was a great opportunity for them to spend time with each other and bond, but oh so hilarious to witness. Maybe I am being biased and choosing not to recall how silly I actually was when I was 13-17, but it was certainly entertaining.

The night started with a game similar to what we Americans know as Truth or Dare. The girls persuaded me to play and the way it worked was that everyone sat in a circle and passed a bottle. This part was like hot potato. If you were holding the bottle when the music stopped playing, you had to pick a piece of paper out of a bag that either had a truth or a dare. Well, of course they rigged it to stop on me. So when I picked my paper, it read, “Which senior boy do you think likes you and why?” I laughed and said I couldn’t answer it. I read two words and the girls screamed so hard that I had to stop to be heard. They were so excited and thought I could actually reasonably answer the question. Then I said I have a joke with a male staff member – we have a love/hate relationship. They asked what I liked most about him and I said his jaw line (what, who looks at jaw lines? But it was an easy way for them to leave me alone without really saying much) And of course they all screamed with excitement. The next day a couple of them asked me if it was really true and I confidently said, “No, it was a joke.” Their looks of disappointment were so big, as if I could actually share dark, juicy, personal secrets of mine with them (not that I have many dark, juicy, personal secrets anyway). Then they smiled and I explained how answering that question honestly would be unprofessional and weird, similar to them choosing what 10 year-old child they babysat for had a crush on them, in front of the children themselves. Then they understood and were still happy I played.

There were more funny events of the weekend that just left me laughing, but those will be saved for a later conversation (for what happens at girl’s gathering is pretty much top secret out here in Weno- or at least they like to tell everyone that even though all the boys somehow find out the next morning). The picnic the next day by the beach was nice and sunny. Several girls pitched in money to rent a canoe for the day so that turned into a constant-lets-see-who-we-can-tip-off-the-canoe game. Once lunch came out, the girls started to have a huge icing fight with the cake so half the cake’s icing went to the girls’ faces. It amazed me that most of them didn’t care at all. Many didn’t even bother to wipe it off and just play volleyball for an hour or two with icing smeared all over their faces.

The month of November should be pretty busy. Things on the agenda: This weekend I am going off-island (hooray, my first break from Weno) to Tolowas for a JV retreat. Then, in 2 weekends, the Xavier Staff retreat will be on-island, but at Blue Lagoon (about an hours drive from Xavier on the other side of the island by the nice beaches). The weekend following, I will help chaperone/lead the Junior Retreat. I’m excited for it because it is always nice to be able to get to know the students in a non-academic setting. Then the last week, Katie and Josh’s families will be visiting, as well as it will be Thanksgiving. Woah! That’s a lot. So if you don’t hear from me, I’ll catch up more in December.

As for this week, the Juniors are supposed to put together a “Haunted Hallway.” We’ll see how it goes. Happy early birthday to Jenn! Talk soon.
-Steph