Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year to all! And a special belated happy birthday to Graham and Kristin! I wanted to be able to send this to you all sooner but the power and internet hadn’t been working in sync with one another and then the laziness of break got to me. We had fairly consistent power in December - a nice holiday gift - but our internet connection was broken. Then once it was fixed, the generator started dieing and the generosity of the island power began to fizzle out. Anyways, I hope everyone had a relaxing and refreshing break. I know I did.
Obviously Christmas was not quite the same this year to be away from home, but in retrospect it was still a great experience. I probably felt the most homesick I have felt since being in Chuuk the week prior to Christmas - cards, emails, photos, and packages from home helped bring smiles to my face, but still can’t replace the feeling of being home around those you love. Thanks to everyone who sent school supplies and other treats. They are all greatly appreciated – not just by me, but everyone here that gets a little taste of home or a little added convenience to trying to educate students. If only you all could have seen the looks on other teachers’ faces when I opened the box with 650 sheets of construction paper- pure awe! Haha…yea, we don’t get out much! So, I know you are all thinking, so what was Christmas in Micronesia anyway?
Well, since I work on a boarding school, not all of the students can afford to go home for Christmas. About 20 boys ended up staying on campus for the break. A couple days before Christmas, a couple teachers went downtown and bought some simple gifts for the boys who were staying so that Christmas away from didn’t feel as bleak and everyone had at least one present under our “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree. We mostly bought practical things such as soap, toothbrushes, razors, sandals, etc., but also so fun things such as cologne, wristbands, and plastic squirt guns. Then with the leftover money we “splurged” and bought pizza for Christmas Eve. Somewhat of an odd Christmas Eve dinner for me - to be eating take-out pizza - but it was a big hit here. If anyone knows me, you know I worked at Papa Johns for 5 years and take-out pizza would probably be the absolute last food, other than maybe seafood, that I would choose to eat for a special meal, but that’s all right. Haha get that- seafood- and I live surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. I can actually eat seafood without wanting to gag now, which is a good feeling when you don’t want to be rude to local people who invite you to share a meal with them and it turns out to be 3 or 4 different types of seafood.
Back to Christmas Eve- then we celebrated midnight mass at 10pm, also a little strange, but closer to former years’ midnight mass, which has been held as early as 7 or 8 pm. Christmas Eve mass struck me. I really enjoyed it, which has not actually happened since I left SLU. I miss SLU mass, not to mention not knowing what is being said makes it difficult to remain attentive or even less so, enthused. It was the first time in longer than I can remember that I didn’t have to arrive 45 minutes in advance to get a seat. I left my room about 10 minutes before 10 and walked to the chapel. I appreciated that the mass was not overly crowded; rather, it felt intimate to me. It actually resembled the typical Sunday crowd, with a couple extras. It still bothers me that I cannot adequately communicate with local people in their native language. I find myself occasionally thinking about how different my experience would be had I been placed in a Latin American country- but that’s apples and oranges now and I realize that thought is not even worth pondering now. It is, however, a constant temptation.
The night before Christmas Eve was the first night that the JV’s from Pohnpei arrived. They brought sakau with them- a traditional drink made from a root and historically drank ceremoniously (and maybe recreationally?). It is essentially a narcotic and has numbing effects. I really don’t know much about it because it is not as popular in Weno, but that if you drink it you must be careful you get it from a reputable source who used clean water to pound it. Plain and simple- it tasted like dirt! I guess that’s what you get for trying to make a drink out of something that grows in the ground. So the Pohnpei JV’s taught us how to drink it- close your eyes while you sip it to avoid the evil spirits from entering your body and pass the cup around in a circular rotation. Generally the village chiefs and guests drink first, followed by the person who pounded it. Historically, it started in Kosrae (another state in the FSM), but was later banned through the influence of religious missionaries, but spread anyway to become popular throughout Micronesia.
On Christmas Day, the whole Xavier community went downtown to the 11am English mass, regularly attended by the Filipinos and Americans on island. After mass, we went to the local prison to sing Christmas carols. While I think that the caroling was done in good spirits it was somewhat awkward. The prisoners came out of their cells and we all gathered under an uut- a local hut made of out of coconut trees. The prisoners sat on one side and we, as in the Xavier community, stood on the other. A couple people sat on benches but there was not enough for everyone, so we were separated by about a 20-foot distance of open space. It felt impersonal and almost anti-justice-y. Not to mention it was only 3 songs and ended with “Santa Claus is coming to town.” Please take a moment and recall those lyrics. This is the scenario- here we are at a prison, looking down towards the prisoners, singing “He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.” Irony, anyone? I’m not sure that they actually appreciated our short-lived visit, although the seemed very respectful as they shook our hands as we departed. We also sang at the hospital, but I volunteered to stay at the truck to watch our belongings so I can’t comment on whether or not that situation felt more natural.
On the ride back up to Xavier Christmas afternoon, I hopped out at Penia with Jo, a JV from Pohnpei, and visited my host family. We sat very casually on a local mat with a couple of girls I played volleyball with (and my coach) and their small cousins and “caught up” over orange soda and coffee. It was refreshing – I always find myself feeling at ease when I am with them. It’s a carefree life. Sometimes it is a little awkward because of the communication barrier, but overall I really enjoy it. I love playing with the kids, who usually look at me like I am crazy, speaking to them in either a foreign language or terribly-accented Chuukese. There is this one girl- probably 2 years, who usually only walks around in a diaper (I don’t blame her- it’s hot here). Her name is Deeana and I have tried to play with her on several occasions, but she normally barely responds to me. She is pretty shy and remains physically close to whatever cousin she is with at the time. However, about 2 days ago I went and visited again, and for the first time, Deeana became my new “best friend.” You can imagine what this means for a 2 year old. It means she says my name like a broken record and finds “kapong” (handshakes) and “pounds” to be a fun activity with seemingly no end. I guess this just conveys how much I miss the smiles and silliness of my little cousins.
Christmas night was memorable, also. A couple of the students and Ellen, former JV- now principal, spent literally the whole day in the kitchen cooking up an absolutely delicious Christmas dinner, including turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, fruit, broccoli and carrots, cut-out cookies, and brownies. I helped with the mashed potatoes and the cookie cut-outs but you all know how inept I am in the kitchen so the help was short-lived. So there were about 50 of us for dinner. During prayer, I was taken aback shortly. The person saying prayer made a comment about being thankful for and thinking of all of our families that could not be with us at that time, and with the exception of one JV whose Dad was visiting at that moment in time, the nearly 50 people surrounding me were away from their families at that point in time. Why this had not struck me sooner, I don’t know, but finally I felt I wasn’t alone. While everyone seemed cheery on the outside to keep the spirit of Christmas alive, many more people than just I were probably feeling the heartache of not seeing their Mom and Dad, brother and sister, best friend, etc. at that time of year. In that moment, I wanted to make the night as great as I could for the 20 teenage boys around me that already spent so much time away from their families. So post-dinner, the boys opened the gifts that the staff had bought for them. Some staff members exchanged white elephant or small re-gifted gifts. Then the Jesuits had bought the whole school a bunch of board games. This was the best part of the night. The students became so excited and enthused by the games, that within 15 minutes we had a table full learning how the play CLUE - Harry Potter style, another group playing RISK, a duo playing chess with a crowd to watch, another duo playing Connect Four, etc. Not to mention, some of the other staff had set up Karaoke in the kitchen and I’ve never met teenagers that like to sing more than the students here. I sang a couple karaoke songs and then, the fact that I am Steven Osborne’s daughter came out in me, and I played a game of chess against another volunteer. I still have decent chess skills- dad, you might be proud (he he). We actually used to play fairly often when I worked at Fairland so that kept me from getting too rusty. But it was just awesome to see the kids have so much fun and be genuinely so interested in the board games. If I brought those games out to an audience of the same age in America, I think half of them would laugh at me and decline to play. The game playing and singing lasted for over 3 hours- and by then, I was exhausted.
The morning of the 26th, the JV’s from Chuuk and Pohnpei, 2 Peace Corp volunteers, and a volunteer’s dad headed out to Pisar, “the island of moving sands.” It is called Pisar because it can look different every time you go because of the current – it also sits practically right on the reef. This was my second time going to Pisar, but the last time I had gone it had only been for several hours and this trip was going to be three days. Being at Pisar is honestly the most beautiful and relaxing place I have ever been to, although the Sahara Desert ranks close behind. Looking out into the water, you can see 5-7 different shades of ocean water, from deep blues to vibrant turquoises and pale sea foam greens. Pisar is a short walk to the where the open ocean breaks on the reef (or a swimming fight in stronger currents) -making Chaco’s even more valuable out here, a.k.a. perfect reef walkers. Walking on the reef can get kind of tricky and semi-dangerous when the current is stronger because the coral is sharp and can cut you badly if you are not careful or fall. I got a couple small coral cuts, but nothing worth bragging over. The 3 days were set up as our “Winter/Christmas Retreat.” I guess only the Christmas part applies to us. It was a good time to recharge and exchange stories with the Pohnpei JVs, who we had not seem since Aug 4th when we left the states.
There were a couple of highlights during the 3 days. I spotted a huge sting ray (manta ray) when I was snorkeling. Seeing small sting rays isn’t that rare, but this one was probably almost 3 feet wide and at least 5 feet long. Jessie’s dad had an underwater camera and took a picture of it, so hopefully it will turn out well. Then on our last day, I woke up at sunrise to go walk on the reef during low tide and look for ocean gems. At some parts of the reef the water was only about 2-3 inches deep, and at one point, I looked down at my feet and was startled by a slivery-gray, almost translucent eel about 2 inches from my right foot. I jumped quickly and scared the eel away. Apparently the can leave a nasty bite. I also saw some awesome blue starfish, other fish and coral, and found some beautiful cowry shells.
In between Christmas and New Years we had a mini water problem. Since we had not gotten island power in a couple of days and the generator wasn’t working, we had not been able to pump water to our buildings. So this means no water- water to drink, water to wash dishes or your hands with, water to flush toilets with, water to brush your teeth, water to shower with, water to cook with – you get the drift. You turn on the faucet and nothing comes out. The water was sitting in the tanks, but the only way to get it would be to climb inside the tanks and bucket it out and then of course boil it – just slightly inconvenient. So a couple teachers filled a couple trashcans outside to use. Well, I waited until it was sleep time, hoping island power would be a possible savior, but finally gave in to showering rather than even trying to sleep with my post-running sweaty body. I thought it would be easier to just shower outside rather than carry buckets to my room- perfectly acceptable. So it was pitch black because there was no power and a little chilly because of the breeze, but I stood in a skirt pulled up like a tube top dress and showered outside. Low and behold, of course, just as I am finishing, island power turns on all of the lights surrounding me. There I am standing in the grass, soaking wet with a nice soapy film underneath my skirt. I look to my left and I awkwardly wave to the security guard that was now capable of seeing me - I hope you spot the sarcasm - and then retreated back to my room laughing and thinking that this would only happen in Chuuk.
On New Years Eve, I was invited to go out with a couple local people. My friends in Penia had invited me to walk to 10pm Mass with them and then walk back (about 2 miles) in celebration = a.k.a. banging on sheet metal and pots and pans. However, a girl that lives right down the hill from me had also invited me oer. She had asked me several weeks before the New Year and then again the day before so I decided to stay with her. She came up to Xavier to get me at about 10:30pm with her sister. As soon as we got to her house, she asked if she could “style” me. The next thing I knew, my hair was being braided into cornrows, I had 2 or 3-inch purple polka dot hoop earrings in my ears, and a new muumuu. If you know me, you know I would probably never choose to wear 2-3 inch hoop earrings, let alone purple polka dot ones - unless maybe I was dressing up for Halloween or at Mardi Gras. However, I didn’t have a mirror and the power was out while they were “styling” me so I didn’t figure this out until after I got home. The rest of the evening involved a lot of chanting words I don’t understand and banging on sheet metal, followed by LOTS of gift giving. Like 3 hours of gift giving! Here I am, straining to stay awake as what seems like half of the village of Sapuk (about 100 people) are trying to exchange gifts by announcing them one-by-one and dancing in between. It was entertaining since I never seen Chuukese women get so free with themselves and dance as if they are within a dance club, but it just seemed as if the Christmas tree had an endless supply of gifts (much more like a village Christmas celebration than actual Christmas day). Most of the gifts were small, such as a bundle of firewood, a soda, bananas, skirts, coconuts, rice, toilet paper, etc. Some of them were gag gifts like baby dresses for adult women, coconut bras (girls don’t actually wear them here- come on, they can’t even expose their shoulders), etc. I took home 2 coconuts and bananas – probably my two most favorite Micronesian foods.
Okay, so I know I have probably lost a lot of you already, but that was a “brief” look at my break. Yesterday marked my 5th month since I left the states- can you believe it? I think I can. It’s been fast, but still feels like 5 months. Classes start again tomorrow and while I still wish I had break for a couple more days, I’m ready to see the students again. I guess I should go plan my classes now…talk soon.
Peace,
Steph
