Salapwuk

Jumping Off at Nett Point

Jumping off at Nett Point

You're never late on island time

Its been a while since I last posted but I've been pretty busy with orientation. Anyway life is good here weekdays are packed with orientation activities and we usually have a trip planned with the World Teach group on the weekends. Last weekend we went to Salapwuk in the south end of the island for a six waterfall hike. The hike was great, first we picked up this local guy to be our guide into the thick interior of the island. I followed him for most of the trip and he chain smoked the whole time while toting a machete doing some trail maintenance. The locals here are hard core they brought their dog ( which looked like it hadn't eaten in a month) and kept throwing it off cliffs into the water and then they would jump into like two feet of water. The waterfalls were amazing we hiked for about an hour through some seriously dense jungle to the first one. We got to go swimming and hang out there for a bit and headed on to the next. The waterfalls kept getting better and we trudged up river to reach the final waterfall where we got to do some cliff jumping (not as good as the res). It was probably my favorite day in Pohnpei so far, I talked to the guide after and he said he could take me on a two day hike to the highest mountain in the interior of the island. So I think I'm going do that at some point this semester. I move out of my host families house and into my house for the year next week, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm also going to start spear fishing with some of the locals once I move into my house on the harbor in Madoleneem. Hope people are actually reading this blog I've yet to see any comments. Anyone that went to Andrews wedding on Saturday I'd love to see some pictures. 

Kasalalie

Kasalalie (Pohnpeian for hello) I finally made it to Pohnpei. We had a twelve hour delay in Hawaii and had to stop in Majuro, kwajelin, Kosrae, before finally arriving in Pohnpei. I met my host family at three in the morning and they weŕe drinking sakau (like Kava in Fiji). My host family keeps chickens and hogs and for a shower we have a hose and two buckets. It may sound bad but after I played basketball in this heat it was the best showere I´ve ever taken. We visited my school and home today and it was great. The house is pretty small and my roommate Lucas and I have to share a room but we have a beautiful ocean view and supposedly we get great sun sets. The Pohnpeian people are so kind and welcoming and they offer me more food than I can eat. I´ve only been here two days but it feels much longer than that. Iĺl try to put some pictures up soon but I don´t have internet access at my house so I have to use the computer at the FSM telecommunications department. I start language and teaching classes on Monday and will start teaching August 16th. Iĺl keep everyone posted.

Pre- Departure

So this is my first entry for my first blog ever. I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog to keep people updated on whats going on in the middle of the Pacific ocean. When I told people I was going to start a blog they seem really pumped about it. So let me give you a run down on my situation.
I'm headed to California on Sunday to hang out with Field for a couple of days. I'll be meeting the World Teach group at LAX on Tuesday, and we fly to Honolulu that night. We'll be spending the night there than off to Pohnpei Micronesia the next moring. Pohnpei is the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia, and has the largest population (35,000). We have a month long oreintation program where we stay with a host family in the main town Kolonia. Here we will take an intensive language coure in Pohnpeian, as well as a number of teacher preparation classes.
Pohnpei has a very tropical climate and is considered one of the rainiest places on earth. Also Pohnpei has no beaches since the island is protected by coral reef one to two miles off shore. From the shorline out to the reef is thick mangrove swamps. However there is some great surfing in Pohnpei but I really don't know how much I'll be doing since I don't have direct access to a boat and I will be stationed in the rural village of Madolenhim located in the souteastern region of the island.
I have been assigned to teach highschool math at Madolenhim High School. Math is probably my biggest weakness academically but luckily the curriculum will only cover basic algebra and maybe some Algebra II. I think I can handle that but I am still a little nervous about teaching 30 highschool seniors. I'll be posting hopefully on a regular basis but I don't know my internet situation over there.