Karakar

Karakar means hot in Pohnpeian. This is a word I find myself saying all the time. My students usually fan themselves with pieces of paper and tell me the classroom is too Karakar and that I should open the door to the front porch. Since my classroom is a single building I have a front porch and a back porch, which is nice, the kids can hang out on it before and after class. It's also useful because I can go out onto it and yell at the students who are late and tell them to hurry up. I call my classroom "the shack" because well thats what it is but I love it. I've really taken a liking to all my classes and I can already tell the students will be the thing I miss most when I leave, weather thats June 09' or '10 ( I haven't decided if I will stay the second year yet). However I've only been teaching for two weeks and I may want to wring their necks in a month or two. I feel comfortable in front of the class now and some students are really helpful with translating things or explaining cultural differences. For example in Pohnpei it is culturally acceptable to say yes simply by raising your eye brows. So when I'm asking a student if x equals -7 he will raise his eyebrows and I find myself repeating the question. Since I don't have internet in Madolenihmw this is more than likely going to be a weekly or bi-weekly blog post, or whenever I make it into town. Last Sunday we hiked Sokehs rock, I know I wrote about hiking sokehs ridge a couple of weeks ago but these are two differnet hikes. Sokehs rock is a more technical climb that involves climbing up a steep rock face. Once we reached the top we found miniature pineapples and broke them open on rocks and ate them. They tasted absolutely delicious and were a wonderful treat while I checked out the reefs surrounding the island of Pohnpei. You can camp up there and plan on doing that when Chris comes out in December. Tomorrow I'm volunteering with the Pohnpei Surf Club at a teach kids how to surf day at Nahlap island. I won't be teaching anyone, more like acting like a lifeguard as the wave at Nahlap breaks on shallow reef. Hopefully I won't have to make any saves. Life is good out here, I find it to be very slow at times but I appreciate that because it seems like the last four years of my life flew by.  I'll try to put some more pictures up but I don't have a camera and have to steal pictures form other volunteers. Oh yeah we're planning a two day hike to the peak of the tallest mountain in Pohnpei. We camp out under a rock overhang the night we spend up on the mountain I think we're doing this sometime in late September, and I'm really looking forward to it. Lastly I apologize for the terrible grammatical mistakes and misspellings on my blog. Most of you are probably saying why is this guy teaching English. However I have very little time to spend on the internet and I try to write these posts as fast as I can. Thanks for understanding.

First Week

I just completed my first week at Madolenihmw high school. It was great overall, but I still have a lot to learn. The first couple of days I just did some get to know you activities and told them about me and my background. I teach four sections of 10th grade Algebra and one section of English. The math class is fine, but the english class I struggle with a little because of the students speaking ability. I have a english only policy in all of my classes but I find the students speaking Pohnpeian a lot and laughing, which makes me think they're talking about me. The walk to school is about 30 to 40 minutes but sometimes we get picked up by someone and we'll hope in the back of a pick up truck or onto a bus filled with students. The students refer to me as "teacher" and I think most of them have taken a liking to me, but others know that I am only temporary and foreign so the lack some respect for me. School was cancelled on Thursday because of the free medical check ups offered by the U.S. Navy on the island, so that was a nice way to break the week up. The volunteer from last year said he could count on one hand how many times there was a full week of school over the entire year. After school I'll usually play basketball with some of the locals at the court near my house. At night I lesson plan for the following day and head to bed pretty early. Life is slow but I like it, its a nice break from the past pace lifestyle in the states. The bus driver from School Wilferd Mudong had my roommate and I over to his house to drink Sakau (mildly narcotic drink made from the root of a plant) I don't really like Sakau because it tastes like mud and upsets my stomach. Sakau is very sacred here and you must respect it so when they offer it to me I just put it up to my lips and pretend to drink or just drink a little. We sat under his nask (a little hut next to the house) and he served us dinner. Next weekend I'm volunteering  with the Pohnpei surf club to help run free surf lessons for local kids on the island. Everyday is an adventure here. 

How do I Reach these kids

This is the view from my front porch. 

Home Sweet Home

I have just spent my first week in my new home in Madolenihmw. Its a small house that has a view of the harbor, and a nice front porch. We get neighborhood dogs that come by and hang out looking for food. We also get chickens coming through the yard, and they double as an alarm clock. I was supposed to start school on Monday but my assignment was switched from Seniors to Sophmores, so I do not start till next monday. It was a relaxed week I spent most of my time reading Jurassic Park in the hammock in the front of my house. I usually play basketball with some locals in the afternoon. I had to clean out my classroom, which is a one room building supported by cinder blocks. It has a hole in the floor where supposdely students like to spit betel nut juice through. I am currently in town, but we just got our phone hooked up at our house so I will have dial up internet access. Hopefully I will be able to put some pictures of my classroom and house up for yall. We are going to visit Nan Madol this weekend, which is an ancient city in Pohnpei from around 1000 A.D. Some refer to it as the venice of the Pacific because there is a massive network of canals between each of the smal islands. If anyone has any ideas for first day activities for my students let me know.

Sokehs Ridge & Nahlap

This past weekend my fellow volunteers and I headed to Nahlap Island Resort located about two miles south of Pohnpei. We took a boat ride out to the island and stayed there for the day. I got to go sea kayaking and snorkeling. The reef was beautiful the water is really clear and I got to see some beautiful fish. On Sunday we got to hike Sokehs Ridge which overlooks all of the north side of Pohnpei. It was absolutely amazing on the hike up we got to check out some heavy artillery the Japanese had left during World War 2. They had crazy bunkers dug into the mountain side. When we reached to top of Sokehs ridge we had an unbelivable view of the north side of the island. We got to see the reefs and the passes where all the waves break. We just wrapped up orientation and I will be moving to the remote village of Madoleneem tomorrow. I start school on Monday teaching Algebra II to highschool seniors (wish me luck I´m going to need it). Last night we went out to dinner with the entire World Teach group to the Village hotel. I can honestly say I witnessed the most beautiful sunset I have every seen in my life. Iĺl have to get some pictures from the other volunteers because I don´t have a camera. I picked up some good books as I prepare for an extremely slow pace of life in this remote municipality in Pohnpei. If anyone wants to send mail my address is World Teach p.o. box 2378 Kolonia Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. If you can send Garden Catering that would be lovely.