Students here laugh a lot and they laugh louder than any group of kids I have ever encountered. They love Raman and kool-aid mixed together (for real), they love to sing, and dance, and play sports. They like American music especially Usher, Chris Brown, and various hip-hop artists. But above all they love movies. You can't walk 10 minutes without seeing a little stand on the side of the road that rents boot-leg DVDs. My roommate had a case of DVDs sent out here, and he is by far the most popular person in the village. People are always asking to borrow them, or coming over to peruse through his collection. Most of the kids are really athletic and are great volley-ball, basketball, and baseball players. These are by far the most popular sports down here. I feel like I have adjusted to the slow pace of life in the Pacific, and am really enjoying my time out here.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A Day in The Life
I don't really have any new exciting adventures to blog about, so I thought I would write in detail what a normal school day for me is like in Pohnpei. My day usually starts out at first light, when I'm woken up by a number of roosters who live in the surrounding area. I'll get up around 7 am and have breakfast and sit on my front porch and collect my thoughts before school. The walk to school takes about a half hour and its mostly up hill, so I can really work up a sweat on the hot days. I'm usually greeted by everyone in the neighborhood on my way to school. Being an American I walk much faster than all the locals so I'm constantly passing people on the way up the hill towards school. I'll usually check the teachers lounge to see if there is any special announcements for the day, and then I head to my classroom. When I arrive at my class there are usually a couple of my homeroom students laying on the front porch waiting to get let in to the classroom, where it is much cooler. I don't really do anything in homeroom and I just let the kids hang out, and usually work on my lesson plan for the day. I have four classes in a row in the morning then I get a nice break for lunch and I have 5th period open. This is a nice break in the day for me and after eating the school lunch I'll usually head to the bus stop to sit and hang out with the other teachers. The bus stop is the unofficial teachers lounge, and it is where all the teachers hang out during the day. There is a guy here, and I think he is a teacher but I never see any where but at the bus stop. The teachers speak Pohnpeian to each other and occasionally ask me a question or two. It is a nice time in the day just to hang out with my co-workers and relax. During my free period I usually read or use the internet. I have one more math class 6th period and then I have another free period at the end of the day. I just started coaching basketball so I stay after school and ref the games for the kids. Now this is a typical full day of school, we have a lot of half days for a number of different reasons, i.e. no power, no lunch, no gas for the buses. We had five half days in a row last week.
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2 comments:
Sounds like a great place to go if you are ever trying to escape the law, wouldn't you say?. Speaking of the law, are there any illegal substances to be had? Just asking. Isn't it amazing though how music can travel to the furthest places? Usher and Chris Brown huh? Too bad they never heard that J Bell (now thats some good shit). Whats the deal with accoutrements like cloths and other necessities? They got good food or what, or are you just eating bugz and whatnot haha? Aight homie im out, get back at me and always remember.....Feazze is what it eassss. and there aint nothin to it but to do it so mind as well get hyphy by puttin it in yo pocket.
Thought I would drop a note, I teach a few of your students on Saturdays in the UB program in Kolonia. Can be reached at dleeling@comfsm.fm or 320-2480 ext 228. I have been slow to get my UB materials on line, a scarce few are at http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/ub/ub.html, mostly a mix of OpenOffice.org documents and XHTML files that render only with FireFox, Google Chrome, or WebKit based browsers. I have students from all three high schools and a half dozen different teachers, so there is no way to synch to everyone. Just wrapped up completing the square with the sophomores, some really took to it, others were just too baffled.
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