Sorcha in Micronesia

Summer vacation is a time of joy to teachers and students alike. However, what does a Peace Corps Volunteer do during the summer? This summer has been packed full of activities, travel, and planning. Here is an account of a few of my summer activities My Host Brother Eighth grade graduation was on the 2nd of June. It was full of smiles, laughter, beautiful songs, and happy parents. My oldest host brother graduated and received marmars and leis made out of chocolate, candy, dollars, and toiletries. Graduation is a large community event and it was great to see the hundreds of people that came to celebrate the ~50 graduating eighth graders. The week after graduation was the 70th anniversary of the people of Malem’s forced evacuation to Tafunsak by the Japanese during the Second World War. My host family took the Malemites (people from Malem) in 70 years ago and thus was a part of the celebrations. We attended church services, marched, and competed in canoe races. I was lucky enoug

For many Americans Climate Change is not something that is thought about everyday. It is not something that is currently affecting their lives. In Micronesia it affects everything. Communities on low lying coral islands or atolls will soon have to move off their islands, their family’s home for generations, because it will be flooded and will become part of the ever expanding Pacific Ocean. Since arriving in Micronesia a little over 14 months ago I have experienced a severe drought, flooding, and higher king tides than ever before. I have heard first hand of what is happening in small coral islands. One of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers told me how the ocean, at high tide, was flooding his island’s taro patch. For those of you who do not know taro is a staple in this region and is a major part of the diet. Losing an island’s taro patch, especially an outer island’s patch, is a huge blow to food security and preventing malnutrition. In February this year the majority of my communi

The question where are you from has always been my least favourite question. In my 11 months on this island when people ask me “Kom Mwet Oyac?” I always answer I’m from Ohio or “Nga Mwet Ohio”. Whilst, at least according to my driver’s license, this is true; I have never lived in Ohio for longer than 3 months at a time. So where am I from? This is a complicated question as my mother is American and my father is Irish. I myself had lived in 7 different countries by the time I was 19. I do not necessarily consider myself to be from one place. Instead I consider myself to be an amalgamation of all of the different places I have lived in.  Another common question I get asked is “So where is home”? To borrow a common phrase “Home is where your heart is”. My heart belongs to so many places. London, Akron, Ennistymon, Algiers, Richmond Indiana to name just a few. Kosrae, however, has also stolen a part of my heart. Whilst there have been ups and downs during my time on this island I am so g

When you live on an island that is 5 degrees north of the equator this is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean it’s important that you have a plan incase of typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, and fires. During my 8 months on island there have been 3 tsunami alerts, flooding, and extremely high tides that damaged properties. Luckily no one was hurt during these events but it goes to show how important it is to prepare for natural disasters. Recently I have been working with a counterpart from my school to update the school’s natural disaster preparedness plan. The previous plan was out of date and did not have protocols such as rosters and evacuation maps. The plan was also in English, which is a big problem as, statewide; students do not begin to learn English until the 3rd grade. The first thing we wanted to do was to create a roster that each teacher would have in their classroom. This roster would have a list of students in their grade sorted by grade level. As the schools records had

The 4th prompt for blogging abroad is On the Road. I decided that I would write about a unusual experience that I’ve had in Kosrae. One day I was staying at home to do some background research for a project I wanted to do with my students. My host family was out visiting their family members in another area of the island. One of my host uncles came around to the house and he looked really guilty when I answered the door. He asked me in Kosraean where my host family was. I responded that they were out of the house. I saw that he was holding a pot and asked him if he wanted me to give it my host family.  My Uncle looks down at the pot, up at me, and then back down at the pot. He slowly hands it to me. At this point I look down and see a cooked dog’s head, with eyes, tongue, and teeth still inside it, on top of a plate of breadfruit. He looks me straight in the eyes, says I’m so so so so so sorry, and walks away. *If anyone would like to see a picture of it shoot me a message*

So I decided not to do week two or week three of the Blogging Abroad 10 week challenge because week two was about my daily life and week three was talking about my home. I’ve talked about week two’s challenge already, see this link , and I decided not to do week three because I didn’t want to post my host family’s house all over the internet. Instead I’m going to write about some conversation’s I’ve had with people. 13 y/o host brother: Tulpe, did you pray before eating? Me: No, I’m not religious. 13 y/o host brother: So you are Catholic. Me: No, I am not religious. 13 y/o host brother: So you are Muslim. Me: Nope (What followed was a long conversation about different beliefs and religions). 8 y/o Host brother: Tulpe you’re a troublemaker. Me: Why? 8 y/o Host brother: Because of your glasses Me: Are you a trouble maker? 8 y/o Host brother: No I’m pretty 8 y/o Host brother: Tulpe You’re not pretty Me: Uhh Okay… Why? 8 y/o Host brother: Because you eyeglasses 8 y/o

Since I’ve been a bit behind on my blogging game recently I decided to join Blogging Abroad’s 10 week challenge. The prompt for the first week is “Your Why”. When I was a little girl I struggled a lot in school. Around the age of 7 I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I was one of the fortunate students. I had access to a great system of special education teachers and resources. From the age of 7 until 18 I had at least two sessions a week with a special education teacher to help me work around my learning disability. I was also very fortunate to attend typing lessons that were designed to help children with dyslexia and/or dyspraxia thrive in this modern world. However, not many students are as lucky as I was. All too often students with disabilities are never informed of their rights to accommodations required for schooling and standardized tests. A Kids As Self Advocates survey found that only 20% of [American] students with disabilities were informed that they had access to accommodation

Picture of the setup of the celebration One of my favorite things about Peace Corps is the cultural exchange that occurs. A lot of time when you visit a new place it is hard to get involved in the culture and customs of the place. However, on March 11th this was not the case, as I was able to celebrate International Women’s Day with the women in my community. Groups of women from each part of Tafunsak (Yatta, Muntente, Tafunsak Srisrik, and Walung came together to celebrate the women in our community. The day started out with an opening prayer and speakers. Between the speakers groups from each part of Tafunsak sang a song. I performed the song with the women in my area of Tafunsak.       Basket weaving competition After the songs and the thanking of Donors were finished the Keynote Speaker talked (in Kosraean) about the women in their community and how they need to work together and support each other. She talked about the importance of graduating high school and how the

Here are a few funny stories that I have heard about foreigners visiting Kosrae and the cultural misunderstandings that followed. Kut When the first missionaries visited Kosrae the locals greeted them with fresh coconuts. The missionaries were thirsty and said “good, good” when they saw the coconuts. The locals went about their business and show up a few minuets later with a bowl of head lice for the missionaries to eat. The missionaries were very shocked by this. It turns out that the Kosraen word for head lice is “Kut” pronounced like “Gud” and they thought that the missionaries were asking to eat head lice. Fuk A few decades ago an official from Guam was visiting Kosrae. A woman on Kosrae had heard that people from Guam liked to eat Fruit Bats and she captured some bats to try to sell to him for money. The woman knocks on the door of the hotel room where the official is staying. The official opens the door and sees the woman holding two bats and is a little confused. The woman s

A small how to guide on making coconut oil for beauty purposes  Step 1: Gather 5 copra coconuts Step 2: Husk the coconuts Step 3: Open the coconuts Step 4: Grate the meat out of the coconuts – most people use electric graters but many still do it by hand  Step 5: Make coconut milk – See this blog post Step 6: Filter coconut milk Step 7: Boil coconut milk Step 8: Once boiled add flowers for sent Step 9: Allow it to cool Step 10: Filter to separate solid and liquid  Step 11: Enjoy 

Step 1: Gather copra (brown husked) coconuts and chop them in half with a machete.  Step 2: Use a coconut grater to grate coconuts into a bowl. Step 3:   Once all of the coconuts are grated put a handful into a piece of cloth and squeeze as hard as you can. Discard the squeezed coconut gratings into another bowl and repeat. Step 4: Once all of the coconut gratings are squeezed use the cloth to filter the milk.                                            Step 5:  Enjoy your fresh coconut milk :)                                     

6:00:    Attempt to turn off my alarm             6:45:   Make oatmeal with peanut butter for breakfast. 7:00    Depart on my bike ride. Riding my bike to and from school is the most dangerous part of my day. It is about a 15-20 minute bike ride to my school but during this time I have to keep my senses with me so that I don’t get bitten by angry dogs. Dogs in Kosrae are not used to seeing a) white people and b) bikes so they often get riled up when I bike past them and start trying to attack me.   When this happens I get off my bike, thrust it at them threateningly, and shout “Tchock”. Tchock is a word used by Kosraens to tell dogs to go away. 7:20    Arrive at school I am normally the only teacher at the school until about 7:50. Then there are a chorus of “Tuwoh” (Good Morning) and “Kom fukah?” (How are you?).   8:00    Class starts             Most days we are lucky to start at 8am but class actually begins at 8:15.             I Co-teach 5 th grade English

Me and my fellow PCV Devon getting ready to attend church   It took me a while to get used to Sundays on Kosrae as there is a whole list of things that one can and cannot do. As far as I know there are only two things that are illegal to do on Sundays the first is drinking alcohol or being drunk, and the second is fishing or harvesting marine life. Both of these laws are taken very seriously to the extent that during communion (which I’ve been told only happens four times a year for the Kosraen Congregational Church) they drink Kool-Aid instead of wine. People caught by the police drinking on Sundays will find themselves spending a few hours in jail. There are also things that are heavily frowned upon such as: exercise, playing games, swimming in the ocean, cooking outside during daylight, crafting, loud noises, and working.   You are, however, allowed to swim in rivers and in my host family that is used as a special treat for birthdays that fall on Sundays.  Most Sundays since

Tuwo (Good Morning) and welcome to my blog, Snorkeling around the Blue Hole I have spent the past 4 months serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia. One of my two New Year’s resolutions this year is to keep an updated blog on my experiences as an English Co-teacher/Co-planner and Peace Corps Volunteer in Kosrae.   My other resolution is to read at least 1 book each week. I’m going to first provide some background information about Kosrae and then I’ll tell you a bit about my time on Kosrae. Kosrae (pronounced KOSH-RYE) is a small, 42 square mile island, in Micronesia. There are about 6,000 people living on the island. The main language that is spoken here is Kosraen although due to English being taught at 3 rd grade up most adults can speak English. The main religion on Kosrae is Kosrae Congregational. Kosrae is split up into four districts Tafunsak, Lelu, Malem, and Utwe. Walung is a remote area of the island that is more or less only