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
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| 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 enough to take part of two canoe races in Okat Harbor with members of my extended host family. My first canoe race my team came in last. I texted my friend Devon about it and she stated that it was my first canoe race that I would do better next time. Little did Devon know that my second canoe race ended in my team sinking the canoe in the middle of the race as we took on too much water. Luckily everyone was okay and so was the canoe. It was a fun day and I even learnt the Kosraean word for sinking “moti”.
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| Manta Ray |
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| Traditional Yapese Stick Dance |
Soon after the anniversary of Malem’s evacuation I left for vacation with my fellow PCV Devon. After a lot of debating and planning we decided that Yap would be an interesting place to visit for vacation. Yap is one of the four states in the FSM and is the westernmost state. We arrived in Yap after midnight on the 14th of June and made our way to the beautiful Manta Ray Bay Resort. We had many adventures during our 7 day trip to Yap. One of our fellow PCV was moving to Yap so we got to explore the island with her and meet her new host family. We also were surprised to see one of the outer island volunteers and we went on a hiking adventure together on the Tamilog trail. One day I booked a snorkeling tour with Manta Ray Bay Resort and I was extremely lucky to see manta rays, an octopus, dolphins, flying fish, sharks, and colorful reef fish. Devon and I were lucky that we booked our vacation during the same dates as the Yap Homecoming Festival. We got to see traditional men’s dance, bamboo dances, and women’s dances. Not many visitors get to experience the culture in this way. On our last day we treated ourselves to the hotel’s spa’s indulgence package, which included a special bath, massage, manicure, and pedicure. We left yap feeling the most relaxed we had felt in months.
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| View from Two Lover's Point |
Devon went straight from Yap to Pohnpei to help out with language training but I had a two-day, three night layover in Guam before my flight to Kosrae. I spend the two days exploring the island. I was able to visit the Guam War in the Pacific National Park Museum to learn more about pacific front of the Second World War. I also took a dolphin boat tour, and visited Two Lover’s Point. However, the highlight of my trip to Guam was visiting K-mart and being able to shop for some long missed comfort food and get some cheap, island appropriate clothing.
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| A Walung Sunset |
When I arrived back in Kosrae I found out that the Peace Corps Volunteers on the island were invited to the Kosrae State educational policy conference. We shared our insights on teaching in the schools and contributed to the discussion on the Kosrae State Language Policy. It was a great opportunity to work with teachers, the Department of Education staff, and government officials.
I was fortunate enough to be part of a team of three volunteers asked to go to Pohnpei and lead a workshop about volunteer diversity for the new Peace Corps Trainee Class. Jasmin and I arrived in Pohnpei on the 4th of July and got to attend the American Embassy’s 4th of July party with the new Peace Corps Trainees. It was great to meet them in such casual environments. A day later the third volunteer arrived and we got busy planning our workshop. In the workshop we talked about being an ally, our experiences as Peace Corps volunteers, and did a number of activities surrounding diversity. We were also able to conduct a volunteer diversity panel with the Peace Corps Staff. Both the workshop and the panel were well received and hopefully will help both the volunteers and the Peace Corps Staff.
When I came back to Kosrae on the 10th of July my Host Mom’s side of the family was having a reunion with their family from the Marshall islands. It was a lot of fun and games. There were volleyball matches, basketball games, and a lot of singing and dancing. It was beautiful to see how even though the family lives in a different country they were very connected.
On the 24th and 25th of July the Peace Corps Volunteers and our counterparts hosted Camp GLOW.
Camp GLOW is a camp for 8th grade girls who have just graduated elementary school and are entering high school. A lot of work and planning went into putting together this two-day camp. The girls learnt about leadership, local crafts, healthy cooking, self-defense, had talks from successful Micronesian women about being a woman in business, and most of all had fun.
The last thing I did during the summer was plan a 4 hour long Co-teaching and Co-planning workshop for the new Peace Corps Volunteers’ co-teachers. My fellow PCV Devon helped me conduct the workshop. The co-teachers learnt about the different types of co-teaching, how to co-plan with the Peace Corps volunteers, and we also reviewed the steps of lesson planning such as how to write an objective.
With the end of summer also came the close of service for two of the volunteers on Kosrae. Both Marisa and Jasmin have been wonderful friends and guides during my first year of service. I’m sad that their service has ended but I know that we will always remain friends.
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| Left to Right: Marisa, Jasmin, Lisa, and Me |
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 enough to take part of two canoe races in Okat Harbor with members of my extended host family. My first canoe race my team came in last. I texted my friend Devon about it and she stated that it was my first canoe race that I would do better next time. Little did Devon know that my second canoe race ended in my team sinking the canoe in the middle of the race as we took on too much water. Luckily everyone was okay and so was the canoe. It was a fun day and I even learnt the Kosraean word for sinking “moti”. 
On the 24th and 25th of July the Peace Corps Volunteers and our counterparts hosted Camp GLOW. Camp GLOW is a camp for 8th grade girls who have just graduated elementary school and are entering high school. A lot of work and planning went into putting together this two-day camp. The girls learnt about leadership, local crafts, healthy cooking, self-defense, had talks from successful Micronesian women about being a woman in business, and most of all had fun.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of Postcards addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 postcard from each country and territory in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a postcard by traditional mail from Micronesia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a postcard from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Micronesia in order to complete my collection. a postcard for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that country with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
I invite you to visit my blog www.postalesenmibuzon.blogspot.com, there you can see the pictures of all the postcards that I have received from all the corners of our planet.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez