Sorcha in Micronesia

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 scho...

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    ...