I’m still alive!

So, it has been way too long since I updated this blog, and I’m very sorry for my long absence. A lot has been going on since I last posted, but I’ll try to more or less briefly cover everything with a summary of the past few months.

November– Nothing really specific for this month, actually; it was mostly just school and life as usual. I celebrated my 24th birthday, which wasn’t too remarkable (except for the shocking realization that yes, I actually am that old). Thanksgiving was celebrated with a group of American friends (Peace Corps and Jesuit Volunteers); no traditional Thanksgiving food, but good times and good company nonetheless.

December– An eventful month! We said goodbye to Ben and John, two Volunteers who finished their service and headed back to the States. Then all the Volunteers from my “class” flew to Pohnpei for our mid-service conference. It was the first time we’ve seen all the Volunteers from the other states and Palau since pre-service training, so it was a fun reunion. It was also a good time to share stories, successes and struggles, to reflect on our time here so far and prepare for our remaining months in Micronesia.

After the conference, as everyone was heading back to their sites, I hopped onto an eastbound plane–home for the holidays! The journey itself was quite an experience. We landed in Honolulu in the middle of the night, and flying down over the city, with all its bright lights, was like landing on a different planet. After a year and a half in Chuuk, where rolling blackouts are the norm and everything is shut and darkened by sunset anyway, seeing all that power and light was more than a bit overwhelming. Getting off the plane and walking into the airport was a whole other experience as well: Carpet? Central air conditioning? Inside-air? Where am I?? Another Chuuk volunteer friend who’d gone home for Christmas commented later that you’ll only have that experience once in your life, of stepping back into America for the first time after such a long time in such a vastly different world. Thinking about if from that perspective, I do wish I’d made a bigger effort to appreciate the wonder of the moment. And it’s something you really have to go through for yourself to understand it.

Anyway, I finally made it to Michigan, and it was SO GOOD to be home and see my family. My parents had moved since I’ve been in Chuuk, so coming “home” to a house I’d never seen before was kind of strange. Not to mention the culture shock in general. There was the cold, for one thing (visiting Michigan in December after living so long on the Equator = not the best decision, physically speaking); and the kitchen, with a pantry and fridge bursting with all kinds of amazing foods (cheese! milk! vegetables! pie!); real electricity (it took me a couple nights to remember I could just flip up a light switch instead of wandering around the house in the dark waiting to see if someone will turn on the generator); cars, traffic (driving home from the airport on the highway was somewhat terrifying–moving faster than 30 mph is unheard of in Chuuk); TV, radios, computers with working internet, microwaves, DVD players; movie theaters, restaurants, businesses and employees that actually function in a timely manner…America is a truly miraculous place. At the same time, it often overwhelming, even frustrating. Having to go into a shopping mall the day before Christmas Eve was a nightmare, and I never realized before how much of the news on TV is devoted to celebrity gossip or completely useless information. Hearing people complain about little inconveniences (the movie started 10 minutes late, the roads weren’t plowed quickly enough, there were coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup from McDonalds) also made me realize just how much my perspective on life has changed since joining Peace Corps. That fact that such luxuries like cheap brewed coffee, quality entertainment, and any kind of road maintenance are even available in America is not the norm in much of the world. Certainly not in Chuuk, at least.

January– I flew back to Chuuk with mixed feelings–it was great to be back, but 3 weeks in America had spoiled me a little. I returned to school to discover we had lost a teacher; he had to go back to college to take classes to get his teaching certification. (if you’re wondering why the Dept. of Education hires uncertified teachers in the first place…that’s an excellent question.) Which meant we were down to 4 teachers, plus me, for 8 grades. They’d had to readjust the schedule while I was gone, which means I am no longer teaching science; I’m back to just 7th and 8th grade English.

February– This was a kinda tough month, mainly due to an unusually high number of funerals. Since returning to Chuuk, I’ve been to 7 funerals; 5 of those were in February. Three of them were people I knew personally–two of them were in my host family. Funerals are a huge deal in Chuuk, so they pretty much took over the entire month. I was also having some frustrations at school, mainly with my 7th graders, who had basically stopped coming to school. This was partially because many of their families were involved with the funerals, which always interrupts school to some extent, but attendance had been on a downward trend despite that. Out of 18 students enrolled, I haven’t seen more than 10 since November, and since returning from Christmas break, I’ve been lucky to have more than 5 on any given day. These days, 3 or 4 is the average. The more annoying thing is that it’s a different 3 or 4 kids who come every day; no one ever shows up consistently, which makes actually teaching them anything extremely difficult. I’m constantly reviewing, never moving forward. Their poor attendance is reflected in their grades, of course, and the students know this, but they just don’t care, and neither does anyone else. And I’m not in a position of enough power to be able to do much about it.

March– 7th grade attendance still down, but other things are looking up–mainly my library efforts. I’ve been receiving TONS of donated books (thanks Aunt Linda, and Darien Book Aid!), and they’d been sitting in the Peace Corps office for months and months, waiting for a good opportunity to be transported out to Romanum. That finally happened at the beginning of March, so my job for the past few weeks has been opening boxes, sorting books, and trying to figure out how the heck to organize everything. It’s gonna be a big job, but I’m so happy to have something to work on, and I’m planning to recruit some students to help me once I have a better idea of how I’m actually going to set things up. The main problem is a lack of bookshelves, although my principal has requested supplies from the DOE to build some; I’m actually hoping we’ll have that when I return to my site today.

April– Not much to say yet, obviously. I have big plans, though: Me and my friend/fellow Volunteer, Andrea, are hoping to travel down to the Mortlock islands for Easter, to visit some of the Volunteers living down there. It’s about 1-2 day ship-ride south of Chuuk Lagoon, depending on how many stops the ship makes. Micronesia’s outer islands (including the Mortlocks) are the most remote placements in Peace Corps, and the culture is more traditional out there than it is in the Lagoon, where there’s more American influence. I’m really looking forward to going out and seeing what it’s like for myself–despite horror stories of sea-sickness on the ship-ride out. It should be a good time.

That’s about it for now; at least, that’s the bare bones of it. I promise I’ll be more regular with my updates in the future!

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~ by Kirby on Sunday, 3 April 2011.