The Classroom

We admitted a new student into the class on Monday. He’s been wanting to take the RSA program for years, but couldn’t get over from his island (the Mortlocks). Bad transportation. My mom knows him from before and how much heart he has. Apparently he’s extremely smart! People are joking that he’ll be caught up by lunchtime.. We’ll see about that. He’s missed 25% of the class, which is significant, but he’s good with the kids and determined. Can’t say no to that, right?! We’ll try our best to help and catch him up

My mom’s been showing a lot of videos in class lately, and I either remember being their while it was filmed or am in it! It’s so surreal. And kind of funny. I’m also constantly used as the example to demonstrate how to lift someone properly… I feel like a rag doll. Although I have to admit, it is kind of fun

I thought it’d be nice to add some pictures of the classroom in action to give you a better feel. Abraham is kind of like the T.A. He takes a lot of pictures to document and hopefully (fingers crossed) will take over teaching the courses when my mom’s grant is up.

Second Home Visit

Today my mom and I latched on to another group so she could help and I could document a different child. We visited two- year- old Beloved who has CP. Her house was hard to get to.. Our expert van driver had drive drop us off a ways away from the house in order to turn it around. We walked for about a quarter of a mile, passing little houses tucked away and hidden behind mountain apple trees and tall weeds. Wide- eyed children peeked over windowsills and whispered hello as we passed. Beloved’s house was tiny and dirty with siblings, cousins, and neighbors crowded around to watch the RSAs. Her mother had dressed her in the most adorable white lace dress for the occasion and sat making mar mars in a corner of the room. Mar mars are essentially haku leis made with ylang ylang for the scent and pretty flowers. It’s polite in Micronesia to give one to a first time guest of your house. Little girls immediately rushed over to place them on our heads, so sweet. Beloved is the last of twelve children, sadly only six of which are alive today. My mom and students practiced range of motion on Beloved and also discovered that she has very poor eyesight. She can see large objects, but nothing too far away from her face. She’s a happy little girl though and was very responsive and tolerant of everything we did. One of the students even got her to move her legs in a walking motion, with help.

My favorite part of home visits is bonding with the other little kids in the room. There are always lots of them. I’m usually automatically the coolest kid in the room because of my camera and video camera, so they tend to crowd around to look over my shoulder. This particular young one (a neighbor I think) sat next to me the entire time and followed me around the room. He was very serious and only smiled when he just absolutely couldn’t help it. He loved the camera and every time I put it down for a minute he would put his hand on my knee as if asking for more. At one point he wrapped his little hand around my big toe (kind of gross if you ask me, but incredibly endearing) as he watched the screen in rapture. This is the best one of him:

"Laundry Mat"

So on Saturday we realized we desperately needed to do laundry. We asked around and eventually found a tiny little Laundromat, or “Laundry Mat,” down the street from our hotel. Only the women do laundry here so it was packed with girls and women of all ages stealing glances at the strange white women (us) who seemed so out of place. Only a few of the washing machines there worked and after observing for a bit we learned we needed to fill the washing machines with water manually with a hose for both the wash cycle and the rinse cycle. It was hot in that little room and instead of waiting for our turn to use one of the coveted dryers, we opted to bring our wet clothes back to our room and drape them around.

Earlier that day we had a magnificent find. We’ve been looking for some other form of entertainment besides reading books. I’m on my fourth already and it’s only the second week- which, by the way, if you’re into writing at all you must read Stephen King’s “On Writing” I found it wonderfully to the point. Anyway, we came across some pirated DVDs! Seems to be a theme with my mom and I... On only one of the bluray disks it fits 28 movies!!!! For three dollars. We’re going back to get the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings collection later. We ended up watching “The Holiday” later that night with our underwear and shirts draped neatly over the television to dry.

Sickness and Piik

My mom and I have been pretty sick these past few days. My mom since Thursday and I since Friday- although, she got it much worse than I did with a full- fledged fever and everything. Bad timing.. We think it might be from the food at the hotel restaurant downstairs, but who knows!! It’s supposed to be the best restaurant on the island, but nothing here is quite up to the U.S. regulations of cleanliness our bodies are so used to. Our immune systems must be so weak compared to the Chuukese’s. My mom even had to end class a bit early on Thursday she was feeling so awful. I’m surprised she lasted as long as she did, honestly. I couldn’t have done it! I stayed home Friday to attempt to recover. The worst part is that the stomachache is constant, and the headache as well, for me at least (although it could just be caffeine withdrawal who knows haha). The pain’s faded over the days but still acts up at odd times, especially when I move or am trying to digest. Food is usually such a comfort for me so this is weird. First of all we have to ration the food we did bring, we can barely eat anything here because we’re vegetarians, and on top of all that because we’re sick next to nothing seems appetizing.. My mom eats so little normally it’s not hard for her to adjust. It’s easy for her to be content with just a few rice cakes for lunch. I’m going to cherish every single fruit and veggie I come across when I get back haha. Thank you for your sympathy.

However, Margo, one of my mom’s associates is coming out here next week to help teach a section of the class and she’s bringing us more food! (aka it would be a major crisis if we ran out of dark chocolate). She’s also going to bring my bathing suit!!!! Margo’s currently on a motorcycle trip with her husband across the country, which sounds thrilling.. I would LOVE to do that someday.

Jenkin’s mother (the boy with CP we visited last week) actually works at our hotel and introduced herself to us the other day. It’s such a small island! She works very hard to support Jenkin and her family.

The manager of the hotel’s daughter, who’s around my age, is also apparently going to take me out to a bar one of these nights. We’ll see how that goes.. I’m incredibly shy around new people and drunk Chuukese men is not something I want to experience, but I’ll give it a shot. At the very least I love meeting new people. She studies in China and is home for the summer so sounds interesting.

My mom and I have also finally come up with a name for our rental car. It’s Piik, which means Pig in Chuukese because he’s excessively muddy and kind of round. We think it’s fitting.

First Home Visit

So we did do a home visit today! We visited a little boy with cerebral palsy. He had the greatest smile and his little siblings and cousins were endlessly entertained by my video camera. They also sang us a song to make Jenkin laugh

We’re going to work on finding him a comfortable chair so that he can sit up and developing his fine motor skills. He has good use of his right hand

Random Musings

There are a shocking number of rusty shipwrecks around the island, some of which children swim out to and play on. Many people travel to these islands for wreck diving- there are over 80 Japanese ships here, left over from when the Americans bombed the Japanese during WWII to regain control of Micronesia- all resting on the bottom of the Chuuk Lagoon.

The women here generally wear very colorful, conservative dresses or skirts. I haven’t once seen a woman or girl here in pants or shorts. They also don’t normally show their shoulders, despite the heat and humidity. I’ve noticed that the men here, for the most part, put off an air of seriousness or toughness. It’s a very patriarchal culture. Most are gentlemanly, but not all. My mom has a bunch of leftover Micronesian skirts from her previous trips so we alternate between them. The skirts make everything more comfortable. We haven’t been able to find many vegetables or fruit. We found tomatoes and fresh cucumbers the other day and finally located where to buy big liters of bottled water.. We’re pretty much surviving on packaged noodles and tea haha

The potholes here are pretty appalling as well. People drive about 5 miles an hour, swerving to avoid the worst ones. Whenever we go too fast or misjudge, we hear the cement scrape the underside of the car in a painfully screechy way. Sometimes we have to swerve so much we practically run into the little shops selling pounded, sweat-filled breadfruit and cooking bananas. The U.S. government is kindly paying 25 million dollars, however, to build a four- mile road. Sounds pretty ridiculous, I know.

My mom and I have experienced the most beautiful sunsets here. Our hotel has a dock that we walk out to some nights to watch the ocean and the colors.

Class and Puppies

We’ve had three days of class here so far and it’s going well. Our first home visit to see a child will probably be this afternoon!! I’m crossing my fingers… I’ve finally adjusted to the fact that things here happen slowly, if at all. People are late, ranging from 40 minutes to 2 hours sometimes. But everyone means well. I’ve also gotten kind of used to the constant staring and the fact that everyone will practically run across the street to shake my hand and say hello. We’ve been here long enough by now I think that people have started to recognize us and wave enthusiastically when we pass.

The students in the class are really nice and seem excited about the program. We finally have a consistent number of them showing up each morning, 26 total. A few ride over every morning on tiny motor- boats from outer islands. There’s a lot to learn and little time to do it in so days are busy and hectic. I’m basically the organizer of everything (something I’m good at haha) while my mom teaches. I’m learning a lot as well just watching her. It’s a good thing she’s doing out here. We also do home visits twice a week every week. I’ll be the photographer and videographer for that as well.

An added joy of our hotel room is the fact that right outside our balcony is the local gang of stray dogs’ favorite hang- out spot. My favorite one sits on the roof opposite our building, staring straight across into our window. He’s a tiny malnourished brown puppy with floppy ears and the most adorable face. His mom and brother hang out there too.