Pohnpei, Micronesia: September 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

Teaching in Pohnpei; Story #1

In May, before leaving for Micronesia, two of the WorldTeach volunteers had sent four boxes filled with teaching curriculum to use in Micronesia. Two months had passed with no signs of the boxes and they were becoming increasingly anxious that the boxes may never come. Erin, to help with her frustration, changed her expectations to a December arrival time.

During lunch one afternoon I went to do the routine mail-run and to my surprise, Erin and Andy's boxes had arrived! I was so excited to give Erin the news that I decided to try and take as many boxes as possible back to our office. The man working behind the desk carried two boxes for me to sign for and without testing their weight, I happily signed. I picked them up and thought, "Wow. These are really damn heavy...but you know what, it's only 800 meters, I can do it." It's unfortunate that I'm an optimist and that I made that decision with only five steps into my trek, because after 10 steps I was absolutely exhausted! The boxes combined weight must have been over 60lbs and the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees. Halfway through I was almost in tears, so I decided to purposely over-exaggerate my exhaustion hoping that someone would notice my obvious struggle and give me a ride. I plopped my foot down, sighed obnoxiously, wobbled and pushed one more step forward. The sequence repeated. Plop, sigh, wobble, push, plop, sigh, wobble, push. Finally, I arrived back to campus and was already five minutes late to my own class. I looked in the mirror and gasped at what I saw. I was completely drenched in sweat, I smelled like ass and my hair was one big frizz ball. Now, in the states if a teacher arrived looking as I did it would raise at least a little concern, but in Pohnnpei no one seemed to notice or care! I taught an 85 minute class looking as though I just ran a marathon in a skirt and a dress shirt...

Sokehs Rock

making our way up

kids at the top

the view

making our way down

Sokehs Rock 8/26/08: We had heard stories about Sokehs Rock, but none prepared us for the intense rock climb we conquered two Sundays ago. For the first few miles we walked on a paved road around a small island to get to the trail head. Once there, we started our trek up hill. We climbed rocks made into stairs, used trees to stabilize ourselves, and took breaks as needed due to the steep incline. It was a challenge to even reach the base of the rock! Once we arrived at the base, Michaela said, "Okay, now begins the technical part of the climb. Do you see that pipe? That will become your lifeline." I looked up at what we were about to climb, noticed the rusted pipe and started to shake. However, my ego wouldn't let me back down, so I continued upward. As we ascended, we reached for tree roots and held our body tight against the vertical earth. We carefully tested each rock and branch to make sure it would hold. We gave guidance to one another when one of us got stuck. There were times when I imagined myself dying (okay, a little exaggeration...hehe), and times when the adrenaline pumping through my body made me want to yell out in excitement! Once we reached the top we were greeted by Pohnpeian kids (yeah, they put us to shame on the climb) and fresh pineapples ready to pick! We spent some time enjoying the view, taking pictures and listening to the kids sing hip hop songs from the states. Basically, we were avoiding the reality that at some point we had to go back down! After almost an hour of relaxing one of us had to get back so, just as carefully, we made our way back down the rock. I found going down much easier. Whenever I couldn't find solid footing I would use the pipe as a firefighter pole to slowly inch my way down. When we reached the pavement, we talked about how each of us (at least at one point) thought that we were going to die. However, immediately following that conversation we made plans for the next encounter with Sokehs Rock!