Rain, ants, and a site assignment

I realize that it has been quite some time since I've updated so please bear with me...grab a coffee or soda, take a break and see what's been happening in Micronesia. 

This past week it rained a lot! Now that i know about the tsunami (the day after it hit america samoa) i can understand why. Needless to say, my shower water was brown with floaters. It was dark in the bathroom when I noticed it. At first I thought I was seeing things. No, after investigation with the flash light, it was obvious that there were floaters. Eh. No biggie.

No major roach stories as of late...though ants never cease to amaze me. I bought ant traps thinking that I  was a genius but the damn ants are too smart! They see the ant trap, walk up to it, turn around, and continue to go around it. After awhile they stop their trek around or near the trap but this just results in them migrating to another place. Most notably my underwear.

Yes,  the ants have eaten thru my underwear- my clean underwear!
Little holes were showing up in random pairs...i thought, hmmm hats strange- I just bought these. During school some other
volunteers were discussing holes in their underwear. It turns out that they too have been victims of under eating ants. I sprayed a shit ton of Off in my room...I left and came back and to find my sheets covered with dead Mosquitos and ants. My underwear now reside in a ziploc bag that is  inside a plastic grocery bag that hangs from a nail on the wall. Awesome!  

Speaking of ants--after we received our site location, the volunteer group that will remain in Pohnpei got to go to Nahlap, an island off the reef on the western side of Pohnpei. The island is about 1 mile long and a quarter wide. It's located on the reef so during high tide, we were able to swim out pretty far. The island had water slides located in various places along the reef so we were all thoroughly entertained. In addition, on the far end was a nice lttle place to swing from ropes into the water. I didn't partake, I was exhausted and just wanted to relax, so a group of us watched the sun set along the horizon. It was beautiful!

For the first time, I realized that I'm a peace corps volunteer in Pohnpei, Micronesia...you would have thought that this was realized before, but after being so busy and just reveling in the fact that I was surrounded by all these new and amazing people, I had forgotten I was here. Needless to say, Nahlap made it all real.

We ate great local food and relaxed in the hammocks that were stationed along the beach. There were no beds but the island people provided us with mats and pillows in our little wooden huts with tin roofs. The downfall- abundance of ants- Nahlap ants. The ants in pohnpei are somewhat level headed- in Nahlap they are cracked out! They have no governing system and are everywhere. After awhile I referred to them as ghost ants because you could see only their shadow. In addition, the damn things bite! Fortunately I didn't get bit...until I got home. I had taken a pair of cotton pants and only wore them a short time due to the heat, so when I got home I put them on, until I started feeling these weird tingling on my legs. I quickly rip off my pants and sure enough- ant bites all along the inside of my legs. Awesome. It turns out that I brought some Nahlap ants back with me. Maybe the Pohnpeian ants will educate them on order and such.

I started language training this past week. It has been pretty intense and
will end up being over 100 hours of Lang training in 6 weeks. My
instructor is funny- total pohnpeian. His laugh is hysterical and his
smile always makes me giggle a bit as he's missing some front teeth.
The other instructor also kills me. He's this shorter pohnpeian but
could completely pass as Italian. He has white hair and wears these
round blue eye glasses.  When he doesn't have his shirt pulled up
above his potbelly, he wears silly sayings on his clothes. His shirt
today was a picture of him from some birthday bash drinking
sakou...it  read "I may be old but I can still do it!".

I've decided that I will learn the
language in time. I'll do my best and use the locals to help me
through it....though I'm really picking up words and phrases and am
feeling confident. It takes time and thankfully these peole are very
forgiving. Unlike Spanish this language emphasizes short responses.
What's crazy is that they have over 10 counting systems...such as one
for ordinal numbers (no problem), long objects, general counting, days
of the week, coconuts, poop!, people...nutty!

My biggest concern right now is this rash on my face. Obviously it's
an allergic reaction- the culprit i have yet to deduce. What started as a
mere nuisance has spread to cover my entire face, ears and neck. It
itches and when I get hot, which is the majority of the time, I get
super red face and it just explodes in freakiness. Now it is swollen
around my nose and under my eyes. My host family was very concerned. I met with the medical officer and she believes it's a virus. I wonder if maybe it's mold. As of now, benadryl
and cortisone do nothing...as the mutant on my face has become
immuned. I refer to myself as freak face. Awesome. The med officer gave me some super strong benadryl that does the job but it's still there. 

I had a bit of a breakdown the other night. It was so hot in my room...my
face was itching and the benadryl wasn't doing anything for me both
with the rash and sleep. I was tempted to borrow a fan from my family
but abstained from projecting my problems on them. So I ended up
sleeping on the tile floor with only a pillow probably in an ant
colony. I woke up at some point and moved to my mattress but again
couldn't sleep. Finally I slept but woke at 6 am to the damn rooster
directly out my window. The only thing I can do is accept the
reality...which I have. But good news as of recent- my host sister gave me her fan. I slept like a baby and my face didn't look near as bad. It was so chilly in my room that I had to turn it off in the middle of the night. I was so elated when this occured...some of the best dreams!

So the good things....i met my future school staff at Sekere Elementary! Fortunately I will be working with mainly women including the principal and co-teacher. The principal prefers modern day instruction practices and the teacher uses these in her classroom. I will be teaching 8th grade (originally it was going to be 5th grade but after my principal saw my background she switched teachers) in all subjects. My teacher was recently nominated to begin a health club at school- yet another perfect match! This will definitely make a great secondary project in which i have to complete by the end of service. We chatted a bit and I found out that my teacher is 34, has a background in health education, has been teaching for 11 years, and is single with 2 younger children. She gave me an overview of her work day and I honestly believe this is going to work out great. They both seem very excited to have me and at one point my teacher said, "I admire you. You go to school for many years and then decide to join the peace corps. You must be a free soul." I was delighted.

All in all, everything is well on this side of the world. Just living the life and learning so much about myself and this "new world" that I am continually impressed with. Each day is a new day and there is rarely the routine that I remember and dread about America. Of course I sometimes wish for the finer things in life, but honestly, those pass. All it takes is one glimpse out my bedroom window...oh and a root beer float! Yes a root beer float! The Pohnpeians have yet to really embrace the deliciousness, but I will work on them!

Loves....
Ham