Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The First Few Days

Ran annim! It's dinnertime here, but I think most of you are sound asleep or close to it!

This is officially my fifth day in Chuuk. I don't even know where to start. Weno (the island I am on) is incredible. It is one of about 150 in the state of Chuuk, which includes the Chuuk Lagoon and the outer islands. We have Peace Corps friends on the outer islands, and they just left to go back to their sites yesterday.

I can't possibly give you all we have done in the past few days; I have learned and done so much already. But here are a few highlights of my trip so far:

We spent the first 4 days at Saramen Chuuk Academy (translated "Light of Chuuk Academy," Saram for short). That is where I will be teaching, along with Jason and Mackenzie, my community mates. On our second night, we were treated to a "local feast" of fish, breadfruit, rice, and bananas pounded with coconut milk. It was delicious! I use the word "treated" loosely, because we made the meal ourselves. Our second-years (Mack, Tess, and Chris) bought the ingredients, including 5 full parrotfish, and we got to de-scale, gut and clean the fish before cooking them. It was a really cool experience! I have to say, it tasted much better having done most of the work myself. Now all we have to do is learn how to spear fish, which I have been told we can do with our host families.

The next day, we took a hike up to Octopus Head. It is a hill close to Saram that resembles, well, you can guess. It was quite the adventure. Kicho, one of the second-years' friends and the dorm moderator at Xavier High School (where the other JVs teach) came with us to be our guide, and brought along two cousins. We trekked up the hillside through the tropical jungle in the mud (because it rains almost every day...a lot of rain!). It was intense. At the top of the hill, there is a network of caves and tunnels the Japanese used during WWII, with cannons still in them. It was incredible to be able to see all of them. We all took tumbles on the way down. I caught air when I fell. It was pretty fun, but we definitely deserved nap time afterward!

Yesterday, we took a flatbed truck up to Xavier High School. It is a Jesuit school, where five other JVs live and 3 of them teach. The remaining two teach at an elementary school down the hill. Xavier is pretty incredible, with ocean views (and views of over 20 islands, some barely big enough to hold a few trees). We sat and watched the stars last night, and saw at least 10 meteors in the hour we were up there. We then got back to the JV house and battled cockroaches and spiders before settling in and going to bed.

It has been quite the adventure so far. There have been a few moments where it has hit me that this is home for two years, but so far it is completely surreal. I'm guessing when I begin teaching it will begin to become more real. Right now, I'm just soaking it in.

Missing everyone back home! Love you all!

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