We get to do so much cool stuff in this class!!! We’ve barely finished the first quarter and already we’ve written a group poem, an essay on our favorite singer, an essay on our favorite musician, an essay on September 11th and made fictional newspapers.

Our group poem was an amazing lesson on “the writing process.” In an hour and a half we went through all of the stages, together as a class. The girls chose the topic: butterflies. We brainstormed descriptive words, action words, and phrases that would explain to Helen Keller what a butterfly is like. (Last year we read about Helen Keller together.) They each wrote a line to contribute to the poem.

While we were writing butterflies flew into the room. It silenced a room full of teenage girls. And me. (That's saying something.) Then, as if to say "this isn't just a coincidence" another butterfly fluttered in and puttered around the room. It was breathtaking and beautiful and one of my favorite Peace Corps memories.

The essays they wrote about September 11th were pretty incredible, too. These girls were all 8 years old on 9/11, so most of them don’t really remember it. But one of the girls was in Guam because her mother is in the military, and it was really interesting to read about the experience from her perspective. Another one of the girls was in school with a lot of Americans in Saipan, so most of her classmates were affected and the day left an imprint in her mind. The two Chinese girls in my class had never ever heard of September 11th until we talked about it for this essay. Not even a little bit. They literally had NO idea. I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised about that, but it's just such a HUGE part of our social memory that an existence without that knowledge is almost incomprehensible to me. It was pretty amazing to watch them take in the new information, react to it, and roll it all around in their minds.

Then, I was completely blown away by their newspaper projects. It was kind of a last minute decision to make them do this project. Really, I just wanted a group project that let each person write something, and then each one could focus on a single part of the writing process. One editor, one proofreader, one final-copy layout-artist, etc. So we had three newspapers, each with their own theme: Teen Tabloid, World Tymz, and The Bethania Newsfeed. Clever! Teen Tabloid photoshopped their faces into pictures with celebrities. Bethania Newsfeed took their own photographs. And World Tymz was fully, gorgeously illustrated. I really wasn’t prepared for this onslaught of creativity! Who knew they had that in them?!?

Next up …

A Senior Portfolio: College application, Cover letter and Resume, Personal Statement

Scientific Research Papers (in preparation for their Spring science fair projects)

A Screenplay (they’ll film and edit in their Computer class next semester)

So here's an idea for you.

While you're sitting at your desk, browsing the lightning-fast Internet on your state-of-the-art computer in your climate-controlled office on cyber-Monday ... consider taking a break from purchasing an extra tie (that you know your dad will not wear anyway), and donate a box of books to the Bethania library!

Amazon.com has great specials this week. You can just add another box to what you're already purchasing or use your amazon credit to make your donation. Plus, once you buy $25 worth of merchandise, amazon will ship for free!!! So think about a $25 donation. It's not too much to give up, right? Twenty-five dollars is like a trip to the movie theater for two. One dinner at a chain-restaurant. Three venti cappa-frappa-froo-froo drinks at Starbucks. Less than a mani-pedi.

Plus, you can make it your Christmas charity donation for the season and check "goodwill towards men" off your to-do list. Done and done.

For about $25.00 ....

Many, many, many of the books on our "wishlist" are Christian romances and Christian mysteries. They run about $3 per book. That means that for about $27 you can send us NINE new books, and since you went over the $25-mark, you just saved yourself $10 in shipping and sent it for FREE. And by the way the girls LOVE those "love inspired" books from Steeple Hill publishers. I don't even have a space on the selves for them because they're never in the library long enough for me to re-shelf them.Also, you can sort the wishlist by price and you'll see that a bunch of the non-fiction science books come up with really good used-book prices. So you could fill up a box pretty quickly with really good non-fiction too -- and the collection REALLY needs that.Use the wishlist as a guide. Feel free to just get the flavor of what we want and what we need and find books locally or check your own shelves or take up a book collection in your office, with your book club, or at your church, etc. You can spread the word by forwarding a link to all my blog posts about the library project. And if you're going to do the shipping yourself, all the information is listed on the left navigation of the amazon wishlist page, and also detailed in The Great Book Search post.

For about $30 ...

Or less, if you buy used ... you could purchase all three volumes of the Sierra Jensen series, by Robin Jones Gunn and you would be the forever immortalized book hero of every girl at the school. The books are by far the most checked-out books. The paperbacks that we have are taped together. The sets are incomplete. There are pages missing. Three complete hardback volumes will make these girls go nuts. And I promise to take video of the whole thing, because watching them go crazy for books is pretty much my favorite thing ever. Alternatively, you could buy the other Christy Miller books (Sierra Jensen's older sister, for those in the know). Or anything else by Robin Jones Gunn.You can also view our wishlist "by priority" to see what I've labeled as the girls' favorite books and other series that we have that are incomplete.

For less than $40 ...

You could buy a Marshallese-English dictionary. We don't have a single one on campus. I have never seen a student who owns one. And our Marshallese students are the ones who struggle the most.You could buy an English Grammar textbook by Betty Schrampfar Azar. Used as a supplement to the textbooks we already have on campus, these exercises dramatically improve the English levels of the students. I only have one very old copy and I can't photocopy it because someone wrote all the answers in the blanks in ink. :(

Spearfishing at night = fishing for sleeping fish.

It's like ... shooting fish in a barrel. But they're in the ocean.And they're sleeping.

And you have a flashlight.

Also, there are sharks. And barracudas. And it's dark.

Thus, the floating cooler.

Home sweet home office.

Our program assistant poses for the camera.

Our site location map.

Internet! Sweet, sweet channel of free unlimited communication.

Best library on island?

My tsunami box.

THE GOOD

Clearly, this was created by a professional.

Signage for a shop that does t-shirt and jewelry design. Quite nice.

It is exactly what it looks like it is.

THE BAD

Be honest. Was this created in Microsoft Word?

I have no words for a design shop that does this to their storefront. Also, I had a t-shirt made here and the designer thought I was crazy when I finally said, "Oh for crying out loud, just put it in Helvetica." Helveti-what?

I can handle the butterfly. And the star. And even the tagline. But the WINE GLASS?!

THE UGLY

There isn't even a sidewalk here for pedestrians -- the only people who would be able to read this. Plus, the fish vertebrae says: bar)ra)cu)da

It's like they got started making this and they just were having so much fun that they forgot to stop when they blew past the sign that said "Now entering ... UGLY."

(Also, is that a Q or an O?)

This, my friends, is a magazine cover. Yes, a magazine cover. But wait! That's not all. It's a magazine cover that's approx 7' x 4' printed on vinyl and hung on a bedroom wall.

THE ERROR-RIDDEN

I still have no idea what this means.

Which market? Ooooooooh, Payiess. Yes, that's the one. (On the other hand, I do enjoy the strip mall architectural homage to a Palauan bai, "men's house.")

The menu at "I 'heart' Noodles." (Noodies are delicious, by the way.)

The back of a $3.00 pirated copy of the complete first season of Mad Men, featuring lead actor "Joe Ham." Highlights include sentences like the following: "Inherit the family business of female bosses and so on, in the face, such as sharks, like the cruel struggle competition between them will also be carried out both good and bad of the entangled ........"Captivating!

THE INEXPLICABLE

Mmmmmm. Fun Chum. Sounds delicious. And who is Piña Paul? Oh look, a short bio. How convenient. Now I know.

(p.s. Piña Paul has a lot of other pals with their own "flavorful" personalities.)

This might look like an ordinary bottle of water, but I can assure you it is not. As you can tell, it is nothing less than 100% pure O2 Oxygentech Super Water.

Because ... who needs hydrogen, anyway?

Absolutely no sad hamburglers allowed in this bank.(And don't you wear stripes AFTER you rob the bank, not DURING the robbery?)

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

Outside the jail there's a literal representation of: If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.Unintentional hilarity: the best kind of hilarity.

The library is OPEN!!!

We had a dedication ceremony and a book signing on our first official day. The Ministry of Education donated a computer and the alumni, family and friends that attended the ceremony donated more than $300 dollars.

The library, all ready for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"NeverMIND. We take down ribbon. We cut when everyone is inside."Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

The students are excited!

Special guests: Mamang Klei (left) and Wanda Aigner (right)

Evangelical Church Leader, School Board Member, and former Peace Corps Liaison, Pastor Billy Kuartei leads the ceremony.

The Ministry of Education donated a computer for the librarian!

My Marshallese students can't wait to use the library!

Polian is already eyeballing the Robin Jones Gunn book she will check out first.

Palauan bookworms. Ready to read.

The junior class fundraises with snacks before lunch.

Lunch at the beach.

Chillin' at the beach.

The alumni association hosted a book signing with the former principal, Wanda Aigner and her new release: I'm just Wanda, but Jesus is G-O-D.

Assignment: Write a short paragraph describing a visit to the dentist. Use exact and colorful verbs to suggest the sounds made by the dentist’s equipment and to indicate your feelings and reactions.

Student 1 (Palauan):

I feel uneasy as I enter the room. Anxious to get it over with, I lie down on the chair. I try to quell the uprising fear inside of me as I hear the whir of a drill. I startle as it drills into my cavaties [sic]. The next sound I hear is the gushing sound of water. A hose is inside my mouth and I feel cold water squirting into my mouth. After the hose, a teeth cement fill is mixed and using a piece of cold metal, the dentist keeps my tongue out of the way and heaps the cement into my teeth. He cleans the remaining cement then tells me that I am done and may leave. I travel back home no longer distressed but joyful that the experience is over with.

Wow! Way to NAIL the assignment! Active verbs? Check. Your feelings? Check. Your reactions? Check. The sounds made by the equipment? Check. Use of this week’s vocabulary word “quell”? I think I might cry!

Student 2 (Micronesian):

I can’t really remember when was the last time I went to the dental but I will try.

When I went through the door, my heart was bumping so fast because I was scared. I could hardly open my mouth when I heard the metal sound of his equipments. When he gave me the medicine to make my mouth numb, I felt that my mouth was getting bigger and that it’s swollen. I got up so fast and ran toward the mirror to see what’s happening but he then told me that it’s just like that and that it’s going to be all right. Whenever he would lower down his light to my mouth and ask me to open, I would close my eyes and beg him not to cut my mouth for I won’t say any more bad words to people. I was comforted when he told me that if I let him take my tooth, then he will buy me an ice-cream.

What can I say except … it’s science. Cutting your mouth because you say bad words? Dentists who encourage ice cream eating after removing a bad tooth? I’m at a loss. But nice work on sentences and communicating what it felt like! A few good verbs in there, too.

Student 3 (Chinese):

“mom, I don’t want to go and see the stangely dentsis, my withe teeth they all still good.” “No, is a Huge NO, You have to go and see the dear dentsis, and claen your yellow teeth.” “Fun mom, ok your can stop your Jabber moth. And I will go.” In the afternoon me and my mom went and see the dentsis. When I get # [sic] inside of that dentsis’s office, first come to my mind is the color, everything color is wite. The color like the snow’s color. But, when I sceme to see the person with wite color cloth, Im alreably stard shakking, cause even thou they are just cleaning my teeth, but it is still realy hard.

So ....great paragraph! Hook, topic sentence, body, conclusion. Done and done. But where do you BEGIN with the grammar and spelling?!? Also, it’s really sweet. This is exactly how she speaks. I love it.

Student 4 (Marshallese):

I went and visit my friends at Marshalle, and also I visit My Grand Parents at there house. and also in Bethania they have a visitor from other place or from the states. One time the Germany came to Bethania and visit. Even the Palauan friends they also come and visit the Palauan studens.

Well, okay … ummm good effort. But. She’s from the Marshalls and she didn’t even spell Marshalls right. :( Errrrm … help?

Special note: The students’ nationality has little to do with their language levels. I have some amazing Marshallese writers and some shockingly bad Palauan writers, too. I only noted it because sometimes it helps you know where they’re coming from when it comes to the content.

If I’ve learned one thing from the first quarter of school, it’s that the good Lord did NOT intend for me to be a middle school teacher.

This is the first quarter that I’ve taught incoming freshmen and every day is an excruciating exercise in patience. I feel like every day for 1 ½ hours I stand in front of the class and my mouth makes the Charlie Brown teacher “wah wah wah wah wah wah wah” sound, while the veins in my forehead pound out an ominous pulsating rhythm. A sharp juxtaposition of The Comical verses The Maniacal.

At least three times a day I have to take a deep breath and repeat this mantra: They’re still elementary students. They’re still elementary students. They’re still elementary students. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: If they wore shoes to class, I’d be tying them. If they used Kleenex, I’d be wiping their noses.

It’s clear to me, from only two weeks of observation, that middle school was a brilliant idea. Leaving early teens in the elementary school environment for too long is NOT good for them. They’re still used to teachers coddling them and “inadvertently” giving away answers and standing over their desks to help them through each problem and tucking their worksheets into their homework folder for them and then giving them an extra day to work on it if they forgot their homework folder at school. GAHHHH! It makes me want to scream!!!

Yes, middle school was a marvelous invention. And my conclusion is that OTHER people should teach there. Clearly, it should not be me.

When I take a couple steps back, I know it’s the American in me who is aggravated by this. I’m used to seeing pre-teens wearing mini-skirts, drinking out of Starbucks travel mugs and talking on cell phones at the mall like they’re 25. We expect them to grow up fast and shoulder a lot of personal responsibility. On the flip side, we also tend to steal childhood from our children. So you would think I might be able to see the beauty in a classroom full of 14-year-olds that aren’t acting like they’re entitled to a smart phone, a fashionista’s seasonal wardrobe, and a family life the revolves around their social schedule. But I’m having trouble focusing on that part. Instead, I see dependence, disorganization, unpreparedness due to laziness, and unpreparedness due to lack of foresight.

But I know that if I’m going to survive the remainder of the semester, I have to figure out a way to embrace them in the stage they’re in, and not keep comparing them to the stage I wish they were in. They have plenty of time to realize their potential for independence and organization and time management and prudence. For today, they should be kids. And they deserve a teacher that allows them that much.

God bless the middle school teachers out there—in the U.S. and elsewhere. I’m going to do my best to channel your patience, perseverance and resilience because this is not MY forte.

Middle school teachers, I tip my hat to you.

School has begun. This year Nick is teaching 8th grade English and helping out with 7th grade English as well as a few Health and Science classes. I’ll be teaching Freshmen and Seniors during first semester, then Sophomores and Juniors during second semester. It’s block scheduling, so if you’re doing the math, that’s all four years of high school English.

Our school projects are in full swing now. Nick is planting a community garden and I’m starting a new library. It was a lot of slow-moving, taxing preparatory work during the summer so it’s fun to see major progress being made on both projects, as the kids get to jump in and help. Plus, it’s twice as much fun to work on the projects when you get to see their animated reactions.

It’s nice to have the kids back in the classroom and it’s nice to have a routine again.

We’ll see how long this “honeymoon” lasts. Ha!

Don't Worry - Ingrid and Nick will be offline until further notice

Ingrid called over the weekend to let us know the generators are out of service there. At this point, they don't know when the generators will be repaired / replaced. This means they will not have electricity until further notice. They will be spending a lot of time reading by candlelight -- and NOT getting on the internet, or making / receiving phone calls! So -- not to worry if we don't hear from them for a while.

Here's an idea -- how about sending them a real live letter or card in the mail!?!

PS They will be going to Koror periodically and life is going on as usual in Koror (with electricity).

I casually walked into my house today and looked at my kitchen table, as if for the first time, and realized … there’s a spear gun on my table. Where AM I?!?! Who DOES that?!?!

The spear gun has been around for weeks and I’m pretty sure it’s been sitting there off-and-on for almost a week. But sometimes, in the hustle and bustle and normal shuffle of everyday life here, I forget how completely insane this whole adventure is.

Less than a year ago I had an office with a window overlooking Walnut Street in Philadelphia. I wore high heels, strapless dresses and pearls to work—pearls! ha! In fact, I wore a diamond every day!

There were dogs—friendly, clean, flea-free, trained ones—that freely roamed around my office and I had treats in my file cabinet.

I browsed the Internet at will and would sometimes be on the phone with a co-worker, texting my husband, and checking my inbox all at the same time. Baaaaaaahahahahaha … using the Internet for pleasure! That cracks me up.

I could take the elevator (Ha! An elevator!) downstairs and find myself a cappuccino, a truffle, a martini, a Greek yogurt, a fruit salad, a soft pretzel with extra mustard, a caffeine free Diet Coke or a prescription for Prozac all on the same day (perhaps not in that order) and all within a one block radius.

And now … there’s a spear gun on my kitchen table.

Somebody pinch me.

I didn't even know there was so much to say.

• Eating black dog cures asthma.

• Mercury poisoning is caused by stress.

• Pluto has a crazy orbit that crosses all the other paths of the planets in the Solar System, then gets close to Mercury and does a “U-Turn” before returning back to the edge of the solar system and “wandering around” in the cosmos.

…More about “science.”

Time to add books to the library!

I successfully submitted an application to the Darian Book Aid Plan. We're on their (four month) waiting list right now. So once they process our request, they should be shipping four very large boxes of books our way. Then, we'll have to wait for them to make their way across the Pacific Ocean on a slow boat. We are hoping they'll arrive before the end of the school year.

In the meantime ... you can help!

(warning: here comes my pitch)

If you are interested in women’s education in the Pacific Islands, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that making a donation to the ONLY all-girls high school in Micronesia is the most direct way to make an impact in this region. That is of two-fold importance. First, because improved education is one of the quickest way to improve the lives of individuals. Second, because improving education among women is one of the quickest ways to improve the lives of all the members in a community, and their future generations.

Culturally speaking, Micronesian women are central to food preparation, health care and child rearing. As their understanding of (for instance) communicable diseases improves, the health of their entire clan improves exponentially. As their critical reasoning and problem-solving skills improve, so also does their economic stability. At Bethania, we have the benefit of educating women from all over this region -- from the Federated States of Micronesia, from The Republic of the Marshal Islands, from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and more. All of these girls take what they learn here, on this campus, pack it into their proverbial suitcases, and are then scattered by the winds of the south seas across the Pacific Ocean. It's a rare and wonderful opportunity to touch so many different islands with one single library.

Beyond just education for WOMEN, English education is a priority in this country. The Peace Corps works with host countries, has them identify their own needs, and then partners with them to help them achieve their own goals. That's why we're here teaching Enlgish. The Micronesian governments have identified improving English reading comprehension levels as one of their priorities. And it's not hard to see why. All the textbooks and materials in this region are in English, and if you can't read and understand the material, your learning is dramatically stunted. The key to unlocking science, math, health, religion, and social studies is truly English. There simply are not materials written in these island languages, thus the only way to gain the knowledge they hold, is by learning to read in English. And the best way to improve their reading comprehension is to give them books that they enjoy reading!

To make library donations easier, and because we have limited space in our little "iLibrary," I've created an Amazon.com "wish list." On the wish list, I've included books that the girls LOVE reading as highest priority. And missing books from the series that they check out often are labeled with high priority. I have also included other books that I think will round out the collection, like art books and Newberry award-winners, etc. Feel free to browse the list, get a feel for what the library might need and find similar titles, authors, or series.

Bethania Library - Book List

I've also created a library supply list based on recommendations from the Peace Corps "How to Set-up a Library" publication. It includes things like ... book glue, mending tape, CD/DVD organizers, book ends, etc. I also put a few "fun things" on the list, like dominoes, checkers, backgammon and chess pieces etc., in an effort to improve critical thinking skills and impart a "number sense." (p.s. Right now, I'm desperately in need of those book supplies, so that I can get the books covered and protected and mended to try and make the donations we receive last longer.)

Bethania Library - Supply List

A note on the links: If these links don't work, you can go to Amazon and click on "wish lists". Then select "Search for a Wish List" and it takes you to a screen where you can search for "bethania library". Our lists should pop up at the top of that search.)

A note on shipping: Shipments usually get here in 7-10 days. And we're very lucky in Palau, we don't have any trouble with boxes being opened or stolen. The important things to remember when shipping books are: 1) use a flat-rate box!!! shipping with "media rate" means it won't get here for many, many months, and 2) where the form says to write the "state," you should write "PW".

Shipping information is saved in our Amazon wishlist, but here's the address for your reference.

You can ship to:

Ingrid Hurt, PCV

c/o Bethania High School

P.O. Box 8028

Koror, PW 96940

Palau

So it was the Fourth of July. I was in Koror to get some schoolwork done. And they were throwing a big party at one of the ex-pat bars. It was a buffet with beer included, for $20. Normally that is a RIDICULOUS amount of Peace Corps money to spend on one evening. But, we thought … hey … it’s a holiday. And it’s OUR holiday! Let’s do it. So we paid our $20 and walked into a party that had very few Americans. Hmmm. Odd. But we rolled with it. We got a beer, a plate of food, followed by three plates of green salad. Green salad! Blessing of blessings! Fresh, beautiful vegetables! And then the free beer was tapped. Sigh. And since we’re Peace Corps, we didn’t have money to continue buying our beers since we calculated that into our buffet price. Thanks a lot all you non-American party-crashing beer guzzlers. Never mind the ones who are here doing service work without a salary.

The other fun part about being in Peace Corps that I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet, is that you can’t drive. So, that leaves us at a Fourth of July party with no cash left to enjoy ourselves and with no transportation to leave. And so we sat. And sat. And sat. Waiting for our ride. And we waited.

... and waited.

... and waited.

I’m not sure if I can describe how uncomfortable it was to sit there, except by giving you a quick anecdote. I mean, you have my description of awkwardness (at the same bar) from my previous post. But even when I was wearing a completely appropriate black dress, it didn’t make me any less uncomfortable.

At this party there was a band, there was dancing, there was cake and all sorts of merriment. When we went to refill our water glasses, we were standing behind a table full of ex-pat kids. (I think they were all Australian, and I'm sure none of them were older than ten.) And all four of the kids were sitting at the table playing video games on iPhones. I turned to the volunteer next to me and said, “Where ARE we?!” I’ve grown very accustomed to seeing kids climbing guava trees, battling each other with stick “swords,” riding bikes on dirt roads, playing basketball with deflated basketballs, and bursting into giggling fits on the back porch over God knows what. All of that is exactly how I remember my childhood (minus the guava) so it never seemed unnatural until I realized what “modern” children do for fun. There’s music! Food! Dance floor lighting! Your parents are letting you stay up late and you’re playing a video game?!?! What universe is this???

To make a long story short … the night went on and more inebriated ex-pats showed up and took to the dance floor. There were not only tank tops but also MINI-SKIRTS shakin’ it in my face and I had to change seats because I realized that my mouth was open and I was overtly starring at the debauchery with thinly veiled disgust written all over my face. And at the same time that you realize how your face looks to the rest of the world, you become self-aware of the incongruity between that and your inner monologue, which sounds something like this: Who AM I? One year ago I was doing that on a dance floor … and my skirt was probably shorter—but those leather boots I had were amazing. Damn, I wish I hadn’t given those away—wait—who AM I??? And … it continues, in circuitous fashion, for the rest of the night.

Eventually, our ride materialized and with a sigh of relief we headed out to the parking lot.

Halfway across the parking lot, someone hollered, “Hey! Next time you guys go out, you should drink more. You’ll have more fun!”

I laughed and hollered back, “Peace Corps budget!”

“I knew it!” He said, “I KNEW you guys were Peace Corps.” He came running over and said, “RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) from Vanuatu! Hug it up!”

So, after a brief introduction he said, “Listen, I saw the look on your face in there and I know exactly where you are right now. Don’t worry. It will pass.”

He was heading to the airport to catch his plane so he only had a couple minutes to talk, but they were INVALUABLE minutes. His advice was simple and I wish someone had said these things to me months and months ago.

First, he said that every country Peace Corps serves in has 2 or 3 major problems. Those problems vary by country, so it might be alcoholism, domestic violence, obesity, corruption, or a laundry list of other possibilities, but there are 2 or 3 doozies that every volunteer has to deal with. He said that at this point, I know what those things are and he imagines I’m facing them every single day. His point was that those 2 or 3 things are not really what any Peace Corps Volunteer signs up to do. You don’t sign up thinking, “Hooray! I’m going to go to Latin America to watch domestic violence and confront corruption every single day.” You don’t sign up thinking, “Excellent! I’m going to a country I’ve never heard of and that I certainly can’t spell, to witness incest and neglect every single day!” You sign up wanting to help initiate change and offer service. His advice was to set those 2-3 major issues aside and put everything into a more global perspective. He said, "You are working in a developing country and developing countries have these problems." He said that all of these problems are deep-rooted issues that will eventually change, but they aren’t problems that a Peace Corps Volunteer can change. “The quicker you can wrap your mind around that, and put it in the larger perspective,” he said, “the better off YOU will be.”

His other advice was exactly the right words at exactly the right time, for me. He said that re-adjusting to life in the U.S. is equally hard if not harder than adjusting to your Peace Corps country. He said it takes about one to one and a half years to re-acclimate and that the best way to ease that adjustment is to have a LOT of happy memories from Peace Corps. So his challenge was to figure out what “fun” means to me in Palau and do that thing EVERY DAY. He said it could be playing soccer with the kids, going swimming, reading in a hammock, eating bananas, fishing, whatever it is, just do it EVERY day.

It struck me as he said this, that I have NO idea what “fun” means to me in Palau. Not a clue. I’ve been so wrapped up in teaching, putting together a library, and organizing other secondary projects and 50th anniversary planning and a commemorative postage stamp and who knows what, that I haven’t even CONSIDERED that I should be having fun while I’m here. I spend all of my time going from “cage” to “cage” as we say. My house. The Peace Corps office. Our hotel room in Koror. And back. There’s very little in between. I just shuffle between cages. Stack of papers to grade at home. Need Internet time at the Peace Corps office. A movie in the hotel room. Back to lesson planning at home. Then to the Peace Corps office to submit a report. Make ramen in the hotel room. And repeat.

I think it’s all sound advice and I’m eternally grateful for the chance meeting. It really helped me rethink my outlook and my attitude toward this experience. And I hope it’s a sign of all the serendipitous Peace Corps encounters to come. Plus, I gotta be honest. I’m really looking forward to figuring out what “fun” means to me here.

Then again … when I think about it … I’m not sure that I knew what “fun” meant to me in the United States, either. How much “fun” was I having when I worked ridiculous hours and spent weekends catching up on chores and numbed myself with (delicious) trash television? Maybe it’s time to get back to the exhilaration of climbing a tree and bursting into giggling fits and letting your jaw hang open while you look at the stars.

I’m thinking this just might be The Lesson that I get to take home with me.

Here’s hoping.

We’ve spent a lot of time this summer in the “big city” of Koror. We’ve had a lot of conferences and meetings and paperwork and other errands to attend to that we can’t normally do during the school year. Coming into town usually means Internet access, a cold beer, vegetables, and some “American time” with other volunteers. These things might not sound like a big deal to you, but they represent nirvana for us right now.

I thought that since we’ve spent so much time here, I should do a post or two about Koror. And since my “party cam” has finally started working again (Hooray! A working camera for the first time during our service!!!) I thought maybe I would do a “photo essay” of sorts.

Before we get started, here are a few facts about Koror …

It is the population center of Palau.It is located on it's own island, connected to Malakal and the main island, Babeldoab, by bridges.It was the capital city, but they recently built a new capital building in the state of Melekeok.And here's a link to the Wikipedia page, which is quite out-of-date ...

Wikipedia - Koror, Palau

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I know present my amateur photo essay ...

KOROR, PALAUPalau National Post Office: 96940The "happy place" for Peace Corps Volunteers who pick up flat-rate USPS boxes jam packed full of love from back home.The Bank A not-so-happy place for Peace Corps Volunteers ... because we're VOLUNTEERS.Palau Community College (PCC)

Yes, Virginia, there IS higher education in Palau. It's fully-accredited -- wait not-fully accredited, no it's fully-accredited, oh, hold on, they're reviewing that decision -- final answer: a fully accredited institution.

Bethlehem ParkGrab a bento for lunch, attend a cultural event, or just sit in one of these "summer houses" and chew betel nut all afternoon.



Palau Public Library

A surprisingly large collection of Palauan and Japanese reading materials.

The Public Gym

Home of the Palau National Olympic Committee who puts together the Belau Games every year and organizes the delegation that competes in the Micronesian Games. They also come out to the schools upon request to do basketball or volleyball workshops with the kids. Great organization!

Bem Ermii Burger Hut

This place smells like America. It's hands-down the best burger shack in the country. Reportedly, it's owner is a former McDonald's store manager. I believe it because I can taste it. And I can talk about it, because I've tasted it. That's their catchy tag line: "You can't talk about it ... until you've tasted it."

Topside Mobile Ice Cream

The best ice cream in town is at the Mobile gas station by Scott's house. Nothing like a midnight ice cream fix. (And the vanilla tastes like cake!)

Gas Prices

Most days I hate the fact that we aren't allowed to drive in Peace Corps. Other days, I look at the gas station marquee and think ... Thank God I can't drive on a Peace Corps budget.

Mural Arts Project: Palau

Check it out, Philly! Along the main road, there's a nice mural of an endangered giant clam in the Rock Islands. This one is on a building at Palau High School.

Palau High School

The only public high school in the country draws 700 teenagers into the city to (allegedly) go to school every day. You can see them leaking out of the fenced in campus wearing their bright Palauan-blue polo shirt uniforms.

Rock Island Cafe

Or "R.I.C." for those in the know ... or "Poor Man's Denny's" for those in the peanut gallery. Breakfast anytime, really good pizzas, excellent brownie sundaes, and Filipino special menus when Pacquiao is boxing.

Extravagant Menu

Catch of the day: Yellow Fin Tuna, Opaka, Black Jack

Specials: Boneless milkfish (grilled, fried or "salt and oil") served with rice and salad for $11.50 (ouch)

Koror Time = Beer Time

Living on a dry campus means our only opportunity to have sit back and enjoy a beer is while we're in Koror. And we savor every mediocre drop.

Drop Off

A quiet, laid-back, outdoor bar with great wait staff, located at one of the dive shops.

Construction is finished!

When all was said and done, I got quite a bit more than a “book corner” so I’m ecstatic. There is a full WALL devoted to books. There are about six bookcases, with three shelves each … and then one smaller one on either end. There are also two bookcases that act as “bookends” (if you will) for the computer bank … which has no computers. And they even managed to give me some shelf space around the pillar in the middle of the room—great spot for featured books!

Construction complete! Time to put books on shelves!

We transported books from the old library to the new library this weekend. Since I don’t have much space now, it’s all about quality not quantity. And since there’s only 19 shelves to fill (I think my personal library in boxes in my mother-in-law’s basement would fill these shelves) I decided to do away with the Dewey Decimal System.

GASP!

I know, I know … but honestly … it just makes everything look WEIRD. Instead, I’m going for the bookstore approach. That is, the “genre” approach. I divided the library in half – Nonfiction and Fiction. And that leaves room for a shelf of encyclopedias, a shelf for dictionaries/thesauruses/almanacs/atlases, a shelf for science books, a shelf for biographies, a shelf for social sciences, a shelf for oversized books with gorgeous photographs, a shelf for Pacific Studies, a shelf for religion and a shelf for literary non-fiction. Then, on the Fiction side, there’s the Literary Classics shelf, the Juvenile Classics shelf, the Easy Reading shelf, the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelf, the Drama and Romance shelvzzzzz (plural), the Mystery and Suspense shelf, the Action and Adventure shelf, and our paltry Poetry shelf. (heh. alliteration. poetry joke. nevermind.)

When we went through the old library I was really surprised … Who knew there were so many good books buried in those shelves stuffed with mediocrity? Once we started weeding through we found some real gems … Time Life Series science books, a lot more classics than I thought, a really great set of short and reading-level-appropriate biographies, plus a Pacific Studies section that’s worth an honorable mention.

On the other hand, putting the books on the new shelves, without the Dewey Decimal Aystem, made it really easy to see where the weaknesses are in the collection. (THREE books on art?!? FOUR books of poetry?!?) I was grasping at straws to find ANY “action and adventure” stories. And other than three random J.R.R. Tolkien novels (not The Lord of the Rings) and an incomplete set of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, oh, and three Animorphs books … there really is NOT a “Science Fiction and Fantasy” shelf. So … I have some scavenging to do. :)

I’m going to do a full inventory before school starts, so I can post a public Amazon.com “wish list.” Then we can complete some of those sets and infuse the collection with a little bit of life.

This summer was quite a struggle. In June we unexpectedly had to say “bon voyage” to a close friend, and then we watched Peace Corps completely botch everything about her departure. Then, we were thrown into the middle of a “situation” with one of the local businesses. Next, we returned from the Kayengel trip in June and the entire brigade of volunteers in Palau was accused of being chronic rule breakers. And when the staff came to visit Palau they were shocked – SHOCKED to find out there were home-stay problems with two of the volunteers. Then in July we lost a local staff member to budget cuts. I think it’s fair to say that by the end of July we had a pretty sour taste in our mouths regarding Peace Corps in general.

Here are a couple of analogies to help you put the struggle into perspective. One of our friends had been reading a bunch of literary non-fiction about Russian history and he proposed an interesting metaphor. He said it’s like we’re a military unit with a rogue leader, so we have all banded together. And, God help you, if you attack one of us you attack all of us. We won’t leave a man down. I have my own metaphor to add. Back in training, on our water safety day, we had to do a little exercise where we all linked arms and formed a circle to help keep everyone afloat. When I think back on this summer, that’s what I think of. It was a summer of volunteer bonding as we linked arms and tried to help each other keep our heads above water.

(I think this also explains why all of the photos I have from this summer are of white people. ha.)

You’ll be happy to know that we’ve all (staff and volunteers) been able to come together and work everything out, so things are on the up and up now.

With the coming of this iLibrary, I thought we could talk about the internet in Palau for a minute.

The internet on-island is all satellite internet. There’s a cable that goes through most of Micronesia, providing high-speed internet to some pretty small islands. But, when it made it’s way toward Palau, they sent the cable north to Guam and then did a few quick calculations to decide that it was more cost effective to lay the next segment of cable between Guam and the Philippines, skipping Palau. Basically, the population of Palau isn’t large enough to justify the cost, because a telecom company would never recoup the cost of the installation.

Ay, Palau.

The story we heard is that there IS actually a way that Palau could tap into that cable. And when they figured out which section of the cable they’d have to purchase to make that happen, AT&T bought that section of the cable. This might be fact and it might be fiction. I cannot say. But, essentially, the moral of the story is that if Palau wants to improve its Internet speed, the Palauan government will have to negotiate with the big telecom companies. If this is in fact the case, I think that in the interim period, it’s the students who are paying the price with a glass technology ceiling on their education.

To paint a picture … We only have one dial-up Internet connection here on campus. We all have to share that connection, and that’s why I get one hour of Internet everyday. Each teacher gets one hour, there’s one hour reserved for software updates, and the students get one hour – which is to say, three students per day get one hour. (Now try imagining how one would get into college with, more or less, one hour of Internet per month.)

Ay, Palau.

It’s hard for everyone in the States to remember that we are living in The Age of the Internet circa 1997. We use the Internet by the hour. We listen to that little singsong dial-up ditty every time we log on. We have to be very careful about which links we choose to click on, because it might be a minute and a half (I’ve timed it) to load the page and if you realize a ½ second later that there was a better choice, now you’re talking about two and a half minutes. We DREAD rich media on web pages. Every time we connect, we play the kbps lottery – you see how fast the connection is and then have to decide if it’s worth disconnecting and reconnecting again to get a faster connection. The BEST we can get is 50.6 kbps. Some of you might remember those days … back in the AOL era.

So, we’re living in 1997, trying to connect to 2011. We are constantly looking for the site map pages of websites or the mobile versions because they load with fewer errors. Friends and family keep sending us YouTube links or uploading videos that require flash or saying things like “just google it.” (Bee tee dubs, NOTHING makes us laugh harder than reading the phrase “just google it” in an e-mail from home.) It sounds so simple: Oh, hold on, ima pull out my white iPhone and google ‘iLibrary’ to see what comes up. Should be just one sec.

Seriously though, I can’t even open PDFs on the school computer. In our world, Google Earth and Adobe are coveted applications in their "test run" phase or on the cusp of becoming popularized, while words like "podcast" and "app" haven't even been invented yet.

Even the cell phone situation here is a la 1997. We buy airtime and load it onto our phones. Then you have to find reception. After that you can make your call – but you better be prepared for the conversation because you have to talk as fast as possible and cut straight to the chase. Those minutes are EXPENSIVE. Remember when you had to do that? Yeah, that was 1997. And you can forget about using the Internet from your phone. That’s like some kind of futuristic Star Trek pipe dream, that’s what that is.

Basically what I'm trying to say is: It's a miracle that this blog exists.

I'm doing some cutting-edge technology work, right here.

Ay, Palau.

But ........ I’m well aware that complaining about it is a waste of time, so I’ve been working on a plan for making lemonade out of these iLibrary lemons. In the meantime, construction has begun and seems to be moving along pretty quickly – I’m a little surprised at how it’s all gone according to plan. That rarely seems to happen. But, it does in fact look like we might really have an iLibrary (whatever that means) by the time school starts.

Outdoor ConstructionScreens, weather-sealed sliding windows, tinted glass, and security bars PLUS new doors.

Indoor ConstructionLook! A book WALL!!! And two book shelves! And tables and desks! Hooray!!!

It’s coming along. I’ll keep updating as the project moves forward.

I didn’t realize how much I had adjusted to life here until I went to “spaghetti night” at one of the ex-pat bars in Koror. I was in town for a meeting, so Nick had stayed behind in Ngaraard and I was left to take on the “city” myself.

Scott, the volunteer who lives in Koror, gave me a last minute invitation to all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so I grabbed my purse and asked him if what I was wearing was okay. I was all set to stay in for the rest of the evening, so I was wearing jeans and a white tank top with wide shoulder straps.

He said, “Of course, it’s an ex-pat bar! You can wear whatever you want!”

How great! No need to change!

A few minutes later, as we were walking up to the bar, I started getting nervous about the amount of exposed skin and I asked again, “Are you sure this is okay to wear?”

“Yes! It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

And sure enough there was a table full of ex-pats waiting to eat spaghetti with us and all the ladies were wearing tank tops. But it was no consolation to me. I was still squirming in my chair.

Soon enough Scott turned and said, “Dude, you are SO uncomfortable!”

I was like, “You have NO idea. First of all, my shoulders are showing. Second, you can see the outline of my thighs in these jeans. Also, you might not realize this but I’m at a bar. AND I’m out without my husband for the first time in a year. Plus, I’m drinking a beer. There is secular music playing. And these Americans are having two-way conversations, which I forgot how to do. Also, they’re talking about volunteering to help DOGS!!!”

I literally had to go to the bathroom just to lock the door and breathe for a little while.

And before all you Americans jump on the activist wagon and throw perfectly good animal by-products at me, let me just say …

Somewhere deep, deep, DEEP in my brain, I remember what it was like to love dogs. I mean … I do CARE about their well-being. But the concept of “making them a member of your family” and “inviting them into your home” vanished … at some point … somewhere along the way to this moment. I do vaguely recall the notion and I’m pretty sure I could call it up again if I needed to. But all of that just is NOT in a compartment of my brain that is accessible right now. I think that compartment is adjacent to the place where tank tops are acceptable and colored fingernail polish is appropriate. It might also be where I’ve stored my listening comprehension skills. It could be where I left everything I know about successfully carrying on dialog with another person. And I certainly hope it’s near the place where I kept my “how to” manual for married couples leading independent (but complementary) lives.

One day, I think I would like to unlock those parts of my mind again.

As one of my secondary Peace Corps projects, this summer I’m going to be working on improving the Bethania school library. Last year, the principal made it clear that he wanted some of the school’s savings to go into refurbishing the library. The school board decided that the current library building wasn’t a good permanent home for the library since the high tides have been turning the building into it’s own mini island.

Mr. Lamb (RPCV Palau '66-'68) "wades through the water" on the way to the library.

Thus, the school board decided they want to remodel the Home Ec room and make it an “iLibrary.” I’m not sure what that means, and I’m pretty sure they don’t know what that means either. When I asked, they said that there would be a computer bank installed for the students to use, instead of all the books. When I said that sounds like a computer lab and not a library (and we already have a computer lab), they said nevermind, I shouldn’t worry, there will still be a “book corner” in the iLibrary.

Great. A book corner!

Meanwhile, Nick has been working with one of the tech guys at the Ministry of Education (MOE), to help do what he can to speed up the internet to Babeldaob (the main island). Part of MOE’s new plan for integrating technology into the schools is an experiment with "iClassroom." A group of Americans is bringing this new-fangled technology to Palau soon, and they’re going to test it at Palau High School and one of the elementary schools. I have a feeling that there was some confusion here between "iClassroom" and "iLibrary" and with this plus a bit of "keeping up with the joneses," mixed together with a dash of technical ignorance, we ended up creating ourselves an iLibrary.

Or rather, a book corner in a computer lab ... that has no computers.



This should interesting ....... stay tuned.

The highlights:

• Coconut margaritas and 27-ingredient chili.

• A terrifying but awesome swimming hole that ought to be labeled “There Be Dragons Here.”

• A brief driving tour of the historical WWII landmarks.

• Octopus in a spicy marinara sauce over penne.

• Extra large jug of Carlo Rossi sangria.

• A quick hike to the Japanese memorial.

It was an EXCELLENT weekend.

"I'm on a boat ..." Party Girl done had herself a margarita. Ginger Queen did too. "There are no dragons, you crazy jinj." "This is how it eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeends..." Peace Corps gurlz rule.Amazing view. Amazing chefery. Amazing friends.

I was sitting at my kitchen table reading a book, and I looked up to realize that everything on this table is representative of our life right now.

Here is the photo.

The Metaphor

Here is the explanation (clockwise, from left):

1. The quintessential book on medical schools in the U.S.

(Nick is researching.)2. An empty water jug.

(Life Lesson: Don't take clean water for granted.)3. Ritz crackers on a container of tuna next to a jar of spicy Korean condiment paste.

(Tuna, the culinary highlight of Palau.)4. My journal.

(Therapy through ink.)5. The latest edition of The Economist.

(Craving intellectual stimulation and news of the outside world.)6. Seed packets to help start a community garden.

(Secondary Peace Corps projects in-progress.)

7. The remote control to our iPod speakers.

(One of our most treasured possessions. Thanks Allan!)

8. A cup of decaf green tea.

(Calming, stress-relieving herbs of the gods.)

9. Smack in the middle of a good book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

(PCVs <3 books.)

“Teacher Nick, did you cut your mustache?” asked Bseps, one of the boys from our hamlet.

“Eh? My mustache?” Nick asked.

“Did you cut your mustache?” Beseps repeated.

“No.” Pointing to his beard, Nick said, “This is beard.”

Pointing to upper-lip Nick said, “This is mustache.”

“Oh. You cut beard?”

“Yes, I SHAVED,” he emphasized the correct verb.

“With what?”

“A razor.”

Bseps crinkles up his face at the new word.

Nick mimes using an electric razor, “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”

“Oooooooh,” the boy says.

Nick puts on his flip-flops and turns to Beseps. “Did YOU shave your mustache?”

“Eh?”

“Did YOU shave your mustache?”

“I have no mustache!!!”

“Hmmmm. I think you better shave YOUR mustache.”

“Ahhhhh!” Exasperated with the crazy electric-razor-using, facial-hair-wearing American, he ran away and climbed the guava tree in our front yard.

We had a fantastic weekend in Kayengel.

School just finished up and we, and our Peace Corps family (M-77 and M-76), REALLY needed a little R&R. We went swimming, fishing, snorkeling, shell collecting, crab trapping, and crab evicting (Un!). We cooked hot dogs on sticks and roasted marshmallows. We ate tuna and kimchee. And we even had a couple delicious lobsters with an olive oil and kingkang (lemon/lime citrus) dipping sauce. We drank "plenty" coconuts, which were usually spiked with rum. We watched sunrises and sunsets from the lazy sway of our hammocks. We went skinny-dipping in phosphorescence under the new moon. We "talked stories" and we read stories.

And we laughed and laughed and laughed.

Is this real life?!? Beachy accommodations. Ladies with coconuts. Mmm. Crab. Good. Look! Scott is on a beach! "You go to Kayengel? Ooooo, good you take Nick. If not, you will cry. The sunsets are too beautiful."Lobsters: The Whiteman FoodAnd a bottle of rum. Lunch at low tide.Sunset with friends.

Author’s Note: So this is a blog post I’ve been holding onto for a while. I started it during PST2, but I was hoping to collect some better examples to properly support the message. At this point, I think we can safely call this observation illustrated. Enjoy …

“Try THIS at your schools,” one volunteer dared us. “Give the students critical thinking problems. It’s amazing. The school practically IMPLODES and threatens to take the universe with it. Try it!”

Hyperbole? Yes. Far from the truth? Not so much.

We hadn’t been in Palau long when we realized that teaching English wasn’t going to be so hard, it was teaching critical thinking skills that would be problematic. Even most elementary students can have a fairly easy-flowing conversation with you in English, but the content of the conversation can leave YOU stuttering because of the severe lack of logical and scientific reasoning.

Here’s how it started.

In many Palauan yards you can see bleach bottles. Empty, used, old, white-plastic bleach jugs. You can tell they’ve been strategically placed, but for what??? One day I got up the nerve to ask someone about it. (We’ll let the speakers remain anonymous in this blog post). This is how the conversation went:

“Why do you have bleach bottles in the yard?”

“Eh?”

“The white bottles – this one, this one, this one,” as I point to the bottles. “Why?”

“Mmmmmmm, for the dogs.”

“Eh?”

“The dogs,” as he points to the dogs.

“Yes, I see. The dogs,” I said.

But, hmmm .......... Should I press on? Am I that curious?

Yes, yes I am.

“Why for the dogs? What for?”

“There is a little water in there. Then, the wind across on the top. Makes a noise. And the dogs don’t like it. Then they no poop.”

Wait, WHAT?!

“It makes a noise?”

“Very high. We cannot hear. Just dogs.”

Okay, I can follow that part.

“And they don’t like it?”

“No, they go away to poop.”

“I seeeeeeee. They don’t poop in the yard. Okay. Got it.”

First, I REPORTED this conversation to my husband, the proud recipient of a Bachelor of Science. As I told Nick the story, we turned around to watch one of the dogs take a dump right between two bleach bottles. We tried not to laugh too hard when OBSERVING this EVIDENCE. First, Nick QUESTIONED me because he thought I might be making it up for a laugh. When I was adamant about it, he HYPOTHESIZED that perhaps I was just given an easy answer, since I’m a female and was asking a male for the information or something. Who knows. Then the next day, to TEST his hypothesis, Nick asked for the same information himself. The RESULTS clearly show that the content of my initial information-gathering was in fact the commonly accepted explanation for bleach bottles in the yard. (Nick had the exact same conversation as I did.) Our CONCLUSION is that in Palau the laws of science and reason don’t apply as they do elsewhere.

As you can plainly see from our findings, in Palau…

1.) Bleach bottles with a SMALL amount of water inside make a HIGH-pitched sound when the wind blows across the top.

2.) Dogs don’t like the high-pitched sound ……… (only) when they’re pooping.

This is amazing information, given the way it works everywhere else in this universe.

It’s science. Don’t worry about it.

A week or two after The Bleach-Bottle Conclusion, a woman explained to us that the reason one of her dogs is fat is because it drinks too much water. (Not because she just gave it a piece of cake.) And that’s why they throw things at the dog when it tries to drink from the spigot. Water weight. It’s science, there's no need to question it. It’s SCIENCE.

Thus “it’s science” became one of our most favorite refrains. Add that one to “homesick” and “welcome to Palau” and you can see we’re beginning our own little lexicon! Since PST2 scientific reasoning has become more and more interesting. I will close with a few of our favorite examples:

• In Anguar (Monkey Island), they refuse to give water to the monkeys because it makes them grow too big. Also science.• Using hair gel will make you get gray hair. Clearly … science.• Not talking to your host-father enough will give him Alzheimer’s. And that will be your fault. It’s science.

• Playing dodge ball is dangerous. The kids can get tuberculosis because of the ball’s impact against their chest. Never mind epidemiology. This is science.

• Drinking cold water after a meal will congeal the oil from the food in your intestines and give you cancer. Pretty sure that was in a chain e-mail, which is obviously an authoritative source, so … it must be science.

• If you drink cold water in the months following childbirth you won’t be able to lose the baby weight. In America, we have to do exercises to lose baby weight. (“Whew. Very hard works.”) In Palau, they just have to abstain from drinking cold water. THAT, my friends, is the beauty of ... you guessed it ... science.

• Washing your hair after childbirth makes you lose your hair. Causation, see? It’s science.

• Blueberries (which I have NEVER seen on island) cure PMS. Nutritional science.

• Putting the food in the fridge will make it go bad. Better to leave it on the stove at room temperature (85°F+) than put it in the fridge. Didn’t you know? It’s science.

The school year is coming to a close here in Palau. I'm pretty happy with the way my class ended. I did a lot of experimenting with the sophomore class, and wasn’t sure about how the results would turn out. But now that we’re finishing up and I think it went really well – better than I expected.

Experiment #1 – Anne Frank

I took a risk and taught Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. We had a classroom set of books donated to us (Thank you for arranging that, Connie!) and the book fit perfectly with the Ministry of Education standards for sophomore year.

As we were plowing through the book, I thought the girls didn’t really understand the Diary. I was thinking the whole thing was a waste of time. One day, I was correcting a worksheet that asked for the definition of "swastika" and the student responded, "Ancient symbol of the Jews that the Nazis wear to a party." I was like ... Dear, Lord ... we've been reading this for eight weeks and she doesn't even understand what a swastika is OR for that matter, that the Nazi party is not a fancy, fun event in Germany.

::sigh::

BUT ... the last page of my final was two full paragraph responses to the following questions: 1) Describe Anne's hopes and dreams. 2) Describe what happened to Anne Frank after she was discovered. My bonus question was "Why is 'genocide' the most important part of this story?” Lo and behold those girls GOT IT! I was surprised but very pleased. I mean, some of them only got it on the most basic level, but a good portion of the girls were making actual connections to their own lives ... "If we ever hear of these terrible things happening we must do the right thing to help stop it, even if it's dangerous." I could've cried. Beyond Diary of a Young Girl they KILLED the “Parts of Speech” section on the test. I drilled and drilled and drilled those definitions into their heads and we came up with example after example after example. And they did a GREAT job on the final. Really awesome. Labeling sentences was a little bit tougher, but overall they did okay on that, too.

Experiment #2 – One-on-one tutoring

Every school day I spent one hour with a Chinese student. At the end of the year she received the "most improved student" award! (I'm taking that as a personal compliment. Ha. Kidding!) Really though, she worked SO hard. She deserves it. And ... it’s just an extra bonus that I can see my efforts pay for HER. (She gave me a HUGE hug. It was sweet.)

I assigned a final project to my sophomores – a 30-minute speech on the topic of their choice. And I opened it up to the whole school to attend. When I started working with her at the beginning of the semester, I had to have her spell out words and we couldn't talk without her electronic dictionary by her side. And last week she gave a 30 minute speech in front of the whole school on China. I was nervous. I thought it was going to be hard to watch her struggle through it ... but she did AWESOME. I video taped it, because I thought she might like to see it in 2013 when she graduates, to see her progress. Anyway, I adore her. She was the class president back home in China, so we have a special bond. ;) She works really, really hard. She always turns her assignments in on time. She struggles through it all. And she's cute as a button.

Experiment #3 – Rainbow groups

They REALLY liked our rainbow groups! Hooray! That was my BIG experiment. I put the students into their specific language levels – pre-production (red), early production (yellow), production (green), beginning fluency (blue), and intermediate fluency (purple). It’s the same idea as reading groups for elementary school, but I applied it to a high school level ESL classroom. The idea was that it would be easier to scaffold my lessons that way, and it would be easier to grade assignments and create rubrics based on these levels. Plus, certain activities work better if the students are in mixed-level groups (rainbow groups) while others work better if the students are in like-level groups (color groups). To make the “Rainbow Groups” I matched up the purple and red students and then had a mixture of yellow, green and blue spread evenly throughout the groups, we did a few team-building games and they named their own groups, so they got kind of into it.

I think what made the groups a success was that the girls saw how it made all our learning games SO much more fair and run so much more smoothly. When you have to send a representative to the front of the room, it's really easy to say "Send a blue or purple member" or "Send a yellow or green teammate to the board." The teaching book where I read about using these groups said, "Be careful not to over-use these groups. They’ll get sick of them." But honestly, I had to FORCE them NOT to use these groups. If I gave them a choice they ALWAYS wanted their rainbow groups. I think, since they're in high school, they get it. They get that the teams are fair this way and the game is more fun when the teams are fair.

These groups also made MY life soooooooooo much easier. Grading was easier, scaffolding was easier, activities were easier. I loved it. And I was so excited when, at the end of the year, I asked what they liked about my class and the FIRST thing they said was "Rainbow groups!" Our Peace Corps technical trainer visited my class the day before finals and we were playing a couple review games. He was impressed, too. He was like, "As soon as you said 'rainbow groups,' they moved their chairs and knew exactly what to do. They switched activities really quick." (Big proud smile on my face.)

This is probably my biggest achievement of the semester. It's REALLY hard to teach a class with 3 Chinese students that are pre-production and 3 Palauan students that are intermediate fluency and 12 other students from other Asian countries and island cultures that are at levels somewhere in between. Now, knowing that this technique worked, I’m looking forward next year!

Ingrid joined the faculty, staff and all the girls for an all-school picnic. As the end of the year approached, the whole school got together to celebrate and relax and spend time with the graduating seniors. We drove to the dock, got on a boat and went to one of the beachy picnic islands where we had a big lunch, did some swimming and some exploring. We were home by super time and too pooped to do anything but shower and sleep.

The sunrise at Bethania's beach.

Waiting for the bus to arrive.

Waiting for the boat to arrive with kiddos and a few lemon teas.

Heading to the island!

Crystal clear water, gorgeous beach and beautiful far away clouds.

After a battle with the food-serving ladies, my very portion-controlled lunch.

My perfect shady spot: sunscreen, book, iced tea, towel. (Shout out to the MCP survivors... Oh, the irony of a beach towel that says "relax." This is exactly where I wanted to be every day that I worked there.)

"Strolling" in Micronesian teenage beachwear.

8 full hours of sleep.

1 refreshing shower.

2 phone calls this morning from Peace Corps Palau and Peace Corps Micronesia, respectively, just checking in to verify our whereabouts.

so we're all good.

all clear.

just unpredictable tides for the next few days, so no water activities allowed. no problem there.

::sigh of relief::

Now, I’m ready to tell the whole story.

To begin, a little back story. Our safety/security director for Micronesia is on top of her game. We get emails in all red and full of capital letters if the tide is extra high in Kosrae (roughly, the same distance between L.A. and Philadelphia). She stays well-connected to all her contacts at the weather service in Hawaii, FSM and Palau, and she personally knows the U.S. Coast Guard officers that would do all the Peace Corps evacuating, if the need arose. As you may know from my previous posts, there are a lot of shenanigans that happen with the Peace Corps staff, but she doesn’t participate. Also ... I wouldn't want to cross her because I think she could break my legs just by looking at me the wrong way. I suspect these last two sentences might be related.

When the first earthquake hit Japan (earlier this week), Nick and I were at the elementary school. It was lunchtime and CNN was on in the teacher's lounge. It was breaking news, so they said they were awaiting the tsunami warnings. Since we weren't at home we thought it was probably a good idea just to check in with our field office in Koror to let them know they should call Nick and I at the elementary school if there were any instructions. We laughed and said, "How many caps-lock all-red-text emails do you think we have from Emy (our Safety/Security Officer) already?" Nick guessed about eight. I guessed six. But the Internet at the school is so slow, so we thought it was still the best idea to call Koror – just in case.

The response from Koror was, "What earthquake?" We weren't terribly surprised because, like I said, it was breaking news. So Nick told the staff in Palau what was going on and they said they would check in with Emy to see what was happening. They called back in about three minutes and said, "YOU BEAT EMY!!!" They were so excited that they called her before she had received any news – they looked like they were super informed. No one EVER beats Emy to the weather. She checked and said there were no warnings for our area, so everything was fine. They were all laughing. (But we did point out that we are RIGHT on the beach, so we'd like to get one of the FIRST phone calls in the event that we need to evacuate.)

Then, yesterday ...

We both had REALLY long days. My grades were due and all my files vanished. My memory stick has a virus that turned all the files into shortcuts. So I had worked for two full 8-hour days fixing my grading spreadsheet, and then the day that everything was due I couldn't open anything. AHHH! Lesson #1: Do not rely on jump drives when in developing countries without proper virus scan software. Lesson #2: Record all your grades on paper and THEN transfer to a spreadsheet. Luckily, I had done that for three-quarters of the semester. So, I spent the whole day creating a brand new (simplified) spreadsheet at the library in the elementary school.

Nick was informed Thursday afternoon that there would be no classes on Friday. (Huh?!) The principal wanted all the students working on their science fair projects. (Everyone turn and look at Nick.) So Nick spent the whole day in the library trying to get the students ready for their science fair projects. He showed INFINITE patience. I was VERY impressed. I think he had to explain what a hypothesis was at least 10 times during the day... which is NOT a good sign the Friday before the science fair project is due (on Monday). I can't even tell you how many times I heard him say, "No, you cannot copy the experiment out of the book. Start over." And alternately, "No, you cannot GUESS what happens in a science experiment. You have to DO the experiment." There were teachers just chilling out in the library, while Nick was sitting there helping eight or nine students at a time. He was ready to kill them – the teachers, that is. I couldn't believe he didn't. I think that I might've.

So we had just arrived home from school and I went to make the final printout of my grades. But someone else was using the Internet, so I couldn't get the file that I emailed to myself. When I got back to our house, I had barely sat myself down when the phone rang and Mrs. Taniyaola said that it was Pohnpei calling. Nick leaped out of his chair, looked at me and mouthed the word "Pohnpei?!" and was at the phone in the house next door in about five giant Nick steps. When he hung up he told the principal to turn on the news, there was a tsunami warning for Palau and we had instructions to move to higher ground immediately.

They told us during training that typically Peace Corps volunteers are the first ones to find out what is happening in emergency situations, and to get instructions on what to do. And that's exactly how it happened. We informed the school and community.

We already have an emergency kit packed. Peace Corps gave us a list during training and, being good little (read: paranoid) volunteers, we put it all together in one of our "dry bags," so that we could grab and go. So, we filled up two 1-gallon water jugs and let our host-mother know what was going on, and where we were going. It was also the first that she heard of the news. As we walked along the beach toward the hill, we told all the kids who were still out playing that they should go home to their parents. We got all our stuff up to the top of the hill and synchronized our watches (not really, ha ... uh, but only because they were already in sync. paranoid, remember?). Once we got everything settled at our higher-ground spot, Nick went back down to Bethania (we knew we had plenty of time) to help the principal get all the girls ready and load the van with clean drinking water and a suitcase for each girl. He came back dripping with sweat, his clothes were soaked through. (Plenty hard works.) But he was back safely.

Nick found a place to get reception on the shortwave radio. We chatted with the other teachers and staff, the students posed for a million pictures with us ... until dark. Then everyone got a straw mat and lay down to wait for the all clear. But the photos continued! I'm sure I have retinal damage from the flashes in the dark. The girls sang songs and played guitar and ukulele. It was very kumbayah. Overall, it felt like a tornado warning to me ... games, singing, chatting with neighbors that you don't normally, etc. etc. But it was much more pleasant because you're not in a dark basement underground, you're on top of a beautiful mountain under the palm trees and stars with a cool breeze, sitting next to an ancient stone path knowing that hundreds of people have done this before you, for centuries.

We heard over the shortwave radio that the warnings were extended for Guam, so we knew we were going to be there a loooooooong time. And then we ran out of English broadcasts. So we had to wait for the governor to come up and tell us when it was safe to go back home. Nick and I weren't thrilled with that plan because we weren't entirely sure he would remember to tell us. Luckily, the principal had his cell phone with him and was getting reception, so he was calling the weather center repeatedly for all the latest info.

Then at about 2am it started raining. We made a mad dash to get all the electronics into one of the dry bags and we pack up all our things so that when the “all clear” came, we would be ready to move out. It stopped raining. So we rested on our mat again. And then it started raining again. At that point, the principal called the weather service and said, (I’m paraphrasing) "Listen, I'm not dealing with 70 whining wet teenage girls and all of their soaked belongings, if you're just playing it extra safe right now." So they said it was fine for us to go back home and they took down his contact numbers. They told him there were eight large rogue waves that they were monitoring but said that at that point they looked like they were subsiding, but if anything changed they would contact him.

When we got back here to Bethania we dropped our stuff in the living room and I dug through my backpack for my keys. Nick yelled at me to not unpack our stuff yet. I said, Silly goose ... I’m getting my keys to the computer lab. I’m going to let our mothers know what's going on. I was just imagining our mothers waking up, turning on the news and then having a panic attack. (They confirmed later that this is exactly what happened.) And what’s worse was that there was no way for us to let them know what was going on. So, we just had to trust that the Peace Corps would have info on the website or the emergency numbers and leave it at that. I think I was far more worried about our friends and family worrying, than I was worried for us. So the minute we got back I came straight over here as fast as I could and beat all the other teachers to the computer.

But ... no dial tone.

grrrrrrr!

I checked the phone lines and they were fine. So that meant that in her haste to leave, the computer teacher left her computer signed online in the computer lab next door ... which was locked. We stood on the office furniture to double-check the wiring (that hangs from the ceiling) to make sure it wasn't fixable from within the teacher's computer room, but it wasn't. So we recruited one of the girls to come into the teacher's computer room. On the wall that separates the two rooms, there's a foot and a half of space at the top of the wall, between the wall and the ceiling. So she climbed a bookshelf, boosted by the teachers, and slipped over the top of the wall into the computer lab next door. She signed off the computer and freed the internet.

Success!!!

After I sent our mothers a “we’re safe!” e-mail and went back home, we both felt SO much better. We collapsed in bed, wearing our clothes (still paranoid), and slept until 10am. I'm SO glad that we didn't have to get up again in the middle of the night. One evacuation was plenty for the day.

Special thanks to friends and family who gifted us ...

The shortwave radio.

The water purifying kit.

The headlamp.

And also for the hammock (which we now realize should be added to our emergency kit).

That was our adventure.

We're glad it's over. We're sorry that it worried our friends and family so much. We're happy that it was as uneventful as it was. On the bright side, it was a lovely evening listening to the girls played guitar and ukulele and sing songs. And the little kids thought it was party time – all fun and games. So, all-in-all we had a half-pleasant half of a night half-sleeping under the stars on half of a woven mat.

And today ... we're on to the next chapter.

What awaits?

Both Bethania and Ngaraard Elementary participated in the STEM Fair. That’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics … STEM. The displays looked GREAT at the fair, but it was a little bit hard to tell how much of the “STEM” they actually understood. Knowing their English abilities very well, we’re guessing that most of the material was copied and pasted. Plus, they had a pretty hard time answering the judges’ questions. Now that we’ve watched one of these STEM fairs happen, maybe next year we can be a little more helpful, so the students get more out of it. Particularly at Bethania -- an all girls school -- we're really looking forward to next year's STEM fair, where we can help girls heart science more.

Getting ready!!!

Making a DNA model.

A "Tech" display by one of my top students: "How to troubleshoot personal computer?"

A "Math" display, explaining how to win the "Tower of Hanoi" math game.

The sophomores participate with by creating a model of a human lung.

The juniors participate by growing stalactites and stalagmites.

Sarah (from Korea) and Morisong (from Palau) -- such cuties!!!

This month, Bethania thew it's annual “Senior Banquet.” The junior class fund raises all year long to throw this fancy-schmancy party for their senior sisters. This year’s theme was “Live in the Fab Lane.” (No, that's not a grammatical error, they really did mean "live." Yes, it's a command.) They hosted the event at Papago International Resort and flooded the place with their pink and black color scheme. The girls ordered evening gowns and cocktail dresses and got their hur did. They invited a guest speaker, the class presidents made speeches, we ate a tasty meal and then the students provided “entertainment.” (We took video, and we’ll go into more detail on that in another post.) It was a really nice party and one of the girls said, “If it weren’t for Bethania, I never would have dressed in fancy clothes like this.” She was obviously uncomfortable in her formal dress, but it was sweet. She was really grateful for the opportunity to experience a (westernized) formal affair in a comfortable setting. And it's easy to see that they had a LOT of fun.

The stage is set ...

For your grand entrance to the party.

Creative table settings: champagne glasses with stickers and fresh flowers, pink water noodles with paper-napkin roses, and pink washcloth napkins/party-favors/placecard-holders.

A gorgeous sashimi platter, by the Papago chefs.

Nick got dragged along in a matching outfit, but he's smiling anyway.

Our Bethania family ...

Our host-sister and host-mother.

Mr. Lamb (Peace Corps M-1) and Ingrid (Peace Corps M-77)

Celar, Bethania's favorite toddler.

Nick teaches Raichi to tie his first necktie.

Our Papuan neighbors, the Taniyaolas.

The girls arrive ...

My Chinese students. (I adore these girls!)

Olek! Mr. Lamb with a lady on each arm.

A few senior girls. (From Yap and Marshalls.)

Let the banquet begin ...

The pretty in pink program.

Singing.

Lip syncing.

Traditional dancing.

The awarding of the "Miss Fabulous" title.

A candlelight tribute to the graduating seniors.

Nick had end-of-the-year assessment tests. He (and the other volunteers) found eight errors in the English section of the eighth grade test alone. So, not only did the assessments not assess any of the curriculum frameworks, it wasn’t even a fair test for the students. And did I mention that the test is calculated into their grades? This happens in every test cycle in Palau, so I don’t think anyone (teachers, students, volunteers, or ministry of education staff) was shocked.

Such is life in at elementary school in Palau.

(Shrug.)

My students competed in the high school Spelling Bee. The girls did a great job and one of the freshmen was in it until the very last round. At one point, I had to intervene and challenge the judges. After a REALLY tough round of spelling, all the students in the competition were eliminated on words like “jingoism” and “mitochondria.” Then, the last student to compete, the reigning champion, went to the podium and was given the word “dangle.” There was an audible gasp. As a coach, I had the right to challenge the judges and I did. The judges decided to have a do-over and after a few more rounds of spelling the reigning champion won fair in square. In the end, it was both excellent spelling practice and a good life-lesson on standing up for what is fair, even if it doesn't benefit your own team.

The spelling bee participants. (My girls in green skirts.)

A Palau High School student, 3rd place winner.

A Bethania freshman who just barely missed her chance to join the winner's circle.

Spelling bee champs and coaches.

Nick's elementary school Spelling Bee was really great! His kids performed well, but didn’t get ranked in the competition. We thought it was going to be a pretty boring competition and weren’t really looking forward to it. But it was really, really fun and the kids loved it. They held the competition at one of the fancy hotels in an air-conditioned conference room. There were microphones and podiums and a judges’ table and everything. It was a great experience for the kids.

Rob’s student from the outer island of Angaur won, and Rob got to take him to Guam to compete in the U.S. Spelling Bee. It's so exciting for the kids that don't even get to leave their islands on a boat very often, to come into Koror for the competition. But then to win and get to leave the country on an airplane!?! That's awesome. Everyone was happy for Tsun. (Especially Rob.)

Bethania had a “Sports Day” where Ingrid got a spectacularly bad sunburn. But the girls had great fun playing games, or “sports” if you will, at the all-boys school. There were classic competitions like a three-legged race, relay races, musical chairs, bobbing for apples and there were some other fun activities like a water balloon toss and a karaoke contest. We have some good video to upload … as soon as that’s possible. (sigh)

This quarter Nick helped out with “Awareness Week” at Ngaraard elementary school. It's a full week of no classes. The kids LOVE it, of course. The faculty tries to plan a bunch of activities to do some hands-on experiential learning. The general idea is to send them away with some common sense "awareness" knowledge, a global perspective and/or an enhanced understanding of Palauan culture. The Ngaraard students went on a couple field trips, got to eat some delicious food, and learned a few multi-cultural lessons.

Getting parents involved at lunchtime.

A field trip to the ancient stone monoliths.

And a hike up the mountain, for a little exercise. (You can see the monoliths at the bottom of the photo.)

This semester I have discovered a fascinating field of interest: linguistics.

My wonderful mother found a 3-CD set called “How to Improve Your American English Accent.” It’s perfect for my teaching needs here in Palau. It walks through English pronunciation in baby steps. I honestly had NO idea how complicated American English pronunciation actually is, until I listened to these CD's. Kudos to all you English as a second language speakers. God bless you for even trying.

Did you know ... that American English DOES have a frequent glottal stop? I did NOT. Here are some examples:

Button = bu’n

Cotton = co’n

Clinton = cli’n

Kitten = ki’n

Assortment = assor’ment

Report = repor’

Light = ligh’

Did you know ... that we draw out the vowels on words that end in voiced consonants, but NOT in words that end in voiceless consonants? It’s not a LOT of extra time that we hold the vowel, but we do. Consider these words:

Tug = tuuuuug

Tuck = tuck

Frog = froooooog

Frock = frock

Did you know ... that we emphasize the last letter of acronyms? I never thought about that before, but it’s true. It doesn’t even matter how many letters there are.

V.P.

V.I.P.

R.S.V.P.

U.S.

U.S.A.

U.S.D.A.

Did you know ... that we have an “r flip” sound that’s different from our “r” sound and doesn’t even sound like an “r” to us native speakers? It’s like the “t” in the word “photo.” Go on, say it out loud. You'll hear it. Doesn't sound like an "r" at all, does it? Technically (that is to say, "linguistically") it is. We use this sound all the time. It's almost like making an "r" shape in your mouth, but you very lightly and quickly touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth, with a little "flip." Say these sentences out loud and think about how hard it would be to say it if you couldn’t make that motion with your tongue:

We needed a hand.

Did I tell you?

Could I have an allotted photo?

We’ve only made it to the second CD in the set, and I’m fascinated. I knew English was hard, but …… English is really, REALLY hard!

Since M-77 Palau was in Koror for training, many of the other Palau PCVs decided to come in and hang out for the weekend. This gives me a perfect opportunity to introduce you to their quirky and unique personalities.

The cast of characters expands to include …

Katlin (Kebik) aka Party Girl – She’s an M-75 from Delaware that extended her service to remain on the beautiful island of Peleliu. Of all the volunteers, she is probably the most integrated into her community. She’s the only one of us who wears a REAL Palauan money bead. She gained her nickname from a face she likes to make when she’s confused or surprised. We call it her party girl face. She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and she’ll be ending her service soon to go home and try her hand at comedy. The world needs more laughter and we wish her the best.

Christa (Bosch) aka Creepsta – Outer-island social interaction or lack thereof makes her hungry for human interaction. When she arrives, we’re all ready for her signature move “the creepsta cuddle.” Her Palauan name is one vowel away from the Palauan word for pubes, so we refrain from even trying to say it. Her island, Kaneyngel is the smallest and widely considered the most beautiful. She has 10 kids at her school. And she loves it there. She will leave Peace Corps with impressive skills in pandanus weaving. When she finishes her service this year she’ll be heading home to Connecticut to marry the man of her dreams.

Rob (Ngelechel) aka Robeldoab – He’s an outer-island volunteer in Angaur. He describes to us how tough this is by mentioning that sometimes the store on his island runs out of peanut M&M's. He coached Palau’s elementary school spelling bee winner to victory and accompanied him to Guam to compete in the U.S. National Spelling Bee. He’s done a lot of work to update and maintain his school library. He’s very generous and thoughtful and kind and we all return the favor by telling him he dresses poorly. When he returns home he’ll be headed to business school, where we can only assume he will impress upon his fellow students the importance of keeping peanut M&M's in stock.

Matt (Yars) aka Sunshine – Matt is the handsome devil who lives in Meyuns, just outside of Koror. He’s done a lot of health and fitness projects during his time in Palau. He can often be found on the track, working with his rowing team, and competing in sports events on the weekend. When he’s not gracing the local papers with photos of his athletic successes, he’s creating his own line of hand-made clothing. He really enjoys being an educator (and the academic calendar that goes along with it) and will further pursue his education in Arizona.

Lauren (Surech) aka Ping-Ping Wah-Yeng – The only other M-76 volunteer who lives in Babeldoab with us. We stayed in her community during training. Laruen is known for her excellent persuasive skills. Ping-ping is the sound her long, luscious eyelashes make when she puts men in trances so they will not refuse her requests. Wah-Yeng is what her nieces call her. We combined these attributes to create “Ping-Ping Wah-Yeng.” Lauren created an impressive world map mural in her school cafeteria that made it on our commemorative Peace Corps postage stamp. She’s completed a lot of school improvement projects and has a really special bond with the kids at her school. She’ll be off to graduate school when she leaves Honeymoon Beach.

We’re staying!

Our Program Assistant told us at the end of our first training session that word came through and we can stay at Bethania. Hooray! No more moving!!!

So it’s April now, which means that we’ve been in Peace Corps Volunteers for 6 months and we’ve been out of the U.S. for 8 months. That’s a looooooong time to go without your normal creature comforts.

The most exciting part of IST was that we got hotel rooms. It’s like a Survivor reality show, where their grand award is a day at the spa or a night in a resort. I threw my suitcase down on the bed and literally ran to the hot shower. Nick practically dove for the air conditioner remote control. When I emerged from the shower I was a little bit dazed and possibly over-heated. I had to stand in front of the air conditioner for a little while. Nick went in for his hot shower and shave and I went straight for MTV. Which is weird. I don’t even watch MTV in America. But I think the constant stream of Christian music is starting to mess with my brain. I need a little something on the other side to counter-balance my sanity.

When we got down to the conference room for our first technical training session, our trainer said, “Wow, you guys look so rested and refreshed.” Ummmmm, duh. We haven’t had hot showers, been clean for more than 10 minutes before we start sweating profusely, or watched television for MONTHS, let alone slept in bona fide "beds."

The training itself was, as expected, practically useless. And, as expected, a complete logistical disaster. We all showed up for the scheduled first session only to find out that the night before Pohnpei changed the start time to an hour later than we were originally told. Awesome. Then, they tried to make us do a training session that we already did during Pre-Service Training. And the one session that they asked us to come prepared for with 20 minute individual presentations, they didn’t even include on the schedule. WOW! That’s organization. Standing ovation, Peace Corps. Standing ovation.

So we all doodled in our notebooks, figured out the hotel’s wireless password so we could chat on Facebook, and daydreamed about which restaurant we should go to for lunch or dinner, as the case might be.

We REALLY needed the break. And we really needed the chance to talk about our challenges – inside and outside the classroom. I think we were all burning out and getting frustrated. Some of us were on the slow up-hill climb from the deep, dark pit of culture shock, and some people were still sinking into the abyss. It was good for us to have time to come together and share.

I just wish that the Peace-Corps-provided sessions we had would've matched up to those needs.

It’s permanent. It’s temporary. It’s permanent. It’s temporary.

We have no idea what’s happening. There are a lot of people that get a say in where we live, but it seems like we aren’t really two of those people. So as heavenly as it is to live at Bethania (pun intended), we’re having a hard time enjoying our new digs. We can’t really settle in until we know what’s what. Should I spend my precious few dollars on a mop? A gas burner? Or will I have to leave that all behind to move into someone else’s house next week? I guess we’ll just have to wait for government employees who live thousands of miles away (and have never been here) to make decisions about our day-to-day life. Yay!

[BEGIN "REAL TIME" REFLECTION]

I do have a couple thoughts to share on this big change. (I don’t want to speak for Nick, so I’m just sharing my own views on what happened over the past few weeks.)

It’s hard to separate out, in my mind, what was “culture shock” and what was just flat-out inappropriate about these 3 months. I didn’t even realize how bad our situation was until I left it. At one point I was fantasizing about the produce section in a specialty grocery store (see previous post), and then only a few weeks later I was longing for clean water that wouldn’t make me “homesick.” The way you might dream about a chocolate fudge sundae, I was dreaming about water. I’m not sure how things deteriorated so fast from … oh, I wish I had a blackberry … to … I wish I had life-sustaining water and was eating more than 500 calories per day. But it happened like that. And I harbor no ill-will about it, either. It was no one’s fault, it was purely circumstantial.

Looking back, I realize that I have a MUCH high tolerance for adversity than I ever imagined. I think that’s half good and half bad. The positive lesson I learned from that, is that I now know I can bear a lot more than I give myself credit for. The negative lesson is that I now know that I do NOT really know when to draw the line, for my own sanity. I put up with way too much before I called it off.

I think most Peace Corps Volunteers know they’ve signed up for hardship – and they expect it to work out like that – but when things go south, it’s really hard to know when you’re bucking up and handling a hardship and when shit has gone crazy. I feel like I could recognize the difference in my OWN culture, but in someone else’s culture, and when I already agreed to handle outstanding difficulties, I really don’t know where that line is. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say … I didn’t know, but I’m learning. Future Peace Corps volunteers and trainees, take note: You have to be smart about this, and it is very, very difficult to know when you’re just REALLY frustrated and when you’re actually ignoring your better judgment.

[END "REAL TIME" REFLECTION]

Also I want to give credit, where credit is due. When we raised our white flag and said, “That’s it. Can not. Game over.” We had the help that we needed from our community to find new accommodations and get out of our situation. That was very, very reassuring. We’re very grateful to the people in our community and at Bethania for making that happen as quickly as it did. (Peace Corps Palau’s response might be a different story, but … that’s a whole separate chapter.)

And now, we’re in limbo. Waiting to find out if we go, or if we stay.

Let the bureaucracy begin!

We’ve moved.

It’s kind of a long story and I don’t want to make anyone sound like a liar so I’ll just refrain from telling it.

Let me sum it up with a simple mathematical equation:

negativity from culture shock + negative living situation = negative attitude

The end result is that we moved to faculty housing on the Bethania campus and our new host-mother is one of my co-teachers. She has been our host-mother since the first day we arrived, so basically this just makes it official. She greeted us with mar-mars, leis and new clothes at our swearing-in ceremony. She took pictures of our first meeting and had them printed and gave me copies. When we got to campus and she gave us a tour, she told me right away that she will give me a Palauan hot bath if I want one – even if I’m in the United States and I want to come back for it. (How sweet!)

Anyway, it’s a big relief to be on campus. We’re much closer to school (both of us). We don’t have to get a van ride every morning, we can leave for school when we’re ready. It’s much easier to work here, since we have desks and tables and bookshelves (for books, not clothes). We don’t have to use a mosquito net here because there are screens on the windows, which effectively makes our usable living space expand from 10’ x 5’ to 40’ x 40’. And the locks on our doors are much sturdier than the ones in our old room. Also, we are in charge of our own water sanitation, which is much more reliable, and our own food, which makes our meals much more regular.

Overall, this is an excellent move for us.

Since we don’t have a lot to do yet, and since mosquitoes love white meat we spend a LOT of time sitting under a mosquito net reading. Also, they recommend reading as a healthy way to deal with culture shock. So. We’re reading a lot. Here’s our reading list so far. Keep in mind we’ve only been here for 4 months.

Nick

Selected Travels of Paul Theroux, by Paul Theroux

Getting Stoned with Savages, J. Maarten Troost

The Razor’s Edge, by Somerset Maugham

The Brothers Karamazov (the first half), by Dostoyevsky

Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry

The Great Railway Bazaar, by Paul Theroux

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

“A River Runs Through It”, by Norman Maclean

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

The Godfather, by Puzo

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Ingrid

Getting Stoned with Savages, J. Maarten Troost

Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane

The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson

“Beware of the Dog,” Roald Dahl

My Life, by Helen Keller

Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners, by Hill and Flynn

Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Large, Multi-level Classes, by Peace Corps

Excerpts from:

Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, by Herrell and Jordan

Literacy Work Stations, by Debbie Diller

Strategies That Work, by Harvey and Goudvis

So, we’re still not in the clear yet. Culture shock is intense. But I also felt like some people might want to hear about what that’s really like. Since we really shouldn’t be allowed to talk about Palau right now, I’ll limit this post to a laundry list of what we are DYING for right now.

Nick’s List:

Medium rare steak

Bacon and eggs

Dairy products

Restaurants

Walking the streets of Philly

Philly

Sports

All-beef hot dogs

Dollar dog nights at Citizens Bank Park

The Phillies

Good beer

Fall

Winter

Spring

Dad

Mom

Professor Schrodinger (our cat0

My car

Driving

Being able to drive somewhere whenever I want

Road trips

The Untied States of America

The Pacific NW

Olympia

Seattle

Cold rain

Youth

Freedom absolute

Innocence

Malvern, PA

The Philly burbs

Riding the Regional Rail

30th Street Station

Reading Terminal Market

Coffee with half and half

Espresso

Italian food

Olive oil

Real kitchens

Cooking

NPR

Good wine

Good liquor

Dry martinis

Margaritas

Citizens Bank Park

Mexican food

Cilantro

Cumin

Spices

Gardening

Vegetables

Whole Foods

Grocery shopping

Nice, cordial people

The Philadelphia skyline

Black people

Latino people

White people

Americans

Ingrid’s List:

Mexican food

Hot showers

Fall fashion

A cup of (real) decaf coffee

Sofas

High heels

WHYY

My cat

Whiskey on the rocks

Going to the movies

The subway / public transit in general

$5 martini happy hour

Blackberry (don’t judge)

Leather

All-Clad pots and pans

Weather-sealed windows

Taking clean toilets for granted

The REAL internet

Grocery shopping – mostly the produce aisle

Seasons

Cheese and yogurt

The gym

My daily walk through Williams Sonoma

A fireplace

A dishwasher

Rittenhouse Square

My run down the parkway

Balsamic vinegar!!!

Italian food in general

Our local

My lunch group

Hulu

The news

Text messages

Picture messages, more so

“following” Rick Bayless on twitter

Gilt Group daily emails

The Daily Show

Day trips to NYC

Being good at my job

Dental cleaning

Kleenex and people who use them

Food with FLAVOR

Ice cream

My wedding ring

Toenail polish

Privacy

Independence

Traffic laws

Socializing with peers

Knowing what’s clean and what’s not clean in your house

A window on Walnut Street

Walking home through Love Park

Driving on Kelly Drive

BRUNCH!

Mimosas and a manicure at Nail Bar

Window shopping on Walnut

Fixed pets

Eating outside

Hospitality

Shaking hands and introductions

Wit

I give you my love, more precious than money.I give you myself before preaching or law.Give me yourself.Come, travel with me.Let us stick by each other as long as we live.

-- adapted from Song of the Open Road, by Walt Whitman

I like to call this the “He’s still your uncle” quandary.

So he likes to harass women / pick fights with men half his size / steal buu from the neighbors / impregnate girls / strip auto parts off parked cars / smoke weed at the elementary school …. He’s still your uncle.

Whatever the allegation, misdemeanor, felony, criminal activity, you still have to take care of him. Is this safe? Is this fair? Is it better to incarcerate at will and fill prison cells to capacity? Is it better to leave rehabilitation and re-entrance into society to a government program? Or is it better to lean on the loving families of these ne’er-do-wells to help them cope and integrate since, in the end they WILL benefit if the transition is a smooth one?

But is there a line to be drawn? How can you risk the health/safety of your children or sisters with a sex offender living in your home? But your culture dictates it. And once they come home ... how will you prevent other women/children from suffering? How do you get along with your neighbors when they always have missing property? How do you stay in good standing with the community if there are fights breaking out or questionable behavior in public?

But …….. who gonna love you if yo’ mamma don’t love you?

I don’t have answers. I don’t expect anyone else to.

My main point is … we all gots prolems. And we all have our own ways – and they’re based on the truest, purest intentions. But we’re all flawed. There’s always exceptions, extenuating circumstances and flat-out mistakes. Sometimes our intentions don’t set up good expectation or exacerbate existing problems. My way, your way, their way, our way ... nothing is perfect.

Living in a completely different culture (veiled in western clothing and language) brings to light a lot of these rhetorical questions. These are just the ones bouncing around in my brain right now.

If you lived on a sweltering hot island where moving as much as a pinky means you will sweat through a t-shirt, and where A/C (“air con”, as they say in Palau) is a rarity … I would venture to guess that your work ethic might change from what it is now, where you live. (Think about how hard it is to get anything done in August, then subtract air conditioning.)

Now, consider those people who already are prone to unemployment, perhaps based on personality or maybe just circumstances – lack of drive, lack of education, low self-esteem, traumatic childhood, ADHD suffers, those with excuses for everything, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, and many people with just plain old extenuating circumstances. These folks live in every culture around the globe.

So, if your culture dictates that your family will provide for you – whether you return the favor on not – does that motivate you to get a job? I mean, I suppose this is a classic capitalism/socialism question, just on a micro-level. Why try? Why study in school? Or … on the other hand … why be so foolish to get a job in Koror so you must spend DOLLARS on a car, gas, imported groceries that make you fat and sick, and waste your life in an office when you could spearfish and have your wife/mother/auntie/sister bring home taro? Everyone is fed and healthy. Maybe its less capitalism vs socialism and more about subsistence living vs. ambition?

Let’s say you’re a teenage girl. You know your parents will take care of you no matter what happens (Contrast that to the familiar American phrase: “I was kicked out when I was 16.”) and your oh-so-cute boyfriend is pressuring you to have sex. To make things realistic, let’s also point out that real marriage is acknowledged after the birth of the first child, and that means a HUGE party in your honor. And also, your mom will raise the child. So once you finish breastfeeding the tiny squishy adorable little doll, you can resume your own life however you wish. Now, that paints an unfair portrait ofr most women in Palau, but the idea here is to consider TEEN pregnancy, so I’m using my words to show a sort of "worst-case scenario" of the consequences a teen would (or wouldn’t) face in the event she followed her boyfriend’s lead and had a tumble in the jungle.

So, what IS the worst-case scenario?

You get pregnant, have a party, you’re now a woman, with a husband and you can visit the baby on weekends if you really want to. What are your parents going to do? Shame on you, now I have so much more work to do. Let’s have a party to celebrate. Who receives the consequences? Could you argue that the parents should be guiding the girl through good and bad choices, therefore they ought to face somewhat equal consequences? What if the parents in question aren’t present because the teen herself is being raised by her grandmother – who clearly didn’t get the message across to her child? Or maybe this is her 2nd chance and she’s more likely to emphasize that lesson in this go-round? Or maybe she’s ready to give her own daughter a taste of her own medicine?

Or maybe the Palauans are onto something – I keep hearing new grandparents say, “If I had known how much fun grandkids are, I would’ve skipped having kids and gone straight to grandkids.” I think that summarizes this cycle pretty well. But what if the result isn’t pregnancy? How does that change when the problem becomes HIV/AIDS? What’s the motivation for abstinence? Or is there any?

If a man has an addiction and his family is tied by custom to caring for him – even as he steals, cheats, ruins family events, embarrasses other family members, destroys property, puts himself in danger, lands in jail now and then, etc – what is the individual’s motivation for changing their behavior? Are they really supposed to have the reciprocal feelings – to love their family enough to give up their addition, contrary to all modern behavioral thought?* Is this a singular exception that should be made to the cultural ideal? “Care for your family no matter what … unless you’re dealing with an addict.” (That sounds more culturally familiar, to me.) But if that exception were made, how would it change the homeless rate? How would it change the streets of Koror?

*Anyone who has seen more than 2 episodes of A&E “Intervention” knows that this is contrary to our Western approach to addiction.

Certain aspects of a collectivist culture are very appealing to me; others, however, raise questions in my mind. When these collectivist cultural ideals play out, do the results support the theory? If we, collectively, care for and show our love through food, clothing, shelter, and assistance no matter what – through anything and through any obstacles – I’m wondering … Is unconditional love a blessing? Or a curse? Or both?

Palauan families take care of their own. It’s a trait I greatly admire. In this culture, it is a matter of love, pride and virtue. Palauans will often tell you there are no homeless in Palau because people who need homes can always live with their family. You can also see this virtue when you look at adoption rates. There are very few foreign adoptions because Palauan children-in-need are cared for by relatives. How much more loving would our own society be, if we could say the same? Welcome to America, we have little to no homelessness, and you will have trouble finding a child in need of parents. That would be amazing!

The theory, as I imagine it, grew out of great intentions.

“We love our family. We will do anything necessary to care for them. If they are down-and-out it doesn’t reflect as poorly on them as it does on us for just watching while they suffer. Out of love, we do whatever we must do to take care of our family.”

But how would such a philosophy play out in reality?

Let me propose four hypothetical scenarios ...

Here is a random assortment of my favorite Honto tidbits.

#1 – One of the cars that belong to our extended family stopped working one morning. Our host-father, host-brother and host-farmhand (?) popped the hood to diagnose the problem and discovered it right away, since the “carburetor” was missing. That obviously doesn’t make any sense, so I’m not sure what car part was stolen and then mistranslated to “carburetor”, but from the tone, inflection and body language I’m guessing it was something big and obvious.

#2 – While one of the boys was chilling out reading a book (Reading! Yay! A 2nd grader was reading!) one of the adults came along and snuck up on him and surprised him by grabbing his pecker.

#3 – You go to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but discover that someone has stolen the light bulb from the bathroom to use in their bedroom. (That’s country ya’ll. That. Is. Country.)

#4 – You accidentally walk in on a neighbor (who has a newborn) while she is making out with a Filipino farmhand while another Filipino farmhand watches.

#5 – Two Filipina domestic helpers (D.H.'s) were fighting at breakfast. When asked what the trouble was, their employer said that one of them usually gives the grandfather of the family his daily bath, which includes a little something special at the end for him. (How thoughtful!) And that morning the other girl did the job for her, and she was quite upset that she didn't get to do the job herself.



There is never a dull day. Never. A. Dull. Day.