Mortlocks Trip

So yesterday (Friday Aug. 7) I arrived Weno with 3 other PCVs after a 2 week long trip to Chuuk's Mortlock islands. We took a ship there and back, a different one each time. Being on the ship was quite an experience. It took us 27 hours to get back to Weno. The ship we were on was jammed packed with people. We stayed on the deck at the front of the boat. We were covered by a tarp and mostly women and children slept there on hand woven mats everyone sleeps on here (I tried to buy one in the Mortlocks but it was too expensive). We slept on the spit for 3 days because we arrived 2 days before it left (thought it was going to leave sooner than it did). I didn't sleep very well since I had to change positions every few seconds to dodge body parts on the hard wooden floor of the ship's deck. I spent the time on the ship reading Hiroshima and A Wrinkle in Time and played hearts with a deck of cards a fellow PCV made from notebook paper.

My trip to the Mortlocks was so fun. It probably was the cheapest vacation I've been to. I left Weno for the Mortlocks on Wednesday July 22 with 2 fellow lagoon PCVs and our boss. We arrived there on Thursday July 23. Our main purpose was to visit prospective sites for the incoming PCVs but we also visited our friend who served as a volunteer on Satowan, a Mortlock island. We came just in time because he was preparing to leave that site and transfer to another one on the island of Moch, another Mortlock island. We did three site visits while we were there. We visited prospective host families and counterparts from the schools. One prospective host family made of feast for us, including mangrove crabs and lobster (the food in the Mortlocks was probably the healthiest I've eaten since I've been in the FSM because it's practically all local). We saw all of the current PCVs sites in the Morlocks and stayed with 3 of their families.

Most of the trip we stayed on Satowan with our friend who served there. We slept in his own local house made out of mangrove wood and leaves patched together to form a roof. The people who took care of us were our age and were great. They hung out with us and served us food every meal. The food was great. We eat fish at every meal with plenty of breadfruit, banana, rice and taro. Every morning they made us pancakes from scratch for breakfast. They always had hot water for us so we could make our own instant coffee anytime we wanted. In our free time we played card games such as hearts, monkey and spades. We went swimming and took walks around Satowan. One day we walked to Ta island on the reef from Satowan. It took us 3 hours to get there. We stayed our fellow PCV's house. On our way there, we were invited to attend a post wedding ceremony. The bride was one of Alex's (PCV on Satowan) high school students. We drank coffee and eat a ton of delicious food. We also played duck duck goose with some of the kids there. It was neat playing with them with their parents watching. Everyone enjoyed themselves including me.

I got back to Fefen on Saturday August 8. It was good to see my family and friends in my community again. I checked out my garden and it looks like all of my plants are still alive, especially my green beans. I can't wait to eat them. Tomorrow I have to report back to school. School starts in September and I can't wait. I learned a lot about teaching last school year and I am ready to try some new activities and teaching methods with my students. I found out that my principal went to Pohnpei to finish her degree while I was gone so my counterpart will be the acting principal while she is gone. All of my projects are on hold at the moment. I am working to develop a training program for the drop out students in my community with the help of my uncle who is the vocational education specialist for the Chuuk Department of Education. I would like to start an adult English class soon but first I have to make a sign up sheet for it.

I think that's it for now. Take care all and keep in touch.