Today is my birthday. I am now 26 years-old. I can't believe I was 24 when I started my Peace Corps tour. For my birthday, I went diving at Blue Lagoon Resort on Chuuk's capital island. They wouldn't let me dive in the morning because the dive was 150 feet and I'm a beginning diver (I only dove once in St. Thomas since I received my dive certification). I had to wait until 1 p.m. to dive but it was worth it. I went diving with 2 couples who had much more diving experience than I. One of the couples were from Australia and had just arrived in Chuuk from Yap (one of FSM's four states). For those of you who don't know, Chuuk lagoon is known for having the best shipwreck diving in the world because of the many WWII ships that are scattered on the bottom of the sea. My first dive was at the sight of a 500 foot ship. It was quite a site. The surface of the ship was covered with colorful coral and was a home for many ship and other marine life. I mainly followed my dive guide the whole time. I dove in part of the ship but I swam along the outside for the most part. On the side of the ship I saw it's name in English and Japanese which I forgot. Some neat artifacts I saw were some china plates and cups and what appeared to be an old wine or whiskey bottle. My dive guide picked up an object and then put it up to his hear so I knew it was a phone. I dove 80 feet that dive and I blew my nose very hard when I got fairly deep instead of blowing it every 3 feet. Because of that my nose bled a lot. However, that didn't stop me from doing our next dive. Between our first and second dives, we scuba dived above a submarine called Suzuki. Our second dive was only 60 feet at the sight of a sunken plan called Betty Bomber. I was the cockpit and got to swim in and out one of the windows. As I was observing the propeller 20 feet away, the dive guide pointed out 4 dolphins that swam above us. It was amazing. I had seen wild dolphins before but never while I was swimming or diving. It was a first for the other divers and guide as well. That sight will be with me for a long time. I went up a little bit earlier than the others because my guide saw blood in my mask from my nose. I was just glad that I got to see those dolphins. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera with me. That would have been a great shot.
On to my projects now. I have a plan to write a grant proposal for a water tank next to the Catholic church that is being built in my village. The idea was given to me by the supervisor of the school where I teach. He said not only would it serve the church goers every Sunday, but it could also serve 5 families and visitors to Fefen who don't have access to water buy connecting plastic water pipes from the tank to the dock. I am working with a man who was a former city planner who agreed to sketch the tank design for me. I want to meet with him before I return to school to try to figure out the budget other information needed for the proposal. I hope to get funding through Peace Corps Partnership Program which pairs up American donors with my host country community. My community needs to donate at least 25% of the total project cost but the rest can come from friends, family and individuals and organizations in the private sector. I would like to know how many of you would be willing to donate money to this important project. My if accepted by Peace Corps, it would be published on Peace Corp's website and will allow donors to donate online by submitting online checks. If you think this is a worthy cause and you would like to help me and my community to help make our water tank project a reality, please email me at bbgruver@gmail.com. Please tell anyone you can about this project and the fact that my community is 100% behind it and all donations and tax deductible. Donors can be assured that every cent of their donation will go towards my project. I have to start writing the proposal now so my community can start building the tank at the beginning of the summer.
Well, I think I will do it for me. I appreciate the birthday wishes from some of you and your love and support as I go into my second and final year of service. I know I wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for all of your thoughts, prayers, love and encouragement. I have been thankful that I haven't had any serious illnesses or injurious, except for a swollen ankle that I have right now that I got from running. Happy New Year and I hope to see some of you when I come hope for a vacation in August 2010.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Happy Holidays from Chuuk
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and that it's not too cold where you are, especially on the East Coast. I know it's been a while since I've updated this blog so that's why I'm doing it now.
My Christmas here was very special, mainly because I got to spend it with my real mom who decided to spend the holidays with me here in Chuuk. When she arrived on Christmas Eve, we went straight to my island. We went to Catholic mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Her favorite part was the children singing Christmas carols in Chuukese. We spent the rest of Christmas day with my host family. My baby sister got real hot during church so my host mom had to go back home early. My mom, being the health professional that she is, was concerned and advised my host mom to take her temperature which was 39.1 C. She massaged the infant's body with coconut oil which cooled her skin. My host mom gave her infant daughter some coconut water to drink and nursed her until she was rehydrated. She was back to normal the next morning.
That wasn't the only thing my mom did to make a difference. She happened to bring many different reading glasses of various strengths. Everyone on my island thought my host grandmother was blind because she's not able to read but she can still see well enough to get around. Anyways, my mom had her try on all the glasses she brought. She tried on one pair (size 2) that she was able to read small print with. The next thing I knew, she was reading the Bible out loud in Chuukese. Wow! All she needed were a pair of reading glasses. What a remarkable discovery. So that solved that problem.
It has been a little over a year since I arrived in Chuuk and a lot has happened. I feel that I have changed for the better. I learned that I have resilience, having bounced back from some tough situations. I have surprised myself by the high level of competency I have in speaking the Chuukese language. I feel that I am fluent and am able to have a decent conversation with just about anyone. I am being able to predict how people will react to certain things I do and say that us Americans easily take for granted. In other words before I didn't know enough of the language and culture in order to predict peoples' reactions to my actions and words. I also learned how well I can adapt to different situations easily and quickly. This journey has not been easy but I am glad that I took it on because I am growing and learning so much about the world around me and about life in general than I ever could in the States. I am so thankful that my mom came here to witness my life here since it will be easier for me to share my experience with her when I return back to the States.
Since I've been here, I've always thought teaching has been one of my biggest challenges. For one, I don't have a required counterpart since my principal from last year went back to school to finish her bachelor's degree. My counterpart from last year is the acting principal this year and has no time to really assist me in the classroom since he is either teaching himself or attending principal workshops/meetings. I find it difficult to stick with the curriculum because I either don't know how to teach the material effectively or because the standards are over the heads of my students. I try to teach them things I think they should know and then move up from there. Discipline is still a struggle and it's hard for me to be consistent, maybe because I sometimes don't follow through on the consequences of my students' behavior. Another thing I need to work on is speaking more English and less Chuukese in my classes. My principal tells me to only speak English but I think it is pretty impossible, especially with my 5th grade. I mix English and Chuukese. I want to find and make more activities that get them excited to speak English in class. If anyone has any suggestions, please email me or comment on the blog.
Well I have to go now because the woman at the front desk of the hotel I'm staying at is leaving. Tomorrow is my birthday and I plan on going diving, I will write another update tomorrow.
My Christmas here was very special, mainly because I got to spend it with my real mom who decided to spend the holidays with me here in Chuuk. When she arrived on Christmas Eve, we went straight to my island. We went to Catholic mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Her favorite part was the children singing Christmas carols in Chuukese. We spent the rest of Christmas day with my host family. My baby sister got real hot during church so my host mom had to go back home early. My mom, being the health professional that she is, was concerned and advised my host mom to take her temperature which was 39.1 C. She massaged the infant's body with coconut oil which cooled her skin. My host mom gave her infant daughter some coconut water to drink and nursed her until she was rehydrated. She was back to normal the next morning.
That wasn't the only thing my mom did to make a difference. She happened to bring many different reading glasses of various strengths. Everyone on my island thought my host grandmother was blind because she's not able to read but she can still see well enough to get around. Anyways, my mom had her try on all the glasses she brought. She tried on one pair (size 2) that she was able to read small print with. The next thing I knew, she was reading the Bible out loud in Chuukese. Wow! All she needed were a pair of reading glasses. What a remarkable discovery. So that solved that problem.
It has been a little over a year since I arrived in Chuuk and a lot has happened. I feel that I have changed for the better. I learned that I have resilience, having bounced back from some tough situations. I have surprised myself by the high level of competency I have in speaking the Chuukese language. I feel that I am fluent and am able to have a decent conversation with just about anyone. I am being able to predict how people will react to certain things I do and say that us Americans easily take for granted. In other words before I didn't know enough of the language and culture in order to predict peoples' reactions to my actions and words. I also learned how well I can adapt to different situations easily and quickly. This journey has not been easy but I am glad that I took it on because I am growing and learning so much about the world around me and about life in general than I ever could in the States. I am so thankful that my mom came here to witness my life here since it will be easier for me to share my experience with her when I return back to the States.
Since I've been here, I've always thought teaching has been one of my biggest challenges. For one, I don't have a required counterpart since my principal from last year went back to school to finish her bachelor's degree. My counterpart from last year is the acting principal this year and has no time to really assist me in the classroom since he is either teaching himself or attending principal workshops/meetings. I find it difficult to stick with the curriculum because I either don't know how to teach the material effectively or because the standards are over the heads of my students. I try to teach them things I think they should know and then move up from there. Discipline is still a struggle and it's hard for me to be consistent, maybe because I sometimes don't follow through on the consequences of my students' behavior. Another thing I need to work on is speaking more English and less Chuukese in my classes. My principal tells me to only speak English but I think it is pretty impossible, especially with my 5th grade. I mix English and Chuukese. I want to find and make more activities that get them excited to speak English in class. If anyone has any suggestions, please email me or comment on the blog.
Well I have to go now because the woman at the front desk of the hotel I'm staying at is leaving. Tomorrow is my birthday and I plan on going diving, I will write another update tomorrow.
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