Kaselehlie!

Kaselehlie!

So just wanted to send you a quick update.  I made it to Pohnpei about a four weeks ago and have been adjusting fairly well.  Pohnpei is actually fairly well built up in terms of US standards and you can get most common things in the stores, although fairly expensive (peanut butter is about $7/jar).  The weather is hot, but not unbearable and at night it cools down to a more manageable temperature, especially with the help of a fan.  The house I'm staying in is quite nice, but well lived in and could do with a few repairs.  I'm still getting used to the cold showers  and there are these tiny ants that are literally everywhere, so you just have to grow used to them being everywhere.  Also there are tons of geckos that climb around the house, especially at night, but there are interesting to watch and I guess keep the bug level down, but in general it is not too bad.  Also instead of shoes, everyone usually wears flip-flops and you have to take them off whenever you go inside. Flip-flops are nice since it rains often and unexpectedly, so shoes would be soaked, but that means than in general your feet tend to be very dirty and never really get clean....I can really understand why washing of the feet is such an important ritual in many cultures.  Also our house has a small "garden" around and we have a variety of tropical fruits growing: bananas, coconut, mangoes, papaya, lemons, ginger and other fruits that I don't know the name of yet, like type of small citrus fruit, so we have a variety of fresh fruits we can pick throughout the year. 

As for my job, I teach at Pohnpei Catholic School, a K-8 grade school, and I teach 8th Grade Reading, Language Arts, Science (physical science), Math and 6th Grade Religion.  Classes started three weeks ago and have been going well so far (more on this later)

I have already started learning Pohnpeian, but only in small bits.  I have a host family that I can visit on the weekends and when I stayed with them a couple weekends already, and  I started learning some phrases from them..by the way, Pohnpeian is very much alive and many people are monolingual Pohnpeian speakers (several in my host family), which is great. To give you a small taste of what I've learned here are a few basic phrases:

I want to eat (i men mwenge)

You want to eat (ke men mwenge)

I am full (i met) [t is an affricate like the english ch, but slightly retroflexed]

You are full/are you full (ke met) [rising intonation indicates a question]

I want to drink water (i men nim pihl)

I drink water (i nim pihl)

I will drink water (i pahn nim pihl)

pwong mwahu (good night)

kalahngan (thank you)

ia iromw? (how are you?) [ia is pronounced like ya]

kehlail (good, a response to how are you)

So there you go for now.

I'll write more details later, but this will have to do for now.

Kaselehlie (hello and good bye in Pohnpeian).

Lessons from the Church Fathers and Mothers 1

I have decided to start a new (hopefully) weekly series where I will take a quote from a Church Father or Mother that was particularly meaningful for me during the past week, and will try to tie it in to my experiences over the past week.

For this first week I will start with a quote from St. John of Damascus that is used in the Funeral service:

Vanity are all the works and quests of man, and they have no being after death has come; our wealth is with us no longer. How can our glory go with us? For when death has come all these things are vanished clean away… Where is now our affection for earthly things? Where is now the alluring pomp of transient questing? Where is now our gold, and our silver? Where is now the surging crowd of domestics, and their busy cries? All is dust, all is ashes, all is shadow...I called to mind the Prophet who shouted, "I am but earth and ash." And once again I looked with attention on the tombs, and I saw the bones therein which of flesh were naked; and I said, "Which indeed is he that is king? Or which is soldier? Which is the wealthy, which the needy? Which the righteous, or which the sinner?"

When I read this text, I was struck by the blunt point of our equality, in this case in death.  Despite all that we do in life and all the money and prestige that we may acquire, in the end it means nothing: wealth, prestige, worries, valor...all are without point.

This message is very powerful, not because it shows that all are equal in death (I think most of already know this), but because it means that in life we are all equal.  That means the things we create to distinguish ourselves from our fellow humans -- our titles of honor, societal status, wealth, fame -- are meaningless and unnatural to our true humanity.

Reading this quote has been a great reminder of inequalities in my own life, especially my attachment to my own status and privilege.  As I prepare to leave for orientation and Pohnpei, I am mindful of these inequalities and I must strive to overcome them, especially in adapting in the spirit of service and accompaniment to a new culture and people.

Gedanken

Also fange ich mein Blog für Mikronesien an... Ich weiß nicht was vorkommt oder genau was ich machen werde, aber ich bin bereit in meiner Ungewissheit.  Was aber ist die Ungewissheit?  Für mich ist sie eine schöne Stelle, wo es keine Zukunft und keine Vergangenheit gibt--nur jetzt, die ewige Gegenwart.  In der Ungewissheit bin ich mein bestes Ich, weil es in dieser Augenblick ist, wobei ich wirklich lebe.  Leben außer der Ungewissheit ist kaum leben...es ist nur eine Existenz..solch ein 'Leben' enthält Sorgen um das unbeherrschte, wie um die Zukunft und deswegen vergisst man das Leben--was jetzt passiert. 

Die wahrste Ungewissheit befreit uns von unseren Sorgen und unserem Elend und ist ein Ergebnis (und Zeichen) des inneren Friedens...die Ungewissheit lässt uns unser selbst sein...und sogar macht uns unser selbst...

Also was das doch heißt, weiß ich jetzt nicht ganz, aber es macht diese ungewisse Zeit bevor ich meine Heimat, meine Familie, meine Freunde, und alles was ich bis jetzt kenne verlasse, um in einem neuen Land mit einer neuen Kultur und Sprache zu wohnen....ich bin am Ende eines Teiles meines Lebens und bald fange ich wieder neu an...die Ungewissheit, die bin ich ja...

Welcome

I am starting this blog just ahead of my leaving for Pohnpei, Micronesia where I will be a full-time teacher with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.  I hope to use this blog as a way of sharing at least some of my experience of living and working in Pohnpei over the next two years.

I chose Ἡς Ἐμοῦ ζωή Ἐν Tῇ Μικρονησίᾳ for the title of my blog since it means “My Life in Micronesia” in Ancient Greek, which I found fitting.  For those interested, a brief morphological description of the title is [Ἡς-NOMINATIVE-3SG-DETERMINER] [Ἐμοῦ-GENITIVE-3SG-PRONOUN] [ζωή-NOMINATIVE-3SG-NOUN] [Ἐν-PREPOSITION] [Tῇ-DATIVE-3SG-DETERMINER] [Μικρονησίᾳ-DATIVE-3SG-NOUN].

As you can tell, I like to include language related topics in my posts, so stay tuned for many more to come in the future.  I look forward to bringing you along on this journey to, in and from Micronesia.

Only about a month to Orientation in Boston!