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).