Storms and Funerals

The second week is done now. Students have taken their midterm written and practical exams and I think they are feeling more of a handle on the course content. Yesterday (Thursday), was a very stormy day. The wind was blowing off the ocean and the waves were breaking high, over the seawall at the college and up to the road in places. The wind was so high we had to clutch at our skirts so they didn’t blow up around our ears in a sudden gust.

 

Ansina, the special education coordinator, lost her father earlier this week, and yesterday they released the body to the family. At noon two buses from special education showed up at the college to haul us all to Ansina’s house to give her family our respects. This was my first time at a local funeral. I don’t know what his status was in the community, but I guess it was high enough. We piled from the buses into the blustery wind and heavy rain, and made our way through the mud down the hill to the house. Tents were set up outside with plastic chairs in rows. We could see the family under a tent at the back of the property. We waited. Everyone made sure that Meghan and I were under cover, but some people were still exposed to the wet. Finally the men filed in one by one. The women lined up after the men, and they made us go near the front in deference to our outsider status. When we came through the door, Ansina was standing alone in the middle of a room decorated with white flowers and a white casket was against the wall with half of the lid up. She was crying spasmodically with a tissue up to her face, shaking hands with each person. I was the second woman. The first woman, Mary, is one of the administrators in Special Education. She gave Ansina a big hug and held her for a minute as Ansina wailed. Then it was my turn. Her grief was so palpable and so loud and wet that I was caught up in it and also gave her a hug. She gripped me hard, then tore herself away to shake the hand of the next person which was Meghan. Roman, one of the men, was peering into the casket, but I walked by without looking in. At the end of the casket was a silk lined urn, and I dropped my tightly folded dollar bill on top of the others. It was getting quite full of wadded up bills. As we exited the room, young people presented us with a tray of bento lunches- tuna or chicken and rice. I took one to be polite and also a yellow can of soda. I balanced these while shaking hands with other family members as we made our way back to the front of the property. Aitnor, one of my students who had not made it to class that morning came up to me, whispering that he would not make the exam in the morning because they would hold the burial the following day. Only later I figured out that he is Ansina’s brother!

 

We climbed back up the muddy hill to pile into one of the buses, and waited minutes while the driver wore down the battery trying to start it. Finally some men pushed it onto the road and the driver rolled backward down the hill trying to jump the clutch. It didn’t work. Then everyone piled out and pushed the bus back to the top of the hill, even the women, which was unusual. When the driver went over the other side of the hill (going forward), he was able to start it and we piled back in, very damp, but full of camaraderie from the high emotions of the funeral and the shared experience of pushing the bus through the mud and rain.

 

Once we got back to the college, everyone scattered to eat or do errands. I had lost my bento on the bus, but that was fine. Meghan and I ate peanut butter on crackers. It was hard to gather everyone again to set off on the home visits, but finally over an hour late, we set off. Half of the children cancelled once we got to their homes, but each of the two teams on our bus got to see one child. We went to see Beloved, an almost 3-year old girl with cerebral palsy and microcephaly (small head). This was my second visit to her house. He mom had 12 pregnancies, but only 6 viable children, and Beloved was her youngest. They lived way up the mountain, only accessible by walking about a mile along a muddy track, up and down along a stream. The banana leaves and other vegetation protected us a bit from the rain, but not from the dogs who voraciously protected their property. Luckily Manner, our statesman RSA, was good with dogs.

 

When we arrived the young girls met us with maramars (beautiful lei to put on our heads). These were just for Meghan and I as outsiders. The children had made them using old videotape as the core, and the videotape hung down the backs of our heads in flowing bows, rustling when we moved. The flowers were ginger and some beautiful red and yellow flowers. They also had fresh coconuts and finger bananas to welcome all of us. Meghan and I shared a coconut, and finally, after years of saying she doesn’t like coconut, she got real coconut juice and meat. She loved it, as I always have. Coconuts are one of my favorite parts of being in Micronesia. Mmmmm!!

 

Beloved looked like she had just woken up. I encouraged the students to work on the assessment form I had taught them to use, and Beloved’s mom asked us many questions. She wanted to know what to do about her family members who don’t accept Beloved. I told her that they just don’t understand that Beloved is a person just like us. They are caught in old ways of thinking, and it’s up to all of us to teach them.

 

She told us that she used to take Beloved everywhere with her, but she doesn’t anymore. Beloved is getting to be too heavy, and her mom has a bad back. I asked if she would like to think about ways to take Beloved with her still, and she did. A stroller was out of the question, there is only a mud track filled with roots and slippery slopes through the jungle. I suggested a backpack or front back to assist the mom in carrying her. The mother was very enthusiastic about a front pack, and we set about measuring both of them so we could make a pack that meets their needs.

 

Finally we set off hiking back to the van. The rain was relentless. A few dogs cornered me on the way back, setting my heart racing. They were darting in and out at my legs and I yelled for Manner. Meghan, who was a few paces in front of me, turned around and pulled me away from the dogs as the others shooed them away. I’ve been afraid of dogs since I was little, and have been bitten several times over the years. I think they know because they always single me out.

 

We set off in the van, passing naked boys swimming in the stream, and girls with wet hair and glowing faces. The stream was high. We picked up the other team at Jenkin’s house and made it back to the college after five. The small boats had all left to take people back to the lagoon islands. The waves were so big, we saw the boats bouncing around, sliding down the sides of the waves, the riders drenched by the spray and the rain. We were glad to be on land.

Beginning the Second Week: Comings and Goings

It’s Monday evening now. A new student joined our class today, and three were absent. The new student is Alvin, a young man from the Mortlock Islands who has been trying to get here for a few weeks. Apparently the ship he was on was sidelined at one of the islands waiting for a VIP for a few weeks, and Alvin got frustrated. He jumped on a speedboat and chased down another ship that was coming directly to Weno and just came in this morning. He’s missed the first week of class, but I let him in anyway. He’s a smart guy, and I know he tried hard to get here. He’s been someone I’ve had my eye on for this RSA training since I met him about 3 or 4 years ago. I saw a child with very severe CP with Alvin when I first met him and was impressed with his ease in working with the child and the parent. The family was also Mortlockese so they shared language and culture, but he demonstrated superior skill and an intuitive way of working that I appreciated. I haven’t met anyone out here with that kind of ability to pick up on the skills needed. I’m glad he made it for this class.

 

The three students who are missing were pulled by the Special Education Coordinator to go to Pohnpei for a conference/training. I told her they needed to choose, this RSA training- a three summer adventure with a certification at the end, or the week-long training in Pohnpei. She decided to push me on it and sent them anyway. I told her that I wasn’t sure the students would pass the course if they miss 25% of it and left it at that. I actually really doubt that they will pass. She told me that this was a training that was supposed to be held two weeks ago in Guam and was pulled to Pohnpei at the last minute. She didn’t want her teachers to miss out on it. Well, they’ll miss out somewhere . . . One of the students called me last night just before the plane took off and asked me to e-mail all of the handouts to her so she could do her homework while in Pohnpei. I told her I would, but her classmate didn’t give me her e-mail address today. I’ll have to remember to ask for it tomorrow. I do appreciate her initiative in asking.

 

This afternoon Abraham came in to class and told me I’d have to move our green car- we named it Piik (Chuukese for Pig- because our little car rolls around in the mud and is pretty lazy). It was parked in front of the sea wall, and the ocean was rough with salt water splashing over the wall onto the car. I moved it. I noticed that all of the small boats left very early tonight. It must have been a very rough and wet crossing for those outer island folks. Meghan and I went out to the Truk Stop dock when we got back to the hotel. The waves were high as was the tide. The dive boats all had side anchors to keep them in place. It was too cloudy for a good sunset though.

 

Our stomachs are still touchy, but we’re going to brave the restaurant for dinner tonight. Being a vegetarian here is decidedly difficult. Rice anyone?

First Week

Our first week of the four weeks is done. We have 24 students, all teachers from special education (serving children from birth to 21) or the early childhood education program (ECE-serving children from 4-5 years of age). These programs seem to overlap completely, and have been merged into the Department of Education (ECE used to be Head Start and a separate agency), yet, they both seem to be providing services to the same children. ECE provides services to all children, not just those with disabilities, but they are supposed to have a certain percent of their students with documented disabilities. I need to clarify with the Special Education Coordinator how they differentiate their populations.

 

I am tired this weekend. Meghan and I both got some sort of stomach bug that started with diarrhea and includes stomach cramps and fatigue, and in my case, fevers. It’s been 4 days now and we’re able to get up and around, but feel not so good. It’s hard to eat. I was able to teach last week, but had to cancel the afternoon on Thursday when the fever got too high and I ran out of steam. I took a Tylenol on Thursday morning after a rough night, and didn’t realize that it was a Tylenol PM until Meghan pointed it out to me. So I had to teach sleepy too! I hope I made some sense. Meghan seems to have the bug more mildly, though she doesn’t feel well either. She stayed in the hotel on Friday rather than come to class.

 

We’ve identified 7 children on this island (Weno) with significant disabilities to follow and have done two afternoons of home visits. I’ve divided the students into 5 teams, each led by me or a certified RSA (and in one case an experienced teacher).  The RSAs here have been helpful in setting up the home visits and getting the families to sign the consent forms. Both families I’ve visited have been related to one or more of the students in my group. All of the children have cerebral palsy. I’d like at least 10 families altogether so that each team can visit two children- I’m sure there are more children who can be served on this island. Neither of the families I’ve visited have been served by special education over the past year. I don’t know why.

 

It’s been great to have Meghan with me. She is in charge of photographing and videoing our activities this month. She has also been very helpful with organization, getting copying done, and making sure all of the students hand in the paperwork we need. She’s been cheerful (even when sick!), and positive. What a joy for me! She was sad to miss the second home visit last week, but she didn’t want to expose the children if it was catchable. I think it was from something we ate, and it’s not catchable, at least I hope so.

 

Yesterday we were able to drive around a bit. First we did our laundry. The hotel (we’re staying at the Truk Stop) staff directed us to a “Laundry Mats” across the street. There were a lot of young girls, all doing huge loads for their whole families, and three washers and three dryers. Luckily for us one washer became available shortly after we arrived. It took us awhile to figure out that we had to put the water in the washer using an external hose- both for the wash and the rinse cycles. Once the clothes were washed it seemed that there would be a very long wait for a dryer. The family before us had several baskets full of wet laundry waiting for a dryer. So we packed our wet clothes back into our plastic shopping bags and put them in the car. We decided to drive around for awhile and check back later.

 

First we looked for a local skirt or two to supplement the 7 skirts that we are sharing this month. It seemed that no stores on the main street by the ocean had any skirts in the windows, so I decided to drive up the mountain toward the hospital to look at a store I remembered up there. Our car is a green sedan with no shocks left. It is filthy outside and inside. The ladies at the hotel were a bit embarrassed to give it to us, but there were no other cars. We set off up the road, and immediately realized that we were in trouble. The potholes were so deep and filled with water that we couldn’t tell how to navigate them. We bravely went forward at 5 miles per hour and fell into potholes so deep that we both screamed as the undercarriage of the car caught on the edge of the hole with a horrible grinding sound. Eventually we were successful at navigating that deadly ¼ mile road, and were able to make it the rest of the way with just normal potholes. The store did have some skirts and we chose a gray one with brightly colored flower appliqués. We found an alternative road toward the ocean that had fewer potholes and led us back to the main road again.

 

Then we set off for the Blue Lagoon Hotel. It is located out on a beautiful point a few miles outside of the town, and has a pretty good gift shop. The road was treacherous, but navigable and we made it safely. We saw a few priceless sights on the way including two naked boys in a tree, older boys playing volleyball across the street had to stop their game and lift their net to let us go under it, and lots of cute children. Once we got there Meghan found a few gifts in the shop and we walked out to the grassy point, admiring the views of Donoas, Uman, and Fefen, three of the lagoon islands on that side. Although it was not yet 5:00, the sky was beginning to hold the gold colors of sunset and we got some nice photos.

 

We checked back at the Laundry Mats, but the same families were there and all of the dryers were in use. We figured out how to spread everything out in our room- it’s really impolite to hang underwear outdoors- and settled down to rest. Because our stomachs were still off, we split the last vegetarian Ramen we brought. Earlier we found some Blu-Ray DVDs at a store with some movies and bought one to watch. It had 26 movies on it from light comedy to raunchy humor. It was obviously pirated, but for $3.80, we couldn’t resist. We chose a romance and enjoyed it. Twenty-three more to go!