I taught my students BINGO. You cannot throw a rock in Kolonia without hitting a freaking BINGO hut, so I was not expecting to have to teach my students BINGO. But it took TWO DAYS. They kept saying they got it, and then an hour would go by without anyone getting a BINGO, and then I'd explain the rules again, and then again they'd say they understood, and then another whole. class. period. would go by. With no BINGO. Did I ever tell you that it's culturally taboo to say "no" in Pohnpei? To say "no" to anything. This didn't seem like a big deal before we came, but it's becoming more so. Like, when you ask certain questions, you really want to know the real answer, even if it's "no." Like: "It's Sunday afternoon and I'm in an outer municipality. Please send a taxi?" (Even the taxi companies. They'll say yes, but only because they can't say no, and then you'll spend hours waiting for a taxi that was never even dispatched, because the business is closed, and the lady at the other end just uses the business cell phone for her personal phone so she'll always answer the phone and tell you yes, even when they're closed, or something.) Or, "we have an exam tomorrow. Do you understand?" Or: "I have spent the last 60 minutes calling out BINGO letters and numbers, and no one has gotten a BINGO, even though you must be able to cover your entire card by now. Are you SURE you know how to play BINGO?" You have to rephrase everything so that they can answer "yes." Like, instead of 'do you understand?' you can ask 'do you want me to explain that again?' But I did. I did. I explained BINGO a dozen times.
I finally got my best student (who is also the shyest), who also speaks the best English (coincidence?) to explain it in whispered Ponapean to my most gregarious student, who then explained it in Ponapean to the whole class. Who spent the next ten minutes laughing hysterically and arguing with each other. And then we played. And someone got a BINGO inside of five minutes after that. Two days.
Anyway, what's with all the BINGO huts? Phillipinos only? Are all my students Protestant? Are Protestants against BINGO?
But! One of my students just emailed me to ask if we were going to play again today (we are not). Got their attention, anyway. I had cash as one of the prizes. It was $4. It got them really excited--one girl screamed like Alicia would when I threw it down on the table.
Also, because I can't stop thinking about this stuff, I'm going to try and puke it out: Cheese, microbrew, cute boots, shoes in general, wool skirts, FALL FASHION, clothes in general, real pork chops, a haircut, cheese cheese cheese, cheeseburgers, pine needles, cold rain, hot showers, deciduous trees, talking about science, doing scientific research, arguing about science, teaching science, learning something new, hugs from Joni, Toby (yes, Toby), walking into my lab, hot tea/whiskey/wine/coffee on a cold day, espresso, 16-hour work days and how they make you feel (tired and hard core. I never feel tired and hard core anymore. Lethargic and sickly is the closest I come.), friends. A circle of friends. being near my family, sour cream, sweater tights, a quilt, the bathroom heater, talking to Justine five times a day, my books, daydreaming that my brother is going to surprise me by showing up at campus with Lauren and Carver (I seriously used to have this daydream every other day, especially when I was so lonely during the thesis-writing months, and I don't ever have it here, because the chances of my brother showing up to College of Micronesia Pohnpei Campus with Lauren and Carver are about 1 in seven thousand, which is how many dollars it would take for him to come here and surprise me with them).
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Spear Fishing, Chicken Pox, and an Update on Captian Crocodile
Menseng Mwao,
This weekend I went on a men's only camping this trip. Except one guy brought his wife and Trieste was going to come but she got sick at the last minute. Like a good husband I selflessly went on the camping trip anyway to give her time to recuperate and take care of herself.
The canoe was an outrigger, which means that it has a stabilizing side bar to prevent capsizing. Traditional canoes are very narrow because they are usually made from dug out tree trunks and thus need a little more stability. These things are extremely complicated to operate, and although I've done a my fare share of canoeing and kayaking I still couldn't make the damn thing do what I wanted it to. Plus you can only reasonably hold three people plus luggage and if there is a third person the paddlers are very angry at that person for getting a free ride. We had six people which meant that three of us had to swim.
We got to Joy Island which is a coral islet that's on the barrier reef of Pohnpei at about 1:00 or 2:00 and met Herbert and Rambo, the guy and his dog who live on Joy island. You heard me, one guy and his dog live on this stunningly beautiful island off a stunningly beautiful island in the middle of the pacific. We made camp and swam a half mile back to the area where we could start spear fishing.
Spear fishing is hard. Spear fishing is very hard. Spear fishing is also dangerous. I will only say that on my 20th attempt I got one fish that was too small to eat and I had to bite it's head and send it to Davy Jones. You have to bite their heads or they attract sharks. Spear fishing is hard.
We made a shelter out of fallen limbs and palm fronds, which in hind sight is laughable and had it not been 80 degrees outside one of us surely would have gotten hypothermia or succumbed to exposure. I say this because we live in the rainiest place on earth and of course it rained all night and into the morning. At one point at about 5:00 in the morning Tony and I just laid in the ocean because it was warmer than the rain.
The important thing is that I slept on the beach and got chicken pox, or what I thought was chicken pox for three days until I went to the doctor and she told me that it was either sand flea bites or scabies. I'm still not sure which it is.
Finally the crocodile has caused enough of a stir that people have closed all the swimming holes in Nett including our favorite, Awak Pah. So far I haven't caught the croc, but I'm not giving up now. I've got a load of dynamite coming full steam from Chuuk, and I'm not going to let that croc get away next time.
Later days, better ways,
jp
This weekend I went on a men's only camping this trip. Except one guy brought his wife and Trieste was going to come but she got sick at the last minute. Like a good husband I selflessly went on the camping trip anyway to give her time to recuperate and take care of herself.
The canoe was an outrigger, which means that it has a stabilizing side bar to prevent capsizing. Traditional canoes are very narrow because they are usually made from dug out tree trunks and thus need a little more stability. These things are extremely complicated to operate, and although I've done a my fare share of canoeing and kayaking I still couldn't make the damn thing do what I wanted it to. Plus you can only reasonably hold three people plus luggage and if there is a third person the paddlers are very angry at that person for getting a free ride. We had six people which meant that three of us had to swim.
We got to Joy Island which is a coral islet that's on the barrier reef of Pohnpei at about 1:00 or 2:00 and met Herbert and Rambo, the guy and his dog who live on Joy island. You heard me, one guy and his dog live on this stunningly beautiful island off a stunningly beautiful island in the middle of the pacific. We made camp and swam a half mile back to the area where we could start spear fishing.
Spear fishing is hard. Spear fishing is very hard. Spear fishing is also dangerous. I will only say that on my 20th attempt I got one fish that was too small to eat and I had to bite it's head and send it to Davy Jones. You have to bite their heads or they attract sharks. Spear fishing is hard.
We made a shelter out of fallen limbs and palm fronds, which in hind sight is laughable and had it not been 80 degrees outside one of us surely would have gotten hypothermia or succumbed to exposure. I say this because we live in the rainiest place on earth and of course it rained all night and into the morning. At one point at about 5:00 in the morning Tony and I just laid in the ocean because it was warmer than the rain.
The important thing is that I slept on the beach and got chicken pox, or what I thought was chicken pox for three days until I went to the doctor and she told me that it was either sand flea bites or scabies. I'm still not sure which it is.
Finally the crocodile has caused enough of a stir that people have closed all the swimming holes in Nett including our favorite, Awak Pah. So far I haven't caught the croc, but I'm not giving up now. I've got a load of dynamite coming full steam from Chuuk, and I'm not going to let that croc get away next time.
Later days, better ways,
jp
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