equanimity is where its at

It amazes me how time can pass so slowly yet seem to fly by. I look at the calendar, realize it is June which means ive been here for 9 months… but I can hardly believe it. Is it because life feels so unstructured here (compared to the rigidity of my life in America)? Or maybe not having the familiar change in seasons has kept my head in ‘summertime mode’. Im not sure, but my time-tracking tendencies are long gone, lost in the day-blending current of these past 9 months.

The rain has gone but left its mark: the vegetation around the island has grown to its maximum potential, wild and untamed. The colors of leaves have ripened into rich shades of green. While you all move from spring to summer, here on Anietyum we’re going from the hot rainy season to the dry(er) cold season. Yep, that’s right, COLD season! Some of you are probably thinking, as I did, that ive gotten so used to the heat and humidity that the slightest drop in temperature below 85 degrees is considered cold….but au contraire friends, it is bona-fide C-O-L-D here; see-your-breath-in-the-morning, drink-hot-chocolate, catch-the-common-cold, wear-a-hooded-sweatshirt cold. No joke. And it came out of nowhere, no Fall to ease us into the below 70 temperatures. Well, I guess they all knew it was coming, but I just figured that they, living in the South Pacific, weren’t cut out for what would surely be simple ‘chilly’ breezes, and that this ‘tropical winter’ wouldn’t compare to a true American winter, even a Texan cold front. I was wrong. I sleep in pants (shh don’t tell), socks (that’s why those were on my packing list…), a long sleeved shirt, and two blankets. Then I have to curl into a ball (or 6 as they call it) creating a little human pocket protecting me from the shockingly cold nights. I now make 4-5 fires a day too, not only for boiling hot water, but just to sit by the fire and warm up! It is so cold that going for a bath feels like a punishment; I bathe Sundays because I don’t think they would let me in church if I didn’t… this is going to sound crazy, but sponge baths straight from the kettle are the way to go. But the cold is a pleasant surprise, keeping in line with the theme of this experience: it wasn’t expected. The mornings are crisp and fresh rather than heavy and hot with humidity.

With the cold weather comes the great season of citrus fruits. Mandarins, oranges, lemons, and grapefruits drop from trees all over the island. The air is both sweetly crisp and crisply sweet. The mandarins are my favorite. Their skin easily peels off as if they have been hoping you would pick them. The mandarin trees are so ‘fulap’ with fruit that you can spot their striking orange mass from hundreds of yards away. The grapefruits coming in at a close second to the mandarins, im an avid fan. They are the size of human heads, some bigger if you can imagine that. But it’s because the (regular sized) fruit has a 2-3 inch thick padding of cushiony, spritzed skin. This natural insulation keeps the fruit juicy as ever, and also makes it so that when you cut into one, you get a fresh dose of sweet smelling mist. Natural body mist is what im talking about. Take that Bath and Body Works

School is going well. Ive started doing observations of English classes in the morning periods and hold special reading classes for struggling students in the afternoon. To see some of these students catching up slowly is one of the most rewarding parts of this job (roscoe is reading on his own now by the way). Ive done 2 workshops: one on lesson planning (which ive asked teachers to do daily and weekly plans, which I check and make suggestions on), and one on phonics (and an informal one on how the library works and is organized and how it can be used by teachers). The lesson planning has really gotten their curriculum on track and helped them organize their ideas. It is going really well. One of the teachers today told me that she has gained a lot of confidence through planning her lessons and receiving feedback, and in the classroom you can tell. She doesn’t come 35minutes late and bail out after 15minutes of a lesson. Step by step.
The library is a grade A success story. Kids are checking books out like crazy, taking care of them, and even returning them on time for the most part. Late books mean you have to come early or stay late and help me clean the library or arrange books, and the kids stick to it. We started a book of the week program and are working on book reports for the older classes. If you were to walk by the school during break or lunch, you would see pockets of students sitting in the grass reading. It’s pretty awesome.

What else…

I had a two week vacation in May as term 1 ended and we geared up for term 2. well, it was supposed to be 2 weeks, but the undeniable resistance to starting anything on time turned the break into 3 leisurely weeks. The first week, a friend who served as an environmental volunteer on a northern island came to visit before heading back to America (having finished her 2 year service). We had fun and it was nice to kind of do all the ‘touristy’ type stuff: snorkeling (and seeing 2 sharks), eating lobster, wine on mountaintops, camping on Mystery Island. The 2nd week, I followed my aunt and uncle to the other side of the island—Anpeke. I borrowed a friend’s tent and camped out on the beach of their village for a week. We spent the days eating mandarins (they have a seemingly endless, lifetime supply of mandarins) fishing off the edge of the reef and spending the evenings huddled around bonfires.
I caught my first legit fish and he was a beaut. When the tide recedes, we walk out about 300 yards to the edge of the shallow reef where it all of a sudden drops off to who knows how deep. That’s where you fish. The fish you catch (and eat) are the beautiful tropical fish we Americans only see in the fish tanks of fancy restaurants or city aquariums: electric blue, yellow and magenta striped fish with extravagantly, even arrogantly, arching fins and curious, spear-like noses (and chins). We eat them all without regard for their colors or awkwardly beautiful shapes. Part of me is hesitant..something doesn’t feel right about eating these tiny little fish that are 85% bone, but when you cant beat ‘em, join ‘em. So I do. And those beautiful fish are delicious.
Bonfires are another perk of life on the island. Driftwood burns an array of unexpected colors: green swirled with blue and purples. The wind that beats the beach steadily keeps the fires blazing for as long as the wood can last. We would start the fires at the perfect time: just as the sun starts to go down. The sun turning the sky and ocean an slew of warm yellows, oranges, reds and purples finds its perfect colorwheel compliment in the spectrum of greens and blues jumping out of the fire. Once the sun is tucked into the ocean for the night, kids grab 2 sticks from the fire and bang them together sending red sparks flying all about. “Fireworks!!!!” they cheer as clouds of flying sparks buzz all around us. If a camera could capture how cool it all looks, I would have spent the 8hrs it would take to upload a picture with this dial-up connection.
The third week of the break, I did home improvements. I made a vegetable garden (we’ll see how lettuce, carrots, beans, and peppers grow in the clay soil here), lugged bags of sand up to cover the pathway to my house, and made a shade for resting. All in all, the vacation was excellent. I did everything by doing nothing spectacular. Next break (August), im going to hopefully hike around the island with a tent, or then again…maybe just hangout and fish.


Miss you guys!

---

---