After much contemplation, research and analysis we finally have a plan that I am confident will make a major difference in helping the schools we have adopted.  I have already posted the results from our time in these schools in case you were curious of their current status. 

    Our plan consists of the following three-prong approach, with the initial goal and how we intend to accomplish each goal:

Create a collaborative community and school partnership

• Hold a community night at each school, inviting students, parents, teachers, administrators, and traditional leaders of the community.  The focus will be on the importance of education for the future of each child, the community, Pohnpei, and the world.
• Work with each school’s PTA, introducing new strategies for parents to support and encourage their children’s education.
  

Strengthen leadership at the administrative level

• Encourage and support school principals by having one-on-one appointments with the principal and Mr. Miller Benjamin, MAHI International’s Senior Educator.  These meetings will occur on a five-week rotating schedule, with Mr. Benjamin meeting with one principal a week. 
• Hold a second principal workshop in January with the five principals of the schools we have adopted. 
  

Teach English and introduce new strategies to the teachers

• Use tablet computers installed with English learning software to improve each student’s reading level.  We will be visiting one school a day (a school for each day of the week) and teaching in grades 6, 7 and 8 for one period.  This will consist of a 20-minute lesson from the MAHI International Education team, followed by 30 minutes of the students working on the tablets, completing work related to the lesson for the day.  The teachers will also complete this lesson so they can become familiar with the teaching strategies presented in the tablets software.
• Hold a two-hour workshop once a week with all the teachers at the school.  This will occur on a five-week rotating schedule.  Each workshop will focus on a specific topic that is integral to successful teaching (ex. lesson planning, classroom management, etc.)
  

    This is the basic outline of our plan, as each step obviously involves more details.  So how did we get to this plan might you ask?  Well let me start with the first two parts, creating a collaborative community and school partnership and strengthening leadership at the administrative level.  I stumbled across a few pamphlets called the “Micronesian Counselor” published by MicSem and authored by Francis X. Hezel, SJ, who has been serving in Micronesia for decades.  I read Hezel’s conclusion that throughout his years of observation, the only schools that are successful are ones who have community support and strong leadership at the principal level.  My past experience speaks to this, when I interned at the White House Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the US Department of Education, whose chief goal is to stress the importance of community support in education.  I traveled across the country and witnessed firsthand how critical community support is for a school to be successful, and how difficult it is to cultivate this relationship.  Reflecting on my own brief couple of months in the Pohnpei schools, I couldn’t help but agree with Hazel.  There are many obstacles in the way of achieving these two goals of which are the most absolute necessity to achieve any sort of success, but I believe we are at a great advantage knowing what is most important to produce any sort of long-lasting change. 

    The last part of our approach, teaching English and introducing new strategies to the teachers, took a lot of deep thought.  In case I haven’t made it clear, English is the second language to every child in these schools as they are first introduced to their native tongue of Pohnpeian.  The vast majority of their teachers have graduated from the College of Micronesia with an AA degree, where all classes are taught in English.  Despite obtaining their degree, many of the teachers are not comfortable with their English skills.  I witnessed several teachers teaching English lessons incorrectly.  Simply put, many teachers are just not qualified to teach English.

    Mr. B was the principal of the local SDA School here for the past 19 years.  He oversaw its rapid growth, almost doubling in size and becoming one of the best schools on the island.  I asked Mr. B why the SDA school was so much more successful than the public schools.  While there are many possible answers to that question, his immediate response was because they were being taught by native English speakers.  The majority of the SDA teaching staff is composed of SMs (Student Missionaries), most of whom are taking a gap year in college to teach here in Pohnpei.  Ideally, we want to bring volunteers to all the public schools, whether from Peace Corp, World Teach, or through MAHI like myself.  While there are many of these teachers throughout the island doing great work, there simply are not enough.

    Our solution: tablets.  We are in the process of obtaining tablet computers installed with English learning software.  Most of these students have never worked with a computer before.  There are countless studies which demonstrate the positive effect technology can have in the classroom, particularly with tablet computers and especially in developing countries.  If this technology is used appropriately, it is virtually guaranteed that students will make tremendous gains. 

    Besides the new medium the tablets offer, I also believe we will be successful by who we are bringing into the classroom.  Mr. B is an extremely experienced educator and a respected voice throughout Pohnpei.  Over the course of all our evaluations and assessments all he could talk about was teaching; he clearly wants to just get back in the classroom and teach.  Indeed, the first time I met him, only a day after stepping off the plane, he informed me that we were going to go teach the next day.  Fortunately there was a scheduling conflict so my jet-lagged self could get some sleep!  I’m really excited to see Mr. B back in his element, doing what he does best.

    Whenever Mr. B needs a break, I’m sure I will get the opportunity to teach as well.  I have no illusions of being even in the same ballpark as Mr. B when it comes to teaching, but I’m looking forward to giving it my best shot.  The reason I’m most interested to try is this – I’m a menwie (i.e. a foreigner, a white guy).  Every time I visited the schools I was always looked at like I was an alien creature.  Normally if you are caught staring at someone in the States you look away immediately, hoping that your staring subject didn’t see you.  Here, they just continue to gaze.  I just smile and say “Lelie!” (lay-lee-ah), i.e. Hello!  I have no idea what to expect when I first try teaching, but I already have their attention, so I’m off to a good start!  I’m sure with Mr. B’s tutelage I’ll be at least a somewhat competent teacher.

    So there ya have it – there’s our brilliant game plan for reform.  Any thoughts?  Suggestions?  E-mail me!  I would love to hear any feedback.  You will surely hear more about how this plan is going, and how ultimately, true change cannot be imposed on the Pohnpeians - it has to come from within.  I hope our program won't be an unwanted demand from an outsider, but rather a nudge in the right direction.  Much more on this in future posts.

    Also want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  It might not be Thanksgiving yet for you, but I’m 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time!  Surprisingly, Pohnpei doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving despite celebrating virtually every other holiday known to man.  Don’t worry, they celebrate Harvest Day on Friday (refer to my last post to see the ridiculousness in that!). 

    For our latest adventure, Dale, John and I climbed to the top of Sokehs Rock (that big rock you see in the banner picture at the top of the screen).  Despite some relatively sketchy parts, where a false step will lead to your ultimate demise, we made it out alive.  I'm looking forward towards camping at the top eventually - the sunset and sunrise should be truly epic.

     I was introduced to an interesting theory this week regarding the slow pace of life in Pacific island communities.  The theory states that there is a lack of urgency that pervades the culture in climates without winter, as people never have to prepare ahead for anything.  Pohnpei would certainly fall into the category of being “winterless” as the daily low and high temperature for the day never vary by more than five degrees all year.  Never does a Pohnpeian have to worry about being snowed in after a big storm, or plan when they want to plant and harvest their crops – every day is like the last and tomorrow will be the same.

    While I had read plenty about “island time” before I arrived in Pohnpei, the slow pace hasn’t really struck me until lately.  Perhaps it has just been a bad week, but I have been particularly frustrated by how long everything takes.  Take a normal meeting for example.  A meeting that should take five to ten minutes often takes 30 minutes to an hour.  People drive very slowly as well.  The island speed limit is 25mph, but it’s rare to go more than a mile without someone driving between 5-10mph. 

    Beyond just daily inconveniences there is no sense of urgency to solve any of the pressing issues present on the island.  From healthcare to infrastructure, energy to education, every problem can be solved "lakkup" (i.e. tomorrow).  Of course this is a generalization, but on the whole this is the culture of Pohnpei, and from what I’ve heard, all Pacific island communities.

      Given all of this it’s interesting to think that Pohnpeians, Micronesians, and all Pacific island communities have a lifestyle that is directly impacted by the weather.  For those that don’t know, I come from a family that loves snow.  No matter what the season, snowmen decorate the house.  My brother still recalls the Blizzard of ’96 with childhood wonder and my father can cite snowfall records from the past century by memory.  Indeed, he is legitimately a “snow expert” specializing in global snow cover.  They were quite confused when I decided to live somewhere for a year where it has never snowed – ever.  But I’m sure they would be overjoyed to hear that according to this one theory, which I believe holds some legitimacy, the world’s prosperity and development owes its existence to snow. 

      As always, we have been very busy with our education program.  We have a very exciting plan in store that I look forward to sharing within the next week or so.  It has been a challenge to comprehensively address the great number of issues we found in the schools, but I am confident our plan will make a great difference for these students.

    This past weekend was a lot of fun camping on Ahnd (pronounced “Ant”).  Check out some pictures of the island beauty and fishing heaven.

We have quite a challenge ahead of us. 

Attached are the student reading level results with accompanying statistics.

It has taken quite some time to get all this data, but it is imperative that we know where we are before we start with our program.  Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and Micronesians celebrate pretty much every holiday known to man, so we will get started next week.  A bunch of us are headed to the outer island of Ant to go camping for the weekend.  It will be difficult to get my head away from the large task in front of us, but a change of scenery is welcomed.

Despite the immensity of the challenge facing us, I know that our mission is crucial.  The students here have more educational opportunities than most people in the world.  The number of scholarships available to them are vast, if only they are equipped with the tools to achieve.  Essentially, a motivated and diligent student in Micronesia can be educated through the graduate level for free.  However, the average Micronesian student has many more challenges than their American counterparts. 

Change will not happen overnight, but knowing how important our work is will certainly drive the entire MAHI team to persist throughout this great and worthy undertaking.

    Pray for us!

    We are very close to being done with our student reading level assessments.  I’m excited to finally get all the results so we can actually start doing something to help.  Unfortunately, tomorrow is yet another holiday (Constitution Day) so there is no school.  Never thought I would say that! 

    Wednesday we will finish the assessments and I will post the combined results from all the schools.  In the mean time, I just wanted to share this picture that screams “Pohnpei.”  Mr. B and I stopped by this roadside store to pick up some water.  There are these tiny roadside stores everywhere.  The picture below is by no means out of the ordinary. 

    It’s funny to think that five weeks ago I would be shocked to see a bunch of kids running around naked or men walking down the street with machetes, and now it’s normal.  There are many other things that fall in this category.  Now, I’m used to driving on the other side of the road to avoid potholes, seeing two dogs do the dirty deed in the middle of the road is no big deal, and wearing zoris (i.e. flip flops) to formal meetings is the norm.  It will certainly take time to adjust back to America!

    Stay tuned for the reading level results!

    As previously noted, one of the most common questions I have received before I left for Pohnpei was what was I going to eat?  I had read about local foods but didn’t really have a good answer, so I just said “food.”  This is an interesting part of the world because there is food from many different cultures all in one place.  So while there is some American food, there is also a lot of Japanese, Filipino and local food as well.  I’m happy to report though that there are no fast food restaurants (or at least not chains).  The cynical side of me says it’s only a matter of time before a McDonalds pops up – they’d make a killing.  Most of my meals consist of budget-friendly courses like pasta and beans and rice.  I have tried some new food for the first time though.

    The Japanese food I’ve tried has been really good.  Today I ate somen, which is a cold noodle with an onion and ginger sauce.  Most of the Japanese food I’ve eaten though has come in packaging, as everything in Japan comes in a package, or so I’ve been told.  Among these are asparagus bread sticks, nutrition biscuits and this coffee-milk drink called Pokka which I’m slowly becoming addicted to.  I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg with all the available Japanese food.   

    What I really was excited to try though was the local food.  I have eaten plenty of fish, mostly Skipjack and Yellow Fin Tuna.  I also prepared and ate a Surgeon fish I caught last week.  I’m looking forward to fishing in a couple months when it is the season for my favorite fish, Mahi Mahi.  With these fish though we haven’t just eaten the filets and thrown out the rest.  As per local custom, the best part of the fish is the stuff most people toss in the trash can.  I have eaten all parts of the fish head including the eyes and also the heart, sashimi style.  Check out the video below to see how much I enjoyed that!

    Besides fish I have really enjoyed other local foods.  I have eaten breadfruit, coconuts, papaya and many different types of bananas.   Breadfruit is the most important food to the locals, as it has deep cultural meaning being the main staple food of the islanders.  In Pohnpeian, breadfruit is translated as “Mahi” (pronounced “my”) – an interesting anecdote considering the name of our non-profit organization.   

    Quick side story: The other day we were eating papaya and threw the seeds over the balcony onto some dirt here at the MAHI Hospitality Center.  About five days later John was cutting the grass and knew well enough not to cut the papaya trees which were already about four inches tall.  He said they will be taller than us in a few months and produce fruit a few months after that.  It’s very easy to grow food in Pohnpei!

    My favorite local food is probably karat (pronounced “ka-rotch” – emphasis on the “ka”).  It’s a short, thick banana probably three inches in diameter.  You peel half off and eat it with a spoon.  One of the great things about it is how it is ridiculously good for you.  The numbers are staggering of how many vitamins it contains.  I’ve heard numbers that it contains more than 3000% of your daily value in certain vitamins.  Historically some have thought it was bad for you because it makes your urine bright yellow, while in fact it’s just caused from an overload of vitamins.  John warned me this was going to happen, but it was pretty crazy when it did!  I’ve also eaten different bananas prepared in a variety of ways, such as boiled, which I was told actually brings out more nutrients than if you eat them raw. 

    My favorite thing I’ve eaten thus far has been dytuss (no idea of the spelling, pronounced “thai-toose”).  You make it by smashing banana into flour, making bite size pieces, and deep frying the whole thing.  I only had one but apparently at different potlucks there are whole platters.  I’m looking forward to the day when I’m at such an event.

    Overall, it has been an interesting experience to try new foods, having no idea what to expect.  There are plenty of more foods I am looking forward to trying, but I will definitely do my best to avoid all the high-sugar, processed foods that are the cause of an epidemic of diabetes, hypertension and other noncommunicable diseases on Pohnpei. 

    Today is FSM Independence Day so there is no school, and most schools and government offices are taking off tomorrow (Friday) as well.  We have been very busy with our education project though and are one school away from completing our student reading level assessments!  We have been spending a lot of time brainstorming where to start in reforming these schools, focusing on how to create lasting and sustainable change.  Stay tuned for the final results and our game plan for reform!

The local belief is that if you eat the heart of a Yellow Fin Tuna raw (sashimi) you will never get seasick again.  I figured there was no harm in trying...  And in case you were wondering, it tastes exactly like you think it would.