“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Great photo by Peace Corps Micronesia Volunteer Iyanuoluwa
http://bit.ly/2bvnZ8s
Let’s take a short break from talking about camp to discuss culture class!
A really cool part of the education system in Yap is the inclusion of a culture class in all public schools. The culture teachers are not people who studied education and attended college, but are older members of the community who are sharing their knowledge with the students. Culture teachers are required only to have high school diplomas but are usually required to be at least forty years old. Culture class has two components, one is the crafts and hands on activities and the other is information. The hands on activities conducted in culture class range from what we might think of as crafts like basket weaving and carving to making rope and rafts for fishing and cooking coconut oil. Throughout elementary school the students master a ton of different activities. This is only a partial list:
Boys - carving (stone money, outrigger models), bamboo raft building, rope making, rice holders, spears for fishing, stick balancing
Girls - taro baskets, food baskets, pouches from pandanus leaves for gabuy (leaf chewed with betel nut), sleeping mats, coconut oil, nunuw (similar to leis, but more of a crown) braiding, hats from coconut leaves
Both genders in lower grades - ball weaving from young coconut leaves, star decorations from young coconut leaves
I checked with some of the older students about whether they really felt comfortable doing these activities on their own, and they said they could definitely go out and complete any of these.
The information part of the culture class used to be primarily reinforcing Yapese language to make sure that English words for things like colors and numbers didn’t usurp the Yapese words, this is happening a lot. But now Vernacular Language Arts is responsible for language, so culture class is kind of like social studies for Yap. Students learn the names of the villages on the island and which municipality the village it belongs to along with its rank. Local stories are also popular, such as the creation of the island of Yap from the back of the turtle, or the story of the lizard of Alduug who tried to kidnap and eat two girls while in disguise. Another type of local story are the more historical ones like the arrival of the spaniards in Yap and how the Yapese thought they were spirits due to their appearance or the somewhat historical legend of the American captain O'Keefe who lived here and was eventually lost at sea.
I think culture class is a really awesome part of the curriculum in Yap, as well as a much needed change from the tests, quizzes, and assignment of the core subjects.
First of all, sorry for the lack of posts recently, but my laptop died a couple weeks ago and so I haven’t had much chance to sit down and do any typing! Thankfully the school computer has been more available recently, so here it goes!
Ten days ago we finally had our last day of classes, followed by awards day and graduation. My school is very small, and as we were graduating only two eighth graders the parents decided not to hold a full scale graduation, but rather be more casual and award diplomas as the main part of the awards ceremony.
Kelly gave a very nice speech about taking responsibility for your future and both eighth graders we swamped with leis made of yarn or candy, as has become custom in Yap.
We handed out academic awards for GPA and most improved (won by one of my third graders!) as well as awards for attendance and for participation in the island wide math competition. The teachers also recognized several members of the community for their contributions to the school throughout the year, both in leadership and for services like painting and facilities upgrade.
After the awards ceremony we all shared a potluck lunch, more on that later, and the students were invited to take part in activities like musical chairs, egg toss, and a spelling bee with small bags of candy as a prize. During the activities the students’ favorite part of the day was announced, the ice cream. Between the students and all the guests we managed to consume about nine gallons of ice cream! One of my students, Jeremiah, later remarked that maybe he should have stopped at four cones! The sugar high was useful at the conclusion of the day for getting the students to help clean up the decorations!
At the end of the day I was a little sunburned, but extremely proud of all the hard work my students put in, and so happy to see them show it off to the community.
I wrote about my weekday schedule a
little while ago. I could write a similar post about my weekend
schedule, but it would be maddeningly short and boring. Weekends here
are very chill. In many places Saturdays are devoted to cleaning the
village and stone paths, though my village doesn’t put much emphasis
on it, so it’s more optional than in other places. Saturdays for my
are frequently about a Yapese staple, the taro patch. Taro is a root
vegetable, very starchy, but with a degree of health provided by some
protein, a bit of calcium and iron, and less than one hundred
calories per cup. Some people reading this may be familiar with taro
in the form of a chip. Those terra chips are generally made from
sweet taro, which is different from the one we eat on Yap most of the
time. Along with rice, taro forms the basis of the Yapese diet.
Every Yapese family has a taro patch.
In fact, they have several. Somewhat surprisingly, taro takes about
five years to grow to the size where it can be harvested and eaten.
Mature taro leaves are massive. The first time I encountered the
plants, I thought I had stepped into the middle of Jurassic Park!
Mature taro plants make it seem like a dinosaur is about to jump into
view! I’ve been out to the taro patch before, but this past weekend I
had two new taro patch experiences. The first part was making my own
taro patch basket. This involves taking a palm frond, weaving and
braiding it into a tube, then splitting the rib to open the basket.
I’m not saying I’m capable of doing it entirely on my own, but I was
pretty proud. My second new experience was actually digging up my own
taro. I can’t actually pick out which ones are ready for harvesting
yet. The younger leaves are still rubbery, and there’s something to
do with the height of the stalks that I haven’t quite grasped. But
this weekend I actually dug up the root, cleaned it, and then
replanted the ‘baby’ taro in the empty space. Since taro takes about
five years to grow, it’s very important to replant the babies after
the mature taro is harvested.
When I say that Saturday can entirely
devoted to taro, I’m not joking. Between the getting to the patch,
the harvesting, and getting back, it took my sister and I about an
hour to harvest three taro roots. Three is enough for us to eat for
roughly two days. After we bring the taro back to the house, it still
has to be washed, cleaned, and cooked. Anyone who is familiar with
real root vegetables, not the perfectly shaped carrots at the grocery
store, knows that roots are shaped really strangely, so sometimes you
wind up with cracks that are chock full of dirt, and the only way to
clean it is to cut out the dirt. Taro is really solid, and by that I
mean its really tough to cut when it’s uncooked.the way we divide it
into quarters is to whack a machete into it, then bang the machete on
a piece of rock so that the taro splits itself over the blade. After
it’s been washed, cleaned, and split into pieces, the taro gets
boiled so it’s finally soft enough to eat. The whole process of taro
from start to finish takes about half the day to prepare enough taro
for five people to eat over three or four meals. If that’s sounds
like a lot of work, it is. But taro is healthy, it’s a resilient crop
that loves flooding, and it’s free for Yapese families who make sure
to take care of their taro patches.
My basket (on the left, you can see how the weave is looser since I’m not very good) and the taro I harvested!
“After I graduated college I joined the Peace Corps and served from 2007 - 2009. I was assigned to a country name Micronesia. It was a collection of islands scattered across thousands of miles of ocean. After 3 months of extensive training, I was sent to an island name Ta (which means Small Island). I was about 250 yards wide, 3 miles long, with a population of about 250 people. They didn’t have electricity, running water, or any of those types of things. It was really challenging being in such a remote place like that; but you know for me it all ended up being about my host little brothers or sisters because that’s who I ended up serving for. They were just so incredible and they welcomed me in to their house and they changed my life.”
Peace Corps is seeking English literacy Co-Teachers and Planners to work with elementary school children and ignite a love for reading, writing and English comprehension.
There are 39 volunteers in Micronesia working with their communities on education projects. During their service, volunteers learn to speak local languages, including: Chuukese, Kosraean, Mortlockeese, Palauan and Pohnepeian. More than 4,300 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Micronesia since the program was established in 1966. Other facts about Micronesia include:
Although Micronesia is composed of thousands of islands, its land area is only 3, 185.6 km². It
has a population of a little more than one hundred thousand people.
The former capital of the Federated States of Micronesia is Kolonia. It was replaced by Palikir in 1989 which is located on the island of Pohnpei with a population of more than four thousand. Its largest city is Weno with almost 14 thousand people.
English is the official language but several ethnic languages are spoken and the official currency of the Federated States of Micronesia is the United States dollar.
The only empire known to have originated in Micronesia was based in Yap.
The culture of Micronesia is a mixture of Filipino, Melanesian and Polynesian culture.
The primary industry in this sub-region of Oceania includes tourism, fish processing, construction, craft items and specialized aquaculture.
