projects

Part of the allure for us to move to this small tropical island is that I would be able to stay at home with the kids and spend more time with them. I am not working, but have set several goals and projects for myself to accomplish while here and the following projects have allowed me to enrich my own life while interacting with local people and attempting to provide a catalyst for positive change. The following is a list of the projects I've worked on while living here for ten months:

I set up a (simple blog-like interface) website for my daughter's school.  Current progress: Last week was the third meeting in a row to be cancelled because the school administration (who asked for the meeting) forgot. In November I gave the passwords and a lengthy admin tutorial so they could populate the site with content, but they changed something and need another tutorial.  www.pohnpeisdaschool.com.

Before moving here to Pohnpei I contacted Girl Scouts to see what was available on the island for my daughter. The director of Girl Scouts of America in New York contacted me herself and we had a few telephone conversations where she told me of her efforts to get Girl Scouting going here. She has visited the island a few times and sent someone to live here for four months to work on setting scouting up, but all the efforts fizzle when they leave. I was told to contact specific women on the island who were involved but not proactive about Girl Scouting here and to not go around them. When I arrived in Pohnpei Girl Scouts was not an established organization and the women were all suspicious of each other about the missing $25,000 sent to them three years ago by Girl Scouting headquarters. I tried for many months just to gather this group of women as a board of directors, but they have varying degrees in their level of committment. Together with Whitney Hoot and Cori Jo Jahnsen we have created the Leadership training and resource guidebook, a Girl's handbook, a year full of challenges, several events and six troops. Foreigners tend to come here, try to change things quickly by throwing a bunch of money at a situation and then leave. Girl Scouts is about giving girls opportunities to try and learn new things. I have learned to slow my expectations and progress rate so that the local women involved feel confident in the system we created and want to follow through with it. We created a Peace Corps Response Volunteer proposal so the organization can have a dedicated person involved and continue.
Fingers Crossed. www.facebook.com/girlscoutspohnpei and www.girlscoutspohnpei.blogspot.com .


I am currently writing a grant to NSF (National Science Foundation) and NEH for funding to document the critically-endangered language of Mwoakillese. I connected an American organization Living Tongues  to partner with IREI (Island Research Education Initiative) in the endeavor of documenting the island language and disemminating the data through a dynamic website with a word search function, linguistic anthropology photo journal with idioms-to-direct meaning translations and an audio dictionary with wave form harmonographic display. It is a very good thing the grant will be reviewed by experts before submittal because the more I research about linguistics, the less I feel I know. How is it possible to spend five months focused on a subject only end up knowing less than before beginning?

The Rotary International Club of Pohnpei approached me to create a playground proposal: www.pohnpeiplayground.wordpress.com . From what I hear, the playground money is being raised from off-island donations and  the forecast is positive for building the only public playground. Not everyone in the menwai (foreigner) community are happy about the playground deisgn or proposed materials so hopefully there will be a community survey to reimagine the equipment and a community-based fundraiser so locals feel a sense of ownership and help to take care of it. The last time a playground was built, the entire thing was dismantled to be used for firewood and the poles for plumbing, sad.

Playschool is Monday through Friday 8am to 12 noon. My son Alexander was too young (not yet three) to attend preschool, so we invited two of his friends to join us in leaning-based play. We have morning meeting and alternating 20 minute activities with a snack and lunch break. We are adventurers and learners and friends all together. We play pretend and learn about restaurants or post offices or the bank by pretending to run one. We love to learn memorized order facts like the days, months, alphabet, ordinals, etc. with hopscotches. It is a visual, audible and kinetic way to play-learn new things. We build things (spaceships, cars, trains, houses, forts and boats) out of boxes. We go on adventures. We go on little hikes and visit the library across the street for storytime and we make yummy snacks together. It is a mess that I clean up everyday, but I love it. I have seen all three students grow and learn to use their words with each other to resolve disputes. It is pretty amazing and I get to be home with my family and raise my kids while providing social interaction too.

I suppose I enjoy being busy and I will look forward to having new projects to start on when we arrive at our next adventure. I like to think I have helped in some small way. I at least feel better when I try.



Pictured here are three two-year-olds washing local apples. We later made ice coconut-apple ice cream from the tart little apples and ate it at the birthday party we organized for our best stuffed animal friends.

 Going on a bear hunt, we're not afraid.

Girl Scouts Pohnpei troop #1 friendship circle