Introduction

"I wish that... I was born a thousand years ago.

I wish that... I'd sailed the darkened seas,

on a great big clipper ship,

sailing from this land here to that,

put on a sailer suit and cap..."

- Lou Reed, Heroin

The island of Pohnpei is located in the western Pacific ocean, less than 500 miles from the equator. At 130 square miles in area with volcanic peaks reaching 2500 feet, it is the largest and highest island in the Federated States of Micronesia and comprises almost half of that tiny nation's total land area (the rest being found on six hundred islands scattered over more than a million square miles of open ocean). The island boasts the FSM's only urban area (Kolonia) and its national capital (Palikir) - together with six nearby inhabited atolls, it forms the country's second-most populous state. The other three states (also named after large islands) are Yap, Chuuk and Kosrae.

Pohnpei is one of the wettest places on the surface of the earth, with parts of the island receiving an average daily rainfall of almost an inch. All that rain feeds a network of rivers originating in the island's mountainous interior and terminating in more than forty waterfalls around its rim. The main island is covered in thick rainforest and ringed by mangrove swamps, with eight coral atolls (between one and three miles offshore) forming a protected lagoon.

As part of the WorldTeach program, which is run out of the Center for International Development at Harvard, I will be teaching mathematics for a full year at the Pohnpei State Campus of the College of Micronesia, located in Kolonia (whose geographic coordinates I have used as the title of this blog). I will arrive on July 16th, and will not return until April 29th of next year - my hope is that this space will allow me to keep all of my friends and relatives updated on my journey.

Although the FSM is now a sovereign nation, from 1947 to 1986 it was a part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and was administered by the United States Department of the Interior beginning in 1951. In 1986, the newly-created FSM government (along with the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau) signed a Compact of Free Association with the US, under which it receives financial assistance in exchange for certain basing rights.

My program in particular is funded by these aid dollars - WorldTeach provides my airfare and lodging, as well as a small stipend of some $120 a month. Also, under the Compact, each Micronesian state has its own US postal zip code (Pohnpei's is 96941), and all FSM citizens may freely enter the US or apply for federal programs such as the Pell grant.

Although I am only 21 years old, I have been in college and graduate school for ten of those years and I am very ready to experience something different. I decided more than a year and a half ago to try volunteering overseas - at first I considered the Peace Corps, but since they require a 27-month commitment I decided to look for alternatives. I soon found WorldTeach and settled on the Pohnpei program, which was attractive at first because it was fully funded and lasted only a year. After doing some more research on the island, I decided to apply. I was wait-listed for the 2007 program, and finally accepted for 2008.

I should note here that, aside from trips to Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas, I have never actually left the country of my birth - the furthest I have lived from my parents is a mere 70 miles, while this trip will take me more than 7500 miles away. I don't doubt for a second my competence at teaching (which I have been doing in one form or another for seven years) but I am obviously quite worried about adapting to a new culture, with the core of the earth between me and everyone I have ever known. I will try to chronicle my experiences here, in hopes of keeping some kind of connection to home. Stay tuned!