Orientation at COM Begins

Pohnpeian Word of the Day: menwai = "white person"

On Niehd, we officially began our two-week orientation period at the College of Micronesia Pohnpei State Campus, where Erin, Meghan and I will be teaching for the next year. After attending the first half of our daily Pohnpeian language lesson, we left to attend what would prove to be the usual start-of-the-year faculty meeting. It was mostly pretty boring, with the exception of the fact that I had the opportunity to meet some of the people I will be teaching with.

When the meeting let out around noon, my department head (a nice and refreshingly nerdy Phillipino named George Mangonon) showed me what will be our shared office, let me know my course schedule, and gave me my books. I am teaching MS 095 (Prealgebra) and MS 096 (Beginning Algebra) - both classes meet every day for one hour, with one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Its a light load, but that will give me plenty of time to devote myself to other projects. I want to try to put together a Pohnpeian language CD for incoming volunteers, and I'd like to get involved in the Upward Bound program here since I did it back at UF.

The group soon reassembled for a pot-luck lunch with a downright shocking amount of food, which had disappeared in an equally brief period. As usual, there was plenty of white rice (the only constant in any Pohpeian meal), chicken, pork ribs, and an amazing Phillipino noodle dish called pancit. I piled a plate high, and had an enjoyable lunch discussing the 2008 American election with one of the local faculty.

I also discovered why I had been selected for the college - apparently, several of the volunteers on this trip have the masters degree required. However, when the list was presented to then-department head Evelyn Tadena, she noticed that I went to UF; since her brother heads the ICBR genetics lab there (which I have ironically used for sequencing in the past), I was a shoe-in.

After the meal, we headed back to PICS for the rest of our WorldTeach orientation day. Since we are nearing the end of this period, we have now begun practicing all we have learned by presenting 45-minute sample lessons. The remainder of the group does its best during these practice sessions to give the teacher-to-be a sense of all the problems we are likely to encounter with classroom discipline, including students staring off into space and shouting out random or inappropriate comments. My coworkers, Erin and Meghan, each did theirs during the afternoon session.

Later that night, we had our end-of-orientation dinner at the Village. We all met at Daini Street for the usual pickup truck ride to the resort, which was thankfully open this time. When we pulled once more into the gravel driveway of the place, we were treated to the most incredible sunset I have ever seen in my entire life.

The sun was just sinking into the ocean, and it had lit the sky in various hues of purple, orange and gold. From our vantage point high on the hill, we looked out over a verdant tropical valley which tumbled into the sea hundreds of feet below. Sokehs ridge stretched out like a finger of land straining to touch the light itself. Palm trees swayed and birds quietly chirped - it was the sort of thing people spend untold sums of money just to see a tiny part of.

The dinner itself was as fantastically decadent as the view. After quesadilla appetizers, I ordered the steak and crab dinner - after all, the DoE was picking up the bill. Mangrove crabs are insanely large, and even the small half of one I was given was way too much for me to ever get through. We finished the meal with a feeling of contentment in our progress thusfar, along with soursap ice cream. Considering that the place also has hot showers and we can get rooms for the local rate of 50% off, I'm sure this will not be the last I see of the Village.

I spent the rest of the evening preparing for my practicum the next day, and slept quite well with that steak in my stomach. Today was our last language lesson with Johnny Rudolph, and we will all be sad not to be spending time with him anymore. However, we should be picking up the Peace Corps language instruction job this August (I wrote him a letter of recommendation) and I will probably sit in on some of those courses if I can.

After Johnny left, I presented my lesson. I had prepared a generic activity on graphing involving a city map and a story about free pizza delivery, and I think it went over fairly well. I had enjoyed being the "disruptive student" the day before, so I anticipated getting hit pretty hard in retaliation and managed to hold my composure. The feedback I received was generally positive, and I am definitely feeling confident to begin teaching.

Later in the day we had to return to COM for more orientation. We were given our course catalogs and shown around the campus, including the eight lecture rooms, three computer labs, and multiple machine and electronics shops. It is a small campus with few courses, but I am looking forward to the tight integration amongst the staff.

I also had the chance to decide where my cubicle would be in the office. George gave me the choice of being against a wall with no windows, or being right next to the air conditioner. That one didn't take much thought.

Tonight I have to pack because tomorrow we move into our apartments.