EAW

The last week here was “Educational Awareness Week” (EAW) in Palau. During EAW the students spend time doing various educational activities. We did a beach clean-up, field trip to the mangroves, learned how to tie knots for fishing, and many other fun things. The last half of the week was spent presenting to the parents all of the things that we have learned so far during the school year. The parents came here and tolerated the two full days of presentations. Spelling bees, essays (in both English and Palauan), cultural dancing, singing, science presentations and even a volleyball game where the parents played against the students.


Overall, the week was good. The kids spent a lot of time and energy preparing for this and did really well. I was very happy to see the turn out of parents- maybe 90% of the students had their parents (or some other family support) show up.

Here are some pictures of what we did:

My host brother, Valdez, trying to concentrate and focus on knot tying, as he wasn’t paying attention when the instructions were given- he eventually did successfully tie the knot.

This is Vance and Beches, sixth graders, who are explaining the life cycle of stars to the crowd.

These are our two first graders, Pohai and Niro. Pohai is in a coconut leaf skirt and Niro is in a usaker (loincloth). They did the Mengesols, which is a traditional Palauan chant.

This is the fourth grade presentation for their career class. They did a fashion show showing what careers they’d like to pursue. From left to right we have Modesta that wants to be a dancer and eventually a dance instructor, then Klikm wants to be a singer, followed by Ucheliou who wants to be a teacher, and finally Tito who wants to become a doctor.

One of the most enthusiastic fourth graders happy with his EAW treats. We do not normally serve ice cream or oranges.

My host brother, Cortez, reading his expository essay that was prepared in both Palauan and English.

I’m showing off my find of a mangrove crab. Usually they stay in their homes during the day and only come out at night to eat. I let this one free, but I told it I’d be back to get it when it got a little bigger.

My sixth grade student, Beches and my seventh grade student Tsun show off their find from the field trip to the mangroves. Even though it’s been decades since Angaur has seen any fighting, there are still reminders of what this island went through during WWII.

On our field trip to the mangroves, Teacher John is showing off a specific type of plant and explaining its medicinal uses and its historical significance to the Palauan people. Most of the kids don’t have the same knowledge of their environment as the older generations do.

My and one of my sixth graders, Bizk. I tutor him every day after school and as a thank you he gave me the head band that I’m wearing in the picture.

While the boys tied knots, the girls learned how to make Bilum- the traditional preparation of the tapioca plant. Bilum was eaten regularly until the discovery of imported white rice, which has since replaced the native carbohydrate for most of the people on this island.

This is the fourth grade class taking a break from the hard work of the clean up.

This is just a picture of some of my students as we clean the beach.

This is Keo and Bizk impressed by their find of a hermit crab who has, “adapted to it’s new environment” by making it’s home in an empty beer can. Good thing we made it to the beach to clean!

Heyo

I’ve got not much new to report and I’m in a slight hurry (at least as hurried as one can be on a remote island in the Pacific) so I’m going to make this brief.

1. I met the President of Palau today. He made the trip from the mainland of Palau to the outer island of Angaur to give a motivational speech to the kids and get to know the school staff. He listened to the students, staff, and a few parents when they let him know what they thought the school needs. I had to explain to my students that it was a big deal that they were meeting the president. They just assumed that the Obama made visits to all the elementary schools in the USA too.

2. We are out of water at my house. Apparently El Nino is back and while it means warm winters in Minnesota- it means droughts in Angaur. Don’t get me wrong, sunny day after sunny day is nice (it’s GREAT, actually). But, I’ll take a few days of rain if it means that I can get a drink of water every now and then. You might be wondering where I’m getting water now. We still have running water that is not suitable for drinking- that keeps me clean and my garden watered. My drinking water is mooched off of others in the community who have a more adequate supply. Sadly, this El Nino is expected to drastically reduce rainfall through June- so I might need to be more creative in my search to quench my thirst.

3. On one of the aforementioned “Sunny Days”, I took a hike with a few of my students on the weekend. My eight grade student said, “It’s F***ing hot”. I gave her a scowl of disapproval and said, “At least say ‘Hucking Fot’ or something else when you’re around adults”. Well, that caught on and now all of the upper-graders in my school are having a blast using curse words without actually using curse words. “Yuck fou”, “aumb dss”, and (my personal favorite) “Sull Bhit”. It’s things like this that really make me feel like I’m making a difference.