I'm In!

After nine weeks of training, I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. I swore in on Monday, November 9, 2009. It was a quite an event. Our training host families, community members, permanent host families, future team-teachers, principals, representatives from the Ministry of Education, Peace Corps, US Embassy, Governors and many others all came to the ceremony to show their support. The ceremony itself was short, maybe an hour or so. We had words of wisdom from those chosen to speak. It was really nice to see such support for what we are doing in Palau. My participation in the event was to give a speech in Palauan and humiliate myself by attempting to do some contemporary Palauan dance (and a hula?).

There are supposed to be pictures below, however I'm having issues uploading them from here, so they'll have to wait until I get into the capitol city next time. I’m told that it was recorded for the local cable access channel. So, I’ll see if I can’t get a copy of that somehow.

Overall, it wasn’t that bad. I guess that it is Palauan custom for the audience to get up and dance with you and give you money- I earned $22 in a matter of minutes! After the ceremony, all of the Volunteers were whisked away with their new host families and spread across the entire country of Palau. It was a bittersweet goodbye, even though we were all excited to get to our permanent sites, we knew that it’ll be an adjustment not seeing a familiar American face everyday. I was headed for the capitol city of Koror to wait a few days for the boat to take me to my new home, the small island of Angaur.

October 4, 2009 - Update

This post (with the exception of the pictures) was written and saved to my computer- I've finally been able to get some internet access to update.

My first phase of training has completed, and my group of 30 trainees, has been separated from each other by hundreds of miles of ocean. Five other trainees and I arrived safely in Palau on Saturday, September 26. We had the longest flight from Phonapei, with stops in Chuuk, Guam, and Yap. (Luckily though, I’m racking up the frequent flier miles!)

As we arrived late in the evening, Peace Corps put us up in a hotel for the night. I think that it was a courtesy to us and the host families. After a restful nights sleep in an air conditioned room, a shower where I could completely disrobe, and a breakfast that did not include hot dogs or spam- I felt as if I was more than ready for the next phase of training.

The training site is in Ngermetengel, Ngeremlengui. It is a nice little town in a more rural state. I think that they are trying to keep us out of the main city, so we can focus on the training rather than other, more distracting things (cough:::bars:::cough). The actual training center is a community center called the “Old Age Center”. It resembles a Bai and is right on the water.

I have training every weekday from 7:45 – 5:00. The days can get pretty long- we have multiple, two-hour sessions of language. Even with that, I’m not picking it up as fast as some of the other trainees. We’ve met with the Ministry of Education, the Governor, and made multiple trips to the main city, Koror, as it has been a holiday week for Palau. I’ve been to festivals, fairs, and boat races- and the best part is that all that counts as “cultural training”. The first week is now over and I’ve got five more before I swear in as an actual Peace Corps Volunteer.
The rest of my time is spent with my host family. I lucked out, yet again, and got a really awesome family. They call me “Junior”, as my host-dad is named Robert too. I’ve got a mom, dad, three brothers (29, 24, 9) and one sister (11). My room is bigger than my room at home, and the bathroom (yup, you heard that right) is just feet from my room!

There’s been some bad weather earlier in the week, which for Palau just means rain. They are not in the typhoon belt, or at least that’s what I’m told. Even with Palau being more developed/advanced than the other islands, I don’t have any access to internet and haven’t heard/seen a news report since we first arrived and stayed in a hotel. I have heard though, through the “coconut wireless” that there has been some bad storms over the other islands.

I’m doing well here, meeting many great people and getting to know my new community. I’m still adjusting to the heat (although I’m unsure if I’ll ever get fully adjusted to it). I’m going to leave you guys now with some Palauian phrases and some pictures- hope you enjoy them:

Good Morning: Oungil Tutau
Good Afternoon: Oungil Kbesnei
Delicious: Oisii
I’m going to bed: Ak mo mechiuau
Yes: Choi
No: Diak
How are you?: Ke Uangerang
I’m fine: Ak ma sisiich
I’m full: Ak mla mo medings

My host sister and brother in their school uniforms. They were very concerned that I did not have a picture of them in their uniforms, so they posed so nicely for one.

This is the capitol building in Palau- does it look familar?

This is one of my Palauan Language trainers, Johnny and I next to a stone monolith.

Darline, Lauren, me, and Mr. Lamb. This was at a birthday party for a relative. Mr. Lamb was one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers in Palau back in 1966.

My brother and sister on Halloween. They are ghosts.

These are the kids that are all family and stayed with us- from left to right: Casey, Coby, Kyle, Ashley, K-Tissja.

Working hard in class. We are playing a game to help us learn Palauan.

The sunset from our training site.

Fruit bat! It didn't taste that bad- although I didn't eat much of it.

Found a shark while snorkling

Jellyfish I saw while snorkeling in Jellyfish Lake-

The Palau group at the waterfall.

Beefy and Asahi- the two dogs that run the town.

Hanna, Young, and Johnny: Hanna is the PC Head Honcho here in Palau, and the Young and Johnny are language teachers.

Lauren, Kyle, Me and K-Tissja at another waterfall.

The group on a bird-watching hike. Alan (the man to my right) was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Palau back in 1966.

The group again.

I'm Here/Safe/Alive

Hello all, sorry that I haven’t been able to dedicate much time to my blog until now. The last few weeks have flown by.

All of the volunteers are living with host families in a rural community outside of the capitol. It isn’t until just now that I’ve had a chance to get back into the city, get internet connection and update my blog.

I’m currently living with a host family. I’ve got a 15 year old brother (Don) and a 14 year old sister (Darleen or Doi). My mom’s name is Lynn and my dad is Bumio, although we call him by his title, Nahlem. They are taking great care of me while I’m in Pohnpei.

I’ve had a chance to explore this community a little and have seen the ruins of Nan Madol- some call it the Venice of Micronesia. It is what is left of an ancient city that was built on the water. My brother acted as a tour guide and was able to share what he knew about it. Also, I got a chance to see one of the island’s waterfalls. It was beautiful. Have a look at the pictures below and see!

The end of this week, I will be leaving Pohnpei and the Federated States of Micronesia. I have been assigned a permanent site in an outer island of the Republic of Palau. It is a small island with only 150-200 people. I will be working at a school that only has 30 or so students. But, before I get to go there, I have another six or seven weeks of training (in Palau, but not at my site) where I’ll learn more teaching strategies and learn the local language.

Should you want to drop me a note, feel free to email or send some snail mail my way:

Robert Steffens
C/O Peace Corps
P.O. Box 158
Koror, Palau, 96940

(Palau, like the FSM, is part of the US Postal system. So a regular stamp will work)

Enjoy the pictures, and I hope to get some more updates soon.

The Palau Group- Six New Volunteers.

The whole M76 Group

Jumping into the ocean.

Me and my brother in Nan Madol

The Waterfall

My brother and sister bored at the waterfall

My host mom and dad

The view from our training site.

I'm Off...

It’s here, the experience I’ve been waiting nearly a year for. In a few short hours I’ll be on a plane to Los Angles to begin my Peace Corps journey. What was excitement and anticipation a few days ago has changed into anxiety and apprehension. The “good-byes” from the last few weeks are really starting to set in. Luckily, the Peace Corps literature says that this is normal. I’m certain that once I set foot on the airplane things will be different. By then all the “good-byes” will have been said and I will start doing just the opposite, meeting new people.

I do believe that I owe everyone a big thank you- I really couldn’t do this without the love and support from my family and friends. These last few weeks really reaffirmed how lucky I am to have you all in my life. From the baked goods to the help shopping/packing- thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Not knowing exactly what the near future holds for me, I don’t know when the next time I’ll be able to update my blog will be. I will do my best to update as soon as I can.

MN State Fair, How I Will Miss You…

Being a Minnesota native, I have never missed attending our “Great Minnesota Get-Together”. I have many good memories of going to the fair with friends and family. This year, I’ve done something I’ve never done before- I went three times in three days.

In those three days I saw the birthing of a cow, discovered my blood type (A+), won my sister an oversized stuffed animal, listed to a Frank Sinatra impersonator, and ate. “Just how much did you eat?” you might ask. Well, here’s a list of all the foods I tried:

BBQ Pork Sandwich
Big Fat Bacon
Cheese Curds
Chocolate Covered Bacon
Chocolate Covered Salted Nut Roll
Cinnamon Roasted Almonds
Corn on the Cob
Cotton Candy
Cream Cheese Wontons
Deep Fried Veggies on a Stick
Egg rolls
Foot-Long Hot Dog
French Fries
Gyro
Hamburgers
Ice Cream
Kettle Corn
Krumkake
Mini Donuts
Perfect Pickle (w/ ranch dressing)
Pickle Wraps
Pizza
Potato Chips
Potato Lefsa
Pronto Pup
Salt Water Taffy
SPAM bites
Sweet Martha's Cookies
Vietnamese Iced Coffee

So here I lie in bed the morning after my last excursion, reflecting on my recent three day fair binge. I have mixed feelings. One the one hand, I had a great time- on the other hand is the unsavory gut rot. Overall, I’m satisfied- I’m pretty sure (although not certain) that these fair foods will not be available while in Micronesia.

Dolla Dolla Bill Y'all

Just found this information this morning- according to recovery.gov (the site that tracks all the stimulus spending) the Federal States of Micronesia and Palau are each getting a nice little chunk of cash for their respective departments of education.

FSM: $3,619,000
Palau: $931,000

I’ve got no idea of what this will mean (if anything) to the work I’ll be doing in the area- it will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Click here to see the spending in your area.

On another note, I’ve got just under two weeks before I leave and need to start packing!

Adiós!

I just got home from my last day of teaching at the Adult Basic Education center. Although I only started working here earlier this year, I have quickly grown to look forward to my Monday nights with this group. My role has not been too demanding, I lead a conversation class and really enjoy getting the chance to talk with people from all over the world. Enjoy the picture I was able to sneak (these are usually camera-shy folks).


Also, the staff was kind enough to get me some going-away cookies. Thanks again!