September 16: Day 15

I AM GOING TO WOLEAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am soooo stoked!! Site placements were announced today and I am going to the island of Woleai! AAAH! I am sooo excited!! It is exactly where I wanted to go! J Life is good!

Here is a tid bit of information from the site folder I was given:

School: Falalop Woleai Community School
Grades: 1-8 (I will be focusing on 7th and 8th English though)
Co-teacher: Juliana
Work hours: 8-2:30ish
Language: Woleaian (which I heard is one of the hardest to learn!)
Population of island: 300
Family: Simion and Bibiana (not sure if they have kids or not)
Housing: my very own thatched hut!
Bathing facilities: ocean/bucket shower
Community activities: weaving baskets and other things, making lavalavas, making marmars, doing house chores, weaving rope from coconuts and various other island activities.
Primary religion: Roman Catholic
Food: fish, rice, yam, taro, fish, rice, banana, fish, rice, sea turtle, fish, rice, coconut

Woleai has not had Peace Corps Volunteers in 10 years so they are very excited about it! There are actually 3 of us going to Woleai, which is really great because we are really far from anyone! There are 2 locations on the main island of Woleai and then there is another about a 12 minute boat ride away. I will be working at the elementary school in Falalop, Porter (a guy) will be working at the high school right by me in Falalop, and Emily (love her!) will be working on the other island at another elementary school. So if I ever need to vent in English, I can just go to them!
Dress in Woleai is a bit different. Men in Woleai wear a loincloth. Now, when I think of loincloth, I think of Tarzan, but these actually cover a lot more then Tarzan’s did. Women wear a special skirt called a lavalava, which I get to learn how to make!! They wear a lot of lei’s, but not much else up top. I think it is going to be a little awkward at first, especially working so close to Porter, but I don’t think it will be too much of a problem. I mean every one else won’t be wearing a shirt, so if I were to wear one, I would be the weird one! Now, teaching with no shirt may be a little odd at first…but I’ll have 2 years to get used to it right?!
Regina, my Program Administrator, showed us some pictures of Woleai this afternoon, and they are absolutely perfect. Just picture an island paradise with blue waters and white sand, jungle in the background and island people doing dances in grass skirts…that’s where I’m going! I feel that I completely lucked out when it comes to locations. And the people that I am with are way cool too!
We have one more week of training here on Pohnpei, and then we are all off to our main islands for more training! I think there are about 7 of us going to Yap where we will have 6 weeks of training in language, community, culture, and education. Then we swear in as PCV’s and we are off to our sites!! YAY!!