April Activities

Greetings!

A lot of interesting things happened in April, especially at the end of the month. I thought I'd mention a few. It couldn't hurt, right?

School went along swimmingly. We ran an after school library, to the students' enjoyment and the paperback books' rapid deterioration (it's humid here!). I finally got back out on a boat to go to a small picnic island/islet called Nahlap. And then I got on a boat again to go to a snorkeling place called Manta Row ... at which I ACTUALLY swam with enormous manta rays! Back at the homestay, I witnessed my first pig birth (slippery) and survived a toddler relative accidentally getting into my room and trashing a lot of stuff (emotional but good ... can post on that in more detail later).

And then there were a lot of photo opportunities.

In honor of Easter I went muumuu shopping with my friend Cori Jo. On actual Easter, I went to church with my family. (Nohno Melihper and I are pictured below.)




On the last Wednesday in April I participated in the Education USA College Fair, an event for students on Pohnpei interested in pursuing higher education in the States. I sat at a table with a homemade Harvard sign and talked a lot about wonderful opportunities and ridiculously generous financial aid packages. By the end of the day I was feeling quite nostalgic.

Two days after that, Lukop Elementary School built an Earth Day Garden with US Embassy and USDA. We were a week late because Earth Day fell on Good Friday this year, and religion trumps international environmentalism any day of the week in Pohnpei. But we enjoyed a nice afternoon reflecting on how to be better caretakers of our world, and we learned how to use both chicken AND pig manure in rows and raised bed gardening! We planted cabbage at the school (a week later the little green shoots are already up!), and each student got to take home a citrus seedling to plant and tend at his/her home. Thanks to Michaela Corr of the US Embassy of FSM for coordinating this event!


Later that evening, we had a sillier photo op/publicity moment at our Princess Party in honor of the Royal Wedding. Aside from making it onto CNN, I was most proud of the pillbox hat I had fashioned out of construction paper and paperclips.

Things to look forward to in May include graduations and celebrations of all sorts. I'll do my best to keep you posted.

Much love,
Mollie