Micronesia Up-dates: WAY Off-Loop Theatre

After an absolutely perfect visit home to Chicago, I’m back to this funny little island in the Pacific, and enjoying my students and my work twice as much as last year, now that I’m not on such a steep learning curve.

Today I started an after-school performance club with my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students, and I have to say, I can hardly wait til next Wednesday! There is not much that you could call theatre here in Pohnpei, apart from one life-size puppet show public health produces to educate people about HIV/AIDS (though it is rather a good one). The culture is based on oral tradition, but stories are never so much as pantomimed, let alone acted in a full production. So I have the extreme pleasure of introducing acting to the students of Salapwuk.

We started with physical warm-ups, some basic stretching and an 8-count shake-out. They loved it. I mean, if you’ve ever seen a group of actors warm-up before a play, you’ll agree that it’s a pretty interesting sight; but imagine never having seen a play before, never hearing the resounding projection of a classically-trained actor or seeing the physical possibilities of a well-trained body. Then imagine a strange white lady asks you to shake your arms and legs out while counting to 8, and then pretend to chew a piece of bubble gum that grows bigger and bigger as you chew. Of course they loved it: we all looked ridiculous and no one minded a bit.
Vocal warm-ups were next: the rhythmic repetition of consonants—t, d, k, g, p, b, s, z (and because Pohnpeians have trouble with distinguishing these letters), f, v. And wrap it up with a tongue-twister: “When does the wristwatch strap shop shut? Does the wristwatch shop shut soon? Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches, since Swiss wristwatches work swell.” (with several explanations about the words wristwatch, strap, shop, Swiss, and swell).

But it was when I introduced a game of charades that I realized I had my work cut out for me. And I’m excited to turn these kids into actors! ;-) I had some actions written down on cards for them to try and act out for the rest of the group to guess. My first student hopped into the middle of the circle, ready to go then . . . nothing. He just stood there, not able to mime holding a hammer and driving a nail in. And that’s when I realized how very foreign the whole concept of acting is here. I got up with him, and together the group figured out that we were building a house. My co-teacher from last year was also in the room; she loves the idea of acting out stories, so she was a big help in getting the kids up and moving. The next few students did a little better, and I’m sure by the end of next week, they’ll be miming everything, probably even miming doing their homework!


I have another exciting opportunity this year to work part-time with Island Research and Education Initiative in producing culturally-relevant, bilingual educational resources and materials. Our first project is to create a set of story books based on local legends. There are social studies, environmental awareness, early phonics and reading skills materials also underway. Please visit our website islandresearch.org to learn more!

Merna’s Questions: Part II

Promised comparison of U.S. to Pohnpei as requested by Merna: Can you compare the U.S. to Pohnpei: schools, grocery stores, streets, homes, baby equipment, snacks, etc

Schools	The Pohnpeian school system, started by European missionaries in the 18th or 19th century, has now been modeled after the American school system. It looks pretty similar to the American school system, but with extremely limited resources. And when teachers have professional development or training, they are given American educational research. Sometimes this is applicable here; sometimes not. There are also 'standardized' tests, but I don't think they've worked out all the kinks of those yet; the 3rd grade test was twice as long as the 7th grade test last year and half of it was in English, even though Pohnpeian is still the primary instructional language through 3rd grade.   The textbooks we use are mostly American, and pretty much irrelevant to Pohnpeian children. It tends to be kind of a craps shoot whether the textbooks you're given will be at all useful to you. I lucked out this year with a great reading textbook—selections from real books, not written-for-textbook selections—and geared toward ESL learners. Many schools have photocopiers, but they frequently don't work for one reason or another—they're out of ink, or, in our case, there's no electricity to start with (we do have a photocopier and a new overhead projector, but we're still waiting for the electricity to be connected).   The buildings themselves are concrete structures with tin roofs and open windows covered in wire screens. There are no hallways—my students don't even really know what a hallway is; the classrooms open out onto the sidewalk. The roofs slope far over the sidewalk to protect teachers and students from frequent downpours, although there is no way to block out the sonorous drumming of these tropical rains during lessons.
Grocery stores	No one-stop shop; the selection is limited by what comes in on the plane—you can sometimes wait months for one item to come, while there is an abundance of something you really don't need; prices vary greatly from day to day and store to store. Some imports are incredibly expensive (Pohnpeians envy how cheap cereals are in America—I try to remind them how expensive papaya and mangoes are, but they're not interested), while some are relatively cheap compared to U.S. prices
Streets	Only in Kolonia and the layout of the streets may make sense to someone from Boston, but to this Chicagoan, used to rectangular blocks and names that follow presidential history, Kolonia is a small, but confusing maze, and, unlike Boston where "you can't get there from here", every road seems to connect to everywhere else, so you just keep walking and you'll get there eventually. Apart from Kolonia, there is one road that encircles the island, and mostly gravel or dirt roads shoot off of it to the various communities. There are efforts to get some of these side roads paved.
Homes	Homes are usually a group of structures: one for sleeping, one for cooking and eating, sometimes one for storage (many of the Pohnpeians I know are hoarders—but they really do re-use a lot), a nahs for sakau. The local style is a wooden structure, usually with a dirt floor and one or two sides with a raised platform about seat height where people sit, cook, store things, etc. Roofs are corrugated tin or thatch. Some people have concrete houses of one, two, or more rooms. Where I live we have both: a concrete, two-room sleeping house, a local-style cookhouse, and a mixed style nahs (concrete floor, wooden frame, corrugated tin roof).
Baby equipment	Very little: strollers aren't much good on gravel and dirt roads, car seats exist, but not often used—mostly babies are held in the car; baby formula is getting big (but my aunts will be happy to know, there is a "Breast is Best" campaign);
Snacks	Soda with twice the normal amount or sugar, really sugary candies, and artificially-flavored, highly processed not-food (I don't know how else to describe it—packing peanuts, maybe?) from Thailand and China; these are the favorite snacks of Pohnpeians. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, I'd suggest ripe papaya, mango, or any of the many varieties of banana spread with peanut butter; those are my personal favorites. You can also nibble on sugar cane, and for the true local spirit, try the breadfruit. ;-)