Landed at Last!

Kaselelie! (Greetings in Pohnpeian)

After traveling from Chicago to L.A., L.A. to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Majuro, Kwajelein, and Kosrae, we finally landed on beautiful Pohnpei to a receiving line of beaming Peace Corps staff and current volunteers. Each of us received a marmar, or headdress of beautiful local flowers. Shortly after we arrived, we were blessed with a quick rain shower--a good omen in Pohnpei.

We spent our first evening exploring the main street of Kolonia, the largest town in FSM where you can find places like Wall Mart and open air storefronts, locally made appliqued skirts, and restaurants which serve a combination of local, American, and Japanese fare.

This morning I had a delicious breakfast of tuna omelette, then headed to the Peace Corps office where I was delighted to find from the local coordinators that a sewing club would be much appreciated wherever I am posted and that my theatre background will be very useful for teaching ESL! I have a lot to look forward to!

The remainder of our weekend included a few hours of training in culture, safety, and what to expect for the next few days and weeks and time to get to know one another (the volunteers and PC staff)--lots of volleyball, card games (cribbage!) and sitting around just "being" together. Monday morning (when all of the shops were again open after observing the day of rest), we all cleaned out the few shops in town of local skirts and stamps to write home! This afternoon we head to our training site, a rural community an hour outside of Kolonia. All the Peace Corps volunteers from the previous two years have said how beautiful this community is, so I cannot wait to see it!