School

Zara and Jonah started school on the first Tuesday after we arrived.  They are attending the SDA (Seventh Day Adventist) School in Pohnpei.  SDA is staffed by missionaries, mostly college students, who come out from the USA for 12 months and teach at the school.  Very few of them are actually training to be teachers – instead they could be majoring in anything from arts to engineering.  Some of them have a genuine passion for missionary work and teaching and others less so.  Some love it and others are quite homesick.  Therefore the standard of teaching can vary significantly. 

The teachers are provided with accommodation but they only earn US $50 a week and with this they are expected to feed, clothe and entertain themselves.  Some of them return home much skinnier than when they arrived.  Eat your heart out Jenny Craig!  You don’t need to go on an expensive diet…..just come to Pohnpei and teach for a year!  One thing I have noticed though is that like most Americans…..they all have perfect teeth!  Maybe they spend their money on toothpaste instead of food….LOL!

The school year here is based on the American system so Zara and Jonah have started half-way through the school year.  Summer holidays are from May – August.  So this year is a good year for them – two Summer holidays – not so good for Mum…..LOL!

We were able to choose which class (and which year) we wanted Zara and Jonah to go into and this was a hard decision.  It is one of those things where you have to go on your gut instinct and the advice of the other “mehnwai” (foreigners). 

Jonah has gone into Year 2 – this means he will spend 3 months in Year 2 and then move into Year 3 in August.  So he has skipped all of Year 1 and half of Year 2 – not bad for a 5 year old!  Jonah’s teacher has over 40 children in her class and with the very limited resources she has; she does a pretty good job.  She is certainly very strict….I guess you would have to be with all those kids!  Homework last night was funny though….Jonah had to label road signs on a worksheet as either “Information Signs” or “Safety Signs”.  Trouble was, we didn’t know what half of the signs meant!  I told his teacher that he wasn’t to blame if they were wrong – it was me that did most of it.  It will be interesting to see how I went!

Zara has gone into Year 3 – this means she will spend 3 months in Year 3 and then move into Year 4 in August.  Zara’s teacher is lovely.  She is very kind and she is one of the more interesting and interactive teachers at the school, who does other things besides making them work directly from worksheets all the time.  Zara has no “mehnwai” in her class, which makes it difficult for her (as they stick together and look out for each other) but she has already made friends with some of the Pohnpeian girls. 

School has been a hard, hard transition for all of us.  There have been, and continue to be many, many tears shed by all of us.  I cry when I leave them and I cry when I think about them during the day.  Two or three times a day, every day, they ring me and ask to come home. 

Any new school is a big adjustment but this one, even more so.  There is no nice way to put it….the school buildings are pretty dismal….if it was in Australia it would be condemned.  The children work from worksheets and textbooks that are twenty years old and falling to pieces and there are not even enough of these to go around.  The school desks and chairs are also old and falling apart but even then, some children go without.  We have to supply all of our own pencils, etc. including paper to write on, and our own toilet paper.

I worry about their health and safety the whole time they are there.  But this is one of the best schools on the island and the Pohnpeian and “mehnwai” kids who go there are lovely, kind and happy to be there.  They have also been very welcoming to Zara and Jonah. 

So where does that leave us?  Well, we are persevering with school four days a week.  I think the hardship and the cultural experience of a USA / Pohnpeian education will be invaluable to my kids and hopefully they will appreciate just how lucky they are to be eventually returning to the wonderful schools we have in Australia.  I know I certainly do.  Friday’s will be homeschooling.  Some distance education work from Australia and the rest of the day will be things like art, craft, music and cooking – things they once took for granted at school but that are now a much missed luxury.

I haven’t forgotten about Joshua….he is on a waiting list for preschool….more about that soon….

Kaselehlie!  

Louise