all over the place

Currently I’m sitting at a hotel using the internet after lunch. While eating lunch though, some girls from a once a year cruise ship were in the restaurant. I witnessed a hysterical moment, yet realized that I used to be on the other side so recently. So, culturally, girls legs are sacred, and the girls from the cruise ship were dressed, scantily. They were wearing short short shorts and midriffs shirts with heal, needless to say, in this conservative culture. That is NOT ok! So, at I watched this young lady walk past. So did the four Chuukese women at the counter. I watched one of the lean over and check her out with Oh My God eyes. All of the ladies had Oh My God faces on, and then they saw me watching them and looking at the same thing. All 5 of us started laughing!
Awesome.

Anyhow, I wanted to share something one of my students wrote. This student is wonderful and seems to see what we see too. She can look at Chuuk with a critical and loving eye. The assignment was to write a paragraph connecting Chuuk and common good in any way she could. Here is her response:

According to the web definition, common good is the good of a community. In my own understanding, I understand that common good is the good that people share in the community or society. As for myself, I do not think I see common good in Chuuk for some reasons. Most importantly, the leaders are charting in their work. They cheat and as a result their plans do not work out such as the road, cleaning system, and electricity. Second, people are careless. They think of their own good. For instance, they help their own families instead of helping the community people. Last, the leaders and their people do not work together. If the people work for common good, then the problems should be solved. Therefore, I strongly state that there is no common good in Chuuk.

On other notes, I’ve been wanting to write a good essay on Chuuk and what’s going on, but there is so much it’s hard. Recently, I’ve felt to be in a paradox. There is beauty in my students, the tropical life, and relationships I have here. This beauty is indescribable, yet, I’ve felt a little trapped on an island seeing so clearly, so much, that’s been hard. The above paragraph explains a lot of that. I try to remember that my perspective is that of a 23 year old American that has been in Chuuk for only 15 months, but my response is still alive.

Daily I notice the silence that is cause by the culture. No one speaks up. I would say it’s apathy, but I really think it’s forced apathy because if someone speaks up they’re seen as disrespectful by society. Because no one can speak up due to social pressures, things are falling apart here. People explain how the society has digressed. It’s sad. As Chuuk is forced to meet the western world, everyone gets confused. As the culture shifts, men have lost their place and begin to drink more and violence takes over. Then there is education. Education seems like a way to combat some of the problems, but education is so undervalued here. Students don’t do homework, there is little parental support, and the school doesn’t always even take education seriously. Teachers don’t always show up to class or class is cancelled or shortened for some odd reason.

So recently, I have loved the students but have been really saddened. I feel like Chuuk is a place where people have lost hope and passion for life. Violence, alcoholism, and apathy rule while other things are put on the backburner. Family life is incredibly important and something we don’t see as much, but at times it seems to be more family verse family. My role here at times seems trivial, and then I remember the hard working students and keep going. There are plenty of aspects of Chuuk that keep me going, mostly the wonderful people, nature, and finding God, but it’s a hard place to understand and really hard to see a society in the situation that Chuuk is in.

These are just thought, not so organized and not what I wish I was posting, but thoughts nonetheless.

As I think this though, I look out over the water into the sun and see the other islands in the distance, hear the motors of the boats, and see the beauty here. It’s such a paradox, and none of my critical thinking can get me to understand what steps need to be taken here, probably because I know I cannot be the one to take them. The steps have to come from within. As cliché as it is, all I can do is plant the seeds and hope they will be fertilized.

I miss you all, and am trying to figure next year out…we’ll see what comes of that, but I will be on a plane somewhere around July heading for the US.

Love,
Jessica