Mangos, Milestones, & Multicultural Day

It's mango season in Pohnpei. As we've been gifted bags upon bags of mangos the last few weeks, we've perfected the art of eating a mango. The first, and most essential step, to easy mango eating is proper placement: if possible, stand over a sink (for easy clean up post-mango eating). Once you slice or tear the skin off it becomes a juicy, messy mango free for all. Floss is normally involved, at least in my case, to get all the mango out of my teeth. I've started bringing my floss to school because more than likely I'm going to be offered a mango throughout the day.

Besides the mangos, its been a week of milestones. Last Tuesday, I celebrated 18 months in Pohnpei and it was the 100th day of school! My students and I celebrated with lots of 100 themed activities. My favorite activity of the day was our old men/women craft (the boys thought that putting a mustache on their old man was the most hilarious thing I've ever told them to do) and accompanying writing. The students filled in the sentence: "When I'm 100..." with some comical responses. My favorites were:

When I'm 100...

-I'll be ugly
-I'll drink so much coffee
-I will be old like a grandma
-I will drink sakau
-I won't be able to see when I drive and I will get into an accident.

We also started a brand new big concept this week...long vowel words with Silent E! We used magic wands to introduce the topic of "Magic E" and they loved it. It's exciting to see how much my 1st graders have grown since August and be jumping into the world of long vowels.

The last week of January ended with another big milestone: our Multicultural Night! PCS is a very diverse school and we celebrated the different cultural heritages of students with a night of songs, dances, and food from around the world. I helped out with the Hawaiian hula group and the Pakistani group (we have 2 sisters at our school who are half Pakistani and half Pohnpeian) and was so proud to see the culmination of all of our hard work. For a few weeks, all of my breaks and lunches were filled with group meetings or practices. It is safe to say that I'm happy this event is over and was a success! Other performances included Pohnpeian, Yapese, Chuukese, Japanese, Kosraean, Cameroonian, and Tahitian songs and dances. I took a few videos when I had the chance to document the night!

First we have the Pohnpeian boys doing a war dance. Legend tells that when Pohnpeians first came to the island, they fought with the ghosts living here using this war dance!

Next up is a Chuukese welcome dance. They performed this dance in Chuuk a few months ago when the Archbishop visited!

This is the Hawaiian hula group that I helped oversee/coordinate. I could only record a bit before I had to go back and help my next group. The girls did a wonderful job - I wish I could move my hips like they can!

These Pakistani sisters did a beautiful job with their dance! I was so proud of them for rocking the stage just the two of them!

The next 2 clips are from the Yapese dance. The Yapese have a way with entrances - the biggest part of their performance was getting everyone on stage in such a loud, excited fashion! I loved the Yapese flower mwaramars, too. So beautiful!