Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Week 2! I can't believe I'm almost halfway through!

Okay, POP QUIZ...what's wrong with this picture?

HA HA! Nothing according to the Cook Islands. Yes, the driving wheel is on the right side of the car and we are driving on the left side of the road. They keep laughing at me because I keep going to the right side of the car to get in. Even the minivan that our director Debi drives only has a sliding door on the left side and I keep standing on the right side and she always asks, "Do you want to drive today?"
And, boy are weekends relaxing. I have already finished all four of the books that I brought. Bad planning on my part. Good thing they have a library of books that other people that have stayed here have left behind for people like me.
If only the rain wasn't falling so much on Sunday and Monday. We are talking BUCKETS! These two pictures were taken within a half an hour of each other. It just suddenly started POURING.

and the wind got really going...it was really a storm. We started to really get a little down yesterday thinking that the rain would continue today, but ta-dah!!! It is a beautiful and sunny day.

So, some of the kids didn't show up for school on Monday since the only way for some of them to get to school is my scooter, they just don't come. I don't blame them, I don't like it and I ride on the bus and in a car.
Instead, we got to make pockets and library cards for some books that were donated to the school. It's funny, me being me, I immediately was thinking of a better solution for this and was thinking how we can make the pockets better and then somehow put it in a program so that when we put in the information about the book, ( the title, author, ISBN, etc.) we will just have to print up the card that goes in the pocket instead of writing it out.
Of course, I remember what we are here to do, and that is what they ask of us, not no to improve it, change it or anything else.


Here are some more of the kids I read with: Mariana, Memory(a very popular name here), George and finally I met Fariarii!!! He had missed all of last week and finally showed up on Monday.We read a book about Christmas decorations and there was a lantern, so we ended up making a paper lantern for him to take home.


One thing I wanted to show you was that the kids brush their teeth after their lunch. It is a very cute sight. They each have a water bottle with their toothbrush inside it and someone is in charge of the basket of brushes/bottles and the dispensing of the toothpaste and they all go out to the water spout and brush their teeth.
Something you hardly ever see in American schools, huh?


As promised, here is the "spread" we get at dinner from a local Cook Islander who cooks our dinners unless we go out to eat. Look Mom, RICE!!!
Tonight, we are going to the Rarotongan and will enjoy an Island show too. Hopefully the weather is good enough for the fire show too. You know, when they dance with fire on the beach.

So, this I had to take, don't ask me why. I was using the bathroom in a local restaurant and saw the sink.
Don't know why the rocks are in the sink, but I guess it adds to the look of it all. What do you think?
I hope all is well with everyone and I am missing you all.
Sharon


Sunday, September 28, 2008

Weekend's almost over!

It's Sunday and JoAnn and I walked to the nearby Maori Church. What an experience. They have lots of singing in the church which has FANTASTIC acoustics and all the men and women are harmonizing and it sounds like you are listening to a record.
Lots of ladies or "mamas" as they call them come out in their Sunday Best and the hats are really beautiful. After the sermon and songs, they invited us "visitors" to the hall right next door for a snack. We are talking potluck. No snack and tea here. LOTS of food. From cakes, doughnuts, breads, chicken, corn, salads, etc. It was a feast.
Then, I walked to town to blog today since there is nothing else open today. We are planning on having an early dinner around 2 and then just relaxing the rest of the night until we start work again tomorrow.


This is the lovely sunset we saw on Thursday night.
And yes, we did go to the EMpire theater and see HellBoyII. And even had our intermission ice cream. We left about 5 minutes before the movie ended because we were afraid of missing the bus and having to wait another hour for the next one, so we had to ask the motel caretaker, Mary what happened at the end of the movie.


JoAnn, Megan and I also walked to the market yesterday morning after breakfast and saw some neat sights. Coca Cola cans in a different language, and fresh local fruits and vegetables all on display and for sale.


Funny sight here, they spell "tire" with a "y"
So, it's TYRES for sale.
Ta-ta for now.
Will post in a couple of days.
Sharon

Friday, September 26, 2008

I survived my first week!

Kia Orana!
Last night our host Debi took us all to the Coral Club for a GREAT dinner. It overlooked the ocean and there was a pool on the deck. I had the chicken and it was lightly breaded and baked with a sweet onion gravy, served over some really great fries and a salad. Mmmmm...
Then a few of us headed toward the Staircase Restaurant for a bargain of $5.00 we got an island show with dancers and all. Luckily none of us were chosen when they go out and grab volunteers from the audience. The MC said that if they do even if you shake your head "no," it means "yes," and if you nod your head, that also means "yes," so you have to dance either way.



I really didn't want to show off the lack of skills I learned at the dance lesson on Tuesday. That stuff is hard to do.
Here another volunteer Gevinie, who ended up renting a car and has been driving me and Rei to to and from the school everyday. But she is only here for 2 weeks, so the last week, Rei and I are back to the bus again. Gevinie is from Piedmont and is retired from Levi Strauss.

What a cute car, huh? it's a Cabriolet. The only bad thing is that because of the humidity and the past few days of rain, it's quite musty and moldy smelling, quite like the library and the reading room we are working in. It's pretty bad. I hope I don't develop some respiratory problems because of it.
Here are Rei and Megan. Rei is a retired nurse originally from Norway with a great accent and a good sense of humor and she makes me laugh every day. Megan just graduated College and is from St. Louis. We were exploring the beach near our motel yesterday and I took this shot.
I've been playing with Shelley's camera and took some pictures with the "cloudy" setting and the black and white setting and the sepia one too. I was having too much fun. Those pictures you'll have to wait for, I took way too many trying to figure out the camera.
So, here are some of the kids I work with. There is Tiki, Melissa and Tyrone.
Tiki is reading from a Pokemon book, Melissa is proudly showing one of the books she finished and Tyrone is playing Sight word Bingo with me. They not only like to win a "regular" bingo, but then proceed to "blackout" the entire board before we can end the game.
Today, we had an athletic competition, they split up the school into 4 teams, red, blue, green and yellow.
Here they are marching onto the field.
they even dressed up one of their pets to support the Blue team.
I was measuring the "ball throw." Just throwing a tennis ball as far as you can.
Then, here is the awards ceremony. All the teams are grouped together and the awards for both junior and intermediate boys and girls were given along with the team with the most points.
Funny, when they come up to receive their awards, they have to dance to some random music they play over the speakers. They really liked it when this one boy, Reese, danced like they do in music videos, I guess that's what you would call it. Then all the younger kids would join in too.
It was a fun, but exhausting day. I am spent, but wanted to share with you what has been going on.
We have the weekend free, so I think a few of us are going to go on an island tour tomorrow and maybe a movie later on. There is only one theater and by coincidence the owners of the motel also own the theater. I think HellBoy is premiering tonight, but I think we will see either Tropic Thunder or request another movie. Debi says that sometimes Harry will just pop a movie in for you as a special request. Another funny thing, they break after an hour of the movie, no matter what part of the movie you are in and everyone goes out and buys ice cream before heading back into the theater to finish the movie.
I think I also will have to do laundry soon. I have a choice of using the motel to wash my clothes, but they don't have dryers so you get your clothes when they dry after hanging on the line in this climate. Otherwise, walk a bit down the road and pay a little more to have your clothes wash, dried and folded. i think it'll be worth it to pay more to have dry clothes.
Well, thanks for checking in, I'll try and blog again soon.
I've been coming to the internet place every other day for an hour instead of every day for half an hour.
Mei taki,
Sharon

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I'm still here!



(My motel room)

(My view from my motel)
"Kia Orana" (Hello) from Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

I'm a regular worker now, waking up at 6:30 (!!!)each morning, having breakfast with my other members of my group and taking the bus along with locals and school children. This time we actually made it to the school, yesterday we forgot to tell the bus driver our stop and when we saw the school go by, we all yelled, "Stop!" How embarrasing, but a lesson learned. I'm sure we were the talk of the rest of the bus riders after getting off...I'm sure they thought, " Such Amateurs!"
We are the Vaka 104, the 104th group to volunteer at the Cook Islands. Volunteers have been coming for the past 10 years.
Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I spent the I work from 8-2 and then spent the rest of the day with another volunteer, Megan, a recent college graduate who majored in Anthropology, and we explored the rest of the town that we haven't had a chance to see. What a great way to spend her time before going to graduate school. She has her whole life ahead of her...I'm a little jealous. Ah, to start all over again...uh, nah...I changed my mind. =)

I will try and take more pictures of my group and the kids I work with. The school is having an athletic competition on Friday, so most of our time will be helping take times and measuring out long jumps and such. No reading this Friday. Then next week, they are having a inter school competition at ther local stadium, it's all very exciting and the kids are really anxious to participate.

I helped with measuring the long jump and said to the other local teacher, that "It's almost like the Olympics." The kids were having a ball and they even had the preschoolers running their own "races" even though they are technically not in the competition.
It's a funny thing, they don't have a bell for breaktime, recess, lunchtime and dismissal, they have a couple of older boys beat on a drum. On the first day, every time we heard the drums, we had to ask, "What's that one for?" It was always one for the beginning and one at the end of the break.



I volunteered to type up the journal that we are all writing in for the rest of the group and will be having that in a blog off of the Global Volunteers site. That blog will be written by every member of our group and you'll be able to hear from different people with different points of view and see what they were doing on their work projects.

Yesterday, before dinner we also went to the Cultural Center and took a lesson from some young children, boys and girls. They were really cute.




We have a couple of local young ladies that cook us traditional American breakfast (eggs, french toast or pancakes) and dinner. The dinner is usually a local cuisine, lots of seafood and local vegetables. Very yummy!!! I'll take a picture of the "spread" tonight and post it on a later blog.
Stay tuned.
Thanks for the comments, I really look forward to hearing from all of you. I don't really have the time to answer emails, so feel free to leave a comment. It's truly a really bright part of my day.
Meitaki (Thank You!)
Sharon

Monday, September 22, 2008

First day of work

So, I made it through the first day.

We start each day with a quote, today's was "carpe diem" and then someone is in charge of writing in the journal and sharing it the next morning. so Bill wrote about our weekend and I am in charge of today's entry and will share it with the rest of the group tomorrow morning. Then, next Tuesday is my turn with the quote of the day.

If anyone has a good quote to share, share it in a comment and I'll share it with my group. It's suppose to set the tone of the day.

We arrived at the school after it had started so we kind of threw the kids off track and had to wait around for some of the kids to show up even though we sent the kids we had to find the next readers.
So, I am listening to readers in an elementary school everyday and one day next week, I will visit an "old folks" home and check it out. I don't think I could do it for any longer than that, but I really wanted to try it for a day.
The library was my second choice, but someone else got that. They really need a lot of support for the reading program.

The kids were cute as ever and read fairly well. I am so used to the younger kids, that these 4-6 graders are just amazing me. The thing is they "read" well, but don't comprehend what they are reading. so, you stop a lot and ask about the story, or I say things like, " what do you think about that?" or, "Have you ever done something like that?"

It starts out some good conversation and obviously the fact that I am Chinese has fasinated many of them. They want me to teach them how to speak Chinese. So, I gave a few lessons along with listening to them read.

We got a ride from our leader this morning, but caught a bus home. So, from now on, it's the bus from now on. Even sitting with a bunch of kids on their way home, I got to chat with them even for a few minutes. We got a bus pass good for the week's ride, but we cheated since we got a ride today and rode it to the town to hit the internet cafe. So, we'll use it to return to the motel.
I have also volunteered to keep track of all the items in the team room: extra clothes people left, books, and supplies like insect repellent and such. i told them I would be the person to do that since I will obviously have stuff to leave the next group. I so overpacked, but am glad I have everything I do.

Tonight we have a dinner with the community leaders. By the way, the food here is great, we have a local that comes and caters dinner for us each night. cool, huh?
And tell my Mom I get rice to eat, it is part of their main staples.Trying to keep hydrated, sometimes I forget.

I try and will post pictures the next time. Have some really good views from my motel. Reminds me a lot of the Corona commercials when the people are looking onto the beach sitting in lounge chairs.
Okay, I am almost out of minutes, ta-ta for now.
I hope everyone is well.
Meitaki (Thank you)
Sharon

Sunday, September 21, 2008

I'm here!!!

Greetings from Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
I arrived late around 10:30pm and waited around for my BIG backpack and was greeted by the Global Volunteers leader, Debbie and her husband James. they did their best to tour me around the city in the dark, so I got the gist of how everything is close by.
It sure looks different in the daylight. I snuck into my room while my roommate Joann was sleeping and quickly took a shower before hopping into bed. I couldn't figure the water out so I took a COLD shower. My other choice was SCALDING hot. Turns out, as I spoke to my roommate, the lever is broken and only gives you those two choices unless you hold the handle in a certain way while you shower.
My roommate is really nice, she is 69 year old divorcee that has started her life over again after being married for over 35 years to a surgeon, has four grown girls, and 8 grand children. She was a stay at home mom and now is a pastor. Her daughters live all over the world, so she basically has a home everywhere. Costa Rica, Spain, Peru, etc. She is originally from Minnesota and sounds just like the people in Fargo. She either visits her daughters or does one of these volunteer things. And now with the grandchildren, her first one is graduating high school and she will take her to Italy after her graduation. It's a tradition she would like to start with them, neat, huh?
We had a really nice chat today before I ventured out to the city today. The city is about a mile and a half from the motel, so I decided to hoof it. Not too bad, and I had plenty of water to keep myself hydrated.
Then, off to the only restaurant open today. Some good fish and chips, but I forgot about not ordering anything with ice, so when she came with my ginger ale, I was too embarrassed to say anything so I just ordered another bottled water to go and am trekking with that. Everything is closed because it's Sunday.
And the only bus route is clockwise on Sunday. Otherwise there is a clockwise and an anti-clockwise bus that leaves on the hour and the half hour. That is what I will be using to get to my work site during the week.
So, we it's free time until 3:30pm and we have a group meeting and discuss what we are about to start. Then, off to a dinner with a local.
So, here's my first random thought...did I technically add another day to my life by jumping the international time zone twice?

Oh, and I can't forget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Bestest Friend Cynthia!!!

She drove me to the airport on Friday and right before, we had an italian dinner in SSF and tried to use our Genenbucks, but unfortunately they were only good in Vacaville. The waiter gave us a shot of some dessert wine when we mentioned we were going to the airport. I took the shot since Cynthia was driving.

So, I hope you are celebrating my dear Cynthia!!! Happy Happy Birthday to the best friend in the whole world!!!

This place is amazing and beautiful. I definitely packed WAY too much, but what do you expect, I am a frustrated Boy Scout and wanted to be prepared. I guess I'll leave a lot for the other future volunteers to use.

Okay, I have about 10 more minutes left.
I'm going to sign off now and will blog later.
Leave me a comment...
Sharon

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Almost there!

Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand!

It was a grueling 12+ hour plane ride to get here, but they did feed me dinner and breakfast. And I got to see a couple of movies, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and Made of Honor. That certainly sufficed my action and comedy movie quota for a while.

They had screens at every seat and a remote that came out of your arm rest. You could even listen to music, watch recent TV shows, movies or play games. See, if you hold it horizontal, you can use it like a game controller. Cool, huh? All with complimentary headphones too.


This internet cafe is a deal, it's only $2 an hour and they have some cushy orange chairs to sit in. The first one I saw was down an alley and then you had to climb some rickety stairs, so I passed on that one and found this one instead and decided that liked the look of this one better.



So I am about 1 day and 5 hours ahead over here, it's actually Sunday here, but when I leave for the Cook Islands, I will arrive there on Saturday night. Wierd, huh? So, obviously the date and time is totally off on the pictures.

It's that darn international timeline.
So, I don't want to spend the limited time I have in Auckland inside, because it is a BEAUTIFUL day, I've wandered around the Harbor and just enjoyed being outdoors and not cooped up in an airplane.


Here's the Sky Park, I think I may head there next, but I may stop for some lunch first.
Sushi sounds good and you figure the seafood has to be good and fresh here, right?

Oh, thanks Shelley for lending me your camera, I'm still trying to figure it out. I did find the manual online and was studying it before I got here.

Thanks for checking in, next post will be from Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

I'll let you know if I get to do the work projects I wanted to do. Cross your fingers.

Sharon

P.S. I did call to check if AT&T had coverage in the Cook Islands, but I forgot to ask about Auckland, so no bars over here. I'll pay phoning it later at the airport I think.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Countdown!!!

Only two more days of work and I am off to the Cook Islands.
My flight leaves Friday night and I will arrive in Auckland, New Zealand at 5:30 am and my flight to Raratonga doesn't leave until 4:30pm.

My sister Betty researched some cool stuff I can do in Auckland while I am killing time. Maybe I'll take a tour of the town or something, I figure when will I ever be in Auckland ever again, huh?

I'm going to finish packing and get all my paperwork in order and I should be good to go. Thanks for everyone's well wishes. I will try and take lots of pictures and blog semi-regularly.

Wish me luck!
Sharon

Monday, September 1, 2008

welcome to my blog!

Hello,
Here's to stepping into the new day and age and start a blog to keep everyone up on what I have been up to.
Hopefully I'll be able to use it when I am away during my sabbatical and let you know what's going on.
First, from September 20-October 11, three weeks in the Cook Islands as part of the http://www.globalvolunteers.org/, then one week October 15-22 with my sister Betty and my mom in New York city and then another week October 22-29 in Washington D.C.
Then, two weeks of unplanned, not working, relaxing time until I return to work on November 10.

Leave me a comment!

Looking forward to blogging,
Sharon