Liora in Kosrae

I haven't written for lack of words to write, but instead for too many. And too many in a language that goes perpetually over my head, in one ear and out the other, with letters that I can't fit together on my tongue and tones that go flat when they leave my lips. I can't translate my life here in Kosrae out of Kosraean without twisting it upside down and inside out, but I'll try my best.

I spent the two weeks moving between a big house across the street from the ocean in a village called Lelu and the high school in another village further inland called Tofol. I lived with a family in Lelu, able to ease into life here thanks to them. The independence of living in a apartment is nice, but my family was great. Orientation was held in one of the classrooms at the school, next door to the room where I'm teaching my classes now. I spent the first few weeks accidentally introducing myself as a student. Now with papers to read over and comment on, lesson plans half written, and another day in front of a chalkboard behind me, it is beginning to sink in.

I'm learning how to walk slowly, to turn off the perpetual hurry. I'm starting to smell like mold and a pigs since my clothes never seem to fully dry in the humidity, and when I hang them on the line they seem to absorb the smell of the pigpens next door. I'm acquiring a taste for canned meats and sequins. Life is good.