Hello
Again : ]
So
as I alluded to in my last post all of the JV’s of Micronesia recently got
together for our Re-Orientation/Dis-Orientation. (Re-O for the 1st
years and Dis-O for the 2nd years) I think being so far removed (on
this tiny island in the Pacific) it is difficult to feel that we are connected
to a larger organization. Our community practices all the pillars of JVC and we
hang out with the Jesuits every week but we feel more connected to our schools
and each other than this national organization. But Re-O is a chance to remind
us that we are not alone and bring us back to some ideas and goals that we may
have slipped away from in the past year.
For
Micronesia, Re-O/Dis-O is a big production. The Pohnpei volunteers (the 4 of
us) need to fly to Chuuk to meet up with the 9 JV’s over there! No busses,
trains, or even boats for us, no, we need to fly to see each other (which kind
of totally sucks since we really wish we could see each other more often…)
Anyway,
first our program coordinator, Paige, came out to Pohnpei for a site visit and
then all 5 of us flew to Chuuk. It was so crazy to actually leave Pohnpei. All
of us kept discussing how it allowed us some much needed perspective. We get so
caught up and close to what we are doing that leaving the island allowed us to
really see how our year as been and we realized our strengths and maybe some
things we could work on. It was totally great.
It
was also great to see all of our friends!!! Mer, Kristin, and I had made 4
(Mackenzie, Tess, Rose, and Chris) really fantastic friends at Orientation only
to not see them for almost a year : [ So that was so amazing. We loved hearing
how their year had been and discussing what was similar and different between
the two islands and the 3 different communities. It was also totally incredible
to meet the second years of Chuuk. We had already met Kathryn, since she had
spent the summer working in Pohnpei, but we didn’t know the other 4 second
years at all. Ben is another BC grad! So that was great for some reminiscing.
And Meghan, Melissa, and Will were all super kind and welcoming and it was a
total bummer that we could only spend 10 days with them (luckily, all 3 of them
will be stopping in Pohnpei on their ways home – so we get to see them again!)
So
anyway, we got to Chuuk and finally got to see Saram(one of the JV sites – it’s
a high school) and then we headed out to Pisar(a picnik island) the next day
for our retreat. Now, let me just say, Pisar is arguably the most beautiful
place on Earth. I want to take everyone I love to this amazing island, even
though I like have no connection to Chuuk. It is that amazing. It is this tiny
all sand private island right by the reef of Chuuk Lagoon. It is impeccably
clean, has a few rooms, one nice open house with a toilet, an ut(?) (it’s like
a little hut), a bucket shower opened right up to the ocean, tons of palm trees
with coconuts to drink, and a bunch of awesome hammocks. I slept in a hammock
every night we were there and got to look up at the stars through the palms before
falling asleep and woke up to an unreal view of the sunrise. Oh man, just
writing about it is making me nostalgic.
Besides
the beauty of Pisar and the excitement of seeing/meeting all of our friends we
had an excellent retreat. The theme was bread of life. It was so fitting - there
were so many puns, I loved it. Here are two highlights I loved:
We
continually talked about the sharing of bread - “Bread, the universal symbol of
that which can be shared” and I totally loved that because I am all about
sharing yourself with others and being with and listening to other people’s
stories. One great quote we had: “we are broken, not in revenge or cruelty, but
in order to become bread which can be given as food for others” We are broken
in order for us to share ourselves. This reminded me that any struggle or
frustration I have here can actually be beneficial to make me more vulnerable
and more open to sharing. I’m guessing that’s one way I’ll be “ruined for
life”… It was almost as good as all of the “kneaded” puns we had. You are not
only needed here but how were you kneaded here? Such a good theme.
Another
really great thing we talked about was sustainable ministry. Now I know anybody
with a job can relate to me here that it is easy to become burnt out. It feels
like you are constantly working and you forget to make time for other important
things in life. We discussed how and why it is important to be sustainable in
order to continue to be able to give of yourself fully. Kathryn, in all of her
eloquence compared sustainable ministry to a tree (either palm or fig or any
kind….) where the tree is always bearing fruit but it continues to grow. No one
at Re-O could compete with that definition but I found this quote that I think
relates to this question. ”The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it,
and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing
else in the Universe to do.”(Galileo) Even when there are huge things depending on us or we have big
responsibilities we still need to give our energy to the smallest but still
remarkable wonders.
These
ideas really stuck with me and I hope to really integrate them into my second
year in Pohnpei. Far and away the best session at retreat though was the second
year’s send off and the “passing of the torch” to the first years. These were
the only sessions actually planned by the JV’s but they were awesome! For the
second years we made a “tunnel of love”, “circle of memories”, a beautiful
spoken word poem, and a hilarious skit imitating all of them, they loved it!
And for us they wrote beautiful messages to share with us and showed us how
much they trusted us to take over by doing trust falls into our arms. It was a
really amazing night.
After leaving Pisar (super sadly) we still had two more nights in Chuuk and we
were able to celebrate Kathryn’s birthday with a rooftop dinner and spend a
night at Blue Lagoon (a pretty fancy diving resort in Chuuk). And finally we
were able to visit Xavier. It was really special for me because my students
have been telling me about Xaiver and how much they want to go there and how
amazing it is for the past year and I finally got to see it. It was a really special
place and all of the boys we met there (it is a boarding school for the boys…)
were so kind and mature. I am SO excited for my PCS grads who will be attending
Xavier next year. (7 were accepted, but I think 5 are going…)
Sadly all good things must come to an end and on Sunday night we drove down the
atrocious road from Xavier to the airport with 9 JV’s piled into one car and
said our goodbyes. It was sad to say goodbye to all of our friends but we had
also come to realize that we missed Pohnpei, our home, and we were looking
forward to being back on our island.
Re-O was a magical experience and I cannot wait to visit Pisar again. It marks
a midpoint in our service and hopefully it will bring us all back to our hopes
and goals.
Now we are just looking forward to this jam packed summer, making the most of
our last 3 weeks with Brian (I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT!), eventually welcoming our
new community mate Emily and starting out fresh with a new school year.
I will finish this novel now with a haiku I wrote at Pisar, it references both
the bread theme and the beautiful ocean constantly surrounding us.
In
order to LOVE,
One
ought to be broken, shared;
Ripples,
waves sent out
