Alexander

When I was in high school, one of my granduncle have a peace corps volunteer live with him and his family. His name is Jerick Abon, he's Asian but was born and raised in the United States. So we, the kids were encouraged to visit Jerick everyday after chores so we can speak English with him and he'll help us with our English. One day we went over to his house and my granduncle Walet but we call him using his traditional title Soumadau (so-mad-ow). Soumadau and Jerick were talking and I had to walk in between them. So I bent down when I walked between them. Jerick stopped talking and looked at me and asked, "hey Stephanie is your back hurting?"My uncle laughed and said, "Its traditional," then he explained. When two elders are sitting and talking and you walked next to them or passed them, you bend while you walk passed them and say ,"iheng" (eeh-short e- eng). And when you walk passed by elders on the road, sitting, or wherever they are, stop and

Before our going to Nett School, one of our Professors shouted to us, "break a leg guys." And I looked at her with a "what?" look and she laughed. Finally one of my classmates said, "oh thank you, I know what that means." And he told us the meaning. One of my classmates name Lynnsey laughed and say, "oh my goodness, imagine if I picked up a chair break Stephanie's leg." We all cracked up. Break a leg, that expression got us all like ,"whaaaat?"

Here on Pohnpei, we have certain ways of taking care of a pregnant women. When a women is pregnant, she is to be given a local medicine to drink. The medicine will help cool up the womb so the baby will not be too hot from lack of water. When women got pregnant here, the women often lost her appetite, she do not want to eat even drinking water. So that is why the medicine is made, the believe of all pregnant women do not like to drink water is still going on. There are rules for a pregnant women, shower before the sun rises  shower before the sun sets. these are the things that they are not allowed to do when pregnant, No walking during night  No eating while walking  No walking under the rain  No wearing of jewelries No shopping before the baby is born.  All of these things were often told to a pregnant women.All of these things are believed to be for the health of the pregnant women and her baby. There are also rules given to the husbands, they are to not have a hair cu

Today I will be blogging about something new. I will be talking about the workshop we did with the Teacher Corps at Nett School. So to give you a brief of how this started, I am taking four summer classes. And one of the classes are Solving Discipline class, supervised by Dr. Michelle Santos. So we prepared a power point on classroom management. There are three things we chose to talk about in classroom management. The first one is classroom rules and consequences, the second one is classroom routines and procedures, and the last one is tips and tricks for classroom management. We were divided into three groups to present on the three different types of classroom management. Our group was the last group to go. And I hate it, I really hate it. When the first one group started, the look on their faces when they got stuck on explaining something killed me. I stood up and sat back down. I often stood up and ran to the back to jump, shake my hands, and breath in and out. I was very nervou

Here on Pohnpei, most of the rules we kids learn are from home while growing up.  For females, we learn not to wash our hair when showering late at night. We learn that when royalty is in the Nahs, we females do not sit in the Nahs and with our legs hanging down to the ground, we call that "Sokmwotoutou" (sok-mm- ho-jojo). We also learn that females do not sweep the house at night, she will chase away the family members in the future, so instead the males get to sweep at night when needed.  We learn not to let our hair loose in the middle of crowd, people with jealousy powers will destroy the growing of our hair.  We learn not to laugh too loud and not to sit in crowds, we are silent and we stand up and help others because it is part of our culture.  We learn that when someone compliment you for what you are wearing, you take it off at that moment to give it to the person who complimented you.   When you were asked to be a messenger, be quiet and listens carefully so

Here on Pohnpei, there are five Municipalities, and they are Madolenihmw, Kitti, Sokehs, Nett, and Uh. I live in Madolenihmw, up until now I still do not know which municipality is bigger, whether it is Kitti or Madolenihmw. There is a debate about it and I did not know the result of the debate yet. However, each Municipality has their own Nahnmwarki (Pohnpeian for King). Where I live, when a King is appointed, he take his family and they leave to Temwen. Temwen is where Nahnmadol is located. They went to the Tehnpas (Pohnpeian for Palace). That place is only for kings and they will live there for as long as they have the title of Nahnmwarki en Madolenihmw (Madolenihmw King). Next to the Tehnpas, stand the church of Temwen. It is a church that was build by the forefathers. The elders of that community does not allow renovating the church. They only change the tin roof of the church when it is needed. They wanted to keep the church that their forefathers had built. However, outside of t

Nan Madol Runs in located on Temwen Island in Madolenihmw.  Nan Madol Ruins is one of the beautiful sites here on Pohnpei. Let me tell you the history or story behind those rocks. If you have ever heard of the story about Nan Madol and it is different from the story I tell you, this is because our history as been told orally, from generation to generation. History has been told from elders or grandparents to grandchildren. So information regarding our history changes overtime. Because our forefathers belief history is erased if we talk about it, so they leave out somethings and let it die with them.  Long time ago, two brothers came to Pohnpei, nobody knew where they came from. Their duty was to build an altar, where they can perform their rituals. Their names were Olosihpa and Olosohpa and they were very strong. They came here to Pohnpei and landed on the island of Sokehs. They settled somewhere shoreside of Sokehs called Ipwal. There they stayed for a long period of time

This is a sakau plant. A sakau is usually planted in the forest, this is because sakau plants need a soil that is usually wet and a place where it can get heat from the sun. So mostly today, if you go hiking in the forest, you might see a lot of sakau planted in the forest. The history of sakau was told that it has been brought from Kosrea. A canoe was being prepared to set sail to Pohnpei. A women snuck a branch of sakau in her underwear to brought it to Pohnpei. The sakau you drink in Kosrea does not have a smell and taste and here on the Island, the sakau you drink have a smell and taste. This is not a bad thing. Pohnpeians love the feeling they get from drinking sakau. Sakau became a big part of our culture. When going to a funeral, you will see sakau being prepared and bounded in the Nahs. When going on a wedding proposal, you see sakau being prepared in the Nahs. I am a Catholic and there is a time that we Catholics have sakau brought into the church and bounded in the church.

I got engaged at age 19 on a November. I was still in College at that time. My boyfriend's father met with my mom to discuss details about coming over at our house to ask my hand in marriage. There are ways of asking a girl's hand in marriage. The male has to gather his family members, does not matter who and which family attends. As long as you have supporters. They would need either sakau or coconut juice. When they arrive at the girls house, the head of the family will be the first one to go and everybody else will follow along. The first one will greet the whole family in the Nahs and announce the reason for the visit and everybody else's will follow along with the greeting. They all bow, greet, and take off their hats before entering the Nahs. And the female family, have to prepare food and drinks to welcome the quests, way of welcoming another family.  Nowadays, it is easier you can welcome another family with sandwiches and juice. Each family need to have a Nahs, a

Today a friend of mine will not be attending our class because one of his uncles passed yesterday. Our deepest condolences to you Chris and your family. Let me explain a little bit about funeral ceremonies we have here on the Island. There is a way of attending a funeral and showing the family or friend that we are there to support them. There are roles and responsibilities given to both men and women. They cannot attend a funeral if they do not brought with them what they were supposed to be bring. Men will provide pig and sakau, and yam and breadfruit depend on what season it is. (The Island has a season of when to pick breadfruit and when to dig up yam). There is a certain way of showing up to a funeral, a men have to wait for his family members because they have to show up to the funeral together along with the pwihk (pig) and sakau. Even if the pwihk or sakau was provided by only one men, he has to wait for his other relative men to join him. The larger in size of the  pwihk

Hey! I am Stephanie Alexander, I'm a Microneisan.In Micronesia, four states come together forming the Federated States of Micronesia and the four Islands are Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae.  I was born and raised on the Island of Pohnpei. Pohnpei means stone alter . Pohnpei is the garden island in Micronesia. It is the largest and the tallest island in the FSM. Pohnpei is famous for the relaxing drink sakau, a kava-like brew. Watching sakau being prepared is an experience unique to Pohnpei. The pepper plant is taken from the wild and presented at a special ceremony. When it comes to relaxing, try a drink of sakau, the numbing local drink used in ceremonies and also sold in local markets.  **Thank you for reading, if you have questions or concerns, leave them in the comments. **