Island Hopping

This past month I had the opportunity to begin teaching a concentrated, "distance education" class on the island of Tol, a part of the Chuuk Islands (formerly known as the Truk Islands). It was quite an experience.

For starters, the approximately 1 1/2 hour flight ended with a landing on Weno, a feat not terribly unlike landing on an aircraft carrier:

one minute I was over the water. . .



. . . the next on the runway! And yes, these photos were snapped as consecutively as my digital camera would allow them to be!


I arrived late on a Friday morning and was greeted by our Tol Campus Director's wife with a lei and maramar (floral garland for the head). We then went immediately to PIBC's Weno Teaching Facility (see first photo above) where I was scheduled to give a TOEFL (English proficiency test for non-native speakers of English) exam to about 30 students who had applied to PIBC. I spent about an hour preparing and organizing the exams and relaxing a bit. From noon to 3:00, we held the TOEFL exam. What troopers! These students gave up 3 hours on a hot, humid afternoon to take this intense examination!

After the exam I was treated to a snack - some breadfruit, fresh fruit, rice and chicken - and had some time to visit with a few of our staff members at Weno and their family members. Then it was off to the harbor to board the skiff for the 50 minute boat trip up to the island of Tol. The ride was a little rough, but not bad . . . I was warned that my return ride on Sunday would be much choppier! The trip across the lagoon is about 18 miles. The Chuuk Islands are actually the remnants of the rim of a large volcano and the lagoon is the crater of that volcano (now extinct, of course). That's one large volcano!

I arrived on Tol near sunset and was greeted by the students singing a greeting song; they also had made 2 lovely maramar for my head! I was ushered to my little "apartment" for the weekend and given a bowl of fruit, just in case I got hungry between the plentiful meals they provided for me! I got a shower and then had a lovely dinner provided by Senney and Charles from the Tol Campus staff. There was chicken, fish, breadfruit salad (like potato salad), rice, papaya, and cooked bananas.

After dinner, I went to the classroom and gave the first 2 hours of the roughly 9 hours of instruction the freshman writers were to receive over the weekend. They were a wonderful group, very lively, cooperative, and fun to work with. The next morning, as you can see, we were back in the classroom again, this time diving into C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The rest of the students (non-freshman) had other activities, like hanging out the weeks' laundry to dry on the fence along one side of the basketball court.

After our morning and afternoon sessions, I had a bit of time to walk around the campus. Although the campus has no electricity other than the 4 hours produced by generator each night, it is rich in natural beauty. The students pick breadfruit and bananas right on campus. In addition, they have plenty of local flowering plants to provide materials for leis and maramar for visitors.


Water is provided from the rainwater that is collected from roofs. This large blue metal container is a collection tank poised outside my second story apartment.

All showers are of the non-heated variety! :-) This building with the blue-green "windows" is the outside of the girls' shower room.

Some people might find Tol a bit "primitive." On the contrary, I found it to be a lovely and relaxing weekend, in spite of the testing and lecturing. The students and staff were so welcoming and the campus surroundings were quite a bit like being at summer camp or on a retreat.

All too soon, it was Sunday afternoon and time to return to Weno for my flight home. Maggie, our Tol campus director's wife, considerately brought me a flotation cushion to sit on for the ride back across the lagoon, as well as a life vest. I thanked her for the cushion but declined the life vest: I felt that the cushion, being a flotation device, would be sufficient. However, after we got going, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake. It was pretty choppy - a bit like riding one of those mechanical bulls for an hour and twenty minutes! (Yes, the ride back took longer since we were going against the current in rough seas.) I blessed Maggie a dozen times or more on that return ride for the cushion in lieu of sitting directly on the plywood bottom of the boat, as I had done on the way there. The photo at the right does NOT do the ride justice! I actually only had the courage to try and snap 2 photos on the trip back - I didn't want to lose my camera! (That is Weno in the distance.)

Pray for me and the PIBC Tol students as I have three more trips of this type to Tol, involving concentrated teaching and then leaving students with a month's worth of work to do. Pray that I would be able to create handouts and assignments that the young men and women can successfully complete without the benefit of weekly classes. Pray that God would help the students to be diligent in their work.
God bless! Check back in about a week for more updates! Melody
(This last photo is PIBC, Tol)