All Sworn In!

11-6-09
Swear in day! We’ve made it through training. It’s been a long and busy 9 weeks filled with language training, TESL, and cultural sessions. I think everybody is ready for it to be over with and to get to their permanent sites, settle in and get to work. For us it’s a little bit less of a transition since we are already at our permanent site. We will however be moving to a little house next door to our host family! We’re pretty excited because we’ll have a little more privacy and be able to cook our own meals, giving us a bit more control over our diet. Plus, we love cooking and have missed being able to cook. We’ll post some photos of it soon hopefully.

We’re excited to begin our ‘real’ work. Kerry and I will be working at two different elementary schools in a slightly more remote part of the island. Kerry, especially. We’ll both be teaching 4th or 5th grade English classes and will have pretty good hikes to our schools. Kerry about 45 min walking and mine will be about an hour. We’re hoping that we’ll get to know some people better in the area and can eventually get rides in sometimes, especially in the mornings, so we’re not soaked with sweat by the time we get there.

We are getting used to the weather….finally! Trade wind season has arrived, so there is a breeze at least fairly consistently in some areas. Its been a nice relief.

On a different note….The FSM has a very unique relationship with the US. It had been under Japanese occupation until WWII, at which point the US took control of a huge swath of ocean which also included the Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, Rota, Palau, and the FSM. It was under US administrative control until 1986 when FSM became independent. This was the goal since the 60’s, it just took awhile for the FSM states to develop their infrastructure and administration to the point that it was feasible to be independent. Beginning in 1985ish, the FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the US. This compact gave the FSM a substantial amount of aid money each year, the right to serve in and guaranteed protection by the US military, and the right to move and work freely in the US and US territories, amongst other things. In exchange, the US gained control of their territorial waters and airspace. This original compact was binding until 2003, at which time things would be re-evaluated. In 2003, they signed an amended Compact through 2023 which kept most of the major points the same, but changed the allocation of the aid money slightly. The total amount of money remained similar, but the FSM was required to place a higher percentage of it into a trust fund, which in theory will be large enough by 2023 to allow FSM to be relatively self-sustaining. Also unique, is that this arrangement is managed from the US side by the Department of the Interior in lieu of the State Department. Who knew??