Up To Speed

Many exciting things have been happening and I haven't been doing a good job of updating my blog about what's going on. Today, I'll be catching everyone up to speed about my adventures and work on the island, so please excuse the extra long post!

Island adventures: 

Since arriving on the island, I have hiked to two gorgeous waterfalls, danced at a local hula party, and camped out on a smaller island for a weekend. The first waterfall that I hiked to was with John Schroer, Catherine, Denessa (a sweet local girl), Denessa's brother and his friend. This waterfall is called Twin Falls and the climb to it was extremely slippery but worth it!

Climbing the Slipperiest Steps I've Ever Seen

Once we reached the top of the waterfall, Denessa said that she would jump the 15ft drop with me but in the end it was just a trick to get me into the water. So now I can proudly say I've jumped off of a 15ft cliff before and man was it fun!

Left to right: Me, Denessa, and Catherine

Twin Falls

 The next waterfall I went to was with Denessa, Catherine, John, and two of our other fellow student missionary's Ryan and Charles. This waterfall was called Pahntakai waterfall and it wasn't just a waterfall but also a bat cave. The hike wasn't very long but almost every view from the trail was breath taking! Once we reached the waterfall, we were in awe of how the water draped over the mouth of the huge bat cave, I've never seen anything like it.

Pahntakai Waterfall and Bat Cave

 After hiking to Pahntakai, we all got ready for dinner because we received an invitation to go to a local hula birthday party. This birthday party was being held for a well respected Japanese man on the island and he invited John and his missionaries to join him for the celebration. So with that invitation we gladly came to watch the hula show and wow these hula girls can really dance!

Hula Dancers at the South Park Restaurant

 There were two teams of about 7 girls that performed a variety of hula dances while we ate dinner. Everyone was having a great time when suddenly the hula dancers came into the crowd and picked our group to dance with them in front. These hula girls really put our little group to shame because none of us could dance at their level although it was really fun trying! 

The next big adventure was just this past weekend, for Catherine's birthday John decided to take all the missionary's and Denessa to a private island. We packed up all our gear into big plastic buckets because the boat trip is very rough and as you can tell it's not that big of a boat so water can really get inside the boat and splash us.

Heading out to Black Coral

Left to right: Me, Catherine, and Denessa

 So we headed off from Pohnpei to a lovely little island called Black Coral. Once we reached the island everyone was in awe of how small and beautiful it looked. The island was so small that you could walk around the entire thing in 5-6minutes. There is a wonderful couple (a man named Urchin and his wife) that lives on the island and they often house visitors for a small fee of $5 in a hut much like this one:

The Hut

 We spent the rest of our day setting up hammocks to sleep in and a fire to cook our dinner. Here's Denessa cooking rice for our group, she is such a great help and I have so much to learn from her about island life.

Denessa Fanning the Fire

After setting up camp, Catherine and I explored around the island and we still couldn't believe how peaceful and remote this place was. Here are some pictures that Catherine and I took while exploring the island:

The island had hundreds of dime-sized hermit crabs crawling everywhere on the ground. From a distance they look like small rocks until that rock starts growing legs and moving. There were also several huge crabs and birds in the trees. For the most part you didn't really see them. After we ate dinner we played a variety of card games and hide and go seek. There is no electricity on the island so when I say we played hide and go seek I really mean it was pitch black and we couldn't see that far in front of us the whole time which made it much more exciting. 

The next day after receiving 40 bug bites some time during my sleep, I woke up and went snorkeling along the shore. Not many fish were out but the water was very clear and I enjoyed it so much that after eating breakfast I went snorkeling again. Eventually all the student missionaries got into the water and John helped Catherine learn how to swim for her birthday because what better way to celebrate your 21st birthday then by learning to swim at a private island?

(Look how clear this water is! Now if only there were more fish)

Blue Sea Star ft. Ryan Goldring

Taking selfies under water while Catherine learns how to swim

 Afterwards, we packed everything up and headed for home. But of course we had to take several more pictures before we left, so here are all of the student missionaries standing with the couple who owns the island:

Left to right: Denessa, Ryan, Catherine, Me, Charles, Urchin and his wife

And here I am saying goodbye to their dog Poi. Poi is most famous for his ability to catch fish and even small sharks so I felt honored to have met this furry shark slayer.

Poi the Shark Slayer

 Once we got home and everyone was unpacked we threw a surprise birthday party for Catherine. Here she is blowing out her candles. And with that we had a nice close to our big weekend :)

Catherine's 21st Birthday

Island work: 

When I first came here I thought I would be working inside the schools with the children who needed Speech Therapy right away but to mine and Johns surprise there is already a SLP on the island (keep in mind that things move a lot slower on the island and important information doesn't always reach John in time).

This sweet lady named Joyce is the only SLP for about 30 public schools on the island. This means that she has a huge work load and not enough time or resources to properly care for each of her students. A week ago I met with Joyce and she was so incredibly happy to find out that I'm here to work as a SLP on the island. Joyce tells me that she needs all the help she can get! The materials she uses to work with the kids are extremely outdated or not understandable so she has asked me if I can make better communication boards for the kids to use. For those who don't know what those are, communication boards are what speech pathologists use to get the kids to communicate. These boards have certain types of pictures on them that children can use to identify what they want to say. Here are some pictures of what they look like:

I have teamed up with Joyce to not only update her resources but also lighten her work load. She has about 7 kids she would like me to start working with. We are currently getting the permission of their parents to allow me to treat them so it looks like I will start working with the kids next Monday. This has really been a great answer to prayer because I have been eagerly waiting for the past three weeks to be allowed to start working. 

Several of the students we work with have more than just a communication problem but mental disorders as well, such as cerebral palsy, down syndrome and more. Now don't get me wrong, PUC did a lot to prepare me for my A.S. in Pre-Speech Pathology but I don't know nearly as much as an actual SLP. I am in constant contact (via Skype/email) with a SLP in California named Kit Caraig. She graduated from Loma Linda University and has been a SLP for several years now. Her help is really invaluable and she is actually Johns sister in-law, so she also shares a great enthusiasm for the mission field in Pohnpei. Between Kit, Joyce, John and I, we are all working on making a better Speech Language Therapy program for the kids on the island.

I am truly blessed to be here and excited to start working with these kids so please pray that all goes smoothly and that we are able to provide the proper help that these students desperately need.

Until next time!

Ruthie Holmes