My Family

My family here does not have the typical family structure. Rather than having host parents, I live with three sisters. Samery, my oldest sister and host, is 30 years old. It seems very special to have a sister here the same age as my brother back home. She is a teacher at the school. Sandra is 16 and is a junior. Samery has started to call us twins, which I find quite amusing. Sasa is 10 years old and is the youngest of all the sisters (there are more I haven't met).

When I first arrived Samery was on Weno, so another sister, Maxie, was my host for the first ten days or so. I believe she is 24. Maxie is married and she has a son, Martson, who is around quite a bit. I think Martson will be three years old in a month or so. Martson understands more Chuukese than I do and I wish I knew what he was saying when he talked to me! Maxie was a great host when I arrived. I thought she lived in the house too and it wasn't until she said goodbye, after Samery arrived, that I understood she lived in a different house.

In addition to all my sisters, there are four high school students living with us, three girls and one boy. There are only two high schools among many islands, so high school students from other islands live with sponsor families for the entire school year.

Having so many people at the house is wonderful. At first I thought it might be odd to live with one of my students, but it has not been an issue. I think everyone here are so used to having people overlap into different parts of their lives that they don't even think about it. It makes me wonder if I'll live and work in same community in the future. I enjoy it here!

Every day there are many other people that visit and sleep at our house in addition to those I previously mentioned. I think most of these people are cousins. The majority of the visitors are male, ranging in age from elementary school to about 30. At any moment they might be chatting, drinking coffee, cooking, playing ping pong, relaxing, sleeping, or singing and playing ukulele. I will never have to worry about being lonely with all the people at home.

One day I asked Samery why she was willing to host so many people. She has five extra people in her home between me and the students. Her answer was simple and warmed my heart. "I like to care for people," and she does a great job. My family includes so many more people than my sisters and I am happy to be a part of the family.