{"id":105,"date":"2013-06-19T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/?p=105"},"modified":"2014-07-09T05:35:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T15:05:34","slug":"janelle-santos-serves-in-peace-corps-in-pohnpei-micronesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/2013\/06\/19\/janelle-santos-serves-in-peace-corps-in-pohnpei-micronesia\/","title":{"rendered":"Janelle Santos ’10 – Serves in Peace Corps in Pohnpei, Micronesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Janelle Santos<\/a>\u2019 trek to a four-island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean began when she saw a notice in the Eisenhower Public Library in Harwood Heights. \u00a0\u201cI found myself intrigued,\u201d she said. \u201cHere was an opportunity to help promote world peace and friendship.\u201d \u00a0For 32 months, Janelle Santos faced constant 86-degree days and a lot of rain without benefit of electricity, gas or hot water.<\/p>\n

The Harwood Heights resident returned May 13 from Pohnpei, Micronesia, after serving as a member of the Peace Corps. \u00a0The population of the island is 35,000. \u00a0\u201cTechnically, I was in the federal states of Micronesia, a really small island nation,\u201d she said. \u201cI was an (English as a second language) teacher and community development teacher. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cI taught high school kids how to read and write English.\u201d \u00a0In return, the residents of Pohnpei taught Santos to speak Pohnpeian.<\/p>\n

Living as the residents live gave Santos the opportunity to become part of community, learning language and the crucial components of their culture. \u00a0Her favorite part was the traditional feast, called Kamadipw. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a huge party where everyone goes to the nahs, the community house, and celebrates the local leaders,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cEveryone brings a plate of food. There\u2019s ceremonial drink called sakau, more widely known as kava, and they slaughter pigs. And they dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos said she learned a lot about herself while in Pohnpei. \u00a0\u201cI learned about perseverance, commitment,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I learned to love and appreciate the people of Pohnpei. \u00a0She becomes wistful thinking of her days in Micronesia. \u00a0\u201cI was lucky to have my own room,\u201d she said. \u201cI had a mattress, but not much in the way of utilities. \u00a0\u201cThere was no hot water, but it was great. It\u2019s all part of the learning experience. \u00a0\u201cAnd I will never forget the welcoming warmth of the Pohnpeian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos graduated from Pennoyer Elementary School, Maine South High School and Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, where she earned degrees in international studies and sociology. \u00a0Santos now attends the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working on her doctoral degree in social work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janelle Santos\u2019 trek to a four-island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean began when she saw a notice in the Eisenhower Public Library in Harwood Heights. \u00a0\u201cI found myself intrigued,\u201d she said. \u201cHere was an opportunity to help … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/2010classnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}