Do You Like Micronesians?

[oink]

Where have you been? Try visiting magazine racks, especially in areas with large percentages of ethnic minorities.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[wyatt]

This from This mornings Star Bulletin

Homeless family finds language, new culture additional barricade

By Pat Gee

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 29, 2009


Silvia Jack brought her children to Hawaii from Micronesia because she wanted them to receive better schooling that could open doors of opportunity.

But the price of education was losing a place to call home.

She came from a small community on the island of Weno in the Chuuk state, where it was common for people to live with their relatives, she said.

"It had no more homeless people. I come here, I see plenty people homeless," she said.

And now Jack and her family are homeless, part of an influx of Micronesian immigrants whom social service case workers have seen at shelters throughout Hawaii in the past several years.

Jack, her boyfriend and four children, ages 1 through 6, have been living at the Onemalu Transitional Shelter in Kalaeloa since June.

The public can help struggling families this holiday season by donating to the Star-Bulletin's annual Good Neighbor Fund, which supports the Adopt-A-Family Christmas program and the year-round Community Clearinghouse. Both are run by Helping Hands Hawaii.

Jack said, "I wish you to pray (for) us to find a home and some things my kids want" for Christmas, which include clothes and especially shoes.

Jack's family spent several months in Waipahu emergency shelters that allowed them only to sleep there at night. During the day, she sat with her two youngest children on the beach while the others attended school and her boyfriend looked for work, she said. He has a job now and Jack is anxious to find one herself. And she wants to improve her English, which she speaks hesitantly.

"I want English class. I want to learn. I want my house to stay in; my kids to stay in school. I don't want to go back (to Weno). They have school, but schools not good. I want to stay here," Jack said.

Her case manager, Polialoha Martin, said: "They've made huge progress for a family in a situation like this. They're very motivated, very compliant and cooperative. Silvia is ready to take herself to the next level. She's thinking she can work at night when her boyfriend comes home from work to watch the kids."

Martin said the language barrier is one of the main stumbling blocks for immigrants to overcome in adjusting to a new culture and finding work. In Jack's case, her English is functional, but she needs the self-confidence to show a prospective employer she can perform on the job. The shelter does not offer English classes on site and Jack can't afford to take a community college class, Martin said.

Case managers often find it challenging to communicate about shelter requirements with clients who don't understand English — "you find yourself using a lot of gestures sometimes," she said. In these cases, clients "get very anxious because they feel they're getting into trouble and think, 'Oh, no, I'm going to be homeless again.'"

They usually bring in a family member who better understands and speaks English to be an interpreter, and often it's one of the children who have picked up some language skill in school.

Silvia Jack brought her children to Hawaii from Micronesia because she wanted them to receive better schooling that could open doors of opportunity.
But the price of education was losing a place to call home.

She came from a small community on the island of Weno in the Chuuk state, where it was common for people to live with their relatives, she said.

"It had no more homeless people. I come here, I see plenty people homeless," she said.

And now Jack and her family are homeless, part of an influx of Micronesian immigrants whom social service case workers have seen at shelters throughout Hawaii in the past several years.

Jack, her boyfriend and four children, ages 1 through 6, have been living at the Onemalu Transitional Shelter in Kalaeloa since June.

The public can help struggling families this holiday season by donating to the Star-Bulletin's annual Good Neighbor Fund, which supports the Adopt-A-Family Christmas program and the year-round Community Clearinghouse. Both are run by Helping Hands Hawaii.

Jack said, "I wish you to pray (for) us to find a home and some things my kids want" for Christmas, which include clothes and especially shoes.

Jack's family spent several months in Waipahu emergency shelters that allowed them only to sleep there at night. During the day, she sat with her two youngest children on the beach while the others attended school and her boyfriend looked for work, she said. He has a job now and Jack is anxious to find one herself. And she wants to improve her English, which she speaks hesitantly.

"I want English class. I want to learn. I want my house to stay in; my kids to stay in school. I don't want to go back (to Weno). They have school, but schools not good. I want to stay here," Jack said.

Her case manager, Polialoha Martin, said: "They've made huge progress for a family in a situation like this. They're very motivated, very compliant and cooperative. Silvia is ready to take herself to the next level. She's thinking she can work at night when her boyfriend comes home from work to watch the kids."

Martin said the language barrier is one of the main stumbling blocks for immigrants to overcome in adjusting to a new culture and finding work. In Jack's case, her English is functional, but she needs the self-confidence to show a prospective employer she can perform on the job. The shelter does not offer English classes on site and Jack can't afford to take a community college class, Martin said.

Case managers often find it challenging to communicate about shelter requirements with clients who don't understand English — "you find yourself using a lot of gestures sometimes," she said. In these cases, clients "get very anxious because they feel they're getting into trouble and think, 'Oh, no, I'm going to be homeless again.'"

They usually bring in a family member who better understands and speaks English to be an interpreter, and often it's one of the children who have picked up some language skill in school.

"Yearn to understand first and to be understood second."
-- Beca Lewis Allen

[oink]

Weno has mostly housing that is amazingly sub-standard. Shacks of cobbled together used roofing tin are common. For those kids that are determined, education is difficult but possible on Weno. Amazingly, there is a gang problem on Weno. Full time employment, as we would understand it, may be the exception. The birth rate is more than can be sustainable. Immigration is the pressure relief. Micronesia has a special political relationship with the U.S. that makes immigration a lot easier for Micronesians.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[SHAKAHASHI]

THE MICRONESIA MIST
By a Micronesian Poet 2009

As I watched
the Micronesia,
The peaceful lassitude
of each linear
of the horizon,
Woven so delightfully
into the history
of Man,
Woven surely
into their blood
since they were a babe.

As the moon
taken its path
down the end
of the ocean,
Stand to witness
the golden-brown
of Micronesia,
As it is,
A beginning
of another dew.

The Mist
that we meet
in the Linear
Morning of Waves,
Prepared us
travelers
of this
To another,
As our resignation
rushed through,
And on our heels
we faced
cold determination.

........We tapered
in silence,
As each temptation
was our expression
of The Pacific.

Curious, we ask....,
"Does the Mist call you?"

newmicmag