Nopuko's Store: Micronesia Books WW2 Books Micronesia Shirts Island Videos Cell Phones & Service Computer & Video Games Cameras & Photo		By Lacee A.C. Martinez, Guam Pacific Daily News, Originally published April 23, 2007 Like many of his fellow Federated States of Micronesia residents, Kasma Aldis moved to Guam looking for better education and work opportunities. Thirteen years later Aldis, originally from Pohnpei state, has witnessed the changes his people have undergone while adjusting to westernized life on Guam. Pohnpei is one of four states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia. It's also where the FSM government is run and where the small, yet very important, non-profit research organization focused strictly on Micronesia, called the Micronesian Seminar, is located. Pohnpeians make up one of the smallest groups of FSM nationals on Guam, which hovers around 2,000, Aldis said. Since he moved to Guam, stereotyping and other problems have eased. It was during part of bigger migration movements to the Guam in the early 1990s when many of his people were hit with roadblocks due to many "misunderstandings," he said. "The problem is that we first came here, like arriving at the airport, many of us didn't know what to do, how to fill out forms and what addresses to put down," Aldis said. "Now when I look back, I blame us for not being prepared." That particular problem has changed, he said, because most of the Pohnpeians on Guam are now longtime residents, established here soon after the Compact of Free Association was signed in 1986. "There's still a little bit of a language problem," he said. "But I can tell there is a big shift now with the attitudes of how we are treated here."
		LEFT, Pohnpeian Softball Friendship League organizer Kasma Aldis, center, explains the rules to team coaches at a match at Astumbo Gardens yesterday.  RIGHT, he talks to members of the Kisin Kiht softball team during a Sunday game at the Astumbo Gardens softball field yesterday. Kasma Aldis is the organizer for the 2007 Pohnpeian Softball Friendship League.
		t's a tradeoff when having to move to a new island and culture, Aldis said. Many things are sacrificed, especially parts of cultural identity, to try to fit in to your new society. "That's why I focus on the Pohnpeian Family Organization," Aldis said. "I don't want to lose the value of the culture because we are already losing it here. "In Pohnpei, the first thing we do is welcome you and offer you food when you come into our house," he said. "They see they don't do that in a lot of houses here." Aldis said he tries to keep his community members busy with his organization. The youth, he said, participate in volunteer activities with the Salvation Army while the adults keep busy with his sports activities, including baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball. There are alternatives, he said, to keep them away from trouble, especially from engaging in reckless activities involving alcohol. "On the weekend, they're busy, there's no time to go out drinking. By the time they get home from playing, they just knock out," he said. And so far it's worked, he said. Keeping the community together in the midst of modernization in the Western world has proven itself difficult even among his own family. His two sons, mostly raised on Guam, once shunned many traditional practices, including eating Pohnpeian food. Now, he said, they're learning to appreciate what makes them different among the different groups that make up the island. "A couple of years ago, they didn't like to eat local food like fish banana, taro and breadfruit," Aldis said. "Now, when we cook local food in the house, they eat it. "I think they're turning around and trying to pick up their own custom and their own culture," he said. "They go out with me and they see how the Pohnpeian people have a different attitude."