After Christmas

This whole break has been an amazing experience. I’ve gotten to know the kids here much better. The kids I was close to before the break are even closer and I’ve gotten to know more kids on a more meaningful level. Staying in Ejit for Christmas has cemented me into the community here and I feel more accepted. This is especially apparent when I go to community events. My kids will yell out “Hi Paul” even if there is an important speech going on but then there are the babies. The babies or more accurately the toddlers on Ejit seem to think I am the most fun thing that ever came to Ejit. When I show up they immediately mob me and ask to be carried (jaja) or to get piggy-back rides (kuku). I can usually keep them off for a while but eventually their cuteness breaks through my mental shields and I have them take turns playing king of the (Paul) mountain.

My favorite one and he know’s it is a baby called Popeye. Seriously. I’m pretty sure it’s on his birth certificate. Toddlers are pushy in the Marshall Islands and the greatest cultural differences between American or ribelle babies and Marshallese (rimajel) babies are their tantrums and the ways they show anger.

The Marshallese tantrum is unmistakable. It consists of the child yelling vaguely intelligible insults and demands at adults and then picking up a rock and throwing it at anyone in range. The tantrumite however has this technique down to a science. They take one rock and then threaten to throw it at you multiple times. A baby will pump his or her arm at you about five times, finally throw the rock and then pick up another. Kids reserve this tantrum for their parents but I’ve seen it directed at me once when a kid wanted to get on a boat with his mom and dad but they were going to leave him with relatives.

Marshallese culture (manit majel) does not have strong taboos against bad words and cursing. Just blatantly saying another person’s parent’s name is considered and insult (if I were a kid and someone just said “Peter” or “Ana” loudly we would fight) but they don’t hold distinctions between levels of curses and bad words. They know what the middle finger means, and usually the recipient will raise his or her hand and say “Paul, he f*** me.” With a middle finger held in the air to leave no doubt.

Popeye knows what the middle finger means but he will also say it when showing the finger to someone he is angry at. (Usually a school aged aunt, uncle or cousin). I laugh about it when he’s not there but whenever he does it I make sure he knows I don’t like it.

In the Marshall Islands they celebrate Christmas with at beat or jebta. Everyone on island performs a dance and song for the beat and collections are made for the church. I went to the celebration and on the 26^th another community came and performed the beat at the church. After taking a seat I was immediately surrounded by kids wanting to sit next to/near me and finally Popeye came over and climbed onto my lap. I was watching the beat when Gerrick (9^th grade) next to me started to admonish Popeye for something. Popeye pushed him away and right from my lap gave Gerrick the middle finger and told him what it meant. Gerrick took Popeye away (he’s his uncle and therefore considered Popeye’s father) for punishment. When Popeye came back, I looking him in the eye, in church and told him. “La Popeye. Jaab f*** you. Kwomelele ke?” (Hey, Popeye. No f*** you. Do you understand?) He nodded and then went back to my watching the show. The differences between acceptable behavior during performances, church and gatherings in the Marshall Islands are interesting, and I may post on that in the future.

On the 29^th to the 31^st we’re having our midyear retreat so after that I’ll post something again.

Christmas Break

Ejit started Christmas break last Friday and it’s been a whirlwind weekend. Friday we had the Christmas Concert and Present Day for Ejit. The whole community comes together to celebrate Christmas, watch the students sing Christmas songs and then the children get their presents from the year (from parents and relatives. Santa comes on Christmas. E-mail me if you want more of a scoop on Santa in the Marshall Islands). Everyone pitches in and there is food also. Traditionally volunteers make home made sugar cookies but Annie and I decided that was too much work (cookies for 300?) and we made brownies instead. Last year was an absolute disaster but this year we started a precedent of positive Christmas concert experiences. This year the program order went performance, presents and food. We had a great time and Annie caught all of the performances on tape. Everything on Ejit is communal and especially so because everyone here is related so everyone’s favorite gift was a set of inflatable rafts one family of kids got. They’ve been floating them off the dock ever since. I was exhausted after we finished but Annie’s plane was leaving that day so she took off.

Saturday was the Christmas Parade. At 8 AM I was woken up by knocking on my door. The kids wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the parade. I harnessed my inner Grinch and told them that the parade wasn’t until 10, to never knock on my door that early again and to come back in an hour. At 9 on the dot (a lot of the kids have their watches exactly synched to mine) they knocked on my door and told me we were leaving now. I threw on some clothes, gathered my things and ran outside only to have the kids ask me if I could ask Meljodik if she could send a boat to Rita so we could all watch the parade. Finally the kids got Randy and Nono to drive a boat over so everyone could go.

We got there way too early and everyone was standing around. There were a few people there and the police were waiting but none of the parade goers were in sight. I wasn’t able to eat breakfast so I walked over to one of the window stores and bought 3 bags of donuts ($4.50) and shared them with the kids. Then the Harlem Ambassadors basketball team showed up . They were playing a game at the ECC (don’t remember what the acronym stands for) that night and were invited. The kids stunned by their height (when the center walked out of the bus there was a collective “whoa”. The parade finally arrived and the team was given a place of honor in the parade (the hertz car and on the back of a new Ford truck). When the parade finally started the main flatbed truck started throwing candy out to the mob of children and they all began to follow it like the Pied Piper. I followed along but I eventually realized that I was sort of in charge of a large group of children by myself. All the other adults had stayed behind while we followed the candy truck. The kids were more excited than I was about the candy so they were all ahead. I slowly caught up, gathering kids as I went and then the older kids led the pack back to the boats for Ejit. I hopped on a taxi to run some errands and headed back.

At around 4 I started asking all of the kids if they were going to the Harlem Ambassadors game. A good number were going but a few couldn’t make it. Some of the boys had asked me to take them when we first heard about it last week. I was a bit worried that I would be showing favoritism if I took them because I wouldn’t be able to take every kid who wanted to go. Fortunately that problem sorted itself out. Only 3 kids who wanted to go (that I talked to) didn’t have anyone to take them so I spoke to their parents, made sure they had $1.50 for the cab ride there and back and we hopped on a boat.

The game itself was interesting. There were similarities between the Harlem Globetrotters, the Harlem All-Stars (I think that’s their name) and the Ambassadors. The Majuro team was totally outmatched by height and additionally Marshallese don’t like playing defense. The first seven minutes of the game was a string of breakaway dunks followed by many awed oohing and ahhing from the crowd. Soon everyone began to lose interest and the kids began to act like they normally do all the time. Whenever there was a break in play kids would wander on to the court. My personal favorite moment was when the announcer for the Ambassadors said “Parents, please keep your children off of the court.” If there was one adult there for every 10 kids I would be surprised. Basically the kids ignored everything the poor lady told them to do. This is our life. However, I do have a leg up on her in my classroom. I personally know every one of my kids’ parents.

After dropping the kids off at Rita I waited for a boat and then told them that I was going to spend the night in Rita with friends. I went to meet them for something to eat because I didn’t eat dinner and then went to sleep for our first Meico Beach Yacht Club Race Day. It was really fun and we had gorgeous weather. During the after-party the entire yacht club was invited to attend the Christmas party at the Australian Navy compound. The area is considered one of the most gorgeous in Majuro and I’ve been told that if you get an invite you’d better go. It’s on the 23^rd so I’ll probably post again after that.

Merry Christmas.

October Update from Kili

I haven’t really been able to access internet for a long time, so here are some things I would have written in the past month, since I arrived on the ship after my brother’s wedding.

11/17/07 - Chicken, chicken, chicken.
A USDA aid ship arrived today bearing boxes upon boxes of chicken. They had to use a backhoe to deliver them to all the houses. So now we have the equivalent of 9 whole chickens packed in our freezer. This is very welcome, because the only meat we had left was corned beef, which I hate.

11/14/07
We celebrated Halloween last Saturday (a week late, I know, but we couldn’t do it October 31st because the funeral for the 4th grader was held that day). We had the 7th and 8th graders dress up and hide in the “Haunted Jungle”, then took the younger kids through in groups. The funny thing about having this event in the jungle is that’s where people go to make out. I guess there is much more romance among my students than I had realized, because they were all making out by the end of the night! What’s more is there are two students in my 8th grade class that are very flamboyant and apparently gay, but I wasn’t sure if their behavior indicated homosexuality in the same way it does in the US. I also didn’t know the Marshallese cultural stance – approval or disapproval – of homosexuality. Well I found out that one of these boys has a boyfriend in 7th grade, and they were among those making out Halloween night!
The next school day I had my 8th graders write letters to someone of their choosing in the school, to practice letter format. As it turns out, they were all either love letters or letters gossiping to friends about romances between other students.

11/7/07
So far the most compelling reason for me to return next year is that I know I will be much better at teaching by then, so this job will be easier and more rewarding. I will be providing much better service to the Marshallese people than I am now, so if my mission was to help them, I will accomplish it much more effectively next year. Other than that, I can’t fathom coming back. Maybe I’m just grouchy because I’m tired again, but I really miss home. Sometimes it seems like every day is the same and all the kids are the same: needy and unappreciative. But other times they show me that they are really creative and full of life.

11/4/07 – Gospel O’ The Lord
Never do I feel so close to God as when I am surrounded by people singing beautiful Hymns. Music is the Language of the Lord, man. I came to realize this in church with the Marshallese people singing their amazing harmonious Marshallese hymns. There is no organ, just a church full of voices in multi-part harmony.

10/29/07 - The Racist Chicken
Yesterday I went over to our neighbor Brenda’s house to ask for some coconuts. She pointed me in the direction of a pile of them and I started to go over there, and I almost stepped on a chicken. I missed though, so no harm no foul, right? Well the chicken flipped out and, feathers ruffling, wings flapping, started pecking at my legs! I started to run away, and it just kept chasing me! It chased me all over the yard and would not leave me alone for the longest time; meanwhile, Brenda, Ronnie, and Anci were laughing their heads off at me. Finally it left me alone. I asked Brenda why it attacked me so persistently, and she said, “Because of your white skin.” Erin found and showed me later a relevant word in the Marshallese-English dictionary. It was warre, which means “attack by a mother hen”. I think I threatened her chicks somehow.

10/28/07
Grades are due tomorrow. What a joke – I have about three grades in every subject. I was stuck in Majuro so long, both before the program started and then after the wedding, that I have taught these kids very, very little in the first quarter.

10/24/07
A 200-lb adult man came into the 7th grade classroom, punched one of the students in the face and slammed his head into the wall. He was bleeding from the face and was sent home. Apparently the student had thrown a rock at this guy’s son, so he felt the need to come to school and kick the shit out of him. I am so angry about this. If anyone tries to do this to one of my students in my classroom, I will attack him.

Crazy Power Outages and Birthday Parties

Last Tuesday night we had our second Kammem in three weeks. This one was huge and Annie and I were really excited about it because a large number of our kids were going to perform traditional dances. They had been practicing for weeks and we kept hearing how tired they were. We had school the next day and Annie and I were ready for a shit show the next morning but prepared.

The preparations were crazy and one of the major attractions was the pig. In the Philippines the full pig is roasted on a spit (I forgot the name. Sorry mom). In Hawaii and other places it is cooked in an underground oven. Here the pig is slaughtered and then boiled in a huge pot. On our walk to school each day we pass by a pig pen and every day we see or hear the pigs there. The biggest one was on the Kammem menu and Annie was sad. She’ll post more about him later.

Kammem’s usually start at 8 o’clock but at 7:30 it started to rain. Hard. We waited for the rain to subside but then the power died. Annie and I made our way over to the basketball court where the Kammem always is and were told that the party would start when the power came back on. At 8 PM we heard that power would be back at 9 PM. After 9:15 rolled around we heard that power would be on at 10. By 9:45 there were around 10 to fifteen kids lying on a mat (and each other) on the floor taking a nap and finally at 10:30 power came back on. This time around we were ushered to the head table immediately because I accidentally made eye contact with one of the community leaders. At the table there were huge plastic containers full of food and when we sat down we were served an enormous platter of meat. There was a full lobster-sized crawfish on each platter, the best cuts of turtle (I enjoyed it more this time), chicken, and of course our friend piggy. I wasn’t that hungry and I was extremely careful this time. I didn’t touch the shell fish and stayed far far away from the potato salad and sashimi. We ended up going to sleep at 2 in the morning.

School on Wednesday was hard but we were able to drag ourselves out of bed on time. Then right before school starts at 8:30 we lost power again. Unfortunately for us, the Marshall Islands Energy Company (MEC) lost generators during an accident and cannot meet the 12 megawatt energy needs of Majuro during peak times. In order to prevent the other engines from overheating they need to shut off power to the outermost lines. This means that Laura and Ejit have been losing power during the day for the past week. The part for them to fix it is apparently expensive and only made in Germany. They’ve ordered it and we’ll see if we get power soon. I have my own suspicions but I won’t post them here. Send me an e-mail if you want to hear about it.

That’s all for now. This Friday was the Marshallese President’s Day so it’s a 3 day weekend. I’ve got relaxing and work to do.

The Good, the bad and the annoying

Halloween at Ejit was really great this year. Annie and I had at least 30 kids inside our small house engaged in various stages of mischief with an overall effect of barely contained chaos. Annie dressed up as a pumpkin and I went as a vampire/skeleton hybrid. I scared them all when they first saw me (some of the kids jokingly said I was ‘the black magic’) but only one kindergartener refused to enter the house for a while because I scared her. The whole thing was exhausting but well worth it. It was a highlight of the kids and my week.

I apparently caught something during the kaimem two weeks ago. Poor Ejit has had some of the worst luck among all of the groups on Majuro. Scabies, pink eye, giardia, a stomach virus and now Dr. Pinano and I think that I have a mild form of amoeba. I won’t list the symptoms here for the faint of heart, but if you want to find out what they are a quick google search will provide you with the information. (It’s the digestive form, not the brain eating type). Just remember that I have a mild form of it. There’s another kaimem coming up this Tuesday and I’ll be sure to watch out for suspicious food this time.

We have new neighbors next door and although we like them they bought over their dog. As we’ve mentioned before the dogs on Ejit are brutal and this particular dog is pretty small and scared all the time. It is smaller than the rest of the grown dogs on Ejit and it’s sort of cute. Unfortunately the dog has an incredibly frustrating way of expressing its insecurity at night. At around midnight the dog begins sustained, frantic and loud barking because it wants to be let inside. The first night this happened the dog barked for 15 minutes straight. Finally I went outside with my kali stick and whacked the ground threateningly at it. This worked for a little while because the dog ran away and barked at some other house outside of our hearing. Fifteen minutes later the dog came back but after a few barks it guess it grew tired and went to sleep. Last night it started up again but this time as soon as it started I went outside and threatened it. Fifteen minutes later I needed to go back outside and threaten it again but things are improving. Hopefully it will stop barking soon.

I know it sounds cruel but I haven’t physically hit the dog and if I have to choose between the dog and my sleep I’ll pick my own sanity every time. I’ll post more on this as it develops. Maybe I’ll mention to our new neighbors that I’d love to try dog…

DVTP update via email

Hi there!

Earlier today I sent out the second update of this school year for the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program. If you follow this blog and have not received an email with the DVTP update and you would like to get it, please email me (Kristin Romberg, field director) at dvtp@dartmouth.edu asking to be put on the update list.

Thanks!

-k

Update on Annie

I thought it was high time for a blog entry. A lot has changed in the last few weeks. For one thing, I’m a lot happier here, and feeling more like a member of the community. We finished quarter 1 at school (which is crazy to think about) and are swiftly moving into quarter 2. I am starting to teach some valuable skills to the little whippersnappers, which is making me happy. In science, I’m teaching grade 4 about the moon, grade 3 about insects and life cycles (we’re contrasting insects/humans) and I’m pumped for grade 7’s upcoming exploration in plants and environmental science. Almost every day Daniel asks me when we will plant our tomato seeds. Of course, planting tomato seeds entails me somehow carrying a huge bag of soil across the reef (not to mention a pot!) so, understandably, I’m waiting for very low tide… In English, I’m getting better at assigning readings at the students’ levels and this is good. Also, I now have a voice at the end of the day! Apparently being a drill sergeant pays off after a while. I still have a lot of problems, and I’m still very exhausted, but I’m feeling better about teaching on the whole. This is not to say that it’s easy, or that I’m even very good yet, but I am better—so that’s something.
My new favorite thing to do in my spare time is jambo out the opposite way from Majuro as far as I can go at low tide, and then walk/swim back. It’s amazing how good it feels to get away and have a little alone time once in a while. It’s a lot cleaner down there and it feels refreshing and invigorating. It’s also a good source of exercise—because exercising on Ejit is an adventure, to say the least. I tried jogging on the field for the second time today and was bitten by a dog. I have a new respect for leash laws and for my dog Panda, because she doesn’t bite people. (Not to worry, I cleaned it thoroughly and I plan to beat the crap out of that dog if he messes with me again.) I noticed a man walking out there today with a large, scary stick, and thought “Why didn’t I think of that?” Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
Great news—I’m going home for Christmas! I leave December 14 and I am so incredibly excited. My sister will be home too so I really just can’t wait.
In the near future I am excited at the prospect of throwing a Halloween party for the kids here on Ejit and for the upcoming Ejit Christmas concert, which apparently Paul and I are responsible for planning. There's a lot coming up!

Missing friends and family back home,
Annie

Leaving on a Boat

There is a boat going to Kili tomorrow! Or maybe the next day if they are too slow loading it (pretty likely). So I will be taking to the high seas for 24 hours on the "Lona". I was told to bring dramamine, lots of water, and not to eat much tonight or tomorrow. I am expecting to get seasick, but we'll see how it goes.

Highs from the last week:
Playing baseball with a group of Japanese volunteers last week
Playing soccer with Chris, Ray, and a bunch of Marshallese kids in Laura
Playing ultimate frisbee with a group of Mormon missionaries
Swimming in the lagoon with a bunch of Marshallese kids - also getting a workout from launching child after child into the water.
Homemade sushi tonight.

Lows:
Stomach flu on Sunday. It only lasted one day though.

Cute kids, phone and internet woes- from 10/7

We just got internet back at the house so here's a slightly out of date blog entry. I'll post again relatively soon.

Ants rule the world here in the Marshall Islands. All food in our house fits into two categories- Food ants don’t want/can’t get to and food ants want. The first category can be stored in our cupboards. The second category needs to go in the fridge or freezer. Before the Marshall Islands I didn’t know you could store flour in the fridge and it wouldn’t coagulate. We’re constantly on guard but it’s a losing battle. The ants can get into almost anything. Air tight, zip locked bags? Not ant proof. Tupperware? Only if it’s perfectly airtight and you eat the food quickly.

The ants also seem to think that electric and phone wiring is delicious. After enough time they eat through the lines and they need to be replaced. That’s why we have a very loud buzzing noise whenever we try to have a conversation on the phone and why Annie and I can’t log on to the internet. The ‘line guys’ are supposed to call us eventually to set up an appointment to fix the lines, but I have no idea when that will happen. I’m hoping they call this week, but I’m sure that scheduling a time will be a headache with the interference and ‘island time’.

During week five or six a new girl named Rosana came into my 1^st grade class. She is from an outer island and she speaks almost zero English. This would be a challenge in and of itself but she’s also terrified of me. Five minutes into the first day of class she burst into tears because of the amount of English I was using and because she was afraid. I didn’t know the reason why she was crying at the time so I brought her to Meljodik and Rosana never came back. At the end of class, Meljodik motioned me over and told me that Rosana was scared and we’d try again tomorrow. The next day, she lasted ten minutes and the same thing happened. This time I sent her to Hevlen, the 1^st grade teacher. After staying with Hevlen we decided to have Rosana’s mom come in to help her calm down in class. It works but she still thinks I’m ‘rinana’ or a bad man. When she comes with the kids to knock on our door Rosana refuses to speak or come inside with the other kids. She came late to my class every day and the few times I answered the door she would try to run away when she saw my face. Her mom had to speak sternly to her to get her to come inside the classroom.

This is a new experience for me. I’ve never had anyone remain terrified of me for this much time. Sometimes my deep voice scares little kids (mostly girls) but they get over it quickly. The language barrier here and the fact that Rosana is stuck in a danger learning zone almost every time she sees me must be the reason she’s still scared.

These two slightly negative points have been counterbalanced by two major highlights this week. The first one happened when one of my favorite kids in 2^nd grade was absent for two days. If he had missed three days of school I would have gone to his house to check on him but that night he knocked on our door. After I said hi, Tommy looked up at me and said “Paul, can I copy the binal?” I was confused but after a bit of guessing I figured out that he thought I had given the class a copy of the upcoming final for the end of the quarter (Yes, I have to give a final exam to all of my classes. Including my 1^st and 2^nd graders). I told him not to worry about the final because I didn’t give one out yet. He looked confused so I told him that I needed him to get a good night’s sleep so he would be able to come to school tomorrow. Tommy nodded his head and with a final goodnight he went back home. (He lives next door.) It was so damn cute and it definitely made me feel great.

The other highlight happened when Joki (6^th grade) asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him last Saturday. I said yes but I wasn’t able to buy a fishing rod (the only one EZ Price had was 100 bucks) and they were out of fishing line and hooks. On Saturday Joki let me borrow all of the equipment I needed and we went out on his dad’s boat with Ken (6^th grade). Joki had asked his dad if he could use the family boat to go fishing so we went out to a good spot about 200 yards into the lagoon. We used a combination of flour, sea water and canned tuna in oil as bait. Usually this gets the kids something but we weren’t able to catch anything this time. After 15 minutes the boys got bored and we headed back in. When we hit land Joki asked me if I wanted to swim, jambo and eat yu in Kejeji’s island. I said yes, dropped off my stuff at home and followed them. When we arrived there were a ton of kids swimming and almost all of them decided to join us. We went for a trek through the island and I almost felt like I was on an outer island. Everything was beautiful and it felt like I was in the jungle. We went for a jambo through the island and stopped at the two tree houses the kids built. One of the nearby trees was converted into a makeshift coconut husker and the boys husked mature sprouted coconuts so that we could eat the yu inside. After a coconut sprouts the milk and flesh inside become spongy and relatively sweet. I helped them with the particularly tough ones (yes, all the Dartmouth volunteers can husk coconuts) and brought back two for Annie and Charlie. The Marshallese use the yu in one of their desert dishes called ice likur. The yu is cut up and mixed with water, sugar, condensed milk and then frozen. It was one of the first “traditional” dishes I had in the Marshall Islands. Joki promised me that we’d go out again this Saturday. I hope we catch fish next time.

Stuck Again...for Longer

I just heard today that the fuel line to the Dash-8 (the only functioning plane) just ruptured, and will take at least a week to repair. So I won't be getting back to Kili any time soon. Damn.

New Email

We in Kili can now receive emails on our cell phone:
+6925453228@cell.ntamar.net

Just keep the messages under 160 characters. This is probably the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to contact us

Stuck Again

My brother’s wedding was everything I thought it would be. It was wonderful to see my family, and the air in San Francisco is so much nicer – cooler and dryer – than in the Marshall Islands. It doesn’t make you sweat. We had great food, and there were lots of glowing toasts, which made me very proud of my brother and my new sister-in-law.
I’m in Laura, Majuro now, with Chris Cahill and Ray Cheng (Dartmouth). This is actually bad news, because I was supposed to fly to Kili last Friday. Unfortunately, the pilots had maxed out the hours they are allowed to work, so everyone has to wait for them to take a break so they can start working again. There is a pilot shortage because Air Marshall Islands fired one; apparently, he had something to do with the planes breaking last time. So I have to wait until this coming Friday to go to Kili, which means missing an additional week of school. So of the 11 weeks that have passed since I arrived in the Marshall Islands, I have only taught for 2 of them. I’ll just have to make up for it with stellar teaching when I get back.
I played softball yesterday with Ray and about 25 Japanese teaching volunteers (Japan also has a volunteer teaching program here called JOCV). It was funny being completely immersed in Japanese culture, especially because they aren’t exactly fluent in English. At the end of the game, the two teams lined up and bowed to each other, then shook hands. A couple of the girls called themselves “Charlie’s Angels” in my honor, which they were excited about. They took a couple pictures with me in Charlie’s Angels poses.

The terrible tide, boat rides, and daily life on Ejit

I have been told that you’re not really a member of they 21st century until you have a blog. Not sure I’d go that far, but I figure it’s more efficient (and less annoying for my friends and their inboxes) than writing mass emails. So here goes. At least my dad can check in and hear how I’m doing, and if anyone else reads it then it’s a bonus!

I think it’s fitting to start off with a general insight into a point of frustration and pleasure (depending on timing) in my daily life—the tide. Mother nature has never controlled my life to the degree it does here on Ejit. If I want to go to the Rita neighborhood of the “main island” of Majuro (a necessity if I want to see the doctor or friends, or buy anything other than candy or soda) I have to either wait until low tide, or wait for a boat. Waiting is not something I’ve ever been very good at, but thanks to necessity I am getting better. A few times now I’ve been stranded by the tide, which can be so incredibly frustrating because Ejit is so close that I could probably even swim there if it wasn’t for the strong current, caused by my friend the changing tide. At first, the novelty made the tide seem kind of romantic, and I almost liked having to plan my life according to its wishes. After several weeks, I find it more annoying than romantic, but I’m getting used to it at least :)

I’m definitely settling in more to life in the RMI. I’m getting a little better at the ukulele, though I’m rarely able to sing the songs I’m learning because I lose my voice every week at school. I do ok though. I’m starting to really feel at home on Ejit, though I am surprised by the amount of alone I need. I’ve never loved reading as much as I do now. I’m getting better at teaching (slowly…) and finding that after a brief period of hating a couple of my classes (2 out of 3 to be exact), I’m starting to truly love all the kids—even if some, or many, are terrible little monsters in class.

I both love and hate going by boat from Ejit to Rita—the breeze is nice, I stay dry, and it is much easier than walking across the reef—I’ve had a few slips and spills there... The best and worst part of taking a boat, though, is that there are always at least a couple kids at the dock when I leave, asking, “Why do you go to Rita?” and “When will you come back?”, and screaming, “See you later alligator!”, or “BYE!!”. The sad side of it all is that every time I take off in the boat, looking back at Ejit—the kids waving and the adults going about their business as usual, I think of what it will feel like when I take off this way for the last time, weighed down almost to water level with Paul’s and my luggage like the day we came. I try to push the sad thoughts away, but for some reason, the event of leaving by boat always serves as a reminder that I’ll only be here for so long, and someday—really quite soon—I’ll take off in a little boat and wave goodbye without the comfort of knowing that I’ll be back. I find the sadness about leaving quite disconcerting, especially because I’ve only been on Ejit about 6 weeks. I’m not looking forward to boat rides in May or June.

Other tidbits:
• The single best investment one could make for happiness in the RMI: a hammock. And I have one! (Thank you Mary!)
• Just about every kid on Ejit shares great-grandparents with everyone else. And, our principal is almost every student’s grandmother or great-aunt. She’s so cute, but the students are all petrified.
• My favorite weather on Ejit: rain.
• Wednesday: baking day. Erin made cookies and lemon bars when she was here, and now Paul and I have put to use my mom’s old recipes for cookies and banana bread. Yay for Wednesdays!
• Good books I have read or am currently reading: The Alchemist (I read it in Spanish class but found it much more interesting in English—apparently my command of the Spanish language is not so good) Devils Teeth (it’s about Sharks and the Farralon Islands near SF, so cool!), and the Biography of Ernesto “Che” Guevara (self-explanatory, but awesome—and don’t worry, I’m not planning any commie revolutions in the RMI).
• Lesson Planning: the bane of my existence, and a major part of my job.
• Songs I can sort of play on my ukulele: “You say it best when you say nothing at all” by Alison Krauss, “Almost Heaven, Ejit Island” (a.k.a. “Country Road”), “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, and a few other Marshallese diddies, which I have no idea how to spell...)
• “Welcome to Ejit, go back home!”: phrase that was just yelled in my window because I wouldn’t let the kids come in to color. Zing!

Also just wanted to add that my new email address will be annie.p.daher@gmail.com because I can’t check my Dartmouth email from the RMI anymore. Thanks!

Walking the Reef and Culture Day

It's currently Manit or Culture Day in the Marshall Islands. The three day weekend is a huge blessing and I'm writing this post at 1:30 pm our time. There is a huge fair like event at the Alele Museum in Majuro and most of the schools show up and perform. Later in the day there are also competitions between students ranging from coconut husking, sack races, tug o' war and juggling. I might head back there to check out the competitions but I decided to check mail and post a blog entry first.

One or two nights before Charlie left for the US Annie, he and I decided that we were going to head across the reef one night to throw away our garbage. Earlier that afternoon Charlie had told a few of the kids that they could stop by our house at 8:30 to play the ukulele and we decided to ask them to come with us. At around 7 the power went out in Ejit and shortly after a torrential downpour began. We need electricity to power our water pump so Annie decided that she was going to take a shower outside. Charlie and I agreed so we went out and had a great time.

The rain stopped and at 8:00 the kids were already at our door waiting for 8:30 to roll around. We left early and asked them if they wanted to come with us, making sure that their parents were okay with it. There were about 8 of us and we had 2 flashlights to share between all of us and half way across it started to rain again. Hard. The kids were not prepared and they were freezing. Most of them had on t-shirts and a pair of shorts. One of them had a sweatshirt and Joki was shirtless. We finally make it across the reef and hide from the rain underneath one of the street stalls in Rita. When the rain lets up, we make the trek back singing random camp songs to keep the kids focused (Knick-nack paddy whack, the ants go marching...). Finally we make it home and drop of the kids one by one at their houses and apologize for getting the kids wet. As we drop of the last kid the power kicks back on and saves the day, perfectly encapsulating life in the Marshall Islands.

in Kili

I finally made it to Kili. Then, two weeks later, I turned around and came back to Majuro. I’m here in Majuro now, and I will fly out Wednesday to go to my brother’s wedding in San Francisco! I’m giddy with excitement; I can’t wait to see my family, eat good food, and enjoy the conveniences of the US. Also, I’m awfully proud of my brother and overjoyed to have his fiancée, Hilary in the family.
I will get to San Francisco Thursday night, stay until Monday, fly to Majuro Tuesday, then return to Kili the following Friday. I end up spending a lot of time in Majuro because the flights are not very frequent in either direction.
I have been enjoying Kili. Our plane landed two weeks ago on a grass runway and we were greeted by about half of the community of Kili and met some future students. When we got to our house, we unloaded the 3-month’s supply of imported canned food, then found out our copied keys didn’t work in the lock. Our neighbors broke in for us (pretty easily, I might add – looked like they had done it before) and then a local handyman installed new doorknobs for us. We live in a four-bedroom house with a kitchen, air-conditioning and washing machine. Not bad for an outer island. Kili is one of two islands (the other being Ejit) inhabited by the refugees of the Bikini atoll and their descendants. They continue to get reparations money from the US because of all of the suffering associated with the nuclear tests on Bikini and subsequent relocation. As a result, their local government tends to have more money than most.
I am teaching 7th grade English and Health, and 8th grade English, Health, Science, and Math. There are 16 students in the 7th grade and 10 in the 8th grade, so they are fairly manageable. They also speak very good English; Kili has had Dartmouth volunteers for 7 years, so the students have had a lot of exposure to English-speaking teachers, and it shows. The first two weeks of teaching have been really difficult, but it has been getting easier. I knew the first weeks would be tough – we arrived on a Saturday, found out who and what we were teaching on Sunday, and started Monday. I spent the first week clawing for air and stalling until I could take a step back and make some real plans over the weekend. The second week was better, but I still didn’t really know what I was doing. I’m taking advantage of this break to come up with some plans for what and how I’m going to teach.
The dogs are surprisingly friendly on Kili. I haven’t been attacked once, and our next-door neighbor’s dog, Bobby immediately took a liking to Sarah, Erin and myself. I suspect he’s mistaking us for past volunteers, but I don’t care. He trotted up on the second day, tail wagging, and wanted a good petting. I feed him our scraps, like oil from our tuna cans, and have taught him to sit. As soon as I leave the house to go to school now, he runs up to me and sits down; I pet him, and he follows me to school.
I played “Don’t Matter” by Akon on the ukulele for some of my kids one day and have since not heard the end of it. All over the island, kids sing “Nobody wanna see us together, but it don’t matter no, cuz I got you babe,” then repeat, because they don’t know any more of the song. It’s been stuck in my head for a week, not even because it’s all that catchy, but because they sing it over and over again; and if they ever catch me with my ukulele, they want me to sing it.
I just met the guy who has internet on Kili, and he offered to let me use it. That’s good, because there is no other internet access out there, hence the lack of entries these past two weeks. I guess I’m making up for it with an extra-long entry.

Oh hey and one more thing: starting January 2008 (or maybe as early as November 07), US mail to the Marshall Islands is going back to domestic pricing, rather than international. This means letters are 41¢ and packages are also cheaper.

Charlie

House Guests Part 2

Kristin came to visit from Wednesday to Saturday this week and we had a good time. She observed our classes, taught us some ukulele songs and gave us a few cooking lessons. Our house guest made us hummus the first day and taught Annie and me how to make homemade ravioli Thursday night. Friday afternoon Charlie came back from Kili to attend his brother’s wedding and shortly after Chimpo came over to spend the night. Charlie will be with us until Tuesday when his flight leaves. Charlie brought over bananas, milk and bread while Chimpo brought over sashimi. In preparation for our multiple house guests I made a double batch of pizza dough the day before and we ate really well.

For the past three days we’ve been meeting the kids outside to “learn ukulele” from them at 8:30 pm. This really means that Annie and I go out with our ukuleles and the kids take them from us and play them until we get tired and go back inside. The ‘lessons’ have gotten bigger and bigger each day. Yesterday we must have had 20 or so kids there and we needed to move from our front porch to the basketball/volleyball court. I spent my time entertaining the little kids by giving them ‘kuku’ (piggyback rides), losing to my students in basketball and fooling and amazing the kids with my bag of tricks. I keep getting one kid with the “I bet I can make you say the word black” trick over and over again and I get a kick out of it every time.

House Guests

Annie and I are more comfortable with the teaching schedule now and we’re beginning to let the kids come in and hang out. So far we’ve had a culturally accepted system where the girls come over and hang out with Annie while I do work and then the boys come over and I entertain them while Annie works/rests. We’ll switch things around eventually but I think the kids are more comfortable that way.

One boy named Bokrok has a huge crush on Annie. She brought out her ukulele to learn from a group of boys but none of them knew how to play. Bokrok took it and told Annie he would sing her a song. He immediately began strumming fake chords on the ukulele while singing “Annie I love you, you are so beautiful…” It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen anyone do on Ejit.

My 6^th grade class is still giving me a lot of trouble and Kristin came in to observe and give me a few pointers. I’ve set up individual agreements with a good half of my kids to help them work out management problems. She’s coming in again next week to observe us for two or three straight days. We’ll see how it goes then.

We went in yesterday to run some errands and the weather did not cooperate. The time constraints of the tide forced us into a walk across the reef in the rain, and it hasn’t stopped all day. On a positive note, our rain catchment is overflowing and we don’t have to worry too much about wasting water for our showers.

Going to Kili!

It’s finally going to happen – I got a call yesterday from our Field Director, Kristin Romberg saying I should pack my bags, because the plane flies out Saturday (tomorrow) at 12:30 pm. The plane is working now and made a flight today already. Let's hope it doesn't break down between now and 12:30 tomorrow (really until I have safely arrived in Kili, around 1:30 tomorrow). I really can’t believe it – I’m starting a new life in a new home and a new school on a new island!
I’ve gotten so used to life here in Laura. In fact, I had just gotten a job the day Kristin called me. I was at Laura High School, waiting to ask if I could observe the class of one of the teachers there, when some students came up and asked what I was doing. I told them, and they informed me that the teacher I was waiting to see had quit two weeks before. They had just been having free periods while the principal looked for another teacher to hire. So one of the students asked if I could teach them, and I said absolutely! I had been sitting around doing next to nothing all this time while there were students doing the same, just down the road! I began immediately that afternoon, teaching the last two periods of the day. I didn’t have any lessons planned out, just got to know their names and told them a little about myself. I warned them that I would only be around for a little while – little did I know, I would only have one day with them. I told them I would see them again on Monday, but it looks like they will be disappointed. That’s fine, though – after all, there are plenty of students on Kili that have been waiting even longer for a teacher.

One Big Fish and lots of sushi

Hey everyone!!

I just figured out how to post, and now I'm really pumped to tell you about the happenings here on Wotje.

1. The islands is breathtaking; it is home to one of the most beautiful lagoons I have ever seen in my life!!! Smooth sandy beaches, two great docks (great for jumping), and an abundance of coconut trees (Jacob seems to have mastered climbing them).

2. Two Wednesdays ago, I caught my first "big" fish in the Pacific. It was nearly 2ft long and weighed anywhere between 15-20lbs. I caught it using my fishing rod, which turned out to be a strenous fight considering I was using a 10lb line on a fish the desperately wanted to pull me in the water. After nearly half an hour of tug of war with the fish, I pulled in a BEAUTY. (I must not give all the credit to myself, I did get some invaluable fishing pointers from a Marshallese co-worker). The fish (I believe it is known as a "big-eyed Jack") was well received by the other teachers, and was later served in succulent sushi rolls, sashimi, and even fried. To this day, we still have a big fish head in the freezer! Mmmmmmmmm...

3. While on Wotje, I've come to appreciate the pleasures of hard manual labor. Among the various projects we have going here, we are constructing a garden, building a chicken coop, pig pen, and possibly a gazebo (maybe a stetch, but it's nice to have it as an ambitious goal). Most of these projects are Jacob's doing. He ordered a large shipment of lumber from DoItBest (a hardware store in Majuro), but it never arrived. Luckily, we have been able to get our hands on scrap wood from the construction sites here on Wotje (on Monday we enticed 12 boys to carry nearly 100 planks of wood!)... I think they enjoyed the work out. So far, Jacob and I have cleared about 800 square feet in the garden, our next job is to put together a fence (to keep pigs out), and start sowing seeds!


I'll keep you all posted on Wotje news, but for the time being keep the news coming... this is Wotje signing out.

The un-comings and non-goings of Ejit and Majuro

The last time Charlie visited he taught about 5 kids “The beat, the beat” step pattern and this past week I’ve spread it to a good number of the kids on Ejit. I can’t leave the school during a break without some kid yelling “Paul! Can you do that thing?” as they pantomime the beginning of the pattern. One of the best kids at it is Jerimiah a 3^rd grader in Annie’s class. The kid can keep up even when I’m going at full speed. I’ll post a picture later.

The replacement engine part came into Majuro a few days ago, but it’s missing the bolt needed to put it into place. The series of explanations goes in this order: We don’t have the bolt, but if we did we don’t have the tool to put it in, and if we had the tool, we don’t have anyone that can use it. This means that someone from Taiwan is coming in with the bolt, the tool and the expertise in the near future. More on this as it develops.

Erin spent the last two days observing and helping us out in Ejit Elementary and she’s seen the range of behavior in our classes. Luckily she’s assured us that “I’ve seen worse” and “My kids are worse” so we feel better. Today one of the kids hit me in the back of the head with a rock as I was ringing the bell (for a picture see the upcoming update from Kristin). It wasn’t malicious and on a certain level I’m impressed by her aim. However it pissed me off. I actually threatened to give the entire school detention if I got hit with a rock again. It’s funny now that a few hours have passed.

Beware of Dogs

Ejit is a pretty place, except for the dogs. I spent the last couple of days there with Paul and Annie. During the day, it’s fine. But then starting at dusk it turns into a really bad neighborhood, except instead of hearing sirens and gunshots out your window, you hear growling and barking and squealing of dogfights. When you walk around at night, you have to carry a handful stones with you to throw at them if they try to attack; and you have to be on the lookout for the ones that charge at you from behind. Vicious. But the people, they’re really nice. One time I was being chased by a pair of dogs and ran by a group of 8 or so little kids, and they took up arms and began yelling and charging at the dogs to save me! I was so grateful.

The Navy is here

US Navy ship SS Peleliu just arrived in our lagoon a couple of days ago, on a humanitarian mission - giving out medical supplies, painting stuff, fixing stuff, etc. And it's got 1700 people on it! Adding that to the existing ri belle (white person/foreigner)population, this is probably the most ri belles the Marshall Islands have ever seen at one time. They helicopter their own volunteers to a bunch of the outer islands for humanitarian work during their stay here,and they'll be here for about another week. I asked one if they could give me a ride to Kili; he said no. Fortunately, the Air Marshall Islands plane should be working by Friday; I'm expected to leave then. My fingers are crossed.
There's a big basketball game tonight, the Navy team (they have a basketball team, apparently) versus the national championship team of the Marshall Islands. The Navy played the #2 team last night and beat them, although I here it was somewhat close. I missed it last night, but I'm really pumped to watch tonight's game.
I spent the last week and will spend this coming week in Laura. There's not much there for me to do, but I've tried to make the most of it. I have observed some elementary and high school teachers so I can have an idea of what Marshallese elementary school students are like. I also went on a binge of watching "The Office", blowing through the first two seasons in a week. I'm already a few episodes into the third. Other than that, I try to help out Chris (Chimpo) and Ray, my hosts and the two Dartmouth teachers stationed there.

Weekly update

We’re in our second week of school and although things are still hectic I’m having fun. Last weekend we celebrated Ray’s birthday in Majuro so we were able to swap stories about our first week of school. Laura (Ray and Chris) is in their second week also and things are progressing over there as well. MIHS (Mariko) started in-service and I think they started classes on Monday. We haven’t heard from Wotje but I hope they’re doing well.

The program cautions all of us not to come in with any preconceived notions but I’ve already fallen into the trap. I was psyched to teach the kids on Ejit karate and a bit of jujitsu but it’s most likely going to be impossible. Karate is seen as a skill of 'elukkuun murder' or 'great murder' here because their only exposure to it is through movies. One of the most popular games in the Marshall Islands is “beat the hell out of your friends” and I foresee a disaster if I teach them how to hurt each other efficiently. It is perfectly natural for kids to have a rock fight across the street or run around throwing punches and kicks in and out of the air at each other. The kids already emulate Jet Li, Jackie Chan and the guy from Ong Bok. All it would take is one properly thrown roundhouse to the face and I'd be known as the ribelle who teaches the kids how to fight. I’m a bit disappointed but in reality this just means that I need to practice karate on my own.

From Charlie Guthrie: 8/25/07

Well we’re still stranded, looks like for another week. They have to send the engines of both planes to the states for repair. However, it has been suggested that they might be renting an engine for the big plane. So I spent this past week with the volunteers of the WorldTeach program; 3 of them and I taught ourselves how to play bridge out of my Hoyle Book of Card Games (thank you Mom). Bridge is a lot of fun, you should try it.

This extra delay would be fine, except that the place we have been staying is an elementary school classroom, and they are starting school on Monday. This means we had to move out. Fortunately, I am able to stay with Chris and Ray in Laura (town at the far end of the main island of Majuro), and I have been doing that for a couple days, and will continue to do so until I leave. However, there are 20 WorldTeach volunteers that aren’t so lucky. They don’t have anywhere to go just yet, and may be sleeping on floors of other volunteers stationed in Majuro.

Today we visited Ejit, which is an island on Majuro Atoll (I should really find a map to put up here). It is accessible by boat, or land bridge – that is to say, you can walk across the reef in low tide. Coming here was a little bit tricky because we had waited a little too long and the tide was not exactly low – we had to wade through knee-deep water in the dark to get here.

---

For a further update it looks like the both planes are out of commission for the foreseeable future. Erin and Sarah met with the Bikini Government Mayor and Senator to charter a boat for all of the school employees (at least 75% of the staff is in Majuro) to Kili but we don't know when any action will take place.

Stranded Update

If the small plane gets fixed (which is likely, I'm told), I'm scheduled to leave on Friday. Until then, I may be a teacher's aide on Ejit island, which is part of Majuro Atoll.

8/18: Stranded

The small plane, which was the only remaining plane, is now broken. This means the only means of inter-island travel is now by ship, but those do not come around very often. Around 18 of the original 45 WorldTeach volunteers and 9 of the original 12 Dartmouth volunteers managed to reach their teaching sites before the transportation meltdown, and the rest of us are waiting indefinitely in Majuro for the next opportunity to travel to our sites. The dormitory where I and the other Dartmouth volunteers were staying during orientation is no longer available, so I (along with Erin and Sarah) have moved in with the other stranded WorldTeach volunteers on the floors of the classrooms of the Rairok Head Start Elementary School. I am told the small plane’s problem is minor, so the wait shouldn’t be more than a few days; but one can never be too sure.
I don’t mind waiting, although it would be nice to have some closure and reach Kili so I could begin getting ready for school. And if we end up waiting for more than a week, I could help out the volunteers (such as Annie, Paul, Chimpo, Ray, and Mariko) who are teaching at Majuro schools. They are scheduled to start this week or next week. The other volunteers are also eager to reach their new homes, but are still content to pass the days idly in our camp. That contentment won’t last forever, though – we’re all bound to get antsy sometime.
It rained all day today, unusual for the Marshall Islands. Typically if it starts raining, it begins with a heavy wind, then a heavy downpour, and you just have to wait it out for a few minutes. I was doing errands when it happened and started waiting it out in some shelter, but gave up after an hour and just got soaked instead. I was hoping to play soccer with the Fijians today (they play pickup Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday afternoons), but they didn’t show up because of the rain. The rain really kills activity here; everyone just sits inside or under their eaves and wait for it to stop. School attendance drops dramatically on rainy days – kids just don’t want to have to walk through the rain to get there.

Ejit Has Moved In

Annie and I moved into our house yesterday and it's amazing. We went for a jambo last night and met a whole bunch of kids.

Today we crossed the reef for the first time and we're in between errands (grocery shopping etc)

Unfortunately my timecard for the internet is about to expire so this is the end of my post.

Paul

Jambo

The other day I went for a 'jambo' (stroll/walk/promenade) through a poor part of town (actually the poorest part of town) and came across around 8-10 kids between 5 and 12 years old. I decided to get a workout by having them climb on my back and do squats, lunges, and pushups. Then I lifted them up/threw them in the air one at a time. It was good and tiring - a fun way to work out and they had a great time. A couple kids even gave me a back massage at the end of it, I didn't even have to ask. On my way back home, i saw a room full of computers with kids playing the computer game "Counter-Strike" with each other on a local network, and then some more playing XBox and Playstation! I was so surprised that on the poorest street on the island - shacks barely standing with corrugated tin roofs and walls, no doors, kids running around without shoes, dehydrated and hungry, and here is a room full of top-of-the-line Dells running Counter-Strike. The kids were pretty good at it too, from what it looked like. The store owner said he kept it open every night until 2am except Sundays, it's open until 12.

Delayed departure

We were supposed to leave today for Kili, but the planes are delayed. They told us "Maybe we'll leave tomorrow." We'll see - it could be a week or even more. I'm not too disappointed, I had a lot of errands that I wouldn't have been able to get done if we'd left on time. Usually there are two planes operating under Air Marshall Islands - the "Big Plane" (about 50 passengers) and the "Small Plane" (around 20). The big one is out of commission - it needs a new engine - so the small one is all there is to transport people between the islands. For this reason, Air Marshall Islands is often nicknamed "Air Maybe". We won't be missing any school though - they make the schedule flexible enough that they can wait for us to get there before starting. The truth is, they don't really have a choice; my two housemates, Erin and Sarah, and I make up a good chunk of the faculty of the school, and there are no substitutes.
I'm uncomfortable about the unreliability of the planes because it may prevent me from attending my brother's wedding. My current plan is to leave Kili for Majuro on Friday Sept 21 or Monday Sept 24, then leave Majuro for Hawaii and then San Francisco on Wednesday Sept 26.
I bought a machete today - it's about 15 inches long and only cost 6 dollars. We also bought more than a thousand dollars' worth of food (canned vegetables, rice, flour, etc.) to ship out to our island to live on until Christmas. We will be coming back to Majuro during Christmas break, and we can buy more food then. We'll also be eating a lot of local fish, coconut, breadfruit, and pandanus, but there is not enough available on the island to live on without supplementary nourishment.
I'll probably have a lot less access to internet once I get to Kili, so I apologize in advance for the lack of updates. My understanding is that there is someone there with internet at his house, and that it is really slow.

Charlie

Wednesday

We started practicum, and boy is that an eye-opening experience. In the 4th grade class, we were learning names of colors and trying to form sentences like "The ____ is ____", then filling in 'ball' and 'red'. I remember reading The Witches by Roald Dahl in second grade and writing research paragraphs on a different topic every day by fourth grade. Then again, that was in my first language. I have to give these kids credit for trying to do everything in a second language.
I'm definitely learning a lot about teaching through this practice period. I'm glad I can try and fail here, where there are no consequences, before going out to Kili to teach my kids for real.

I look at the ocean differently here than at home; waves crash directly onto sharp coral, so no one really swims in the ocean. Where at home the ocean was a place of recreation, here it is a boundary.

Monday

8/6/07
Yesterday we went to Laura beach, one of the only sandy beaches on the island (the rest is sharp coral). It’s beautiful there. I went spear fishing with Jakob and Kenny, which is the same as snorkeling, but with a rubberband-powered spear – and instead of looking at the fish, you try to kill them. Most of the fish were too small to be worth catching; I caught one fish that looked big, but just turned out to be an inflated pufferfish.
Today was spent preparing for the practicum, the first day of a week of practice-teaching that starts tomorrow. Who do we teach? Well, we take a bus down the one road in Majuro and collect kids from the side of the road, telling them we are offering a summer camp from 10am to 1pm. I guess their parents just have to trust that we are not kidnapping them into slave labor.

Saturday

I have a cell phone! I will be sharing it with Sarah Mclaughlin and Erin Garnett. The number is 011.692.545.3228. I’d suggest getting an international calling card though, if you plan on calling. Texting also works.
We, the 9 Dartmouth Volunteers, are living together in a dormitory on Majuro for orientation and will head out to our respective teaching sites on August 17-18. I’m pretty excited to go out to Kili. I wasn’t at first, but I have found out a lot of great things about it. It has a sand place to swim and fish – apparently there are big pelagic fish available. Also, the education system is very well funded. This is because Kili is inhabited by descendants of those that were moved out of Bikini Island for the nuclear testing. Due to the hardship they experienced at that time, they get a lot of money from the US government as compensation – they are many of the more wealthy people in the Marshall Islands.
During these three weeks of orientation, we get Marshallese language lessons every morning, followed by lectures on pedagogy and other aspects of living and teaching in the Marshall Islands. My language instructor, a 12th grader and Marshall Islands High School, also taught me how to climb a coconut tree. Then Jakob Appelbaum, a Dartmouth Volunteer who knows more about hunting, fishing, and gathering than “Guns and Ammo” magazine, taught me how to use a machete husk and break open the coconuts we collected. He lived on Tokelau (near Samoa) for six months, so he is very familiar with Pacific Island life.
We played soccer last night with some Fijians and, before that, boot! I was proud to bring our own Ultimate Frisbee game all the way out here. During the soccer game, an American volunteer (World Teach) got hit in the nuts; we had to stop for a few minutes while everyone, American and Fijian, laughed at him. It’s nice to know that, despite differences in culture, there are some things we all share.

Orientation

This is the first time we've had internet access since arriving on Majuro. I'm here posting this entry and killing ants as they crawl over my laptop.

We're all safe and happy here and on Saturday (Aug. 4th) Kenny will join us.

Orientation is crazy but we're excited about learning kajin majel (Marshalese).

Bar lo kom (good bye [everyone])

Finally on our way

It's 9:07 AM here and we're getting ready to leave the Ohana Honolulu Airport Hotel to get on our plane to Majuro.

More later.

Surfin' Safari

Chimpo and I spent our single day in Honulu attempting to surf on rented surfboards in Waikiki beach. I actually got up a couple of times, now I'm hooked. I can imagine being a surf bum in Waikiki in another life.

Also, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning. Amazing.

Intro

We're sitting in the hotel lobby of Honolulu Airpot Hotel, writing last letters on the eve of the final step in our journey to the Marshall Islands.

I'm trying to figure out how to make a blog.