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.