Quick Update

It's een a while since my last update so here's a quick shotgun list of highlights.

• The Bikini Mayor passed away. He got into a bad car crash and was paralyzed from the waist down. They medivaced him to the Phillipines and he succumbed to complications. We missed aabout a week of school but I am happy that we were able to involve ourselves in the community.
• Kierten's computer died and it caused a lot of stress (mostly for her). Vista corrupted itself and I packed up all her files onto my hard drive when her family sent a recovery drive. Apparently sending things by priority mail does work here. To packages for Kiersten arrived in 2 and 4 days respectively. She still has some hardware problems. The computer says that she does not have dialup or wireless internet capability. Ethernet however is still good.
• I've been swimming a lot and I played my first basketball game yesterday. It was fun and it's a way to get to know the young men on island.
• Manit (culture) week just passed and there was a Marshallese spelling bee. Our 4th, and 5th Graders won first place out of all the students their grade in Majuro.

That's all for now. I'll try to post again soon.

Photos First

Me on the dock horsing around with the boys, a great picture of some of the small kids on Ejit, and the Honor Guard carrying the Mayor to the Gravesite

Some pictures

Sunset spearfishing shot on our way back to Ejit.
The boys after we went swimming a few weeks ago.

Paradise

I try not to paint too wonderful a picture of my time here, but this time I'm just going to go on about how much I love it here. Kiersten and I have gone out spearfishing out in the lagoon. There is a marker pole about 100 yards from the dock in Ejit where there is a large reef. We swim out there for the exercise and then spearfish there. The coral formations there are as big as houses and the fish are plentiful. The last two times I've gone out I stopped and no joke for the first time stated in my mind "This is paridise". The kids come out to see us on home made rafts (styrofoam blocks and refrigerator doors) when we go. It's endearing, annoying and alarming all at once. They're interested in seeing us, but they scare the fish away. Finally they always ask us "Did you see any sharks?" Kiersten is a bit worried that they know more than we do, but I'm optimistic. We haven't seen any yet.

As far as school is going, I'm doing relatively well the second time around. We're finally settling into routines and although there have been bumps along the way (I need to reinstate progress reports for 7th grade) I'm doing much better than last year. Kiersten is undergoing the craziness everyone goes through during their first year of teaching, but the new policy helps her a lot. Anna forces all of the new volunteers to send in lesson plans a week ahead for her to review. This lets Kiersten focus on grading and prep rather than planning for most of the week.

To close, here are some high and low points since the last update:

1. Seeing a fish about as big as my torso when we went swimming back from the pole yesterday. It was the biggest wild marine animal I have ever seen close up.
2. Half of my classes still don't have air conditioning. We go through at least 2 gallons of boiled water a day to keep hydrated.
3. Cooking. I really like it, and Kiersten does the dishes.
4. We have "high speed" internet installed at the school now (14 kbs). I can now do frivilous things on the internet without wasting anyone's money. The line is leased so the MOE pays the same amount each month no matter how many hours we log on to it.
5. I've gotten so annoyed at losing instruction time after breaks that I've instituted a 30 second rule. Any student 4th grade and higher who takes more than 30 seconds getting in line after recess is over gets detention with me. We practice lining up outside after school rain or shine. My instruction time has since increased by an average of 10 minutes a day.

School Has Started

While the Marshall Islands school year officially began on August 18th, Ejit started on Wednesday. We had a half day, then a full day. Today (It's Friday here) we cancelled school for the PTA meeting. More on that fiasco later.

All outer island volunteers are at their sites right now. Wotje got out without any trouble but Kili needed to try 3 times. The first time there was a bad storm in Kili and the second time they couldn't land because the runway had too much vegetation on it and the landing gear might have broken. The silver lining to this story is that we actually have a working plane. God willing it will stay up.

I've been spending a good amount of time in the MIR trading food purchases for wireless internet. Normally the cost is 10 cents a minute, but you can sit in the restaurant all day and pay nothing. All you have to do is buy something. My current post is from there.

We had our first PTA meeting and it was just as (even more?) painful as last year. There were drawn out speeches, there was drama, and I left in the middle to go to the bathroom and have a snack at my house. I don't really feel like writing everything that happened so if you're interested you can send me an e-mail and I'll answer. Or if you're my mom I'll tell you about it the next time we talk on the phone. (Hi mom)

On a fun note I've gone swimming with the kids a lot lately, and it's been a ton of fun. I feel a little bad for Kiersten because its her first year and she doesn't have the time to swim like I do. I'm helping her out when I can but the first quarter is always a mess.

I'll post again soon. (maybe)

Orientation

I've been helping Anna out a bit with orientation and workshops and after today we'll be all finished. We're having our end of orientation dinner at Monica's again this year, and I got to order all of the food. It should be a good time. The highlight would have to be when I had the volunteers over for dinner on Ejit. They all crossed the reef for the first time, and the dogs left them alone. I shared some culinary tricks with them with vegetable fried rice and yellow fin tuna served three ways- Sashimi, Poke, and Jacob's lemon/coconut milk serviche thing from Tocalou.

Tomorrow, the three Kili volunteers head out and then on Saturday all of the Dartmouth volunteers will be off island. A few World Teach volunteers will be staying in downtown Majuro until they ship out. I'm sure I'll have more to post about that later. It looks like I'll be better at posting this year because the MIR started giving out free wireless internet. All you need to do is buy some food and you make your money back on what you would have spent on internet at NTA or the RRE.

Hawaii and Majuro

I'm safe in Majuro now and I'm currently cleaning our house. It's not as messy as I feared but I still have a lot of work to do. I'm splitting my time between orientation and Ejit, helping Anna out and preparing for school. I'm really excited about the year and hopefully other people will post to the blog soon.

Just an item on people watching while I was in Hawaii. I saw two weird pet experiences while I was there. A woman on vacation had her parrot or parakeet with her, but the bird wasn't in a cage. It was just sitting in her cleavage. The next one isn't as weird but shortly after that I saw a grown man walking his dog around in a baby stroller.

I'll post again soon but I have a lot of work to do.

First Post of the Year

I'm currently packing for my flight tomorrow and I'm pretty excited. It turns out that I'm going to be flying in with Kiersten because her plane was delayed so we'll be able to show up in the RMI just in time for everyone's practicum.

Highlights for this year include my new external hard drive with tons of tv shows, movies and music (plus room for more from Entertainment Center), dry bags so that I can take my laptop and hard drive over the reef, and my waterproof, shockproof, crushproof camera.

The next post will happen either in Hawaii or the RMI.

New Volunteers

I will be passing this blog on to next year's volunteers, should they choose to use it. The new Dartmouth Volunteers for next year will be: Maggie Severns-O'Neill, Joseph Guarnery, Jonathan Marable, Kiersten Hallquist, Cassandre Tanner, Alyson Daniel, Patena Key, Nicholas Williams, and Jamie Tansey.

Paul Espina will return to Ejit, and Anna Zelinsky will return as Field Director.

End of 2007-2008 School Year

I just wanted to write a brief wrap-up from Kili. Erin is either in Majuro now or visiting Wotje with Annie Daher. Sarah is back in Oregon I think, although she will be moving to New York City shortly. I'm back home in Connecticut.

In the week leading up to our final departure, we actually had two going-away parties. Sarah was supposed to leave Kili a few days before I did, so we had a party then; but then the plane got a flat tire and didn't show up until Friday, when I was planning to leave. So we had a second party, much like the first, the day before we both departed. We gave away a bunch of our stuff as gifts, and received some gifts in return. I watched High School Musical with my 8th graders to celebrate their finishing the 8th grade exam, not to mention graduating from elementary school.

The morning of our departure, Sarah and I could hardly believe it when we saw the plane come down out of the sky and land. Between all the malfunctions and repairs, I never thought it would be in operation long enough to actually reach us. We said some tearful goodbyes and made the short flight back to Majuro. It was only 40 minutes, a blink of the eye compared to our previous 24-30 hour boat journeys. Then after taking care of a few errands in Majuro, we parted ways. She flew out a couple of days before I did. I got to visit Annie and Paul and the kids in Ejit one last time and say goodbye to a few other people - other teaching volunteers, former students - before flying out myself.

I had a 24-hour layover in Honolulu, and to kill time I went to see a movie. I found a theater and saw Iron Man. It was AWESOME, or at least an awesome reintroduction into American culture. I was pretty excited to be in America again. Sometimes people find it overwhelming to re-enter their own culture after being integrated into another for so long, but I felt surprisingly little of the so-called reverse-culture shock. Now I instinctively take off my shoes when I enter a building, then remember and put them back on again, but other than that I've re-adjusted pretty thoroughly.

It's been good to see friends and family again. Lately I've been bouncing between Dartmouth, New York, and Connecticut, reconnecting with people I haven't seen in a long time. And wow - fast, free (sort of) internet is really, really great. I miss Kili from time to time, and I'll always remember the people there. I think I will appreciate my experience there, despite the hard times, more and more as time goes on.

broken cell phone

Our cell phone is on its last legs. The chief problem is the buttons are worn out, so we have writing text messages. So communications via text message will be brief and infrequent from here on out. But we'll be home soon! Sarah is leaving from Majuro on May 16

The Last Lap

The good news is that school is ending a week early, so we will get out next Wednesday (May 7)! The bad news is that the planes, though they worked a precious few weeks, are broken again and will not be fixed any time soon. So despite being done with school, I will be stuck here until the next boat. It’s not certain when that will be, but there are a lot of people both here and in a high school on a nearby atoll that will need to be getting to Majuro once school is out. So at least there is incentive for local governments to be chartering boats, which tends to bring them sooner than later. My flight home is scheduled for June 2, but if I can get to Majuro earlier, I will push that up to leave as soon as possible. I expect a boat will likely come in about 1 to 3 weeks (May 9 – May 23).
I have had a lot of energy and effort for teaching this week, knowing that it is the last lap of our long, untimed race of education. I have been planning very detailed and fun lessons, including a plant and seed unit with my grade 7 science class. I am working with the head of the local (struggling) agricultural center on taking students there to see what they do and even take away a few seeds to plant themselves. So far the agricultural center, run by a friendly and experienced Filipino farmer who was hired by the Bikini council, is growing tomatoes, limes, papayas, guavas, okra, watermelons, sweet melons, and raising a few pigs. The project is still in early stages, as only the sweet melons have produced fruit so far. Before coming here, the Filipino worked on farming projects in Saudi Arabia for 14 years and then for an agricultural organization with the UN; I imagine that if he was able to grow crops in Saudi Arabia, he should probably be able to do it here.
Also motivating me is mounting pressure from the approaching high school entrance exam. Having my 8th graders pass it has been my chief goal for the year. We have after school test prep classes almost daily, and they usually last until 5pm or later. It has been hanging over our heads for a long time, but now we know it is coming, probably on the next boat. Coincidentally, I will probably be leaving on that same boat, right after the test is administered. I’m sorry there won’t be much time to celebrate our relief when all the work is over, but who knows when the next boat after that would be?
We had a miserable, sweaty, and dark period when a transformer blew at the power plant and we lost power for a week. We lost most of the contents of our refrigerator and freezer, including several loaves of bread and foccaccia dough and about 30 quarter-legs of chicken. Fortunately we were able to barbecue and/or give away most of the chicken before it went bad. I dreaded sunset because once it got dark there was nothing to do but chat and try to read by candlelight. I didn’t expect them to be able to fix it for a very long time, but the public works department (one of the most effective institutions here by far) was able to bring in someone on a ship and fix it within a week. Early in the week we had a picnic with some Marshallese families, partly to eat some of the meat before it spoiled. By Marshallese families, I mean women and their daughters. Men and women don’t typically do anything together – husbands and wives are never seen together and would never touch, let alone kiss or hug, in public. (So how do they produce so many children, one might ask? Very discreetly, and at night. People usually go deep into the jungle to have sex – there are far too many people in a house to have any privacy). So back to the picnic: it was the most difficult picnic I have ever been to. The women organizing it, well, didn’t organize it at all. There was going to be one woman purchasing the food and she was charging $8 per person, not because the food was really expensive, but because she had absolutely no education in mathematics, and no sense of cost! To get to the picnic area (across the island, about half a mile), they had Erin drive a broken-down car, though we could have walked. She spent a grand total of about two hours in the car because people kept forgetting crucial ingredients and tools, such as the meat, or forks, or plates, and other people, and so she had to drive back and forth many, many times. There was no indication that people thought this was silly, or that it would be more efficient to have thought it out and brought everything on the first trip. In the end, though, I had a good time. I went swimming with some kids in the ocean and the marinated chicken was delicious. We later found out another reason why the $8 figure food was so high – because no one else other than Erin, Sarah, or I ended up paying.
I find myself appreciating the company of my Marshallese friends more than usual, as I won’t have it for much longer. Sarah is having a party for her 5th and 6th grades as I write this and I was joining in the festivity, but also thinking about how it may be one of the last. I will miss the kids, but I can’t wait to get home. See you soon.

Kili has power!

Last Friday (4/11) the Marshalls Energy Company (MEC) maintenance guy was able to fix the transformer, so power has been restored to Kili. I'm sure they would love to hear from you now that they have modern technology back at their fingertips.

-kristin

Kili has no power, so no communication for now

Hi Everyone,

A transformer blew at the Kili Power Plant, leaving them without power since Friday. So if you have texted/emailed/called them, this is the reason they have not responded. A boat is leaving for Kili tomorrow and it will have a mechanic on it... the idea is he fixes the blown transformer. It is unclear how long that will take.

Charlie, Sarah and Erin are being troopers and staying (relatively) positive despite this setback to daily routines (no water pumps, no lights at night, no stove, etc). They were able to use battery power to check in with me today via the CB radio but didn't have time to say much because they wanted to conserve battery power.

I'm sure they will let you know when the power is back on and they are able to communicate again.

-kristin

I've started thinking about what to do next year; I've started asking around for career advice, although it's hard to conduct a job search via text-message from my cell phone (only reliable means of communication). I'm thinking about consulting or banking or something in marketing or technology. All I really know is that I want to live in New York City.

As of the writing of this update, there are 50 school days left until graduation, and 79 days (including weekends) until I come home. The all-important high school entrance exam is coming up very soon, but nobody will tell me when exactly it will be. This makes it difficult to plan my curriculum, not knowing when my students need to be ready. To their credit, nobody really even knows when the test will be. It's supposed to take place in April or May, and depends on when there will be a boat coming to take the tester here. So I have somewhere between 2 and 8 weeks to prepare my students.

update from charlie

I was working on a great video to send home and post here, but then my computer broke. I will have to finish it when I get home. I used to watch a lot of movies and tv shows on the compute; I was initially pretty bummed when it broke, but without it I may get out more, and ultimately have a more rewarding experience without it. After all, I can watch TV at home.
In addition to school, my daily routine now includes baking bread, playing volleyball, and jogging (in that order). I have gotten much better at all three. As for the baking, I have started experimenting with herb additions and using starter for sourdough.
People keep trying to set me up with Marshallese girls, some of which are single, some not. “You take [name of current girl] for your wife?” they say. I have not accepted any offers, much to their surprise.
After New Years I traveled again by boat from Majuro to Kili. The return trip was much more pleasant than my initial journey to Majuro before New Years. I didn’t throw up at all and I slept on a mat, not in a hallway. However, it rained most of the journey and our tarp-shelter leaked all over Sarah and me. If the climate were anything less than tropical, we would have quickly acquired hypothermia. I woke up with pruny hands and feet and clothes soaked through.
I can’t wait to go back home. We are too overworked and under-resourced to really enjoy teaching here. I might have enjoyed teaching somewhere else. None of us – Sarah, Erin, or I – plan on returning next year. But I have a lot to look forward to back home. Besides vegetables and efficient economic systems, I am excited to see friends and family again. Also I will be working as director of the sailing program in Point O’ Woods, NY this summer. So the future is bright.

-Charlie

February

We have 4 months to go and I’ve been thinking about my time here and what will happen when I leave. I’ve compiled a list of the things that I’m okay with now that I never thought I would be and a list of things I’m really going to miss when I leave.

Things I’ve gotten used to:

• Bugs- I’ve become completely fine with bugs everywhere, including on me. Ants often crawl on my body and instead of feeling dirty like I used to, I just calmly kill them and continue what I was doing.
• Carrying around a large stick to scare off attacking dogs- Most of the dogs on Ejit show me respect even when I don’t have the stick and it’s gotten me out of a few problems in Rita with dogs there. So far I’ve only had to hit one. There’s a pretty cool tooth mark on my escrima stick from when I struck the dog on the jaw.
• Eating deli meat a month or so after the sell by date- It obviously doesn’t hurt you because I’ve done it for months but the idea of ‘expired’ meat made me queasy in the beginning of the year.
• Wet clothes- when low tide is pretty high (more than 1 foot over the mean low tide mark) it’s impossible to cross the reef without getting a little wet. This means that I’ve had to walk around town and run errands with saltwater wet shorts. Clothes dry quickly here but I got used to it pretty quickly.
• Snot- the Marshallese have no taboos against nose picking, snot rockets or spitting. I’m not exactly okay with the first two but I’ve learned to ignore them. Spitting is something that I’ve taken up myself. As long as it’s not full of betel nut and it’s outside I don’t mind it.
• Dogs barking at night- If I’m asleep the barking no longer wakes me up.

Things I’m going to miss:

• The kids of course.
• Coconut water- I really really love fresh coconuts, and if I win the lottery or something later on in life I’ll have them imported.
• Walking across the reef at night. Stars at the equator twinkle red and blue and the light pollution is really low in the middle of the reef.
• Snorkeling- there are still some beautiful reefs here.
• Spear fishing- like snorkeling but with a purpose.
• How friendly and easygoing the Marshallese are.

On a side note, pink eye has come to Majuro big time. Tons of kids and adults have it and we canceled school today because the only teachers without pinkeye (including substitutes) were the three volunteers.

The New Year

So the winter break has come and gone. On Ejit, we’ve finished 2^nd quarter finals and we’re in the beginning of quarter two. I spent Christmas here in the Marshall Islands and Annie went back to visit home so I spent a lot of time getting to know the community here.

Christmas in the Marshall Islands is celebrated during and after the 25^th with the Christmas “Jebta” or beat. It’s basically a marathon of dancing and/or singing with various performing groups. After they perform a collection for the church is made. They had 3 beats in Ejit and at each one I donated an average of 3 dollars. It was really great seeing my kids practice for the beat and then perform in front of the whole community. They had a lot of fun and I enjoyed it.

The greatest benefit from staying was definitely the greater way I’ve been accepted by the community here. I’ve celebrated Kemmems (1^st birthdays), the Christmas Jebta, and New Years with Ejit and they’ve definitely noticed. Kids and adults have opened up to me and are much more welcoming. The vast majority of mine and most of Annie’s kids definitely enjoy hanging out with me outside of school (inside also) and we’ve had a lot of positive experiences.

New Years here was crazy. Every year there is a huge “block” party in Majuro where food, drinks and entertainment are available in a protected block near the RRE (a hotel). Kristin’s band opened for an Okinawan cultural/conversationalist band. They put on a pretty good show and the energy (and booze) were so high that a bunch of Japanese tourists and outer island volunteers jumped on the stage. I left the block party early and walked back home at 1:30 am to join the celebration in Ejit. New Years is like Halloween or Christmas caroling here in the Marshall Islands. The kids go door to door singing new year songs and get candy. I stayed with the kids until around 4 am and went back home exhausted.

Even though Annie was gone I didn’t spend much time alone. There are always kids knocking on my door but Sarah and Charlie from Kili also came over and spent time living in Ejit. Sarah came early but she left for a while when her boyfriend Steve came to visit. Charlie arrived on New Years Eve and moved into Annie’s room. They even subbed for Annie when her arrival was slightly delayed. Charlie taught us how to make French bread (it’s delicious) and the kids a few new step patterns. Sarah came back when Steve left and relaxed. They left for Kili yesterday and we were sad to see them go.

There are a few more things I could write about but I’ll save them for the next entry or the January update. It’s coming out in two weeks or so.

End of 2007

I’m in Majuro until Tuesday (tomorrow), when I ship back to Kili. I’ve been here since New Year’s Eve, and it has been great to take a break in civilization. I had some beer, a salad, butter, internet, lots of great things.
Christmas on Kili was alright, although in my opinion Christmas is not Christmas without family. So from my perspective there was no Christmas this year. Although you might say I had a Christmas miracle in the sense that I was able to get back to Majuro at all. The boat was scheduled to leave December 27th, some time in the afternoon. At 2am that, there was knocking on our door, and I thought it was probably the crazy guy looking for food. But in fact it was two students, telling us that the boat was here, and that it was leaving soon. I thought it impossible that it would leave so soon after arriving, because they had to unload stuff. But I started packing any way, and half an hour later, I arrived at the beach to see the ship, the “Ribuukae” floating away. I was heartbroken and went on a Scrubs binge, watching all of season four over the next two days. But fortune smiled upon me – the boat got as far as Jaluit, but then was called back because they failed to drop off some equipment for the public works department on Kili. So I got on the boat and made it back to Majuro. I threw up a couple times from seasickness, but it was a triumphant seasickness, because I knew I was going back to civilization.
In November we finally got around to teaching sex ed to grade 6,7, and 8. We separated the boys and the girls – I taught the boys. I was daunted at first by the prospect of teaching 25 boys about sex all at once, but we got through it. My main problem by the end was keeping them from drawing penises all over their papers.
People on Kili often ask us for recorded CD’s and digital photo prints - and we don’t have nearly enough paper, ink, or CD’s to give them away – so we’ve begun various systems of exchange. I like to think we are introducing some economic development. In return for burning CD’s for students, we’ve gotten such things as fresh-squeezed lime juice (for limeade!), loads of coconuts, breadfruits, squash, and – my favorite – crabs. We had a couple crab feasts just before Christmas. The third graders who brought us the crabs were able to get 20 in a matter of hours just by picking them up off the reef! I was impressed.
We liked to play volleyball every day at our neighbor Brenda’s house with her and her daughters and other neighbors, until the house’s patriarch (who sometimes joins in our games) cut up the net into little pieces with his machete. Apparently he was angry at his daughter for not helping to clean the house, so he did it to punish her. Unfortunately, he punished a lot more people than that. I couldn’t believe someone would destroy something that so many people enjoy, especially because it is so irreplaceable. It would be weeks or months before someone was able to take a ship to Majuro and buy a new one. Fortunately I did just that and I will bring a net back with me when I return to Kili. I talked to a Marshallese woman about the net getting cut up, and she said, “That happens a lot.”
“What happens?” I said.
“Men not using their brains.”