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