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.