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.