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.”