Welcome to my blog on my year (July 2010 - June 2011) in the Marshall Islands! The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a Micronesian nation composed on 29 coral atolls and 5 islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. I am here on the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program which you can find out more about at this link: www.dartmouthrmi.com. I am staying in the capital, Majuro, and am teaching two sections of 7th grade English Grammar/Writing and English Reading at Majuro Middle School (MMS). I am living in dorms on the Marshall Islands High School (MIHS) campus, where MMS is located. If you have any other questions please feel free to email me at l.andrew.rayner@gmail.com, and thanks for visiting my blog. I update on Sundays as regularly as electricity/internet availability permits.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

New Beginnings

This post will be short since I am paying for internet now/using other peoples' computers. I will hopefully have my computer back in my hands by the new year. The ribelle, Randy Sylvester, at Majuro Computer Services said that he can upgrade my hard drive and fix it for a fraction of the cost that Apple would serve me with (not to mention the shipping back to America) so I am thankful for that. This unfortunate occurrence has turned into an opportunity of sorts.

The term finally ended this past week. I spent the first three days reviewing 10 weeks of grammar material. I decided to not have a reading final since I lost my grades and I did not feel up to making the students prepare something in such a sort time. While reading groups helped me teach reading techniques, it did not promote any kind of formal examination and since the teachers at the school truncated the term by two days, I decided that my gift to my kids would be no reading final. Suffice to say, they were happy with the gift. Instead, we spent the last week teaching "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey and "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Both were extremely endearing to hear. Mandy taught both her students and mine how to sign "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and I taught the music. Our goal was to record the students doing both, but by the end of the week, the students wanted to go home more than be on youtube. It was a disappointment to Mandy and I, but we were also happy to be free of obligations. Our plans to "have it snow in the RMI" (read: have our students close their eyes and then throw really cold water balloons at them to start a water balloon fight) fell through for the same reason. Luckily, there is still snow in the US in January (though, for some reason, our students refused to believe this fact). After the test was over, I taught my students to make snowflakes which they loved. My classroom is now decorated completely by my students and I am very proud of that fact.

I have yet to grade the finals since I have been enjoying the break but I will be sure to let you know the stats when I do. Break has allowed me to hang out with the World Teach volunteers who have come in and talk about experiences in different parts of the RMI. Kristin Dewey and Jenna Cunningham have also come in, but they have been on Ejit with Justin and Alex and have not come to Majuro to spend any real time yet. I look forward to sharing experiences with them as well. Besides hanging out and talking, I have not done much with my break. I have been able to eat at some places that I have never been to and have been reading a lot but because I do not have my computer, my attempt to start my job search or start recording music for my new MMS acapella group or getting better at the guitar have all been stunted. Hopefully I will soon find something to occupy my time. Until then, I do like the break for not having to teach (on Sunday evening I had a revelation that I did not have to go to school on Monday and literally jumped for joy). The students needed the break but I think I might have needed it even more. I look forward to starting the new year with refreshed energy. I also think it will be great to have Professor Garrod, Dan Moore '10, and the Dartmouth undergrads coming on the study abroad program through the Education Department here in the Marshalls. They will be new to the island (well, with the exception of Garrod) and will need showing around and I plan on filling that role to the fullest.

Last Thrusday, The de Brueys family came to the RMI to pay their final respects to their son James. The family was greeted by many ribelles and Marshallese people at the airport. On Friday, the family went to the island where James was stationed to meet the Marshallese people that so loved James there. They said that they were overwhelmed by the response and kindness of the people here. On Thursday, there was a formal service behind MIR for all of the deceased followed by a dinner for the de Brueys family and the volunteers of Dartmouth and World Teach at Wallaby Downs, the Australian Navy outpost in the RMI. Surrounded by Anna and a few other volunteers I toasted that this dinner mark the end of bad news for all of us in this year and that it be the start of new wonders in the new year. I hope this wish holds true.

As a final note, a dear friend that I made in the RMI has left the island for good. Michael Honeth, a ribelle who has been here for a few years working for the EPA, was one of the first people to reach out to the other volunteers and I. He was extremely generous and friendly--in the true Marshallese spirit--and he will truly be missed. I hope he goes on to have many great adventures wherever life takes him.

My next post will be after Christmas, so I hope you all have incredibly merry holidays surrounded by those you love. Know that we are all thinking of you, missing you, and wishing we were home for Christmas from the Pacific.

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, December 12, 2010

When It Rains, It Pours

After only 5 months, my Macbook Pro has gotten a virus (a very rare thing to happen indeed) and has died. I am sending it back to the US since it is still insured but as a result my efforts to blog and email regularly will be stymied by this occurrence. The blog will also not feature pictures until I get my computer back (though luckily, I have yet to delete any of my RMI pictures from my camera, which was very fortuitous of me). I will do my best to keep up the same Sunday posting schedule.

This past week, the memorial service was held for James and the other passengers of the boat that was capsized at sea. It was a beautiful service. There is nothing like a funeral on the lagoon beach at sunset to remind you of how beautiful life is and that we should do our best to live it fully while we can. I only knew James for a short amount of time, but he was full of life, and I think that is what he would want all of us to do. There were not many differences in the service that I could understand (since it was mostly in Marshallese) except for the fact that the speakers were the heads of each clan of people present. There is also the act of pouring white rocks over the grave as a means of "wiping the slate clean." I need to find out more about the service itself to understand the actions fully, but I was not able to at the time because those who I would have asked were bereft at the time.

Otherwise, school is coming to an end. The teachers at MMS decided to end school this coming Friday instead of next week Tuesday. This good because I get two full weeks off. However, it is bad because I now have three days to review ten weeks of material since finals are Thursday and Friday.

In other news, since the holiday season is approaching, all of the volunteers from World Teach and Dartmouth have been trickling back to the island. The Bungalow has a lot more faces now, which is good after the departure of Hannah and Bill. The first group of Dartmouth volunteers--Kristen and Jenna--will be coming back on Friday and I am extremely excited to see them.


That is all for now. Let's hope the rest of the year brings better tidings!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

PS: With the current conference on climate change, there has been a resurgence of talk about the rising ocean levels and how it will affect island nations like the RMI in the future. This article will give you some sense of the problem. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_sc/climate_disappearing_nations

Monday, December 6, 2010

Winners, Losers, and Losses




The past week has been a dark one. We were told by our director and my many of the other permapelles (premanent+ripelles, a term supposedly coined by last year's DVTP volunteers) that the mood of the island changes come December. People are excited for the holiday season and as a result, things being to get a bit wild. This month has started with bad tidings and challenges already.

At the beginning of the term, Mandy and I were asked to put on a Spelling Bee for the 7th grade. We were told by the staff at MMS that previous volunteers had organized a Spelling Bee before and that they wanted us to do it again. Neither Mandy nor I were enthusiastic about the prospect. We never really enjoyed Spelling Bees ourselves (I am a terrible speller, if this blog has given you any indication). We were also extremely uncomfortable and confused about having a spelling contest in English when we felt the students should be celebrating their own language through the contest. Still, we dutifully did what we were told. The planning itself was stressful. Mandy was busy with many other projects that she has started at MMS and so while I went to her for council ever step of the way (to make sure, for example, the words chosen were appropriate, etc) I took on the bulk of the work and responsibility for the event, creating rules, managing lists, and passing out appropriate materials. When I finally got the process started and under control, I was approached by a staff member from the 8th grade who inquired as to why I did not include the 8th grade in the Spelling Bee. I had personally assumed that the teachers for the 8th grade were going to arrange their own Bee, since Mandy and I are only the chairs for the 7th grade English Department, but in the states all of the middle school classes competed against one another (in my experience), so I conceded to the teacher's argument and included the 8th grade. This caused a fuss in and of itself. Some of the 8th grade teachers thought it was unfair that the 7th graders had more time to look at the words. Some of the 7th grade teachers thought it was unfair that the 8th grade was included in the contest when it was more likely that they would win. Teachers from both sides felt that some of the words Mandy and I had chosen were unfair because the students had never seen them before. Luckily in the midst of all of the bickering, one outspoken teacher sided with Mandy and I and argued that we were all underestimating the students and that the words should be more difficult. Mandy has suggested that we make the spelling list mostly from Dolch sight words (which are words that one should be able to read by sight and not necessarily phonetic decoding at different stages from pre-K to 3rd grade) and so she and I agreed that some of the most basic words were in fact too easy. To try to appease the masses, I held a review session for any contestant in the 7th or 8th grade who wanted to come and hear the pronunciation for the words on the list in an effort to aid them with spelling. At this meeting, I found out that the students were able to spell ALL of the words on the list already. They had studied and memorized even the most difficult words (including "arachnophobia") from rote memorization. The confident teacher was correct. Consequently, a few days before the contest, it was suggested that Mandy and I supplement the list with words that were not originally on the list. We were also told that each student should be given a limited amount of time to spell the word in the hopes of keeping the contest to a certain specified length. The night before the contest, Mandy and I added a variety of moderate to challenging words to the list. This ending up causing problems the next day. The first time that we used a word off of the list and the student was unable to spell the word, her parent, who was the head of the PTA, complained that the word had not been on the list and that we needed to make sure to use the words that had been given to the student previously before we used new words. While Mandy and I understood his argument, the decision to add words to the list was made by all the teachers, and additionally Mandy and I had already mixed in new words with the old ones. For the rest of the contest, Mandy and I had to try to remember which words were from the first list and ask those words first. After that point, the contest went flawlessly. The students spelled an impressive number of words and in the end, three girls were the finalists: two girls from 7th grade took third and second place and an 8th grader took first. I was extremely proud of their efforts and was glad to be done with the contest. However, as soon as I stepped off stage, I was given a complaint from one of the teachers who said that I had told her student she spelled the word "variable" wrong when she had spelled it correctly. Mandy nor I remembered making such a mistake and we also had a Marshallese teacher helping us incase accents became an impediment to understanding spellings. We all agreed that she had spelled the word wrong. After suggesting a myriad of "solutions" to the problem (such as re-doing the contest), I explained to the complaining teacher that we did the best we could and that any "solution" would be unfair. I waked away extremely upset that there had been so many complaints when Mandy and I had done our best with something we had never done before and with which we had no assistance. As soon as I left that conversation, the parent of the girl who had been "unfairly" removed from the contest came up to me and also complained virulently. At this point I was fed up and really discouraged. I am sure that I came off to the mother as snappy but I promptly apologized, realizing that no mother would want to see her child lose, especially not unfairly. After that, the rest of the day went off without much of a hitch. The math department came up with a contest where groups of students would be given a math question and would have to grab the same number of people on their team as the answer to the question. The entire school had been broken up into color teams similar to the ones used in my classroom. My team, of course, did the worst, but it was all good fun and I hope that we can catch up during some of the other school-wide events.

To add on to this sad news, because of drama and complications inside the Bungalow, Bill has decided to move out. Hannah is heading home for Christmas and to see her father who is currently ill and she is fairly resolute that she will not be coming back. It is sad that our Bungalow family will soon be cut down to three.

Finally, and most sadly, the boat carrying the missing World Teach volunteer, James de Brueys, was found capsized this past Tuesday, 10 miles from where it had initially departed. A few days later the body of the youngest passenger, Anwel, was found and a day or so after that, Baby Kaiko, who was pregnant at the time, was also found. The bodies of James and his host father, Kiotak Abitlom Joream, have been lost at sea and the search was concluded this past weekend. The loss has been detrimental to the World Teach volunteers and directors here and my heart goes out to them. I only met James briefly when he came to visit Majuro for a weekend a month or so ago, but we immediately clicked on a few shared nerdy interests and I had just received a letter from him before the news struck. There will be a memorial service held for him tomorrow and his family should be coming in within the next week. As for what will happen as far as the World Teach program in the RMI or changes to protocol, I am not privy to that information. Please keep the family and the World Teach directors and volunteers in your prayers and warmest thoughts.

Two wholly positive things did happen this past week. Majuro had its first art show featuring ripelle and rimajol artists from around the atoll. I was asked to be in the show and display some photography but I was a bit apprehensive of my skills. While I feel bad for missing the opportunity, the event itself was absolutely amazing and I think there will be another event sometime next year, though it might me too late for me to participate. The second was that Mandy and I successfully jambo-ed (a jambo the Marshallese word for a leisurely, aimless stroll) from MIHS to MIR, which is the full extent of most of our operations on island. On the way we stopped at all the stores that we had yet to go into and scoped out potential Christmas gifts. The walk was around 4 or 5 miles and took us around 5 hours to complete with stops and lunch.

Hopefully this week will bring good tidings as we approach the break and Christmastime.

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Giving Thanks and Finding a New Direction




Sorry for being incommunicado for the last two weeks blog readers! Too many people have gotten access to the free internet provided through the Ministry of Education on the high school campus where I live and so the Media Center felt it necessary to shut down the system for a little while and reset everything. In addition to that, I have been at a bit of a loss for words over the last few weeks (which will come as a huge surprise to those of you who know me well). With December fast approaching, the passing of my first Thanksgiving without my family, and a bit of volunteer drama, tensions and emotions have been running high. There have also been some very fun moments in the last two weeks and great moments of clarity. I will try to share all of these with you.

Things in the classroom have been difficult to say the least. The volunteers were warned by various sources that the students would start to check out and that the whole attitude of Majuro would change come December. The Marshallese take Christmas very seriously and preparations at the many churches began weeks ago. From the dorm, we can hear the music from the practices for the Christmas parties and pageants blasting from over half an American city block away. So much for the piece and quiet of paradise, eh? Consequently, since students are involved in these projects, they are testy, tired, and unfocused with the holiday break on the horizon. It has made discipline in the classroom into a nightmare. In the last week, I feel like my relationship with my students has taken many steps back. They are doing things that I thought I had gotten out of their system; they are breaking rules that I have had established since the very beginning of class. These are easy to follow rules like "no talking when others are talking," "don't throw things across the class," "don't eat in class," and "stay in your seat." While breaking rules like these is part of the fun of being a student, the students do it so blatantly, it is almost offensive. It is like they don't care to show respect anymore. I have gotten tired of trying to enforce these rules kindly, so many more students have been sent to the office and there has been a lot more discipline. However, I am losing steam fast. My students are still getting their lessons and doing their work, but it is not enjoyable to stand in front of the class if all I am doing is doling out discipline. I think that the break will be good for all parties and I do not think that some kind of peace, order, and regularity will be restored to the classroom until the break happens.

It is strange to feel this way now because the week before I came to some profound conclusions about teaching and what this experience has done for me while talking to Bill and Mandy. Teaching has had a lot of parts to it that I did not expect. It has many outlets for all different types of interests and passions. In the classroom I have been able to incorporate my love for grammar, arts and crafts, music, and writing (because we don't have resources, I write a lot of our stories), for example. Outside of curriculum, I am able to influence the kids in their habits and discipline (such as taking notes or not hitting girls (a big one here!)). I really want to invest in the flexibility that the occupation has and start being more than just a teacher focused on curriculum. There are so many more important things that intelligent, motivated people can do when they (we) come to places like the Marshall Islands. I have watched as one of my housemates, Hannah, has created a mentoring program for graduating seniors to help them get into college. I have also witnessed Mandy start a girls' club, a sign language club, and initiate tutoring for her and my lowest students. While I recognize that both Mandy and Hannah have more experience in the education world than I do, they make me feel as if I should be doing more, inside the realm of school activities and outside. I think what has been the hardest for me to come to understand is that its okay to put effort behind something or be passionate about something even if it will only last a little bit or make a difference for a short amount of time. I know that any ideas I push, such as Saturday clean up club or trying to make the brushing of one's teeth a "cool" activity and getting dentistry offices to donate supplies, will most likely not last after I leave the island. Still, I have realized that a large part of teaching is about hope too--teaching hope and having hope. I can only hope that in the few months I have left I do make a difference and that some child--at least one--takes something from what I have do and will try to create and use it in the future. That is all you really can do as a teacher, I think. I have always been afraid of impermanence--I am scared of change and endings to things--but it is a fact of life. In fact, its one of the most beautiful and exciting things about life. I guess its time to embrace it. It is hard to feel this way and the way I spoke of in the previous paragraph at the same time. I once again think that the break will be good for me to organize my ideas and start thinking of ways to apply them. I plan on starting my a capella group at MMS in the third quarter (I have already written up a spoofed version of "California Gurls" by Katy Perry called "Marshall Islanders"). I also hope to formalize our already existing cleaning initiative and organize some kind of donation system for school supplies and dental products as I mentioned before. All of these things are really important here, and I believe that they are all things I can help change, if only for a little while.

Stepping off my soapbox now, Thanksgiving in Majuro was a difference experience for me. Mandy and I decided to take Friday off, our reasoning being that it was the day of the actual holiday in America (we are a day ahead here) and because we both needed a break because we were feeling a bit homesick. Friday was also the day that we planned on having our big Thanksgiving dinner. It was strange to celebrate Thanksgiving on a day that was not Thanksgiving, but not as strange as I thought it would be. While we recognized celebrating an American holiday and taking the day off in another country as kind of a cop out, it was really nice to be able to help Bill cook the meal, which is something that we both do with our families on Thanksgiving. Bill did in fact cook the whole meal (with the exception of some deserts that people brought and my mac-and-cheese, which I insisted on making, since that is always my job during holiday dinners) and it was delicious. We had appetizers of hot sausage, cheddar and pepperjack cheese with crackers, a pepper and olive tray, papaya and cucumbers from one of the volunteer's family's gardens, and deviled eggs (made by my request by Bill since it is my family's staple appetizer at our family events). For dinner, the menu included a huge turkey (wonderfully provided by the Dartmouth and World Teach programs), ham, mac-and-cheese a la Andrew, creamed spinach, green bean casserole, candied yams, garlic mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, and vegetarian stuffing. Desert included numerous pies, including a homemade apple pie by the World Teach assistant site director Angela Saunders, and homemade ice cream made by Ray, one of the CMI teachers who comes to Thursday night potluck at Yvonne's house. The guest list included all of the current World Teach and Dartmouth volunteers and directors, past and present, on the Majuro atoll, my host father, Kurt Phino, and the core of the Thursday night crew, which included Yvonne, her husband and daughter, and Ray and Laura. We even had two WT volunteers come in from the neighboring atoll to dine with us--Erica and Brooke. In all, the event was a success. The food was tasty (though, no offense to Bill, my dad can throw down in the kitchen pretty hard as well) and I was able to stave off homesickness by bringing together my Majuro family. It was nice to have everyone in one place and I am extremely thankful for them. I was able to talk to my family at the end of our Thanksgiving dinner at home in Chicago earlier in the day and it was great to hear everyone's voice!

That evening was followed by even more revelry at an event called the Tidal Wrave. Created by Michael Honeth, a ripelle who works at the Majuro EPA, the event was intended to be Majuro's first private island rave. Michael rented two boats and an island known as Three Bag Island (so named because it is said that the island is so small that one could only procure three bags of copra, or coconut product, from all of the trees there) and invited a group of ripelles (which I have recently learned is the CORRECT spelling of the word for foreigners/Americans) to come and rave it up! While I was exhausted from all of the excitement from the day before, Alex Huestis and Eric Hahn woke me up and carted me off to the island. I slept away most of the day in a hammock (the longest I have ever slept in a hammock--it was excellent) and that night we played cards and danced the evening away. I even got to play with fire twirlers! That was a short lived experience, however, since I was terrified. We had to wait a while for a boat to come get us the next day, but we left, physically exhausted from all of the beachside dancing we did the night before.

As a final and more somber note, as of last Friday, one of the World Teach volunteers has gone missing in transit from one atoll to the next on a small boat. The boat never reached its destination. The coast guard here has been searching frantically and planes have been called in from Hawaii as of a few days ago. There has been nothing found so far. I have decided to not name the volunteer's name out of respect for the family, the program, and all those involved in the search, but please keep this volunteer in your prayers and best thoughts. We are all hoping for good news.

Until next time (which will be this coming Sunday, I PROMISE!)

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Rolling Blackouts and Rolling Dismissals




Rolling Blackouts and Rolling Dismissals

This past week has been fairly intense. Majuro has been going through a number of power problems and this week the power was out more than ever before. The power was out from the beginning of the school day until the late afternoon on Wednesday. On Thursday the power also went out right after school and did not come back on until Friday evening. This put a large damper on our regular Thursday night potluck dinners at Yvonne Magee's house. I had been looking forward to our proclaimed "Italian night" but the power outage made it difficult to cook. After waiting around hoping that the power would come back on, we decided to go to the house of one of the newest additions to the potluck family, a Fijian woman named Mere who works and lives at the Co-Op school, one of Majuro's private schools. The Co-Op facilities are on the same power grid as the hospital, which, for obvious reasons, never goes out. So, luckily, we were able to cook there and bring the food back to Yvonne's house were we ate by candle light to some jazz music. It was very bohemian.

The power did not return until late Friday night, so World Teach and the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program very kindly offered to pay for the Majuro volunteers to stay at the Marshall Islands Resort for the evening so that we could charge our phones and computers and take showers. It was a real treat! We had large beds and hot showers and it felt, for the first time, like we were on vacation in the RMI. We ended up watching "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" (a terrible movie, really) and spending the night hanging out in the MIR restaurant and bar. That night I learned to play the card game Yuker so I know have around 12 card games under my belt from being in the RMI. I was not really a fan. I have, however made huge fans of the card game "Mao" out of the potluck dinner crew.

While the power came back on Friday evening, there was a planned power outage on Saturday to fix the problems with the generators. We stayed as long as we could in the room at MIR and then I headed to Tide Table where I waited for the power to return at 5 pm. After I passed out and did not wake up until 8 am today. I had a relatively productive day sitting in Tide Table all day and enjoying the company of the ribelles who came in and out of the restaurant while I worked.

School has been overwhelming this past week. At least 10 kids were kicked out of the school at the end of the first quarter for absences or "insubordination," but none of these students were Mandy's or mine. In the last few weeks, the pressure has hit a few of our students. At one point, six of Mandy's students faced expulsion and three of mine did for attendance or behavior. While we are required to abide by the rules established by Majuro Middle School and the Ministry of Education, it can be difficult at times knowing that extenuating circumstances always affect a situation. Many of the students have home problems or other needs that have forced their absences or explain their behavior. Mandy and I would like to see these students be helped instead of dismissed. It is discouraging to work with students for all these months and then see them summarily dismissed for mistakes that the system does little to prevent. The school has, for example, a no-tolerance policy for students caught drinking on the school grounds. While this makes sense, to expel the student for this bad act only gives them more time to do the act in the first place since they are not in school during the day any longer. However, the resources for this type of help are not available and there is something to be said to sticking to policy. In the end, I still am not sure if one of my three students will be kicked out and Mandy has gotten two of her potential six back. We are a bit discouraged but are hoping that by encouraging our current students and the friends of those on probation, we can retain our student body. Still, it is only the middle of the second quarter. Come December, attendance is supposed to drop dramatically as students and their families focus on Christmas activities at church and in the community. This does not bode well for keeping kids above the 20 absences limit to remain in school. It is amazing how concerned we have become for our students over such a short amount of time. As a means to help encourage positive choices and behavior Mandy is hoping to start a girls' club and I am hoping to start an acapella group to keep the kids around school and seeing it as a place for positive character growth in addition to academic growth. We both hope to tutor some of our lowest level students soon also.

The most exciting, though sad, thing to happen this week was that there was a huge fire in the "downtown" area of Majuro. The source is still unknown and the damage was pretty terrible. The firefighters equipment failed during the blaze and the only thing that stopped the fire was the fact that it started raining. Anna Zelinsky, the DVTP field director, said that in her 4 years here she has never seen nor heard of anything like this happening here. The photo above is a shot of the smoke from the fire from the other side of the lagoon.

In lighter news, Mandy's family sent a box full of fake snow and a small electronic Christmas tree to the Bungalow this week! We were very happy to see it as all of us are getting homesick as the holiday season approaches fast. Time is really flying. Also, my twists are going well and I am getting a ton of positive feedback from everyone on island--ribelle and Marshallese! We will see how things progress.

This week we also had Steve and Sarah Leard in from the outer island of Ailinglaplap because Sarah was not feeling well. Always nice to have visitors and share teaching and island experiences. We wish them the best as they return to their outer island this week!

Until next time,

Bar Lo Kom,

Andrew

Monday, November 8, 2010

Mönä Emman (Eat well!)



This week, I wanted to take a step back from talking about the Marshallese and teaching to discuss something that is near and dear to my heart--food. I knew that if one thing would make me homesick (or literally sick) it would be food here in the RMI. Luckily, on Majuro, supplies are not that bad. While prices are exorbitant on certain things (Doritos are like $6.50 and a pint of ice cream is like $7.00) and fairly high on others (avocados are $5.00 a pound, making that guacamole that you see pictured above a ~$25.00 endeavor with the other ingredients), you can get most things that any cook would need to be happy. There is a farm managed by a group of Taiwanese individuals that makes a lot of fresh produce, and while most other things are shipped over, vegetables, though expensive are available. Payless, one of the more favorably supplied local grocery stores, runs out of these things fairly quickly and shipments come in about every other week. After a few days, the vegetable racks, which were once a veritable palette of reds, greens, yellows, and purples (read: eggplant) turn a distinct greenish brown and orange (read: they always have cabbage and carrots). Even fruit is in good supply. I have fallen in love with granny smith apples, which I believe to be one of the most versatile ingredients in any meal (I have eaten them in salads, sandwiches, and with pork, for example). There is also frequently different types of melon, though I have yet to see strawberries. As far as meat is concerned, the quality is decent. Once again, the meat is coming from across the ocean by plane or boat and goes through a variety of temperatures before getting here. That being said, I have yet to get sick and cannot truly taste the difference between an organic slice of pork and one from a pig killed on island (this past week I had my first taste of a pig that was roasted over a spit--the process takes around 12 hours!)

Outside of the grocery store, I have really taken a liking to coconut. Breadfruit, a starchy fruit similar to a banana but even more firm in texture, is also delicious and is cooked in a variety of ways here. My favorite way is as thinly sliced, fried chips. Pandanas are another fruit that are indigenous to here and a big part of the Marshallese diet. It is starchy as well and slightly sweet.

As I mentioned before, Bill was a chef before coming to the RMI, so we are constantly spoiled. This past week he made barbecued ham and smothered pork chops. He also frequently cooks a whole chicken or pork roast. The other Bungalow residents are also great cooks. Joanna, originally from China, cooks amazing asian food. She dabbles mostly in noodles and vegetables but everything she makes is spicy and delicious. She has even become an expert in making a Japanese gummy desert! Hannah, our resident vegetarian, does wonders with very little. She is good at baking vegan breads and deserts and loves to make what she calls "pig food" which is an amalgamation of any type of noodles, beans, and vegetables that she can get her hands on. Outside of the home, Mandy and I go to the potluck dinner at Yvonne Magee's house. We have started to theme our nights to make it easier for everyone to figure out something to bring. Last week was Indian and we we had a feast of curry potatoes, curry chicken, homemade naan, homemade chutney, and rice pudding. The week before that was Mexican and the week before that was Japanese. This week is Italian. Mandy and I plan on bringing homemade garlic bread (with whole slices of tomato and melted cheese) and Mandy's delicious Alfredo sauce. We were told to expect lasagna, spaghetti, tiramisu, and a bacon/chili pasta sauce. Yum.

Mandy and I shop together since we are the meat eaters (Bill buys by himself). We almost always get fresh tuna filets (I know one thing I am definitely going to miss when I come back to the states is the never ending supply of fresh tuna--I crave it every couple days), pork chops, ground beef or steaks, and ground pork. We also always buy potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, apples, pasta, and sandwich supplies. This food, with supplements from our other housemates can usually last us around a week and a half. I do the majority of the cooking and Mandy does the cleaning. I do not think it has to be this way all the time, but it is the rhythm we have fallen into, and I really enjoy cooking (and do not enjoy cleaning), so that is how we operate each day. Below are some of the meals that I make in rotation each week. I did not include any measurements, because I am not that kind of cook here, but maybe you can find something to add to your kitchen routine? Please feel free to send recipes! I am always looking to try something new.

The Rayner's Homemade Pizza - Soft tortilla shells, tomato paste/sauce with added seasonings (I have also been adding defrosted frozen spinach to the sauce), veggies of your choice, meat of your choice (we have been using ground pork and pepperoni), shredded cheese of your choice (the key is to add oregano and basil to the sauce and on top of the pizza)

Burgers a la Bungalow with Homemade Fries - Ground beef mixed with fresh chopped garlic and onions, cooked in the skillet; sliced potatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, and onion salt and roasted in the oven.

Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples and Roasted Potatoes (the title says it all)

Breaded Tuna with Pepper-jack Cheese/Granny Smith Apple Salad and Rosemary Potatoes with Onions. (pictured above; we had this for dinner tonight!)

Guacamole (for special occasions) - avocados, fresh garlic, chili sauce or jalapenos (depending on availability), tomatoes, onions, two limes. (pictured above)

In other, totally unrelated news, I got twists this week! The beginning of my island dreadlocks. We shall see how it goes. Pictures to come after they ferment themselves into my head!

Bon appetit and Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Reading Groups, Parent Teacher Conferences, and Halloween In Paradise (Which is the Scariest?)




This week was full of firsts. My grammar class focused on prepositions, which concluded my long unit on parts of speech. In both of my classes about two-thirds of the students got either 100% or an A (90% or above). I was very happy about this. I topped the week off by playing "Grammar Rock" from the "School House Rock" DVD that my parents sent me for my birthday. The videos go over all of the parts of speech and as I watched I was proud that I had taught my kids so much. My students loved the music videos, as all children do. In reading class, I used each day of the week to model the different activities we would be doing at each of the reading stations when I am leading guided reading. I broke the class up into five reading ability levels. I made these groups based on my experiences with them in class and how well they did on a sight word test that I administered to them (Dolch sight words are words that one is supposed to be able to read just by sight; they do not necessarily follow the conventional rules of phonics). My five stations are guided reading (with me), rhyming/poetry (where students can either try to come up with as many rhymes as possible and/or can read and try to emulate poems by Shel Silverstein), art with books (where the students do a project based on a book that I have read aloud to them), descriptive writing (where I bring in an object and the students have to describe it using as many senses and different adjectives as possible), and a word/sentence game. The word/sentence game was originally crafted by Mandy. I made a bunch of notecards with the letters of the alphabet on them and the "dealer" draws 4-8 cards (depending on the group level) and the players have to be the first to come up with a word. The sentence game is less competitive in that the entire group works together to create sentences with the huge number of word cards I made. In this game, I am able to incorporate my grammar lessons, the word cards contain examples from every part of speech and grammar lesson that we have had (ie. plurals and possessives). The students loved both of the games. This week, instead of me modeling the activities in front of the whole class, the class will break into the reading groups and switch between the stations each day while I move from station to station (for this week, guided reading will be replaced with silent reading). This will allow me to make sure that every group understands every activity. I am excited to get the proverbial ball rolling. While I was very nervous about getting reading groups started, I think it will actually be very successful.

On Wednesday I had the two winning teams from the end of last term come over to my house for pizza. I think they really enjoyed the opportunity. All but one of the students showed up. It was strange how docile they were, however. When I finally let them in, they all sat down and did not say a word. When I opened the pizza and told them to come get some, they did not move. I told them that I wished they were this good in class! I think they were just nervous to be in my home. They stayed for a little while after the pizza was gone (which was almost instant) and played games and then left in under and hour. A simple and easy prize that I think they appreciated a lot (the picture above is with the two winning teams after eating).

This past Friday, MMS had parent/teacher conferences. The teachers were supposed to be available to give out report cards for their homeroom and meet with parents from 1-5 (we had a half day). I went into my first PT conferences very nervous. I did not know how many parents would show up and I did not know how good their English would be. However, my worries were all for nothing. About two-thirds of my parents showed up (21 out of 31) and I had only a few parents who struggled to understand me. It was a very good test of how far my Marshallese had come in that I did not need any help to convey the jist of what I wanted to say to each of the parents who did not speak English well. Before going to the conferences, I thought I would be very happy to talk to parents of my failing or poorly behaved students, but to my surprise it was really painful for me. It was sad to see parents be so disappointed in their children. I hope that those parents can motivate their kids somehow. On the other hand, I relished in talking to the parents of my best students. I even went out of my way to find the parents of a student my non-homeroom class to tell them that their son could go to college in America if he keeps up the good work (his English is near perfect). During this process I had my first feelings of regret of knowing that after a year I will be gone and that I will not be around to see my kids succeed (or to encourage those who fall by the wayside). I plan to do my best to stay in touch with my top students to continue to encourage them for years to come.

I was excited to see my first "major" international holiday celebrated in the RMI. I was a bit discouraged when I asked my students about Halloween a few weeks ago and many of them said they did not celebrate it because of its anti-Christian implications. I did not think that Halloween would amount to much of anything as a result. But, thankfully, those students of mine who were against Halloween were in the minority in the country. Friday, the students at MIHS made a haunted house and had a party in our shared gym for all young people. While unfortunately there were kids there who were drunk, the students seemed to have a good wholesome time for the most part. On Saturday, one of the women's groups on island had a fundraiser party at a club called Lani (Luh-nai). They club was decked out in Halloween finery and most of the ribelles on island were in attendance. Thanks to a clever idea from Justin, I dressed up as Quailman from the Nickelodeon TV show "Doug" (see original photo here: http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/2/29812/581278-image_2_quailman_large.jpg). I unfortunately forgot the "Q," but the costume was a success. Sadly, very few people actually knew what I was (I knew the Marshallese would not know, but I assume the ribelles would--I forgot that they are all 4 or more years older than me). Still, I did not think I would have a costume so I was happy that I was able to come up with something last minute. Alex and Christina (a World Teach volunteer who was in for the weekend from Arno, the closest atoll to Majuro) went as pumpkins and Eric went as a comic from he Marshall Islands Journal.

Finally, a shout out to Dartmouth. It wasn't until Friday night that I was reminded that this weekend is Homecoming. I hope the 10s had a good showing and let the 14s know how things are really supposed to be (I hope you all ran your 114 laps!). I miss you all.

Bar Lo Kom,

Andrew

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Quarter 2, Week 1


This week was fairly low key after a week of multiple birthday celebrations and end of the term exams. As I wrote in the blog last week, I wanted to start this term by giving my students some study and thinking skills. In my reading class on Tuesday (we reviewed the final on monday), I instructed my students on three different ways to study - memorization through repetition, notecards, and self quizzing. I also told them that there would be a quiz the next day on describing one of these methods and that I highly encouraged them to use at least one of the methods to help them study. The next day, many of my students came into the classroom with notecards made from the night before and almost everyone passed the test. Unfortunately, these study skills did not seem to carry over for most of my students for our grammar test at the end of the week (though I did see one or two students using notecards), so I guess I need to constant reinforce the use of the notecards.

Wednesday, after the quiz, I gave my students seven questions to respond to: Why is the sky blue? Why do mosquitoes bite? What makes the waves? Why do certain fruits (pandanas, apples, oranges…) grow on trees? How did dogs get in the RMI? Why do people speak different languages? Do you think the Bikini bombing was “for the good of mankind”? I knew the answer to some of these questions (the moon creates the waves, the sky is blue because of the ocean, dogs got to the RMI on the boats of European invaders) and I was able to fake my way through the others (natural selection for the plants question, the development of language as a necessity as humanoid groups moved across the world) but the real purpose of the questions was the get the students to think outside of the realm they usually did. These were questions that the students, I was sure, had never really thought about. It was my hope that the students would stretch their minds attempting to come up with answers. The project met with little success. The students did not do the assignment for the most part so I had to give class time on Thursday to do the work. When I collected the work and looked at the answers I saw that many of the students simply stated that "God made it that way" or that "because its good that way." As a Christian myself, I saw that I would need to explain that the belief in God does exclude the rationale of science and that many scientists are religious people themselves. Some of the students did think cleverly. Some tried to explain that the movement of fish or of boats in the water created all of the waves. I was also surprised to find that not all of the students believed that the Bikini bomb tests were a bad thing. The next day, I progressed through the questions and was surprised that I was able to explain such complex concepts simply enough for my students to understand them. I was a bit disheartened to learn, however, that my students thought that the moon was larger than the Earth and that the Earth rotated around the moon. In a place where the two greatest resources were the sky and the water, I was shocked to find out that the students did not even know basic scientific concepts about either. I guess that is a testament to the usefulness of practical science (like understanding the winds or where certain fish dwell) and the superfluousness of hard science to a people so firmly rooted in their native culture. When it came to discussing the Bikini bomb testing, I did my best to explain the idea of every situation having two sides. We discussed the reasons that the Americans and the Marshallese thought that the testing were a good thing at the time, but also discussed the negative consequences. We did not have much time to talk about the issue before the end of class, so I hope to bring up the topic again in a more constructive manner. Overall, I was happy to provide the students with knowledge of things that they had never heard of (like Darwinism) and discuss with them some things they had thought about before, but I was left troubled by the inability of most students to think outside of the box and come up with answers themselves.

In grammar class, we learned about interjections and conjunctions this week. I taught the students a variety of interjections, including "bangarang," an interjection made famous by the 1991 Steven Spielberg film Hook starting Robin Williams (it was used by the Lost Boys whenever something good happened). My students liked it so much that they have already started using it when they answer questions correctly in class. As I said before, the students did not do well on their quiz this week. It was the first time that I had used a matching format on an exam and since the kids had used it before in other classes I figured they would do well, especially since the bulk of the quiz was based on matching interjections with emotions. I will have to remember to test out formats before using them in assessments. In lighter news, my parents sent me BBC's Planet Earth and Life for my birthday. They also sent me the entire collection of School House Rock videos. Grammar Rock is my favorite, and I look forward to using them, and all of the videos in class. Thanks mom and dad!

I also learned this week in school, through journal entries, that many of the kids here do not believe in celebrating Halloween for religious reasons. Mandy and I had planned on having some kind of Halloween party for our students, but now we have decided against it. While some of the students said they would dress up, many of them said that it was a bad holiday. I believe that the volunteers, the other ribelles, and myself will find some other way to celebrate.

Outside of class, this week was lacking. I got hurt playing soccer a few weeks ago (because of a fairly grim scratch, I now know why shin guards are so necessary in the sport) so I have not been as active, but hope to spice up this week by regularly going to gospel choir rehearsals after school at MIHS.

That is all for now,

Bar lo kom,

(and please, somebody, send some snow?)

Andrew

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

End of the Term and Turning 22 in Paradise




This week was highlighted by the end of the quarter and birthdays. The first quarter came to an end after 9 weeks of teaching (which is so crazy to think that that much time has passed already). MMS had finals on Thursday and Friday. While I think it is strange to have "finals"--literally or conceptually--at the end of the quarter in middle school, I prepared my kids and wrote my tests nonetheless. We spent the first part of the week reviewing everything we had learned over the quarter. For reading, this included literary elements, parts of a story arc, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (which we have not finished but I thought it was important to review anyway), and the concept of main idea and supporting details. For grammar, we covered a lot of ground this term including identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subjects, and objects, proper and common nouns, subject, object, and possessive pronouns, making words plural and possessive, and articles and demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, and those). Phew!

Initially, I was worried that testing the kids on all of the content we had gone over would be too much for them. My plan was to give them all of the answers for the reading test (since most of it was vocabulary) and re-teach everything from grammar as a means to make the test not only about how much the kids retained but to see if they would actually study or not. Surprisingly, during the review I was shocked by how much the kids had retained. I was especially proud that many of my students who did not speak English well were able to answer many of the questions. I went into the testing days thinking that all of my kids would do better than I expected.

Unfortunately, I was discouraged by the results. In my homeroom (104), only 14 people out of 31 passed the reading final and only 14 passed the grammar final. In my other class (107), 14 people out of 30 passed the reading final and 20 passed the grammar final. I was highly discouraged by these results, especially since the review went so well. It was a clear indication to me that the majority of the kids did not study. It also made me question the final format I created and how I had been teaching and assessing understanding throughout the term. I computed the grades in the hopes of a bit more encouragement towards my efforts as a teacher this first term. After computing the grades, 14 people passed reading and 15 people passed grammar. In 107, 16 people passed reading and 18 passed grammar. I am happy that a bit more than half of the students passed both classes, especially recognizing that I was pushing them harder than they had ever been pushed before. I come from a background of parents and teachers who always expected the best from me, even if I was not able to produce it. It was their hope that if I aimed high, I would still come out well even if I did not reach my goals. This was my mentality going into teaching my students. Still, I think that those methods did not necessarily work well with all of my students. Many of them have not ever been asked to do anything in a classroom besides copy down notes from the board and memorize answers. Thinking skills and study skills are completely foreign ideas as a result and so the kind of results I was hoping for might be too far out of reach if those skills are not put into place. I feel like my next big challenge is to teach my students how to think--not only outside of the box but inside of it as well. My hope this week and this term is to change how I am teaching to make it a bit more holistic so I can reach all of my students at their various levels. I started this week by telling my students that I will not let them fail this term and I hope that is a promise that I can keep. Still I recognize that my students have to want to work if there is going to be any success. Motivation and inspiration and two things I am still struggling to figure out how to teach.

This week, I plan on teaching thinking skills and study skills. I ask you, blog reader, to give me any ideas you may have in regards to these skills and how to teach them. It has been so long since I have had to actually consider either of them that I am at a bit of a loss. The internet has provided some help but I realize that I need to come up with other ways to teach these types of ideas to make them fun and to make them understood by both my best students and my students who understand the least English. What are some of the thinking and studying skills that you think are most important to develop first? Thank you in advance for your help!

On a lighter note, this past week was FULL of ribelle birthdays! It started on Thursday, which was Justin's birthday and the birthday of Jason Temple, a ribelle from England who works at WAM, and Amethyst Magee, who is the child of Yvonne and Craig Magee, two ribelle College of the Marshall Islands teachers who I have grown close with. After giving my first final, I rushed over to MIR to wish Jason a happy birthday. His girlfriend Aylssa Cowell, had planed a boat trip for him but we had to wait for an additional battery to come lest the one battery die and we get stranded in the middle of the lagoon. The second battery was taking a while to be delivered so we decided to get into the boat anyway. Lo and behold, just as we pulled away from the dock, the battery died. We had to walk the boat back across some reef. It was unexpected but fun time. As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, I go to Yvonne's house every Thursday for dinners with her family and a few other CMI teachers. This Thursday was a surprise party for Amethyst. Mandy and I purchased a cake from a bakery in town and Craig made DELICIOUS homemade pizza. A few of Amethyst's friends were invited as well. She was very surprised and enjoyed the party thoroughly. Alex and Justin came from Ejit to join in the festivities as well and that night we went out to celebrate his birth.

Saturday, Justin and I texted all of the ribelles we knew and told them to come out to the Marshall Islands Club to formally celebrate both of our birthdays. MIC is right on the water and it is a beautiful bar. Many ribelles showed up and it was very nice to see that though we had only been in the RMI for a few months, we had gained many friends. The night ended late (or early) and a fun time was had by all. On Sunday, I had already decided that I was going to go to Enemanit since I had not been there in a long time. After numerous phone calls I found out that someone was still going (the weather was a bit rough) and Yvonne decided to go with me. I have been to Enemanit four times now, and this time was the least crowded. Usually there are around 30 adults and a billion children, but there were only a handful of people this time, which was very nice and relaxing. We barbecued and I went snorkeling with an 8-year-old ribelle boy named Logan. His parents were new on island and they, strangely enough, used to be Community Directors at a dorm complex at Dartmouth! Small world. Anyway, it was nice to have something that I wanted to do actually come together even though my efforts were last minute.

Monday was my actual birthday. I am really bad with birthdays, since I do not like the idea of getting older, but my dorm mates made sure to make it special. I woke up with a handmade card on my door from Mandy. It had a nice note in it about how we had become such good friends in a short amount of time and a poem called "All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum, which can be found at the end of the blog entry. At school Mandy surprised me by having taught all of her and my students "Happy Birthday" in sign language and by having them all sing and sign it to me at the end of recess. It was overwhelming and highly appreciated. It is Marshallese tradition to sing to the birthday boy or girl and then throw money at them (usually bills). Many students appologized to me for forgetting money, but I was relieved that they did, because I would have felt very uncomfortable taking their money/refusing the gift. Anyway, my students also drew a happy birthday picture on the board in my classroom and sang to me as well. It was nice to feel so loved. When I got back from lunch, Bill, who knew of my love for bacon, had cooked me close to a pound of bacon for a present. It was neatly presented on the kitchen counter. Mandy and I made delicious bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch (and I ate all of the rest of it...admittedly I felt slightly ill afterwards). I came home after school to find Joanna making 22 homemade dumplings for me that were filled with chicken, spinach, garlic, and tofu. They were also delicious (I am trying to savor them but it is really difficult). Then, for dinner, Justin and Alex came in from Ejit and Mandy, Joanna, Hannah, and I (and Erica, a World Teach volunteer who is on the nearby outer island of Arno but is staying with us because she is sick) all went to Won Hai Shen for dinner. Afterwards, we went to Tide Table for ice cream and so that I could wish happy birthday to another ribelle, named Natalie, with whom I share the October 18th birthday. The day was very nice and relaxed, but I will admit that it made me homesick for my family and friends. Know that you were missed on this day, that you were in my thoughts, and that I love you all very much.

Today, the day after my birthday (though I still count it since it was my birthday in the US), my homeroom students told me that they had something for me after school. I had no idea what it might be, but I waited around for the last period to end to see what the surprise was. My students found me in the office and led me to my classroom where they had used their own money to purchase me snacks and cookies. It was en extremely nice gesture, especially knowing that many of them were using their taxi or lunch money to give me a gift. After school I was able to talk to my parents for a little under 20 mins. My mom, per tradition, told me my birthday story (which involves chili, the film Full Metal Jacket, and a very well dressed doctor) which was the icing on the proverbial cake for my birthday celebration. Thanks to all those who made the day/week/weekend special!

And now, on to a new term!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

"All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life--
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing
And dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon [...]
Be aware of wonder [...]
And it is still true, no matter how old you are--
When you go into the world,
It's best to hold hands and stick together.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

"Second Star to the Right and Straight on Until Morning..."



I think that Alex Huestis most accurately described the Marshall Islands as a veritable "Neverland" (to be fair, she was describing Ejit, which she claims is actually run by children since there are so many on the small coral island). Where else would you see troupes of children parading down the street chanting tunes and marching in time with smiles on their faces? Where else would children be out at all hours playing in the street, unfazed by cars and wild dogs? Where else could you see kids using all types of things--from sticks to sheet metal--to play games? I have seen children playing militant games from atop huge shipping containers. I have seen kids recklessly climb up the side of the school building Spiderman style (spread eagle between two walls). Suffice to say, they are very brave. While I am sure that these observations are not only centralized in the RMI, the prevalence of children (the RMI is 46th in the world for birth rates at 30.7 births/1,000 population according to the CIA Factbook) and all the sailboats furthers the metaphor.

My life here has been centered around children. While I do hang out with other ribelles on the weekend and play soccer with Fijians on Mondays and Wednesdays, the main focus of my week is on my students (who I have started to refer to as "my children"...please don't let that make you nervous mom). Teaching has required more out of me than I expected. Since the Ministry of Education only provides guidelines, teachers are expected to come up with their own curriculum that meets those standards. This puts the onus of responsibility on the teachers to keep their students engaged, entertained, and learning (to be fair, I know that this is always the responsibility of teachers everywhere but it seems exacerbated here as a result of the lack of standardized curriculum). Being an English major, and somewhat freakishly obesessed with grammar, I do not find creating lessons that difficult for the grammar and writing classes. It is difficult to make grammar entertaining, but because of the competitive system I have set up in my classes, my students are almost always engaged. Reading, however, has really been a challenge. I am someone who from an early age has loved to read. Unfortunately, that zeal is not necessarily present in my students. It is hard to teach reading skills (let alone in another language) when those skills have come so naturally to me for such a long time. It becomes even more difficult when the texts are at a low reading level. Thus, my reading classes have required me to revert to a younger mindset. To help my students understand different reading techniques, I have relied heavily on drawing. This week my reading class focused on making comics as a means to understand main ideas and supporting details in stories. On Monday, I tried to explain to my students the concept of main ideas and supporting details by using simple short stories that I created. I told them "If you were going to retell this story in one sentence, what would you say?" A few of them understood the idea, but I could tell that it went over most of my students' heads. The next day I explained to them the art of the comic. I drew comics on the board and then erased all of the "supporting details" from the image so that what was left was only the main character and whatever action he or she was doing. My students seemed to understand this much better. We then spent the rest of the week writing stories and making comics out of them by picking out the main ideas from some of the stories that the students wrote. The end product was 60 beautiful comics, and some (hopefully) well educated kids.

Ideas like this one, however, do not come easily. I knew that I wanted to do something with comics before I came here and it clicked when I was trying to think of a way to teach the abstract concepts of main idea and supporting details. I have found that it takes a bit of childlike thinking to educate one. I think this is a lesson that is frequently forgotten.

Outside of the classroom, my life is becoming more child-centered as well. Outside of playing hacky-sac with my male students and volleyball with my female students, I was fortunate enough to teach all of my students my favorite childhood game from elementary school called "bullrush." It works exactly like the game "sharks and minos" except the players are running instead of swimming. Basically, all of the players line up on one side of a field. One player, who starts off as the "bull," counts down, "One, two, three, BULLRUSH," and all of the players standing in line run across the field. The goal is to get across the field without being touched by the "bull." If a player does happen to get tagged, that player joins the original "bull" and attempts to tag other players. The players who are running are considered safe from tagging once they have successfully crossed to the other side of the field. The winner is the last person to be tagged. It was a delight to play the game again after having not played it for years. The students seemed to really enjoy it as well.

The Marshallese children are incredibly innovative themselves. There are two games I have seen them play countless times that I have never seen anywhere else. One is similar to dodgeball. Everyone playing gets into a clump in between two players, one of whom has the ball. That player hurls the ball at the crowd and everyone in the middle tries to get out of the way without being hit. The player on the other side attempts to catch/recover the ball as quickly as possible so as to keep the rally between the two throwers continuous. If someone besides the two throwers catches the ball, the thrower is switched out and the game continues. The other game is a traditional Marshallese game that is a similar to football. There are two teams, and one small ball (the size of a hacky-sac; a small, sapling coconut is usually used). At the beginning of the game, the team with the ball huddles together facing the opposite team on the other side of the field. They all have their hands behind their back in order to ensure that the other team does not know who has the ball. Then, a call is raised and the kids rush across the field, still with their hands behind their back. The defending team tackles all of the players in an attempt to find out who has the ball. The offensive team wins if the player who is holding the ball makes it across the field. It is fairly brutal to watch at times, since the kids can be ruthless, but highly entertaining.

Mandy and I are also trying to make our Saturday field clean up a regular event. The students clean for a little while but it gives us more of an opportunity to hang out with our kids outside of the classroom/school hours. We bring a soccer ball, frisbee, and volleyball and play with the kids for a few hours. It is a great way to get to know them.

I think all of these interactions, in the classroom and outside of the classroom, have forced me to become a child again myself. While my sense of responsibility has become heightened as a result of...you know...having a job, I feel like my job requires me to find Neverland myself to ensure that the students and I have fun. When I first decided to come to the Marshall Islands, I had no interest teaching any age group besides high schoolers. Now that I am here, I am ecstatic that teach the level that I do. The kids are able to engage in higher level thinking but are still on the cusp of being young children who like to play simple games and roll around on the floor like toddlers. More and more I feel like teaching was the perfect choice for me outside of college. I will not lie and say that it has not had its ups and downs (it is difficult to come up with new things to teach every week) but I have always been someone who claimed to have "Peter Pan syndrome" in that I never wanted to grow up (please refrain from all Michael Jackson references, God rest his soul). After the graduation ball dropped, this fear became even more present to me. But here in the RMI, a land overrun with wonderful, fun loving kids, it seems that time as stopped, and the one can in fact stay young a little longer.

Next week Monday (October 18) I will be turning 22. I think that the RMI is the perfect place to step into full adulthood.

____________________________________________________________

While not going along with the theme I also wanted to mention that Fiji day was celebrated on Saturday here in the RMI. I was told that there are around 35 Fijian families in Majuro and it seems like all of them were all all of the programming throughout the day. The day started with field events on the MMS/MIHS field and ended with a huge Fijian feast in the Melele Room in MIR. The feast included Fijian dancing, music, and kava, a traditional Fijian drink. It was a great time!

Also, a big kommol (thank you) to the Doyle family for sending the Bungalow tins full of Halloween candy! We appreciate it very much.

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Imagination and Reality



This week presented interesting ideas and challenges to my experience in the RMI. In my reading classes, Bill inspired me to do a unit on imagination. On Monday, we discussed what imagination was and I instructed my students to draw a picture of a fish with legs, feet, and fur, who is singing while making a pizza. The point was to teach the students that the same picture formed in their minds from my instructions are the same kinds of pictures they should have in their minds as they read. I also showed my students the video clip of "Pure Imagination" from the original Willy Wonka film. They had never seen it before and were mesmerized by it (one of them asked if it was real in fact!). The next day, I read from a wonderful children's book called What If... by Regina Williams. The book is a collection of beautiful illustrations of "what if" situations a little boy is dreaming up before going to bed. Some of these scenarios included gardens made of candy, dogs growing on dogwood trees, and clouds becoming what they look like and putting on a show in the sky. The assignment was for the students to make up their own "what if" situations. My two favorites were "what if I flew a plane into a rainbow and broke it," and "what if it snowed in the Marshall Islands." On Wednesday, I read from one of my favorite books from elementary school, The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, which I had been reading to the students before. I then had them draw pictures of what they saw in their minds from the chapters I read. On Thursday, final day of the unit, I showed the students a book that Mandy has used in all of her classrooms previously called Flotsam by David Wiesner. The book has no words but tells the story of a boy at the beach who discovers an underwater camera that has fantastical pictures on it such as huge starfish with islands on their backs, schools of robotic fish, and tiny aliens riding on sea horses. It was a delight to see the faces of the students change from wonderment to shock as each page turned. The students were then asked to write the story themselves. I think that the unit was well received.

At the same time, each night Mandy and I watched movies that were about or involved imagination. On Monday, we watched Hook (the word "bangarang" is thankfully back in my vocabulary as a result), Tuesday we watched Finding Neverland (about the creation of the story of Peter Pan; an absolutely amazing film if you have not seen it). Wednesday we watched Howl's Moving Castle, (in an effort to lighten the mood after watching such a sad film the day before). Thursday we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I think that watching these movies in juxtaposition to doing a unit on imagination really reawakened my inner child (well, that and working with children everyday). I concluded that as a result of this week, when I come back for the summer I want to work at a summer camp, because I myself never went to one (and also because after seeing Hook I have an irrepressible urge to be in a food fight).

On Friday, I took my two winning teams on a field trip to WAM (Waan Aolen in Majol) to go on traditional Marshallese canoe rides and to have ice cream. The students really enjoyed the trip and it was nice to play with them outside of the context of school (pictured above).

This weekend, I moved quickly from a week full of childlike wonderment to the reality of the world around me. On Thursday evening, after dinner at Yvonne's house, I learned more about the culture and politics of the Marshall Islands. I realized that this is the first country I have ever visited that I knew literally nothing about before coming (besides the little information I gleaned from Wikipedia). Politics and culture are very ingrained in the everyday life of the Marshallese. I believe this is because of the scarcity of land and familiarity that everyone has with one another. It is a testament to the Marshallese that while the Marshall Islands is heavily influenced by outside countries--especially the United States--the people have successfully held on to their roots. In addition to having a president and a republic, the Marshall Islands also have iroojs, who are highly respected community leaders and landowners. The Marshallese concepts of land, power, and money are very different from the American concepts as a result. I think this is why it is difficult sometimes for volunteers to come and attempt to help with various aspects of Marshallese life. We just do not know enough about the culture, and, in many ways, we never will since we come from such a different context. The Marshall Islands are a small group of islands and atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They have followed their customs for many years and no word view could or necessarily should change that. There are so many ways that I want to help here, but I learned this weekend that the help has to come out of the Marshallese context and perspective, not an American one. What is progress? What is advancement? What is beauty? These words mean different things to different people. When I look out at the lagoon, I still have a hard time believing that what I am seeing is real. When the Marshallese look out, they see the same water that they have seen for hundreds of years. They see a life force and a source of food, commerce, and transportation. I was shocked to find out that many of my students do not even like to swim! I need to first see things with Marshallese eyes before I can try to work for change. It will take a lot more time and patience on my part to learn what I need to know to help outside of the classroom and I worry that a year is not enough time. There is still much to learn. I feel fortunate to be in a place where I am required to listen more than speak so that I can in fact learn as much as possible. I hope that in my time here I will be able to make a difference inside and outside of the classroom by working with the Marshallese and their culture.

More shockers from the island:

23) The realization of how Americanized the RMI is yet how different it is from the places I am familiar with was striking to me, especially after having been here for two months.

24) Despite the idea that the pacific islands are isolated and paradisical, the islands (including the RMI) have had major influence from outside parties. They are not as disconnected from the rest of the world as one might think.

That's all for now!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Manit Day Weekend


This week was pretty low key. Friday was a national holiday -- Manit Day -- so we knew school was going to be cancelled and I adapted my lesson plans accordingly. This week I decided to have a test on everything we have learned so far in grammar class (subject, verb, and direct object recognition; subject/object pronouns and possessive pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; common and proper nouns) and I am happy to say that half of my students passed! While this may not seem impressive, its an awesome feat for the students here, especially since we have learned so much!

Manit Day is a day for the celebration of Marshallese culture ("manit," in fact, means "culture" in Marshallese). Unfortunately, while the other volunteers and I were told that there are usually people doing traditional dancing and handicrafts on one of the larger plains on the island, this year (for the first time in a while) there was nothing coordinated. So, the day just ended up being a day off of work. Hannah, Mandy, and I did make use of the day by telling our students to come out to the field between MMS and MIHS (shown above) and help clean up from 9-12. We did not have high hopes for the number of students that would come since it was a holiday, but at least 20 kids from Mandy and my classes at MMS came! With their help and the help of some of the other local kids, we were able to make the field fairly clean. We brought a soccer ball, a frisbee, and a volleyball and told the kids they could play only if they picked up trash. I incentivized our students by promising them extra points for their team and Mandy did the same by telling them they could add a rock to their prize jar (Mandy had jars for each of her classes and she puts a rock in them each day the class behaves well). Even though it rained for more than half of the time, we were able to get some work done and play with a bunch of kids. We hope to do this every weekend from now on. Later that evening, Justin and Alex came from Ejit bearing freshly caught octopus. Luckily, since we have our own resident chef, we were able to cook and eat it properly. It was delicious! It was the best "Culture Day" any of us could have asked for.

Another nice thing about the long weekend was that other World Teach volunteers from the nearby island of Arno were able to come in for the weekend. Brooke Payne, James De Brueys, and Erica Moore came to stay with us at the Bungalow and hang out in Majuro and we truly enjoyed their company.

The only other news that I regret to add is that our second kitten, Papaya, passed away last week. We discovered that she had worms and we gave her medicine but it was too late to save her. Everyone was very sad to see her go. The Bungalow has been lacking in warm affection as a result, but we are making due without her.

Besides that, this week was pretty standard. Hopefully next week will bring more adventures!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Daily Life



As the weeks fly by, life is really falling into a rhythm. I figure I would use this entry to give you some kind of sense of what my daily life is like in Majuro.

I wake up around 7:40 each morning, shower and eat breakfast, and make the 3 minute walk to school with Mandy before before the 8:15 bell. At school, Mandy and I are always greeted by exuberant children who are quick to give us high fives or attempt to mess with us before the day begins. The kids are usually playing volleyball or running around aimlessly before class. I teach my homeroom - 107 - reading, have a free period, then teach them writing and grammar. Third period, I teach another class, 104, reading. There is an hour break for lunch where most of the kids go home to get food. Mandy and I also usually go home to eat at the Bungalow. We both hurry to get back so we can play volleyball or hacky-sac with the kids before the bell rings for 5th period. I then teach 104 a class of grammar and writing. I have the last period free and I usually sit in the office/teachers lounge creating the next day's worksheets or grading papers. This is also the time that I am able to learn Marshallese from the teachers who are in the office. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with the other teachers during this period and after school.

Depending on the day, I do different things after school. Immediately after school, I usually have a snack, read whatever book I am currently on (at the moment it is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri--she is a beautiful writer), talk with my housemates about the day's blunders, and/or practice the guitar. As I mentioned in the previous blog entry I have started to play soccer with a group of Fijian guys and a few other ribelles every Monday and Wednesday from 6-7 pm. I finally bought cleats this week ($20, not too bad) so I will not be sliding all over the wet, long grass like I have been the past two weeks. On Tuesdays I try to go swimming/snorkeling. I had been going to Ejit, but I have not been doing this recently. It is much easier to swim in the ocean or lagoon right by the Bungalow (not to mention their aren't as many ferocious dogs waiting for me right outside the water like on Ejit). This past Tuesday I went to the Marshall Islands High School's gospel choir rehearsal with a previous DVTP volunteer who has been here for three years--Jonathan Marable. The kids are very high energy and the director is a guy from Samoa who is literally able to sing every voice part. It is very impressive. Thursdays and Fridays I usually rest after school. Friday evenings, however, Justin and I go out on the town. Usually there is some ribelle event happening each weekend and so it is a nice time to unwind and socialize with the other volunteers and Americans on the island. On Saturday, the residents of the Bungalow usually handle whatever affairs they were not able to get to during the week, such as using the internet for a prolonged period of time, running errands in town, or just taking it easy. In the late afternoon, one of the Japanese Volunteer Corps teachers named Misa who works with Hannah at MIHS comes over and trades language lessons with us. She teaches us Japanese (we even did calligraphy one Saturday, which is shown in the picture above) and Joanna teaches us Chinese. Hannah sometimes inputs the German she knows and I help with French. Strangely enough we all should be working on our Marshallese, but it is fun to do be able to learn about so many different cultures. We also play music. Hannah is pretty good at the guitar and Misa is great at the ukelele, while Joanna and I are trying to learn both. It is nice to be able to share music with one another. Sunday, as per Marshallese tradition, I go to church on Ejit, or with with my housemates. They are on a mission to go to all of the churches on the island before they leave. Good luck to them. There are dozens and many different denominations!

In the evenings, the Bungalow residents try to eat family dinners together. Bill used to be a chef and has been spoiling us with meals but all of us are pretty good cooks. I have enjoyed sharing my favorite dishes that my mom makes with my housemates and they have enjoyed eating them (they say to tell you that you are a great cook mom!). This past week we had pork loin, whole chicken with squash and salad, lemon pepper garlic tuna with alfredo/tomato/spinach pasta, and meatloaf with rice/corn/mushroom/ramen. Bill told me not to tell people that we were eating well because then no one would think we were roughing it, but be assured, we still appreciate packages of food from home! Good meat and vegetables are EXPENSIVE here! Friday nights the group usually goes out to eat (Justin and Alex coming in from Ejit make it a special occasion each week). We eat at a nice restaurant called Tide Table where a Fijian band plays every Friday night. Ironically enough, half of the band lives next door to us and the other half are people I play soccer and rugby with! It truly is a small island.

After dinner, Mandy and I have taken to playing cards. Mandy is a card shark and played a lot of card games with her family growing up. She has taught me how to play Rummy, Gin Rummy, 31, and a game of her family's own creation called Polish Poker. We play all of them at last once each night and I have gotten pretty good. At least one of the nights last week I beat Mandy in all four games! She hasn't let that happen since.

Another thing that I do after school almost each day is laundry. I have never had the experience of washing clothes by hand but it is the inexpensive and easier way to wash clothes here. The key, I have learned, is to do a little each day. Otherwise, your hands will hurt very badly after ringing out your entire wardrobe multiple times. Since it is so windy here, the weather provides the perfect dryer. We have at least 8 clothes lines at all times hanging in our "veranda" (which is basically an area around the entire house, but still inside the walls, that is enclosed by metal fencing, pictured above). I have come to find hand-washing clothes to be really relaxing and rewarding.

So that is a rough sketch of a week on the island.

The most exciting thing that happened this particular week was that all of the volunteer teachers for Dartmouth and World Teach that are on the Majuro atoll were invited to the house of the Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy named Eric Watnick. There, we had pizza and we able to use his internet to call home for free. He has already invited us back anytime we are in need of an "America" fix, including watching the Super Bowl. Many thanks to Eric and his family for their hospitality.

I only have one surprise about the RMI this week but it's a pretty big one:

22) It costs 5 dollars every time you see a doctor for anything, a check up or surgery. The 5 dollars also covers all the medicine you could need. Dental is the same. You have to pay for your stay in the hospital, but when I asked how much it was, I was told, "a penny a night." This can't be true...but still its pretty obvious that its not expensive. One of the Marshallese women I work with said, "Primary healthcare is a must." I think this is one thing that the Marshallese have definitely gotten right.

Thanks for reading!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew