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