Stormy Weather

I am sorry for the delay of this post. The (free) internet on campus has been down since this past Thursday when the Majuro Atoll had a planned power outage (for more details, continue reading below). This past week was pretty tumultuous, but after writing this and having started a new week, I feel much better about those things that went wrong. This past week started off like most others. Like I have said in past blog entries, I think that I am getting into the swing of things here and finding a rhythm to the way of life. School went as it has been going. I started this week telling my students that they had a second chance on everything. I had previously caught some of them cheating (my response was to dramatically rip their papers up in front of the class and give a lesson on the definition of the word "unacceptable"), some of them had skipped class, many of them had come in late, and even more of them had chosen not to turn in homework or to study for my quizzes. I was disappointed but I acquiesced to the idea that maybe these slip-ups had been the result of my failure to clearly outline my expectations. I did just that at the beginning of the week and hoped that many of my students would take advantage of my generosity. I also gave them the chance to come into my classroom during lunch or after school and get extra points on their quizzes from the previous week which most of them did very poorly on. I did not expect to see many or any of the students for the retake but after school at least 20 showed up. I thought that maybe my talking-to had worked and that things would go more smoothly in the classroom. Little did I know what was coming the week ahead of me.

One highlight of this week was talking to the deaf student at MMS in sign language. Mandy, the World Teach volunteer that I spoke about last week who specialized in teaching special education classes in college, told me a week or so ago that if I wanted to make the deaf student happy, I should sign to him "What is your first name?" She thought that even some recognition from one of the new ribelle teachers would make him happy. I learned the ASL alphabet in elementary school (to give you some kind of indication of how nerdy we were back then, we used to sign notes to each other across the class instead of passing them; it was a short lived fad) and so I felt relatively prepared to read his response since it would be spelled out. I was in the office during one of my prep periods and the student walked in. I was excited to use the sign I had learned so I tried it and he beamed at me and commenced to spell his name. Unfortunately, my alphabet was a little rusty and so I mixed up "m" and "n" and was thoroughly confused about what his name was, especially since I have no expertise in Marshallese names. There is a white board in the office, so I went up it and spelled out what I thought was "Amdy." He shook his head no and spelled out "Andy." I felt so dumb. However, I signed my name and spelled it on the board too and then drew and arrow from his name to him and my name to me. He smiled again. I then erased the "rew" from my name, replaced it with a "y" to indicate that his name, Andy, was a form of my name. Then I pointed from him to me to try to indicate that we were the same. He clapped and was very happy. It made me feel really good to communicate with someone who I do not think gets to communicate with anyone besides his interpreter at school.

Thursday there was a planned power outage for the whole island. There has only been one of these since I have been here but it was for half of the island. The outages take place so that mechanics can fix the generators that power the entire atoll. Many schools took this as an opportunity to have a half day, since the outage is scheduled from 9-5 and the buildings get hot and the bathrooms don't work. My school did not do this. Unfortunately, Marshall Islands High School (MIHS), who shares a field with us, did decide to have a half day in addition to a celebration/party for their new freshman, new teachers, and transfer students. The music started before lunch and I knew that all was lost as far as trying to keep the focus of my students. Many of the students wandered into the MIHS celebration and did not return at all for classes after lunch, and those who did were over 20 mins late. The MMS teachers were not much help at bringing the kids back to school, especially when they were saying we should have a half day too despite the fact that principal said no.

To make matters worse, a large number of my students did not have their homework again, AND I caught one of them cheating--one of the people who I had given the second chance to for cheating the first time. All of this together made me extremely upset and frustrated. I struggled to understand how I would ever get any progress with my students when they were so easily distracted and unwilling to even try. I ended up being fairly bitter and doing a poor job of hiding my disappointment. In my second section, when I found out one of my "bad" students did not have his homework again and that his response to why he did not have it was a simple shrug I flipped out. I kept removing his feet from the chair in front of him as I tried to get a reason from him as to why he did not have his homework and he kept putting them back up AND not giving me a reason for not having his homework. He was the first student I sent to the office.

I went to the office after school very frustrated (school ended up concluding a period early because of all of the distractions). I attempted to express my frustrations the other teachers and I learned that I was not alone in my treatment from the students. Many of the Marshallese teachers expressed the need for more discipline and punishment. They suggested that I crack down harder on my students. They said that in the end, they will still like you and will respect you more so for doing it. This is my plan for this week.

The Bungalow received its final member on Thursday. Bill, a World Teach volunteer from last year, came to complete our family for the year. An older gentleman, Bill had been traveling around the country before coming to Majuro. He did not have to be at orientation because he did the program last year. He entered with a bang, buying us lunch at Tide Table. The following day, he helped us turn our house into a home, moving around furniture and motivating us to clean to the point were I said, "Wow, this is scary. i am starting to see this as a place I might live for the next year." Everyone agreed. Bill brought a number of supplies to help cover surfaces and complete our kitchen and he says that he has spices (including Lawry's seasoned salt, thank God!) and other nifty things on the way here. He has experience as a chef so I am excited to learn cooking techniques and eat the meals he prepares (not that we haven't been doing a good job, but still)! Bill is also teaching on the MIHS campus kiddy-corner to MMS at a school called the National Vocation and Technical Institute (NVTI). This school is basically for students who do not score high enough to get into MIHS. It helps get an equivalency diploma.

Later Friday night, I was invited to dinner at the home of Yvonne and her husband Craig. Yvonne is an older woman who is here teaching at the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI). More importantly, she is from one of the suburbs of Chicago! I was ecstatic to meet her a few weeks ago because of our connection and she has treated me like her own child since our first meeting. She is the only carnivore in a family of herbivores so she was happy to have me over to have a reason to cook some meat. We sat around her family's apartment and talked about like in the Marshall Islands and teaching with her family and two other CMI teachers who also stated the importance of discipline in the classroom in order to reach the Marshallese students. I found this very encouraging. I was also able to talk Yvonne and Craig's daughter, Amethyst, who is a high school senior and is looking at colleges. I am very much so pushing her to apply to Dartmouth and was giving her application and college advice from my years of experience as an intern in the Admissions Office at Dartmouth.

Later that night, Yvonne and I headed to the Marshall Islands Resort (MIR) for a drink after dinner (Craig and the other guests were not interested in coming). On the porch, we met some friends of Yvonne's and talked for a few hours. One of these friends was a Marshallese man who goes by the name Junior. I told him of my frustrations in the classroom this past week and he told me of the importance of parents and how many parents here are not involved or not aware of their children's academic life. He is very involved in his children's schooling. He says that he takes out a white board every night and has them write out what they need to do and that he does he best to help them learn what they need to learn. He encouraged me to get the parents involved and that he said he would come to my class to offer some Marshallese motivation. I was very encouraged by this. However, when I went inside, I had a conversation of a different and less encouraging sort.

The conversation started like most of my conversations with Marshallese people. I explained to him that I was a volunteer teacher at MMS and that I was here for the year through the DVTP. I expressed to him some of my frustrations from the week and his only response was to tell me that the Marshallese people were stupid. I was taken aback by this response and insisted that I did not agree. I told him that while my students may not be doing all that well in my class, there were a few who were doing outstanding work. Even though there were those that weren't doing as well, I could still tell that they were smart. Their only problem was a lack of effort and motivation. They were too distracted by other things and did not see their education as a priority. The gentleman's response was to ask me if I was being asked questions in Marshallese would I be able to respond. I said, "Of course not," and that that was exactly my point. My students lack of success in my class was not indicative of their intelligence. It only spoke to their inability to read, write, and comprehend English. Still, I argued, I knew that my students could do the work if they tried, they just chose not to try. I asked him what he thought I should do. He said again that the Marshallese were stupid and that I should ask President Obama for more money for the country. This bothered me deeply because I knew that handouts from America, warranted or not, were not the solution to this problem. I said this to him and he responded that I was like all of the other volunteers and ribelles that came to the island. That I thought I was better than the Marshallese and that I knew what was best for them. He said that I was here for a vacation. I tried to disavow these accusations but the man stayed firm. After my experiences in my classroom this week and knowing all of the work I had put into teaching, this comment made me furious. I stormed away from the man and out of the bar. It was my first encounter with someone who did not seem to want volunteers to be here. I left mad because I knew I was not on vacation, that I had worked hard, and that I had even more hard work ahead of me. I think I was even more mad because I kept thinking to myself, "How do I help a people that do not want to be helped?"

I was so distraught from the conversation that I got in touch with Anna, the DVTP field director, who lived close by to MIR. I told her about the interaction that I had just had and asked her my question -- "How do I help a people that do not want to be helped?" She replied that this was a typical response from many Marshallese people and that they had a point. The Marshallese did fine on their own for hundreds of years before intervention from foreign countries. What were were doing here? Why did they need our help? She encouraged me to find answers to these questions myself. As far as motivating youth who did not put the effort forth to reap the benefits of volunteer teachers she said, "You have to inspire. You have to be consistent and show the students that you care. In time, they will come to care too." These words, though simple, resonated strongly with me. I left Anna's house that evening with renewed energy and hope that I could make a difference once again.

In lighter news, this weekend was the All Micronesian Fishing Tournament sponsored by the RMI's own Billfish Fishing Club. Justin, one of the volunteers, was lucky enough to be asked to be on a team for Kwajalein, the atoll where the American military base is located. On Saturday, his team (a man short) was able to bring in a marlin weighing just under 300 pounds. They had also hooked two other marlin's but were not able to reel them in. The one fish was enough to put them in fourth place for the day. The next day he was not so lucky. Due to boat malfunctions and poor fishing location choices, his team was only able to real in a skipjack and a wahoo (two DELICIOUS tuna). His team ended up getting fourth place in the end. The other volunteers and I were very proud of him. He faired extremely well against "all" of Micronesia!

Finally, this Sunday around Majuro (in the Christian churches at least) was known as White Sunday. This basically meant that the church youths wore their finest white regalia and led service. I went to the UCC church on Ejit with Alex (Justin was fishing at the time) and watched at the adorable kids sang (or shouted to be more precise) "We Shall Overcome" and "Praise Ye the Lord" while waving dollar bill flags. Alex was very proud of her students. I was personally moved to hear kids from across the world singing "We Shall Overcome," a song that speaks directly to the Civil Rights Movement in America. After this week, I can only hope that the Marshallese youth do feel as if they can overcome their adversities some day.

As always, I will end with some more observations about the RMI that have surprised me.

16) The word for black person in Marshallese is "rikilmej" ((roll the r) ri - kull - e - mezz). It means "black (as in the color) people." I think it is so much more fun to say and more colorful than the English equivalent, or any other term that black people have been called around the world for that matter (read: les noirs in French, which literally means "the blacks".

17) The ocean and lagoon are beautiful. I always knew there was a world under all the water but it is full of life! I have been snorkeling only a few times but I think it might be my new favorite thing on earth. Imagine being in an aquarium with as many different types of fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors that you can imagine AND huge building sized towers of coral and you will be close to seeing what I have seen.

18) Some of the kids here have hilarious names, which, while having strange meanings, do sound very nice as names. Mandy has a student named Nimrod and I have a student named Agency and one named Cloreen. Think about it.

Until next time,

Bar Lo Kom,

Andrew