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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to post comments or questions. I would love to hear from you!