With less than a month to go (25 days to be exact) I have extremely mixed feelings about leaving the Marshall Islands. If you asked me a few weeks ago how I would feel about leaving, I would have said "Ecstatic! Super! Incredible! SOOO ready!" But, the closer the day comes, and the more I think about it, the more I realize I will miss this place. This little floating island in the middle of the Pacific has many magical elements to it--things that will never be emulated in any other part of the world. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty of my internal turmoil (sounds dramatic right?), I wanted to present to you readers the best and most powerful description of the islands that I have heard to date. While in the islands, I have had the fortune of meeting a Marshallese girl by the name of Kathy Jetnil at the Thursday night gatherings. She works in communications at the College of the Marshall Islands and, to steal a bit from her blog, is a "poet, writer, and spoken word artist" on top of being an absolutely wonderful and fun person to be around. She studied writing at Mills College in California with a BA in Creative Writing. Her writing background is prolific. Among other achievements, she just found out that she was accepted into VONA Writer's Workshop at UC Berkley! I went to a poetry reading at CMI this past week and had the fortune to be moved by her reading of this poem of hers. So, I leave you with "Tell Them" by Kathy Jetnil, a poem thats says more than I ever could about this place.
"Tell Them"
I prepared the package
for my friends in the states
the dangling earrings woven
into half moons black pearls glinting
like an eye in a storm of tight spirals
the baskets
sturdy, also woven
brown cowry shells shiny
intricate mandalas
shaped by calloused fingers
Inside the basket
a message:
Wear these earrings
to parties
to your classes and meetings
to the grocery store, the corner store
and while riding the bus
Store jewelry, incense, copper coins
and curling letters like this one
in this basket
and when others ask you
where you got this
you tell them
they’re from the Marshall Islands
show them where it is on a map
tell them we are a proud people
toasted dark brown as the carved ribs
of a tree stump
tell them we are descendents
of the finest navigators in the world
tell them our islands were dropped
from a basket
carried by a giant
tell them we are the hollow hulls
of canoes as fast as the wind
slicing through the pacific sea
we are wood shavings
and drying pandanus leaves
and sticky bwiros at kemems
tell them we are sweet harmonies
of grandmothers mothers aunties and sisters
songs late into night
tell them we are whispered prayers
the breath of God
a crown of fushia flowers encircling
aunty mary’s white sea foam hair
tell them we are styrofoam cups of koolaid red
waiting patiently for the ilomij
tell them we are papaya golden sunsets bleeding
into a glittering open sea
we are skies uncluttered
majestic in their sweeping landscape
we are the ocean
terrifying and regal in its power
tell them we are dusty rubber slippers
swiped
from concrete doorsteps
we are the ripped seams
and the broken door handles of taxis
we are sweaty hands shaking another sweaty hand in heat
tell them
we are days
and nights hotter
than anything you can imagine
tell them we are little girls with braids
cartwheeling beneath the rain
we are shards of broken beer bottles
burrowed beneath fine white sand
we are children flinging
like rubber bands
across a road clogged with chugging cars
tell them
we only have one road
and after all this
tell them about the water
how we have seen it rising
flooding across our cemeteries
gushing over the sea walls
and crashing against our homes
tell them what it’s like
to see the entire ocean__level___with the land
tell them
we are afraid
tell them we don’t know
of the politics
or the science
but tell them we see
what is in our own backyard
tell them that some of us
are old fishermen who believe that God
made us a promise
some of us
are more skeptical of God
but most importantly tell them
we don’t want to leave
we’ve never wanted to leave
and that we
are nothing without our islands.
-----------------------------
For more of Kathy's work, check out her blog at http://jkijiner.wordpress.com/
Until next time (only 3 more blogs in the RMI, then onto Bosnia! Stay tuned!)
Bar Lo Kom,
Andrew
Showing posts with label RMI surprises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RMI surprises. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Blue Planet, Limited Vision
It is, in fact, true that our planet is a blue planet. Sadly, despite being surrounded on all sides by the Pacific, despite the constant background noise provided by the ebb and flow of the ocean waves, despite the signs are all around me, it took me watching BBC’s “Blue Planet” to truly be in awe. Granted, I have ventured into the waters a few times and have seen some incredible things. Lagoon-side snorkeling near Ejit is filled with coral towers and a miasma of aquatic life. Enemanit offers even the most timid swimmers the opportunity to see a sunken fighter plane and not one but two sunken helicopters in addition to amazing snorkeling a few feet from the shore. I have had the pleasure, thanks to the generosity of the Curtis family, to go deep-sea fishing. While on the boat for the majority of a day we saw dolphins and flying fish and brought in two wahoo and a gigantic blue marlin. These have all been moments of awe where the underwater world became all too real and present for me.
Still, my time in and my reverence of the waters pales in comparison to what I thought it would be before coming to the RMI. I have distinct memories of telling people how I was going to come back a fishing/surfing/diving/snorkeling expert. Instead, I find fishing—while exciting when reeling in and landing a fish—boring. Surfing is nearly impossible here (unless you are a pro, some of whom I had occasion to meet), diving is terrifying, and snorkeling can be a chore of sorts. It seems that even though I ran away to the Pacific to get away from it all, try new things, and do as the proverbial Romans do, my American landlubber sentiments have prevailed. Why is that? It can't be that I do not have access. I have many ribelle friends here who do all of those aquatic activities all of the time. Perhaps its the fact that none of my students or my Marshallese associates do these things with regularity. It seems that the young people on Majuro are more interested in Americanized and urban activities than those activities that have helped to sustain their culture for years. As far as the Marshallese adults here I know, they too are wrapped up in their daily affairs. While they may take some time to go fishing, it is usually in the privacy of their own family or close group of friends. I do not mean to put the blame on others. I think with more initiative on my part I could be in the water everyday. However, that is not how I have oriented my days.
Still, every time I take a moment to look at the water, I am in awe of how blue that blue is; how varied and ornate yet profoundly simple; how perfectly present and unchangingly etherial. It is even more impressive when put into perspective with the rest of the world around it. The expanse of blue only serves to highlight the immensity of the sky. Clouds look as if they are painted onto a domed canvas. Stars, in their great number, remind me how infinitesimal I am. And the sunsets; there are no words. Melodious amalgamations of orange, red, and purple hues appear from under the water, peak from behind the cloud curtain, and stretch across the sky. The sunrises, though similarly beautiful, are much more gentle. As the world wakes up, warmth enters the colors of the sky and the ocean. I like to say that the water is so warm I would sleep in it if I couldn't drown. I had the pleasure of climbing up to the top of the water tower that is on the MIHS campus--the second highest point in the country--and seeing the entire island in 360 degrees. You could see both sides of the island, storms rolling in from the ocean side and the sun resting and waking in the lagoon, a thirty mile expanse brought into one field of vision--and everywhere, rich, rich blue.
John Irving so aptly states though the mouth of one of his characters in his novel "The Cider House Rules" that, "Living on land where you can occasionally see a long way provides the soul with a perspective of a beneficially expansive nature" (14). As I sat up on the water tower, looking out on what seemed like the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, I couldn't help but ask what lie beyond the horizon. I mean, I knew--maybe not what specific piece of land was in what direction--but it encouraged me, inspired me to want to explore the world further. To seek what was on the other side. It has always confused me that Marshallese people do not have this same sense of adventure or wonderment.
To be fair, I know it took an enormous sense of adventure for the ancient Marshallese people to hop on canoes and explore the ocean to find the other islands here, but now, my students have little interest in leaving Majuro. Regardless of the fact that tremendous resources are needed to get off the island (read: money), they do not seem all that interested. Some want to go to America, yes, but then return after college. They do not know what is on the other side of the horizon, and they don't seem to care. For a while I believed that the young people here were taking the ocean for granted. They too did not swim or indulge in the waters in the ways that I assumed islanders would. However, they feel at peace here, floating in the middle of the ocean on a small strip of land. The knowledge that in a few decades the island might not be here does not cause them too much worry. They are not leaving. Their ancestors survived for hundreds of years from the bounty of the waters, and people here still do today. They are attached to the land, attached to the water. I have heard so many juniors and seniors here say that they want to go to college somewhere outside of the RMI but that it has to be near an ocean. When I asked why they said that they could not imagine life without hearing the waves hit the shore. In fact, they struggle to sleep without it. It has become part of their lives, ingrained in their souls. Most assuredly it is I who is taking it for granted. While the vista from the water tower may have "[provided] my soul with a perspective of a beneficially expansive nature," the Marshallese soul's expansive nature bleeds into the community. They expand into each other, knowing that on this small strip of land each other is all they have--each other, and the ocean: giving and taking, nourishing and destroying, warming and cooling.
For the last few weeks I am here, I imagine my habits won't change much. I will get in the water a few more times and explore a few more things, but I know I will always be more impressed and engaged while I watch BBC's "Blue Planet." For the rest of my life I will be able to watch shows like that one and say "I've lived there! I've been in that water!" When really, I've barely touched the surface.
Until the next time,
Bar lo kom,
Andrew
Still, my time in and my reverence of the waters pales in comparison to what I thought it would be before coming to the RMI. I have distinct memories of telling people how I was going to come back a fishing/surfing/diving/snorkeling expert. Instead, I find fishing—while exciting when reeling in and landing a fish—boring. Surfing is nearly impossible here (unless you are a pro, some of whom I had occasion to meet), diving is terrifying, and snorkeling can be a chore of sorts. It seems that even though I ran away to the Pacific to get away from it all, try new things, and do as the proverbial Romans do, my American landlubber sentiments have prevailed. Why is that? It can't be that I do not have access. I have many ribelle friends here who do all of those aquatic activities all of the time. Perhaps its the fact that none of my students or my Marshallese associates do these things with regularity. It seems that the young people on Majuro are more interested in Americanized and urban activities than those activities that have helped to sustain their culture for years. As far as the Marshallese adults here I know, they too are wrapped up in their daily affairs. While they may take some time to go fishing, it is usually in the privacy of their own family or close group of friends. I do not mean to put the blame on others. I think with more initiative on my part I could be in the water everyday. However, that is not how I have oriented my days.
Still, every time I take a moment to look at the water, I am in awe of how blue that blue is; how varied and ornate yet profoundly simple; how perfectly present and unchangingly etherial. It is even more impressive when put into perspective with the rest of the world around it. The expanse of blue only serves to highlight the immensity of the sky. Clouds look as if they are painted onto a domed canvas. Stars, in their great number, remind me how infinitesimal I am. And the sunsets; there are no words. Melodious amalgamations of orange, red, and purple hues appear from under the water, peak from behind the cloud curtain, and stretch across the sky. The sunrises, though similarly beautiful, are much more gentle. As the world wakes up, warmth enters the colors of the sky and the ocean. I like to say that the water is so warm I would sleep in it if I couldn't drown. I had the pleasure of climbing up to the top of the water tower that is on the MIHS campus--the second highest point in the country--and seeing the entire island in 360 degrees. You could see both sides of the island, storms rolling in from the ocean side and the sun resting and waking in the lagoon, a thirty mile expanse brought into one field of vision--and everywhere, rich, rich blue.
John Irving so aptly states though the mouth of one of his characters in his novel "The Cider House Rules" that, "Living on land where you can occasionally see a long way provides the soul with a perspective of a beneficially expansive nature" (14). As I sat up on the water tower, looking out on what seemed like the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, I couldn't help but ask what lie beyond the horizon. I mean, I knew--maybe not what specific piece of land was in what direction--but it encouraged me, inspired me to want to explore the world further. To seek what was on the other side. It has always confused me that Marshallese people do not have this same sense of adventure or wonderment.
To be fair, I know it took an enormous sense of adventure for the ancient Marshallese people to hop on canoes and explore the ocean to find the other islands here, but now, my students have little interest in leaving Majuro. Regardless of the fact that tremendous resources are needed to get off the island (read: money), they do not seem all that interested. Some want to go to America, yes, but then return after college. They do not know what is on the other side of the horizon, and they don't seem to care. For a while I believed that the young people here were taking the ocean for granted. They too did not swim or indulge in the waters in the ways that I assumed islanders would. However, they feel at peace here, floating in the middle of the ocean on a small strip of land. The knowledge that in a few decades the island might not be here does not cause them too much worry. They are not leaving. Their ancestors survived for hundreds of years from the bounty of the waters, and people here still do today. They are attached to the land, attached to the water. I have heard so many juniors and seniors here say that they want to go to college somewhere outside of the RMI but that it has to be near an ocean. When I asked why they said that they could not imagine life without hearing the waves hit the shore. In fact, they struggle to sleep without it. It has become part of their lives, ingrained in their souls. Most assuredly it is I who is taking it for granted. While the vista from the water tower may have "[provided] my soul with a perspective of a beneficially expansive nature," the Marshallese soul's expansive nature bleeds into the community. They expand into each other, knowing that on this small strip of land each other is all they have--each other, and the ocean: giving and taking, nourishing and destroying, warming and cooling.
For the last few weeks I am here, I imagine my habits won't change much. I will get in the water a few more times and explore a few more things, but I know I will always be more impressed and engaged while I watch BBC's "Blue Planet." For the rest of my life I will be able to watch shows like that one and say "I've lived there! I've been in that water!" When really, I've barely touched the surface.
Until the next time,
Bar lo kom,
Andrew
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
11 New "Things That Have Surprised Me In The RMI"
Due to faulty internet this post has been delayed a bit. Still I decided this week to bring back something that I was doing religiously at the beginning of my blogging but stopped due to the gravity of my posts and the normalcy of life here in the RMI after a few months. That being said, my on going list of "Things That Have Surprised Me In The RMI" has grown over the last few months, and since I do not really want to talk about last week (where my kids behaved so poorly that by the end of the week I had to sit in front of the classroom door for 50 mins and let them out one by one once they finally sat down with their heads down silently; they are acting much better this week), I figured I would re-post the oldies and write about some new traits that I recognized in the past few months.
So, here are the old ones so you don't have to look back through the blog...
1) There are wild roaming dogs EVERYWHERE. They are pretty docile because they used to people but I am terrified of dogs so I have not gotten used to this yet.
2) Marshallese people are extremely community oriented and friendly. While I did not assume that they wouldn't be, I am still humbled by their notion of family, which includes extended family, friends, and even teachers. The words in Marshallese for "want" and "like" are the same and the Marshallese are very quick to give you anything that you say you "want" or "like."
3) Young children (I am talking like 5 or 6 even) play in the street with almost anything until 10 or 11 at night. I guess this goes along with the idea that the community is close and everyone has to watch out for each other, but I still find this extremely strange.
4) Island time is a real thing. Things do not happen on time and usually go longer than expected. This is perfect for me since I am someone who is not very timely myself.
5) on the list of surprising things about Majuro is that you can take a taxi for 50 cents pretty much anywhere on the atoll. You just hold up the number of fingers of people that you have in your party that want to take a taxi and if the taxi has room it pulls over. Everyone shares the ride and people are constantly getting in and out of the cars. It can be a bit scary depending on the time of day or who gets in the cab but most people are extremely friendly.
6) The city has an initiative where some of the students got together and painted public service announcements about HIV/Aids and posted them around the city. Unprotected sex is common in the Marshall Islands and Majuro in particular and people become sexually active with multiple partners at a young age. The postings depict various illustrations of how to say no or avoid Aids, my favorite being a knight with a shield that has "Defender" on it (a type of condom) that is blocking bullets that say "gonorrhea," "syphilis," and "HIV." Pretty clever.
7) The water is ALWAYS warm in the ocean or the lagoon, and I mean WARM. I guess thats why they call the tropics paradise?
8) Everyone here can sing and does so liberally. We had a teacher induction ceremony during our first week of orientation and the Marshallese teachers all sang the RMI national anthem in perfect three part harmony. There were also guy parts and girl parts. It was as if they had all gotten together before and practiced it! It was very beautiful. I have caught my taxi drivers singing and heard many kids sing and they are all in tune. Most people can play the ukelele also.
9) The weather here is CRAZY. It will be balmy one minute, hot for a couple hours, and then rain torrentially for a few minutes and go back to being super hot right afterwards. These bursts of rain happen a couple times a day but are very short. Its amazing how the entire country seems to stop for those few minutes as everyone attempts to get out of the rain and then starts right back up again after it is over.
10) Geckos CLUCK! Yes, you read correctly. The entire time that the DVTP group was in a trailer together during orientation we would hear these noises that we assumed were rats. I later found out that the noise was actually geckos. I can't really describe the noise so I suggest you find an audio clip somewhere...but I can promise you that it is nothing like you thought they would sound. That being said, the only noise I have ever thought a gecko made had to go with car insurance...
11) The kids here are amazing at volleyball. While I do not have much experience playing volleyball with elementary students in America, these little kids are strong and accurate when it comes to hitting the ball. I played with some of my students during lunch on Friday and their slams were knocking me back off my feet!
12) Rat tails (the hairstyle) are totally in. Many of the young guys here have them and rock them liberally. This continues to surprise and confuse me everyday.
13) Everyone knows everyone. If you want to find someone, you can literally drive down the street and look for them or ask if people in an area where that person usually is hanging out and you will learn their whereabouts pretty quickly. Anne, one of the WT Field Directors needed to find Mandy's principal to figure out what was going on on the island she was supposed to go to and told us that she was just going to drive down the street and track him down. Impressive.
14) We have been told to be careful about what we say about others by many people because of something called "coconut wireless" which is how information spreads on the island. Everyone finds out about everything soon after it happens by word of mouth.
15) Kids are kids everywhere! Before coming we were told that we would never really have discipline problems in the classroom but that we would instead have problems with passivity. I have had the opposite problem. My kids have really enjoyed the team game concept I came up with and have been participating in class (or at least a good handful of them have) but there has been a lot of talking/coming in late/hitting. I guess middle school kids are the same everywhere, rebellious, disinterested in learning, and starting their interest in the opposite sex. Sigh...it's does wonders for my classroom management.
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.
19) The diversity of people on Majuro surprises me constantly. While "diversity" is usually confined to blacks, whites, asians, hispanics, and, sometimes, native americans, the RMI draws people from all over Asia, Australia, New Zeland, and the Pacific Islands. I never expected to meet people from the Soloman Islands or Fiji or that there would be so many Phillipino, Chinese, and Japanese people here. There are also SO MANY islands that i have never heard of before like Chuuk and Palau.
20) Even though it rains multiple times almost every day, I have only seen lighting once. That was this past Saturday.
21) Power outages are not THAT bad. We have had three unplanned power outages this week and for some reason whenever they happen everyone in the Bungalow gets quiet and reads or works silently. Usually the silence is not so pervasive. I guess the lack of electricity stills us. Kinda cool.
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.
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 paradisiacal, 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.
and HERE are the newbies...!
25) The idea of sharing transcends personal hygiene. One that never ceases to amaze me is how the kids will take the gum they are chewing, whip it around their finger--which, undoubtedly, has not been washed all school day--in large circles back and forth, eat it again, and then give it to someone else to eat. Suffice to say my students have learned the word "disgusting" from me.
26) To go along with 13, everyone here is related. Mention someone in passing in conversation to someone else and you will definitely hear, "Oh, that's my brother" or "Oh, that's my auntie" or, the famous, "Oh, that's my cousin." The notion of family relations is completely different here. Family friends can be aunts. Cousins once, twice, or even three times removed can be siblings, and cousins can be anyone. It's extremely confusing.
27) Ants are the most disgusting thing on earth. We all felt dominant over them as kids and as adults we barely even notice them but here they in force everywhere? Drop a crumb on the counter and leave it for a few minutes and there will be a swarm of them. Kill a cockroach and leave it for a night and the carcass will be gone by morning. I have grown a large respect for them for their fortuitous work ethic, but a disdain because of their ability to collectively maul any type of thing available to them. Be a bit more tasteful in your food choices guys.
28) My students had no idea who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is (not that I know any of their national heros--except for the first Iirojlaplap, Amata Kabua--or that I necessarily expect them to know American heroes, but many Marshallese people do go to America and are minorities there, benefiting from the work of MLK Jr. and those like him). It was one of my saddest moments teaching and the moment I felt it the most necessary to give them knowledge of something/someone.
29) From January to March is the dry season which is also referred to as winter. My students are always cold and wearing sweatshirts, but really, the only thing that has changed is that is windy all the time. I think it feels downright balmy and perfect, they say its cold. Go figure.
30) Marshallese children are the most resilient human beings I have ever met in my life. They play "karate" where they actually kick and punch the life out of each other, but come away with no scars. I have seen kids obliterated by a kick to the stomach and bounce right back. I literally do not understand how they are able to do it.
31) It is totally socially acceptable for men to wear "man-pris" (capris for men). Most students roll up there pants a few inches to keep them from being wet or to keep cool. I do this every day now.
32) Marshallese people find EVERYTHING funny. Seriously. It could be something that is not actually funny at all and they will get a good laugh out of it. Lucky them!
33) My students favorite songs have not changed since I have been here. "Waving Flag" by K'naan, "Down" by Jay Sean, "All the Above" by Maino, "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, and "Waka Waka" by Shakira are still the songs that the kids will choose when given the choice. However, I have recently made my kids obsessed with "Whip my Hair" by Willow Smith (who they knew as Jayden smith's sister, NOT will smith's daughter...kids these days...)
34) Because Majuro is such a small microcosm, one is able to notice the evolution of fads. First, we started with whipping bandanas--every young person on the island had a bandana and would wind it up and snap it. At first I thought the kids were doing it to hurt each other but after a while I found they just did it for the sound. While walking down the street or in the middle of conversation, they would snap their bandanas. It was EXTREMELY annoying as a teacher. Second, and my favorite of all the fads for its use of recycled materials and inventiveness was the Spiderman bottles. The students linked together the small red rubber bands that held together their disposable plastic lunch containers and attached them to the top of a standard Pacific Pure Water water bottle filled with rocks. The would then wrap the other end around their wrist and fling the bottle out in an attempt to hit other kids while yelling "Spiderman!" Third, after this, was a short lived fad by the boys of putting said red rubber bands in ones hair and making small ponytails. We had a dirth of fads for a while as the holiday season took over, but pogs were a big hit at the end of the year. Now they can been seen in the dirt everywhere. Who knows what will be next!
And to top it all off...
35) Every young person on this island, elementary, high school, and college LOVES Justin Bieber. While I know that he has some appeal in the US, it personally boggles MY mind that he could have such wide appeal (If I hear my kids sing "I will never say never..." again I might explode...mind you, I have never actually heard any of Justin Bieber's songs in their entirety besides MAYBE "Baby"...maybe this is why it drives me insane).
There you have it! Eleven more things that are shocking about the RMI. I am certain there will be more to come.
Just as a note for the future, over the next two weeks there will be random blackouts as the Marshall Islands Energy Company is going to be working on the generators and they do not know what will affect which areas of the island. I will do my best to post in a timely fashion but if you do not hear from me, that is why.
Bar lo kom,
Andrew
So, here are the old ones so you don't have to look back through the blog...
1) There are wild roaming dogs EVERYWHERE. They are pretty docile because they used to people but I am terrified of dogs so I have not gotten used to this yet.
2) Marshallese people are extremely community oriented and friendly. While I did not assume that they wouldn't be, I am still humbled by their notion of family, which includes extended family, friends, and even teachers. The words in Marshallese for "want" and "like" are the same and the Marshallese are very quick to give you anything that you say you "want" or "like."
3) Young children (I am talking like 5 or 6 even) play in the street with almost anything until 10 or 11 at night. I guess this goes along with the idea that the community is close and everyone has to watch out for each other, but I still find this extremely strange.
4) Island time is a real thing. Things do not happen on time and usually go longer than expected. This is perfect for me since I am someone who is not very timely myself.
5) on the list of surprising things about Majuro is that you can take a taxi for 50 cents pretty much anywhere on the atoll. You just hold up the number of fingers of people that you have in your party that want to take a taxi and if the taxi has room it pulls over. Everyone shares the ride and people are constantly getting in and out of the cars. It can be a bit scary depending on the time of day or who gets in the cab but most people are extremely friendly.
6) The city has an initiative where some of the students got together and painted public service announcements about HIV/Aids and posted them around the city. Unprotected sex is common in the Marshall Islands and Majuro in particular and people become sexually active with multiple partners at a young age. The postings depict various illustrations of how to say no or avoid Aids, my favorite being a knight with a shield that has "Defender" on it (a type of condom) that is blocking bullets that say "gonorrhea," "syphilis," and "HIV." Pretty clever.
7) The water is ALWAYS warm in the ocean or the lagoon, and I mean WARM. I guess thats why they call the tropics paradise?
8) Everyone here can sing and does so liberally. We had a teacher induction ceremony during our first week of orientation and the Marshallese teachers all sang the RMI national anthem in perfect three part harmony. There were also guy parts and girl parts. It was as if they had all gotten together before and practiced it! It was very beautiful. I have caught my taxi drivers singing and heard many kids sing and they are all in tune. Most people can play the ukelele also.
9) The weather here is CRAZY. It will be balmy one minute, hot for a couple hours, and then rain torrentially for a few minutes and go back to being super hot right afterwards. These bursts of rain happen a couple times a day but are very short. Its amazing how the entire country seems to stop for those few minutes as everyone attempts to get out of the rain and then starts right back up again after it is over.
10) Geckos CLUCK! Yes, you read correctly. The entire time that the DVTP group was in a trailer together during orientation we would hear these noises that we assumed were rats. I later found out that the noise was actually geckos. I can't really describe the noise so I suggest you find an audio clip somewhere...but I can promise you that it is nothing like you thought they would sound. That being said, the only noise I have ever thought a gecko made had to go with car insurance...
11) The kids here are amazing at volleyball. While I do not have much experience playing volleyball with elementary students in America, these little kids are strong and accurate when it comes to hitting the ball. I played with some of my students during lunch on Friday and their slams were knocking me back off my feet!
12) Rat tails (the hairstyle) are totally in. Many of the young guys here have them and rock them liberally. This continues to surprise and confuse me everyday.
13) Everyone knows everyone. If you want to find someone, you can literally drive down the street and look for them or ask if people in an area where that person usually is hanging out and you will learn their whereabouts pretty quickly. Anne, one of the WT Field Directors needed to find Mandy's principal to figure out what was going on on the island she was supposed to go to and told us that she was just going to drive down the street and track him down. Impressive.
14) We have been told to be careful about what we say about others by many people because of something called "coconut wireless" which is how information spreads on the island. Everyone finds out about everything soon after it happens by word of mouth.
15) Kids are kids everywhere! Before coming we were told that we would never really have discipline problems in the classroom but that we would instead have problems with passivity. I have had the opposite problem. My kids have really enjoyed the team game concept I came up with and have been participating in class (or at least a good handful of them have) but there has been a lot of talking/coming in late/hitting. I guess middle school kids are the same everywhere, rebellious, disinterested in learning, and starting their interest in the opposite sex. Sigh...it's does wonders for my classroom management.
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.
19) The diversity of people on Majuro surprises me constantly. While "diversity" is usually confined to blacks, whites, asians, hispanics, and, sometimes, native americans, the RMI draws people from all over Asia, Australia, New Zeland, and the Pacific Islands. I never expected to meet people from the Soloman Islands or Fiji or that there would be so many Phillipino, Chinese, and Japanese people here. There are also SO MANY islands that i have never heard of before like Chuuk and Palau.
20) Even though it rains multiple times almost every day, I have only seen lighting once. That was this past Saturday.
21) Power outages are not THAT bad. We have had three unplanned power outages this week and for some reason whenever they happen everyone in the Bungalow gets quiet and reads or works silently. Usually the silence is not so pervasive. I guess the lack of electricity stills us. Kinda cool.
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.
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 paradisiacal, 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.
and HERE are the newbies...!
25) The idea of sharing transcends personal hygiene. One that never ceases to amaze me is how the kids will take the gum they are chewing, whip it around their finger--which, undoubtedly, has not been washed all school day--in large circles back and forth, eat it again, and then give it to someone else to eat. Suffice to say my students have learned the word "disgusting" from me.
26) To go along with 13, everyone here is related. Mention someone in passing in conversation to someone else and you will definitely hear, "Oh, that's my brother" or "Oh, that's my auntie" or, the famous, "Oh, that's my cousin." The notion of family relations is completely different here. Family friends can be aunts. Cousins once, twice, or even three times removed can be siblings, and cousins can be anyone. It's extremely confusing.
27) Ants are the most disgusting thing on earth. We all felt dominant over them as kids and as adults we barely even notice them but here they in force everywhere? Drop a crumb on the counter and leave it for a few minutes and there will be a swarm of them. Kill a cockroach and leave it for a night and the carcass will be gone by morning. I have grown a large respect for them for their fortuitous work ethic, but a disdain because of their ability to collectively maul any type of thing available to them. Be a bit more tasteful in your food choices guys.
28) My students had no idea who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is (not that I know any of their national heros--except for the first Iirojlaplap, Amata Kabua--or that I necessarily expect them to know American heroes, but many Marshallese people do go to America and are minorities there, benefiting from the work of MLK Jr. and those like him). It was one of my saddest moments teaching and the moment I felt it the most necessary to give them knowledge of something/someone.
29) From January to March is the dry season which is also referred to as winter. My students are always cold and wearing sweatshirts, but really, the only thing that has changed is that is windy all the time. I think it feels downright balmy and perfect, they say its cold. Go figure.
30) Marshallese children are the most resilient human beings I have ever met in my life. They play "karate" where they actually kick and punch the life out of each other, but come away with no scars. I have seen kids obliterated by a kick to the stomach and bounce right back. I literally do not understand how they are able to do it.
31) It is totally socially acceptable for men to wear "man-pris" (capris for men). Most students roll up there pants a few inches to keep them from being wet or to keep cool. I do this every day now.
32) Marshallese people find EVERYTHING funny. Seriously. It could be something that is not actually funny at all and they will get a good laugh out of it. Lucky them!
33) My students favorite songs have not changed since I have been here. "Waving Flag" by K'naan, "Down" by Jay Sean, "All the Above" by Maino, "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, and "Waka Waka" by Shakira are still the songs that the kids will choose when given the choice. However, I have recently made my kids obsessed with "Whip my Hair" by Willow Smith (who they knew as Jayden smith's sister, NOT will smith's daughter...kids these days...)
34) Because Majuro is such a small microcosm, one is able to notice the evolution of fads. First, we started with whipping bandanas--every young person on the island had a bandana and would wind it up and snap it. At first I thought the kids were doing it to hurt each other but after a while I found they just did it for the sound. While walking down the street or in the middle of conversation, they would snap their bandanas. It was EXTREMELY annoying as a teacher. Second, and my favorite of all the fads for its use of recycled materials and inventiveness was the Spiderman bottles. The students linked together the small red rubber bands that held together their disposable plastic lunch containers and attached them to the top of a standard Pacific Pure Water water bottle filled with rocks. The would then wrap the other end around their wrist and fling the bottle out in an attempt to hit other kids while yelling "Spiderman!" Third, after this, was a short lived fad by the boys of putting said red rubber bands in ones hair and making small ponytails. We had a dirth of fads for a while as the holiday season took over, but pogs were a big hit at the end of the year. Now they can been seen in the dirt everywhere. Who knows what will be next!
And to top it all off...
35) Every young person on this island, elementary, high school, and college LOVES Justin Bieber. While I know that he has some appeal in the US, it personally boggles MY mind that he could have such wide appeal (If I hear my kids sing "I will never say never..." again I might explode...mind you, I have never actually heard any of Justin Bieber's songs in their entirety besides MAYBE "Baby"...maybe this is why it drives me insane).
There you have it! Eleven more things that are shocking about the RMI. I am certain there will be more to come.
Just as a note for the future, over the next two weeks there will be random blackouts as the Marshall Islands Energy Company is going to be working on the generators and they do not know what will affect which areas of the island. I will do my best to post in a timely fashion but if you do not hear from me, that is why.
Bar lo kom,
Andrew
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