Finally, The Play: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."

After much anticipation, many hours or practice, lots of scrambling, and many iterations of "bloody hell" and "bugger," the Marshall Islands High School run of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" started three weeks ago, Tuesday, March 8th, and ended the Sunday before last, the 13th.

I am still exhausted from the run.

The play has been, without a doubt, the thing that I am most proud of since I have been here. While I am happy with my achievements with my students, I feel like there is always more work to be done, another student to catch up. With the play, I was able to help see a project from start to finish. There were many instances when the prospects of a good production looked grim, but the final product was stellar. "The Tempest" is Professor Garrod's seventh Shakespearian production at Marshall Islands High School, and, as Garrod himself said, most likely his most relevant. I will allow you to read up on the plot at your own leisure but the setting of the play being on an island and heavy themes of colonized-colonizer make the play echo volumes in the RMI. Initially, I was double cast as Ariel, Prospero's (the lead) fairy servant with another MIHS student named Heron Ante. However, due to family complications and other obligations, Heron was not able to participate in the play and at the juncture when he dropped out, it was too late to recast the role. While at first I was uncomfortable being cast in not only a high school production but a production for a school in which I did not teach, I was informed that the true purpose of my casting was to set an example of dedication and passion on the stage. Garrod also wanted to juxtapose the Marshallese characters with myself and Jonathan Marable '08, a third year returning DVTP teacher who teaches at MIHS. We are both African-American, and Garrod wanted to put American characters in the roles of the spirit servants (John was double cast in the role of Caliban, the unruly monster servant) to create some kind of racial dichotomy while keeping the skin palette dark. I thought that both reasons for my casting were intriguing and noble and so I gladly took on the role.

To be perfectly honest, the play was a huge chafe at first. Garrod, understandably, required a lot of time from his actors, particularly since the play was being put on in such a short amount of time. I was fortunate enough to be cast in a role that was in most scenes in the play, so when specific scenes were called and some actors had the day off, i almost always had to be present. Since the rehearsals ran from 3:45 until near 6 pm every night, I had little time before cooking dinner to do what I needed to do for the day. By the time dinner was over, I was too exhausted to do things that I needed to do for myself (such as look for a job). Another difficulty was the fact that 80% of the play was translated into Marshallese. While this was great news for the students and the Marshallese audience, it was a formidable challenge for me since I had to learn a tremendous amount of Marshallese. Luckily, I had learned the pronunciations of the Marshallese alphabet from my students, so I was able to read through my lines with some level of decency, but learning them was difficult since I did not know all the intricacies of the language, and, for the most part, I was memorizing sounds and not words. To learn a small portion of Marshallese, I had to dedicate days at a time to repetition, whereas the English lines I could learn in a matter of hours.

In addition to acting in the play, I was given the role of associate director, giving counsel to the students as someone who had acted in plays and been in performances for most of my life. It was nice to use the things that I had learned from phenomenal past theater directors--Chiara Klein '10, Josh Feder '08, Michelle Shankar '12--and my Chicago Children's Choir directors--Josephine Lee and Christina Hatherly--to help teach the students how to have presence on stage. Many of the oldest tricks, such as mouthing "watermelon cantaloupe" on stage to make it look like you are talking in silence when you are not the focus of attention on stage, were extremely useful and new to the production and actors in the RMI. Helping direct was definitely a challenge because it took a lot of prompting to get the students to understand their roles as people they needed to embody in thought, word, and deed. They needed to understand motivations in each scene and needed to relate the emotions necessary in each scene to events in their own lives. Another challenge was commitment. The play required diligence that is not required of many of the students in their other activities. Professor Garrod required promptness and vigilant dedication. It was a challenge for the students to remain committed to the times and dates that they promised to so scene work. Many times we had to call actors or fish them from their homes because they forgot or they "were sleeping." This, in addition to a lack of commitment to learning lines immediately, put stressors on the play that were not predictable.

Despite the challenges, the play really came together (as all productions seem to) in the last week or so. When we started rehearsing the play in halves so that the actors could see the production coming together and, as the stage was constructed, excitement built and the students became more and more enthusiastic. Getting the play together at the end was a huge collaborative effort, or, as Garrod so aptly coined, "a miracle of coordination." The stage was built from materials used last year but the backdrop was newly painted by a MIHS student, Helmar Antiok (who also created the awesome t-shirt design). The lighting and sound was all engineered by Peter Satoris '11, who came to help a few weeks after the undergrads arrived. The light board was manned by Max Niedenthal, a 7th grader from a private school in Majuro called Co-Op. Costumes were reused from last year but some new ones, such as mine and Prospero's, were made and organized by Mona Strauss and Biriam Stege. Other member of the MIHS and Majuro community played their part as well, and when opening day came we were ready.

Each day of the play, I went whoever was playing Caliban that day (Jonathan Marable or John Riklon) to John Alefaio's tattoo parlor. He volunteered to draw native Marshallese tattoos on my chest and back each day with permanent marker. He also drew something menacing and monstrous on Caliban each day. I really enjoyed this time hanging out with him in his parlor and learning about tattooing. He is an incredible artist and it was nice to watch him do (a form of) his craft. Afterwards, myself and the Caliban-for-the-day would head to the MIHS library, which, during the production, served as the make-up, costume, and waiting room. There I helped harangue incoming actors and actresses to get into their costumes and directed them to Mandy, Rosa, and Kestrel for make-up. Everyday the boys would refuse to get make-up on. They were afraid that it would make them "look like a girl." They had to put the make-up on so that their physical features would not be washed out by the stage lights and though we explained this to them constantly, they still fought vehemently. It was to no avail since they were made to do it anyway.

Finally, the show started. The first performance went off perfectly, except for the fact that right as we were about to start the second half of the performance, it started to rain. The play was on an open air stage, which very much added to the atmosphere of the show, however, it made performing when it was raining difficult for safety reasons. Finally, the rain started to abate. Unfortunately, the fates were against us because when we were ready to begin, the power went out. We thanked the audience and told them to return for the next showings. The only other performance impediment we had was on Friday, where it rained so much that the audience seating was flooded. We moved the performance to Sunday, and were able to draw crowds so large that that you could not see the ground for the last three days of our show.

As these things tend to go, once the play started, it flew by. Once the stress of the first performance was over, each show went by quicker and quicker. Some of my personal highlights were all of the Trinculo, Stephano, and Caliban scenes which were expertly performed by Kamie Mackphie, Walthy Robert Jr., and John Rikon/Jonathan Marable. In these scenes, the characters are drunken, bumbling idiots, who are attempting to take over the island from Prospero. The audience loved these scenes the most and laughed uproariously every time the three entered the stage. I loved the chemistry between Ferdinand--played by Selvenious Marvin--and Miranda--double cast as Maria John and Wanda Bobo. All three actors carried their parts so well that it seemed as if they truly were in love. Prospero, played by Bate Dismas, was also incredible. Not only did he have the bulk of the lines in the play but his presence carried the entire show. I personally loved my costume as well. The wings in addition to the tattoos made me feel as if I was really signifying the archetype of a native figure. Consequently, in my portrayal of Ariel, a character who is bonded in servitude to Prospero, I did my best to portray the plight of any maligned conquered figure present throughout history--be it Marshallese or African--who is struggling to achieve his or her freedom.

While I was skeptical of the success and purpose of the play, as the production progressed, I saw how important something of this nature was to a place like the RMI. One could argue that it is even more culturally oppressive to put on a Shakespearian, Western canonical production in the Pacific. At its core, the DVTP and WT volunteers are here to teach the Marshallese so that they can get a better grasp on the English language that will enable them to be a player in global politics and so that the Marshallese people are able to access other resources that are not available to them in Marshallese. I believe that bringing such fine and globally appreciated art to the RMI brings the Marshallese people closer to a stronger world view and understanding. I believe that while it would be great for MIHS to put on a Marshallese play that to understand theater one must indulge in the works of the Bard whose work is so prolific and has withstood the test of time because of its universality. And, I believe that the most important thing about a production such as this is that not only are students able to learn about theater, Shakespeare, English, and the world outside of the RMI, they are also able to give that knowledge and experience to their community. I have never seen young children in America running around quoting lines from Shakespeare or even able to tell me the plot of one of his plays. Here, toddlers call me "Ariel" and recite my lines to me on a daily basis. The effect that the play has on the players in the production is tremendous. The changes are visible. Students come in lacking confidence, unable to find their voice in English or Marshallese. They come out with confidence, pride, and a willingness to take chances and make mistakes. It is no coincidence that the cast is full of leaders at MIHS, all of whom have been in previous productions. I do not know if it is that leaders are made from involvement in the play, those who are natural leaders are drawn to be in the production, or both, but there is definitely a relationship. My hope is that the students took something intellectual from the experience as well; that someone who was watching or in the play was made to consider the relationship that the conquered has with the conquerer or to even more simply consider what ownership and dominance really mean. While the moral of the play is that "The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance" (5.1.28-29), I think that these are the themes that are the most important to the people here.

Jack Niedenthal, head of accounts for the Bikinian people, wrote a rave review in the play, saying that, "In my humble opinion,as a seasoned veteran of all sever of the MIHS/Youth Bridge Shakespeare plays over the years, this ["The Tempest"] was easily the best production." He complimented all involved parties and, flatteringly, he wrote that I, "was magic and made he play go beyond just a stage production. [...} This was the character who made us leave ourselves and soar, which to me is the mark of success for any talented actor or well-performed play: They make you feel as if you are literally not 'here' anymore." Not to toot my own horn, but I was very proud of the praise. (The review can be found in the Marshall Islands Journal, V. 42, No. 11, pgs. 16 and 17)

The interns and Garrod left the Monday after the last show. Their departure was overwhelming. It was combined with a cast party where the students sang, danced, and presented gifts to all of us. At the end, they put on a skit, mocking each of us (I was aptly teased for always twisting my hair). Each of the interns received a grand send off from their individual students as well. I am certain that they will always remember their time here and will not be soon forgotten.

I will never forget the first night of the production, crouching on stage in act 3 scene 2, lightly playing my tabor and listening to Caliban, played by John Riklon at the time, comforting Trinculo as he panicked as a result of the sounds and spirits on the island. Caliban states, in beautiful prose:

Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again. And then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again. (3.2.129-137)

During that recitation, as we performed under the night sky, I looked up at the stars, contemplated the fears that I had when I first came to Majuro that have now dissolved into part of the "thousand twangling instruments" of this isle, and realized that I had come to love this place like home.

Ten more weeks and I will wake up from the dream.

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

PS: For more information on Professor Garrod's organization, Youth Bridge Global, that puts on this production and productions elsewhere, please refer to their website: www.ybglobal.org

PSS: Many of you contacted me and expressed concern about the tsunami that came across the Pacific after the tragic earthquake in Japan. Everything here was fine and the wave passed over without so much as a ripple. Please keep the people of Japan in your prayers and best thoughts.

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

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

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

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