Christmas, Mid-Service, and Being One of the First in 2011

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year! I have taken a short respite from blogging in accordance with the holiday season but now I have ALOT to catch you all up on.

First and foremost, I have my computer back! While it is missing such modern comforts as Microsoft Office and Garageband (the saddest thing of them all), I can blog again with (relative) ease. Now, on to business.

My last blog entry was the week before Christmas, which fell on a Saturday this year. The first two days of the week were semi-optional days of attendance at MMS. Since Monday and Tuesday were supposed to be final test days and we had them on the previous Thursday and Friday, Monday was used to clean up the school and Tuesday was used for class parties. I spent a bit of time at school both days playing with the few students in my class who showed up, however neither day had more than 8 students in attendance.

All throughout that week, World Teach and Dartmouth volunteers started to trickle in. For Dartmouth, the first volunteers to come in were the girls from Kili--Jenna Cunningham and Kristen Dewey. They brought with them their puppy, Cora. They decided to stay on Ejit, where they spent most of the break. Dave and Carleigh followed soon after and stayed in the dorms with us. While we were over crowded with volunteers, the added company was refreshing. For Christmas, many of the WT volunteers from nearby islands who had come in to visit during the beginning of their break decided to go back to their islands and some of the outer island WT volunteers went with them to have an authentic RMI island Christmas experience. The opportunity was tempting but I thought that since we had our own (real) Christmas tree (generously donated by the Hawley family) and that Majuro was my RMI experience, I wanted to be "home" for Christmas with my Majuro family. Another reason that I was excited to stay in Majuro was that I was going to cook my first turkey! I organized a potluck with the volunteers who were staying with us and the core Thursday potluck crew (the Magees, Ray, and Laura) and it seemed like it was going to be a diverse/large meal. On Christmas Eve, we huddled into the trailer next to the dorm (where the bulk of the remaining WT volunteers were sleeping) and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Home Alone 2." The former brought tears to most of our eyes. On Christmas Day we woke up around 9 and Mandy, Joanna, and I opened the presents that we got for each other. Joanna had made us Marshallese handicraft necklaces. Mandy bought me a number of DVD's that she knew I had my eye on, an ornament, and a necklace. I bought her a slew of my favorite martial arts movies. Afterwards, I opened up my presents from my parents which included a new pair of work slacks, John Irving novels, and learn to play the guitar materials. I was extremely pleased I heard from my parents on that day as they were celebrating Christmas Eve at my grandmother's house, per tradition. I had sent home a slew of Marshallese handicrafts and they were enthralled with them. After opening gifts, Mandy and I got to work on a tradition in both of our houses--Christmas breakfast. We made scones stuffed with cheddar, bacon, and onions, french toast, bacon, and eggs. It was a big meal that kept us full until dinner time. Between meals we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Christmas dinner was ever more grand. Everyone contributed their favorite dish from their Christmases at home and so the spread was very diverse. We had everything from garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes au gratin to ramen/turkey infused stuffing and spinach cakes. WT and Dartmouth provided muscles and the turkey. The turkey turned out so juicy that it was difficult to cut! I was extremely proud. The Magee family bought a roasted pig for the event. To put it curtly: there was way too much food and we had a great time. That evening, we rounded out the traditional Christmas films by watching "A Christmas Story," which my parents had sent me ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was part of the list, but the disk was too scratched to be played, much to my dismay). My only disappointment from the day was that Justin, Alex, Jenna, and Kristen were not able to join us because of Ejit/puppy obligations. All in all, it was a great Christmas, which I was not expecting. I thought that my homesickness would be at its height during the holiday, but, as I said over grace, the season is about love and family, wherever you find them.

On Tuesday of the following week, Dartmouth geared up for our mid-service on Three Bag Island (some of you readers will remember Three Bag as the site of the "Tidal Wrave"). The day started out with a downpour. We waited under some shoddy palm frond shacks for the rain to subside for about an hour. When it finally did, we packed the boat and got on our way, Cora and all. Eric, as a returning volunteer, now on contract, came along as well. The boat ride was long, since the boat was slow (imagine a large plank of wood with an engine and a small roof, and you have a pretty good image of what we traveled on; it was sturdy but extremely slow!), but enjoyable. Once we got to the island we had a lot of time to settle down and enjoy our surroundings. Many of us swam, snorkeled, and ocean kayaked. Even more of us read. After a few hours, the boys from Jaulit--Alex Rivadeneria and Chris Zablocki--arrived by boat on the island with Chris's sister who had just arrived for a visit. Their plane had just gotten in that day. Now that we were all united as a happy family, the mid-service activities started. The sessions centered around sharing experiences and lesson plans and were very low key. Each morning most of us woke up around 7:30 or 8 and we did not have our first session until around 10:30, so we were free to relax in the morning hours--something that few of us ever had the opportunity to do despite being on a tropical island. My two favorite sessions were the carousel exercises. In one, Anna set out large sheets of paper with prompts like "The RMI is...," "The RMI is not...," "Somethings I wish I had brought are," and "You know you've been in the RMI too long when..." We went around in a circle with 2 minutes at each station writing down our own responses. I thought this exercise was good because it allowed us to voice our opinions about our experiences in a collective and humorous way. In the other exercise, quote topics were laid out and we were asked to write down our own thoughts about our experiences. The prompts ranged from travel and animals in the RMI to food, communication, and education. Many of the responses were extremely clever. The major highlight of the mid-service retreat was the talent show in which each island group had to put on some kind of performance for the rest of the group. The performances were judged by Anna, Eric, and Chris's sister. The Kili girls won with a spoof of "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha on the subject of living in the RMI. Wotje came in second with a skit mocking radio check in (Carleigh did a spot on impression of Anna). The Majuro group, consisting of myself and Dan from Laura, got third with our performance of some common themes in the Marshall Islands Journal comic section. A good time was had by all.

The anticipation for New Years was high. We had been told since before coming here that Block Party, the city celebration on New Years Eve, was going to be one of the most ridiculous and raucous events any of us had ever seen. Drunkeness was supposed to be rampant and include all age groups. The Majuro atoll teachers were especially warned that we would see some of our students drunk, anywhere from 3rd grade and up. Consequently, in order to save face in front of our students, we were instructed to be careful about our own public drinking as well. To be honest, the Block Party itself was a bit of a let down in lieu all of the build up. I did happen to see two of my students, but I do not believe they were inebriated (thankfully). I saw many more of Mandy's students, but again they did not seem inebriated either (again, thankfully). The event consisted of a number of vender booths selling light-up wares, a variety of food, and alcohol. There were also many live performances including singing and beat dancing, which is a Marshallese dance style that is similar to line dancing to an uptempo song (it is performed constantly around Christmas time and the Marshallese take it very seriously; students and families begin practicing their beat dance with their church around the beginning of December). The event started out slow since most people did not arrive until around 10:30 or 11 and spent most of the time sitting around watching other people sit around. However, when midnight struck and all of the World Teach and Dartmouth volunteers were together, we decided to start the party ourselves. It started to rain lightly but we took this as an opportunity to dance in the rain in front of one of the performance groups. The singers were extremely appreciative. Most of the Marshallese adults and children nearby stood and watched and laughed at us. We attempted to coerce them into joining us, but they were not having it. I woke up the next morning having spent the night in a hotel room with my host brother and his friends who had rented the room to have their own party for New Years. It was a great bonding experience for all involved.

Between Christmas and New Years, the first group of Dartmouth undergraduate students arrived in Majuro--John '11 and Rosa '11. The other volunteers were supposed to arrive during this time, but because of the blizzards happening in the United States, flights were canceled. Professor Andrew Garrod, director of the DVTP program, and two other volunteers, Dan Moore '10 and Kestrel Coon (daughter of a Dartmouth professor) arrived on New Years day and the entire Dartmouth group was treated to dinner and drinks at MIR. As is typical with Professor Garrod, business started in a whirlwind. For the past few years, Garrod has brought undergraduates here for the winter quarter and put on a Shakespearian play at MIHS. This year the play is the Tempest. I was quickly asked to play a part to be an example to the students in the play and told that auditions would begin on that Tuesday. I will give you more information about this process in my next blog entry.

The holiday season was the time I feared I would be the most homesick, but the presence of so many volunteers who had quickly become my family, my Dartmouth volunteer family, and the arrival of Professor Garrod and the undergrads helped to ease my emotions and make the holiday season a pleasant experience. I stand by the fact that a warm Christmas is not a real Christmas, but I did my best to make it special, and, for me, it was.

Best wishes to you and yours in 2011. It's gonna be great!

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

New Beginnings

This post will be short since I am paying for internet now/using other peoples' computers. I will hopefully have my computer back in my hands by the new year. The ribelle, Randy Sylvester, at Majuro Computer Services said that he can upgrade my hard drive and fix it for a fraction of the cost that Apple would serve me with (not to mention the shipping back to America) so I am thankful for that. This unfortunate occurrence has turned into an opportunity of sorts.

The term finally ended this past week. I spent the first three days reviewing 10 weeks of grammar material. I decided to not have a reading final since I lost my grades and I did not feel up to making the students prepare something in such a sort time. While reading groups helped me teach reading techniques, it did not promote any kind of formal examination and since the teachers at the school truncated the term by two days, I decided that my gift to my kids would be no reading final. Suffice to say, they were happy with the gift. Instead, we spent the last week teaching "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey and "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Both were extremely endearing to hear. Mandy taught both her students and mine how to sign "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and I taught the music. Our goal was to record the students doing both, but by the end of the week, the students wanted to go home more than be on youtube. It was a disappointment to Mandy and I, but we were also happy to be free of obligations. Our plans to "have it snow in the RMI" (read: have our students close their eyes and then throw really cold water balloons at them to start a water balloon fight) fell through for the same reason. Luckily, there is still snow in the US in January (though, for some reason, our students refused to believe this fact). After the test was over, I taught my students to make snowflakes which they loved. My classroom is now decorated completely by my students and I am very proud of that fact.

I have yet to grade the finals since I have been enjoying the break but I will be sure to let you know the stats when I do. Break has allowed me to hang out with the World Teach volunteers who have come in and talk about experiences in different parts of the RMI. Kristin Dewey and Jenna Cunningham have also come in, but they have been on Ejit with Justin and Alex and have not come to Majuro to spend any real time yet. I look forward to sharing experiences with them as well. Besides hanging out and talking, I have not done much with my break. I have been able to eat at some places that I have never been to and have been reading a lot but because I do not have my computer, my attempt to start my job search or start recording music for my new MMS acapella group or getting better at the guitar have all been stunted. Hopefully I will soon find something to occupy my time. Until then, I do like the break for not having to teach (on Sunday evening I had a revelation that I did not have to go to school on Monday and literally jumped for joy). The students needed the break but I think I might have needed it even more. I look forward to starting the new year with refreshed energy. I also think it will be great to have Professor Garrod, Dan Moore '10, and the Dartmouth undergrads coming on the study abroad program through the Education Department here in the Marshalls. They will be new to the island (well, with the exception of Garrod) and will need showing around and I plan on filling that role to the fullest.

Last Thrusday, The de Brueys family came to the RMI to pay their final respects to their son James. The family was greeted by many ribelles and Marshallese people at the airport. On Friday, the family went to the island where James was stationed to meet the Marshallese people that so loved James there. They said that they were overwhelmed by the response and kindness of the people here. On Thursday, there was a formal service behind MIR for all of the deceased followed by a dinner for the de Brueys family and the volunteers of Dartmouth and World Teach at Wallaby Downs, the Australian Navy outpost in the RMI. Surrounded by Anna and a few other volunteers I toasted that this dinner mark the end of bad news for all of us in this year and that it be the start of new wonders in the new year. I hope this wish holds true.

As a final note, a dear friend that I made in the RMI has left the island for good. Michael Honeth, a ribelle who has been here for a few years working for the EPA, was one of the first people to reach out to the other volunteers and I. He was extremely generous and friendly--in the true Marshallese spirit--and he will truly be missed. I hope he goes on to have many great adventures wherever life takes him.

My next post will be after Christmas, so I hope you all have incredibly merry holidays surrounded by those you love. Know that we are all thinking of you, missing you, and wishing we were home for Christmas from the Pacific.

Bar lo kom,

Andrew

When It Rains, It Pours

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

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