Ripelles are Party Animals

This weekend I was
invited to 3 different parties. The
first was a an opening party for my new school. The senators from 3 different atolls came and gave speeches including
the assistant to the Ambassador. There
was lots of food and quite a few people there. Let me say that those senators and guests left with some awesome swag. They got a bouquet of Wotje wots, a lei, a
crown of Wotje wots, a little model canoe and a HUGE basket of food. It was nuts. The next party was for Women's
Day and it happened at the Protestant church. There were a lot of decorations and singing from various groups. The women served some more amazing
Marshallese food in the trademark coconut leaf plates. More singing and dancing. The last party was the wild one. One of the teachers, Connie, had a birthday
party and Kathleen, john, Gabe and I went. They served some more excellent food and then Glenn, Connie's uncle
coerced us to get up and give a "program" which means dance and
sing. Kathleen had taught me the
birthday song from TGI Fridays just in case so we were prepared. We sang our song and before we could retreat,
they had turned on the stereo and were dancing with us. I got thrown around like a rag doll. Marshallese women are shy and mild until
there's music . Then they turn into
professional wrestlers. Connie ran
inside to get clothes which she roughly pulled over my head and then she
smeared lotion on my leg and face. Kathleen
had the same done to her. We didn't know
what to do so we continued to dance. It
was a very bizaare thing. To my
astonishment, John and Gabe were not exempt. They were pulled on to the dance floor and Connie dressed them in
dresses and smeared lotion on their faces too. Then I'm not sure what happened, but Gabe was running and the ladies
were chasing him. They ended up tackling
him onto the floor where they proceeded to spank him and wipe more lotion on
him. At this point, Kathleen and I were
standing there trying not to die from laughter. We went back to our table with our pilfered clothes and hair accessories
and watched as Gabe was attacked. It was
pretty hilarious. After that excitement,
we all decided to go home, but not before they gave us more food to take home
and big piece of chocolate cake. I guess
it was their way of making reparations for the near slaughter of Wotje's
ripelle population. All in all it was a
great weekend and on Monday, Connie came up to me and invited me to the
Christmas party in December. I have
plenty of time to study up on my self defense moves before then.

Why Ripelles are like Pet Monkeys

As I've worked and lived with these amazing Marshallese people, I've come to realize that although
I am a reasonable intelligent, independent and hardworking person, here I am treated more like a pet monkey. I mean this is the most flattering way of course. It's more of a fact that I am an oddity and this brings out the same
tendencies and mannerisms a person might have towards a capuchin in a fez.

-I am asked if not
forced to dance at any and every special occasion

-I am rewarded with
either a pat on the head or food

-They always laugh
and indulgently smile when I try to speak Marshallese

-I often get dragged
places without knowing why or where we're going

-People come by the
house just to watch me do things like read or write

-People call out my
name everywhere I go

-Everyone just says
"come" or "go", simple commands

-I'm asked to give
speeches at events and everyone laughs even when I'm not being funny

-People talk about
me even when I'm sitting next to them

The first picture is me and the Senator. He's also the King of the Island of the Irooj. It was the opening ceremony of my new school. Notice I'm all decked out in my island finery?

Second picture is a Halloween picture with my 8th grade. Can you spot the Ripelle?

Third picture is me and one of my 3rd graders, Rana, at the Field Day. They play lots of games and have foot races. Plenty of fun for the whole family!

The Fall of the Internet

As you've probably
figured out, there is no internet on Wotje anymore. Something happened and it hasn't been fixed
yet so I'm sending these blogs out from Majuro since I'm here for mid service. I wrote them throughout the internet dry
spell so I could update everyone on what's been going on. The likelihood that the internet will be
fixed anytime soon is slim so if you'd like to send me letters, I would
probably kiss your feet with gratitude.
After January 6th, I'll be alone on an isolated island in the Pacific
without internet so any and all communication with me will have to be done by
snail mail. BUT the good news is, you
can definitely count on a reply because
writing letters a new hobby of mine. :)

For the last month,
there have been no planes an d no boats so, in effect, I have been completely
isolated on Wotje. It's a weird
sensation to be so totally cut off from everything. Thank God for the WorldTeach radio check
ins. Because of the lack of news here,
I'm going to have to apologize now for ignorance when I return. My friends and family will have to fill me in
on all the news. It's a novel sensation
to be almost entirely out of the loop.
Yet another reason for my friends and family to send me letters to
update me on life outside the RMI.

Halloween in the RMI

Hello and Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately I'm not in the States this year for Halloween so no candy corn, jack o lanterns, or goofy costumes for me. Although it's not all bad because with help for the Dartmouth teaching supplies and 3 hours on the internet downloading the monster mash, I was able to piece together a little celebration for my kids. This is a run down of my lesson for Halloween: We watched a slide show I created about the history of Halloween and it's roots (complete with pictures of Olivia in her Halloween costumes). Then we made masks and I had the kids decorate them with spiderman, cats, bats, pumpkins, whatever they wanted. After the masks, we put them on and then I taught them the Monster Mash, which I made up my own dance too. They loved it! Then there was a scary story and finally, we sang the Hearse Song and ate candy (courtesy of Shelly G). It was a lot of fun and the students really had a great time. I've got some great and hilarious pictures and videos of my kids dancing and singing. Hopefully I'll get them uploaded soon.

The week has been pretty busy what with Halloween, the speeches by the candidates for local government, and the Dengue Fever outbreak. For those of you who don't know, Majuro has recently had 199 confirmed cases of Dengue Fever. One of the volunteers on Majuro is hospitalized with an IV. They don't know how long or how many will be affected. Fortunately, there hasn't been any dengue on Woje atoll yet. I'll try to keep everyone updated on what happens.

Thank you so much to everyone for your letters and packages. It's all appreciated and I don't think I can express how thankful I am for all your support.

Kathleen's Mama: I sent you an email with an update of Kathleen. I forgot to tell you that I beat her at Cribbage AGAIN and she really appreciates the candy especially the candy corn. I'll let her know about the Christmas stuff. She had a lot fo fun with her students on Halloween. She got some great pictures of them in their masks. Unrelated, she also taught them the song, Wild Thing, for her W day with her Kinder class. Thought you might get a chuckle out of the image of Marshallese children running around singing Wild Thing. :)

Welcome Party

It's a tradition here in the Marshall Islands to throw a welcome party for the newcomers. These parties consist of heaps (for the Aussies) of food and singing and speeches. My elementary school threw me a welcome party on Monday although I've been here for awhile. We've all been so caught up in getting school started that they forgot. It's alright because the food made up for everything.

They piled me with three plates full of fried fish, sashimi, fried chicken, hotdogs, and salted fish. Then they gave me another plate with pumpkin, breadfuit mashed, breadfruit fried, breadfuit with coconut sauce, and breadfruit raw. Can you tell it's breadfruit season? Then another plate witht he baked goods, cookies, little cakes, bread, rice, and these little coconut drop cookies that are AMAZING. Then they also gave me coconut milk AND a Dr. Pepper. Such an eclectic mix of food and I was only able to make a dent in the first plate, but no worries, my host brothers polished off the rest.

In addition to the wonderful food, my principal got up and made a speech as well as a couple other teachers. Then, my favorite part, the Kindergarten teacher, Limon, got up and sang me a song on her ukulele about mosquitoes. This song was complete with hand motions. Classic Kinder. Then she pantomimed how her husband was shot in WWII. I quickly added up the years and there is no way she's that old. But then who am I to contradict her story...

All in all it was an awesome party and I'm excited to work with such generous and kind people.

Kathleen's Mama: Carleigh, the Dartmouth director, went out to Wodmej on Thursday and took Kathleen's package with her. I also sent out little cakes so she can hand them out to her students on Halloween. Carleigh says the whole island saw the cakes and was really excited. I got another manila envelope with a bunch of letters for her on Saturday so I'm sure some of your stuff is in there. She seems to be doing well and I beat her at Cribbage last Sunday. Pretty typical.

Sea Turtle, the other white meat.

I love the Marshall Islands but there are many things that make me feel slightly uneasy doing. The most recent of these is my consumption of an endangered species. I know that there are only 7 species of sea turtles in the world. I know that they are endangered. I know that the Marshall Islands is one of their many nesting areas. I know that in order to catch one, they wait on the beach for the turtle to come up and lay its eggs and then they walk up and flip it over. I also know that they take the eggs and eat them as well. Knowing all this, I still ate turtle.

On Saturday, there was a funeral for a big important ex councilman for Wotje. There were tons of people there, all the muckity mucks fro the atoll. After the service, we all go to the church and listen to some speeches. While this is happening, they bring in 2, count them, 2 turtle shells that are so big, I could sit in them. They are full of meat and one has the turtle stew complete with baby sea turtle eggs. They serve me up a generous portion of both. Even though it's morally wrong and I felt absolutely guilty about it. I ate the turtle. I couldn't eat the eggs though. Knowing that they would have looked adorable, just like Squirt from Finding Nemo.

The Marshallese people have been eating sea turtle forever. So I don't know if I can feel outraged that they do this. It's not that the Marshallese are consuming turtles at a ridiculous pace that they are disappearing. I feel like it's a gray area. Also, endangered species would last longer if they didn't taste so delicious. It had the texture of well marinated beef and tasted light like chicken but WAY better. Just if you wanted to know.

I'm sorry Tram. I had to.

Kathleen's Mama: Saw her this weekend and she's doing well. Her classes are hard, but it seems like she's getting into a groove. We tried to go snorkeling but it didn't work out. I told her that if you want to email me with questions for her, I talk to her on the radio on Wednesday at 5pm. Oh and I told her Congrats on the 9 law schools!

I Want it That Way and Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Last night I went to the high school welcome feast for new students. My mama and baba were invited because he's the doctor on the island and Ketty is the women's representative for Wotje. Needless to say, in true Marshallese fashion, there was an obscene amount of food. On coconut palm frond plates, we had BBQ chicken, meatballs, pig, breadfruit, pumpkin, cornbread, cookies, and nothing is complete without rice. We also had a few oddities like hotdogs, fruit cocktail in condensed milk and bubble gum. It was absolutely delicious and I ate so much I was actually scared that I would throw up. :S

In addition to feeding upwards of 300 people, the students also put on a show. Each class, 10th, 11th and 12th would sing to the 9th graders. Then the 9th graders sang back. After these traditional Marshallese songs, John and Gabe, the two Dartmouth volunteers, got up and whipped the crowd into a frenzy with Backstreet Boys' I Want it That Way. There was a little dance off at the end and the positive reaction is throw gum at them. After their performance, Nazila, the contract teacher, got together with Grace and they sang Girls Just Want to Have Fun. There wasn't as much of a reaction, I think the song was before their time.

It was a great night and to top it off, we got to take home some more food! I'll be eating some BBQ chicken for lunch today!

Who Knew You Could Bake a Cake in a Microwave?

As you've probably realized, I'm learning a lot fo things during my time in the Marshalls. Many of them revolve around the daily life here in Wotje. For example, I've learned that the best way to open a coconut without husking is to use a machete. Regular kitchen knives are a hassle. I've also learned that in order to eat fresh fish, you need two hands. One to eat with and one to wave in front of your plate to keep the swarm of flies away. By trial and error, I've also learned that the mosquitoes love the color black. In addition to these lessons, I also get very creative when it comes to cooking.

One night this week, my host sister, Marleen splurged and bought some cake mix. After Ketty's birthday cake, apparently I'm the cake-master. I was enlisted to help make it except that the convection oven I used before died. Such a dilemma...the batter's made and Marleen and Lala are looking at me like, "Well? Do your ripelle thing. Make us some cake." Having never baked a cake without an oven, I adopted the island way and just shrugged and threw it in the microwave. I had to turn it every couple minutes because the turntable broke and it was definitely not the prettiest cake, but it made everyone happy. So now I know. Microwaves are the BEST INVENTION EVER.

As far as teaching goes, I'm loving it although it is so exhausting. I have to carve out an hour a day for me to just decompress. It's very satisfying and my kids make me laugh everyday. I have some pictures that I'll load soon.

I want to thank my Aunt Sally, Jessie, LIz in Kwajalein, and Aussie Matt in Arno for sending my letters! It gets pretty lonely out here. Also Susan King for her incredible box of books. I've already read 3 in addition to 5 from the Dartmouth library. Thank you!

For Kathleen's Momma - I talked to her on Wednesday and she's doing good. She's loving her classes and she's started reading them chapter books complete with character voices. She had a little trouble finding a suitable textbook but it all worked out. She's thinking about doing some phonics with the younger guys. I sent her a Snickers and a Coke as an End-of-Your-First-Week present. (If you couldn't tell, we love Snickers here) :)

Bieber Fever

As most people know, Justin Bieber is something of a phenomenon among preteen girls. This is most apparent here in the Marshall Islands. The girls (and boys) here love his songs and they know every word and will sing it ad nauseum. For example, a few weeks ago, Kathleen (the
other volunteer on Wodmej), went swimming or tutu in iaar with a couple little girls. Once we had figured out they really like music, we both started singing Summer's Night from Grease. But we were not to be out done and these little 4th grade girls started belting out Baby Baby Baby by the Biebs. Thinking this was hilarious, we continued with the song awhile and then tried to move on to Lady Gaga or some Disney songs but the girls eventually brought us back to JB. We sang the few songs I have in my Bieber repertoire for the next 30 minutes. When we couldn't handle it anymore, we went back to my house where we listened to anything other than my only Justin Bieber song.

If you think that this obsession is only for children, think again. Every time someone sees my ipod or hears my music playing, I only have to wait 10 seconds before they follow up with the dreaded question, "Do you have Justin Bieber?". If I'm feeling generous, I will play my lone Bieber song. Most times I tell them no and give a sad face and they move on to Chris Brown and Eminem. Justin Bieber is something of an idol for young and old here on Wotje. I hear his songs everywhere and even little Kindergartners are singing the choruses of his more catchy tunes. Justin Bieber is truly an international sensation.

Other than my musings on Justin Bieber, I have been working a lot to complete lesson plans and prepare for my 3, 5, 6, 8 and 8th grade health classes. They are all doing great and for the most part of paying attention and being respectful with only a few hiccups. There were two funeral this week and I attended the first one. Here on Wotje, the entire island turns out for a funeral. There is food and several days of prayers with everyone from babies to the elderly showing up to pay their respects. On a lighter note, I learned the Marshallese version of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and then sang it with my Kindergartners. It was a big hit.

I wanted to give a shout out to Kathleen's mom. Kathleen came by this afternoon and she's doing well. She's been cleaning her classroom and is excited for classes to start on Monday. She borrowed Charlotte's Web and Because of Winn Dixie to read to her classes. She ate two Snickers and says hi! :)

First Days of School

School has officially started and under the conditions, it runs very well. This is considering there are only 4 grades being taught now and two of them have to share a classroom. If you don't think teaching is tough, try sharing your Kindergarten classroom with the 1st grade teacher. Two different teachers teaching two different subjects at the same time to two different classes. This is all happening within 6 feet of each other. Definitely a little distracting.

The ship has finally left Majuro! This means that within a week we should have: desks, chairs, and tables for the new classrooms, as well as school supplies like paper, pencils, crayons and I'm hoping construction paper. I've been watching my paper usage over the last week because I wasn't sure when our supplies were coming. I've had students use the front of a paper
for one assignment and the back for another.
On this ship, I will also have my luggage which has taken a month to get to me. This is because of a series of
delays and several boat changes. I'm
really excited! I was starting to run
out of toothpaste.

I absolutely love my
classes! My Kindergartners are the
best. I'm teaching them the alphabet and
the different sounds for each letter. I'm
doing the same thing as my Kindergarten master teacher, Mary Barnes. I'm using gestures that go with each
sound. There is nothing cuter than 10
little 5 year olds making the T sound and making a gesture like pushing a tack
into the wall. All the Marshallese
parents love to come watch my lessons and I often hear a giggle from them
throughout this whole process. I also
taught them "I'm a little teapot" and I couldn't even get through the
whole song because they made me laugh.
They were so serious and focused, trying to follow along with the hand
motions so when they all tipped over at the end, I cracked up. The parents loved it. My other classes are equally wonderful but my
third graders are rowdy which is hard to manage when I don't speak their
language. But I'm working on it. My 8th graders are amazing and really work
hard. There is an 8th grade test at the
end of the year to determine whether the
students go to high school or not so they are focused to say the least.

Life on the island
has infinitely improved because school started.
The kids know me now and I've been playing volleyball, collecting
shells, and drawing pictures in the sand with them. I'm really excited for the ship to come and
possibly have school supplies, my luggage and maybe some letters for me!

At Long Last!

After a delay of 6 weeks, my school has finally started! And I should qualify the statement that we've started by saying that only Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 8th grades have started. The new classrooms are still lacking in chairs, tables, desks, and school supplies of any kind. Apparently these materials are on the ship, due to arrive Thursday. We still have 3 teachers and our principal on the ship and the rest are using this time to clean up the yard and empty classrooms which are still full of building materials. We will start registering students on Monday and then Tuesday classes will start. The teachers are still unsure of how the school will make up those 6 weeks we lost at the beginning of the year. Some are saying school will go until July and others think we may be having Saturday school for awhile as well as foregoing any holidays except Christmas.

My teaching schedule is as follows:

• 8:00-8:45 Kindergarten
• 9:00-10:00 1st Grade
• 10:00-11:00 3rd Grade
• 11:00-12:00 8th Grade Science
• 12:00-1:00 Lunch
• 1:00-2:00 8th Grade

I am teaching all English except for the one period of science. This schedule is also temporary and may change when the principal gets here. On Monday I will be talking to the teachers about their class and then hopefully I'll have a better idea of what exactly I'm teaching in each grade. Right now, I only have the 8th grade books so I'm trying to design a plan around those. I'm excited to finally have a job and to contribute instead of sitting around playing cards or hanging out with my Marline, my host sister. I'm really excited but also incredibly nervous. I want to do a great job, but there are so many factors working against me...

Wish me luck!

Bugs

So since, school has
yet to start, I decided I would tell you a little about the magnificent insect
population of the Marshall Islands.

First there are the mosquitoes. They are everywhere and they are the most
determined of all the RMI insects. I have been fortunate enough to be chosen as a delicacy to these winged bloodsuckers. Even my host family has commented on how the "nam" like my ripelle skin. Breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as all the time in between in peppered with my exclamations of "Enana nam!" (bad mosquito!) My host parents tried to
control them using mosquito coils but it was made clear by the swarm at my
ankles that they would not be deterred.
Needless to say that I've become an excellent mosquito hunter (that's
for you Shig). Lightning fast hands and
a big loud clap and the nam are no more.
This is an epic battle that will last about 8 1/2 more months.

Next in the line up we have the
cockroaches. They aren't as big as their
cousins in Thailand, but they are speedier.
My first night in Wotje, I caught two crawling into bed with me and
after a minor scuffle, which included many squeals, a near melt down and arm
flapping, they were nothing but a gooey clump on my floor. I would like to thank Ernest Hemingway for
writing the hefty yet easy to wield Farewell to Arms which was integral in my
cockroach massacre. I haven't seen
another roach dare to enter my bedroom.
I talked to my baba and he said that they tend to stay in the
grass. Smart move cucaracha.

Unfortunately, my island must be the
mating grounds for the "yay" or poisonous centipedes. They are everywhere and they use their
hundreds of legs well because they are really fast. Another volunteer, John, claims that it takes
two machete hacks to kill them. They can
be up to a foot long or as small as an inch.
They've been described by a previous volunteer as having escaped from
hell. There is another theory that they
are the spawn of Satan. I think you get
the idea that they are ugly and creepy and their pincer bites hurt really
really really bad. My baba says that if
one bites you on the foot, you won't be able to walk the next day because of
the pain. I've already been bit by a
baby centipede about an inch long and it hurt like a bee sting so I can't even
fathom the pain of an adult centipede's bite.
Ugh.

The small but mighty ant is next. I have no problem with this little guy, he's
actually amazing and I welcome them.
They clean up all the dead insect bodies littering my floor in about 5
minutes. They start with the scout, then
the trail, and then a huge herd of ants and they carry away the body to their
mysterious and invisible hill somewhere in my wall. Unless they are foolish enough to crawl on me
and bite, I leave them alone. But they
are everywhere and they are ingenious.
They've figured out how to get inside the peanut butter even when the
lid is completely closed. You've got to
hand it to them. Perseverance.

There are lots of other bugs here
including but not limited to: millipedes, flies, grasshoppers, fleas, lice,
little black beetles, big black beetles, and of course spiders. I've not had a significant encounter with
these guys but as long as they can't get past the mosquito net and they don't
bite me, I don't kill TOO many.

Here's my weekly
update:

Life in the islands has been
amazing. I'm getting better on my guitar
although I still can't recognize the song I'm playing. Occasionally there will be a snatch of a
melody and I get so excited but then it's gone, lost in the cacophony that is
my practice sessions. But I'm plugging
away on it with the help of my host mom, who is amazing and will be teaching me
Marshallese songs soon. Other than that,
I've been reading a lot, collecting shells on the beach, swimming, and trying
to plan my lessons for the first week even though I don't quite know what
grades I'm teaching. When I'm not doing
one of things, I'm practicing my Marshallese which is getting better aolep
iien. (always)

One funny thing that happened last night
was my conversation with my host mom about Mark Zuckerberg. By the way, my host mom loves facebook. She goes on to chat with her friends and her
daughter in America and I'm helping her post some pictures this year. She talked about how Mark Z must be a genius
to create facebook and when she asked how old he was, she was shocked. She couldn't believe that someone so young
was a billionaire. Then I told her about
the movie about him, The Social Network, and she got really excited. If someone can copy that movie to a
flashdrive or disc and send it to me, I think that would be a good Christmas
present.

On Friday, I went on
a jambo (walk/trip) to Wodmej, which is another island in my atoll and also
where Kathleen, my fellow volunteer is stationed. Wodmej is beautiful with white sandy beaches,
lots of fish and awesome people. I met
Kathleen's host family and her host mom Tisee taught me how to make birds out
of pandanus leaves. I love them! They are adorable so prepare yourselves for
little bird gifts. I also saw 30 little
baby sea turtles and Kathleen and I started naming them: Ralph, Rolf, Lily,
Marzipan, Pebbles, etc. They were the
cutest things I've ever seen! I'm sorry
I don't have pictures…:( On the way back
to Wotje, we stopped while my host dad, Jibaebe, went fishing and now we have
fresh fish for dinner. The lagoon was
beautiful and clear and the day was sunny, a perfect day. And yes, if World Teach is reading this, I
did wear my life jacket, beacon and whistle included.

All in all, it's
been a great week. I sent out some
letters on Tuesday so several of my friends and family should look for
something in the mail. I'm on a limited
supply of envelopes until my shipment comes in so sorry I couldn't write
everyone something just yet.

Wotje!

So I've finally made it to Wotje!

My host family is amazing. They've really been so generous with everything so this morning I decided to repay them by making Mickey Mouse pancakes. What could say "thank you" better than eating a Disney character?

The family lives right near the airport and they are super westernized. They have a washing machine! I know I'm going to get a lot of hate mail from my fellow volunteers for that one. I brought some DVDs for the family so they've been working their way through my tiny collection and they love the movie Penelope. My host mom keeps asking me if I have Bring it On so my friend Kathleen is going to try to get it from Majuro this week. I love them all, they've been teaching me Marshallese and they say my grammar is really good. I don't know about all that, but I'll take the compliments as I get em.

I have two host brothers and my host sister is Marlynn. They are all amazing and they all play the guitar so they're currently teaching me how to play Happy Birthday. Hopefully I'll progress past that, to some other songs, but if that's all I get, I'll be happy.

School has yet to starts, my principal and the rest of the teachers are still stuck on Majuro. My school is brand new though. They're just finishing construction on it and it looks pretty sweet. Fans and everything.

Hope that updated you all a little bit, trying to save my internet minutes so next time I'll write a little more. Love you all and talk to you soon! (I'll send out emails on Sunday)

PS I got bit by a poisonous centipede. Good thing it was only a baby but it still stung like a *bleep*.

Purgatory

Some of the other volunteers have referred to this in-between time as Purgatory and I think it fits. We're stuck in Majuro with no idea of when we could leave but we have to be packed and ready just in case. Then if we do get told we're leaving, we may get to the airport and be sent back because the flight is cancelled. Our days consist of waiting, drinking iced tea, walking the mean streets of Majuro and playing cards. In the words of my fellow prisoner Stephanie, "We've become professional waiters." Stephanie has it worse than me because she's not even sure of what island she's going to. Her mom sent her an email titled, Patience is a Virtue. Another volunteer Mary Helen informed us that Patience is the most overrated virtue...

These are the types of discussions we're having in Purgatory.

Some pics not mine but better than nothing

sammindes.tumblr.com/gallery

annaslifeplan.blogspot.com

there are some pics of me in there. :)

Leaving Majuro

So if everything goes well, I'll be leaving tomorrow on an AMI flight for Wotje. I've got everything packed and ready to go. I wanted to write one last blog post to let a few people know about the place I'm going to. I wrote this yesterday morning. Enjoy my list.

This will probably be my last blog post from majuro until mid serve in December. I'll try to post occasionally from Wotje, but the internet is unreliable at best. A little background on Wotje: It's about 150 miles north of majuro (see map on first post). it has a lot of WWII relics because it was occupied by the Japanese and then bombed and taken over by the US. There are a bunch of sunken ships in the lagoon and there are still bomb craters and lookout towers all over the island. This is a huge piece of history and testament to the importance of the Marshall Islands in WWII. One downside is that there are still unexploded bomb fragments lying around the jungle, so the people tell me no to go wandering off by myself deep in the jungle. As if I would do that anyways. The other problem is that there is a fish here called the stone fish and it loves the rusty stuff on and around the ships so there are a ton of them there. The stone fish is known for it's sting which hurts like a mother ****er and will hurt to the point of not walkign for several days. So the moral of the story is...don't walk/put my flippers down near rusting ships and don't go walking alone in the jungle. My list of don'ts is growing by the minute but here are a few I've come up with.

Don't show your knees

Don't forget to ALWAYS wear a slip

Don't show your shoulders

Don't go anywhere (far distances) alone

Don't go on a jambo (walk) with a guy

Don't be in a closed room with a guy (this includes the classroom)

Don't step over a lady's feet when she's sitting on the ground

Don't forget to duck your head when walking by the irooj (chief/king)

Don't tell someone you like something because they'll give it to you

DON'T DO ANYTHING ON SUNDAYS

Don't forget to put money in the collection plate at church

Don't wear your hair down at church

Don't talk about relationships in mixed gender settings EVER

Don't refuse to take food

Don't tell them you're hungry (it looks bad on your host family)

Don't drink alcohol (the outer islands are dry and if they catch you drinking, the chain you to a coconut tree as a form of public shaming)

I'm sure I'll have more later. Hope to write soon!

Teaching Practicum

The last few days, me and my teaching group of 5 people have been designing lesson plans and talking through assessments to get reading for the Practicum. This sounds scary but really it's a summer school type thing for 3 hours Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Each person has to teach a lesson alone with no help from the other teachers. we had about 17 kids on each day. This would have been fine, except most of the kids were lured there by the promise of candy. This meant that they weren't all that into being taught and sitting in a classroom all day when they could be back on the playground pushing and shoving and generally causing mayhem. The way these kids were recruited goes against everything we were taught in America such as, Stranger Danger, "never take candy from strangers", etc. But nevertheless, there we were a bunch of ripelles, foreigners, on the playground waving suckers and gum at kids trying to lure them into the classroom. In the words of one of our directors, "The Marshall Islands is the only place on earth where this is okay."

Once they were in the classroom, the real challenge began. Most of these kids weren't forced to be there so they made sure we knew that by walking in and out of the classroom, wrestling on the ground, and overall being behavior management nightmares. Finally by the third day we figured out that if we give them a break, have them run around in the hot Equatorial sun and then bring them inside and read a book, then they will be calm and obedient. This worked really well, to the point that these kids were zombies. I learned that there is a fine line between obedient and comatose.

Overall it was a good experience and now I know what to expect on my island. I'll be leaving next Friday for Wotje. This may or may not happen since according to our field directors, the Air Marshall Islands is wishy washy at best. They keep their flight reservations in a composition notebook and the people on that list may or may not have paid, so the number of people on the plane may or may not be accurate. Also, they only fly the plane if there are enough people to make it worthwhile and since the list of reservations isn't accurate, we never know if the plane is going to fly. We could be sitting at the airport waiting to board and it's cancelled. We also could be told it's cancelled and then be woken up at 4 am with our directors honking at us in the truck telling us the plane is leaving. I've summed it up to this: If we're on the list we might go but me might not, if we aren't on the list, we still might go but we might not. You don't know if you're going to your island until your feet are on your island.

Hopefully my feet will be on Wotje by Friday but apparently they are having some weed control problems on the airstrip there soooooo we might take a boat. Oh and the above information goes for the boats too. I'm really learning how to be flexible here.

A real teacher!

Last night I met the two Dartmouth volunteers that will be on my island with me. Their names are John and Gabe and they seem to be really nice guys. Poor Gabe was sitting at my table for trivia and the rest of the WorldTeach volunteers were giving him hell for going to Dartmouth. They were relentless. The guy definitely stuck up for himself but had a sense fo humor about the situaction. How can you not?

Also last night I got licensed as a REAL Marshallese teacher. I got a nice little 7 X 9 card to prove it. I also go the chance to meet my principal who is awesome and very excided to have me at the school. He let me know that my host family is set and I'm stoked because my host dad is a doctor on the island which makes me feel much better about getting injured or watever happens. Yay! i also talked to the volunteer who was with that family last year and she says that they speak English very well and they they are a pretty Westernized family. In a way, this is good beccause they will give me a little more leeway as far as mistakes and misunderstandings. I'm getting really pumped about this and I can't wai tot have my own classroom!

Rain in Ajeltaki

So unfortunately I bought a Wifi card and the log out pop up didn't come up so I can't log out and I have to spend the remaining 50 minutes so I might as well type up my blogs instead of copying and pasting....

News from Ajeltaki! We went into town today to have our language lesson and meet the principal of the Majuro Coop School. Both were awesome, I'm trying really hard to learn Marshallese and I can remember vocabulary but when it comes to sentences, my brain shuts down. I'm sure when I'm on my own little island, it'll stick a lot better.

So as I've tried to show through descriptions, the place I'm stayin is a little run down. This is what happens to the building on the island because the weather and sun is so much harsher and the landlords/government/tenants don't have the money to fix up their buildings. In addition, the way that land works here is that someone will own a huge chunk of land and build some houses on it and lease those buildings to the people of the RMI. There are VERY FEW people who ever own a house. Basically only the landlords of these properties will own their house and the rest of the people rent. Even the government, even the airlines lease the land for the airport. This as I think we all know, doesn't motivate the tenants to do any repairs or renovations on their houses because when their lease is up, they may not even live there anymore.

Okay, so this all ties in to what happpened today. First off, at around 4 am, the entire room was woken up by a huge rainstorm. I'm talking monsoon-style rain. Eventually we got back to sleep only to wake up in the morning to see that our kitchen area had been flooded. Water was leaking through the roof and the wires were sparking. After speaking with our directors, they told us that someone was going out to fix it while we're in town. The problem with this is that Marshallese-time is not the same as American-time. That person, for whatever reason decided not ot show up, so when we returned to the school, we had to hurry and clear out the food and utensils from the kitchen and we're no longer allowed to use that area. Because the man didn't com to fix the problem, the roof was in danger of collapsing. Luckily, the kitchen section is a ways away from the sleeping section. So I'm fine everyone! We just have to eat PB and J's for a night and cross your fingers, someone will be by to hook up the stove in the other area.

Love you all!

Sea Turtles and Muumuus

So unfortunately I wrote out some really witty and funny blogs but I can't find the USB plug in on this computer so I think I'll have to improvise...

I'll figure this whole thing out soon.

Anyway, there is a story I wanted to share with everyone about the first night a group of us decided to go out into Majuro to a couple bars. We currently live in a school in Ajeltaki which is about 40 minutes away. The only way to get into town is to hitchhike but it's common here and not dangerous. So we get all gussied up in out new muumuus which are amazing! Our field director said that "You can never go wrong with a muumuu here." This seems counter-intuitive but we go along. So everyone is dressed up and taking pictures like we're going to a Marshallese prom and it starts to rain. Well, the rain here lasts only about 20 minutes but it's basically monsoon style rain. We wait it out and meanwhile cars keep passing and when it finally stops, so do the cars. We wait on the side of the road for about 30 minutes and then we start walking. Now, in our group of 7, there is only one guy with a flashlight or headlamp. We're all following him and get about 100 yards when a truck pulls over. Riding in the back of a truck is the closest thing to air conditioning in Ajeltaki so we were all stoked. A couple of us hop up into in the bed of the truck and in the darkness we seem a dim outline of something lying in the bed. There is a chorus of "What is that?!" The people about to climb in are one leg out and one leg in, frozen trying to see what's in this truck. Finally, the guy with the flashlight shows up, points it into the bed and we see a HUGE ****ing SEA TURTLE lying on it's back, waving it's flippers. This thing took up half the space of the truck bed and was clearly still alive. We all hopped down and stood gasping/laughing while the driver laughed and sped away. Needless to say, that ended all desire to go out and I spent the rest of the night playing cards.

*Marshallese people eat sea turtles...

I had a couple other stories but I'm going to wait until I can figure out the USB. I also have pictures but those will have to wait til next time as well.

Bar lo eok!

First Days...

Sorry everyone for not posting earlier but this is my first trip into town. I'm currently staying at Ajeltaki Elementary school, sleeping in a classroom. This is about 35 minutes from downtown Majuro so it's a little bit of a trek to get some internet.

So far, I'm loving the island. The people are amazing and friendly and...a little nosy. The first time we ventured out of the school, out directors received phone calls from several, meaning at least three people, notifying them that we got a ride with so and so and we went to this store and were wearing this and that. It's a pretty small island and EVERYONE knows who we are even if they don't say so. It's a little bit like Ukiah. :)

The first couple days we mostly settled in and got to know each other. Yesterday was our first true day of orientation. We has a class on the introduction of ASL, American sign Language. One of my fellow volunteers is deaf and he'll be hopping around the islands, working with Special Education classrooms. It was really interesting, this might be a new language for me to learn...

Then we had our first Marshallese language class which is amazing. The language here is so beautiful but fast paced and the instructors are wonderful. I can't stay too long on the computer but just wanted to update you all a little bit.

Bar lo eok! (This means, See you later)

My Destination: Wotje