Ooohh, to be alone. . .

THEY FOLLOW ME EVERYWHERE!!
I am attempting to hide out right now with my door locked – but I still have 6 kids in my window talking amongst themselves and laughing loudly and they won’t go away. I can’t shut the window because I will suffocate of heat and I just want to be somewhere alone right now!!! They won’t go awayyyy. I have gotten over feeling bad about saying no, because I have quickly learned that these kids have no boundaries. Don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love it here, but I truly do miss having a single ounce of privacy. I go to talk on the phone, and I have 5 kids standing less than 1 foot away from me…the whole time. I go to brush my teeth, and they are all there. They stare in my window 9 out of 10 seconds during the day, and if one kid gets into my room, I have 30 within 10 seconds. I want to play with them, but not every second of every day. You think I would get old to them after a while – just sitting reading and not talking – but no. They will stay there, and ask me to jambo over and over and over again. With the same answer every time – “not now, maybe in a little” After my 3rd jambo of the day, I am not always up for number 4.

HELPING ME WITH MY LESSON PLAN
Today is the first day that anything has really gotten to me and I have felt completely and utterly annoyed. Everything else I can laugh at, and there are so many things about this place that I am absolutely in love with – but sometimes the kids get to me. The food is also starting to get to me too. I think that is what started my day off a little on the wrong foot. I woke up to ramen noodles for breakfast again – with boiled pancakes and peanut butter. I had fried donuts and peanut butter yesterday, and fried pancakes with peanut butter the day before. Everything here is made out of flower, sugar, salt, water and baking soda – and while there are lots of different kids of fish, which is the only variety I get in my diet, it is tuna one day and some other local huge thing the next. I feel bad not wanting to eat their food, but I don’t even want to think about what this is going to do to my body if I eat like this for an entire year! Ha-ha I am going to have to figure out an alternative pretty soon. I tried asking to just make oatmeal for myself before school – but apparently my whole family loves oatmeal so if I eat it – I have to feed a family of eight in the morning and I only brought the little packets. I did that once and that was certainly the last time.
Well, it’s time to write a week worth of lesson plans and then hopefully get some alone time if I can escape down to a coconut tree. I love being down by the water, but I don’t love it as much when there are 8 kids leaning over you all asking you a thousand times what you’re doing. I am really going to have to go searching for a hide out one of these days!

I really miss everyone at home tons, and I hope everyone is doing well. I talked to Titney the other day on the phone, and that made me miss Chapel Hill a LOT!!! I haven’t been that homesick at all since I’ve been here, but it is definitely starting to set in a bit.

What a nice surprise I got this afternoon…Church AGAIN!! For another 2 and a half hours! Yikes, they are quite intense about their church here. But the funny thing is, no one pays attention! My dad or mom just stands up there – screaming as if they were talking to a crowd of 100 people – while the 5 or 6 people in church sit there and look around, make noises at their kids or just sleep! We had church from 10:00 to 12:20 this morning and we just had it again from 7 to 9:30. I didn’t really understand anything, but from the sounds of it, it was passionate. I don’t remember if I wrote this on my blog or in a letter to someone – but the interesting things about Christianity in the Marshalls is that they like their lives and say their prayers all in fear of God. In America we base our thoughts and actions on a love for god, but here, it is all based on a fear of God. They fear that if they don’t do everything according to the Bible God has the power to take it all away, and he will, and he already has – so they are scared of God – and that is part of the reason so many are such devout Christians. Just an interesting side note! The video below is really dark, I took it with my tiny camera, but it will give you an idea of what it's like.

CHURCH AT ARNO
Well, after a long day of lesson planning and, well, nothing else really, I’m exhausted and ready for bed. Melissa and I are going to the Farm on Friday this week because we don’t have school – so that is what I am going to be looking forward to all week!

Hope you’re all doing well.
Lots of love,
Taylor

The Farm - My Favorite Place

MELISSA AND ME ON THE WAY TO THE FARM. A LITTLE MUDDY!

Melissa and I started working on the farm today! Yay. Today was over all, a really good day – with a few little bad things here and there. We were off to a late start after I had to find a bike in town, and then a pump, because there was no air in the tire! After going all over town, we managed to find a pump for the rust bucket of a bike I found and started our journey; and a journey it was. It had torrentially down poured all night the night before and the puddles had definitely not dried up by 8:00 am…that was for sure. My bike had: metal handle bards, a metal seat with tape over it so the rust didn’t get on my clothes, one pedal, one stick for a pedal, one tire that was quickly deflating and no breaks! As we channeled through puddle after puddle and hit rock after rock, my bike kept sliding out from under me and going almost into the bushes. We had to dodge coconuts, pigs and chickens the whole time – because they just didn’t feel like moving (not that a coconut would) – but they were everywhere. We tried to avoid the huge potholes that were filled with mud water, but when they took up the entire road – we just went right through and got FILTHY! My legs wanted to die, and my butt most definitely has two HUGE bruises on it right now. By the time we got there, 50 minutes after leaving my house, we were soaked from the small down pour, my butt hurt so much I wanted to throw up and my legs were exhausted from pedaling a near flat tired bike over rocks and through puddles for almost an hour! Ha-ha it was great.
Once we got to the farm though Benjamin, the owner of the farm, greeted us with a relaxing cup of coffee before we started the day. The farm is really awesome – they grow eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, limes, sweet potatoes and papayas; and then watermelon, cantaloupe and red bell peppers during the dry season. Today Melissa and I just helped dig soil and plant about 50 tomato plants – but it was really awesome to see the entire farm. They also raise pigs and chickens there and send them over to Majuro to be sold. It was nasty today though, Benjamin’s wife showed us the live chicken before she killed it for our lunch today – and that was a really disgusting feeling – I couldn’t exactly eat the chicken at lunch.

PLANTING TOMATOES

Over lunch though Melissa and I made a plan to come every Saturday morning and help from 8-12. That way we will be able to have veggies to eat – since there are no where we are both staying, and will be able to hang out with each other and talk about school while we do something fun. We also learned a lot about starting out own garden, which I think we will each do – and I am really excited about that! My family is too! So that will definitely be something I do once I am settled and have more time to give to something like that.

MY NEW PIG! I'M TAKING HIM BACK WITH ME SOON.
After planting seeds, husking a few coconuts to drink at lunch and eating some delicious lunch (other than the chicken) we started to head back. I wanted to cry the second I sat on the bike seat. I honestly don’t think I have been in that much pain in a really long time. I also realized when I got to my bike that my tire was now completely flat – and it was simply miserable. THEN, to make it worse, the second we left, and I was getting excited to go to Arno - Arno where there is great cell service, it started pourrrrring. No house we passed had a pump and I was soaked – things were lookin’ good. It finally stopped raining though, and I found a pump – so things eventually started looking up. We stopped to try and find cell service though and that took another half an hour because we had to wait for the clouds to pass. I got to talk to my mom and Tit though – so that made me feel a lot better. The ride home was a bit painful, but Melissa was just laughing at how terrible how things had been and were – and started laughing and singing. That definitely helped things along!
When I got back I did my first load of laundry Marshallese style – and that was nice and fun. The whole family was watching me and laughing – because I CLEARLY had no idea what I was doing! Ha-ha I was laughing at myself too though, so it was ok. I am exhausted from the day now though and am about to fall asleep…its only 8 pm! Ha Thank goodness we had an early dinner tonight though. Well, tomorrow is church – for 4 hours – so I gotta get some sleep so I can get up nice and early and put my best mumu on! ☺ My sister and I are having a sleep over tonight too – so I have to entertain her with some pictures for a while now too!

IF I EVER COMPAIN ABOUT DOING LAUNDRY AT HOME. . .
MY FAVORITE HELPERS
PS…My pet cat Maggie is having babies!!!! I am going to have little kittens soon!

A fantastic day - or not.

So lets just check out this fantastic day…
Had a normal first half – minus the fact that I had bread, peanut butter and mayonnaise on my breakfast plate this morning. (Definitely hope I don’t wake up to that again any time soon!) After lunch thoughm, is when my day took a little turn for the worse.

I walked into class to start science and was greeted by a “Fu*k you” on the board. Apparently Richie was mad at Nylemma because she bit him, so he decided to write F you Nylemma on the board. (Richie cleaned the whole school and school yard after school!) Then – when I went over to the 3rd and 4th graders, a huge pig walked into class, and that took a while to get him out. Then, about 10 minutes later, Fready comes walking in with a bird in his hand. He puts it on his desk, and it started pooping everywhere. I couldn’t help but laugh at this point. So, Michael runs over from the other class, picks up the bird, and literally drop kicks it! I couldn’t believe what I just saw. He saw that I was mad, and then preceded to run away. So I looked for Michael for a solid 10 minutes, while the whole school was outside and not in class anymore – and after a few nice words informed him that he would be joining Richie after school. So then, everything seems to be back to normal, and we are talking about 4-legged animals – I turn around to ask the class if they can think of any more – and the CHALKBOARD FALLS ON MY HEAD. The huge green chalkboard just falls forward, directly onto my head and then to the ground! Ha-ha I had to laugh at that one – through my massive headache though. At that point I just had the kids draw for the rest of the time – because I clearly wasn’t going to get anywhere with that class from you know where.  

MICHAEL, RUNNING AWAY
The rest of the day wasn’t as bad at all – which was nice. The 7th grade girls who love coming to my house and studying English came over like they normally do, but decided that we needed to clean my house today! I have so much stuff everywhere, all my teaching supplies and everything, and they wanted to make some space I think. (That was probably their real motivation!) I have been teaching them how to make bracelets from string too – which has been really fun. I feel like I am in summer camp again making bracelets in all my free time. But the girls love it. It is secretly fun being able to do kids things all the time again!

Oh, and I also ate my first whole fish for dinner last night! Head, eyes, teeth, tail, skin and everything! Fried it up and enjoyed it with my usual rice and catsup. I can’t really remember the last time I used an eating utensil either, which is awesome to me! My family loves it too! I just eat with a Marshallese spoon – aka my hands! Rice, fish, and everything else you can think of. It’s fun.  

DINNER WITH THE FAMLY

THE BOYS AT DINNER
Melissa (who teaches in another village here on Arno) is here right now, and we are planning to go to the farm to help out tomorrow! I am really excited. They grow papaya, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant and lots of random veggies that you can’t get anywhere else on Arno. We are planning to go help every Saturday – which also means I will get to eat something that is actually good for you every Saturday too! Woo hoo. That will be a nice change from a bag of rice a day and flour for breakfast. Although, I will admit I am getting used to it and like most everything a lot. Breadfruit and tuna soup, and rice and fish soup are both delicious. I get really excited when my dad says that he is cooking soup. I have yet to taste a bad soup.
Well, have to go to church now and then probably do the jambos that Carrie started. Apparently every Friday and Saturday night we Jambo with all the kids and it sounds like lots of fun. I have an idea of what its like, seeing how we already jambo all the time ha-ha but I am sure this will be more kids and lots of fun!

The first few days of school

Well then, these two days have been fun! Ha! I don’t think I have stopped moving since school started and the school still looks like no one is even going to school there. I guess since I really didn’t have any expectations of what the students would be like, I can’t really say whether or not it is what I thought it would be. It is so, so different though…obviously. School starts at 8:30 – or it is supposed to – but we generally don’t get started till a bit after that. School starting at 8:30 to Marshallese means you start your walk to school at that time – teachers included. You also get as many ‘sick’ days as you feel like. It was only day 2 today and Movie – our principle and 3rd grade teacher – was out with a cold. So here, that just means one class just didn’t have school today – they played while everyone else attempted to learn. I attempted to keep one class entertained while I taught another, and tried to get them to practice their spelling words, but that worked for a solid 3 minutes.
My current schedule is:
8:30-9:30 English – grades 5-7 (There is no one in 8th grade this year)
9:30-10:30 English – grades 3-4
10:30-10:45 break
10:45-11:45 English – K-2
11:45-1:00 Lunch
1:00-1:45 Science – 5-7
1:45-2:30 Science – 3-4
2:30-3:00 Science – K-2
Science is particularly hard because I don’t really know if they understand much – but I am trying to use as much Majel as possible and explain things in the simplest way possible. It is hard to tell how things are going right now though, all I know is that I am exhausted and can’t wait to get settled and into a routine! That could take a while though. The kids are luckily pretty well behaved – so that helps out a bit. But when I say well behaved – that is Marshallese standards…there are still kids running around that aren’t in school distracting the class and dogs running in an out. It is a hectic environment to say the least.

Away from school life is still great. My family is awesome and I like them more each day. My mom, Mainman, and my dad, Kamot, are both pastors at the church. I had my first church experience tonight too – which was interesting! It was me and about 4 others in church and Kamot was yelling as if he were speaking to a crowd of 1000. I attempted to pick up a few words here and there, but could only understand about 1 out of every 4. My brother shared his hymn book with me, and as hard as singing is in English for me, its even worse in Marshallese! (Whit if you’re reading this, you would be even worse in Marshallese than you are in English and would know even FEWER words! Haha I love you ☺ )  

ME, MY SISTER - JOJO AND MY 'MOM' MANIMEM
MY FAMILY OUTSIDE CHURCH One thing that I am really starting to miss is any time alone. The guide book wasn’t kidding when they said your EVERY move is being watched. I can be sitting at my desk, literally doing nothing, and there are kids just sitting there, not talking and just watching. I go to make a call and the entire town makes a field trip out of it! I sit and write lesson plans – it’s the evening social event. I walk to the bathroom, there is a herd of kids waiting for me to come out. I sit down to write a letter – I have 3 kids leaning on my legs, 2 looking over my shoulders and about 4 leaning on a coconut tree next to me! It is crazy to say the least. I feel bad not talking to them, but I quickly learned that that is ok. They just enjoy sitting and watching you. Some are annoying and won’t stop grabbing you, but most are respectful and don’t touch you or talk to you unless they can tell you want to play.
SOME OF MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS

Teaching with limited resource

Ok wow – the name of this game definitely isn’t ‘teaching with limited resources’…it is ‘teaching with hundreds of completely and disastrously unorganized resources – that may not be top of the line.”

So I found the library today – about a zillion school supplies – oh, and my principle! Oh, and school starts tomorrow. I got back from Majuro this afternoon at about 12 and found out that school is starting tomorrow. Definitely wasn’t expecting that one. Apparently Movie, our principle, made it back into town somehow over the weekend and wants to start school now; so we are. I tried to get a ton done today – seeing how I really hadn’t been able to do much without any working keys to the school or knowledge or supplies other than the few years supply worth of office paper and staples. I was pondering just wall papering the school with white paper and staples to give it a nice fresh look, but decided against it when I realized the leaks in all the roofs and walls would most likely just mush the paper up in a matter of days.

Anyway, today I sat in the Kindergarden room and went through supplies for a solid 4 hours. I picked out the things I thought might be useful for the first couple days of school – but really I had no idea what I was looking for – seeing how I have no idea what I am doing. I wanted to be able to put some things up on the walls at least, to cover up all the scraps from everything that has been glued to them in the past, but I was relatively unsuccessful. I tried to made calendars for each room – but having three rooms and 8 different grade levels to make things for was challenging. Then I tried to use of some of the mounds of construction paper and staples we had by making the kids journals, but it didn’t even look like I made a dent in the stacks after making 50! Oh well, at least they all have journals for right now since NONE of my school supplies have arrived yet. According to the post office they went to Australia, Hawaii, Thailand and then Maine again. Everywhere but the Marshall Islands! Sweet.

Sitting in my room tonight though, trying to figure out what the heck I am going to do with these kids tomorrow though is extremely intimidating. I understand that I am the one that speaks English, and they don’t, so anything I teach them will be more than they know – but appeasing all the levels in my classes is the part I am struggling with. The classes are divided so that: K-2, 3-4, and 5-7 are all grouped together. How do you make a 7th grader and a 5th grader respond equally well to the same lesson? Breaking them into groups will help, but the 7th graders will be bored and disruptive while we are learning things they have already learned twice, and the 5th graders will be the same way when we are doing things way over their heads. Oh mannn, this is going to be a good one.

Then, to top the night off, after I was almost ready to call it quits on my lesson planning, Movie came over to inform me that the science teacher is pregnant and won’t be teaching this year, so if I could teach science that would be great. Now I really feel bad for these kids. I don’t even know where to begin! AND I don’t really speak Marshallese yet, and they don’t know English – so that makes it even harder. Hahah - that subject could really be interesting! I guess that will teach them more English though, so that’s good.

Well, I am going to attempt to get some sleep before my first day of teaching. I am surprisingly not nervous, I just hope the whole town doesn’t come to watch like has happened in other towns already. I am not so sure I would like that – especially since NOTHING is the way I want it yet!

I went to Majuro, completely unexpected today only to find out that one of my best friends in High School died unexpectedly a few days ago. Going through something like that, so far away from everyone you love is really hard. Lauren was amazing all weekend, and I got to talk to Devany’s mom, which really put a lot of comfort in me. She has always been an inspiration to me, and to talk to her and hear confidence in her voice, talking about all the fun memories Devany and I shared, was really great and put confidence in me that everything will be ok. Devany was an incredible person who truly made my last two years at Cape High School a blast – LCVB – haha and I will never forget the memories we made and the friendship we built. I am praying for Devany, her family and her friends every day, and miss and love you all very much. I wish I could be there with you all right now, but in my mind will have to do.

Wow! I finally made it to Arno!

I got up early Monday morning (8/11) to catch what I thought was a 7 am boat – but, because this is the Marshall Islands, the boat didn’t leave until 11 am! While I was waiting for the boat though, my host, Father Kamot came to meet me at the dock. He and his wife were in town dropping two off their children at the high school in Majuro.

Once we were ready to go, Melissa and I got everything on the boat and decided it would be a good idea to sit up front…horrible idea. It started poring about 20 minutes in and big waves started splashing over the sides! We were SOAKED and had to sit there dripping wet. When we finally got to the island, we unloaded our things and waited in the rain for about an hour for the truck to come get us. At that point, we were thoroughly drenched, no rain coat, and so was out stuff. When the truck did come however and I hopped in the front. I was looking forward to being dry, but because the window didn’t work I sat in a mud colored puddle while the rain poured in the whole ride.  

THE ROAD TO MY VILLAGE
Leaving the dock we turned right onto the only road on the island, and it was hardly a road! It was basically part of the greenery on the island that had been driven over so many times that tire marks had engrained themselves in the dirt. There was no pavement anywhere – trees were falling all into the road and there were huge holes filled with water the entire way. My head definitely hit the ceiling a couple of times going over some of those! It was a fun ride.

About 20 minutes later we reached my HOUSE!!! I was greeted by Weinner and Andelson, who are my host brother and sister. Arriving there and it was such a surreal experience. It was a strange feeling knowing that I would get to know these people so well, and be able to talk with them and understand what they say a year from now, yet everything about them was so foreign to me at that point.

MY NEW HOME!
THIS IS WHERE I'LL BE SLEEPING
THIS IS WHERE WE WASH DISHES
THE KITCHEN - WHERE WE EAT AND COOK

My house is the yellow one(in the first picture), and there are 4 windows in the back that let in a nice ocean breeze at night. (technically it is a lagoon breeze) There are actually 2 rooms inside one with a bedroom and the other has a desk! I feel badly that my house is bigger than the one that the 5 family members live in that is next to mine – but apparently that is their custom. The wooden area next to my house is where we eat and cook. There are mats made of coconut leafs that we sit on inside and a stove that burns coconuts for cooking. There is a place to wash the dishes outside across from my house and the bathroom is around back near the lagoon. The church is about 20 yards to the left of my house and the school is about 40 yards to the right. Everything I need is right here, and since there is nothing else but houses on this island, I am set!



The people here are amazing! All of the kids were SO SO excited to meet me, and were impressed by my Marshallese. I actually know quite a bit more than I thought I did, and that had helped a lot. Although they don’t speak very much English at all, a few know some words and between their English and my Marshallese we are able to communicate effectively. Michael is one of the little boys who I have hung out with a lot, and he is great. He is the one holding the air plane. He is extremely eager to teach me Marshallese and thinks it is hilarious when I mess things up…which I have done a lot of! Hahah since there are so many different sounds for the same letters it is really easy to say one word, and if you say the O sound just slightly different it has a completely different meaning! Bewbew, when the e is said one way means tuna and when said another mean crazy! Haha it is so strange, but at least I am able to laugh at myself with them. It is really funny because they all say WOWWWWWWWW when I say something really correct in Marshallese and are like “You know BIG Marshallese…WOOOOWWWW.” Hahah I clearly don’t, but they like to see people trying to learn and really appreciate it when they can see that you are making an effort.

The food out here is definitely way different than Majuro. When someone new comes you are supposed to offer them lots of food, and I don’t think I have eaten this much in my life. The first nights we just had rice, canned tuna and Katsup. It actually was rather good! Then this morning I woke up to a plate of about 10 pancakes and 10 fried eggs. They just sit there and watch you eat. I couldn’t eat it all, so the kids just came in and finished it. Then, no less than an hour later we had jamboed down the road to Amerco’s house, and she made me coconut juice, a regular coconut, and a cut up eu (type of cocnut). Still there, 20 minutes later she gave me a HUGE bowl of rice with some type of cooked clam. Yikes. And THEN 20 minutes later a huge plate of pancakes made from cococonut. I was so full it was not even funny, but it is really rude to refuse food because that is the most sincere form of generosity in Marshallese custom. I apparently should have stored the food though, because while that was at 12:30 we didn’t eat dinner (fish we caught today and rice) until 7:30! I was starvingggg. It was good though. And you drink a coconut, literally from the coconut, with every meal. They offered mine to me to open myself today, and apparently I did something wrong because it sprayed ALL OVER my face hahah. That gave everyone a good laugh – but I did have to admit it was rather hilarious.




Well I have to go now and get some sleep. Movie, (that's her name) the principle comes back tomorrow and we will decide when school starts! It could be Monday this week – or Monday in two weeks. Who knows – they do it Marshallese style!

Hopefully I will be able to write again soon. Miss and love you all lots!
Xo,
Taylor

Last Few Days in Majuro

I leave for Arno tomorrow morning! I can’t believe it is really happening – almost like I couldn’t believe I was really leaving for the Marshall Islands one month ago tomorrow!

Nothing much has been happening this past week. We ended our orientation sessions on Wednesday and ended language sessions on Friday. I was MORE than ready to end orientation and it was such a relief to have time to ourselves and actually start figuring out what we were going to do.

Thursday night Danielle Liza and I hitched into town to get the internet and some real food because we were definitely not feeling corned beef from a can night. Hitching in the Marshall Islands is a completely unique experience and is often quite funny. We walked for a solid 25 minutes before someone picked us up and drove us towards town until they arrived at where they were going. Then we caught another ride the rest of the way and eventually made our way to RRE. When you hitch here almost anyone will stop for you – provided their car isn’t already over flowing with toddlers standing all over the backseat or on laps hanging out the window – and bring you as far as they planned on going. Sometimes you will find a nice man or family that will drive you all the way to town, but they generally don’t seeing how the price of gas is over $7.00 right now. At RRE we were very stage one in the cultural adjustment stages and sat there eating burgers while using the internet. It was an outstanding and much needed break from Ajeltaki though – that is for sure.

Friday was the day we planned to move into town, but because it is the Marshall Islands, and nothing ever happens like it is supposed to – that didn’t happen. Half of the people moved out and the rest of us just had the afternoon to go around town and get school supplies and wonderful Marshallese attire. I’ll tell you one thing, I definitely don’t have a hard time still spending a lot of money in a 3rd world country. I really need to realize that as cute as I may think some of these mumu’s and guams are – understanding that my standards of cute are drastically different at this point in time – I will not be wearing them in the states and it is not necessary to accumulate an entire wardrobe. But, I just keep finding ones that are cuter than the last one I bought and feel that I need to buy that one too. Bad idea. So basically, you can all expect cute guams and mumu’s for Christmas because I have way too many! Haha,  I did get a lot of useful things too though and although I still don’t feel entirely ready, I feel more ready than I was before. I got two large buckets of supplies that should hold me over until I get the boxes that I have in the mail! (Which are taking forever btw)

After shopping in town all day we all headed over to the Long Island Hotel to have our end of orientation dinner and talent show; it was a blast! Dinner was –well – Marshallese food – and the talent show was hilarious. It was basically just a bash on orientation and impersonations of different people but was really, really funny. I got called out a few times for being extra stage one at times and I also had a song dedicated to me that was written about my “favorite” dog. After the ‘talent’ show we started a little dance party, and it was practically like I was at PDC… without the mirrors.

This is where I've slept for the past month. But, Saturday morning we actually got to move into town! We got up early to pack and clean and were in town by mid morning. It couldn’t have been a more enjoyable next 24 hours. Danielle, Stacey, Liza and I rented a bungalow at the RRE hotel, and words can’t even describe how amazing a HOT SHOWER, with RUNNING WATER, in an AIR CONDITIONED room that also had a BED in it, was like. Amazing is just one of about 1000 words I could use to describe it. I almost didn’t even know what to do, and my bed felt even a little too comfortable.

It was Danielle and Liza’s birthdays today though so Stacey an I spent the day around town getting little things for them and then baked a few cakes. We made pineapple upside down and triple chocolate cakes at Darren’s apartment and they turned out woooonderfully! We met a bunch of people for dinner at the hotel and celebrated with cake and funny post orientation flashback comments after. Being with so many people that you have never met before, and being forced to be with them all the time really lets you get close fast – and it is really fun in a way. We managed to have an extremely cohesive group of people for the most part, and hanging out with them is really fun. Lines are definitely crossed alllll the time – but that is part of what makes it so fun and hilarious.

Now I am sitting in the Bungalow for the last night and really starting to get nervous about leaving. Not the kind of nervous that makes me not want to go or question what I am doing – but more of an excited nervous. This past month, although I have been in the Marshall Islands – it has been a little bit unrealistic and a little bit like cheating. I have had access to the internet a considerable amount – have been talking on cell phones – and have been talking in English to people that understand where I am from and what Americans are all about all the time. Tomorrow, however, I will be starting the real thing. No internet, limited cell service, and only Marshallese from here on out. I am beyond excited to really start this experience but am also nervous as well. I want to make a good impression, develop meaningful and fun relationships. I want to speak Marshallese and be sure to be a ‘unrebelleish’ as possible. (Although I didn’t help my cause by buying non essentials to decorate my room with today just so it would be homier - hah woops) I realize that a lot of this next month is probably going to be really hard – but it can’t be that hard forever. Once I establish my routine and find my way around, Arno should feel just like home. Coming to Majuro with no expectations really helped me, I think, and I am trying to go to Arno with that same mindset.

Time for bed now, so I can get up nice and early and catch my boat. It is scheduled to leave at 7 but in Marshallese time that means anywhere from 6 until probably about 6 at night – or just not at all.

Hope everyone is doing well and I miss home so much right now! I will be getting a cell phone soon, so I will be sure to post that number and anyone can call whenever. It is free for me, but it may cost you a little penny or two.

Miss and love everyone lots.

P.S....I learned how to husk a coconut! And I am clearly really good at it as you can see! hahah
Taylor

A day in Majuro

Today was a big day in town. First we took a trip to the capitol building, and got to meet the President of the RMI! That was a pretty cool experience. He didn’t know we were coming, but because our field director knows a lot of people here, we just got to walk right up and go into his office! This picture is me in the Arno representatives' chair – haha - we thought we were pretty cool doing that. 

After the tour we went to lunch at the Marshall Island Club – where we got to meet the 16 year old that is sailing around the world. A kid named Zac is currently trying to set the record for youngest person to sail around the world by himself – and he stopped in the Marshall Islands for the week. He left from LA about two months ago, and has had a pretty good journey so far – from what we heard. We got to sit and ask him questions for a while, and hung out near the beach for a good part of the afternoon. If you want to check out his live blog you can go to: Zacsunderland.com and he is updating it through radio e-mail while he is out there. He is here for another 7 days, so we will probably see him again.

We also did a trash pick up around Majuro which was good – but sad at the same time. We were walking through town and picking up garbage off of peoples front lawn, and it was actually somewhat of an awkward feeling! Danielle and I took a detour down to the beach at one point, and I almost wanted to cry. The beach was the filthiest thing I had ever seen – I wanted to be cleaning up. No one ever goes to the beaches here – and I see why. You could barley see the sand because there was so much trash everywhere. Junk was piled everywhere and rusted cars were sticking out of the water. It was just so, so sad, and I really wished we could have cleaned up the beaches. Although cleaning Majuro was definitely helpful – it wasn’t filthy. I didn’t even fill up one large bag in a 1 mile walk – and I could have filled up 3 large bags standing in one spot on the beach. Maybe that 's something I can organize when I get to Arno; although the outer islands are apparently a bit cleaner. I will just have to wait to see.  

Well, we are going shopping now to get supplies for the outer islands. Someone donated a lot of money for school supplies from last years group – so we were each given $60 to get supplies for our school. And we also received bags filled with supplies, donated from the same person, the other night at dinner when we had a raffle. Everyone got a bag – the raffle was just a way to distributing the bags because there were different things in all of them. This person really helped the Marshall Islands out in a large way!  

I will try to write more soon, but I don’t know when we will be in town again. One week before I head out to ARNO!!!! Yikes. I am getting really excited. Hope everyone at home is doing well – and I am really jealous of all of you at Keith and Swartz’s lake houses this weekendddd!! I miss all you guys!

Don’t forget to write letterssss ☺
Love,
Taylor

Practicum!

We just had our first three days of practicum! The Marshall Islands advertised a ‘summer camp’ for school children – that was basically three days of school.  

Tuesday night  we were assigned a grade and put into groups. I was given 1st grade, along with Melissa (who is also going to Arno!) Dan, Brian and Fiona. It was a really good group of people. After we were broken into group we were responsible for choosing a topic and creating cohesive lesson plans for a three-day period – each teaching a 30 minutes session everyday. We decided that we would do body parts and numbers – and we most definitely did notttttt see what was coming at us!

The first day we arrived at Woja – the school we were teaching at – there were 6 kids. Two of them were three years old, and only one of them had ever been to school before! We were their first ever school experience! And although that's cute – it's not so cute when you don’t speak a common language. It's a strange feeling when you sit there – and neither of you have any idea how to understand the other – and when we spoke the little Marshallese that we did know, they looked at us like we were crazy.  

For the first hour of class the kids were great. They sat in a line and just stared at us, so, SO eager to learn. They repeated everything Melissa and then Brian said, and loved everything. I was third though, and by the time I was about 10 minutes into my lesson, their attention span was non-existent. They started rolling around, drop kicking each other, doing cartwheels and just laying down. There were a few kids that paid attention, and I could get most of them in by doing random TPR (total physical response) commands, but other than that, they were hopeless. We gave them a break, hoping they would get some energy out, but that only made them worse. The kids continued to get progressively worse as the day went on. It was exhausting.  

The second day was probably the worst though! We got through the first lesson, and they were gone after that. Running around the room, and not really wanting anything to do with what we were trying to do. I attempted to play matching bingo with them, but that was a lost cause after the first minute. So we basically just did TPR seeing how that was the only thing that could entertain the majority of them for an extended period of time.

The third day, however, was the best. We got rid of the 3 year, got a couple more kids who were older, and they all stayed with us for most of the day. I went first yesterday, which was a completely different experience! I actually had the attention of all the kids. We sang our good morning song, learned a new numbers song, and then played a jumping frog game, where they learned jump, hop, run, walk and skip! Haha  - they were awesome at it by the end of the day.  

One of the cutest things about teaching these kids is how excited they get about everything, and how eager they are to learn English – but they still don’t have a clue. They will repeat everything you say and just think it is the funniest thing in the world. Sometimes it can be a bad thing, but we have definitely learned our lesson that we need to watch what we say, because they can pick up on bad words in no time! A few of us were talking in the classroom the other day while the kids were at recess, and of the guys sees a huge lizard on the wall and not thinking exclaimed, “Oh sh*t.” He didn't realize Matela had come back in the classroom, and from behind us we all heard this faint little, “oh sh*t”. As hilarious as that we to hear, we definitely learned that we always have to watch what we say in a culture that tries to emulate us and repeat everything we say! It was a little bit hilarious though!

Designated Truck Driver

I am now an expert truck driver! Hahaha. I have been driving around the largest, most hilarious truck for the past 3 days. WorldTeach rented a truck for us to have over the weekend, and they needed a DD for one of the nights we went out. I volunteered and apparently that was volunteering for the whole weekend.  

The first night we had the truck, we got ready to leave to drive to the bar and we realized that the lights didn’t work! So we drove down the road in the pitch black, with no streetlights trying not to drive off the road. There was not a single thing about the truck that worked properly! On the way home, we finally got pulled over and the cops fixed our lights – but that barely did anything though because I still couldn’t see a thing! hahah And this morning when I got into drive to town, the first time I braked ALLLL of the water that was on the roof from raining the night before came pouring into my lap through the hole in the roof. That was pleasant. Driving that truck for the weekend was by far the most hilarious experience I have had since I got here, and it was strangely a lot of fun. This truck made Carl (my car in Maine) look as beautiful and pristine as a brand new BMW!


Aside from going out, we had a pretty relaxing weekend. We took a trip to Laura beach – the very end of the Majuro atoll – and hung out there for the day. I set up my hammock and read for pretty much the whole time. The tide was too far out to really go in the water – because you have to walk about 200 yards out over the coral to get into water deeper than a few inches. That hammock is getting a lot of use Alex! But it is a bit interesting trying to set it up sometime because I have to use rope I find laying around wherever I am. I will definitely have to invest in some rope – or have someone send me some!

Crazy...But Falling in Love

Every question I ever had, and every doubt my mind ever fostered, was completely wiped away today. It had been a long, LONG hot day with session after session in town, and I didn’t expect anything different to come of the next session. Little did I know, however, the next presentation by a few Marshallese kids would completely reaffirm and accentuate every reason behind why I wanted to do this program.

Sitting in the Melele room, we were all anxious to get out and explore Majuro some more. Just when we were all about to leave early because the Youth to Youth group was on Marshallese time, and we were bored waiting, music started blaring from the hallway. Three seconds later, the doors swung open and a heard of young adults came in singing, dancing and playing ukuleles. They sang up front for a minute, then started coming out and bringing us up to dance with them. (For all you UNC people, imagine how great I am at PDC…I’m not any better at Marshallese dancing) Apparently, this one kid Lucius, thought I was pretty great at dancing, and me, with this kid no older then 10, were definitely the duo to watch! Hahah - he was a hilarious dancer and pulled some pretty awesome Marshallese moves out. The entire room was dancing at one point, and everyone was absolutely loving it. I don’t like dancing, and I was even having a blast.
After the introductory dance was over, they explained what they were here for and proceeded to do a skit. The point of youth to youth in the RMI is to raise sexual health and drug/alcohol awareness among teens their age, and provide a support system for those who struggle with these problems in their family. They make teens aware of the potentially fatal outcomes of mixing poor sexual responsibility, alcohol and drugs, and go to all different social and scholastic events in an attempt to educate teens throughout the RMI.

After the skit they sang for a while longer, and we were up and down dancing and watching the rest of the hour. Sitting there watching these kids, so full of energy and excitement – so genuine and so bright - made me feel happier than I have in an extremely long time. I could not even begin to describe how real and how happy those kids were, and part of me just doesn’t understand how. But, they are – they look happier than I think I have ever felt in my entire life – every single one of them. To see 30 kids up there, having what looked to be the time of their life, doing something so good and so meaningful, in a country that really needs it, truly touched me. Seeing this made me want, more than ever, to help this country in any way that I could, because today I really saw what the Marshallese culture is all about. For today at least, all the doubts that have been running through my head for the past week, were washed completely out the window.

Aside from the Youth to Youth presentation there really hasn’t been anything too exciting going on. We have quite a consistent schedule of boring class after boring class in hot sticky classrooms. It has been nice to be in town though, because I have been able to talk online, read e-mails and buy MUMU’s! I have acquired some very nice Marshallese clothing now – and I am sure to get tons more as a gift when I arrive in Arno.

It is a strange sensation adjusting to this culture. There are so many things I love and so many that drive me crazy; that when I experience them together I am puzzled as to what I truly think and feel. I love the views and I love the people – but I hate the trash and I hate the language barriers. The list could go on forever about things I love and things that drive me crazy, but I am hoping that eventually I will find a way to turn all this craziness into something I may love. Use the trash to create sculptures? Or learn the language and become fluent. There are tons of solutions to quirks that drive my crazy, and I am just hoping that I may be fortunate enough to find them before my year is up!

Well that is all I have time for right now. I'll keep trying to post pictures, but the internet speed is not ideal for that. I will continue to try, but I can’t promise that it will work. Might just have to wait until I send some home!

Miss everyone tons! Talk to you again soon, hopefully.

Love,
Taylor