Halloween?

Halloween in the Marshall Islands…what an experience! School was fun today and the kids loved making all kinds of Halloween crafts. We made pumpkins and spider webs…we ate candy…we played games and pretty much did nothing that had to do with school. It was great! The kids don’t exactly understand what Halloween is though and they think it is a thing…not at day. They kept holding up the teeth that I gave them (that Carrie sent…what a great idea!) and saying I have a Halloween! And after school they kept saying have you seen a Halloween? Is it time for Halloween yet?  

After school we had our PTA meeting (another story it itself) and then hung out until later that night. Then, all of a sudden, as I was sitting there talking to my dad about the days meeting, a HUGE group of people came running up behind me with flour caked on their faces, shirts tied on their heads and sunglasses on their eyes! They tried to ‘make a halloween.’ Hahaha it was the funniest thing I have ever seen! They have never done anything for Halloween before (they only heard about it last year from Carrie) but they started a new tradition tonight. They get ‘dressed up’ /put flour on their face, and go around from house to house singing church songs – like Christmas carols! It was hilarious and great. So funny to see how people interpreted my explanation of it and made it Halloween Ri-majel style here. Definitely a fun night.

As for the PTA meeting after school…I think it might have actually accomplished something! Although the first hour was still about who would make food for the meeting, we eventually got to talking about relevant issues and sorted some messes out. We talked about moving Tari out of the library so we can finally use it – the PTA will start repairing his house this week. We talked about teacher attendance…there is a meeting with all the teachers this week to discuss the issues and talk about consequences for poor attendance. We talked about parent involvement in their children’s education and helping them study and showing interest in their achievement and success. If a parent doest care about this children’s education why on earth would the child care? The last thing we talked about was putting a community effort into getting the MOE to come out and repair the school. I think the most successful part of the conversation with was teachers providing children with an honest effort in their work and really trying to teach the children. Fancy looked as though she was going to cry and Tari, although defensive, looked like he got it too. I don’t know that anything will necessarily change, but it is the first time they have been called out by the community – so hopefully some positive changes will arise from the meeting. The foundation for improvement has been set…now it is just a matter of follow through and action.

Accept what is and make the best of what I have. . .

Tomorrow is Halloween and all of my kids now think that Halloween is a day where you put flour on your face… They don’t exactly understand the concept of a ghost – or else I am just not explaining it in an understandable way – and so they just think you put flour on your face. Haha that was the only way I could think of to explain how you would look like a ghost or a dead person. But they also didn’t understand why you would want to look like a dead person. Regardless, they are all just really excited because they know it is a day where you get candy…and that is pretty much all they care about.

As far as the beginning half of the week, I had a rather large break down on Tuesday after our PTA chairmen’s meeting. We met to discuss what would be talked about at the PTA meeting and it was just so frustrating. They argued about money for the first part of it and then we made a list of things we are going to talk about. You can just tell by the way my principle has no interest in anything that not much is going to change while she is principle. She has no ambition to make the school a better place and it is just SO sad. I want to be able to help this school and this town, but if the only person with a voice for the school will not speak up and ask the MOE for help – we aren’t going to get any. All you need to do around here is ask for help, and they will give it to you. The other towns in Arno did that – and they have brand new schools now. We are the only town with a run down school that is on the verge of collapsing…literally. The MOE won’t know anything is wrong if we don’t ask for it…but I also suppose they won’t favor us either because our teachers don’t go to any of the required classes over the summer so we aren’t exactly on the Ministry’s good side. Oh well – the whole town is behind me, my father said, and will work to help us move Lukoj Education in a positive direction. I am a little scared for the confrontation that will take place on Friday – simply because I work with these people every day and if everyone is about to tell them what a poor job they are doing and I sit there and agree…they won’t look at me with much of a smile I am predicting. But oh well, I am here for the kids and its not my problem they aren’t putting forth an honest effort. I am determined to give these kids a descent facility to learn in and I am determined to educate these teachers enough so that they are able to adequately teach the kids. It isn’t very good when the Math teacher can’t write a number in standard form or do long division…

This year is a year of growth for both Lukoj and myself and I know I am not the only person unhappy with the way the school is run. That said, regardless of how frustrated and miserable things may make it at times I will accept what is and make the best of what I have. I will take advantage of the resources that now sit dormant, and try to make a positive difference. Big or small, a positive difference is just that…positive. It is something better than what was.

Christmas in October!!!

Today was like CHRISTMAS in October!!!!!!!!! The mail that I have been waiting for since 10 days ago, finally arrived! After Lauren missed the boat both Wednesday and Friday last week – she finally made it this morning! Seeing all my boxes when I got back from school completely negated the fact that: Tari hadn’t shown up today, Fancy was 20 minutes late this morning and 40 minutes late coming back from lunch, Movie cancelled our PTA meeting for the 4th time in a row, the MOE didn’t show up, and I’m stranded on this crazy island. Despite all of that, a huge smile was able to find my face! I finally got the much anticipated packages from my mom and Phil, I got a surprise one from last years’ volunteer Carrie, I got 2 boxes of healthy food from Danielle, a package from Lauren with donated supplies, and 2 awesome letters from my Begegak and Megan! I was entertained for a LONG time! There were lots of great books for my kids, Halloween candy for our party on Friday, find surprises and reading material for me, and many nice things to read. I love, love, love, mail day!

Fishing, Arno Style

What a relaxing weekend! I spent the entire weekend in Arno with Melissa and Francis and it was quite enjoyable. We worked as normal Saturday morning and then decided to stay an extra day because Lin, the garden guru from Majuro, was planning to come early Sunday morning. Melissa and I just relaxed all night and did a bit of lesson planning and reminiscing down on the lagoon at night. It was really fun talking about all kinds of crazy memories from our childhood, and I think it actually made me sympathize with my kids a little bit remembering what it was like to be their age – in America nonetheless.
Anyways, Sunday morning came and we waited around until about lunchtime for Lin to come. This guy is a little bit hilarious and has a huge crush on Melissa. He doesn’t know English super well, so the bluntness of his comments are hilarious. We talked about farming a little bit, but mostly we just ate and then ended up going out on the boat he had chartered for the day! Not a bad deal. He chartered the 4X and so that meant he had it for the entire day. He offered to take Melissa to the Ine dock so she didn’t have to bike home, so I went along for the ride and it was awesome. We went straight there and the on the way back stopped in various places and fished. These guys (the men on the boat who are actually both Francis’ brothers) were big time fishermen and are the best in the Marshall Islands. Ben Reimers, the captain, actually just won the All Micronesia fishing tournament and got $10,000 for breaking some record and catching a 694 Lb. Marlin! That is huge. We didn’t catch anything like that – but we definitely caught a bunch of big groupers. As the guys were reeling in one of the groupers, a shark came along and right before we pulled it out of the water chomped down on the fish and fought for half of it. He got it! That was scary…but also kind of cool to watch.
We ended up fishing and hanging out on the water for about 3 hours before we went back to Arno,Arno. When we did finally get back, I biked back to Lukoj and spent the rest of the evening lesson planning, and bewbewnato-ing with the family. I felt bad being gone all weekend – but it was a rough week and I needed a little decompression.

School is getting better. . . I think. . . .

Well, Movie decided to join us again. That was nice of her I suppose. We started a new quarter yesterday, and things have been going smoothly…so far. I have introduced a few new disciplinary elements to my classes, and they seem to be working nicely. School has gotten a bit easier as I have been learning more about how to effectively engage the students. The class I still have the most trouble with though is my 6th and 7th graders; they simply just don’t get English. Their English comprehension is FAR less than my 4th and 5th graders and they don’t seem to really want to do anything about it. They don’t have disciplinary issues so much as they just don’t talk. I will ask a question and it will be silent…it is like pulling teeth to get them to say anything. There are a few that will talk, but for the most part they are silent. I try not to call them out and make them talk, but sometimes I just have to. Listening to what they say though – it tells me they just don’t get it. I will ask them if they understand something and they will all say yes. Then, I will ask them a question about it and it is like I just asked them to explain it to me in Swahili. They have NO idea. They will repeat some random word that they heard me say, and put a few other words around it in an attempt to make a sentence. Here – I’ll give an example: Last week we spent the week learning about the four seasons and writing paragraphs. We talked a lot about the four seasons and read a story called “Natures Year.” Natures Year outlined the four seasons pretty much, and had 4 or 5 paragraphs explaining what happens in each season. The sections were very distinct – with headers – and the language was simple. We learned 20 vocab words related to the topic and also learned how to write a paragraph. We read examples, talked about them, and wrote example ones as a class. We talked about into, three details and a conclusion, and talked about how to pick out important things from a text to put in a paragraph. We made a sample paragraph about the four seasons in general, and then I tried to have them do it on their own. I asked them each to pick one season and write me a paragraph telling me about it. They were instructed to read the section again by themselves once – read it again and ask comprehension questions they may have (vocab they didn’t know etc) and then once more to write down important details. Then they were supposed to fill out a “paragraph sandwich” template for their season and then write a paragraph. When they were done they should switch with a partner to edit, and then write the final paragraph. I okayed most of the outlines – and then the paragraphs they turned in were almost all completely different. I don’t know how they changed so much, but not a single paragraph made sense. It was so depressing. There were sentences like, “The season is Natures Year is the one a winter. The winter is very hot and gets warmer. In the season there is winter. You can play in the snow. Leav sit an no more, in the a winter is the season.” Their outlines were NOTHING like that and I don’t understand why they changed them…but that was their final product…and it just made me want to cry. They will act like they get it and be enthusiastic in saying they understand…but apparently I have to make 10,000 percent sure. Oh well, I guess that just means we back up and do it again…just go down a different road to learn it this time.

Life here is still good though…again not much is changing. Day to day routines are pretty…well…routine. I got a package from the SPRAGUES today – which completely made my day!

OHHHH and I GOT MY GARDEN SUPPLIES TODAY!!! Three weeks after they were supposed to come about half of them came today! I got a message from Billy this morning that they would be coming – so I went to Arno after school to check it out! Most of the supplies came – but there was no soil or cement. So it’s good that we got this stuff – it’s definitely a start – but we can’t officially start until we get the most important part – soil. Shovels and hoes can only get us so far if there’s nothing to shovel or hoe. Regardless, it was still exciting and I can’t wait for the rest!

Baptizing in the Marshall Islands

Happy Birthday Alex!!!!!

Well, today was interesting. I had my first experience with Baptizing in the Marshall Islands…different could be one word used to describe it. Here in the Marshall Islands they don’t believe in baptizing until you are old enough to have committed sins, and they do it to rid you of all wrong you have made and put you on the road with God. We had our normal session this morning, and this afternoon’s session was on the beach at the Lagoon because there was a baptizing ceremony. Six kids (ranging from 12 to 20) were baptized. The first part of the ceremony was normal…but the strange part came next. All of a sudden my father started walking down to the water. I was expecting him to bring some water back to use a holy water, but he just walked right on into the ocean. He had his very nice church attire on, and just walked right on in…up to about mid stomach. He stood there with his hands towards the Heavens for a few minutes yelling in Marshallese, and then it stopped. At that time the first of the kids walked in to join him; Richie was first. Like my dad he walked in fully clothed and took stance along side Kamot. They were there for about 4 minutes and then my father dunked him under water and he came out. We sang a song for him as he came back, and then it all happened again six times. I wish I had my camera to share the experience with you, but I thought that might have been a little inappropriate. Oh well. Needless to say though, it was a touching ceremony and really cool to see yet another way the Marshallese conduct their lives so differently.

Away from church I spent my Sunday cleaning and organizing the school. The condition of our school is AWFUL and it looks as though it might fall apart any day. The cement walls crumble more each day and wooden windows and doors slowly rot before our eyes. Another year and this school is definitely not going to be standing. No exaggeration.

I cleaned out the extra closet in the Kindergarten house and finally finished sorting out the Library. I hoped I could finish that sooner, but there were too many other things to take care of. I almost died when I saw the boxes that Movie decided to bring over from her house. I can’t tell you how many episodes we have had because no one had pencils and there are no staplers or sharpeners or rulers or markers etc…and movie had three boxes full of EVERYTHING we have needed that she ‘forgot’ she had. How can you forget you have all that stuff when you need it every day?!?! It blows my mind. Oh well. I cleared everything out though, sorted it, and but it all back in an orderly fashion – not just heaps. I also made quarter lesson plans with the weeks laid out (9) and then lessons for this week. It was a TON of work, but it feels nice to be organized. It makes for a lot less stress in the Sundays to come.

My, how time flies.

Today is the end of the first quarter of school! My, how time flies. We have been practicing dances for all of the classes all week and we are planning to perform them at the assembly that is happening next Friday. I have come up with some pretty sweet moves and am quite proud of my dance making abilities. It must be all the practice I got with Mrs. Michelle and at PDC…

Aside from dancing we also had finals in all of my classes today. We had a cumulative spelling test for all classes and then various other assessments for the different classes. The older kids did writing, and the younger kids did individual assessments on related materials. Some went really well, and others – well – lets just say they didn’t go as well. (For example: I had one kid write all letters for the number assessment part, draw shapes for the letters and write a combination of numbers and letters when asked what letter makes the sound /_/…I don’t think he understands English so much.) A lot of the test were what I expected though, so nothing was too surprising. I think the most helpful part about taking them will not be seeing where they are now – but they will really help me figure out what I have to focus on now!

On a completely different note, I think having the kittens live in my house was a bad idea. This is the second time I thought having kittens would be a good idea and it is the second time that having kittens turned out to be a bad idea; and both times have been for the same reason. They go to the bathroom whereever the heck they please…with no regard for the fact that what they may be peeing on happens to be your notebook filled with lesson plans. How rude. They did a good job not going to the bathroom for a while (or at least they hid it nicely and I didn’t find it) but now its all over the place. I keep finding small presents all over my workroom and lots of my stuff smells of urine. It is disgusting. I have tried to kick them out – but they somehow find ways back in. (I guess that is what happens when you have holes all over your house…) I already gave two away to little kids haha so hopefully I can find something to do with the others. One good thing I suppose is that they don’t go in my bedroom or on clothes…so that’s a bonus? Only lesson plans and boxes of books.





PS…Movie has not shown up to school for two weeks exactly today! She claims that she is “sick” yet she is well enough to jambo all over Lukoj during the day bwebwenato-ing with her friends. I would post the reason she says she is not in school, however, it is a little disgusting, so I was spare the details. Anyways, she didn’t come for a week and then she left to go to Majuro on Tuesday. She had not come back and it is the end of the quarter. We have no report cards and no idea what we are supposed to do. Good principal huh?

My Pounding Heart

It was two thirty in the morning last night when I awoke to the sound of a gunshot. My heart was practically pounding out of my body and my muscles jerked into fetal position. I lay there with my eyes wide open not wanting to move. About thirty seconds later I hear the same noise again, only this time it was closer. I had no idea what was going on. I did not hear the sound of rocks crunching under human feet outside my house and there were no voices carrying in the wind. ‘If they were killing an animal,’ I thought, ‘there would definitely be some sort of noise. Maybe someone shot themselves?’ I had NO idea what was going on. I didn’t dare peer out my window and I didn’t dare move. Every muscle in my body was as tense as rock and I had no idea what to do. I was certain there was someone with a gun outside my house – I just didn’t know what was happening. I thought about going to my family’s house, but that was too risky. What if the person thought I was someone else and shot me by accident. I couldn’t go outside!

At about 3:15, still completely wide-awake with my heart beating a million miles an hour and eyes glued open I heard the sound again. It was RIGHT outside my house. I patted around my bed for my headlamp and clung to it as though it was for my life. My eyes filled with tears, but I didn’t let myself cry. As slowly and quietly as I could I slipped out of bed and crawled on the floor. I tried not to make a peep of noise and curled into a ball. The cement was cold and hard and the space under my bed was limited. Within seconds the noise struck again and I began shaking. What on earth was happening? Why were there no animal sounds or any sounds at all for that matter? Why does this person keep shooting a gun? What if he accidentally shoots a bullet at my house? This is horrible. Morning can’t come soon enough.

I laid curled in a ball with my head on my crumpled mosquito net for nearly 3 hours. The noises stopped for a while, but that didn’t the fear away from me. I might have fallen asleep for 10 minutes or so, but I couldn’t let myself; I was too terrified. When morning finally came and I heard the voice of my mother outside I quickly crawled out from under my bed and went outside to see if anything was wrong. I asked my mom if she heard anything last night, and she looked at my like I was crazy. “Nope, not a thing,” she said and continued with her morning routine. THEN, all of a sudden, as I was walking to the cookhouse, the noise happened again! I jumped about a foot in the air and quickly looked all around. Just as my eyes hit the roof of the cookhouse I saw a coconut sliding down the tin roof and tumble onto the ground! I had never felt so silly in my life. A weight of about 1000 pounds was lifted off my chest and I no longer had to be scared of not sleeping for the rest of the year; there was not really a gun and I was not going to be shot by accident. It was only coconuts falling on the tin roof of the cookhouse! Why it took me over two months to hear this for the first time…I don’t know. All I know is the noise those things make when they hit a roof is HUGE and sounds EXACTLY like a gunshot. To think I spent a night on the cement floor under my bed because of a COCONUT…haha well…I guess that’s what happens when you are a naive ri-pelle in the Marshall Islands.

It's Raining - No School!

No school today! There is no snow…there is no thunder storm…there is no lightening… there is no monsoon…there is no hurricane…there is no wind…there is no typhoon…there is no tidal wave…there is no deathly heat…there is just a small rain shower. BUT because there is no such thing as an umbrella or rain coat there and my principle doesn’t want to get wet walking to school and she doesn’t want the kids to either – there is no school. 10 minutes after school is called off the sun clears and the sky is blue. At 8:30 though, the sky was dim and a few rain drops sprinkled down to dampen the hand of Movie as she stuck her hand out of the door way. “No school today, its going to be a wet one,” she said. So – I sit here, now able to catch up on reading a letter, writing and all of the things I never manage to get enough time to do otherwise. I kind of like it! I think I am going to bake cookies with all of the older girls that came to school anyways today – only to find out that there wasn’t any. Then, when we are finished we will all curl up and watch a movie. Almost like the states – when Whit and I would have nothing to do on a Sunday morning when it was raining outside – and we would lay on her couch…eat food all day…and watch movies. It is practically the same thing here today, only: its Tuesday…the food won’t be quite the same…the kitchen we cook in wont be quite the same…there won’t be any Whit…and the TV won’t be quite as large. Oh well, I can pretend. ☺

I think I have actually got people interested in exercising here! I started being really good about exercising (on a need basis) about a little while ago and some of the kids are actually being religious about it with me! JuneJune, Michael, and Jeramin all go running with me every day – and they are the ones pressing me to get off my butt and go. They always come looking for me around 5 – which is when we usually go – and are ready to go. Michael asks me about it all day in school and JuneJune and Jeramin (who are my age) make sure in the morning that we will go at night. I start the week at 25 minutes and ad 5 minutes every day so I run for 50 minutes the last day – and they do it all with me! I was actually really surprised that they would last the whole time – especially since they are running in sandals or without any shoes at all. We carry big rocks or coconuts for parts of the run and really just make the whole thing fun. When we get back from our run we go to the beach and do sit ups, push-ups and other various arm and leg workout stuff. I think having them do it with me really helps me to stay motivated and as much as I though it would just be a joke – it is really awesome. They get really into it, take it seriously, and just make it fun! It’s awesome.

Aside from my new exercise routine, there really isn’t much different going on in Lukoj. Billy and Karen from DSAP should be coming with our supplies this week, but we aren’t sure what day they will be coming.

- I am still horrible at doing my laundry and my clothes still get dirtier.
- Rice and tuna still make up at least one of my meals every day – and eating papaya is probably more delicious than eating chocolate.
- My 4 kittens still like under my bed, and I still haven’t figured out where they go to the bathroom…seeing how they can barely walk.
- I still love living like a rimajel but their constant fixation with my every action still annoys me.
- I still use a coconut in some form or another at least 5 times a day and drink one at every meal
- My showers are still freezing and the first dump of the bucket always takes my breath away (That is ok though since it is the only cold thing on this island)
- I still have yet to want to go home…I love it here.

MY BABY BROTHER HOLDING OUR NEW KITTEN!

It's Open!

Francis’ store opened this weekend! Woo hoo. I took my NEW BIKE (I got a bike in Majuro to save my self the trouble of the flat tires I seem to get every time I borrow someone’s bike) down to Arno this weekend to help out with the farm again. Francis and his wife were there – so it was a lot of fun. Friday night they cooked a delicious meal and Michael (the volunteer in Arno) came over as well. We talked and ate for a very long time and then got some rest for the big day on Saturday. Saturday morning I worked on the farm a bit and then I helped Agnus make tuna sandwiches and Christmas cookies (ha they were the only ones they had – Christmas trees and snowmen) for the big store opening. We set up the inside of the store and brought out a big radio. The whole town came over for the event and it was a blast. During the day I became friends with the deaf lady that is always around because we discovered how to talk using sign language! I remembered the alphabet in sign language and she thought that was the best thing ever – that I knew that! Haha so now we talk using the alphabet. At about 3 o’clock everyone came to the store and there was a ceremonial opening. Prayers were said and people spoke to the honor of Francis and what he gives to the people of Arno. When everyone finished talking, candy began flying and feet began moving to the beat of the blaring music; it was a true Marshallese celebration!

It Pays to Plan

You know that something that I was talking about that I thought changed in school last week…that was just a fleeting illusion. Things are back to their exasperating ways. It may be that I am probably not as prepared as I should be because I was so focused on my grant stuff this weekend that I neglected my lesson plans a bit…but it’s still driving me crazy. Sometimes the kids will have flashes of brilliance and you think they understand it – and two seconds later they will write down what they just told you and you realize that their previous statement was just a lucky blurb that happened to come out of their mouth at the exact right time and answer the question you had posed. You will think they understand what an adjective is – because they happen to say 2 in a row (after doing it for over a week) but then you play a game and realize they have no clue. This week is definitely teaching me to always put the extra effort into planning the whole week, because it can only make things easier for you as the week goes on! I understand now why the teachers here don’t like teaching. If you are imprudent, like many are, you are certainly going to go crazy and hate every second of it. The kids don’t know how to be productive during unstructured time – and 50 out of 60 minutes in a Marshallese classroom is unstructured time. No wonder their teachers are ‘sick’ at least twice a week.

We are still doing lesson plan checks on a weekly basis though – so hopefully structure may begin entering some of their classes and a bit of accomplishment will inspire them to continue planning and putting effort into their job. Right now, even though we are writing lesson plans they still don’t use them, so my next goal is to get them to actually use the plans they spend time writing!