When we went out to Enneko though, someone had suggested trying to find a yacht that was headed down to Fiji and from there it would be relatively easy to fly over to Samoa. Upon doing a bit of research I met up with a guy named Chuck, who was planning to head out early May. Even though that was a bit early for my liking I figured this was the Marshalls…things don’t always happen on time…I may as well talk to the guy. So while in Majuro, we met up at RRE and got to know one another a bit. From what I heard, it didn’t sound very likely, as there was already a crewmember on board (he generally only takes one) and he was planning to leave May 1. He seemed like a nice guy though and he told me to keep in touch to see if anything had changed. I told him I would be back in Majuro on May 1st and I would give him a call then.
So May 1st rolls around, I come in on the Kirataki, and Chuck is standing on the dock drinking a beer. ‘AWESOME’ I think, ‘he didn’t leave. There is some hope.’ I get off the boat and quickly learn that he ended up ordering some new sails and has to wait for them to come in…it should be about four to six weeks. “Perfect timing,” I am thinking. So he tells me this news and then invites me to come ‘meet this boat’ that night and have dinner with a few of his friends. My hope slowly began to rise at this point, but I didn’t want to get too excited because I had almost written the possibility off last time I left because it really was looking like a one in a hundred chance. That night I went out for dinner and we had a great time; he seemed like a great guy with hilarious stories. After talking for a while, I had convinced him that I could cook (per advice from the former sailor himself, Jimmy Mac) and we even figured out that he and my dad had a lot of connections from sailing in the Caribbean and up in ME back in the day. Crazy how the more you see of the world, the smaller it seems to become. Anyway, we really seemed to have a good time and I think he really liked that I could cook and we had some connections. I think he also assumed that since my dad used to be a sailor I may know a thing or two…but that is DEFINITELY not the case. I don’t even know what side is port and what side is starboard. Haha I did tell him I hadn’t really sailed before though and he didn’t seem to mind. He brought me back to shore after dinner and that was that for the night.
This morning rolls around and I get a call from Chuck around 9…right as I am getting ready to head back to Arno…and he was calling to invite me as crew (the cook) on his trip to Fiji. I think I tinkled a little bit, I was so excited. Not only was I excited because I could now go to Samoa without flying around the world first, I was also going to learn how to sail! Growing up I listened to stories of my dad sailing practically every night…and I always was so envious. I wanted to do that. I wanted to sail, and be part of a crew, and cook on a boat, and have my own stories of sharks eating all the dishes because I was lazy and decided to drag them behind the boat instead of washing them. That all sounded like so much fun. Now I can do all that! I may try to save the plates and learn from one of Jimmy Mac’s mistakes – but I am sure I will have my own screw up stories. I am just incredibly excited to have this opportunity and already can’t wait.
We aren’t sure of the exact departure date but he is thinking around the end of June…giving the new sails four to six weeks to arrive. There is also going to be one other person on board for the trip – Heather. Heather got off another boat here in January and has been looking for a ride ‘anywhere but here,’ as she describes it. She is in her 40’s and was a professional basketball player and coach in Germany for 18 years. She seems like a very independent, tough, funny and laid back girl and I really think the trip should be great.
So on this newfound high I am going to head back to Arno and finish my last 2 weeks of school. Insane. We have 2 more weeks of classes and finals and then we have one last weeks of clean up, assemblies and parties. School for the past few weeks has been a bit of a struggle – as most everyone is already in summer vacation mode. The parents are ready to be done with the teachers and meetings – and the kids are ready to be done with studying and school (although they don’t really study anyways). Attendance is down to about ¾ on a daily basis and drops to about ½ when we get around the weekends. I have tried setting incentives to come to school but you find the same kids coming every day and the same kids cutting. There really isn’t much you can do. We have been playing a lot more English games lately and doing more fun, hands on projects. I don’t think we are really going to do finals – although we are supposed to – I simply do not see the benefit in giving elementary school kids who don’t really know what studying is, a final. It seems a little silly to me. We don’t even have finals in these grades in the states. If anything I will give them a general assessment test that I can give to next years volunteer as a bit of a starting point – but nothing that will count towards their final grade.
This Friday we also have out spelling bee coming up. For the past couple weeks I have been organizing and planning a spelling bee between Lukoj, Arno and Ulien. I put together a list of 250 words and distributed them to the kids of the three towns. I got food donated from MOE and we will have lunch as a break between the two levels. We are going to have two groups – grades 5-6 and grades 7-8. Because Lukoj is different and there is no class 8 we are just going to be down one grade – so we will have 4-5 and 6-7. We may be at a slight disadvantage…but my kids will be fine. They LOVE spelling and we will do lots of practice! We will be spending this week getting ready to kick some Arno and Ulien butt.
May 7, 2009
Happy Birthday Begegak! I am thinking of you on this wonderfulllll day and wishing I could be there to celebrate with you. I hope you have a fabulous day and are getting ready for a HUGE reunion in just a few short months. I LOVE YOU…HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! PS…I fulfilled one of my 101 things to do list entries the other night…so when you get the list you can check off sleep under the stars. It wasn’t the way I exactly wanted it to happen…get stranded waiting for the truck to come (that never does) and ended up sleeping on the Arno dock…but it was a goal and I fulfilled it none the less. Haha so there’s one down for us.
May 8, 2009
I am so proud of my little kids. Ah, I love them so much. CONGRATULATIONS TENSON AND MARLYNNA. Lukoj kids won both the 5-6 and 7-8 grade spelling bee contents. WOO HOO. Tenson who is in 5th won for the younger guys and Marlynna who is in 7th won for the older kids. The reason I am most proud of them too, is because they won on words they haden’t even studied…it showed that they really started understanding how sounds work and are able to sound bigger words out in English! (Oh how the things that excite us can change) The younger kids started in the morning and Lukoj did exceptionally well. We had 2 of the top 3 left standing after 21 rounds that started with 18 students. (Each town had 6 kids from each grade cluster.) Lora, who was actually only in 4th grade and Tenson. Each student was allowed two strikes and after the second they were out. After 17 rounds all of the initial words were used up and we had to move to bonus words that had not been given to them.
Lora and Tenson held on for a few more round, but in the end it was Tenson who prevailed! Lora went out third and then there were only two. In the last round the boy from Ulien misspelled the word ‘trouble’ and it was up to Lukoj. My heard started racing and a huge smile crossed my face as I sat staring at him in anticipation. My legs were jittering and my fingers were intertwining every which way as I silently spelled the word in may head…thinking it might transmit to him??? Who knows. I really had no idea if he was going to be able to spell the word, but something in the back of my mind said that he could. Maybe it was the sly little glance he threw my way when the first boy spelled it incorrectly. “Tenson, if you can spell the word trouble correctly you will be declared the winner of today’s spelling bee,” Michael said. “Please spell the word trouble.” “T-R-O…” he started. And then paused. Come on, I thought to myself, get the U, get the U. AND he did! “-U-B-L-E” he continued and rattled off without hesitation. The room erupted in applause; I gave a little yelp and a big clap. Tenson calmly turned his head down attempting to hide the enormous smile on his face and shyly walked back to his seat. I was so proud of him. Here was a kid who just proved to the rest of his fellow students that it was possible to have fun every day and still study. Imagine that. Fun and studying. Who would have ever thought you can make studying part of your fun. That is just what Tenson, Lora and Michael did and surprise surprised they were the last three standing from Lukoj. Every night they made a little group outside the church, brought their spelling books and studied for over an hour. They would start by singing songs and then play spelling games they made up themselves.
For the older kids Matlynna was able to out-spell all the 8th graders of the three towns and take another win for Lukoj. Their rounds were not quite as lengthy, and the other 5 kids from my school were out in the first couple rounds. (Not surprising, as they are the class that has the most trouble with school and is unable to prioritize school and playing.) Anyways, the last 4 rounds were Marlynna and 4 8th graders from Ulien and after the first of the last 4 we had to again move onto words that were not on the original list. Marlynna breezed through the first few words and her final word was hypothesis. The first student spelled it incorrectly and then it was up to mine. I won’t lie I was a bit nervous and wasn’t entirely sure she would get it. To my elation though she spoke the letters loudly and fluidly as if she had just finished studying the word. Incredible! And there was win number two for Lukoj on the day of the spelling bee!!! Watching how all of Lukoj students responded to the incentive of prizes and recognition, and the success of the top two especially, really put a lot of this year and the reality of my students into perspective for me. It is not that they are stubborn, or narrow-minded, or stupid, or lazy or don’t care - as one may naively think looking at them on a surface level - its just that they don’t know how or what to do. It was a waste of my time earlier this year going round and round and round looking for an answer that didn’t exist. Why don’t these kids have any idea what the principle of school is? They simply don’t know. They have never been taught what studying is. They don’t understand the concept of homework. They have never seen dedication to school – through teachers or parents – so where are they going to get it from? They haven’t really watched their brothers and sisters succeed, only a select few have had that opportunity, however this is because the possibility has rarely existed.
Only last year were they introduced to WorldTeach, and only so much can change in a year where the culture and attitude is so drastically different from what it needs to be. The school system of the outer islands has long been so lackadaisical that no one has ever taught these people what the true meaning and value of education is. So few people understand the possibilities that exist outside of their tiny world; and it is far from their fault. If you were to put 20 kids on basketball court, and they had only ever held a ball and seen in played a few times, the result of their games would be about the same as the result of education in Lukoj. They wouldn’t know how. And if they continued without coaches their improvement would be excruciatingly slow and they most likely would have an extremely difficult time amounting to a team of excellence. If you add proper coaches and positive influences and incentives, however, the learning curve will be substantially greater and the kids will have a much better chance at success.
So while it is easy to get frustrated with their seemingly careless ways of going about school I have to always remind myself it is not their fault. They can not fix something they don’t know to be broken and in their mind they are simply following what everyone in front of them has done and what they have been taught; church and work first and school if there is time.
Anyway, now that our spelling bee is over, we are heading into the last 2 weeks of school. I think I may take a trip down to Ine and visit Rachel this weekend and possibly go out to the small islands that Melissa and I ventured out to earlier in the year. For now though I am going to relax at Francis’ for the night and help Anitak work the store. That is my new side job btw…I am the cashier at the store whenever I come to Arno! Hah One of the workers went back to the Philippines, so whenever I come I give Anitak a break and work for a few hours. It is actually quite entertaining!
May 11, 2009
Went to Ine this weekend for a visit with Rachel and MAN are my legs are tired. I don’t think I have ever walked so much in a two day span in my life. Saturday morning I got up early at Francis’ place and walked back to Lukoj. I had told Rachel earlier in the week I would come down so I decided since I hadn’t talked to her she was probably still expecting that…so what the heck…a little walk won’t be bad. Well, the walk wasn’t so little. At around lunch time I convinced JunJun to do the walk with me so it wouldn’t be quite so long and boring – and that was a good decision. We left at 12 and go there at around 4:30; and we only made one pit stop for water. Yikes. Once we got there he wondered off to a relatives house and I went to Rachel’s and essentially crashed. She had the bright idea of going for a walk, but I vetoed that in about .2 seconds. The next morning the two of us got up around 8 and decided we were going to do the small island trips. We packed a lunch and some snorkel gear and went to find JunJun. We walked about 2 hours to where the beginnings of the Islands are and then about 45 minutes out onto all the different individual pieces of land. We took a few breaks to go snorkeling and really had a good time. Thinking of the rest of my day though, at around 12:30 I suggested we head back so we could rest at least a little bit more walking all the way back to Lukoj. YIKES. So we walked almost 3 hours back to Ine, to Rachels house, and then after a SHORT 20 minute break and a bowl of rice and tuna JunJun and I set out for Lukoj again. This trip was a bit on the slower side and the last hour was in the pitch black. NOT fun. Coconuts and large puddles aren’t glow in the dark and there are a LOT of them on the last hour of the walk. We finally made it back at around 8:30 and I was absolutely dead. Not saying it wasn’t a fun day, it was simply more walking then I think I have ever and probably will ever do in one day.
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