West Side Story

Cast party with Tommy

            West Side Story was INCREDIBLE! The cast put on such a hit, a total of five nights. There were four scheduled performances on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Jim Kraemer, an American who owns the construction company in the Marshall Islands, RRE Compound, the US Embassy, and Enimonet (just to name a few of his properties), paid Professor Garrod $1,000 to put on a private performance on Monday for his employees. We also found out that someone offered Garrod $5,000 to do the show another night, but he had to decline because the kids are in finals week and we wouldn’t have enough time to take apart the set and clean up the ICC. Wednesday and Thursday nights, there were about 250 people there, and then Friday and Saturday, we had between 800 and 900 audience members! Monday Kraemer brought about 600 people. It was the largest audience Professor Garrod has had for any of his plays in the 13 years he’s been coming to Majuro. We calculated that 1 out of every 10 people in Majuro saw the play, including the current president, former president, US ambassador, and minister of education.

Jets on Stage at the ICC

Bernardo (Vahid) and Tony (John)

            The show got raving reviews. Lulani, a senior from Co Op, the private school, played Maria, and she was amazing. She’s acted in a few films about the Marshall Islands and hopes to continue her education in America. John, a student at CMI, the community college of the Marshall Islands, played Tony. He’s been a lead in a few of Professor Garrod’s Shakespeare plays. The person who really stole the show, though, was Anita, who was played by Jennifer, a senior at Marshall Islands High School. She’s incredibly sassy and delivers all of her lines with so much gusto. She’s actually hilarious. Every time she opened her mouth, either to sing or speak, everyone laughed hysterically. The rest of the cast was extremely cohesive, and I’m amazed at the amount of hard work they put into the show. Professor Garrod had them staying for six hour practices, until 10 at night, and none of them ever complained. They just wanted to make the show perfect, and I think it was as close to perfect as could ever be.

Maria (Lulani) and Riff (Niten)

Henry and his ukulele

            My role for the show was makeup artist and operating the fog machines during two scenes. Every night before the play started, I did all of the cast members’ makeup, which was a lot of fun. I got to know the kids well, and it was especially funny to do the boys’ makeup. By the last night, all the boys were putting their own makeup on before I even got there. They were totally into it. I had a helper from MIHS, Mia, who also put makeup on the cast. She came when we were painting the sets too. She’s great. I’m definitely going to miss her.

Hanging out with the cast

Some impromptu acapella

            On Sunday, there was a cast party at Marshall Islands’ Resort. We were all jumping into the lagoon and everyone was getting thrown into the gross pool. It was so much fun hanging out with the cast and dancing and celebrating all of their efforts. They were doing impromptu acapella with their ukuleles, which was actually insane. I have a bunch of videos of their songs. At the end of the party, they did a skit where they imitated all of the volunteers, which was hilarious. They also sang us two goodbye songs, and we all almost cried. I’m going to miss these kids so much. They’re really great and talented, and I hope they continue with acting, singing, and dancing. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye at the end of the week!   

Jumping in the pool

Post pool jumping at cast party

The skit at the cast party

Talent Show and Three Bag Island

Ben, my student, and I at the MMS Talent Show

 So much has happened since my last post! I taught a full five courses all week because one of the teachers is out for a week and a half. That was a challenge of itself, mostly because of the amount of grading I had to do. There are 30 students in each class, so with five classes that was 150 essays I had to grade! The increased time in the classroom wasn’t so bad, and I actually enjoyed getting to spend time with some more of the 8^th graders. It was nice to get to compare their writing levels to the writing levels of my students. I’d like to say that my students had better structure for their paragraphs. I’ve been trying to get them to always use a topic sentence, three supporting details with transition words, and a concluding sentence. Hopefully they remember everything I’ve taught them once I leave- I can’t believe I’m only here for less than two more weeks!

This week was also devoted to final preparations for the Majuro Middle School Talent Show. I was working with our principal, Anthony, and a group of MMS teachers to finalize our silent auction, the list of performers, and other details. We held one last rehearsal on the stage at the gym on Tuesday. Courtney, one of the DVTP grad students and a teacher at MMS, was our MC for the show, so he was helping out with the practice. We also had one student from the girls’ club, Sunshine, as assistant MC. She’s great- she has so much sass and can really fire up a crowd.

Thursday was the Talent Show! It was incredible how much support we got. There were over 1,000 people there with about 20 talent acts. We pre-sold more than $1,000 in raffle tickets, sold all the food, and four of the items for the silent auction. I got to the RRE compound at 3:30 right after school to help set up. I worked at the silent auction table outside Tide Table, the restaurant at the RRE compound, until about 5:30 when I went over to help coordinate the talent acts. We ended up selling two amimano fans and hats made by our guidance counselor, Neritha Jacklick, and a “Iakwe” bag (which means “hello” in Marshallese). We also had two paintings made by one of the teachers and a pair of earrings which we unfortunately didn’t sell. Once 6:00 rolled around, which was supposed to be the starting time of the show, most of the talent acts still weren’t there, which is very typical for the Marshallese who are always running on island time. They don’t think anything of arriving two hours late for things. We finally got the show started around 7:00, and we didn’t end until 9:45. By around 7:30, there was a huge crowd there, and people were trying to sneak in around back.

The first act to go was a group of 7^th grade girls doing a hula dance. We then had the most adorable group of about 15 Filipino kids ages 3-10 dancing to Party Rock Anthem and a Marshallese sing. They were incredible. They started break dancing and were actually the cutest kids I’ve ever seen. They go to Co Op and Baptist mostly, which are two private schools in Majuro, and they’re the daughters and sons of different teachers at various schools and some doctors. That was so much fun to watch. We also had the students from Ejit Elementary school, which is the island where a lot of the refugees from Bikini atoll live. They did the Cotton Eye Joe and a Marshallese song where they banged together coconut shells. They were super cute as well. The rest of the acts were students from MMS, most of them doing hula dances and two groups of boys playing the keyboard and singing. The best act was Sunshine, another 8^th grader, and Rosita’s (Filipino teacher at MMS) eight year old daughter, Yana, who goes to Co Op doing Azonto. Carleigh said it was the best rendition of Azonto she’s ever seen (and they dance to Azonto a lot, it’s literally the only song they play on the radio here). They were incredible, especially Yana. She’s super self-confident and outgoing for an eight year old. During the show, Jayne, Vee, Sunshine, her sister, Yana, and I went up on stage and did a freestyle dance to Gangnam Style, which is also a favorite song here. That was ridiculous, but so much fun. Yana did a split in the middle of the stage. That girl is awesome. We also had three raffle prizes that we announced at the end of the show. The grand prize was $300, and then we had two gift certificates.

Filipino kids

Sunshine, Yana, and Teliah

Ejit Kids doing Cotton Eye Joe

Gangnam Style

The most stressful part of the talent show was having groups of kids running up to me saying they were ready to perform, and then actually they were waiting for their friend, and then actually they were too scared. I had to rearrange the order about 30 times. The entire show I was running around looking for the performers and trying to get them to line up by the side of the stage so we could have smooth transitions between songs. It was totally worth it in the end, though. I had a blast hanging out with my students, watching them perform, and raising money for the teachers. I’m excited to find out how much we ended up raising. The principal was very happy with the way the show went. We ended up hanging out after the show with some of the teachers, and everyone was exhausted but very glad we did the show. I’m really proud of all the effort I put into making the show run smoothly. It’s nice to know that I did this project that will have a lasting impact on MMS. Hopefully we can send as many teachers as possible to the PREL conference in Saipan this summer. I’m looking forward to hearing how far the money will go. 

Crowd at Show

Room 205's hula dance

Friday was Nuclear Victims Day from World War II, so we did not have school. We ended up going to an island about 10 miles away called “Three Bag Island.” We rented out the whole island for only $30 a person for the night. There was a big bungalow where we spent the night. Three Bag Island is a little bit past Eneko, and you really realize how in the middle of nowhere the Marshall Islands are when you are on it. Unlike the other islands we’ve been on, Three Bag Island is separated from the other islands by The whole island takes about 2 minutes to walk around. It is covered in palm trees, so you feel like you are in a jungle. There’s a tiny beach on the lagoon side that we could swim in, and then the other side of the island is the Pacific Ocean. The current is ridiculously strong, even though the waves don’t break until about 300 yards out. We waded into the ocean a little bit and didn’t have any desire to go any farther. The waves are probably 10 feet tall! We got to barbeque and just hang out for the afternoon/ night. It was nice to relax after such a busy week!

Bungalow at Three Bag Island

Three Bag Island

Hanging out on the porch

Lagoon side

On Saturday after getting back from Three Bag Island, I spent the day at the Technical Rehearsal for West Side Story at the ICC. The backdrop I helped paint for the set was up and running. In addition to designing the lighting, I’m the makeup designer with Becky. We ran around town looking for the makeup we needed, which is incredibly difficult to find in Majuro. We are doing a blue them for the Jets and a red theme for the Sharks. We got eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, lipstick, and nail polish. That’s basically all we can use because of the budget, but I think it will show up pretty well. There are four girls from MIHS helping us on the nights of the play, and two of them came yesterday to the rehearsal. We experimented on some of the cast members during rehearsal, which was a ton of fun. The boys looked ridiculous up close with their eye shadow. They were having a blast with it. I’m also operating the fog machine for two of the scenes, when Tony and Maria first meet and then during the ballet sequence. The play is looking really good so far! This week will be crazy busy with it- we’ll be practicing Monday and Tuesday from 4 until about 11, and then the show is on Wednesday through Saturday so we’ll be there from around 5 until midnight. I’m looking forward to it, though. The kids have put in so much work, and I know they’ll do great!

Tech Rehearsal

Valentines Day, Enimonet, and Yachties

I’ve done a lot of work for West Side Story this past week. On Wednesday, Brandon, Max and I met with Ken, who works at W’aan, at the International Convention Center, where the play is being held, about lighting. I’m doing all of the lighting design for the play, and Brandon is operating the lighting board during the play. Brandon, Max, and I also met with Professor Garrod on Saturday morning for two hours to talk about where the students will be standing in each scene so we have a better sense of how to design the lighting. We’re planning on always illuminating the backdrop with blue lights and then having tiny Christmas lights outlining the buildings to create the city scenery. We’re going to have strobe lighting during the rumble, and we’ll have a spot light at certain points too. I’ll be operating the spot light during the play. There’s also a ballet sequence where we’ll use dry ice. It’s a lot of working doing all of the lighting, but it’ll be rewarding. I’m not really 100% sure how I’m going to do all of this because the only experience I have is from Theater 40, but Professor Garrod really needs me to design the lighting. There’s no one else who has any technical theater experience, so I’ll have to rise to the challenge!

On Valentines Day, I showered all of my classes with candy and stickers! I gave out probably around 300 heart stickers and about 200 pieces of candy. We played jeopardy with comparative and superlative adjectives with the candy and stickers as prizes, which was a lot of fun. The kids were all putting their stickers on their faces and all over their bodies. There was also a math competition at the ICC on Valentines Day for all of the schools in Majuro, both public and private. It was a huge deal when Majuro Middle School won the 7^th and 8^th grade competitions! Usually Co Op, the best private school on the island, always wins, but we won this time! All of the teachers and students were celebrating hardcore when we found out. I was feeling proud to be a teacher at MMS.

Valentine Sticker!

Doing some work

We were out of water this week for 3 days, so it was an adventure showering/ washing dishes. To shower, we had to fill up buckets of water from the one faucet outside the dorm that worked and then just pour water on ourselves from the bucket. We filled a bucket with that same water to do the dishes. Also, our trailer door has been broken for about 2 weeks so we have to climb in through the window.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Enimonet, which is an island close to Eneco. Cary, one of the yachties, took us there. The island is owned by the Kramer family, and there is a high dive into the lagoon, a water slide, barbeques, picnic tables, and pigs running around the island. There is also a sunken airplane and helicopter (that were paced there, they didn’t actually crash) that we snorkeled around. While swimming to shore, I struck up a conversation with a random Marshallese man on a jetski (the only one in the Marshall Islands) and got a free ride! The owners of the jetski, Carlos and Dominic, were on shore, and I chatted with them too. They work in the government and went to Assumption. They were showing around some Japanese engineers who were here on business and leaving the next day to go back to Japan. It’s always so interesting to hear people’s stories and see how many people you randomly meet. 

Enimonet

Mary Poppins coming out of the water

Andrew jumping off the boat

The girls

Snorkeling

Hi Max!

On Sunday, I worked on a yachtie crew for the monthly Mieco Beach Yacht Club sailing race. I was on a boat with Cary and Karen, who are two of the initial founders of the yacht club 10 years ago. “Mieco Beach” is the name of the tiny beach outside Marshall Islands Resort, which is the home of the yacht club. It stands for “Marshall Islands Exporting Company.” Cary has had his boat, the Seal, since he was 20 years old, and he’s been travelling the world since then. He’s about 60 now. He met Karen in Australia, and she’s been living on the boat for 30 years with him. They’ve been in the Marshall Islands for 15 years. Cary manages a shipping boat, and Karen is a journalist for the local newspaper. Her dad was the features editor of the NY Post, which I found exciting! They get super intense about racing- they’ve won the past 3 yacht races. We won today also, by just 5 seconds! Cary and Karen had us running around the boat, pulling in the sheets, tightening the wenches, and pigeoning on the rail (which is basically a way to balance out the weight on the boat). They’re very interesting people. I couldn’t see myself living how they do, but it’s fascinating talking to them and hearing their stories. 

Yacht Race

Karen and Cary

Nancy and I on board the "Seal"

The "Seal"

I’m excited for the upcoming week. It’ll be a busy one, with lots of work for West Side Story on lighting design, painting the sets, and shopping for make up supplies!

February 13th, 2013

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            Plans for the Majuro Middle School Talent Show have really taken off! We’ve officially booked a space at Robert Reimer’s resort, have made 4,000 raffle tickets to sell, and held auditions on February 12^th. We’re getting sponsored by local businesses like EZ Price (a hardware store), Payless (a grocery store), and DAR (a restaurant). The grand raffle prize is going to be $300, but we’re going to have gift certificates to a number of these businesses as consolation prizes. I’ve been running around organizing all of this, and I can’t wait to see the final result. My homeroom students have been diligently practicing their “hula dance” routine every afternoon, and I’ve been helping them out with their dance a bit. They’re doing it to “Danza Kuduro.”

Room 205 practicing for Talent Show

More practice

            On Tuesday, we had Talent Show auditions. There were about 100 students there, and they were all crowding around the windows of the classroom that the auditions were being held in. We had 10 eighth grade acts, which took about 2 hours to watch because there was a lot of shuffling around between acts. They were all “hula dance” routines, and I have to admit that my homeroom looked very put together! There were 3 other teachers helping me with the auditions. From the auditions, I’m going to put together a lineup for the night of the show. We also have a number of other acts lined up like a musical performance from a parent, songs from a Fijian choir, the SDA singing group, Ejit Elementary school students, Co Op Elementary school students, and an act or two from us Dartmouth Volunteers! As of now, we have 18 acts in total, but I’m going to try to cut it down to 14 or 15 by combining some of the student acts.

Auditions

More auditions

Room 205's audition

            Over the weekend, we ran a 5k, which was part of the Majuro Day celebration that’s going on next week. That event was very fun, and Nancy even won some prize money! I met a lot of interesting people there too, like the principal of Co Op, the private school on the island, and a Japanese man who works at the Ministry of Education. We also went to the Majuro Peace Park, which is a little bit past the airport on the way to Laura, about a 30 minute drive. The park is a memorial for Japanese nuclear bomb victims in World War II, since Bikini atoll was used as the site for the nuclear bomb testing. We took a taxi there, and it cost $6. From the four of us, the driver made $48 round trip because he picked us up on the way back. Normally, taxi drivers earn about $15-$20 in a day, so it was nice to give him such good business. Taxi drivers don’t own their own cars either, so they only put about $4 of gasoline in their cars (it’s around $5.50 a gallon).

Relaxing at the peace park

Sign for Majuro Peace Park

Ocean side at peace park

Lagoon side at peace park

            I also spent a lot of time helping out with play practice this past week and over the weekend. I’ve been working with the actors and coaching them through their lines. I’ve gotten the chance to practice with Nitan, who plays Riff in West Side Story, Varjid, who is Bernardo, Jennifer, who is Anita, and also a few actors who have smaller parts. Most of the leads know all their lines, but most of the actors with supporting roles barely know any of their lines, so it’s tough to smoothly run through an entire scene. The dress rehearsal is in less than 3 weeks, so everyone is starting to feel the crunch.

            We also visited the copra processing plant on Monday after school. Copra is the Marshall Islands’ biggest export. It’s made from coconuts. The meat is ground into coconut oil, and the shell is used as feed for livestock.

Copra processing plant sign

              I gave my students a group project for Monday and Tuesday. In their groups, they wrote persuasive paragraphs about whether or not they think littering, which is a massive issue in Majuro, should be illegal. They made colorful posters that they presented to the entire class, and then I hung the posters around the classroom.

Group work

            Every day, I am struck by the amount of artistic talent I discover in Majuro. On day one, simply walking down the street, I witnessed mere five and six year olds expertly strumming the ukulele. As the weeks pass, I find more and more of my students possess an incredible knack for dancing, or singing, or making handicrafts, or merely painting intricate designs on their nails. I’ve really come to realize how talented my students are through the talent show and West Side Story. It is such a shame that laziness is so ingrained in their culture. If they had more opportunities to develop these talents and show their worth, they could do so much more.

It is extremely frustrating to see my students and others accomplish very little in the classroom and on a global scale because they are not given the chance to demonstrate what they can do, or they procrastinate too much. Something that Marissa, Professor Garrod’s choreographer for West Side Story, said has stuck with me. She declared that the, “Marshallese children can pick up any dance or song faster than any American children she has ever taught. They have an uncanny knack for song and dance that is unparalleled possibly anywhere else in the world” she has seen thus far. I really hope there is a way for all of this talent to be recognized outside of the Marshall Islands. All I can do for now, though, is to encourage my students to work hard and manifest their talent to Majuro and themselves. 

Marshallese Lesson, Radio, Birthday, Puppy, and Waan

This week was very exciting, and I learned lots of new things about the Marshall Islands. On Monday at girls’ club, my student Christina suggested we have a talent show at Majuro Middle School. I loved the idea, and after brainstorming throughout the club, we decided we could sell tickets and raise money for a cause. I immediately went to talk to the principal, and he said the school was looking for a way to raise funds to send two teachers to a teachers’ conference in Micronesia. We set a tentative date for February 28^th, and Anthony said that we could rent out a space in Robert Reimer’s resort for the occasion. I’m very excited for this possibility, and hope plans can start to take off! At our Wednesday’s girls’ club meeting, we did lots of brainstorming for ideas to plan for the talent show. Hopefully this can become an ongoing project for the club

We had our first Marshallese language lesson on Monday night. Our instructor’s name is Angeline. She’s Carleigh’s friend and attends College of the Marshall Islands. We learned many new words, my favorite of which are “jijet” and “jap keroro,” which mean “sit down” and “be quiet.” I used them during classes this week, and the students thought it was hilarious. It got their attention though!

On Tuesday, I started tutoring after school, which I will from now on do every Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday, I worked with Ben Bien and Ablos Bien, who are brothers in my 1^st period class. They moved from an outer island, so they have more trouble with English than most other students. They’re moving to America next month, and they actually sought me out for extra help, which was very good of them! Thursday, I tutored a girl named Aliana, and we spent forty-five minutes writing seven sentences in the future tense. She really speaks no English. I was shocked at how little she knew.

Tuesday, I also sat in on Scott Stege’s radio show taping, the Moonlight Hour. He played traditional Marshallese music, and also interviewed the West Side Story choreographer, Marissa (Dartmouth ’05). I got to speak on air for a few minutes as well about what the Dartmouth undergraduate volunteers are doing in Majuro, which was very exciting!

Wednesday was my 20^th birthday, which was a lot of fun! Vee decorated my door, so when I woke up I had streamers and cards all over the front of it. We went to Tide Table for dinner, and Nancy got everyone party hats and noise makers. Vee got me a beautiful pink mumu and a handicraft flower. Jayne also made me a delicious red velvet cake. It was a great day. The best part of the day was when Professor Garrod tried on the crown Vee got for me and waved her fairy princess wand in the air.

Birthday dinner!

Professor Garrod with the wand

New mumu!

Max, Vee, and Brandon

Jayne's cake!

Professor Garrod observed my 2^nd period class on Thursday, and I’ve never seen the students so well behaved! He gave me some good pointers for my teaching. He said that I should walk around the room more while I’m teaching, so students in the back pay more attention and it will also help with classroom management. He said don’t cater to the weakest students as much, which he said is always a big challenge for Dartmouth volunteers because there’s such a wide range of abilities in each class. He also said end class a few minutes before the bell rings and do a recap, rather than trying to recap after the bell since most students stop paying attention. I’m really grateful for these pointers! I think they should help a lot.

The students were supposed to take a practice test for entrance to MIHS on Friday, but the principal didn’t photocopy the exams, so typical. We had to wait an hour for the photocopying to get done, so I had to entertain the kids for that time. We played jeopardy, which was crazy. They were running to the board to put down answers and getting so into it. It was a lot of fun. We also played “wa,” which they definitely don’t understand but thought was really funny, and then I led them in ridiculous yoga stretches for about 15 minutes. That definitely got a lot of their energy out. We then played hangman, which they found entertaining for a very long time. It was fun, even if I was disappointed that the principal hadn’t taken care of preparing the exams.

Carleigh gave us a 3-week-old puppy to take care of for the weekend. It is literally the cutest dog ever. Nancy and Jayne spent a few hours getting rid of its fleas, because it had so many. It slept in Nancy’s room, and she might bring it back to the US! We might get to keep it for the rest of our time here also, which would be awesome.

Baby puppy

So tiny!

Saturday, we went to Wann to ride on outrigger canoes. Wann is a workshop that also acts as an alternative schooling option for people who don’t pass their entrance exam to MIHS. The outrigger canoes have been used for hundreds of years to sail between atolls. The canoe paddle is used as a rudder to steer, and there’s also a sail. You get soaking wet while sailing! Becky and I were on one canoe, and once we were way out in the middle of the lagoon, the boat started sinking! The canoe part had scraped coral when we were being pushed out from shore, and it filled completely with water. Luckily, a random tiny motorboat was passing and pulled us all the way to shore. It was certainly an adventure!

Waan Workshop- love the pink and green sail! (That was our sinking canoe...)

Sail down: Marshallese man swimming the canoe into shore

End of the rescue

It was a great week, and I can’t wait to go back to school on Monday and see what next week has to hold!