December 30, 2012 to January 10, 2013

Yokwe!

Yokwe, or hello, from the Marshall Islands! I've been on Majuro atoll now for a little over a week, and am loving every minute of it. My journey started off at Newark airport, where I flew to Honolulu and then spent the night. Bright and early, at 5:20 AM, we caught a plane to Majuro, which took five hours. It felt as if we were chasing the sun around the world; we crossed the international date line and suddenly it was January 1st! My first impression of the island can be summarized in a word: "narrow!" The landing strip was about 500 yards wide, with the lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other.

Typical scene in Majuro

Carleigh and Eric, the field directors, picked us up in their trucks and drove us to the Marshall Islands' High School, where we will be living in a trailer and dorm rooms for the next 10 weeks. Majuro Middle School is also located on this campus, where I will be teaching 8th grade English.

Majuro Middle School

Marshall Islands High School

My room in the dorm

The first few days on Majuro were dedicated to settling in and learning the Marshallese way of life. We had a few meals at the restaurants on the island, which were definitely an experience. Food takes two hours to come to the table, and waiters often forget your order! So far, we have eaten at the Marshall Islands Resort, Tide Table, DAR, and a cafe right on the shore. My favorite food that I've tried is called "poke," which is basically spicy raw tuna. The tuna here is very fresh because fishermen catch it right from the lagoon. Some other local foods I've eaten are pandanas, which are fruits that you eat by twisting the outside with your teeth and taste like a flower, and coconut.

Pandanas

Kids and ukulele

The DVTP graduate students were in Majuro until Sunday after celebrating the New Year. On New Year's Eve, there is a giant block party that everyone goes to. Most of the grad students teach on outer islands such as Jaluit, Ejit, and Arno. To get to these islands, you have to take a plane or a boat. There's only one plane that flies out from Majuro to these islands, though, and it was broken, so some of the grad students were stranded for a few extra days. World Teach Volunteers who were supposed to go back to their outer islands a week ago are still here because of dangerous white caps in the ocean! It was really great to meet one grad student, Ben, who gave me lots of ukulele lessons. I bought a ukulele at EZ Price, a convenience store (I feel like it's the Marshallese Costco), and am hoping to be able to play some songs once I get back. A lot of the students are very talented musicians, so I'm going to bring my ukulele into school and try to get them to teach me.

Ben playing his ukulele

Thursday was my first day going into Majuro Middle School. I met the principle, Anthony, and vice principle, Len, and started to get acclimated to the school. Almost no students showed up that day because they were still celebrating New Year's. I spoke with Anthony about starting a girls' club after school, which I am excited about beginning next week. On Friday, there was another half day of school, and I got to observe my first classes. I was paired with an 8th grade English teacher named Rosita, and I watched her review final exams. The students are working on the past tense, simple sentence structure, and later on in the term, writing paragraphs. They have to take an entrance exam to get into high school, and if they don't pass, they have to drop out of school, which is really disturbing. So many students are way behind grade level, and it'll be a challenge helping them prepare for this test.

My Classroom, Room 205

This past weekend, we went to Laura Beach, which is located on the opposite end of the island. We're in Rita, which is on one tip of the island. Laura Beach is 36 miles away, and we rode in Carleigh and Eric's pickup trucks there. It took about an hour, and we got to ride with Carleigh and Eric's puppy! Once we got to the beach, Max and I went on a really long snorkeling adventure. Laura Beach connects the ocean and the lagoon because it is the tip of the island, so you can swim on both sides. About 300 yards out on the ocean side though, there are very strong currents so you can't swim past that point. When we were snorkeling, we saw so much diversity in the marine life. There were hundreds of different kinds of fish and coral, and I even saw a sock. There's so much pollution here- it's so moving to be in paradise but surrounded by litter. My favorite fish that I saw were a cheetah print fish and a school of 100 blue neon fish. There was also really cool blue neon coral. The girls went on a walk down the beach and collected lots of amazing shells and coral. I got a spider conch shell and some pink coral. It was such a treat going to Laura!

The crew of undergrads

Intense snorkel time with Max

Just chilling on a log

On Monday at school, I got assigned a new mentor teacher named Zin. He's Marshallese, and I will be observing his classes all of this week and then lesson planning and teaching two of his classes starting next week. The students are learning simple past tense and irregular verbs. The difference in ability between the students is amazing. Some of them speak English very well, while others barely understand it. That will definitely be challenging. I've been walking around the classroom and helping students with worksheets, and I've also been helping teach by explaining answers on worksheets and going over homework assignments at the board. Most of the students will not do homework though, so I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to realistically assign. I will be taking over 1st and 2ndperiod, so I've especially been getting to know those students. Zin and I will also be tutoring together after school twice a week. On Wednesday and Thursday, I got to teach two full lessons a day, which was very exciting! I'm really looking forward to having a set schedule and being in charge of my own classrooms.

The view from my classroom

This week, we've also been going to Professor Garrod's West Side Story auditions at the high school. All of the undergrads will be helping out with the play in some way. I will probably be helping with text interpretation and building sets. Many of the students are extraordinarily talented, so I'm excited to see the final result. All of the dialogue will be in Marshallese, and all of the songs will be in English. Professor Garrod is even flying out an '07 to do all of the dance choreography! She will be here for 16 days, so the students will be working very hard during that time to learn the dances. Other than that, our group of undergrads is a great gang. We've been having a lot of fun hanging out in the trailer, going into town, cooking dinners together, and even doing this workout video called Insanity. Whenever we do Insanity all of these kids love to do it with us. It's really funny to watch all of the kids staring at the computer screen. They find it hilarious. Life here in Majuro has been great so far, and can't wait for the days to come!