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 28th, 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 1st 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
20th 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.
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| Birthday dinner! |
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| Professor Garrod with the wand |
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| New mumu! |
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| Max, Vee, and Brandon |
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| Jayne's cake! |
Professor Garrod
observed my 2nd 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.
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| Baby puppy |
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| 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!
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| Waan Workshop- love the pink and green sail! (That was our sinking canoe...) |
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| Sail down: Marshallese man swimming the canoe into shore |
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| 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!
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