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!