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!

Week 4

This week at school, I did a big review with my eighth graders of nouns, including proper, common and possessive nouns. Most of them have been taught about nouns in the past, but they still made lots of mistakes on the classwork I gave them. I also started teaching how to write paragraphs. We went over the structure of a paragraph, and then I introduced topic sentences. I want to spend a lot of time on writing paragraphs, because there is a section on the entrance exam for Marshall Islands High School that focuses on expository writing. The students seemed to understand what a topic sentence is and can identify topic sentences in paragraphs, but they are having trouble actually writing them. They usually focus too much on details and are having problems grasping the idea of writing a general introductory statement. I'm planning on spending more time next week working on their writing. I hope to focus on paragraph writing for the remainder of my time here.

Girls' Club this week was lots of fun as well. I tried to teach them how to play Capture the Flag, but they didn't really understand it, so we played a Marshallese game instead. It's called "peruta," (I think that's how you spell it) and it's sort of like football mixed with handball. There are two teams, and they line up on either side of the field. One player on a team hides a ball behind her back, and then everyone runs forward and tries to move the ball to a goal on the opposite side. It gets super rough- the girls were literally attacking each other! It was really funny. They got so into it.

Zin, my mentor teacher, wrote letters home to parents of 15 struggling students, and this week we are going to start tutoring them after school twice a week. I'm excited to work in a one on one academic setting with my students.

On Saturday, we walked to the end of Rita and then swam to Ejit, an island nearby where Vee and Becky teach. There were two channels we had to cross to get there. The channels connect the ocean to the lagoon and have a very strong current that moves you into the lagoon. We had to sprint across the channels to avoid getting too off course! Max and I snorkeled around a sunken ship off of Ejit. The coral reef drops off very suddenly to about 40 feet deep, and the boat reaches all the way to the bottom of the lagoon. There were lots of sea urchins and eels around the ship, which was neat to see. We walked onto Ejit too, and there are no cars and very humble homes. We didn't get to walk around too much though, because we had to head back to Majuro for a pizza party with the cast of West Side Story.

Marissa (Dartmouth '05), Professor Garrod's choreographer for West Side Story, is leaving on Monday to go back to Sarah Lawrence. The cast of West Side Story performed three Marshallese songs for her at the pizza party and gave the most thoughtful speeches. They said that they were grateful to God that she came to Majuro, and that when she returns she always has a place to stay in their homes. It was so sweet. We were all tearing up.

West Side Story cast singing to Marissa

After the pizza party, we went to the Marshall Islands Billfish club tournament at Marshall Islands Resort. There was a 180 pound fish being displayed! The tournament is a competition for fishermen in the area where judges weigh their fish. The record is an 800 pound fish!

Billfish tournament

On Sunday, we went to Church at Assembly of God right by the high school. It was interesting to see. The Marshallese are very religious, and church services last multiple hours. We stayed for about 45 minutes just to check it out. The entire service was in Marshallese, and they sung very beautiful hymns. People wander in hours late, very typical to the Marshall Islands. It was nice to see that part of Marshallese culture. Sunday was also Becky's birthday! We got her a princess pinata and celebrated that afternoon.

Happy birthday Becky!

Church

Yachties and Girls' Club

One of my students on Monday after class

 This weekend was amazing. Friday night, there was a meeting at Marshall Islands Resort for the yachties, who are these old people who sail around the world and race their sailboats around the lagoon on Sundays. Vee, Becky, Jayne, and I met, Jacob, a 28 year old from Lake Tahoe, CA who sailed his boat with two friends, Reese and Collin, from CA to the Marshall Islands. They're planning to sail around the whole world. Jacob cashed in his retirement (yes, at 28) and bought a 38 foot sailboat. Reese bartended at Tide Table, another restaurant, and he's helping Professor Garrod build the sets for the play, so these three are actually friends of Professor Garrod's. We got to talking Friday, and Jacob invited us on his boat for the weekend to sail to Eneco Saturday morning, spend the night on the boat, and do the yacht race on Sunday. We also met three helicopter pilots from New Zealand who are stationed on a tuna fishing boat and use their helicopters to spot tuna. They're at port for 3 weeks before taking off on the boats again. One of the New Zealanders, Yannis, and I made plans to go running together Saturday morning before Eneco, and we actually followed through on the plans, which was a blast! On our run, we stopped at his friend Jacob's (another Jacob) house who was a Dartmouth '07 and is working at the Environmental Protection Agency in Majuro and sat in his living room and drank water together. It was really random.

Jacob sailing "Genesis Earthling"

We boarded the boat at 10 on Saturday to go to Eneco. Jessica, a 30 year old who works at a non profit here, Youth to Youth, was on board too for the weekend. She's hosting Reese at her house through couchsurfing.com, a website that gives you free houses to stay at anywhere in the world. Jessica is really interesting- she got her masters at St. Andrew's in international security, was in the Peace Corps for 2 years in Ethiopia, and also lived in Isreal. Jacob's boat is called "Genesis Earthling," and it's totally hippie and he's an intense Buddhist. He has all these quotes and surfboards hanging everywhere, all this incense in his boat, and all this organic health food everywhere. He hasn't cut his hair in 2 1/2 years because he says that he read a story about how in some war the Navajos who were drafted into the army had to cut their hair against their will and religion, so now he doesn't cut his hair. So we sailed to Eneco, and then the New Zealanders (we were calling them the Kiwis), Yannis (my running buddy), Dan, and Nick were already on Eneco and they swam out to the boat to meet us.

Inside of "Genesis Earthling"

Sailing the boat

Jayne and the Kiwis + Jacob

We spent the whole day hanging out on the boat, and I jumped off the 20 foot mast into the water! It was terrifying...Jacob had to climb up to the top with me and coach me through it. I was literally up there for 10 minutes freaking out about jumping in. The water was about 60 feet deep though so it was totally fine, but SO scary. And then Vee jumped off and did a belly flop! That was actually hilarious. Nick the Kiwi got it on video- watch out youtube. Jacob did a backflip off the top of the mast! Then, Reese took me spearfishing, which is when you use a slingshot spear and go free diving and catch fish. I hit one fish, but it didn't spear all the way through so I didn't kill it. But he got a couple, and then Collin also got a bunch, so at night we had a giant bonfire on the beach and cooked the speared fish! Around the bonfire, we all played family band. Reese played his ukulele and Jacob played his trumpet (so badly it was too funny). The boys camped under a tarp on the beach (and it poured over night so that was a little rough) and us girls got the boat for the night.

Jumping off the mast

Bonfire

Becky, Vee, and I hanging out

Reese and his speared fish

In the morning on Sunday, Collin and I spent 30 minutes swimming the kayak we sunk back to shore. I used some water polo treading skills (now I'll be slightly in shape for training trip). For breakfast, I climbed a palm tree and picked some coconuts. I felt like such a jungle woman. Then, Reese and I swam to this other catamaran that arrived that morning and was moored next to us. It was owned by this 65 year old French dude with his hot young Brazilian mistress and they invited us on board to check it out! It was such a nice boat, and they sailed it from the Ivory Coast! They barely spoke English but we talked to them for a little and then they gave us a huge fish to take back to Jacob's boat. We sailed back to MIR for the yacht race after that. It was pretty funny, we showed up right as the race was starting and literally got creamed. We came in about an hour after everyone else but had the best time. We just spent the whole day dancing on the deck listening to oldies and singing so loudly.

Jacob and the coconut

The yacht race

When we got off the boat, there was a yachtie award ceremony at MIR. There was a raffle for the crews, and Jayne and Vee randomly won both bottles of rum! Vee and I bought the boys a bag of rice for their boat for provisions as a thank you, although nothing can be a big enough thank you for this weekend.

Jacob, Reese, and Collin at MIR

Monday morning, I started another week of school at Majuro Middle School. I taught my two morning classes. I gave them a warm up question, we did a review of last week's material, which was yes/ no questions and wh-word (what, why, where, when) questions, and then I gave them a 10 minute quiz. I also had them free write for 10 minutes in their journals using a prompt about their family. After class, I got to respond to some emails, and then I spent some time lesson planning for tomorrow and grading the quizzes and warm ups. Tomorrow's lesson will cover proper and common nouns and possessive nouns. Last period, I had my second girls' club meeting. We went over nutrition, and played a lot of games in the classroom. They move through activities so quickly! I end up having to come up with so many games on the spot. In a 40 minute period, we talked about the food groups, had a vegetable off, did a human knot, played freeze tag, I did a little freestyle rapping, and we played duck duck goose. This club seriously makes me stay on my toes. After the club, I hung out with four of my students and we took selfies. They asked to friend me on Facebook, which I'm not sure how I feel about, but the pictures she took are hilarious. One of them has an app on her tablet that puts your face into a frame with the band One Direction, so she and I are in this photoshopped picture with One Direction. I really want to get a copy of that.

Hanging out with students after the girls' club

"One Direction" Photo

Working at girls' club

More student- they love to make hand signs in pictures!

On Tuesday, I taught my two classes in the morning, then covered last period for Zin, my mentor teacher, who had to go to a workshop. Every Tuesday from now on I'll have to cover that class because he always has a workshop then. It makes me wonder what would happen to the class if I was not there. After school, I got my first ukulele lesson from one of my students, Christina! That was a blast, and can't wait to keep learning!