New Years 2010

New Years on the front lines. Majuro is the first place in the world to welcome in the New Year. My students told me awhile back that everyone does a bloc party for New Years at Rita. Some of the SMs went over to a church member's house and they had a BBQ. Some of the guys went out and watched the sunset. We came back to our apartment had a discussion about gods and how many there are. I got up and told them I didn't want to spend New Years arguing about religion, so we went for a walk down the main road. We saw one band playing and then it was pretty dead for awhile. Damien flagged down a truck and we road the rest of the way. When we got to Ugilia (not sure if that's spelled right) they had a road block and they didn't let cars past. We got out and walked down the street. This was the famous bloc party.

Lights hung from every business and house. People roamed up and down the street with glowing rods and necklaces lighting the street with blue, red, and green. At first everything was quiet, then a guy got on a microphone someplace and started jaboring in Marshallese and I heard him say "Happy New Years". These three guys started singing in Marshallese to a synth beat generated on a key board. A crowd gathered around, mostly kids. They went on pretty much all night, I don't know how they still had voices at the end of the night. A bit later a band started up on a trailer. They had small hand drums and a drumset. This is the first time I've seen a drumset on the island, they usually just use a keyboard with a "fake" beat. They played songs in Marshallese, but it had a Pink Floyd kinda feel to it with electric guitars. I really liked it. They too sang pretty much all night. By the band there was a cotton candy machine, the first anyone has seen on the island. A couple of the SMs got some but it was a disappointment because the humidity caused it to shrink almost at once. The wellness center had a booth with healthy food, I ate some of that. The Budlight booth had a TV playing boxing. Usually I will watch it, but I couldn't focus so I wondered back to the band. By this time they were taking a break and the Marshall Islands High School break dancing group came out. They have different names. I think they called themselves Shadows this time. The first routine was good, but it went downhill from there. They got into doing skits with people shooting each other all the time. I think it's ironic that they do this considering most likely none of them has ever seen a gun before. They are just imitating American Hip-Hop culture. I wondered up and down the street where Hoola dancers shook their hips, people sang Marshallese pop, Chinese sold light sticks (which I bought for 2 dollars), and chefs sold food. I wanted a t-shirt that said Majuro Bloc Party, I got one for really cheap and they said it was last years, but I realized after I bought it that it was for 2005. Last year my butt! I may scratch off the 05 and make it 10.

I was surprised that after a couple hours walking around I had only seen one of my students. Then I saw a group of guys. The friendly one was in high school, one of my current students was with them and a student that dropped out. I spoke with them for a minute, but my student acted really strange, I don't know if he was doing something he shouldn't or what. I heard one of my girls was looking for me. The teachers were all standing there waiting for the countdown and just then two of my girls found me at the same time. They converged on me and hugged me from both sides. I was so excited to see them. It made my new years. After that they started the countdown. It was very underwhelming. The Marshallese just stood there and we were the only ones counting. When we reached zero we all yelled and hugged each other, but the Marshallese just stood there with drinks in there hand. Then the "fireworks" went off. It was three flairs fired in succession. Evidently fireworks are very hard to get here.

After that we all went home and ate at a family's house that lives on campus. Actually everyone else ate. It was after 1 am by then and I knew I'd be going to bed soon so I didn't eat. The other guys went and played Counter Strike for the rest of the night, but I went to bed and slept really well.

The Mancation

We had been planning a trip to Kallalan ever since we went camping there on Thanksgiving weekend. When we found out how expensive a boat was, no one wanted to pay it. They wanted to charge us $200 one way. With only about 15 people going, it wasn't worth it. But fortunately you can walk between all the islands, it's just a long ways. Some of us were down with hiking out there though.

The girls went back and forth for awhile but finally backed out. A couple of the guys backed out too so it ended up being Ben, Damien, Rudy, Mitch, and me. We took a boat to Enemanit and started walking the rest of the way. We started around 3:45 in the afternoon. By sundown we were at one of the Three Bag Islands, but we still had a long way to go. We walked for awhile after dark and then camped on a small, deserted island. The wind was crazy, but I slept ok for the most part. Rudy didn't bring a hammock so he piled up palm branches and slept on them. He slept horrible and woke up the next morning saying he wanted to go back. We finished the hike to the island and got there mid-morning. The tide was coming up and you can only do it at low tide. Rudy waited for low tide and left at 4:15 the same day to go back. Mitch left with him. I have no idea why they left so soon except that neither brought much food.

Ben, Damien and I had a blast after that. We went snorkeling a bunch. Large schools of fish swam past us while Black Tip Reef Sharks cruised the shallows for unsuspecting prey. Fish of every color, blue, green, red, yellow flitted in every crack and crevice. When it was too hot to do anything we would sit in our hammocks or lay on the beach reading or talking. A light went always blew through keeping us cool. Each of us took our turn climbing the thin coconut trees to chop down our food and water with machetes. We became expert at opening coconuts. We couldn't carry enough water so we relied on coconut milk to sustain us. I stayed hydrated the whole time.

We made a fire every night and every morning to cook over. One fire stands out. We made it on the point and it was a huge blazing beast. We made clothes from leaves and vines and danced around the fire. Ben and Damien lit dry palm fronds and ran around the beach waving them while I got it all on video.

One afternoon we practiced knife throwing with our machetes. With a given distance we got pretty good, but if the distance varied it went out the window.

We called it The Mancation because it was a man's vacations. It was the ultimate bro session.

Merry Christmas

We had a nice Christmas even though we are 7000 miles away from home. Christmas Eve we all jumped in the truck and drove down to Long Island. We sang Christmas carols as we went. The Assembly of God church put on a Christmas program. We got there at 7:20 and it was supposed to have started at 6 or something. Anyway, it was in full swing and we looked really bad walking in late. It was ok though because the program lasted until 9:15. I don't see how we could have missed anything.

A bunch of different singing groups got up. They ranged from little kids to groups of islanders from different islands such as Fiji, Tavula, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands. Some of them sang really loud with a lot of energy. It was long for me though.

Christmas Day we had dinner at 3 pm. It was very good with lots of food. I played Chess with one of the other guys. Then Chad came up and played Rudy, who is much better than me. Chad beat him easily. He has been playing sense he was 10 years old and he says he thinks at least 10 moves in the future. I don't even know how that is possible. I have a hard enough time counting 4 moves in the future. I think he won some type of championship.

After the meal we went upstairs and opened gifts. Everyone brought a 5 dollar gag gift and we played the elephant game. If the truth be told, Ben and I forgot all about it until the last minute and just brought stuff we got in packages from home. Some people put some real thought into it. I really wish I had gone out and gotten something. The popular gifts were a machete, a box of teddy bears and chocolate, and a toy sword that glowed and made noises. There was a 3 trade limit. I almost got the machete because I heard someone say two trades and I thought I had the last trade, but I was wrong and it got taken. The funniest thing all day was that Rudy bought some really stupid gag gifts like a Hannah Montana ball with candy in it. He decided to go through some complicated thing so that he could get the box of chocolate and ended up opening a present. Somehow he didn't recognize that it was his own present and got the Hannah Montana thing. No one would take it from him because it was super lame and everyone laughed about it all night. They decided it served him right.

That was pretty much Christmas Day in Majuro. Tonight Nicole came back from her week long trip to Pohnepei. She says it's a beautiful island. I'm happy here so I don't really care if other islands are better. The group is awesome and I know we'll have many more good times in the coming weeks and months.

End of School

I haven't posted on here for awhile because everything has been pretty regular. This week was the last week of school and I'm pretty stoked to start my Christmas vacation. I love my kids though and I can see how everyone has come so far. The grades are a little rough though and I think some of them are going to be disappointed with their grade. English is always a rough one for them because we are dealing with a lot of grammar. They have no idea what sounds right because they all say it wrong. They don't like the subject so they don't put much effort into and it shows.

This week we had a ton of finals. Some went good, others not so much. It's been a crazy week of grading and making tests and I'm so glad it's over. I still have some work to do, but I have a while to do it.

Today is Friday and so we had a party day. Marshallese are notorious about being late everywhere. They are usually within 30 minutes of on time for school. Today most of them didn't show up until an hour after we were suppose to get started. We watched Spiderman and then someone brought in this giant boom box. I haven't seen one of those since the 90s. It was pretty sick. They turned on some cultural music and cranked the subwoofer up. It was pretty fun. I had to keep telling them to turn it down because I was afraid one of the higher administration would make us turn it off. Everyone was being chill and relaxed though since it was the last day.

We each drew someone's name the week before and everyone brought gifts for people. It was really exciting opening the gifts. Some people went all out for there friends and got shoes and shirts and stuff. The kid that drew my name got me a t-shirt that says Marshall Islands. It's really cool and I'll wear it here and in the states. The girl that I got a gift for is super new here and so I was looking forward to getting her something because I want her to feel welcome. Unfortunately she didn't show up. It all worked out though because one of the other girls in the class is really quiet and not good friends with a lot of people. She threw down and got a bunch of stuff for Meesun, another girl in the class. But I looked around and no one had gotten her anything. I don't know who drew her name. I felt really bad but I had the gift I had gotten for Maniana, so I gave it to her. Fortunately I hadn't put a name on it and I don't think she knew the difference. It was a beach towel with a huge eagle on it. A couple of the girls got me some cool stuff as well. One bought me a mug that says Majuro, Marshall Islands. The other one got me a cultural necklace with the hardwood things. It's very islandy.

After that we were leaving to go to chapel and I saw a big group of people. I found out they were watching Edward, one of my students who is bigger than most of the highschool kids, and this kid I'd seen floating around. Sancha was there too and she looked really upset and scared. Everyone was super serious. I started asking people what was going on and one of the girls told me that this guy was after Sancha and she didn't like him. I went up to Sancha and asked if she was ok and she nodded her head. I asked if he did anything and she shook her head. I could tell by the way people were acting that he kinda had though. Edward told me he had been drinking and pretty soon several people had confirmed that fact. I went and told the principal but the kid had disappeared. I was really angry because he had messed with one of my girls. Sancha is the probably the most conservative girl in the class and the last one I would suspect of leading a guy on in the wrong direction. Some of the girls in my class are flirty, but she seems more reserved.

We were hanging out after chapel and most everyone had gone home but my class. The girls were doing some Hoola dancing and messing around. I looked outside and saw the sketchy kid come back. I ran out and grabbed him and told him he was going to the principals office. He asked, "Why?" and I was like, "After all the crazy stuff you've pulled today do you really have to ask?" I grabbed his arm and got him started in the right direction. I told the principal that the kids said he had been drinking and that I thought he was inappropriate with one of my students. The principal pulled out his counselling stuff and started asking him a ton of questions. The guy admitted to having drank alcohol and come to school. He said he liked Sancha for a long time and he was just telling her he was interested. After 15 minutes of this back and forth I left and hung out with my students. One of the girls told me that he had hug her and she told him not too and she left and he ran after her. She said both her and Sancha were afraid of him. Sancha just said that he asked her out and he didn't do anything inappropriate. Some of these islanders are really shy about stuff and most wouldn't talk to me about stuff like that. They keep things secret, even really bad stuff that happens. I could see she was really upset and scared and so I think this kid definitely went over the line. Maybe she doesn't want to get him in trouble.

The principal talked to him and sent him home. He told him that there would be consequences after break. I'm really unhappy with the lack of severity toward being drunk at school and questionable actions with a girl. I was going to tell the kid to never go near her again and scare him as best I could. When I was there the principal seemed to treat the whole thing with way too much calm. I told the girls to tell me if he bothered her at all. Hopefully they will tell me if it happens.

That was an exciting ending to a very fulfilling semester. We'll be on break the next couple weeks and have tons of fun planned.