Recent Updates

A really pretty picture of Mena and Seiko at the opening ceremony.

This week is “Education Week”, which caused for a parade and ceremony on Monday, and no school in the afternoon. Friday will probably be similar with a closing ceremony that will make for a nice easy week.

Parade and Opening ceremony pictures:

SK, a WorldTeach volunteer from Majuro is staying with us right now to work with some of the high school students on college planning. Megan, a WorldTeach volunteer from an outer island was supposed to be visiting this week as well, but her plane broke down (Air Marshall Islands flies to the outer islands and is also referred to as Air Maybe, as more flights are probably cancelled than fly).

As our water was reaching dangerously low levels, someone turned on the Gugeegue fresh water reservoir that we didn’t even know about. Our A/C in our apartment broke yesterday, and while AC is a definite luxury here that we could probably live without, we’re ready to get it back for the sake of our computers and appliances at least! We are also in the process of possibly getting internet in our apartment, and we are no longer getting the 6 military channels we were getting because something happened to our antenna. So in sum, we are up water and possibly internet, and down tv and AC. Keep in mind, all of these are complete luxuries that most of the WorldTeach volunteers couldn’t even fathom having.

This week should be quick, and after one more week of school, Morgan and I are going to visit Kosrae during Spring break- an island in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Surprising Students

I spent a lot of last week at the hospital going through the hassle of trying to see a doctor to get medicine. While trying to do this, my class was stuck with a substitute who they severely disliked. I realized this as many of my students would start appearing next to me in the hospital waiting line after having “escaped” from class. Though as their teacher I can’t condone it, I did find it pretty funny.

Finally on Wednesday I had spent most of my day at the doctor’s while a substitute was supposed to be with my class, and locking the door at 2:30 when class got out. At 2:30 after my classroom should have been emptied and locked, two of my boys showed up at the hospital- with my lock! I sternly told them to go get everyone else out of the classroom and lock the door. Half an hour later, the showed up again- with the lock. Despite my anxiety of the chaos that could be happening in my classroom at the moment, I didn’t want to lose my place in line. When I finally finished at the doctor’s and was walking back to my classroom, an hour after school had ended, I realized the lock was STILL not on the door and I was seeing students in my classroom. I opened the door thinking I was going to walk into a mess, but instead I was rather surprised.

Almost all of my students were in my classroom, having stayed an hour late, yelling “surprise!”. They had written “Thank you Miss Liz!” all over the board, and had entirely cleaned the classroom. They had rearranged the tables and benches, had moved my desk, even gone through and organized my drawers (and ruining my entire organizational system in the process, but oh well), and borrowed a mop for the floor. I was even more impressed when I found out their substitute had never shown up, and they had spent the afternoon doing this on their own accord, when they could have been causing mayhem. Just another example of despite all the grief they may cause me, they really are great kids.

Santo

Last weekend Morgan, Marci and I decided to visit another volunteer on Santo (also known as third island). Santo is in our same atoll, near a second smaller military base called Roi-Namur. The military bases run free 20 min. flights from one to the other, and if they aren’t filled up with base workers, they let local people get on. We left on Friday, and as most things are done here, our travel was done on island time- meaning it took forever.

1) We had to get into Ebeye (I was fortunately already there from teaching)
2) Had to take a boat from Ebeye to our military base (Kwajalein)
3) Had to get past security at the base, who made us wait 2 hours and wouldn’t let us go to our plane until 10 minutes prior to it’s departure
4) Missed our flight (stupid security)
5) Had to wait for the next flight, an hour later
6) The next flight was delayed an hour and a half because there was a missile in the air (is anyone checking out the safety of these missiles on behalf of the Marshallese people?)
7) finally flew to Roi-Namur, where our friend Trina picked us up
8) Trina has access to the Roi-Namur base so was able to buy us some meals and fresh salad- amazing!
9) Had to wait 1 hour for the boat from Roi-Namur to Santo
10) Took the boat to Santo and finally made it!

As you can see, nothing here is dependable. Even the American run things that don’t run on “island time”. You always have to bring a book and plan for many, many obstacles.

We loved our time in Santo. It is interesting comparing it to Ebeye/Gugeegue. Santo is right next to a military base, as we are, but it is much more of an outer island. There is no electricity, only a generator run at night. No phones or computers either. It is physically much smaller than Gugeegue, but has a population of 600. While it is much more of an outer island, they also have much better access to Roi-Namur. Since Roi is smaller than Kwajalein, it is a bit more relaxed. Trina can go to Roi-Namur just about any day or time and do whatever she likes there (go golfing, get food, use the internet, wear American clothes), though spending the night is more complicated. For us on Kwajalein, we have to find a sponsor, it has to be certain times on certain days, our sponsor has to chaperone us everyone, we have to get security clearance, so it’s usually not worth it.

Trina’s host family was so welcoming. They live in a small house right next to the ocean. Though life there I’m sure has it’s obstacles (the outhouse bathroom with rats running through it as one of them), it is also plenty laid back. We spent Saturday lying out on a woven mat with the ocean breeze, playing cards or reading. Trina’s family was constantly bringing us food and coconuts, and local children would come by with their ukeleles and sing to us. The only word that comes to mind is idealic- jealous anyone?

Saturday night Trina’s host parents made us an amazing dinner of coconut crabs (these gigantic crabs that live in the roots of coconut trees) and steak teriyaki from the base. We left on Sunday and returned to Gugeegue refreshed, and finally having experienced another part of the Marshall Islands.

Ebeye from the plane- you can see how dense it is. The little road jetting off the island is the causeway, which connects 4 islands and is how I get to work.

Waiting for the boat to take us from Roi-Namur to Santo

As you can see, these islands are really small and close together!

Some boys in Santo who took it upon themselves to entertain us...

A left over from the Japanese and WW2

Trina's house dad with the giant coconut crab!


A really sweet picture of Trina's brother and sister drinking coconuts

A Long Week....

The past week has seemed so long! The elementary school on the military base started a 4H/citizenship club, and invited students of the Ebeye elementary school to join. I found out right before the 2nd meeting that I was supposed to be a leader for this; so Monday after school, myself and another teacher brought 15 students on the boat over to Kwajalein, the military base. The school there had organized a Valentine’s Day party for our students (who obviously didn’t know much about valentine’s day). Everyone there was really nice. Fortunately, I think all my kids had a good time, so all’s well that ends well.

When I got off the boat back in ebeye at 7:30 or so, I was nervous because I assumed my van hadn’t waited for me to bring me back to Gugeegue (I was right), and I hate being in Ebeye after dark, especially alone (I’m sure it’s safe, I’m just intimidated by it). Fortunately, as I walked to the school I found my neighbor, Svoki, in Ebeye. Apparently she had come in for the closing ceremonies of Liberation week (liberation week had ended 2 weeks prior…. Island time). Though I was glad to have a ride and be amongst people I knew. The closing ceremony started an hour and a half late and didn’t end until 10:30 (with a ½ hour ride home), which made for a long day. I’ve quickly realized here that if you don’t get the necessary 8 hours of sleep, or don’t eat right (I was trying to eat school lunches for a while, but all I can eat of them and not get sick is the rice), you can immediately start to feel the sickness creeping in. With a long day to start the week and not having much time/choices in eating, I of course got strept for the second time since I’ve been here.

The rest of the week went on with the normal daily routines. Outside of school we have our weekly Gugeegue viewings of LOST on the channel. I’d always sworn against Harry Potter, but my need for reading has led me to book 5. The week had the normal school activities, lots of grading and preparing lessons, lots of yelling at my mischievous students. Wednesday, they were so bad and I was too sick to yell at them all day that I just had to send them home so I could spend the afternoon talking to the principal. However, when I told them to go home, they wouldn’t because they said their parents would beat them for skipping school- so I had to write notes saying I cancelled class and no one was in trouble (even though they were). Even then, some kids wouldn’t leave. One of my boys got in a fight, punching one girl in the stomach, and kicking another girl’s head into the wall. I’d love to tell you how my teaching is going, but I haven’t been able to do much of it with all the discipline problems. It got to the point where my class literally asked me to hit them so they will listen- I don’t think I’d ever been so confused. But it makes sense, if they get hit at home and hit at school, no other form of discipline I use will make any sense to them. After seeking advice, my current method is strike 1) name on board as a warning. Strike 2) Stay in for recess and after school detention. Strike 3) Go home with a letter to their parents to get signed. And of course it’s not that simple, because even dragging a student out of the class, they still won’t go home, so when they refuse, I have to now give their name to the police reporting them as a “disorderly student”. We’ll see how this method works….

Being here truly is lots of highs and lows, and while the discipline problems can be huge lows sometimes, the students also come with a lot of highs. While I don’t condone their distractions, I do find some highly entertaining and creative. Some students found Christmas ornaments that they unwrapped and realized were ping pong balls underneath. They put books on a table as a net, and use square pieces of wood as paddles and play ping pong.

All my students love to draw; I have a few wonderful artists and I wish somewhere here had resources for them to explore their talents. They are always drawing me pictures. One boy is so musically gifted. He’s always slapping himself with rhythms, or finding something to use as drums… I’ll have to get it on camera. They feel more than free to participate in class, unlike other classes who are maybe to scared or intimidated to. A lot of my students are really very smart. They are always checking their grades and retaking tests they missed, while others in the class couldn’t care less. The class has so many levels it’s hard to challenge everyone without leaving some behind. So while my class has constant discipline problems which cause me much grief, the highs of the classroom make it worth it.

The power went out on Friday, as it has done many times before, but Friday happened to be unbearably hot so with no AC, school got out early. I got back to Gugeegue and took our neighbors son (Sebastian) swimming, which made for a great start to the weekend. We spent most of Saturday and Andrea’s, who made us wonderful food (pasta sallad, waldorf salad, and homemade focachia bread….mmmm….). I went to church with Marci in Ebeye on Sunday to hear her speak (on the 5 mile walk home is when we found out about the tsunami warnings). Monday was a holiday (Nuclear Day- at least we got a holiday out of the US bombings!), so no school and some neighbors taught us how to make rice/pumpkin/coconut milk soup. While at home it will require some canned coconut milk, here it requires our neighbors husband climbing trees for coconuts.

Today was back to school! This weekend we are visiting another volunteer on an island in our atoll near another military base, so hopefully that goes well.

Hope all is well at home! Some days I wish I could trade my heat for snow… though not very many!