I'm back in downtown for another round of food shopping, trips to the bank, and of course- internet.
Last weekend was our friend Allison's birthday (WorldTeach volunteer at Laura Elementary), so we had some friends come visit us at the Laura house for a little party. Malcolm (teaching elementary to displaced Bikinians on the small island of Ejit, which you can walk to from downtown Majuro) and Amy (WorldTeach at Rita Elementary, Rita being downtown Majuro) came out from town for the day, and they were so impressed with Laura.
They kept exclaiming at how wide it was- in other parts of Majuro Atoll, you can stand in one spot and see both the lagoon and the ocean, it's that narrow. Laura has space and jungle and fruit trees and vegetable gardens and playfields. Compared to the modern, industrialized, crowded downtown with its many businesses and dirty, slumlike housing, Laura is a paradise of jungle and beach. It was really refreshing to see Laura with new eyes and be reminded why we love it.
As soon as Amy and Malcolm got here, Heather, Allison, Eric and I took them to swim at a great spot Heather and Allison found. You walk down to the end of the road and through the branches of a huge tree, about 100 yards wide, you can see the water and, at the time of day we usually go, the incredible sunset. The sunsets here tend to be pretty epic, the kind you can take a picture of and use as a desktop background or a postcard. Vivid colors, reflections in the water, and some of the strangest and most interesting clouds I've ever seen. One volunteer last year developed a rating system for sunsets, and we can see why- it seems like every day there's another stunningly beautiful one, and there's only so many times you can turn to each other and say, "well this one is pretty incredible" without getting a little more specific.
After watching that day's sunset from the water, we headed back to the Laura house for dinner and then pong. Yes, good ol' Dartmouth pong. The beer was wrong (Milwaukee's Best), the table was wrong (too-thin plywood we bought from Payless, the store here that sells everything from food to furniture), the paddles were wrong (wood Eric found, hacked into shape with a machete), and the cups were wronge (Payless styrofoam), but all together everything was so right. Allison and Amy were quick learners, and we had a great time. Amy and Malcolm went back to town and raved about the house and about Laura, so hopefully some more friends will come to visit us soon!
After that it was back to the daily grind, but it's not as much of a grind anymore. We've fallen into a rhythm of classes, grading, lesson-planning, meals, and sleep, and even have free time to read lots of books and watch the occasional episode of Entourage (thank you Eric and your well-stocked external hard-drive!) or Veronica Mars (thank you Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Gregg for the DVDs!). Here are some highlights and observations about our time here:
- Meetings: On Wednesday Laura High School had its first PTA meeting. School started mid-August, but the meeting has been postponed several times. We've learned that in order to find out about things like PTA meetings (which we are expected to attend, to be introduced to the parents), we need to ask- information isn't usually volunteered. There are flyers that get past out and put up at school, but they're in Marshallese...so we've learned to ask for a translation whenever something new is posted. The meeting was also entirely in Marshallese. Three hours of elections and discussions in a language we don't understand. Thankfully I brought a book and decided I wouldn't offend anyone by reading.
- Schedule?: Keeping with the theme of delayed meetings and lack of information, we've discovered that the school calendar is somewhat inaccurate. I noticed right away that Good Friday was on a Saturday, which should have been my first clue. I don't blame the school, though: I don't think that the Marshall Islands has an official calendar. Ri-Jerbal Day (Labor Day) and Manit Day (Custom Day, next Friday) were both marked incorrectly on the calendar, and when I asked when they were I was told that it would be announced on the radio. So I guess people just guess when holidays will be, and then stay tuned to the radio to find out which day to stay home from work or school.
- Teenage Mysteries: Another thing that's become clear, or rather become an issue (because it's still far from clear), is that there are many unexpected pitfalls to working with teenagers. It's bad enough that my students can say inappropriate things in Marshallese and I won't know it- though we did learn a few particularly bad words so we could catch them at the worst ones. The problem is, they can say something inappropriate in English, and I won't catch them because I'm still learning the language of adolescent insults. In the States, it is considered insulting to say certain things about someone's mother. Here, it is apparently a major offense to simply mention, ask about, or even SUGGEST, someone's mother's NAME. So when I have a student come up to talk about himself(for public speaking practice) and get the class to ask questions, they will invariably ask "what is your mother's name?" or even "what is your father's name?" and the whole class will laugh. The student will say some name, which usually turns out to not be HIS mother's name but the name of the mother of the kid who asked the question, and the class laughs even more. And I have NO IDEA what is going on. So I put a stop to questions about the names of relatives. One time a boy wrote another boy's name on the chalkboard during recess, and a physical fight ensued. Then one time I taught a class a tongue twister about someone named "Florina" (Marshallese has no "f" sound so it gets mixed up with the "b" sound; we've created some tongue twisters to practice the distinction). Everyone was cracking up, and one boy was completely freaking out. Turns out Florina is his mother's name. Maybe they interpreted the tongue twister in a dirty way, or maybe just the very mention of her name was an understood insult...all I know is that I'm having to look out for sensitive subjects I wouldn't have even suspected were problematic.
- Exploring Laura: As I learn my way around Marshallese language and culture, and the always-bewildering culture of high school students, I'm also slowly learning my way around Laura. Downtown Majuro has only one road for most of the way, because it's so narrow. I have a horrible sense of direction, but even I couldn't screw that up too badly- sometimes I go the wrong way on the one road, but I can always turn around. Laura is wide, probably more than four times as wide as Rita (downtown), so there are roads that go across instead of just along the length. So far I can find my way to Allison's house, Payless (a little convenience-store version of the big one in Rita), the high school, the playing fields, three beaches, and the Taiwanese farm. The newest beach in my repertoire turns out to be the government-owned boat launch. Not too many people swim there, but it's great for running: a pretty good length of hard-packed sand that's almost like a track. And of course, you can't beat the view: sand, lagoon, playing children, palm trees, and shore birds.
- Fruits, Vegetables,and Missionaries: As for the Taiwanese farm, it's a non-profit organization that grows food in the the spacious land of Laura. Agriculture guys from Taiwan lead a group of Marshallese guys, and they sell delicious cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, and corn to stores in Laura and in Rita. We buy some of this at the store, but the best part is that they give out some produce for free. A Taiwanese teacher at our school, Ms. Kay, is friends with the farm guys and so far she has given us lettuce, sweet little ears of yellow corn, and a strange fruit called "sweet sop." The outer skin is tough and scaly and makes me think of dragon skin. We couldn't figure out why it was called "sweet" sop because it wasn't sweet at all- hard, bitter, and sort pine sol-y. I'm glad we kept the stuff, because a few days later we figured it out. Eric was sleeping one weekend morning when Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at the door, an older American couple. (In addition to expats and volunteers, many of the Americans here are missionaries: we've met Baptist, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons so far.) They told us all about living here for 20 years, and I asked them about the sweet sop, figuring they'd know what to do with the strange fruits you find here. It turns out you have to wait until the stuff gets soft and ripe, and then you can just pull it apart and eat the soft, sweet, gooey mess. An important discovery. We've also been learning to pick and prepare the papaya and coconuts that grow around our house. Very cool!
- Happy New Year!: Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Eric and I are both Jewish, as is our Field Director Anna Zelinsky, but we might be the only members of the tribe on the whole Island. My rabbi back home seemed to think I'd find a synagogue or Chabad house in Majuro somewhere- Chabad's everywhere, right? But there's hardly a Jewish presence here, though there might be something on Kwajalein, the atoll with the US base and missile testing center. Here it's just me, buying apples and honey and these sweet rolls that remind me of challah. I wanted to have a little celebration last night but no one was around, so I just ate some apples with honey and said the shehehianu, one of my favorite prayers: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, for allowing us to reach this day. It's said on special occasions and the first day of major holidays, and it always reminds me to be thankful for everything I've got and everyone I care about and the chance to be right here, right now, doing what I'm doing. Neither Eric or I is very observant(are very observant? Good thing Heather's teaching grammar, not me), but we like the traditions, and we had a fun little brainstorming session about the rest of the year's holidays: making a menorah out of a coconut or some shells, and having a big Passover seder for the group at the Laura house, with box wine (for Manischewitz), Sriracha (for horseradish), and maybe some matzah sent from home. It's fun to try to recreate things from home here, whether it's pong or Passover.
That's all for now, so chag sameach (happy holidays) to my Jewish friends and relatives and happy Fall to everyone- here it's perpetual summer, but I know there are leaves falling in more northern climates. Send me an email or a letter, I love to hear from everyone! I'm trying to be better about writing back =)
love,
Sarah
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A heads up about the 'mother' things...I interpreted slightly differently. Less that it was insulting to ask people's names, and more that there's an incredible aversion to being called out for any reason. So, your students might have been laughing not becuase they were insulting their mothers, but because they made them stand up there longer and answer questions, which is already in the "hilarious" zone for being called out. Same thing about writing someone's name on the board. They're calling that person out and therefore embarassing them because they're out there infront of everyone, not because they're being insulted. The questions, "what's your mothers name?" etc. are asked so much because those are some of the few questions that people know how to ask, and they've asked them a million times. It's also funny because they all know each other's family names, so it's ridiculous to keep on asking. They're asking those questions to razz the person who's up there.
ReplyDeleteIt might be helpful to remember that though all of these people are new to you, they have known each other since they were born, so introducing themselves to the class might seem a little trivial to them. Introducting themselves to you might be a little different.