A few things

- Our friend Allison got a kitten. One of the many children in her extended host family was holding the poor animal by its front legs, so Allison rescued it and now it is hers. The thing is incredibly cute. No name yet, but we're working on it. Allison bought it cat food and is now working on protecting it from vicious dogs and protecting the baby chicks from it.

- The MOE (Ministry of Education) is running a contest for high school kids: write an essay or a poem or take a picture or make a poster, saying something about climate change. the only problem is, none of my students know what climate change is, or why it's such a danger for low-lying atolls like the Marshall Islands which could be destroyed by even a few feet of sea-level rise. One of my students wrote a great poem, but another produced an "essay" that is very clearly copied word-for-word from a book ("see figure A"). Looks like it's time for a unit on paraphrasing...

- I've started going for runs with Allison and Heather. It's a great motivator when Allison shows up looking all sporty and invites us to go...even on days when, left to my own devices, I would probably decide I was too tired, I join them for the jog and am glad I did. We go for a 30-minute jog down to the tip of Laura and around, usually ending up at our favorite oceanside swimming spot where we plunge into the shallow water in our running clothes and cool down. The running itself is fraught with perils, from whistling men to attacking dogs. We try to always carry small rocks to throw at the dogs (if only it were culturally acceptable to throw them at the rabid men, as well!). The many children we encounter are a more welcome sight, but can be a little annoying. I love giving their grubby little hands a high-five, and waving to my students, and I love that everyone says "good night!" any time in the day after about 1 pm. But it's a pain when the little kids start running with us and we have to slow down to not run into them, curtail our adult conversation, and get jolted out of our athletic enjoyment by laughing children. They ARE cute, though...

- today I discovered a European-style cafe that's a little slice of heaven. They have delicious cappuccinos that taste just like Italy, an array of French-style, Asian-style, and Marshallese-style (think banana bread) pastries, bubble tea, and FRENCH BREAD. They were out of the bread today, but I'll definitely be back. It's a great place to relax and I spent a few hours there with friends from the WorldTeach program, commiserating about difficult students and talking about all the things we love and hate and experience here. They all have host families, which gives a whole new insight into Marshallese culture, and hopefully the Laura crew will be getting ours soon.

- I made the mistake of answering one of the Filipina teacher's question of "what religion are you?" She wanted to know because we were talking about the typhoons in the Philippines, the Samoan earthquake, and the tsunami. She was wondering about my position on the end of days, which all these natural disasters clearly portend. Oh boy. When I said I was Jewish she asked, "so you don't believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ?" I was thinking, I don't even believe in the FIRST coming...but I just said "no, not particularly." She also wanted to know if I kept the sabbath (haha not so much) and invited me to her Seventh-Day Adventist church. That part sounds cool- I am interested to see what church is like here, and I love exploring different houses of worship. I'm a little worried she'll try to convert me or something, though, and I don't know what I'll say if she asks me again how I can possibly not believe in the the End of Days...

That's all for now, enjoy reading the blog!