The past few weeks have had some big events. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated—I’ve been really busy with the play, and now that we’re getting ready to leave, there are a million things to wrap up. So a few weeks ago, the big event was the tsunami that never really came. The good news turned out to be that the Marshall Islands rarely have serious tsunamis because of the geography—I’m not completely sure, but I guess it has something to do with the wide, shallow reefs and the underwater topography. The wave was due to hit at 11:40, which was also good, because it was low tide.
But even better than all of that was the fact that there actually was no wave. This, however, did not prevent me from being really scared when my mom and then Jason called me at 5:30 am on Saturday and told me what was supposed to happen. It was strange, because that night, we had the first thunderstorm I’d seen so far while we were here, and it was really loud—the flashes of lightening much brighter than any I’d seen in a long time. So with the unexpected storm, the night was already off to a strange start. Then, I got some calls very early in the morning. At first I figured that they had just forgotten about the time difference, but then I realized something was probably wrong.
Living on so small of an island makes avoiding a tsunami really difficult. There is never more than a few hundred feet separating you from the ocean, and since there is pretty much zero elevation on Majuro (no hills, no slopes) I wasn’t sure what to do. I sort of drifted in and out of sleep for a half hour, dreamed that the tsunami came and knocked over our trailer, then got up, had some breakfast, and went to the only reasonable place the rest of us could think to go—the second floor of a high school building. We waited up there with some World Teach people, but nothing ever really happened, which was a relief, but also somewhat anticlimactic.
Anyway, things have been wrapping up at school. This week, Thursday and Friday were half days because we were supposed to give the kids finals. We were basically reviewing all week, and I was trying to teach them a few new things, including how to tell me that they are feeling sick, since a lot of times, a kid will just put their head down on the desk because something is wrong and not be able to tell me what hurts. I had a chance to see if my lessons were working when my favorite student, Robson, was walking around clutching his stomach and acting strange. So I kept saying, Robson, what’s wrong? What is hurting? And he wouldn’t tell me. Later that afternoon, he was feeling better, so I said Robson, were you sick earlier? And he said, yes. So I asked him again, what hurt?, thinking that he would say “I had a stomach ache” or “I had a headache” which is what I taught them to say. But instead he just looked at me and goes, “I… poop.”
The last few weeks have been hard because my mentor teacher’s mother in law died, so she’s been out for two weeks. Marshallese funerals are pretty lengthy affairs, and after the funeral here in Majuro, she went to Arno, a nearby atoll which was where her mother-in-law was from. So the school has sent some other teachers to help me out, which is good, because the kids don’t really listen to me. Monday was an interesting day because our entire class went to the funeral for my mentor teacher’s mother-in-law. It was a challenge to get the kids quiet, but it ended up being okay. We went with some other classes in the school. It took about an hour and then we went back to class. That afternoon, Eric and I went again with the entire staff.
The play has been going all week. It has been really good—I have been appointed master of the props (that is not my actual title, but I think it sounds better that way). I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so everything was a little crazy at first, but we had performances for 6 nights this week, so I’ve had a chance to get it down. I have two assistants, Kami and Randon, who are really cute little 9th grade boys. However, they tend to leave backstage for the library every 5 minutes to go check the new Gmail accounts I helped them make the other day. The performances have been pretty good. The stage is outdoors, and we’ve had rain all week, which makes it a little challenging, and the lightbulbs almost caught on fire, but we have avoided big disasters so far. Saturday was the last performance, and then today is the cast party.
Friday was our last day of school. It was a ridiculous day. The kids took a final in the morning, and then I gave them all bracelets and a new pencil sharpener. Then, they set up a tent outside, and Eric and I sat at a table. And every single student in the school lined up into a huge line, Kindergarten through 6th grade, and shook our hand. I kept saying komol tata, iakwe (thank you, goodbye) as they all filed past. What was more, about every third kid had brought us a gift. They give handicrafts here, necklaces with shells and little wicker flowers and stuff, as gifts when you leave. By the time all the kids went past, Eric and I had an entire box full of stuff. I felt almost embarrassed, because I had only been here for 10 weeks, and to be honest, half the time I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. To be shown that sort of gratitude was really overwhelming.
After the shaking hands, we went back to the classroom, and for our party had Spam pizza, flamin’ hot cheetoes, and oreos, which I thought was a really appropriate Marshallese last supper. I said goodbye to the kids and got really sad. It was hard because they’re so little, and don’t speak much English, so I’m not really sure how much they would miss me, but either way, I’m really going to miss them. The kids are really different from any American children I’ve ever worked with before. I know I’m running the risk of romanticizing the island culture, and there are certainly still problems in the RMI, but there is something refreshing about kids who don’t really have a lot of stuff, but who are still just really happy enthusiastic and love to play outside and run around.
After our party was over, I went over to Eric’s party. The kids are a little older, so they were more organized that my kids, and they had prepared this whole lunch and a dance and speeches. I had gotten to know Eric’s kids pretty well, too, so they made me sit at the table with Eric and then they brought more handicrafts.
We left the school when we were done because it was a bit awkward to hang around—the bad part about not leaving until Monday is that I run the risk of seeing my kids everywhere, and it’s not that I don’t want to see them, but I just wanted to say a clean goodbye and then leave. Eric actually left today since he is going on the island hopper plane to Manila, and so he won’t see the kids again. Then Friday evening, we had one more party to go to—the staff party for DES. This was also the third quarter ending party, but they still said some really nice things to us, and then gave us more handicrafts. So I will say this seriously: if you want a Marshallese handicraft, please come see me when I get home if you want something. I have more than I would ever know what to do with—I’ve already given a lot of it away, and I still have too much.
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