Prom- Under the Stars

The night before prom. Sunsets lately have been so magnificent.

The decorations pre-students. Stefani's art classes made over 150 tinfoil & cardboard stars for the occasion.

Stefani, Staci, and I dressed and ready to go to chaperone the prom.

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Thursday Stefani and I spent most of the day in her classroom making prom decorations. Stefani headed the decoration committee. The theme was "Under the Stars". On a limited budget and with limited time she was able to transform a drab, smokey bar into a beautiful ball room. The dance floor had stars hanging all around it and the tables had star painted table cloths. The students loved the decorations and had such a good time. They were very excited to show off the dance moves they learned in the dancing class Stefani and I taught after school. I put my three years of taking middle school ballroom dancing lessons to use. The student's favorite dance was the Cotton Eye Joe (not surprising). They also learned the Cha-Cha and Electric Slide.

After prom Matt, Stefani, Staci, and I went out to the docks to have a few beers and watch the stars. The sky was extremely clear. With minimal lights and no big cities it is amazing how many stars there are. I really like when there is a full moon here and I can clearly see my shadow because it is so bright. It was a good ending to a fun night.

Last Full Day

Today was my last full school day. I have three half days (for finals) left. I can't believe the year is almost over. I am doing things like filling out surveys for WorldTeach and writing a letter to next year's volunteers. In less than a month I'll be home. Yikes!

I have been keeping busy. I'll give a brief update.

I've been cooking. I decided I needed to finally make the chili I've been planning as well as use ingredients that we have a lot of. I made chipped beef on Friday, barley and sausage soup on Saturday, and vegetarian chili on Sunday. I should have cooked like this all year.

Yesterday Stefani and I went snorkeling. We decided we would swim every other or every third day until I leave. I am going to miss the fishies!

My knitting is going well. I am almost finished with the baby kimono and very close to finishing the bag. I decided not to knit the socks while I am here because I don't have the right size needles.

My students are going CRAZY because school is almost over. They are making me CRAZY as well.

Last Friday I was at Andrea's for Knit Night and one of their neighbors caught a huge tuna (I think). Terry cut up the fish put it in soy sauce, lime, and vinegar, sashimi. It was sooo yummy. I am going to miss eatting fish that came from my backyard 10 minutes before I feast.

I am still working on a summer job... I am getting nervous about college loans, car payments, insurance. Once I am at home I am going to have to be an adult and have all of that stuff to worry about. Yuck!


Okay, time for some grading and food. Sending love.

Sharing

I don't think I have written much about how hospitable people here are. Today I was reminded of that during my run.

I was running the causeway, which at some parts is litterally a dirt road in the ocean and at parts closer to the islands it gets wider to include little beaches and trees. As I was on my way back to Guegeegue I noticed some young boys off to the ocean side of the road. They seemed to be playing on the rocks near the shore. As I ran past them they motioned to me, so I stopped running and said hello. One of the boys offered me something that was in his hands. I automatically assumed that it was something from the ocean and asked, "What is that?" He looked at me funny and answered,"Chicken." At first I didn't understand, because I thought the black and brown object in his hand came from the ocean. I figured I misheard him, which happens often. I got closer to the boys and looked at what they held. "Maybe some sort of jellyfish or the insides of a giant clam," I thought to myself. Instead I asked, "What is that?" again. The boy just held the thing to me. That was when I got a whiff and realized, yup that is chicken like he said. I laughed a little at myself and told them, "No thank you, I can't eat when I run." The boys smiled at me and I ran away.

I couldn't help but smile at the encounter with the boys. Can you imagine going for a run in a park in the states and someone coming up to you and offering some of their BBQ? That is exactly what happened. The Marshallese culture has really shown me what it means to take care of people. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the generosity around me.

I developed a new rule in my classroom this semester because this generosity was interrupting my class. Our school has a "no food in classrooms" rule, but I don't make my students abide by it in my classroom. I figure the people selling the food benefit from the students buying food, learning is easier when a person isn't hungry, and eating helps the students maintain their energy so they don't sleep. The problem was every time a student had food they were sharing it with the entire class. If a student on the right side of the room wanted some chips from another student on the left side they would do one of three things: 1. yell for the food to be passed, 2. get up and walk straight across the room, 3. ask the person next to her to ask the person next to him, and so on. All of the above were disruptive to the classroom so I made a "No Sharing" rule for my class. That goes for food during class and for pens, pencils, and erasers during tests (yes two students will pass back and forth one pen during their test). Funny to go from trying to force 2nd graders to share to implementing a "No Sharing" rule.

A Chick Hunt

Easter is this coming Sunday. I can't believe how quickly it has arrived. I haven't had the opportunity to decorate eggs or go on an egg hunt, but I did have a Chick Hunt!

A few days ago I went to visit Sebastian. Earlier that day he brought a baby chicken to his house to play with. He LOVES chicks so much. Somehow he lost it in the house. Terry and I spent about an hour searching the house for the chick. Eventually we found it behind some stuff, behind a chair. Sebastian played with it for a little while, but the chick needed to go back to his mother so he could eat and such. Terry distracted Sebastian so I could bring the chick back to the family's house.

I was holding the chick walking down the path thinking how funny it was that I was just searching for a chick in someone's house. The chick managed to jump out of my hands and run into the bushes. I chased after it, in my long skirt and flip-flops. If anyone was watching me they would have seen me crawling and climbing through the bushes with no apparent destination. Eventually I realized I would never catch the chick if I didn't change my strategy. I would move towards it and it would just run further into the bushes away from me, which was easy for him but increasingly hard for me. I started to throw rocks so the chick would be forced to run towards me. After about thirty minutes of rock throwing and maneuvering around the branches I caught the chick.

I came out covered in dirt and pieces of tree. Had any of the children been around they probably would have caught the chick in less than five minutes... I am not as talented as them. haha.

An After Finals Walk

Yesterday after finals Matt, Stefani, and I walked to Nene, the island north of Guegeegue. We had so much fun. One man lives on the island, he watches over it. I have never seen one person who has so many chickens, there must have been about twenty! We went snorkeling and it was amazing! The coral was so beautiful and we saw fish that we have never seen in Gueegeegue. The most exciting part was we swam with a shark!! Matt went in first and saw it before Stefani and I were even in the water. I was scared to go in, but I decided to go anyways expecting that it had moved on. After swimming for about ten minutes Matt spotted it again! It was about four feet long. We watched it for a short time then swam on to look at more coral. After another thirty minutes it came back! We decided that since it wasn't afraid of us, we should be afraid of it and we got out of the water. What an exhilerating snorkeling experiance.

After we walked down a path through the center of the island. The trees were sooo cool. I found an old rotted out tree stump and inside was a little egg! In one spot there were lots of burnt coconuts and all around them were tons and tons of hermit crabs. Some of them were as big as my fist!! I wouldn't want to be pinched by one of those!!!

Finals

I should be writing a final for tomorrow, but instead I decided to take this time to write a quick post :D I just finished the MTV Yoga DVD with Stefani. I LOVE it. I am going to have to buy a copy once I am home, haha. I totally recommend it.

Today English 9a had their final. They did really well!!! Only a few Fs, and they were high Fs. Yay for my students. I calculated their 3rd quarter grades and I was very happy with the grades of most of the students. They are right where they should be. One student, who was new this quarter, failed, but that is because she was placed into a class that is way too hard for her. Hopefully I'll be able to move her to one of my lower English classes where she will understand and succede more.

The truck is fixed! haha. Sorta. We drove it into Ebeye today, and we had no idea if we would make it there... or back... but some how we made it. Staci drove and had to keep her foot on the gas at all times. Sometimes the gas pedal didn't really work and she would press as hard as she could but we wouldn't really go, other times it would start working and the engine would sound like it was going to blow up. The truck sounds so tired when it drives. It was brand new when I arrived... you would laugh if you heard or saw it now.

Final writing time... hopefully...

Stuffed peppers for dinner tonight, YUMMMY!

Family

I went to visit my family today. Our school truck has been broken for the past three weeks so I had to hitch in to Ebeye. Today I had good luck on my side because as soon as I sat down at the "bus stop" (there are no buses, so I don't know why I decided that was a good name for the picnic table I wait at) a truck came by and picked me up.

I thought I would be going to church, but the time of my family's church changes each year. So now church is at 2pm instead of 10am. My family seems to be doing well. Rona and Hamill (3yrs & 15mo) were sick last week, but are better. Hamill is actually walking now. He was causing trouble, knocking everything off the lower shelf of the bookcase then climbing inside. We watched Smack Down. The kids LOVE it. They kept asking me if it was real. haha. MnM's girlfriend (19yr) braided my hair Marshallese style. I had a little cornrow going down each side of my face, then two backwards french braids with the rest of my hair next to them. Mama gave me a new Marshallese skirt. It is BRIGHT orange! I love it.

I went home before church, so that I could get some work done before tonight. I walked to the Ebeye side "bus stop" to wait for a truck. Some children saw me so they came over to see what the ribelle was doing. I had my iPod so I let them listen to it. We danced a little. They were so funny. Eventually a truck came. I sat in the front with a guy who actually lives about two houses over from me. His English was really strong so we talked almost the whole ride. He actually was one of the people who helped design the causeway. He told me a bit about it. The first half of it cost four million dollars to build, the government hired an outside company. The second half the people here built. The causeway is still not finished and may never be because of money.

Well, I am going to go write a final. Later tonight Stefani and I are going to hang out with 2 year old Sebastian. He is coming over! Maybe we'll blow bubbles :D

Getting ready for Finals

Just want to write a quick update... I need to get into bed!

Finals are this coming week. So I have been busy writing study guides and tests, and will be busy grading. We have Monday off for Nuclear Victims Day to remember the people who died and suffered from the US testing nuclear bombs on Bikini Atoll. You know Spongebob lives in the Marshall Islands on Bikini? There is an episode with a reference to the bombs...

I can't believe after next week I will be starting my last quarter teaching here. It is so unreal how fast the time has gone.

I am knitting a lot. I have learned so much from Andrea. Maybe I'll post a picture of everything I have made so far, and what I am working on.

MISS YOU ALL

Valentine's Day

Some of the 90 cakes we decorated.

Valentine's Day was a bit of a stressful day for us on Guegeegue. Andrea was running a fund raiser for her school. Her students asked friends and family to order Valentine's Day cakes and cookie grams. Andrea and teams of students made the 90 cakes and all of the cookie grams. Andrea worked around the clock trying to get it all done. So Stefani (with her cake decorating expertise) and I helped her with the cakes. Stefani taught the students how to make the frosting, make flowers from frosting, and how to frost the cakes. Andrea's house was covered in sugar, frosting, ramen, and ants by the time we finished the cakes. It was crazy!

Me, Stefani, and Staci at the Valentine's Day Dance

After decorating from 11am until 6pm Stefani and I ran to our school to help with the set up for the Valentine's Day dance. We set up, got dressed and ready, ate dinner, all in time for the dance that was supposed to start at 7pm, but ended up starting at 8pm. The dance was funny. I use the word dance because that is what it was supposed to be but in reality no one danced. Maybe a better term would be sit-in-the-dark-listening-to-music-with-friends, or hovering-outside-to-scared-to-enter, or even hang-out-in-sara's-classroom-too-nervous-to-put-on-a-dress. Haha. Anyways, it was really fun and the students seemed to have fun as well. That is what counts right?

Kwajalein Liberation Day

On Monday we celebrated the day Kwajalein Atoll was liberated from Japan by the Americans. The day started with a lot of waiting around and organizing. We had to wait until everyone showed up, which always takes a bit of time. Next the schools organized for the 'parade'. We were going to parade around the island, but because we took so long getting ready we just paraded down one block. The high school band from Kwaj (the US base) came and played in the parade. Then we had an assembly with at least four speakers. From where our school was sitting we couldn't hear the speakers so there was utter chaos. The juxtaposition of the public school with the private school was quite interesting. The private schools seemed so much more organized and put together, while our students were running around. After the assembly the schools all trucked over to the other end of the island for the races. Each school had a sprinter for each grade and the schools competed against each other. The team with the highest points at the end wins.

We have had two three day weeks because of Liberation Day. Our school canceled classes last Thursday and Friday so the students could race to find who our runners would be in the competitions. Then we had Monday off for Liberation Day and Tuesday off for a rest day.

I was going to run in a 6 mile race. I'm sure I told some of you. However, I lost track of time watching the girl's volleyball team with the Championships. Staci and I rushed to find the truck to get back to Guegeegue to change and start the race (starting line was supposed to be right near our houses). The causeway was flooded and so the race was started a mile up from our house. We actually had to walk the last mile to our house because the puddles were too big for the truck to get through. By the time I started running I was 20 minutes late, plus I was starting a mile behind everyone. Sooo I didn't run in the race, but I had a nice run on Monday... I was so disapointed.

A Visitor

First I want to say
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOBIE!!!!!!!!!
Your package will get to you very late.


Yesterday after school I went home. As soon as I entered I heard this weird scratching noise coming from near the ceiling. I looked up and saw something move on top of the AC (it doesn't work). At first I thought it was a huge spider, we have spiders the size of cell phones here, but then I realized it was a crab! There was a crab on top of my AC, which is about a foot lower than our ceiling. I have no idea how he got up there! To see it better I stood on our kitchen table. I laughed pretty hard.

After knit night, which was really play-with-two-year-old-Sebastian-night, I came home and got ready for bed. As I was getting in I noticed there was a crab next to my bed on the floor. It was the same crab! Sadly he must have fallen or jumped off the AC, a good 7-8 foot fall, because he was in bad shape. He could barely move. I put on a skirt, can't run outside in sleeping shorts, and brought him down close to the lagoon. He was probably someone's breakfast this morning.

So sad.

Finally an Update

Me dancing the christmas jebta in my yellow mumu.

Erica, Jay, and my dad receiving gifts from my Marshallese Aunt.

Me, Erica, and my dad on a walk to the island north of Guegeegue.

Well, it has been awhile since I have updated my blog. December was a busy month, the beginning of January I was getting back into routine, then as I was finally getting ready to write a post, the internet died. It has been out for two weeks. It was out because of a late bill. Once the bill was paid there was a $10 reinstallation fee, which no one knew about, that took another week to be paid. Now instead of writing the longest post ever, I decided it would be best to give brief bulleted updates. So here goes…

I watched the Sex in the City Movie and loved it.

I finished knitting my washcloth. Andrea gave me a washcloth that someone started last year and didn’t get to finish. I messed up 5 times on the row she left off on. Now finally I am on my way to completing a row with no mistakes.

Andrea’s grandmother taught me how to make chow mien. Sebastian turned 2!

Stefani and I watched all of Grey’s Anatomy Season 4. Everyone was kissing at the end of it, I didn’t know what to think of all of those characters being happy at once, it didn’t make sense to me.

I got really sick. On the first day of finals I woke up super early and started throwing up and having poops (Stefani’s and my preferred name for diarrhea). I spent the entire day in my bed or in the bathroom. Luckily school was canceled because the causeway flooded. The next day I didn’t eat until school was finished because I didn’t want to have to leave my classroom during a final. Don’t worry Mom, I gained back the weight!

Last semester I failed over 30 students. This time I only failed about 10, yay!

I ate lunch on Christmas with my brother Hamill. We didn’t have a table or a fork. I held Hamill and the plate with one hand and with the other I ate and picked up the food Hamill dropped on us. Hamill ate with both hands, he even fed me some of the food.

I wore the brightest yellow mumu you can ever imagine on Christmas. When we did our beat (dance) my Marshallese mama made sure I danced in the front row. At least I didn’t have to sing in Marshallese without lyrics in the front row. We were in Ebeye from 10am until 1am on Christmas. I have never had such a tiring Christmas day/night.

I baked cinnamon buns. They were supposed to be Christmas morning breakfast. Stefani and I ended up eating them on December 26th at 2 o’clock am.

Erica, my dad, and Jay visited me for 10 days. We had a ton of fun. We crammed as much as we could into their stay: beach combing, watching Christmas dances, a BBQ with Guegeeguers, a family Christmas party with my Marshallese family, kayaking, ferry and water taxi rides, a walk to the island north of Guegeegue for a picnic, fishing cooking and eating the fish all in 3 hours, a 5 mile causeway walk during the hottest time of the day, snorkeling, puzzle making, a pig roast for New Years, jambo, and a bunch of movies. I wish they could have stayed longer.

I finished reading the book Those Who Save Us; a story of a mother who lived through WWII in Germany and her daughter who wants to know more about her past. It was a great story.

On the first day of classes after Christmas vacation the vice principal introduced me to a new teacher. I shook his hand and asked, “Which classes will you be teaching?” He replied he didn’t know. Altrid (the VP) asked me if it would be okay for him to teach my Pre-Algebra class. Now I teach five freshman English classes. (Remember when I was studying Elementary Education and Mathematics in college? Now I am teaching English to High Schoolers. Just another reminder that nothing goes exactly as we plan.)

Stefani gave me a hair cut in the middle of our living room. My hair is just above my shoulders now. Marshallese style is the longer the better, so I was hesitant to cut it but it had to be done.

Stefani is trying to apply to grad school with no internet. Pretty much impossible. Thankfully she is going to be able to stay on Kwaj (the base) to get it in.

My students took a health survey. One of the questions asked how often they wear seat belts; that was funny because everyone rides in the backs of pick-ups.

I finished reading The Gunsery Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I highly suggest it. It takes place after WWII and is written in letters.

I finished knitting my second washcloth. Andrea’s friend from the states sells them at Relay for Life. The day before I finished Jess sent me yarn, needles, and a pattern to make a hat, I think it was my inspiration to finish. Now I am almost finished with the hat… about 4 rows left!

My student Racey got up, walked across the room, took her friend’s Marshallese comb (the type of comb you can wear in your hair), handed it to me, and told me to comb my hair. I was wearing my hair down and curly. I laughed and told her I like crazy hair. She rolled her eyes and tried to hand me the comb again.

I am freaking out a little about what I want to do next year. This week I will make a huge effort to fix up my resume and start looking for places to apply.