Saturday, August 30, 2008 at midnight
We lost power tonight, I am sitting in candle light in my room. I was just at a gathering of neighbors. We were having a potluck with beer and cavaroot (spelling?). Cava has become very popular in the Marshall Islands the past few years. It is a Fijian tradition, which was brought here as the population of Fijians rises. Before someone drinks it he has to clap (one or two times, I didn’t quite figure it out), while he drinks everyone claps twice, once he finishes and hands back the cup he should clap two or three times. I hadn’t seen the clapping before, so when everyone was randomly clapping I thought they were playing a game I didn’t understand. It took me most of the night to finally ask someone what was going on.
I have been here for almost two weeks and I have only briefly updated you all on what is going on. I will start from the day I arrived.
On Tuesday August 19th we arrived in Kwajelein. We were met by many people. I will list them to make it easier:
Staci- a past WorldTeach volunteer, now a contracted teacher who we spend a lot of time with
Julian- our principal, he was actually on the plane with us
Julian’s Wife
Evelyn- the school’s secretary
Christina- the school’s librarian who is very pregnant
There were more people but those are the ones I remember. Julian bought us lunch at Kwaj as we waited for the boat. He is a very soft spoken man who is very involved with his church and the local government.
Instead of waiting for the ferry to arrive we took a water taxi to Ebeye. Once my luggage was near the taxi I never touched it again, except to point out what was mine. Everyone was so helpful. The taxi took a little while to load, then we were off to Ebeye. As Matt, Nick, Stefani, and I got off the taxi a van drove up to the dock filled with teachers from Kwajelein Atoll High School (KAHS, my school) and Matt’s school. A man sang and danced for us in Marshallese, while the women shyly put fresh red and yellow (Stefani and my favorite colors) flowered necklaces on each of us. They smelled wonderful and were so beautiful. I was so surprised by the welcome because someone told me not to expect anything. Our luggage was transferred into the van. I was amazed as I watched a Marshallese teen maneuver our suitcases so everything would fit. The way he climbed over everything without standing up reminded me of Spiderman.
They drove down the road and repacked Stefani and I into a pickup truck. We said goodbye to Matt and Nick and jumped into the cab of the truck. Staci drove us down the five mile causeway to Gugeegue.
I could write a whole journal entry just about the causeway. The causeway is in the middle of the ocean, built up on the coral reef. The dirt road has countless potholes and sections covered in sand. It is just as wide as the street is wide with the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other. There is a lot of trash in certain sections. Two discarded land moving machines from when the causeway was built and many rusted out cars are some of the landmarks along the way. There has been talk for the past few years about the causeway being paved or rebuilt. When it is high tide the ocean almost licks the road.
We arrived in Gugeegue and find out they are in the middle of a black out that ended up spanning five days. Stefani and I are shocked at the apartment that we will spend our next year living in. It is unbelievably roomy and new looking, fully furnished with a large kitchen, living room, bathroom with running water, and two decent sized bedrooms with large closets and dressers. The girl who lived in the apartment before left us a bookcase full of books along with many other mementos.
Stefani was sick so she went to sleep. I started in on the cleaning. Everything seemed dusty and full of cobwebs. When I finished wiping down everything in my bedroom I started on the kitchen. It was hard work!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Now I can finally officially say I finished cleaning the entire apartment floor to ceiling. It feels so good! Well, except for washing the curtains, but hopefully I will figure out how to use our washing machine sometime this weekend.
I am so happy for Re Jerbal (people’s work) day. I have the day off from school and I am going to hopefully meet my host family later tonight. The elementary school on Ebeye invited the high school teachers to a beginning of the year dinner celebration. Evelyn, my school’s secretary, told me that my host family was invited. I’ll update you all on that soon!
So school has been in session officially for two weeks. I almost forgot how draining it is to be a teacher. Wow. I am so tired every night, but I stay up late lesson planning. My classes this week have grown immensely. I started out with about 25 students per class, now my smallest class has 29 and my largest has 33. The desks barely fit into my large classroom. I am teaching all freshman and I love them. They are the youngest in the school and I am so glad for that.
This week I fell into a decent routine. I wake up at 7:30 and start getting ready for the day. The first 2 buses arrive at 8:30. Since I have the first period as my prep period I usually go to my classroom around 9 to start setting up. Did I mention my apartment is right in the middle of KAHS campus? Students are always sitting on my front steps and knocking on my door for water.
My first class is English 9 with 29 students. Currently I am trying to read The Boxcar Children with them. The problem is, I started it thinking the book was in the library and read the first chapter from a textbook, then I realized I couldn’t find a copy of the book. I think I am going to order one… somehow.
My second class is Honors English. We are reading The Big Wave. The school supposedly has 20ish copies of the book, I have only found three. It is hard because the students are low in English and only listening is hard especially with language learners. Having the text would help. Hopefully I will find the books before we are finished reading them.
My third class is my favorite of course, Pre-Algebra 9. We are working on number names and will have a test on Monday.
Then I have an hour break for lunch. I clean up my classroom, get ready for my next classes, run to my house for food if I am hungry, and provide the students with water. Did I mention the school still doesn’t have lunch for the students?
I provide my fourth class, English 9 with water to help them get through the afternoon. This class is almost the same as my morning class.
Finally I have Everyday English, my lowest class. The students barely understand me and I am at a loss of what to do with them. It is my biggest class as well which makes things hard. I’m sure I’ll figure out what is best for them this next week.
After school I hang out with a few of my students until the bus arrives. They teach me Marshallese and we chat and joke. Miko, one of my students, for the past two weeks has helped me clean my room on Fridays. She is so sweet.
After school I go back to my house to lesson plan and relax. Stefani and I make dinner, then more planning and hanging out until bed time. Thursday nights Stefani, Staci, and I meet up with Andrea, a women who works at the Catholic school on Guegeegue to have a knit and bitch night. We have fun. Tomorrow I am starting my first official project. Yay!
Last night for the first time I called my apartment “home”. I had a moment of reflection after that. Finally this week I really am starting to feel comfortable and at home. What an amazing feeling!
