Phosphorescence: Luminous, flashing, shining, dazzling, brilliant

I still don’t understand exactly what it was, but it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. At times I thought the water was simply reflecting the multitude of stars glowing overhead. But with every wave of my hand, kick of my foot, or turn of my head, the black water lit up like its own starry night. Had I suddenly become a fairy, able to leave a glowing trail of fairy dust in my wake with every movement? The magic dust changed consistency constantly depending upon the ferocity of movement, from a light dusting to a sticky, viscous, dripping substance that would even stick to the hairs on your arm for a moment and then disappear as if they were never there. Move fast enough and there was no dust, rather, your movements simply glowed. No need for triple AAAs, flashlights or other such nonsense in an environment like this- the phosphorescence and the moon and stars were the benevolent givers of light tonight.
Floating almost weightless in the water, I would attempt to keep my entire body still, so as to emit no light. Given the turbulent nature of the phosphorence, this was difficult.

I awoke the next day, wondering if it had been real and asked others if they had seen it. As I sat in the low tide, rough coral biting my ass, I lifted the sand while it escaped, snaking its way through the spaces above the webs of my fingers and drifting in every direction. Had it been a little more magical, a little more glowing, just a little more beautiful, and had the sun not been shining, the sand escaping from my clutched fists may have bore a resemblance to the phosphorescence of the night before.

Reminiscing: Christmas '06 with the Luther Family

While being a little homesick during the holidays, I was looking through some old home videos and typed up the transcript of this one for your reading pleasure:

(all the while Stevie has the camera focused on Heather standing in front of the Christmas tree awkwardly attempting to spin a basketball on two fingers and failing)

Mom: you guys, i really don't want you doing that in the living room.

(heather continues spinning, stevie continues taping)

Mom: ...all right?

Brandon: (out of sight of the camera, presumably squirting a water gun) Mom, it's a wet christmas!

Mom: (screech) Noooo!

Mom: mumble mumble...warm in here?

Brandon: (takes shirt off) I'm so warm that I'm sweating my balls off!

Mom: Ok, let's go in the garage and... PING PONG...listen let's play ping pong! You know what, know what I wanna do today you guys? Have you guys EVER played Monopoly?

Stevie: (with sarcasm) NO, what's that!? ( or also entirely possible, perhaps he says Fuck that..)

And I could create a great montage of Stevie chasing chickens...

exam giver > exam taker

Right now I'm giving my 10A English their exam. In the minutes before I was about to pass out the test, I asked the class if anyone had any last minute questions and one student, Michelle, raised her hand to ask, "What did you eat for breakfast this morning?" It sure is nice to be on this side of things- while writing and grading exams can be tedious, it's also much more relaxing than say, a tumultuous end of term at Dartmouth spent cramming and cranking out pages upon pages.

A teacher has to be so many things at the same time: actor, policeman, scholar, jailer, parent, inspector, referee, friend, psychiatrist, accountant, judge and jury, guide and mentor, wielder of minds, and keeper of records. Throughout the course of a day, an hour, and even a minute it takes many split second decisions about how to respond to certain things, and the responses you give can make or break you.


It was 10 minutes before the 11A Teacher Academy Quarter 1 Final Exam was to commence. Takky, one of the biggest behavior problems in my class sauntered up to my desk and asked, well, more like demanded, to see the test. He asked in such a way that made him feel as if he was entitled to it and as if seeing the test before an exam began was the norm here at Laura High School. I looked at him with mock shock and teased him that he was crazy, then more seriously explained that he could not see the exam before the test because it wasn't fair but in 10 minutes everybody would see the test. I asked if he had done the review sheet from a couple days previously because doing the review sheet was part of the final exam grade, and of course he hadn't.

Happy Holidaze

After losing my cell phone at a place that we were highly encouraged by our esteemed director not to attend, I have been a bit incommunicado these days. Hopefully this small update finds everyone well and not too angry with me for my failure at responding to text messages!
I’ve joined my host sister’s volleyball team, which I feel honored to be a part of as it consists exclusively of her sisters. Although we have yet to play an actual game, I am quite excited by the idea of my new team and even more so, the new topic of conversation that it gives me to use with Amanda, my host sister.

Our air con kicked the bucket last week, but I’m fond of the opportunity it gives us to open the windows, push back the curtains, and let a little Marshallese breeze into our bubble. Sleepover days of yore come over me as the three of us pull our various futon and mattress pads closer to the fan before hitting the sack for the night (which happens pretty consistently between 10-11 pm if my mom and dad will ever believe it!)

Anna’s observation of my classroom came and went, providing assurance that I am not doing things all wrong, an easy sentiment to come by when you are a first year teacher attempting to teach a roomful of 11th graders how to teach (Teacher Academy). But, the ups and downs of teaching are slowly beginning to merge into more ups than downs, and that little phrase that people love to utter so much, “It gets easier!” is finally seeming like it just might hold a glimmer of truth.

Rather than feeling flustered or overwhelmed by unfamiliarity around me, I am beginning to walk down the road and feel comfortably in my place, recognizing certain dogs and certain chickens, like the one with the injured leg and a funny hop, and becoming more familiar with landmarks, like the manure pile on ocean side or the group of children wielding slingshots on lagoon road. One of my more successful teaching ventures lately has been teaching a band of children that like to stand on the roof how to blow noises with grass, which they learned remarkably well, although their parents and neighbors must hate me for the resulting noise.
Many thanks to all those who have been sending their thoughts, emails, letters, and special packages.

Bar lo kom! Happy holidays!

~Heather

Thanksgiving with the Baptists

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and I was watching a volleyball game outside and trying to remember how I spent Thanksgiving-eve last year. And I remembered, I was with you and it was wonderful! Last year around this time we were indulging in some turkey soup and this year I will be having a nice little meal and some actual turkey with the Baptist missionaries. What a contrast, eh!? The Baptist missionaries are the tamest of them all; they pale in comparison to the gung ho “Run from Satan, Walk with God” Mormons who taught all my kids how to begin their letters with, “First, I’d like to thank our heavenly father…”. These missionaries consist of two families. One family has four kids, their two oldest daughters already go to Bob Jones University, somewhere down South and extremely zealous Baptists. Very nice people, although I may never understand how such intelligent people can be so single-minded when it comes to some things.

By the way, here is my teaching schedule

homeroom/1st period: 10B English 21 students
2nd period: free
3rd period: 10C English 18 students
4th period: 11A Teacher Academy 30 students
5th period: free
6th period: 10A English 22 students
7th period: 10C Reading 18 students


Sarah's parents just sent a ton of books and copies of Cricket/Spider magazine. So now we have a class set of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Sarah Plain and Tall, and Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beverly Cleary).

Since I'm teaching 3 sections of English, my focus is probably going to be on writing for the 2nd-4th quarters. I hope to drill some essay/descriptive writing and critical thinking into their brains.

My chai tea bag tonight said, "to know, read. to learn, write. to master, teach. " Sarah said, "oh good, so we're going to master English and Reading."
"Wellll, it's about time I got around to doing that!" I replied.

I remember taking German at Dartmouth that not only was I truly learning a foreign language for the first time (yeah, Espanol at good ol' Mack High doesn't count), but I was also learning English grammar for the first time. If I could go back and learn German with the knowledge I have now about grammar I think it would be a lot easier! It would be great with my students if I could scaffold onto their knowledge of Marshallese, but in order to do that I need to work on my own Marshallese first. Plus, Marshallese is mostly a spoken language. One of the only books written in Marshallese is the World Teach Language Manual that I have a copy of.

Speaking of books, here is a list of the ones I have read so far:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Flowers for Algernon
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
First Year Teacher's Survival Kit
Teach like your Hair's on Fire
The Cay
The Giver by Lois Lowery
Sophie's World
Ruby Fruit Jungle
Franny and Zooey- Salinger
The Book of Laugher and Forgetting- Milan Kundera
Up the Down Staircase- Bel Kaufman

Run From Satan, Swim with God

We went snorkeling ocean side again today. The water was the perfect temperature- refreshingly cool but not too cold. The waves were intimidating at first and we weren't sure if we could get past them. The hardest part is battling the waves when you first enter the water and still have to walk because first of all, it's hard to walk in flippers and second, the waves do their darndest to topple you over. Once you get out a little further it's easier because you can swim and just dive under the waves. They will pull you back towards the shore but then give you a good push towards the ocean when they go back out. The waves push you quickly and you move forward with no effort, the ocean floor disappearing quickly behind you- I feel a bit like a turbo-speed human submarine when this happens!

As we were walking to go snorkel we passed a church with the doors wide open and everyone sitting inside fanning themselves with palm leaves. I was reminded of the phrase outside the Mormon church that says: "exercise daily: run from satan, walk with god". Passing the church to snorkel made me feel like I was running towards satan, since most physical activity is discouraged on Sundays.

"What are you doing over there Heather?" asked Eric, observing me floating in one spot for quite some time.

"I'm looking over the edge where the reef ends. It's like a deep blue nothingness!"

Despite my description of where the reef ends, the ocean continues on and on and is anything but nothingness as it contains much more life than humans will probably ever know.

I survived one full quarter of teaching

If you can believe, this trip into town marks the completion and celebration of the end of my first quarter of teaching! I made it through many hot afternoons standing in front of the class with chalk on my hands and coating my throat, and sweat dripping into my eyes, while trying to control rowdy 10th graders…oh and did I mention, try to teach them?

One highlight of the past couple weeks includes playing guitar with our neighbor (and now my host sister), Amanda. She knows a few songs like, Love Will Keep Us Alive by the Eagles and Wonderful Tonight (and then just repeats them….Marshallese are fans of repetition…) Everyone that plays guitar seems to be great at strumming, harmony, and rhythm while singing, all things I need to work on, so it seems I am in the right place! Allison’s host sister, Delacia plays guitar and is a leftie. Instead of stringing the strings backwards like I think lefties in the states do, she has learned how to play by just switching the guitar upside down, which is pretty impressive! I brought my guitar out and have been playing along

I like to eat AND cook



Everyone has always known how much I like to eat, and that appearances are deceiving because I can really put food away when I want to. One day last week it occurred to me that I even like to cook! After being in the kitchen for about two hours putting together various meals, I realized how long I had been in there and that I really didn’t MIND! Turns out that when I have the time, cooking is something I enjoy. Nothing fancy, but then again it’s tough to be fancy on an island where supplies are limited. See a couple of my favorite recipes below:

Heather's Tortilla Pizza
1 tortilla
Spaghetti sauce
Cheese
Hot dog
Red hot chili pepper flakes

Slice hotdog into dime size pieces. Cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and slice into smaller pieces. Grate cheese. Spread sauce on tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Melt over medium heat. Once melted, sprinkle hotdog pieces on melted cheese. Remove from heat and slice. Sprinkle with chili pepper flakes. Enjoy your thin crust tortilla pizza!

Tuna Veg (thanks Kiersten!)
1 can special value mixed vegetables
3 cans chunk light tuna
scoop of mayo, squirt of mustard
salt, pepper
siratcha sauce
papaya (optional)

Thai stir-fry
1 can coconut milk (I have yet to try it using real coconut milk, but I should since it is accessible via just a short walk out my front door)
2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
Soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
any veggies you can get your hands on

Bean salad
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can cut green beans
onion
garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt/pepper

Other than this, it’s a lot of oatmeal, French toast, PB&J, with the occasional egg

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Striped Fish, Enno Fish

Eric and I went snorkeling again today (a Sunday, gasp!) and walked right by a church...you aren't supposed to do any active things here on Sundays, so I felt pretty guilty, of course. But my guilt was quickly washed away with the tide as the waves carried us out to the watercolor coral of the Pacific. It took a while to swim out to the reef and we weren't sure we would ever get there, but we could hear the waves crashing beyond so we kept on swimming. Eventually it was worth it when we saw acres of pink, purple, ivory, and blue coral with red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish! There were yellow and black striped diamond-shaped fish with long tails, small shimmery silver fish, big black pug fish with flattened noses like their faces had been squashed between a semi-truck and a highway divide, small black and electric blue fish that could mesmerize anyone, large speckled fish, and more. Maybe this is wrong, but for some reason It made me really hungry. Every fish I saw, I thought, "I wonder how that one tastes?!" Even the little swordfish swimming at the top of the surface looked not only shimmery and pretty but delicious too and I could just imagine their scales crisping at the edges and flaking off onto butter soaked aluminum paper over a hot grill. I think it is a sign that I need to get more protein into my diet. Either that, or a sign that I am going to be a bad-ass spear-fisher-woman someday. On our walk back we ran into the head-man from the missionary family who told us that a lot of the kids around here get started spearfishing by using any skinny, long car part that you can sharpen a point onto the end of. With so many broken down vehicles perched behind various palm trees through out Laura, I think it's time I find my weapon of choice and start capturing some fish.

4 of the best sentences I have ever seen in a row, by Jackhead Francis:

1. The man has been lied.
2. Many people like to eat a...(crossed out) and then wrote: Why hotdogs is good?
3. I like to welcome you to here!
4. I love you so much.

The Children of the Palms

I’ve figured out why all the cars here are such junk- because they double as playgrounds. One day I was at Alison’s host family’s house and two of the little boys were climbing all over a car outside and sliding down the window, and jumping so violently on the top of it that I thought the top would cave in. Walking down the street makes you feel like a movie star as children call out from behind trees, under cars, inside stores “Miss Heather!” or “Good night!” or “Good morning” or “Yokwe!” They put out their hands to be given a high five and cheer endlessly when they get one.


Glowsticks: Are awesome and so is Gail, my future sister-in-law's mother, for sending them! Thanks Gail!

Germs

When the guy who's hacking up a lung, presumably from the tuberculosis that runs rampant here, offers you a Marshallese donut, do you take it? Seriously, this guy is coughing so hard that he's gagging and it's making me want to gag, kind of like that time in high school when I found Brittany gagging over a trashcan (because she saw a fat kid's asscrack hanging out of his jeans) and I joined her in a sympathy gag, until suddenly there were 4 of us gagging over a trash can in the hallway during the middle of class. Anyway, I am feeling especially gaggy at this moment since I just ate a donut that was coughed all over by the man who gave it to me. Germs are quite the issue here...in water, on food, on hands, there is no escaping them.

Manit, Sailing, "Welcum" Party

We had Friday off for Manit Day (“custom” day, assuming that Marshallese custom means grilling up a ton of chicken and playing volleyball against each other…sounds alright to me!). This meant that all the schools came into town to participate in volleyball matches, music and dance performances, and the enjoyment of much delicious BBQ. In addition to chowing on some chicken I joined the elite Marshall Islands Yacht Club, the only yacht club in this country and one therefore of the most elite yacht clubs in the world. It includes a 5% discount at Marshall Islands Resort (one of the restaurants with wireless) and EZ Price (Walmart of the RMI). In December apparently we can join a team and learn how to sail!
On Saturday Malcolm, Amy, and Lee came from town to visit Laura. They stayed Saturday night and we utilized the “ping pong” table and played to the awesome sound of our playlists including artists such as TLC, Ace of Base, Shaggy, Gdead, zep, stones, queen, meatloaf, etc. At some point in the night a large (and wet) palm frond was dragged into the house to be used as a dancing accessory/fan (and by large I’m talking at least 7 feet!). During one of the torrential downpours Allison had the bright idea to fill some of our empty water jugs using the stream coming off the rain gutter and soaked herself in the processs. But within seconds we had at least 8 liters full of fresh rain water. (A word about our water situation: Most houses have a water catchment built near the house that is used as a water supply. This is helpful because even during frequent power outages you can siphon water from the catchment with a tube. Of course during the dry season catchments can dry up and water becomes scarce. Catchment water should be boiled for 5-10 minutes before drinking, but it is potable. Well water on the other is not as good for you and is unfortunately our main source of water at the house since the large concrete catchment outside has a crack in it caused by a breadfruit tree root. The pro is that we won’t run out of water during the dry season, the con is that even if we boil the water it could be poisoning us with weird minerals and formaldehyde, or something like that).

Saturday was also the night of the "Welcum" Party at Laura High School for the “freshmenz”, new students, and new teachers. The 11th grade hosted the welcome party and did a great job decorating. The big poster at the front of the stage said “Welcum Party”. Good thing I am here to teach English! The students gave us a great welcome to the “Tiger Shark family” ( the school mascot is the Tiger Sharks, how awesome is that?). The tradition for new students and teachers is that students are reandomly chosen and then get to choose somebody to dance with in front of everybody. Of course freshmen and new teachers were picked on- they dragged me onto the dance floor kicking and screaming two times, where I did a little head banging and the mashed potato. All the kids remembered my moves on Monday and asked me to teach them and even told me I was the best dancer. The best part of the dancing tradition though was definitely when students would be picked to dance and you would hear their name coming over the speakers, only to see that kid bolting as fast as he could away from the party.

Sunsets

I've been trying to catch the sunset everyday, not tough since we live within a coconuts toss from the ocean. My roommate Sarah is literally going to have millions of pictures of the sunset if she keeps taking pictures of all the pretty ones, so we've been creating a rating system for sunsets, using factors such as depth, clouds, color, etc.

sunshine daydream

walking in the tall trees

we go where the wind goes

It’s the little things...

When I was talking with SK about her college prep plans she told me about a student that had come in for help filling out his FAFSA. She began to go through the form with him and asked him for his name, birthdate, etc. She asked him for his address and the student looked confused. SK repeated herself and the student looked baffled. He didn't have an address! Unless, "Oceanside, past the pig pens on the left" can be entered on the FAFSA form. On automated online forms like the FAFSA it often won't let you pass on to fill out the next section until you have filled in the current section. Of course, there are ways to bypass this, like just entering a fake address or the school's address, but nonetheless it's an interesting problem to run into, and certainly one the FAFSA peeps may not have taken into account.

Everyone be quiet, the Ri-Belle is speaking!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Today was Ri-Jerbal day (Labor Day) so we didn't have school and had a nice lazy morning cleaning the house and doing laundry. I bought some Marshallese laundry soap flakes and have been doing my laundry by hand in a bucket. After our lazy morning we went to a picnic with Laura Elementary School and Rita Elementary School. I guess you could say Rita Elementary is Laura's rival- they're on one side of Majuro Atoll and Laura is on the other. We had a great tug of war, some game involving chugging out of baby bottles and popping balloons, and a volleyball game...speaking of which, I'm going to join one of the community volleyball teams in Laura. They have huge community games every night and it's very cool! The Laura High School team is called the Tiger Sharks and practically the whole town comes out to watch. They use crappy little speakers to announce the games and it makes the games seem really intense.

Everyone here is AWESOME at volleyball in a very odd way- they haven't been trained in the proper techniques to hit the ball but they've all been pretty much playing since they were born so they have mastered being able to hit the ball in a controlled way with any part of their fist. Plus these tiny girls can jump and spike like crazy! The best part is seeing everyone play barefoot or in flip flops and in skirts! Basketball is also really popular here and we live right down the path from the basketball courts, so I've surprised a couple of the neighborhood boys with my snazzy basketball skills (although it's a little hard to show off by dribbling with the ball between your legs while wearing a skirt)... At the volleyball game yesterday Eric and I were talking to each other when we noticed a little girl in a yellow shirt yelling something angrily at all the people around us. When we questioned the missionary's daughter about what the girl was yelling, we found out that she was saying, "Be quiet! Don't talk! The Ri-Belles (Americans) are speaking!" Haha, I guess we've really drilled it into the kids here that you shouldn't speak when others are speaking.

Anyway, I diverge! The picnic today was great and the menu included Marshallese bbq chicken, pork ribs, fish, potato salad, breadfruit salad, bread with coconut sauce, banana lumpia, coconuts, coconut breadfruit balls, and cake! Breadfruit is kind of like a cross between a baked potato and pineapple, pretty delicious (enno!). Oh, and we had some stuff that tasted like pumpkin pie and was tied into little baggies. To eat it, you bite off the tip of the bag and suck it out...I can't remember what it's called. The way people eat during picnics is funny- after everyone has served themselves, everybody goes back to the food and loads up their styrafoam to-go plates to bring home food. It's quite the battle to get the most in your box.


School

Finished the second week! My classroom is *sort of* set up- unfortunately the supplies I mailed to myself still haven't come and there's not much at the school....plus the principal doesn't open my room until 8, when homeroom starts, and we have to lock up at 5, so there's not much time to put up decorations. Despite that I've managed to make my classroom look pretty- I have one bulletin board that says "reading can take you anywhere" (Sarah made it before she knew she didn't have a classroom) and I put up all my postcards from some of my travels- Berlin, other places in Europe, and from my trip to Belize and Guatemala with Stevie and Brandon. I also put up some posters of the Marshall Islands on the same bulletin board-- think about it, reading took me to the marshall islands! If my dad hadn't spent those countless hours reading things like Lord of the Rings and Little House on the Prairie, I probably wouldn't have become such an avid reader and wouldn't have ended up at Dartmouth and then I probably wouldn't have ended up on the Marshall Islands. THUS, reading really can take you anywhere! Now, what else can I do besides making a pretty bulletin board in order to convey that to my students?!
I also made a bulletin board with my Groundation and Bob Marley posters (one musician the students actually know) because I really want to use my time here to turn my students onto GOOD music- something that I deeply believe is a key ingredient in life (although I'll acknowledge that 'good' is quite a relative term when it comes to something like music). This week I did an activity with Blackbird by The Beatles and couldn't believe that NONE of my students had ever heard of the Beatles. When I ask them what kind of music they like the answers I get are Akon, Taylor Swift and 50 Cent.

I also put up one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." My classes all made class contracts, so I have a posterboard with the rules up. (I will respect everyone, I will raise my hand, I will come to class prepared, I will take my shoes off before entering class...you know the drill). Oh yeah, did I mention that I get to teach barefoot?! Luckily my students LOVE to sweep. During lunch students from the elementary school come into my classroom and sweep the class for fun. The other day I watched two little boys in their orange Laura Elementary School t-shirts, one outside and one inside the room, as they rubbed and smacked their hands on my window in a rhythm. I should have told them not to make my windows dirty but their game looked fun and I don't think I'm the type of teacher (or person) to let fear of a little grime spoil a lot of fun. One little boy picked up a broom and began to sweep a corner of the room. When I smiled at him, he shyly smiled back. Every morning in homeroom my 10B students ask me, "Miss Heather, can we mop today?" Unfortunately, their fondness of cleaning means that I can't make my students come clean my house as a punishment!

-----
Another one of my first week activities was about fear at school and things that they are afraid of, to get the kids talking about why they are all so afraid to talk in class. It's funny- they are horrified to speak aloud in class most of the time but when i asked if they wanted to sing Blackbird once we had done the activity, they ALL sung. i guess they have grown up singing in church so they're more used to it, but in American schools ask a kid to sing and they would never! It's hard to tell how much of what i say the students actually understand but here are some exceprts from the 11A journals that definitely show they understood the fear activity:

Journal Question: Yesterday we talked about fear and things students and teachers are afraid of at school. Please discuss what you learned yesterday using 7-8 sentences. Include your thoughts on how the activity could be improved.

"Yesterday it was a great day to me in class. Because we get to group together and tell everyone about the thing we afraid of in general and also in school. I think this could be improved when we believed in our-self. Like standing in front of many student and discuss or talk to them. When we show ourself and forget everything and be with other student and have fun with them. It would be improved when we belived in ourself and not to be shy.
"we should trust ourself and be brave. And students should tell other student to be brave."

-------
Another fun activity: I used this funny little poem my Dad taught me years ago with my class on Thursday. I posted the phrase in small letters on the chalkboard and put the students into pairs. One student was the writer and had to stay in their seat while the other student ran up to the board and read the poem, then reported as much as they could remember to the writer. The first team to show me that they had written the phrase correctly won. This kind of activity helps them practice their speaking and dictation skills and it was really fun!

Early one morning, late at night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Pulled out swords and shot each other
The deaf policeman heard the noise
Came and killed those two dead boys.

----

Before class on Thursday one student came up to me and said proudly, "Miss Heather, I know what is your favorite colors!"
So I said, "Oh really, what are they?"
Beaming, she says "Purple, pink, and blue!"
"Wow, how did you know that?" I asked her.
"Because every day you wear purple, pink, or blue!" she said, skipping back to her desk. This gives you a sense of how much the kids here are constantly watching and really look up to us!

-----
I gave my students a survey in the first week to learn more about them and to gauge their English abilities. One of the questions was "If you could meet any person, dead or alive, who would you meet and why?" Hilariously, many of them gave answers like this one:
"I meet alive person because then he alive and we speak together."
Or this one: "If I see almost dead person, I call a doctor and give them a advil."

Some of them understood the question and several wanted to meet Michael Jackson because he is the "king of rock" and "got cool smooth moves". Ohers wanted to meet Akon and Taylor Swift, two of the most popular artists here in the RMI..haha!
One question asked them to talk about a favorite teacher they've had before and why they were their favorite. Of course I got answers like: "Miss Heather cuz she very beautiful" and "Miss Heather because she work hard".
The last question asked them to tell me about anything I didn't ask in the survey and one student answered, "Next year I come to Alaska and find you". Haha, not really sure where he got that...maybe he confused California with Alaska.


Food

The delicious meals you can make from canned items is truly amazing! We actually had mexican night at our house last night and made a yummy 7 layer dip. I've also been putting peanut butter and siratcha sauce on everything...so obviously still not too far removed from college, as Stevie said when I told him this.


Other fun facts before I go:

-I learned yesterday that there is no phrase for "nice to meet you" in Marshallese since when the language was created, everyone already knew each other!!

-Tonight it's a full moon so the tide is at it's lowest and we're meeting up to go on a moonlight reef walk at midnight to Ejit, the island off the edge of rita that you have to cross the reef to get to. Ejit: population 300 and 1/3 of those are children!

-We have to go home from town on Saturdays because there are no buses that run on Sundays...last Sunday we learned the hard way and had to hitchhike home- we ended up getting a ride in the back of the Minister of Finance's truck!

-We bought a sheet of plywood at Ace today to make a pong table!! I plan on painting a beautiful island scene on it and my dad and Stevie are sending paddles! Since we're living in the big house there is plenty of room (and privacy) to play, woo!

-I am going over to Anna's now to pick up the package that came for me from PANARCHY!!!! She said it feels very rattly and I am SO EXCITED to pick it up. I love you guys!!

-Random, but I was just thinking the other day as I stepped on a crunchy palm tree leaf, that maybe a lack of deciduous trees gives places a more laid back feel, like Humboldt with its redwoods and the Marshall Islands with palm trees. Trees that shed their leaves have a tendency to remind you that time is passing and puts you in a hurry. This thought reminds me that time is passing and it's time for me to head on the bus back to Laura and finish up my lesson planning for next week, especially since our principal, Mr. Stanley, will be observing some of our classes. Bar lo iok (see you later)!

Peace, Love, Unity

~Heather

The winding path to my house, past a basketball court and small pig farm (with HUGE pigs).

Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sitting in Anna’s House after a night full of awkward Marshallese dancing at Pub and kittens!

First of all, I apologize to my most loyal of fans that have been eagerly awaiting my next, non-existent blog post (ahem, calvo and ML!). Last night I went out with Kiersten and her girlfriends for a girls night out…after dancing awkwardly at the pub while everyone stood around and made fun of our moves (I was doing signature Heather dance moves, such as the mashed potato and shopping cart, so I have no idea what they were laughing at) we went back to crash at Anna’s house since Kiersten was house sitting for her. At 4:30 in the morning Sarah woke us up whispering excitedly, “kittens!” Anna’s one-year old cat was pregnant and actually crawled onto the couch where Sarah was sleeping to have her four kittens! I have never really seen anything like it.

By the way, I made it through my first, exhausting week of school but that also means that since school started I am involved in a vicious cycle of lesson planning, teaching from 8-3:30, napping, eating, sleeping, and then doing it all again. Which means I fail and haven’t really had time to write much. We have Ri-Jerbal Day (labor day) next Friday though, so I will come back to town to use internet and hopefully give you a more elaborate update. In the meantime, it’s back to Laura for me and another week of teaching with no internet. More to come next week! How is everyone!? I except your updates by next week when I am back online! Peace, Love, Unity-- Heather


Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Across from me a thin Marshallese woman holds a small girl on her lap wearing a worn green Teletubby t-shirt with wispy black pigtails sticking out on the top of her head. Her little hands grasp at the palm leaf her mother fans herself with. I am bouncing along in the “bus” from Laura to Rita, which is really a van with four rows that takes about an hour and a half to make the 45 minute long journey from one side of Majuro (where I live in Laura) to Rita, on the opposite end. The van slows as the driver pulls to the side of the road and gets out to open the back trunk for a man to deposit a large fruit before he himself gets into the clown-car van which is becoming more and more packed every stop we make. I didn’t get a good look but I think the fruit is pandanus (bob), judging from the sweet smell that fills the van.
The warm breeze from the open window brushes my face as I look to my left, where an occasional break in the palm trees lends a glimpse of the blue lagoon, a delicate baby blue deepening as it extends to the small islands beyond. To my right is ocean side; tide appears high as the waves lap up over the sandy rocks and close to the tree line. The bus hurtles along as we pass first through the town of Woja, then Ajeltake, slowing only for speedbumps and swerving to avoid stray chickens, dogs, coconuts, children and pigs. The road narrows and a cement wall stands to our right but our driver doesn’t let that cramp his style! He puts the pedal to the metal, bumping us up somewhere around the high speed of 45, to pass a truck in front of us holding a pile of gravel in the bed and a man smoking a cigarette (which only cost $3 a pack here by the way! Too bad girls aren’t allowed to smoke). Just another typical day on Majuro!

Vocabulary of the week:
Ij kiki ilo Laura. (I live in Laura)
Elekuun emman (excellent)

Yokwe!

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 11:44 AM
drinking a cup of coffee in Tide Tables, the Ri-belle (American)-dominated restaurant that has free wireless Internet.

Yokwe! I’m alive!! So, we have even less Internet here than I had previously anticipated, which explains the lack of my online presence going on almost a week now. But for all you Dartmouth peeps and other Internet addicts out there, let me tell you- it’s very freeing to not have Internet! Instead of defaulting to the old ‘open my laptop and check blitz’, I’ve actually picked up my guitar more than three times this week and have been making my way through reading Franny and Zooey (sidenote: did you know that apparently JD Salinger lives near Hanover? I think he's the old man I've seen wearing around a Yale sweatshirt while I've been working at Baker Info...just my theory though) and I'm also working on Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book.

I’m already becoming quite used to flicking little bugs, like gnats and ants, off my arms and legs. In the classroom yesterday during a class management teaching session we noticed a tiny crab crawling in the light fixture. My favorite animal so far is the tiny lizard inhabiting our little house- he’s got this awesomely quick zig-zag crawl across the wall and loves to fill his little belly with the mosquitoes that have been destroying everyone’s ankles, so props to him! Not to be left out are the scrawny, free range dogs and chickens running around everywhere and the rooster outside the house that serves as our alarm clock every morning around 6:30 AM. I went for a (very hot) run the other day and had to throw pebbles at a dog that started chasing me down the road.

I'm getting ahead of myself though because you don't have any clue of where I've been living, who I've been with, or what I've been doing for my first week here in the Marshall Islands (or, in German- der Marshall Inseln...I was just reading a pamphlet about the Germans and the Marshall Islands, which I'll talk about later). There is only one main road here that runs the length of the island. The easiest way to get around is to walk or hop in one of the taxies. Taxies cost one dollar no matter where you're going, unless you cross the bridge going towards Laura, and then it's two dollars. I prefer to walk, especially in the early evening, because everyone is out talking to each other, playing volleyball, kids running and playing, etc. It's obvious that having a sense of community is important to people here.

Lots else to update on that I don't have time to get deep into, including but not limited to:
-my crazy night in Honolulu in which I meta '73 Dartmouth alum sitting next to me at the bar in Duke's world famous bar and restaurant, who picked up my whole dinner and bar tab!
-Hanging on the beach outside Duke’s with some fun local Hawaiians who really appreciated the Damian Marley songs I had on my cell phone and are now planning on going to Reggae on the River in Humboldt next year.
-the flight into Majuro, in which the skinniness of the atolls was finally, truly apparent to me. Damn, these islands need to eat something, they're skin and bones!
-the rat that ran through the dorm room we were meeting in today.
-the World Teach volunteers, about 30 of them that are also teaching in various atolls
-Guam dresses- I bought 2 for $6.99 each. They're thin polyesterish baggy dresses with many different patterns. Marshallese women use these to swim in since they cover your whole body nicely, providing good protection from the sun, despite the oddness of going into the water wearing so many clothes. The colorful patterns make this seem like the equivalent of bathing suit shopping in the U.S.
-how scandalous my knees and thighs are→ Not only are women required to wear skirts and dresses here because it’s the polite thing to do, but also because the outline of the thigh is considered sexual/erotic.
-Cornbeefing→ looking through windows (similar to peeping toms). There is a constant feeling of being watched here. As long as you can see the sky, be carefully because you are probably being watched. The people here are not afraid to just come right up to our door and look inside. Can't blame em- we are a bunch of weird, foreign people that just moved into the neighborhood and they're curious, but it can definitely get a little weird. If I see somebody looking at me funny I am already in the habit of pulling my skirt down to make sure my knees are covered!
-Pay day was last Friday and the neighborhood seemed extra wild. Apparently alcoholism is a big problem here and Marshallese drink to get wasted, especially on pay day.

My Digs

For orientation, the 15 of us are sharing two gorgeous (haha) houses on Marshall Islands High School property. And by gorgeous, I mean nasty green little shacks with paint peeling on the walls and dusty tiles covered in rat droppings. Outside are two large cylindrical water catchments that catch rain water which we use for taking bucket showers, but must boil before drinking. 10 feet away from the house is the fence enclosing the school and literally 40-50 feet beyond that is the ocean side! The houses are within the fence of the MIHS and right near a pathway which many of the people who live in the neighborhood (which I'll talk about later) on the other side of the fence use as a shortcut to the other side of the school. One of my first impressions of the area surrounding our houses and in the RMI in general is that people here remind me of the SIMS! I often see them wandering by our house, arms swinging by their sides, looking like they are going no place in particular. Even the Marshallese language sounds a bit like sims mumbo jumbo to my still untrained ear. When you walk down the main street, there are people sitting in chairs in the middle of a field doing not much of anything. I suppose that is island culture, partially induced by the sweltering heat, and such leisure is definitely something I could get used to!




Saturday, August 1st, 2009
sex talk from Nathalie in the Melele (understanding) room in the Marshall Islands Resort. She enlightened us on Marshallese issues around sex and gender.

The cultural standards of sex differ among different peoples, but I was quite astonished to learn about some of the drastic differences between the way American and Marshallese people think about sex. Sex is one of THE BIGGEST taboos in the RMI and therefore it can be difficult to do sex education outreach in a culturally sensitive way. The issue does not necessarily lie in lack of resources as one might typically think of a third world, typically under-resourced country. Actually, the RMI has even better programs than the U.S., offering free contraceptives and family planning to a large extent. There are severe issues with promiscuity, probably even more so than in the U.S., however Marshallese people do not talk about sex in the open way many people do in America due to the large taboos surrounding it. I'm not talking about your typical "tee hee! I giggle when sex is talked about" kind of taboo, but rather a taboo that provokes severe shame if sex is discussed or if a woman is accused of promiscuity. In the United States, it is typically men who are less likely to want to wear a condom since it "doesn't feel as good", but in the RMI, women refuse condoms because to them it insinuates that they are dirty, or that the man they are sleeping with is sleeping with other women. Due to the strength of the sex taboo, such insinuations are more important to them than the dangers of pregnancy or STIs.
Despite this taboo, a lack of morality is less connected to teenage sex and pregnancy as it is in the States, where teen pregnancy is looked down upon (as seen in somewhat recent scandals like Sarah Palin's daughter or Britney Spear's sister, both teenage mothers).
In the Marshall Islands if I am able to conduct sex education unit, obviously I won't be able to change the deeply embedded taboo surrounding sex, but hopefully I can promote healthier

Anna told a story about a volunteer who taught an adult sex education class and used bananas to represent how to correctly put condoms on. One day she was out walking and one of her old students approached her angrily. She was upset because she said she had done everything Betty had tolder her to do when putting on a condom but she had still gotten pregnant! Confused, Betty told her she was sorry and didn't know what could have gone wrong, so she asked her to show her how she had put the condom on. The woman brought her out to a a banana tree in the backyard, on which each banana was covered with condoms! I guess I should be careful about the literal interpretations of things during my teaching here!

What most surprised me is that it's not unheard of for volunteers to date or have sex with their students! Natalie told us of one man she knew who lost his virginity at age 14 to a Peace Corp volunteer! Definitely not something condoned by locals (or me) however.

Sex Ed. Vocabulary
coco= penis
bibi= vagina
pek= semen (literally, little swimmers)
lip= egg
alin= moon, month, period
tabi= sex
imajpek= ejaculation

Following sex ed, we went bowling with World Teach then proceeded to do what we weren’t supposed to by getting smashed at Tide Table. Although it would be somewhat disrespectful to a culture in which women aren't supposed to drink heavily to be drunk in public, we were told that it was more okay to drink at Tide Table since it is a restaurant/bar for Ri-belles. I had a large shot of 151 on Lee’s recommendation and was set for the night! When we got home, Malcolm passed out sitting straight up in his chair and was too out of it to get into his bed haha.


Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Today all 15 of us piled into the back of a sturdy pick up truck and drove 30 miles out to Laura. The weather was beautiful with swirly cotton candy clouds above us and the oppressive mugginess disappearing into a light breeze and perfect temperatures, probably around 83 or so and cooling down later.

As we drove west towards Laura the sparse streets of Majuro turned into luscious, jungle-like terrain and the water in the lagoon became even bluer than I thought possible! Bob Marley’s music drifted out the window of the cab and Matt’s ‘One Love’ tattoo on his bicep was visible out the passenger window from my perch on the back of the truck.

We stopped and bought coconuts for 50 cents each from two children selling them on the side of the road. When we got to the beach area for our picnic, we learned how to shave off the top of the coconut to drink the sweet water inside and then cracked them on the side of the palm tree to eat the gelatinous coconut meat inside, which sounds gross since typical coconut isn’t jello-like, but it was truly delicious and I must have eaten at least 3.

On the way home, we ran into 4 World Teachers hitching a ride into Majuro and somehow managed to squeeze them in the back of the already full truck with us. Standing up on the truck, I leaned on the back of the cab, took my hair out of its pony tail and let the warm wind whip my face.

'Kids' mgmt
The water is warm,
but its sending me shivers.
A baby is born,
crying out for attention.
Memories fade,
like looking through a fogged mirror
Decisions to decisions are made and not fought
But I thought,
this wouldn't hurt a lot.
I guess not.

The feeling I had while sitting on the bus to leave Dartmouth last Monday was one of the most melancholy ones I have ever had. I glanced back at the green with the clock tower rising above it and knew I would miss the place but mostly miss the people I’m leaving there. My headphones were blasting Kids by MGMT as I left. Today on the way home from the beach on Laura, I was sitting in the back of the truck with all the other volunteers as we filled up our water jugs and Kids came on again…I realized that I am once more in a beautiful place surrounded by wonderful people and can’t help thinking how lucky I am to be living my life!


Vocabulary:
Riit: coconut


Monday August 3, 2009

We begin our days of orientation with Marshallese language lessons for an hour and half. Four high school students from Marshall Islands High School are our enthusiastic yet shy teachers. Unfortunately we realized the first day into our lessons that the thick and heavy yellow language manual that we all transported here has many of the letters switched due to a malfunction in Anna’s language settings on her computer. Therefore, 8 of the 26 letters are switched with the wrong letter through out the entire book, making it nearly impossible to understand the language manual, as if it weren’t extremely difficult enough already.

We all hopped into the back of the pick up truck once more today to visit the U.S. Embassy. We waited in the hot sun as the man behind the window at security checked each of our passports and led us in to a room where we had to empty our bags of cameras and put everything through the x-ray. Once inside, one of the more beautiful buildings I’ve seen so far on Majuro greeted us, complete with tennis courts (too bad I didn’t bring my racket!).

“Sometimes people get frightened and do things they wouldn’t otherwise do”
-U.S. Embassy visit, justifying the nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll. In 1946 the Soviet Union declared that it had nuclear weapons. The representative from the Embassy who spoke to us compared the U.S. fear about such a thing to the fear felt after 9/11, which resulted in bad things happening to some American citizens or Japanese internment camps during WWII. He talked about the tests that the Department of Energy is running now (such as trying to grow fruits and vegetables) to make the Northern Atolls once again inhabitable. After being at Laura on Sunday, I can’t imagine anyone looking out beyond the gorgeous green palm trees to the atoll and thinking, “this would be a great place for a nuclear test!” It is just horrifying, and more so to me that the embassy made such pitiful attempts at lamely justifying it.

As I’m writing, the shore wind is blowing the palm tree visible outside the grate of the window and for a moment I thought it was a cornbeefer creeping up to my window. Since it’s late and I've got to start preparing lesson plans for the teaching Practicum which begins Wednesday, I’ll peace out for now (also so the inside of my room can be dark in case any phantom corn beefers decide to become real!).

See ya later Dartmouth!

See that girl, barefootin' along, Whistlin' and singin', she's a carryin' on. There's laughing in her eyes, dancing in her feet, She's a neon-light diamond and she can live on the street.

Well, it's finally here- I am heading out today for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to teach high school for one whole year! Whaaaat?! My flight leaves out of Boston Logan tomorrow at 5:35 AM, I'll be chilling on the Waikiki Beach in Honolulu on Tuesday, and by Thursday morning I will be making my descent into the Marshall Islands International Airport with 14 other volunteer teachers from Dartmouth.

It's definitely a little heart-wrenching to be leaving so many people that I care about behind at Dartmouth and home in California but the prospect of the adventure I am about to embark on is mutually reassuring! Anna Z., the field director for our program and an '06 Panarchist, told me about a recurring dream she had that involved a secret passage leading from the RMI to the Panarchy roof, which made me feel better about leaving this awesome, amazing place because it will always be in existence in my thoughts.

I'll be living in the island community called Laura on Majuro, the main atoll and capital city in the RMI. Laura is a growing residential area with a popular, beautiful beach, or so I hear! According to Wikipedia, Laura also has the highest elevation point on the atoll, estimated at less than 10 feet above sea level.

The Marshalls are on the U.S. postal system, so feel free to send me mail! Just pack light and well to keep the rats at bay.

Heather Luther

c/o DVTP

P.O. Box 673

Majuro, MH 96960

REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS


More to come later and hopefully pictures too if I can get the battery in my camera to charge. In the meantime, wish me luck on my long flight and catch ya later!