January 21-23
Day 22-24:
Okay so since the Condom Launch I’ve had trouble finding material good enough to blog about. I feel like it can only go downhill from here. That being said, this entry will explain the three days following the Condom launch.
Thursday morning was hilarious. Usually, Eric will play something from his iPod on his speakers to wake everyone up. He and Ally had left the apartment early because they had to make copies or something so he wasn’t around to play the music. So instead of waking up to music we just talked amongst ourselves which usually doesn’t happen. It’s not that we, as a whole, dislike Eric’s music but sometimes the songs he chooses are a tad bit questionable. I seldom have a problem with his music because I’m usually already up by the time he cues it up, but if that was the first thing I had to hear in the mornings I could see myself being kind of cranky in the morning. So I think the whole mood of the apartment was different because we didn’t have the music to alter our temperaments. So the 8th graders had to take the MISAT practice test which is the test that determines if they can go on to high school. So Ben was talking to us about the MISAT. I’ll also at this time include the fact that some of the names in the Marshalls are quite unique and interesting. Lastly, I’ll include that Ben is the nicest kid I’ve ever met and could never say a bad thing about anyone ever. With that information, the dialogue went something like this:
“I don’t have to do anything today because my kids are taking the MISAT,” Ben said.
“How do you think they’ll do?” Anna asked.
“They’re not gonna do very well,” Ben said, albeit with a smile.
“They’re all going to do like my oatmeal this morning, FAIL.” Anna or Derek said, I’m not sure. That’s insignificant.
After the threat of all of his kids to fail, Ben snapped his head from cleaning a bowl in the sink and caught eyes with Anna, “Not Pocahontas!”
Every knee in the apartment buckled as we all grasped for air through our laughter. Derek found this particularly funny, I remember him choking the hardest on his laughter. Once he caught his breath, he said, “We should just call you John Smith.”
“No,” Ben defended, “She’s brilliant. She’s by far my best student.”
The seriousness of Ben’s comments caused another uproar of chuckles. After some recitation of Pocahontas lines and theme song lines, the joke died down. Shortly thereafter, Ben dropped the can of Pam about three times in one. He tried to pick it up off the counter, caught it with the outside of his hand, it rolled off and he dropped it again, then he caught it again right about knee length but couldn’t hang on. So after about 4 seconds after leaving the counter top, the Pam can finally hit the ground. Anna and I witnessed the whole thing, and Ben knew it. So as soon as he picked up the can, he jumped up quickly and said, “It’s cool. I’ve got everything under control.”
We just kind of looked at him and laughed. The next thing we know, Ben is piddling with the top of the Pam can and all of a sudden, Ben sprays Pam all over his chest. Yet again, another knee buckling, gut busting, knee slapping fiasco erupted.
“You wouldn’t want the food to stick to your SHIRT,” I said.
“Yeah, I don’t worry with bibs anymore, I just spray my chest before meals,” this time it was Anna. And everyone joined in on the laughter once they realized what had happened. Ben may have been laughing the hardest by this point which, if you’ve ever met Ben, isn’t very uncharacteristic of him.
“Ben, you’re hilarious this morning. This is definitely your morning. First Pocahontas then the Pam. Man!” I said.
We all laughed and continued to get ready. About five minutes later, completely out of nowhere, Ben said, “She has a really interesting aura. Pocahontas.” Third times a charm. Yet again, we fell out laughing. “No, really. She’s so old. Her aura is so much older than 8th grade.” We simply couldn’t contain ourselves. His timing and choice of words was too much for me to handle.
We eventually got to school and again Terri wasn’t there. I introduced a new project for the class in which they would all be writing a story. It’s my version of a creative writing class. The high school also had final exams on Thursday so Edie and Anna came and sat in on my class and helped my students come up with good ideas in my fourth period class. I left school and went to Payless to get some food to cook for the night because it was Robyn and my turn again in the rotation.
That night I made a tuna casserole and some glazed carrots that were to die for!! Right when I finished, John was at the apartment ready to pick me up for our basketball game. John and his Marshallese friends picked me up on their team to play in a 32 team tournament down the road in Rairok. I Played, didn’t start, didn’t finish but I played. I hit my first shot of the game and missed all my other shots. I was like 1-4 and 1-2 from free throw. I don’t mean to complain about officiating but the referees definitely didn’t like rebeles. They wouldn’t give John or I any calls. Except for the charge John took and got a knee driven directly into his crotch. It looked quite painful but he was a soldier about it and kept playing. Overall, I played like crap but we won so its cool. When I got back to the apartment there was a plate waiting for me and it was in fact as delicious as it looked. I didn’t have school Friday so I was in no rush to fall asleep so Robyn and I stayed up and talked along with Derek and I ended up going to bed around 12:30.
My article was finally published, the same article that was supposed to be published last week. The same article that we spent two hours of my sleep time coming up with a title. That article. And I saw it, it has my picture in it and the title reads “Kyle gives a hand at Majuro Middle School”. WTF? After Professor Garrod told me that my four word title was too wordy, and he fell in love with the three word title, I see the article and it’s freakin 8 words? Whatever, next time I’m just gonna let the newspaper come up with the title
Friday, I woke up and didn’t have any responsibilities! It was so nice. I watched Friday Night Lights with Ben and started locking my hair. Ended up doing that for a while and when Ben left I had the whole apartment to myself. I hadn’t had anything to myself since leaving Cincinnati on December 29th. It was nice to have some solitude. I watched The Pimp Chronicles and as it ended Eric came back feeling a bit under the weather. I started up It’s Pimpin, Pimpin and before it finished Eric was passed out. I stopped it early and gave myself a Marshallese linguistic lesson before going to Tide Table for dinner.
At dinner we had a heated debate, Me and Eric versus Professor Garrod, about “The list”. I’d never heard of it referred to as The List but apparently it’s gotta name. The list is where, let’s say there’s a couple that’s in a relationship. Eric and I were arguing that each participating party has a list of people that both members of the relationship agree it’s okay to hook up with. Only celebrities can be on the list and the list can only be 1-3 people. Eric and I were partially kidding but when Professor Garrod became COMPLETELY outraged we just fueled the fire by saying the most ridiculous things ever. It was pretty funny.
After that we bought a bottle of Smirnoff and Robyn and I drank some as Edie, Anna and Ben joined us as we sat on the wall by the ocean and looked at the stars while we had a fairly educated Astronomy conversation. We then watched Friday Night Lights the TV show and bean Hancock before falling asleep.
Saturday, I did my normal Saturday routine. Woke up and Skyped at the resort until about one. Headed to Payless for some food and headed back to the apartment. Eric fried some steak and made some hash browns for lunch. Ben and I played two games of chess, he won one and I won one. After that I took a nap when I could tell he didn’t want to play a tie breaker and woke up to begin cooking again. I made spaghetti noodles with sautéed onions and green and red peppers and then fried some shrimp that I seasoned up a little special way. It turned out really good! Everyone loved it and I even had to sauté some more onions and pepper sand boil some more spaghetti. After that we watched The Departed, GREAT FILM. I was the only person in the apartment that hadn’t seen it and that was blasphemous apparently. And I now agree, it was great writing, great acting, great plot, great cast, great cinematography, just a great film. After that we talked for a bit, some did lesson planning, and then I passed out around 11:30.
For the most part everyone should be caught up to what’s going on here in Majuro. Nothing too spectacular, nothing too daunting. The weather’s still steady at a high of 85 everyday and a low of 78-80. My internet time is running short and BTW we’re still in the apartment for at least another week. We were told we’d be there tops two days when we got here and it’s now Day 25, the one third mark, and we still haven’t unpacked our bags this could get really ugly really soon. Anyway, I’m out. Until next time, from Majuro, barloeok.
No comments:
Post a Comment