Day 42

February 10, 2010

 

Day 42:

 

            When I got to class today, Terri and the social studies teacher were seated in the class alone with Jamu and Jim. About six students were gathered outside the class looking in during their recess. Turns out Jim and Jamu got into a fight during the last class and had to be sent to the principals office. The teachers were scolding them pretty hard when I got there. It was in Marshallese though so I didn’t understand most of it. Terri then told me about what happened.

            It was really hard to get the class back in line, mentally, for learning. This was usually my better class and coming off of recess they usually have tons of energy. But today they were all pretty quiet minus about three kids who I relied on to answer most of my questions. They eventually livened up and finished their work. I had them write a letter to someone at home about what they did in school today. Most of them wrote about learning grammar, a couple talked about the fight, but they ALL started their letters something like this “First, I would like to thank our heavenly Father for such a beautiful day. Ok,…” It caught me off guard the first time I saw it but then I saw it repeated over and over and over again. I wonder what the dynamic between parents and children is here now where they feel compelled to Thank God to begin a letter to their parents. I’m not knocking it at all, I’m just curious to see that interaction at home.

            Fourth period was dead as usual. It’s like pulling teeth getting some of them to talk or even copy what I’m writing. It’s amazing how eager they are to copy each other and how apprehensive they are to copying me. And I’m the one with ALL the right answers in class. No they’d prefer to copy the kid who shows up twice a week because he finished first. I don’t get it.

            After class I came back to the trailer and made a grilled cheese before sitting in on Edie’s English class. She’s expressed frustration about what to do with the kids and so her and I talked over a few options for assignments or lessons. She’s been pretty open to my ideas so I decided I’d sit in on her class. That was interesting. The dynamic was very interesting there because there were 4 boys and about 20 guys. Edie was really good with them though. Her teacher personality is really good. After that I wrote some more of my story and then headed to try to see if basketball was on.

            Finally, we had a basketball practice. In fact, I am the JV coach and varsity assistant. These kids are pathetic athletes. I’m starting to regret the decision to help out because, honestly, I care for the game of basketball far too much to just sit on the bench and sub kids in. But these kids know NOTHING about basketball. They don’t know what a screen is. They don’t know how to jump when they shoot. They don’t know that their left hand exists. They don’t know how to cut someone off on defense. They don’t know how to catch. They don’t know how to actually look at someone when you pass to them. They don’t know how to dribble. They don’t know how to do anything. And I can just see this whole situation stressing me out WAY too much. I tried to teach them pick and roll today and that was a struggle. After that Tony wanted to scrimmage and I’m thinking most of my practice from here on out will be scrimmaging because teaching basics is a lost cause.

            After that, I came back and started cooking. Garrod bought some $35 shrimp last time he cooked but had no idea how to 1) thaw out the shrimp, 2) de-shell the shrimp, 3) prepare the shrimp, or 4) cook the shrimp. So why he bought the most expensive shrimp in Majuro I don’t know. So I turned on Bad Boys 2 and began de-shelling the shrimp. I started thawing it before practice. So for dinner tonight I just sautéed the shrimp in butter and olive oil (I’m tired of soy sauce shrimp). I also made some mashed potatoes from the leftover baked potatoes from Monday, glazed some carrots which I had been craving and cooked a piece of sirloin that had been sitting around for a while. It was pretty good. I enjoyed a hearty meal. I think I’ll eat at the resort tomorrow though, its just bigger portions. Cooking for 10 is so hard because you cook a lot of food and before you know it it’s gone.

            I was in bed getting ready to go to sleep when the power went out. It went out for about an hour and turns out that this whole side of the island was out of power. Since most of the houses don’t have power anyway, the majority of the people didn’t know it other than the absence of street lights. Taxi’s lit up the street pretty well anyway. So here on campus, nothing worked. Eric and I walked back to the library where Ben, Derek, Robyn and Peter were. They were just camping out chillin waitin for the lights to come back on. We convinced them to come back to the trailer with us and right before we left the power came back on.

            Back at the trailer the power was on but the A/C wasn’t and neither was the oven or stove. So Eric, Derek and I took our mattresses to the girls’ trailer where we slept in their living room in A/C. We’re going to call Cassiano in the morning to see if he can come fix the problem, whatever it is.