March 12, 2010
Day 72:
Ukuluk! Today was one of the most humbling, emotional, stressful, confusing days I’ve ever had. The day started with me giving fourth period their exams. Directly after that I spent the next three hours in the teachers lounge grading those exams and printing out the letters that I had written to each student encouraging them to continue to exercise the things that they, hopefully, learned in my class: take notes, don’t cheat and study before tests.
I had to run back to the trailer to get the candy that I had brought for the party and when I returned I saw two of the kids carrying a huge Casio box into the room. When I made it to the classroom, they had plugged up the keyboard and were singing Marshallese songs. Surprisingly, none of the girls were singing. Only the boys were singing and playing the piano. Maybe it’s Marshallese custom at these type events and maybe it’s just my girls being shy. Who knows?
The first tim ei almost cried was the first song the whole class sang together. They sang ‘You are my Sunshine’, led by Betesda, one of the more charismatic boys in my fourth period class. He also played the keyboard. Except they substituted the word ‘sunshine’ for ‘nice teacher’. That was very cute at the beginning of the song. Until they got to the last line and said, “Please don’t take my nice teacher away.” I had to tighten up the jaws when I heard that, but I made it through.
Principal Lenja came to speak to the class and jump start the party. Once he finished I was asked to get my ‘food’ first. I had to choose from Oreos, banana crème cookies, Cheetos, knock off Fritos, cheese puffs, and a few other junk food items. I considered myself getting a lot when I took a few of each thing. They told me to get more and eat up but I said I was ok for th time being. When the kids started eating I realized why everyone in the Marshalls has terrible teeth. All they eat is junk. I finally figured out that this was a legitimate meal for them. And they pile on the food. handfuls of each item just thrown onto a plate, sprinkled with the Double Bubble gum, Tootsie Rolls and Jolly Ranchers I brought. It literally looked like the scene in Elf where Buddy puts every possible topping, chocolate, sprinkles, syrup, gum drops, Reese’s, everything, on spaghetti and eats it. That’s what it looked like to me.
Another interesting thing was that none of the boys got their own plates. A group of about five girls were the first ones to get food after me and they had a system of preparing plates and they walked them around the class to people who didn’t yet have them. They served girls too but it was interesting because there was no communication about it that I saw. It was just almost innate and it was quite interesting. Also, it wasn’t the girls that I would have expected to be serving. Janila eventually brought me another plate. A real plate. And so I snacked on stale cookies, stiff Cheetos and sipped flat Sprite until the festivities began.
When they finally did begin, I had to sit close to the center of the room and everyone else lined up around the perimeter. They then all walked up, shook my hand, and gave me a handicraft. It was very humbling. By the time it was over I had about 50 newly acquired handicrafts. And then I had to dance. Terri and I danced in the center of the classroom while everyone laughed at us and then after that the kids started trickling out.
Before everyone left I had to speak to the class and I honestly didn’t know what to say. What do you tell a group of 12-13 year olds that you’re never going to see again and will probably subjected to Majuro for the rest of their lives with no chance to get off? I told them the truth. I told them that if they wanted to get off the island and be someone special then they could. I told them that if they wanted to be a doctor that they could be a doctor if they worked hard in school and did their own work. It was hard for me because having to look at all of them, in the same place for the last time, was much more overwhelming than I ever could have expected. I ended up having to cut my speech short because I could feel the emotions coming. As everyone was leaving, the girls stayed behind to clean up the room. They started by taking all of the desks out of the room and then sweeping and mopping the floor. I was still mingling and such and gathering my belongings. When I finished that was the third time I almost cried. There were only girls left in the classroom and typically girls are just shy. Very shy. But I was trying to leave the classroom and the girls all made a barricade of desks, like six desks, in front of the door so that I could not leave. They said they didn’t want me to go. I told them that I had to and eventually they let me through. As I was walking away, they all screamed in unison, “We’ll miss you”. Part of me was saddened by that phrase but another part of me was very proud. Because I believe that before I came to this island, they would not have known that ‘we’ and ‘will’ together makes we’ll. And if I had asked them they would have been able to tell me that it was a contraction and that it needed an apostrophe.
As I was walking back to the trailer from our party I heard singing coming from a high school classroom. I then recognized that it was Edie’s classroom so I peeked in and she was having a similar celebration to mine. At the end she danced with one of the boys in her class. I was standing in the doorway watching, clapping and laughing and then all of a sudden one of the girls asked me to dance. I didn’t really want to but I did. Before i knew it I was sandwiched between two Marshallese girls, neither of which I knew dancing in Edie’s class. I left immediately after that to get back to the trailer.
Ally and Eric had a similar ceremony for them at Delap Elementary except they had the whole school take part instead of just their classes. When they got back, they had upwards of 200 handicrafts. So we had a little market and trading of handcrafts. We al have way more than we want or know what to do with so bartering was certainly necessary.
Charlie Domnick invited our whole group to dinner at Dar, his restaurant. I’ve mentioned him before I believe. He’s the ambassador to Israel and also the owner of Dar and overall a pretty powerful man in Majuro. Derek, Eric, Ally, Peter and I all went to join him for dinner at five. When we got there, Charlie, Senator DeBrum, Ramsey and a guy named John, I think, were all there waiting on us. By far, that is the most powerful gang of four in the Marshall Islands. Senator DeBrum just runs things. Charlie, the same. Ramseys owns half of Majuro’s businesses and John owns quite a few things as well.
They offered us all wine and we began talking. Many stories were told but I feel compelled to retell this story in its entirety. It may the funniest story I’ve ever heard. Before I do so, I need to preface the story by saying that the airport in Majuro is not in the same place as it was when this event happened. It used to be much more centralized and the airstrip was easily accessibly by the public. So here goes, as told by Charlie Domnick:
“Well, yes the airstrip used to be in Delap.” He paused and his eyes began to glow as he was reminded of a story, “So, this was probably thirty years" ago but Kirk [the man who took us to Enamanit] was renting a pickup from Ramsey’s father. I had some family coming in so I asked Kirk if I could borrow it for the day. He said that was fine. So that night, we got soo drunk. But not as drunk as these two other guys. So these two guys get drunk and decide they want to go for a ride. So they steal the pickup from me, and head towards the airstrip.
I was drunk, I have no clue how they stole the key from me but they did. So these two drunk guys decide that they have to go see their girlfriends. So they’re driving to see their girlfriends and one of them says, “I want to go see my mother first.” The other guy says, “I want to see my mother too.” So the one guy asks the other guy, “Where does your mother live?” The guy says, “Likiep. And where does your mother live?” The first guy says, “Ebon.”[Likiep and Ebon are outer islands only accessible by plane or boat]. So these two drunk guys are parked at the start of the air strip and they’re revving up the engine getting ready to go and then one guy says to the other guy, “well whose mother should we go see first?” The other guy says, “I want to see my mother first.” The first guy then says “No, I want to see my mother first.” So one of them finally says, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll decide which way to go when we get in the air.” So these two guys drive this pickup as fast as they can down the airstrip and finally they get to the end of the runway and…” Charlie motioned the trajectory with his hand, “they end up in the lagoon.”
So the next morning I go to Kirk’s house and he’s all hung over and stuff and ask him where his keys are to the truck. He rolls around and checks his pockets, “I don’t have the keys. Go look in the truck, it’s right outside.”
“Kirk,” I tell him, “the pickup is not out there.” So we’re both hung over trying to figure out where the truck is.
THREE days later, someone comes to the door and tells me that they found the pickup in the water. So I send the papers to take these guys to court and finally they get their subpoena and so one of the guys comes to me and says, “Charlie, you know these judges well and I think you’re a good guy. I’ve gotten in some trouble though, would you please represent me in court?”
So I tell him, “Were you really that drunk or just stupid? I’m the one that’s suing you. Were you so drunk that you don’t remember that you stole the car from ME? And he had to represent himself.
I’m not sure how that story works on paper, but it was so funny in person that I just had to share it with you guys. After dinner I went back to drum for the play. Eric and Ally went back to their school where they were having a staff party for them. The play was great yet again. It was the first night we got a good crowd. We had at least 300 people show up tonight. Garrick and Walthy were hilarious. They clearly went off script but that’s the advantage you have when the director can’t speak the language of the play.
Eric’s plane leaves tomorrow morning. He’s doing some sight seeing around Asia and then coming back to the states. He’s taking the island hopper until he gets to Manila where he’s spending the night. And then he’s going to Cambodia, Thailand and ending in Hong Kong. It’s weird that one of us is leaving already. We’ve always known that Eric would leave on March 13th, but we never thought the day would actually come. I feel bad for Eric because I feel like he has the closest relationship to any of his students and he literally has to say goodbye to them today and then leave tomorrow. There’s still a chance that I’ll see my students at the play over the next two nights, or around town. Eric knows that he may very well never see his kids again. I know it’s rough for him.
Eric’s soon departure also made something hard for me. When I prepared myself for leaving I had to prepare myself for not seeing my kids, the ones I have in class. I completely neglected to consider the kids in the play, many of whom I have a better, closer relationship than I did with my students. Probably because I see them outside of class way more. Someone was telling me about the exchange between Walthy and Garrick when they said goodbye to Eric, and how it was hard for everyone. I know that’s going to be the same for me. Garrick has definitely been like the little brother here. I haven’t written about him a ton but he’s always just kinda hung around or just shown up places. His relationship with his father is pretty bad and Garrod doesn’t give him much slack in the play either, so our group has particularly made it a point to encourage him and praise him because he just doesn’t get it otherwise. Saying goodbye to him will be very hard.
Well I’ve said enough for now. I must get some rest. Until next time, from Majuro, bar lo yok.
