Day 68

March 8, 2010

 

Day 68:

 

 

            I woke up a little after 7 today and got ready early. Good thing I did. Someone called Peter this morning looking for a room key that I had from rehearsal last night. I got to the middle school and worked on my grades for the class. Bobby came in to the office today. I signed a letter on January 20^th about him, when I sent him to the office. Since then I saw him once in class. And three or four times on the streets of Majuro. Once I saw him walking away from school right as school was supposed to start. He just smiled at me and kept walking. I think his mother was there today. Apparently he had been reported again. The counselor asked me to sign his referral form as one of his teachers. I read over it, and unlike the first one, it was worded much better. This one, however, was titled ‘LAST CHANCE’. So he certainly has to straighten up his act or he’ll be kicked out of school. So now let me explain the conditions of this LAST CHANCE letter. He is ONLY allowed 3 absences, 5 tardies and 3 skips. That’s his last chance. I asked the counselor for a copy of the letter. That’s one of those things you take home. It speaks so much to the problems of this country. He told me he’d get me a copy when he came back with the parents’ signature. I won’t get a copy of that letter. Bobby’s liable to not show up to school again until May 1. Seriously. That’s about how long it’s been since I’ve seen him. What a shame.

            Class was encouraging today. When I got to my third period class, I asked the kids to take out their packets. I think I mentioned that it’s due Wednesday. Well five different kids finished the packet over the weekend. I certainly didn’t expect that many to do so. Maybe Monique and possibly Jessica, both of whom did, but there were three other people who finished. So now my plan to be done, lesson planning and creating worksheets has gone down the drain because I have to find something for those kids to do the next two days while the rest of the class is finishing up their packets. It’s a good problem to have tough. I’d rather them finish super early, than to not finish or finish late.

            Fourth period wasn’t nearly that proactive. One kid thought he had finished over the weekend and was ready at the beginning of class but he had several mistakes that I pointed out. He hadn’t finished by the end of class. Two other kids did however. Bobby wasn’t in class. It’s crazy because his LAST CHANCE conditions won’t go into effect until he returns the letter signed by a parent. So if he decides to skip school for the next three weeks and then finally get the letter signed, he’ll be just as fine as if he turns in the letter tomorrow.

            After class I went to the trailer and made my grilled cheeses. After that I worked on the 7^th grade standardized tests that I’m writing. I got through the table reading and recipe reading. I have no idea where to get the vocabulary from. I’m thinking I might leave that section to Toni and/or Amy. They’re World Teach teachers that I mentioned the test to and they said they would carry it on after I left. I’m thinking I’ll do two or three more pages of grammar and reading comprehension and call it a wrap.

            After that I took a 20 minute nap and walked to Ace Hardware and EZ Price with Edie. Seeing her in a hardware store was quite the site. I left to get masking tape while she was deciding which staples we needed for the staple gun. When I realized she wasn’t behind me I returned to the aisle and she was crouched picking up loose staples from the ground that had fallen out of the box. We hurried up and hid the ones that we could on the shelf, grabbed a new box and got out of there.

            The next stop was rehearsal. I moved back and forth from the set to the trailers as we waited for the dress rehearsal to start and Eric to finish the food. The dress rehearsal went very well though. I think its going to be great. I’m still convinced that the audience will be pretty confused at the end considering the play is Hamlet, I’m confused about it still. But it should be good. The community will respond well to it and the kids will do great. Eric and I drummed from the second floor and hung with the characters that weren’t acting the whole time. It was a good time. We stood there for about 4 hours drumming but it wasn’t too bad. Several kids ending up coming up to the second floor to watch us drum which isn’t abnormal, people stare at us all the time here. But it got to be too much and so we had to send the kids elsewhere and separate ourselves from them because they were playing with the microphone and trying to hit our drums. Tomorrow we’re going to barricade ourselves from the general audience.  Everything went well though. We finished at 11:10 and to top the night off Eric and I joined the cast for the curtain call.

            This time next week I’ll be ¾ the way to Honolulu. It’s weird to think that we’re leaving here already but at the same time, it seems like 6 months ago that we landed. Time goes so slow and so fast at the same time here. I’m very eager to get back home but I can’t say I won’t miss this place. I’ll miss the $.50 taxis, and the $3 laundry loads. I’ll certainly miss my students, especially my third period. I know I’m not supposed to have favorites, but I’m not going to be a teacher anyway so what difference does it make? I like my third period more than my fourth. I’m going to miss the weather. There are also things that I won’t miss about Majuro. I won’t miss the power outages. I won’t miss the hundreds of stray, rabid dogs. I won’t miss the cold showers. I won’t miss having to boil all the water. The thing I won’t miss most of all, though, is standing out.

            For some reason I thought, before coming here, that I would fit in. More so than I do at Dartmouth. The Dartmouth black population is something like 8.5%. I figured coming to a country with darker skinned people, I’d certainly fit in. Yeah right. Either way you look at it I’m still a rebele to them. And I probably stick out more than the others. I certainly stick out here more than I do at Dartmouth. More than I did in high school. I think one of the first things I’ll do when I get home is go down to Clifton with Elani or go to Avondale with some people and just be on of hundreds of black people. In an environment where I can sit somewhere and not feel like I stick out. Sometimes sticking out is good. Usually sticking out is good. And usually I stick out in good ways. But then there are scenarios that we have no control over and we can’t alter the ways in which people see us as different. It’s possible that if I go to Clifton, I’ll still be seen as the Ivy Leaguer amongst the state schoolers, but as long as I don’t feel outcaste I don’t mind. That’s a distinction I’m willing to live with at this point.

            I was talking to Anna earlier in the trip and she was speaking to the same thing. Here she is seen as rebele and she’s going home for I think three days in Portland, Oregon and then flying to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the next ten weeks. She’s going from being a rebele in Majuro to being a gringa in Argentina. She was saying how she doesn’t know how she’ll react to always being seen as different. I saw the opportunity but decided to keep my mouth shut, but I wanted to tell her that that’s the way many Black people feel in America. Except they don’t have a safe haven to retire to. Anyway, I’m excited to get back and see other black people and people who speak fluent English. Hopefully when I go to Panama City Beach for spring break, I’ll blend in there. I’ll just be another college kid looking for a good time and a break from school. We shall see. Until next time, from Majuro, bar lo yok.