Am I rushing or am I dragging?

Guess whose back? Back again? Yeah, I’ve been really slacking on posting anything the past few months. I also have to be mind--- er conscious not to type anything that is a letter next to G on the keyboard. The humidity has taken my computer as a casualty, but it hasn’t taken me. Sure, my AC is broken and I am merely kept cool by two fans oscillating at different speeds.

A bigger casualty was my classroom. I can’t use it. You see, a Japanese Sports Complex is being built (although they haven’t actually done any of the construction yet) and has forced my school, Life Skills Academy to occupy the Middle School from the late afternoon to early night—I jokingly said it was Twilight, and sure enough, my principal uses the word in an assembly as if I were being serious. The whole transition has been hectic to say the least. I was very adamant about not teaching during the night. My original schedule had me teaching until 7:30 but was thankfully as my field director, Erin, was able to work her magic and move me to earlier classes in the day. The drawback, however, is that I am teaching under a tent. Not too many people are ever able to say that!

Tent-life, in addition, to dorm life was going smoothly. Sure, students got distracted by cars and other passersby, but that was to be expected. Sure wind kept blowing my teaching materials in every which way, but that was to be expected. I was going to make the most of it, no matter what. And I did, at least for a while. I’ve been trying to be more engaging with students by doing more activities. I developed (in my opinion) a pretty cool card game that taught students how to use conjunctions and make compound sentences. I compared independent clauses and dependent clauses to the relationship of Homer and Marge. Ofcourse, none of the students knew The Simpsons, so I did my best to make myself animated by doing my best “MMMMM, donut impression”. I also sang the directions to my students in a very impromptu manner when I heard one of my students humming in the background.

Then one day, the fucking tent fell down. I couldn’t believe it. This was my life now. I was in a situation where the place I needed to have an immersive classroom environment could go blowing away any minute. The tent reassembly took over a period to do, and I was very chagrined that many of the LSA students were playing volleyball instead of giving a hand. That’s when I channeled my inner Frankie Muniz and unleashed the most volatile vitriolic rant I have ever done in my life. I don’t think I could have watched enough episodes of Malcolm in the Middle or Arrested Development to prepare me for the sheer helplessness of being the most levelheaded person that has to pick up the pieces for everyone else.

But maybe that’s my problem? I’m just basing everything off my own standard of living in America rather than taking the time to slow down and figure out everything. That’s what I need to do and maybe take a minute to learn a thing or two here rather than just harkening back to what I know. The reason there are volunteers is undoubtedly to improve upon a system. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two to add to your repertoire. I’m almost halfway done and I think it’s time to stop indulging on the proverbial “adjustment period” and instead take advantage of more things. Meet new people. Learn more Marshallese. Go snorkeling. I’ve been running more, and I feel that’s steadily improved other areas since being here. As Dori from finding Nemo said, “Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming”.

It’s been a really interesting experience here. There are basically only two roads in the entire atoll so it’s really easy to figure out where you are going. Cabs usually only cost 75 cents if you are in the same district or $ 2.00 if you cross the bridge. There are a few shops in Delap (the place I’ll be teaching) that have many have of the essentials of school supplies, food and bootleg DVDs—I really hope they have Ant-man coming soon.

I finished my first practicum a couple days ago, which was essentially a test-run of teaching in the RMI. It proved really hard the first day because I was really nervous and didn’t write down enough instructions. The following day went a little better after I introduced a football game as an activity. The kids have a hard time reading but have easier time when they are asked to say something in English.

The living conditions are rough, but I got used to them after a couple of days. Bucket showers are the worst part of it. You basically have to fill up a bucket with rain catchments (there is one provided for us in the school we’re staying at, but we’ve lately been filing up ours with trashcans we used after it rained.) There is also a really bad cockroach and rat problem here—I still have yet to see a rat, but there have been a few cockroaches crawl up my wall and maybe one time that one waddled over my blanket—I was half asleep so I can’t exactly remember. It also doesn’t help we’re sleeping on a mattress pad on the ground with dogs barking all night, but I got used to that after the third night.

Being in a different country is intimidating, especially here. Everyone stares at you because you are a ribelle: an outside, foreign white person. The community knows about World Teach and its much more attention than I expected after reading about it. I hate being stared at. If you ever want to have the experience of truly being an outsider, this would be the place to be. It’s not all that bad attention, though. I’ve had dozens of kids just come up to me and shake my hand. On the fourth day, I spent a couple of hours playing cards with kids from the local neighborhood we are staying here, Rairok. I also played football with the kids outside after my final day of practicum. The kids here are much more outgoing than back at the states.

Psychologically, this place makes you bi-polar. There are some moments that are so awesome that you can experience nowhere else. Playing with the kids, riding in a truck that you flagged down so you can get a ride in town or swimming up next to a coral. And then there are moments where it’s really hard. When you are alone and have nothing to do, you can’t help but think of family and friends. You can’t help but think of how you took for granted being able to talk to people at the drop of a hat with 0 difficulties. That’s the reason why I’m typing this now. Because, well…

Anyway, I have about a little less than a week of practicum left and it’s only going to get harder. I’ll be away from the other volunteers and I’ll have to start purifying my water on a consistent basis (we’ve been getting water from water jugs). However, it was also be cool to get my own classroom and create my curriculum. It’ll be challenging at times, but I think I just the right amount of ingenuity to make it work. Two weeks down now and it’s felt like 2 months. People are saying there is an island time around here but I’m experiencing Narnia time. The time when time feels like it stopped itself. And everything feels right where left you get back home. That’s atleast how I hope it feels when I get back home.