Last Thursday I had the opportunity to help coach the 5th&6th graders play softball, along with a few other staff. Since we don’t have any open space here on Ebeye, or grass, we got to head to Kwadj! Kwadj is the near by military place I told you about in my last blog. It is basically a little America(Oh, the full name is Kwajalen) .There may even be more Americans there than Marshallese. So after getting off the ferry, we were in Kwadj! I have only been away since the end of December but I had a mini culture shock. It was so clean! There was grass everywhere, and white people were riding bikes..Am I back in America? The game was successful, or maybe it wasn’t. I have heard many different stories, and it was hard for me to concentrate knowing that I was going to have good bread and eat a sandwich from Subway! Subway. Yes, waddup. Rolling big. They have that there, and Burger king. We were anticipating this all week. I savored every second of my sub, and even saved half of it to eat for lunch the next day. It was good. We don’t know when the next time we will be able to have that luxury so Blake and Karissa bought some loaves of bread to take back to Ebeye. It was a good day indeed!
It sounds like we don’t have food here on Ebeye, but we do. Just not easily accessible fresh food. There’s a massive boat called the barge that brings food to the island every 2 weeks or so. There has been times this year where it hasn’t shown up in about a month and a half, and we just wait for more food to come and just eat oatmeal or whatever else is cheap and healthy. Which there are not very many options since the cheapest things are the fattiest things...Yeah the barge…not too reliable. But when it comes, it is so wonderful and such a sight for the whole island. It’s beautiful. I love the thought of fresh lettuce and apples. I have made a mental list and soon to be actual list of all the foods I am excited to eat when I get back. Here are a few; a giant loaf of bread with butter! Or cheese! Cheese is so expensive here..Grapes, yellow apples, pears, avocados, Chipotle, taco bell, yogurt with fruit and granola in it. Yumm. It will be good! Funny thought: When Matt gets back from Africa his craving for food is going to be even worse, so we’re going to be the fattest couple just eating, all day long. Which reminds me, a cookie would be so nice too! Okay, I need to move on.
Teaching time. I took a few videos this last week to put up and show everyone, they take a while to load, so I’m trying to find a good time. My kids are very hyper and sometimes disobedient, but I can’t deny that they are hilarious. They definitely know how to make me laugh. And they know they know how to too. There’s this cute cute boy named J.J, and he is missing his front two teeth and he has a high little raspy voice and the cutest smile that’s ever jumped on a face. When I lead songs at the beginning of the class I ask him to help me with one Marshallese song and he gets so into it, I have to turn around because I’m about laughing until tears are pouring out. He puts up his hands around his mouth, all gangster and bobs up and down and makes them echo him, and throws his other hand in the air while pretending to be flying…I didn’t know I could be this happy or content, just in the presence of kids all day. When I laugh with them, no one is watching me. I’m not laughing for anyone else or to put on a show. It’s just me, happy and content where God led me and who he’s led me too.
I pray a lot for my class. I should pray more though. They are pretty good at math, but reading….they are not. I think I have about 3 in my class that can read. It makes handing out things very difficult, and their attention span when I am writing on the board is even shorter. The other day I handed out a Bible quiz, ‘Days of creation”. We had gone over It the week before. I had given them the exact quiz for homework the night before, and I wrote it on the board write before the quiz. All they had to do was draw pictures in the spots I left empty. I collected most of them before they were finished because a lot of them started talking and doing handstands around the room, so I gave them a zero. I got one back that had written down, “Days, Days, Days, of, of, of, creation,creation,creation.” They just copied the title of the page. This happens all the time. I got some quizzes that just had pictures of me and them holding hands. Except I was just a floating head with pigtails and only one hand, that was holding theirs…. I gave them a talk after. I wish I could make them want to try, or want to learn. I feel like they are my kids. Reminded me of God. We are His kids. I can’t even imagine how much it pierces his heart when we don’t even try. Or when we don’t listen to the guidance He gives us. I have a boy in my class named Barnabas who tends to be more of a trouble maker. He is always up walking around the class, never does his work and has a very hard time staying focused. For the past 2 weeks he has been spending a lot of time with me. He stays after class, when the rest of the kids are getting disciplined and have their heads down, he puts his too, even though he’s not in trouble and I tell him that he can go, he doesn’t. I sing while cleaning the classroom and he just sits there watching me. When I go to the teaching room he follows close behind me and watches over my shoulder as I type on the computer. He stays hours after class, until I leave and we walk out the gate together and he heads home. Thursday some of the boys in my class took a picture out of my binder of some friends and I(Meg, Beth,Kat and Shae) and apparently carried it around all day claiming I was their girlfriend. He came back with it and it was all wrinkly. I’m going to leave some pictures for them to keep of all of us from this year to put in the classroom when I leave for next year. I’m excited for that.
This morning I went on a walk. I thought it was going to be a short little walk, because that was what it seemed was implied. So I woke up this morning(Sunday), at 6 a.m. while the rest of the student missionaries were sleeping, and went to the other staff’s apt ready for our 2 mile walk around the island, because I had promised them I would go. I figured we’d be back in about 30 minutes or less and that I’d go back to bed, not too bad.. Turns out they were actually planning for us to walk to Gucci Goo, it’s a 6 mile walk there and 6 back. So we walked 12 miles….12 miles. This morning, just for fun. Not knowing how long it was going to be I didn’t wear my gym shoes. I wore these little grandma tennis shoes which the rocks pierced through, and my long Amish skirt did not make it any better. I had to laugh at the irony of it all. I’m a little sore, but I enjoyed 3 hours of good company, so that was fun. Plus, we have the Ebeye marathon this coming Friday, so I guess it was beneficial for me to prepare, mentally and physically. It will only be 4 miles. Running/walking from the atoll to Ebeye, so that will be a lot better.
Before I close this blog up I have to mention how friendly the Marshallese people are. When people walk down the street and pass one another there is always a “Yokwe” “good morning” “Good afternoon” “Good night”, always. When there isn’t, it’ very strange. I love the greetings here, it makes everyone seem like they’ve known each other for a long time. When I get back to the states, I am going to be sure to take that back with me. Maybe not the "Rubelle" greeting i get, meaning white person, but all the other ones, I will take back. It always brightens my day when someone initiates a “Yokwe” and I’m sure it would back home.
So Goodnight to you J Have a grand evening.
