8/8/07
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN!!! I didn’t have a chance to go to the NTA (national telecommunications authority) to email you today, but I definitely thought about how awesome it would be to be eating marinated steaks and blueberry’s up at lake george with you guys… the grass may be greener there, but the water is bluer here.
We are two days into our teaching practicum, or “Majuro Summer Camp,” where the principals at some of the schools literally drive up and down the one road and pick up children on the street for the worldteach volunteers to practice teaching on for 4 days. I am teaching a unit on coral to 11th and 12th graders. They are the smartest kids their age in the country, and while they are actually bright, getting them to participate and have confidence in themselves is impossible. We had 5 kids show up the first day, and 3 additional ones showed up today, so I guess we are doing a good job – two other teachers and I are teaching them for 3 hours a day.
This morning I woke up and the power was out and the water wasn’t working. You would think that this would have in some way affected my morning, but it didn’t – I just had cornflakes with slightly warmer soy milk than usual and didn’t toast my bagel. The water is pretty much out every other day, and you really don’t use power for that much except boiling water from the rain catchment. I am a pro at bucket flushing and washing dishes in tubs of rainwater.
I am healthy! There have been some issues with gastroenteritis and upper respiratory infections on the compound, but I have been doing really well so far.
The five of us going out to Kwajalein Atoll (3 on gugeegue at the high school, 2 on ebeye at the middle school) were supposed to have dinner at the Marshall Islands Resort (a mediocre hotel, but one of two on the island) with our principals tonight at 730. We got there at 7, and when they didn’t show up by 9 we had dinner without them. It was ominously foreshadowing of our future relationships. We had a good time though, and it was nice to eat some real food. I’m getting sick of tofu and chicken necks and gizzards and whatever weird body parts that are anything but wings, breasts, and drumsticks. I am going to buy a spear sling before I head to gugeegue so I can get fresh fish while I’m there… hopefully it’s not as hard as I think it will be.