gender relations or lack thereof and outgrowing reflections

one of the facets of life in the marshall islands that has been getting under the skin of the collective JVI community is the relationship between male and female people. men and women do not talk to each other unless they are going to sleep together. they do not make small talk and they are definitely not friends. there is this strange seperation between the sexes that is hard to breach. the women that work in the cafeteria at school will say "iokwe" when i greet them but that is about it.

clearly this is frustrating. while i want to avoid stereotyping the gender roles prominent in marshallese culture, the things that men do and the things that women do are very exclusive and clearly defined. i sympathize with my female community mates who are frustrated by the constraints these gender roles put on their behavior. men are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, while women are held to a much higher standard including, but not limited to, not showing anyone your knees. i hesitate to write much more about if, for fear of coming off as judgemental.

as far as this sort of cultural examination goes, i realized the other day that i don't do that much of it. while i do not automatically accept every aspect of marshallese culture as good i do not think about such things as much as i would have expected. my peers struggle over what their response to cultural standards and attitudes that they do not agree with should be. should they speak out against them? should they accept them simply because they are a part of this place?

i find my own examination of such things to be lacking. its not that i don't notice things that make me uncomfortable or that i do not see the value of. there are things that bother me about how life is conducted here. for instance, the adjustment to marshallese time (everything starting 2 hours later than scheduled) can be an annoyance. however, for some reason my reactions to these things are very much internal. the thought of speaking out about values of the marshallese people that i do not agree with is not something that occurs to me often. i don't feel it is my place. i am not here to change or fix anything external. the only thing that i can legitimately expect to change through my time here is myself. it is my place to examine my own view of the world in light of the marshallese culture and not the other way around. certainly there are aspects of life here that are destructive to people, just as there are in any culture. but how can you remove the speck from one culture when you have not removed the plank from your own?

it is thinking like this that leads me to see my future work and vocation as being geographically (and culturally) located in the united states. it is hard enough to work for change in a social environment governed by cultural standards you are more or less familiar with. to be an outsider ostensibly working for social change in a literally foreign environment seems impossible to do effectively. also, i miss my friends.

a continuation!

last time my photographs stopped uploading, so i gave it another go today.

here is tsuyoshi, our kitten. he's dead now.

some of the friendly locals.

here is the desk of one of my colleagues, Pablo after I put CAUTION tape all around it!! its not exactly a stapler in jello, but some people laughed.

this is something i found the last time i was correcting my biology students' notebooks. also pictured is my response.

finally, here is a picture of me and my mustache, Robespierre.

someday i'll write something

recent developments, or, a smorgasbord of images

here are some pictures.


first up is our community christmas picture. this was taken christmas eve by a 2nd grader, so it is a bit skewed, but ocean did a pretty good job. this was right before we went out to eat before midnight mass.






this is some bread i baked:




this is the view from my desk in the faculty room. notice the stacks of notebooks to grade and the multitude of file folders. also the I CLOSED WOLSKI'S bumper sticker. i usually put my feet up and so things tend to get a little sandy.





there were a few more i wanted to add as well. i will try again at a later date.

these are some thoughts i wrote down about christmas a year ago

i thought alot about christmas; what it means to me.
it is God showing us what its all about. God, Emmanuel, comes to us, enters into our midst not at the head of a host, but in the most vulnerable, marginalized context possible: in a backwater region, to a homeless family, as a normal baby. what could be more humble?

i think the message is that if this homeless baby can speak truth to power, so should someone born to ease (even though that ease is the product of the injustice we are meant to cry out against). little baby jesus didn't have alot going for him: young mother, poor, people living under an oppressive imperial yoke. yet despite all this, jesus actualized that potential within each of us to be people of God. whats more, he tells us exactly how to do it. if that baby can go on to inspire us, what excuse do i have not to do God's work? with supportive family, friends, and most importantly the power of an education (the most powerful tool imaginable).

in other words, the message of christmas is that we all start somewhere. our origins are important, but in some ways they are irrelevant. everyone has the same potential to change the world and be the hands that build God's kingdom. its just a matter of actualizing that potential by seeking God. be still. listen. be open. God is there.

failures of power and another sort

the 2nd quarter ended last week. i'm not sure what happened, it was here and then all of a sudden its gone. it was a pretty good quarter. i became much more comfortable in the classroom and efficient in preparing to be in it. keeping that unlruly class in line is a bit easier now as i have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. i've also had success "breaking through" to some students. there were some that wouldn't talk to me for the first few months of school and now they do. although i still have stacks of grading to do, it feels good to have the first half of the i make it sound nice and smooth, but last week was a bit bumpy. the rough draft of the final paper for my freshman english class was due on monday and more than 2/3 of them didn't feel like doing it so i sent the whole lot of them to sandy, the principal's office. she made them stay after school until they finished it, which for some was after 6:00. so they have their rough drafts done, but the night before the revised paper was due, the power was out so none of them could type it. which is why i am in the school computer lab now, 10:00 am, christmas eve morning. of course the hitch is that so far none of the students have shown up to finish their papers. i have about half of them and many of the students who didn't hand theirs in yet probably won't bother to at all, which means that they have a good chance of failing. i don't like giving F's, but when students won't pay attention in class or do their work, what am i supposed to do? there were 3 kids who hadn't turned in any homework all quarter. one of them was already dismissed for disciplinary reasons and one of the others is on her final warning. one slip and shes "fired," as they say here.

the power has been going out alot lately, sometimes it is announced and sometimes its unexpected. a few weeks ago it went out without warning and there was a rumor that the power plant exploded. it kept going out in the final weeks of the quarter and everyone got a little nervous with having to prepare and copy exams in time. also, its hard to cook dinner without power. although its an inconvenience, it certainly isn't that big of a deal. the flow of electricity in majuro is pretty reliable compared to some other places.

the assumption faculty christmas party was friday night and as the new male jv, it was my role to emcee the affair. i cracked jokes and made fun of people while leading a few games. musical chairs was a big hit. we also played a game suggested by one of my favorite teachers, pablo, that was like dancing charades. the capper of the games was a race of sorts, in which 4 contestants tie a string around their waist that suspends an empty soda can. participants must move their hips to swing the can in order to move a small object on the ground. sr. monica was the defending champion but lost to the 8th grade teacher, deanna. it wasn't a bad party. before it started i hung out in the cookhouse with some male teachers drinking coconuts and grilling the chicken and fish. i drank 6 coconuts that night. mmm, delicious.

i will be sure to post again soon, describing christmas vacation adventures, of which there may possibly be one. i'm looking forward to reading, playing guitar, walking around, trying to stay out of the rain, and doing laundry.

a change of pace, or, notes of context to better compose a mental picture

I think that there are some things I’ve been leaving out. The goal for this work in progress is for it to consist of little word postcards; self-contained anecdotes that display some facet of my life and activities here. This will be a deviation from the norm. This is be a list.

Here are some things that I really like about the Marshall Islands and/or Assumption:


· The apex of style for the young Marshallese man is a rat-tail.


· The proper way to bid someone adieu is the phrase “Goodnight,” usually with a raised lilt of voice on the last syllable. This is appropriate regardless of the time of day. I can not express how much I enjoy saying “Goodnight!” to people after mass on Sunday mornings.


· The moon on the ocean. Some nights I stay up late grading or lesson planning in the faculty room at Assumption. When I head home, often the moon reflects off the water beautifully and bathes everything in soft silvery light.


· The Marshallese, instead of saying “dang,” or a like expression of frustration, have their own mild curse. I’m not sure of the spelling, but it might be “worwor.” It is pronounced with rolled R’s, “arrrrrrrrr-arrrrrrr” with the first half being longer and the stress on the second half. It sounds a little like a growl and perfectly fits the emotion.


· Instead of nodding, the universal sign of agreement in the Marshall Islands is raised eyebrows. Likewise, shaking of the head is replaced with a sort of “yucky face,” with one end of the mouth pulled down and out. I often do it in conjunction with a headshake.


· To peep on someone, like looking in their window, is called Corned Beefing, after the popular canned meat product.



as an added bonus, here is a picture of me from the Assumption High School Halloween party. I was a chaperone. Dressing in drag is very funny to the Marshallese. please note, that is a wig and not my real hair. thanks.

an exhibitionist, or, "you put that thing away or i'm going to cut it off!"

on my way to teach a freshman english class, there was a small child milling about outside the classroom. the child looked about 3 and was of indiscriminate gender, due to a few dozen yellow rubberbands that coralled its hair into little braid things. i don't know what you would call that. i don't know much about hairstyles. i tried to shoo the child away as i walked into my class and it seemed to work, as the small person turned around toddled off toward the exit.

about 10 minutes into the class, the child was back. it was peeking in the door and then walked in and promptly pulled down its pants. its sex now firmly established, the boy started running around. being immature even for 13-17 year olds, my class was in hysterics. not knowing how i could get this child out without leaving my class (the most unruly in the school) alone, i went to the faculty room next door and got Florence, one of the other teachers to get the kid out. the boy ran into the other freshman classroom, next door, and the teacher in there, Matur helped Florence show the little exhibitionist the nearest exit.

i thought that was the end of it but after the class he was back in the hall, although now his pants were thankfully around his waist. it took a few minutes but i got a firm grip on him (he was pretty slippery and was also not wearing a shirt). he did not want to come with me, so i picked him up like he was a corpse. suprisingly, he didn't squirm all that much. i carried him to the office and layed him on Edna, the outspoken secretary's desk saying, "look what i found in my classrooom." for whatever reason, the child was not moving at this point and Edna fairly shrieked because she thought he was dead or something. he quickly got up off the desk and started dancing around the office. it wasn't long before he pulled down as pants again, at which point another Marshallese woman who works in the office started making menacing gestures at his genitals with a big red scissors. i don't know what she was saying, but i can imagine it was something like, "you put that thing away or i'm gonna cut it off!"