Why little darling, get on your dancing shoes! Its time to get down and boogey!

The damn music box.  The people would spin while Christmas songs/noise played.  Holy cow that thing was so annoying.  It was a blessing when the batteries ran out!  (And then a curse when Baba put new ones in months later.) 

Well it was that time of year again, Christmas.  And while in the States, I would be celebrating with snow, hot chocolate, presents, putting lights up, and watching A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out!)  Oh man did I miss that leg lamp.  Well, I had a very similar Christmas experience here - minus the snow and hot chocolate and presents and shooting my eye out.  But I did put up Christmas lights!  And there was that stupid music box - holy cow that damn thing was so annoying!  Check it out!

I think thats underwear...

And as you can see, the place was pretty swanked out.  Lights, random felt ornaments hanging from the ceiling (and I'm pretty sure that they are still there) (and another fun fact, when it hit Valentine's Day, my mom sent a box with some stuff, and I hung up this swirly heart things from the ceiling as well.  It looked like the most commercially decorated holidays threw up all over the house.)



And what really happened besides the decorations...

DANCING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, thats right.  Christmas time was the time for dancing.   And when I mean dancing, I mean standing in two lines, shuffling your feet, and doing hand motions.  Forget stage presence, its way too hot for that (in fact, many of the women standing next to you are sweating profusely and have sweat rags.)  Forget smiling.  The only thing you have to do is remember the steps and don't step on the little kids that are running around or are sitting at your feet.  And for some odd reason, most of the men don't enter the church.   Only the important men do, like the ribelle doctor, or the principal, or the pastor (and I still don't like that man.)  Otherwise, you have a ton of peeping Toms.  They crowd the windows and just stare.  I have to say that it feels very weird.

And despite the fact that the dances only have a few basic steps, practicing consumes all your evening/night time free time for 6 weeks prior (or at least in my case.  In Max's, he said that he learned his all in one night.)  So every night, I would go to the neighbor's house with Momma and a kid or two, or no kid at all if they were watching a movie or sleeping.  And then for several hours, we would practice the same routine, over and over and over and over and over.  It stuck in my mind, but apparently in other's, not no much.  So we had a combo dance of both men and women (I know right, something where both males and females are together.  HOLD THE PHONE!!  and yes it was okay), the men had there own dance (which after watching looked more like a cardio workout.  It was freaking nuts) and the women had their own dance has well.  But let me tell you something about the men's performance, they actually had two dances...

And I had the wonderful opportunity of leading them in this dance.  I happened to make the mistake of saying that I knew the dance to the Cha Cha Slide (in which, makes a good ESL listening activity if you are teaching adults direction words such as left or right, fyi).  BAD MOVE!!  Next thing I know, I am teaching all the men of our church how to dance the Cha Cha Slide (which isn't that hard, you just have to listen to the music, but apparently they needed help).  So whenever I'm at a wedding/dance and I hear that song, I start to dance to it.  Well, I get half way through the song and decide I'm finished and I honestly want to stop dancing (most of the time I do.)  So I can clearly only handle this song for about 1 minute.  Let's just say that when we were practicing, we would practice for about 2 hours!  THAT IS 2 HOURS OF HEARING AND DANCING TO THE CHA CHA SLIDE!!  AND THAT WAS EVERY NIGHT FOR ABOUT 6 WEEKS!!!!  I was not a very happy camper.  And I told Max this, and he didn't really believe until he watched the performance.  And you could hear him laughing during the entire thing.

I unfortunately don't have any pictures of me Christmas dancing, but I do have some, enjoy.


Now to make this a new Christmas tradition or not.... that is a good question.  Let me think that one over...

Abraham (being silly as usual) and Bajin getting ready to do their dancing.

The children dancing their Christmas dance.

Me and Abraham being silly while we were waiting, inside one of the churches,
 for Max's dancing group to get ready

Max, ready and waiting to go.

Shake it and shuffle it sister!

Get jiggy with it!

Dear Friend,

Dear Friend,

Hello, my name is Seiko.  I am 15 years old.  I am from Utrik Atoll, Marshall Islands.  I am in the 8th grade.  My favorite subject is math.  I have one father.  His name is Nickner.  I have one mother, her name is Mommy (yes, its true, her name was actually Mommy).  I have 2 sisters and 0 brothers.  I like to dance and sing songs.  What are your hobbies?  Where are you from?  What is your favorite food?  Can you send me one apple?  Can you send me one i-pot (suppose to be i-pod)?

                                                                                                       Love from your best girlfriend,
                                                                                                                  Seiko

That is a sample letter from one of the 8th grade students on Utrik.  I did a pen pal activity with my friend Kasey, how happened to be a teacher in North Carolina.  And I have to say that of all the activities I did with my students, this would have to be the most successful.  I originally did the international pen pal activity with my Honor's Club.  There was a select group of students who stayed after school and would do extra activities.  Well, it sounded like a great idea, but once it actually started, students wouldn't come, or the activities were a little too advanced, or it was just absolute chaos.  But one of the better activities was the international pen pals.  And holy cow did it work!

I have never seen my students so excited about school before.  My class was the first to write the letters, and then we waited until Kasey's class wrote us back.  And when they wrote back, it was like Christmas in an envelope!  And one of the best parts was when Kasey actually included pictures!  Holy cow!  My students would look at the picture - "What does my person look like?"  "Well, look at your letter.  What name do you see?"  "Brandon!"  "Okay.  Ah, here is Brandon!"

And some of my students decided to write 2 or more letters (some of the girls in the pictures are cuter than others and therefore got many more letters.)  In the following weeks, Max (the other WT volunteer) had his 8th graders write in their jounals about something they liked about America.  Most of the students wrote about the pen pal letters!  And to top it off, Honor's Club that night went an extra 2 hours longer than what it was suppose to. 

On the downside - that night I found out about the hammer and the boyfriend.  :(

And on another side note, here is the conversation that played out with Max and Seiko (and her mother's name is Mommy)

Max - What is your mother's name?
Seiko - My mother's name is Mommy.
Max - NO.  What is your mother's name?
Seiko - My mother's name is Mommy.
Max - NO!  What is your mother's name?
Seiko - My mother's name is Mommy.
Max - NNNOOOOOOOOOO!

When it rains, its pours... and floods your house.

So when I was growing up, I was always taught never to be in or near water during a thunder shower.  "Beth, the lightening will come down and strike you as you wet, lather, rinse, and repeat."  Well, I'm starting to think that its all just a load of crap (and I still would be covered in shampoo).

Well, on island, I discovered the real truth to this.  It at first was a normal day.  I woke up, I went to school, I taught some English (whether it stuck or not I don't know, but I would like to think that I made an educational difference  - but I digress), I came home.  I decided to go on a walk with my two little brothers to a church because some of the women where practicing singing for a church thing.  Well, the sky started to turn very dark (now if I was an all telling fortune teller, I would have realized that the heavens were about to open up and tens of thousands of gallons of water was about to be dumped, but I am no fortune teller).  And there was something weird happening with the tide.  It was huge.  It was like high tide on a very powerful performance enhancing drug - or the scientific word is "king tide."  Well, one of those was happening.  The tide was literally coming over the sandbar.  It was as if the sandbar was nothing, a tiny speck in its path to ultimate destruction.  It was incredible.  And lets just say that when both forces combine, you are going to get a flood.  Nuf said.

Well, once Babba finds us and we (host brothers and myself) race back to our home in the downpour, and then you would think that the fun is over and that we are safe in a nice, dry house.  HAHA, fooled you.  Next thing you know, the roof is leaking.  So lets place many many buckets.  The tides are going nuts, break over the sand dune, and bam, knocking at our front door.  Now its race to see if we can pick everything up off the floor and onto higher ground (and by higher ground, I mean the beds, which are maybe 2 feet off the cement floor).  And then the flooding comes into my room.  I quickly move everything onto higher ground (because having a wet mattress sucks).  And I put my books (that were originally on the floor) onto my giant tupperware container that was used as a dresser.  Did you know that giant tupperware containers can float, even if it is full of clothing and has many many many many big books on top.  NOOOOOOOOOO.  That sucker floats and rolls over (like when you teach a dog new tricks).  So then all my books are now in the water - shoes are floating everywhere - packets of ramen are sailing through - leaves, sticks, small rats, and other rather disgusting debris are washed in as well.

Have you ever had sopping wet books.  They are incredibly heavy.  And I actually rang out my Marshall Language Manual.  Thats right, twisted it like you would a wet towel.  And quite surprisingly, a lot of water came out.  Now that I think about it, it would have been funny if a lot of Marshallese came out of it as well (haha, let's just say that I was a very unmotivated slacker to learn Marshallese).

So now, everything is wet, and water is coming in at all angles (up, down, left, right, sideways, backwards) and we are having a blast.  (Fun side note, right when the flooding was starting to occur, I noticed that Babba was trying to get work done, but all the kids were getting in the way.  So I grabbed my shampoo and we all took showers in the rain.  But after I dried off, I just got wet again, no luck.)  And people start coming over - the boyfriend, neighbors, people on the other end of the island.  "Where is the ribelle going to sleep?"  Ah, I was going to sleep in this bed, with my sister Bajin (who rolls a lot and kicks) We manage to eat something, and drink coffee, and the children go to bed.  And I go to bed to.  It was incredibly cold and all I can say is thank goodness for that extreme fleece blanket with the motorcycle on it.

And the next day (and forever), I could never find my missing sandal...