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!