Being a
dorm student at the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) is a good opportunity for me because it might be helpful
for me in many ways to learn how to live alone. Staying in dorm is difficult for me to
support myself without my parents and my family. Being a dorm student is easier
to go to class and not spent lots of money to pay for transportation. And living
in a dorm is good for me to gain more experience of living without parents. It helps me in work in school. I can spend all my time in the computer lab
and doing research and dorm is close to the math tutoring area. Dorm club is one of the active
clubs here, doing many kind of activity like community service,
car wash every Saturday and barbeque to raise money. Staying in dorm is good
for me because I can learn how to cook my own food, wash my own clothes and other
kind of household chores. Living in dorm is
a little bit hard for me because we buy our own food. Water, electric are provided
by CMI. Staying in a dorm is easy because CMI also provides computers.There are
many reasons why students are kicked out of dorm: they break the rules like
drinking alcohol on campus, using tobacco on campus and also they do not
follow the weekend sign out form. Staying
in the dorm in privilege and we the students do not have our own right to do
anything we want to do.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
How Special Freindships are in the Marshall Islands
Getting along with friends here
in the Marshall Islands is one of the special and unique things to do. The custom of friendship here is very strong
and meaningful to our lives. I have a special friend who that I rely on. Even
though we didn’t grow up together, the connection of trust, love, and support
is very strong for both of us. We become real friends after knowing each other
in school and because we usually helped each other out on school work. From
those moments, we started to spend most of our time with each other. In our
culture, it’s unusual for one person to share their personal problems to other
people- even with parents. However, I think it’s not so strange for me and my
friend to share personal problems. We usually talked about family matter too.
For example, I was once mad with my father because I think he never wanted to
support his biological kids’ needs anymore after getting another wife. After more
than a year of asking for everything but always neglected, I made a call to him
and said bunch of foul words to him. These kinds of issues are hard to share
with a friend but I did it because I considered my friend’s life the same as
mine. Whenever we go to see each other at our houses, it’s always sound crazy.
For instance, when we’re at my house, my family will treat him better than me
as though he grew up with them. And it happens at his home too. One day, I went
to his house and spent most of the day there. From the moment I entered the
house, I knew that the family also cared for me because they talked so politely
to me and treated me well. We still earn and have respect for each other, which
I truly believe that we will continue to have until the time we are gone from
this world.
Monday, April 29, 2013
As a boy in Majuro
As a boy in Majuro I would wake up
every morning hearing the sound of roosters crowing in the morning and the
smell of bubu’s(grandma) cooking of delicious pandanus bread and coconut bread
pudding. I and my younger brother would race to the kitchen to see who taste
the first piece of pandanus bread from the oven bubu had just baked. As a boy
in Majuro me and my younger brother would chase the neighbors
or the alaps(landowners) roosters on our
front lawn, we would catch two or three roosters and lock them up in a small
pen hut we had built from wooden cardboards and tin we had found.
As a
boy in Majuro every Sunday I and my family would go to church. The smell of sweet
strong scent of coconut oil and hearing the singing from the bible song made me
feel happy and joyful especially hearing the beautiful sound of mother singing
right next to me gave me comfort and peace.
After church we would visit our relatives and eat over or go bubu’s
house for an evening rest or sleep over.
As a
boy in Majuro I would go bubu’s house in
the weekend clean yard, if I don’t go
bubu’s gonna work hard so I would help her carry and clean, and always have
chores around her house. As a boy in Majuro
i am happy to live right next to the ocean, as a boy in Majuro I am lucky and
proud to be whom I am and where I am from.
Uniforms
My Best Friend Ishner
Being
with best friends is really helpful in many ways and wonderful for one’s life.
Since I was 5 years old, I had one real best friend and he is still my best
friend now. He is kind, polite, brave and mostly honest to his friends. He is
not attending any school now, but should be in college now. He is very kind and
often asks me what should be done to make his friends happy with him. He is now
20 years old and next semester he will attend the College of the Marshall
Islands. Sometimes if I feel bad with something, he helps me and makes me
happy. It is really nice to be near him and playing games with him often. He is
staying at Laura now and living with his relatives. Being friends with him makes
my life strong and good. He is a kind of person that I know for sure that many
people might want to be like, or become one of his friends.
My First Trip to Mom’s Home Island
Lae is very beautiful and
people there are very kind and generous. My first trip to Lae was fun and
exciting. I found it very beautiful because there were lots of trees and the
nice painted canoes by the sea that were handmade by the men there. There were
also handicrafts that women there made by themselves too. They make them and sell
them or use them to welcome other people that are visiting, especially chiefs
whom we call “Iroj”. It is one of
their traditions. One of the best things I loved doing there was sailing with
one of my uncles. We would take one of our canoes and sail to other small
islands there and take some breadfruit which is my favorite. Kayaking is very
popular too with people on Lae atoll, but too bad they have only 4 kayaks there,
but people there care for each other and share things. When there’s a birthday
celebration, it’ll be a big feast. They celebrate together and each family makes
their own special meal and they all come together and eat and dance and enjoy
their night of birthday celebration. Life there is full of fun and laughter. I
didn’t see any violence or kids smoking and drinking. I was there for only one
week but I’m glad I had to experience some new things and meet my family.
Basketball in the Marshall Islands
Basketball is
one of the most played sports in the Marshall Islands. Many people play it and
have a lot of fun. Most of the time the sports committee make leagues for the
community and everybody usually signs up for it. Whenever many of the students
are on the court, they do their best to be the best player out there. Many of
my friends and I love to go outside and shoot some hoops. We usually play just
when the sun is about to hit the trees. At that time it’s the best time for
balling because the sun is just below the horizon and the shade covers the
court. Basketball is most likely the best sport in the Marshalls and many young
kids love to play it. As a young kid, I hated playing basketball because I was
too busy playing video games. Whenever my friends would come over, they would
make plans to shoot some hoops at the court at the College of the Marshall
Islands. I would always think otherwise and stay home by myself while my
friends would go play some basketball.
One day I just got tired of the same old
games and went to hang out with my friends. We all went to play a little
basketball. When I started playing it became very fun and interesting, even though
I didn’t really know the rules. I got better at it and have been playing
basketball ever since. Now I play for many school leagues, community leagues,
and state leagues. And it is also one of my favorite sports.
Quenched Pain in the Atoll
The children’s hearts felt like it was ripped from their chests. Their fairy tale life just went from having two parents to only having one parent because the father divorced their mom and left them for good. That was the last time they saw their father. Growing up without having any man in the house made the twins vulnerable to life and men. The mother did her best to take care of them all. At the age of 6 the sisters experienced something devastating that no child should ever go through. This situation went on for a while. Life just got more confusing and dark. Four years later on June 21, of 2002 their prayers were answered. The twin’s future dad, Derek, who held them when they were born, and his wife Renee began the process of adopting them along with their beautiful girls Sophia and Michaela. There were mixed feelings. They were both going to miss their biological mom and family.
Life in America felt like a dream, the twins accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts as their savior. Their dad, Derek explained to them about being born again believers with the blood of Jesus. Derek baptized them at East 91 Street church where they attended in Indiana. That was the happiest day of their lives, accepting Jesus into their hearts and forgiving those who had done them wrong. It was not easy at first for the twins but with the grace from the Lord nothing is impossible. For about for years later they move to Missouri. Years and years have past and they are now living the life they always wanted and are happy. So now both twin’s are happily married and have surrendered themselves to Jesus, and they and their husbands are living in the state of Missouri.
Being the Youngest In My family
Since I am the youngest and the
one and only girl in my family, my parents kind of depend on me to do the chores.
My dad actually doesn’t want me to do the chores and the cooking at our house.
But I like to do this kind of work for my family. Every day I wake up early in the morning to
prepare breakfast. After I am done cooking and setting the table, I go out of
our house and do some cleaning. Then, after I finish picking up trash, I get
back inside and eat. When I am full, I get dressed and ready to go to school.
At school, I wish I were home.
Pretending to be at home makes me feel like I am doing all the chores one at a
time. When my classes are over for the day, I immediately go home. The first
thing I do is put my school materials away and then getting ready to do the
chores. I fix everything inside first and then outside. When the sun sets, I
prepare my utensils to cook dinner. When the food is served, I provide water
for everyone. Everybody enjoys their dinner and says their thanks to me for the
lovely dinner I prepared and say our goodnight to each other. When dinner is
over, I wash the dishes and clean the table.
Finally, I go to my room and lie down
and study for a few minutes and then fall asleep. This is what I do as the
youngest and the only girl in my family.
Fishing in the RMI
Marshallese
boys like to go fishing. They like to spend most of their time at sea. Fishing
is like a hobby for the boys in the Marshall Islands. Almost every boy knows
how to fish for food. They like to go fishing with a group of many boys. The
boys on my home atoll, which is Utrok Atoll, love to go fishing every day. I
used to be afraid of the sea when I was a child. Back when I was seven or eight
years old, my uncle asked me if I could accompany him on his boat when he went
fishing. I told him that I didn’t want to go with him because I was afraid of
the sea. He told me that it was going to be very fun and I was going to learn
how to catch big fish. He tried to persuade me and then all of a sudden I changed
my mind. I went with him on his boat and we set off for the sea. When we
reached the coral reef, he made himself bait and placed it on his hook and
started to put down the line into the sea, down to where the coral was. He made
one for me and I held it until the hook was bitten by a fish, and then he told
me to pull it toward me so I can take the fish. Finally I had caught a big fish
and felt so great about it for the first time. From that time I began to go
fishing on the boat and also other types of fishing like spear fishing and fishing
with a net. I really have enjoyed going out on the sea with my friends since I
was eight years old.
Living far From School
Living
far from school can be really challenging. Here on Majuro, there are only two
colleges and they’re very far from Laura village where I come from. However,
there are many college students from Laura, Woja, and Ajeltake who are attending
college. Every day, we
students have to wake up at 5:30 so we can get ready and catch the school bus. If we don’t get up early then we miss the
school bus and we have to catch the public bus or a taxi. Sometimes we don’t
have money to ride them so we just stay home and are absent from our classes.
It is very hard to wake up every day so early to try and catch the school bus,
but we don’t have a choice so we do this every day until we graduate.
Sometimes we don’t have time to eat our
breakfast but we go to school anyway. After arriving in school and going to class,
we find it hard to study with an empty stomach. Other times we have headaches
from getting up early and going to bed late. We’re in college so we have lots
of work to do. Some students get home late because they have to stay and do
their studies in the library or the school computer labs. It is very hard for
us, but it is something we must to every day so we can finish our education and
get ready to start a new life as an employee.My Life in Enid, Oklahoma
Living in Oklahoma was a challenging thing in my
life. Even though I was thousands of miles away from my parents, my love for
them was still in my heart and theirs. In Oklahoma it was really hard for
me to get to know people that well because I was new to the school I went to.
It took a whole month for me to talk to the Marshallese girls and boys who went
there, too. When I got to know them well everything went great. But to tell you
the truth I got good grades but I was not allowed to go anywhere unless my
guardians went there, too. Even though it was really hard I tried my very best
to get what I wanted. For example they will not let me go to church activities
or hang out with my best friends at all. I hate it when things you want won’t
come, but the things that my guardians wanted, they had to have it right away.
And if you won’t or don’t do as they ask they will spank you because you are
not doing the thing that they asked you to. For example if I didn’t do my
chores well which I do, or didn’t do all my chores just that day, my guardians
would get mad at me and then spank me. Things got really complicated back at
Enid, Oklahoma, but I didn't mind them. I stayed focused on school
till my senior year so that I could come back to the islands because every time
I did something good or something bad and I usually ended getting all bruised
up.
Loving family
Family is the most important thing in a person’s life. I am the youngest of my family of eight children. I have 3 brothers and 4 sisters. The first thing we like to do in the beginning of a day is have a morning worship where we sing and pray. In the afternoon we have our daily
bible reading schedule, finish all the bible assignments for that day given from our father. The most important thing about our family is that they will never leave you, and they will never put you aside as other friends do. They won’t let you face your obstacles by yourself. Whenever you are in grave danger, they are there for you.Whenever you need help and none of your
friends are there to help you, then you can always count on your family. Whenever you in a deep hole and struggling about your studies, friends might look at you and say you are so irresponsible, but your family is always there for you to
pull you up from the deep hole that you are trapped in. In life, friends,girlfriends, boyfriends have the last three letters “e-n-d” whereas the word family is different because the last three are amazing for us to imagine, and those are i-l-y meaning “I Love You”. So it is true that families are the best thing, and I am really blessed to have such a great family.
Mejit Island
Life
is different everywhere. The most perfect life in the Marshall Islands is a
life on Mejit Island. On Mejit Island, there are
many things that are different from life in other places. Life is different in
way of living, food and temperature. The way of living is different because all
of the members in the family live together to help one another in everything they
need for the family. In other places, not so many family members live together.
Life on Mejit Island is also perfect because many families live together in
different towns. Food in Mejit Island is healthier than food from different
places. People there eat pig, chicken, fish,
crab, some also eat dog. They eat many plants like banana, taro, pumpkin and
others. Some people also eat a lot of fat food instead of healthy foods. They eat
corn beef, spam, and rice, flour and other unhealthy foods. There is a big
space for the people in Mejit to plant Marshallese foods. The farms there are enough
to plant Marshallese foods. The temperature in Mejit Island is really perfect
and good for people. It can rain for two and three days, and it’s not really
hot in the afternoon. When it’s windy in
the evening on Mejit, and the sky is not really cloudy, people can watch sun
going down. People know that life on Mejit is more perfect than ever. They eat
a lot of healthy food, live together and help their family with everything they
need.
My Great Great Grandfather
I
was told that I am half English and half Marshallese. It is quite true. My
great great grandfather came to the Marshall Islands in the year of 1890 and
served as a missionary around the Pacific. His name was Carl Russell Heine. He was
from England but grew up and was raised in Australia along with the rest of his
family. He migrated here by himself with no family or friends. He started
working as a missionary at Jaluit, an outer island, where he met a woman named
Arbella. They had a son named Claud. Later on, his wife passed away and there
he got re-married to the younger sister of his late wife, named Nenij. They had
eight children, and my descendants came from the sixth child.
Carl
Russell Heine continued his missionary work, travelling from island to island
with all his children, grandchildren, and wife with him. During that time, Japan
took control of the Marshall Islands. The Japanese did not believe in God and
did not want the missionaries to teach the Bible to them and the local people. They
were trying to prevent missionaries from preaching the word of God around the
Marshall Islands. They warned people that whoever was preaching the word of
God, they would have them beheaded or hanged. The Japanese soldiers found out
that there was an old man who persisted in preaching even though he was aware
of the consequences. Before they arrested him, he put all his children,
grandchildren, and wife in a hole where they could hide from the Japanese troops
so they would not be killed. He told them to hide every Bible they had and also
his missionary papers. After he made sure that his family was safe, he turned
himself in to the Japanese. They had him killed. It is a sad story but I can
say that my great great grandfather risked his life for his family, and did
what was best for them.
From Public to Private
In the Marshall Islands, parents are working
hard to earn money so they can send their children to a better school. Some
parents have financial problems and cannot send their children to private
schools. The private schools are more advanced than public schools. In public
schools there are many teachers who are not qualified and are less experienced.
I remember when I was in fifth grade my dad made me transfer to a private
school where I had to work much harder. The school curriculum there was so different
from my old school. I had to learn more from more experienced and qualified
teachers. I can still remember my first day
of school. I was so scared, shy and nervous. But I realized that I would have
to face those students and get rid of my shyness. Fitting into a new school
with new faces was very hard for me. I had to leave my friends at my old school
and make new friends at my new school. As days went by, I decided to hangout
with two of the girls in my class and we became best friends. Every recess we
would wait for each other and go buy snacks at the cafeteria, even at lunch
time. We would sit at the same table and chat while we are eating. They were
like sisters to me when I got to know them better. But as we went up to high
school we became closer to each other that we shared each other's secrets.
My dark night
Have you ever stay from outside the whole night? It must be fun, right? But have you been lock from outside the whole night? I have experienced it. When I finished using the internet outside my room, I wanted to go back sleep. When I tried to open my door, it was locked. I thought it’s already 2 am, so my roommate must have gone to sleep and locked the door. I knocked on the door and tried to wake my roommate up, but no answer. Another roommate was also locked out. We tried many ways to open the door such as use stick to go around the door, but it was not helpful. So we gave up. I was worried about what should I do during this dark night? Sleep outside? I don’t think it is a good idea. Finally, I decided to go outside for a walk in mid-night. I can imagine I walk in pairs.
The streets of Majuro at midnight are very quiet. I only could see few cars and dogs. But I must admit, it was not bad to stay in a quiet environment. When I walked in the street, I really felt I stayed in a different world, and in the world, there was only me. When it was 5 am, I have been walking for a long time, I really felt sleepy. The sun was raised and the street is not dark any more. It was beautiful! I saw a store had opened. Do they open the store early every day? Then, I walked into a dock and there are two ship berthed there. There was a big green turtle. Would they plan to eat it? Maybe, I thought. And then it began to rain. I had to hide under an eave, and beside me, is a security man. He said, “What are you doing there?” I said, “I ‘m CMI student, and I was locked out of my dorm. I just took a walk.” He laughed and said nothing else.
When I came back to my campus, it
was 6am. A dorm manager had woken up.
Thank god! I asked her for my backup room key. She laughed at me too! And said,
“First, you need to bring a gallon water from the ocean.” There is nothing I could do. I did what she
asked and took my key to open my door. And guess what I saw? My roommate slept
on the bed! Why didn’t he open when we were knocking on the door! Oh my god! I
really wanted to kill him.
Best Friends
Someone I can
share my secrets with,
Someone I can
trust with all my heart
And soul,
someone that I know, can and
Always will be
there for me in every
Way, someone
that loves me for who I am
That someone is
my Best friend and I promise
Myself that I
will treasure that someone
Till the day I
close my eyes and that some-
One I value the
most.
Someone that
always on my side when I’m down,
Some that always
helps me out when I’m in
Trouble and that
someone that I know that
Will and never stay
out of my side
And I know that
person since we were in
Kindergarten and
that person Is my best friend
Ignore each
other hurting each other, but both
Of us knows that
there is a special place in our heart
I know that there is one person that I can
lay out my
Problems to and
all the things that I hate doing, and
That is my best
friend
Someone that
makes me happy when I’m sad,
Someone that I
laugh out loud with and makes
Things that are
crazy and funny, making jokes
About us
My best friend
is my best friend I will knowing
Each other a
lot, and I know that there is one
Only person that
can always make things right
Through me is my
best friend
Best friends are
forever, like a family
Member, you
cannot truly hate a friend,
But can only be
cherish.
I love my best
friend!
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