I’m spending my winter teaching math and putting on a bilingual production of As You Like It in the Marshall Islands. I’ve made a new blog, Yokwe, Algebra*, for my time here. Follow me!

*Yokwe is a Marshallese word meaning hello.

carolineyi:

Salvador Dali’s Three Sphinx of Bikini

Following World War II, the US conducted a series of nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, including one of the largest nuclear explosions in history. The tests irradiated the atoll, forcing the Bikinians to leave their homeland, and they continue to live in exile today. Islanders on several nearby atolls were not removed from their islands until after the tests, and they and their descendants suffer the negative health effects even today.

(I’ve been researching this recently for my professor)

• Over 100 dollars spent on taxi rides (each of which cost 50 cents or $1)
• 86 degree high temperature nearly every day
• 74 days
• Many, many gifts of handicrafts
• Too much chicken and rice
• 36 students taught
• 34.5 students successfully taught to factor
• 20 dancers managed
• 17 movies watched
• 8 and several 1/2s books read
• 6 visits to the beach
• 5 performances of a bilingual production of Hamlet
• 4 1/2 showings of The Lion King
• 3 television events missed (Super Bowl, Olympics, Oscars)
• 2 math classes
• 2 dances taught
• 2 days spent swimming and barbecuing on islands
• 2 digital appliances broken (computer and camera)
• 1 Youth Nitijela (mock senate)
• 1 Marshallese senator befriended
• 1 visit to The Pub (A Nite Club Like No Other)
• 1 new mind-altering beverage discovered (kava, a mild narcotic)
• 0 temperatures below 70

Plus:

• 5 days in Hawaii

My Marshallese students

Teaching in my (very sexy) mumu

An eel-killing adventure.

Our resident animal lover was horrified.

The Marshall Islands flag is one of my favorites. The blue represents the ocean surrounding the country.

From: Salani

Suject Line: hello

Message:

how’s life over there???

I miss you so much…

are you going to visit us again???

From: Marlynn

Subject Line: WATSUP ASYMPTOTE :)

Message:

YOKWE=]*  HEii ROBZii HOW ARE U? HOW WAS UR TRIP? SORRY I DIDN’T COME TO THE AIRPORT….IT’S JUST DAT I HAVE UB (UPWARD BOUND) EVERYDAY AFTER SCHOOL!! SO YEA….GET THIS….SO ANYWAYS HOPE U’LL NEVER FORGET US AS WE’LL DO THE SAME WE LEARNED ALOT FROM U !!  THANK Q N HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON :]  LOBLOB FROM 12G

My first 2 days or so in Hawaii, I was quite surprised to feel intense culture shock. After the modest clothing required in the Marshall Islands, going to the beach in Hawaii was rather overwhelming. So many white people! Wearing so few clothes! It seemed almost indecent. And I’ve been surprised to find that I find Hawaii cold. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I get back to New Hampshire. I miss my students and I miss the Marshallese language and I miss the feel of the islands more than I expected to.

There are some definite advantages to being back, though. The best parts about being back in the States:

• hot showers
• fresh fruit
• television
• fast internet
• youtube and hulu
• being able to call people on my cellphone

Surviving Paradise, by Peter Rudiak-Gould

Taxis are my primary form of transportation.