It's been a while...

Ok...So over three weeks has passed since I last updated my blog and many things have happened...

I was able to attend my first Kemem (a Marshallese first birthday...which is also the most important). I competed in another billfish tournemnt. We didn't place, but my friend Joe and I caught our first marlin (too bad it was small...only about 100-120lbs). I also caught a 15lbs skipjack tuna and a small rainbow runner on a handline (that means I did not use a rod and reel but a fishing line, a lure and my hands.....that is pretty cool). And I was able to spend a couple of weekends picnicing on other islands on Majuro Atoll. All in all the theme of the past few weeks has been "Another Rough, Tough Day in Paradise!"

As you all know, last week was Thanksgiving. Suprisingly enough they sell whole turkeys here as well as stuffin, mashed potatoes and pretty much anything else you need to make a Thanksgiving dinner. The dorm decided to host dinner for about 30 or so people on Saturday (since we don't get days off for American holidays here).I would have to say it was a pretty successful meal. The day began with tropical storm-like weather and a football game in the middle of acalf-deep lake at the high school. Of course my team won....and then the football game was followed up by dinner, a game of cranium, mafia, and a viewing of Elf.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, holiday season is in full swing here. There are live Christmas trees for sale (and of course they are from Oregon), stores and a few homes are putting up lights in the windows and on trees and christmas carols are blaring in stores, restaurants and on the radio. This is going to be my first Chirstmas away from home, so I am not sure what to expect. Granted if they stores and restuarants were not decorated I might forget what time of year it is because the weather does not make it feel like winter at all. Anyway I look forward to spending the holidays here. I hope I will be hanging out with my host family (I guess I should get them gifts...if anyone has good gift ideas for my host parents (25 and 26 yrs old) and my host brother (5 yrs old) and host sister (2 yrs old) let me know...or mom and dad send me stuff from oregon...or nike...or ccolumbia that I can give them.....

Oh yeah....my life is currently occupied by after school activities. I spend Tuesdays volunteering at the traditional canoe building house tutoring students in English. I spend other days after school playing music for my students or coaching the school basketball team. This has been quite the experience. I have students who do not own shoes playing basketball in flip-flops or their bare feet. Our first game is on monday, so I told them to find shoes (buy or barrow--hopefully not steal) so that they could play. I also found out that our school only has 24$ to spend on the students....so that means that there is no money for the 30 t-shirts that I just picked up for basketball and volleyball teams...Luckily I know the guy who makes the shirts and he let me take them with-out paying for them yet...

Anyway that is all for now...I am sure I will have more time to write when school is out.....

Oh yeah..we are now back on the USPS domestic rates so it should be pretty cheap to send me stuff priority.

My address is

Darren Nakata
c/o WorldTeach
PO Box 627
Majuro, MH 96960
RMI




Darren

More photos

Here are some more photos of life here: My students, an outrigger canoe, and Halloween.



And as always you can look at the whole album here:

Marshall Islands part 6

Where I live

Hi all.....

These are some screen shots from Google Earth of where I work and live.


 
 

The power of the internet

The power of the internet brings you this video of the NVTI Choir singing the gospel song All Around. This is the first day the kids had ever sang together as a group, they are pretty damn good. :)

I'm Back! (online that is)

Ok in my last post I some how forgot to put the most popular song in the Marshall Islands. The students absolutely love Beautiful Girl by Sean Kingston. You can not go more than 10 minutes without hearing that song.

ok back to my regular post.....

Time is flying in the Marshall Islands and I apologize for not updating my blog or responding to emails or letters as quickly as I should. Everyone who has written me a letter or a postcard thanks for being awesome. I am in the process of responding to everyone so please be patient, I have not forgotten about you at all.

Recently all of the Majuro volunteers met their host families. I will have to say that I have the coolest host family out of all of the volunteers. I’m sure the other host families are nice people, but it is just a fact that they are not as cool as mine. I guess that is just too bad for the other volunteers. My family is a young family, probably the youngest host family. My parents are in their mid-twenties and my host brother is 5 years old and my host sister will soon be 2 years old. I look forward to hanging out with them in the future.

In other news I have become involved in many different after school activities. I am the boy’s basketball coach, co-director of the school choir and I will probably help out with the girl’s volleyball team.

Other things…

Pogs:
Man oh man, kids play pogs here like it is 1994. You probably remember pogs as the circular cardboard discs about the size of a half-dollar and were popular about the same time as the Tomagachi toys. Here in the Marshall Islands all kids who are not in high school (and even some of the high school ones) play pogs at every waking moment in 2007. They play them on the sidewalk, on benches, and in the street. The funny thing is that none of them have slammers. So if for some reason you still have pogs and slammers sitting around, you can send them here and I am sure they will make some kids very happy.

They call me demon (part 3):
So the students here are always interested in who are the teachers’ girlfriends or boyfriends and want to see the teachers become couples. However, some of the 11th grade girls recent told a fellow teacher that I was ‘enana’ (meaning bad) and that she should not go after me because I have bad hair, I am a demon and I am a woman. HA! The funny thing was that the word that they used for woman was not one that the other teacher knew and they had to explain it to her. The students told her this information in confidence, in front of me, but in Marshallese so that I would not understand them. But of course, she immediately told me what they said as soon as the kids were gone. At first we didn’t know why they would call me a woman, except maybe because my hair is long. Then we decided that they might think I am gay and since the teacher didn’t know the word for gay and the students told her that it meant like a woman. Who knows, the kids here are crazy.

Nicknames:
Every so often some volunteers and I play football, basketball or baseball with the elementary school students in my neighborhood. One of the first times we were playing together the kids were asking me my name. Just to be a pain I would answer with “What’s your name?” And we would banter back and forth with the endless questions for a couple minutes, until—with the help of the other volunteer—I would find out the kids name and tease them because I knew their names and they didn’t know my name. The kids were persistent in wanting to find out my name and as a result the other volunteers told them to call me “Mr. Bushy Hair.” And boy do they love that name. For the last three or four weeks I have had kids yelling and screaming “Mr. Bushy Hair” at me across playing fields, at the school gym, or while I am walking down the street and they are riding in the back of a truck. The funny thing is that with their accents they have a hard time enunciating “Mr. Bushy Hair” and it sounds like they are screaming and yelling “Mr. Pussy Hair” at me. This creates for an amusing site for anyone who is walking around town with me.

I guess my new name is Mr. Pussy Hair the Gay Demon.