The Talent Show

This past weekend marked the NVTI talent show. This is an event that showcases about 10 classes dancing to three different songs. Sometimes the dances were exactly the same too. Since the students had spent most of the preceding weeks planning and preparing for the show, it was the job of the faculty and staff to work and attempt to maintain order at the actual event. Since this event took place in the Marshall Islands working the door and taking tickets was almost as entertaining as the actual show. Marshall Islands High School held their talent show two weeks previously and were criticized for the number of drunk people in the audience and subsequently banned from using that venue again. To maintain order we decided to check the students’ backpacks and pat them down as they entered the talent show. This type of thing is probably somewhat common at many schools in the US, but how this was conducted in the Marshall Islands was hilarious. To check student backpacks, one teacher would pick them up and throw them on the ground. He said that if they had glass alcohol bottles then they would break. Another teacher when patting down the students would have them lift their shirts, check their pockets and then pat their crotch. The funny thing was that while some of the students objected to the extensiveness of the search no one seemed to be offended. This much be something much more accepted in the Marshallese culture that I am still learning to understand.

Despite our best efforts to keep alcohol out of the talent show, audience members still managed to become very intoxicated. Some were slurring words, some had trouble standing or walking and some had even passed out in the seats. While the second night we relatively uneventful—meaning the drunks managed to escort themselves out early….or at least their friends took them home—the first night the police came and arrested a number of people and carted them off to jail. What was most disappointing (I think that is the correct choice of words…I hope) was that everyone I saw who was blatantly drunk or causing disturbances was not a student but other members of the community. This not to say that our students were not drinking this weekend, there have been multiple incidents this year where students have been caught drinking during or after school around campus.