Weather Prayers Matter, and A Well-Done Piece of Homework

10-19-08 Well, supposedly it's rainy season. However, it has not rained hard in almost two weeks. Our water catchment at school is dry--which means no filtered rainwater to drink, which means going to Kwaj to re-fill our plastic jugs or buying new jugs at Triple J. Our catchment at the house is also dry--which means saltwater showers and a nice layer of salt on the counter from the rinse water that ran off of the dishes. So, basically, we're praying that it rains. Right now, we have clouds that are mocking us because it's not gloomy enough to rain and we need rain. Fresh water is a luxury that I will indulge myself in once I get back to Indiana in May.

Today we re-arranged our house, and in such a way that it makes it look a lot larger than it actually is. We also got Lorraine to get her mound of stuff squared away, which makes the house look neater and makes Lorraine calmer. We vacuumed, and we're currently doing laundry--we're even going to wash our curtains. Curtains do make a big difference in how hot a house feels, even when the AC's on. We like the natural light, but we like the house feeling cool as well. Supposedly our power's now to 24/7, but I'm not making any bets. Jhan Dale says we can tell by the fact that we have streetlights and basketball court lights again, but like I said, I'm not entirely convinced. I'd rather live the possibility of a power outage and be pleasantly surprised forever, than to think that we'll have power always and be disappointed. It's all perspective, right?

The pastor's third-grade son, Sam, has a new puppy. Its name is Kiba (Japanese for 'dog') and he is a very cute puppy. All of us SMs play with it whenever we get a chance. Playing with Kiba is a great stress reliever for me, right up there with reading books and playing with Sam and Vicky (she's seven and also lives downstairs). My language lessons are also a source of amusement and challenge for me. I'm on my third week of words, and I usually have to laugh at myself because of the way I pronounce the words (since Marshallese vowels are said very differently from English vowels). I actually have to go over my list of words that I get quizzed on tonight--I've started making mental images of what the words mean, instead of trying to remember what each word means. (I got the tip from Megan, and it's been pretty useful.)

So--Marshallese word of the day--"elikin ralep." It means "afternoon," literally. You pronounce it this way: L-eh-kin rall-lip. (I think. I mean, I hope I've put it into the blog in such a way that you can possibly say it properly.)

I am very excited. I assigned all of my English students to read Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?", and set the assignment that I had been given as an academy freshman (thanks, Mr. Rector!), which was to write the ending of the story. I also let them have an extra credit opportunity by telling them to find at least ten words they did not know inside the story and find the definitions. Well, the freshmen and sophomores blatantly plagiarized out of the story and succeeded in making endings that made absolutely no sense. I made them re-do the assignment after a reminder about my rules about copying the story and each other. None of them found definitions. The juniors did a little bit better (they didn't plagiarize), but most of them didn't understand the "make it like a story" part, and only a few of them did definitions.The seniors, however, have made me smile. Of the ones who turned it in (because not everyone did), they were all original and pretty well thought out. Most turned in definitions. However, one of the students entirely made my day with his response. It was the longest response, it was fairly well written, and it answered the question posed by the author and delineated the responses of the various characters inside of the story. He even used one of the words he had looked up for the definitions correctly! (And his definitions were most definitely more than ten, but he could only get ten points. More power to him, anyway.) But my favorite line inside his response was this: "If she hadn't been to her father's many barbaric killings and had she been in a good environment and maybe gone to church she wouldn't be this cold hearted, jealous princess" (if you've read the story, you will probably think this very funny, like I did). I gave him extra credit on the assignment, it was that much first-rate over everyone else's. It was awesome, and I was so incredibly happy, I was bouncing up and down inside our apartment. I think I'm going to photocopy it and keep it, just because I'm so proud of him.

More later.

~Ashlee

NOTE: Last night it poured. Happy day, thank God for the rain!



Picture of a rainbow from the first day of school