From my journal: March 29, 2010
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday and Easter packages. They actually arrived in Ine on the same day because we didn’t have a boat for a week or so due to bad weather, and a scandal involving the captain who allowed some drunk people to come to Ine which caused the Arno mayor to tell the boat it couldn’t come here anymore! I was very sad to hear this because my field director had told me I had packages in Majuro, but without a boat I wouldn’t be able to receive them. But it must have just been a warning because the boat finally did come back on Sunday, the day before my birthday – so, excellent timing! It’s a good thing that the boat is continuing to come to Ine because everyone here relies on the boat for shipments of food and for communicating with people in Majuro.
I had a wonderful birthday (much better than last year which I spent throwing up and running to the bathroom). I taught my 8th grade class in the morning then spent the rest of the day baking cakes with Niriti in the coconut husk fired “oven” in our cookhouse. (My mom sent me some boxes of cake mix and cans of frosting to fix for my party.) Baking cakes in Ine is much different than baking in America. Our oven is a sunken pit with burning coconut husks with old tin cans thrown in to keep it hot. We throw a grate over the coals to set the cake pan on and put a big metal washtub over the whole thing to keep the heat in. We only had one pan so we could only bake one cake at a time. There is no walking off while the cakes are cooling, either, because chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, ants and children will come and steal them. We cut up cardboard boxes and covered them with tin foil to act as serving platters.
I also made watered-down grape Kool-Aid which Baba contributed to the party. When the time for the party approached – 2 p.m., the last hour of the school day – a neighbor carried the cooler of Kool-Aid to school on his bicycle while Niriti and I carried the frosted cakes. Then I went to borrow speakers from a friend for dancing. After baking all day, fending off animals and children from the cakes, and running around the village to get everything ready at the school, I was exhausted and happy to sit down in the chair of honor and play DJ with my iPod while the kids danced around in general mayhem.
The kids were really excited to eat cake, and frosting was an exotic treat. And Grandma sent me some chocolate which I handed out to the best dancers. After eating cake and listening to speeches (it would not be a Marshallese social event without speeches), the kids sang a few birthday songs then all lined up to shake my hand and give me presents. Most of the students piled quarters in my lap with a couple of dollars thrown in from the teachers, which all added up to $13. Plus, I received a couple of braided shell necklaces and a bunch of woven flowers and some shiny shells. Some of the gifts were especially endearing from the younger kids who ran home at lunch to scrounge up something to give me. These included three half-empty bottles of hotel-sized lotions, a hair clip that a little girl said was her mom’s, and a plastic quarter we use in school to teach math (I put that back with the classroom supplies). The principal apologized for the meagerness of the gifts and said that they hadn’t had enough time to make more handicrafts for me, but assured me that I would get more before I left. I reassured him that I was very happy with the thought of the gifts. I hadn’t expected to receive anything; I just wanted to eat cake and dance with my students. I even felt a little bad taking all their spare change.
There is a Marshallese tradition that on a person’s birthday, anything belonging to that person can be given away. You are supposed to give the object to the first person who asks for it. So, in the spirit of giving, I donned a necklace, earrings, bracelet, and a hair comb that I was happy to offer to the students. They were thrilled that I was following the tradition because they’ve all been begging for my jewelry all year long. I did, however, hide my watch and my sunglasses which are highly desirable, but which I still need. It has been fun seeing the kids wearing my jewelry in class this week.
Finally, we had a big dance party and played freeze dance and musical rocks which were big hits at the Spelling Bee. I had a wonderful birthday!
