I realise that everything I am not doing today or tomorrow I will not be able to do.
Crazy scary! Three months have flown by.
My official pat-myself-on-the-back stats as of now:
- 55 recordings (plus a few group recordings), which means my sample is full except for one public school boy who I will hopefully record tomorrow.
- about 60 questionnaires
- plenty of ethnographic data including a large set of statistics from the Ministry of Education on educational benchmarks, student and teacher stats etc.
- 2000+ pictures on the linguistic landscape in Majuro, and a beautiful map which shows density measures. I am currently coding them for their 'emitter' status (i.e official versus graffiti).
- 1 paper on traits of Marshallese English, about 80% done (it's with Nik Willson now, linguist at CMI and educator with 7 years of experience in teaching English to Marshallese students)
- 1 paper on educational policy started this week (this one is just about to be shared with Irene Taafaki, my host here at USP and an educational specialist with huge experience in the RMI system).
- I have also learned how to do jagi-ed, including a cool bi-colored type of weaving, which I like very much.
Overall, it's been an incredibly humbling and educational experience. Some of the people we met here are the most warm, welcoming, and selfless souls I have ever experienced. If this place is swallowed up by the effects of global warming, an incredibly welcoming and embracing culture will disappear. Sure, we have seen corruption, people with the right name being promoted over people who have the skills /put in the hours. We have experienced issues of guardianship and we've been blocked by people who are in their post merely by virtue of being Marshallese.
But overall, it's been a heart-warming stay and I am sad to leave. I am so grateful to many people here to allow me to be part of their culture, to accept me for who I am, to let me participate in what I was interested in. I will treasure the experience of being a ri-belle in the RMI. And I will forever proudly call myself Likatu in Majel.
I am, however, also really looking forward to a few things... In this order:
- meeting some people
- eating fresh fruit and vegetables
- temperatures below 30 degrees and 95 % humidity
- my bike
- going for walks in the woods
- a stable internet connection
Crazy scary! Three months have flown by.
My official pat-myself-on-the-back stats as of now:
- 55 recordings (plus a few group recordings), which means my sample is full except for one public school boy who I will hopefully record tomorrow.
- about 60 questionnaires
- plenty of ethnographic data including a large set of statistics from the Ministry of Education on educational benchmarks, student and teacher stats etc.
- 2000+ pictures on the linguistic landscape in Majuro, and a beautiful map which shows density measures. I am currently coding them for their 'emitter' status (i.e official versus graffiti).
- 1 paper on traits of Marshallese English, about 80% done (it's with Nik Willson now, linguist at CMI and educator with 7 years of experience in teaching English to Marshallese students)
- 1 paper on educational policy started this week (this one is just about to be shared with Irene Taafaki, my host here at USP and an educational specialist with huge experience in the RMI system).
- I have also learned how to do jagi-ed, including a cool bi-colored type of weaving, which I like very much.
Overall, it's been an incredibly humbling and educational experience. Some of the people we met here are the most warm, welcoming, and selfless souls I have ever experienced. If this place is swallowed up by the effects of global warming, an incredibly welcoming and embracing culture will disappear. Sure, we have seen corruption, people with the right name being promoted over people who have the skills /put in the hours. We have experienced issues of guardianship and we've been blocked by people who are in their post merely by virtue of being Marshallese.
But overall, it's been a heart-warming stay and I am sad to leave. I am so grateful to many people here to allow me to be part of their culture, to accept me for who I am, to let me participate in what I was interested in. I will treasure the experience of being a ri-belle in the RMI. And I will forever proudly call myself Likatu in Majel.
I am, however, also really looking forward to a few things... In this order:
- meeting some people
- eating fresh fruit and vegetables
- temperatures below 30 degrees and 95 % humidity
- my bike
- going for walks in the woods
- a stable internet connection