'Ts the season

Wow so I have experienced THE holiday that I have been waiting a long time for.  People have told me about the events that happen on Christmas here on the island but nothing compares to experiencing it yourself. 

Since December started, I have been seeing more and more Christmas decor in homes and stores.  Stores started having percentage off sales.  Traffic in stores increased.  Of course nothing like the states, but I could see the difference between BCS and DCS (before Christmas season and during Christmas season).  

On Christmas Eve, stores were filled with people, there were huge discounts for clothes, toys and small housewares.  Car traffic in downtown Majuro was horrendous the entire day.  I went to a small gathering near downtown and saw people shopping at around 7 pm.  I went to another gathering and got home around midnight.  On the way, people were still shopping!  Yes, at midnight.. No early closures on Christmas Eve here. 

On Christmas morning, Abby and I ate breakfast at our hotel then took off to one of my aides' house to attend church with them and see the famed "Christmas dances".  We got there at 10 am, finally got to church at around 1130 and dancing started around 230.  Yeah, island time.  But I didn't mind because while we were waiting to go to church, we chatted, ate some Marshallese donuts and told Abby about some Marshallese culture things such as the water catchment tank.  One of my students just happened to walk by with his mom so he joined in on the fun while his mom went to church. The aide's family wanted us to stay after church for some BBQ food.  After we saw my EA's twins dance, we went back to her home and ate BBQ chicken, ribs and rice.  

We went back to the church and saw other groups from other churches around the island dance.  It is like a traveling dance troupe, groups visit different churches and dance for them, then go to the next church. Some groups gave money, others gave lots of food to the church.  We left around 730 pm and it was very difficult to get a taxi that could fit two people.  We waited for about an hour before finally finding one.  By the way, stores were still open on Christmas Day.  

Although I was not with my biological family other than Abby for Christmas, I felt that the entire community was my family because we spent most of the day together.  

Enjoy the pictures and videos. 

My student that joined us for a while.

Above two pictures: local church dancing group (mostly children)

Another church dancing/singing group

Another group 

I couldn't post the video directly on this blog, so I uploaded it onto youtube, and the link is http://youtu.be/AYbeTXL9R7M  Enjoy!

Another group waiting outside the church to begin 

The inside of the church was filled with maybe 100-200 people and maybe 100 more were outside the church watching/listening through the windows. 

Amazing experience!  

Christmas parade part Ruo (two)

So last week's parade wasn't enough... The majuro area local government sponsored a second parade today.  This one was supposed to start at 10 am, but finally started at noon.  It seems that two hours is the going rate.  This time, I didn't wait outside for it to start.  I ate breakfast at a restaurant where I could keep an eye on the street and happened to walk back to the dorm when it started right around the house that one of my students live in so I watched the parade with the family.   

Parade starting

They sang along with the music

Santa made an appearance 

Of course there has to be a boat in the parade 

And a bulldozer!

Love her!

Christmas party

The Majuro Deaf School is on the campus of Marshall Islands High School. The high school had a Christmas party and invited us to join them.  At first, I didn't really want to go because I wanted to bake cookies for our big picnic the next day.  After talking to some people, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to experience some cultural events (which is what I really enjoy about being here).  I am glad I went.  

Some of the Special Education folks.  As you can see, I am a giant. 

The party was supposed to start at 6 so I showed up at 6, no one was there.  I watched the sunset and waited some more.  People started arriving around 7.  The party officially started at 7:30 (Island time you say?)

We started out with a prayer for the party, played some games and then dinner was finally served after saying another prayer. I was starving by that time. We had mostly Chinese food, along with Marshallese food.

One of the games that we played was fun to watch.  We all had to blow up a balloon then try to fit as many balloons into pantyhose.  

The music started and different groups including the special education group did a sing-a-long.  It was interesting to see how the different cultural groups sang.  There was a group of Philippines, Fijians,  Tuvalus, and of course Marshalls.  The Fijians sang and did a little dance.  I learned that the Marshallese will spray some coconut oil and put lotion on your face if they really like your singing.  The Fijians and Marshallese got that special treatment. 

We were getting tired so we left at around 10:30.  I ended up baking the cookies early on Friday.  

Christmas parade

Today there was a Christmas parade hosted by the Majuro chamber of commerce.  The newspaper said it would start at 9 so I sat where I wanted to sit... And waited... And waited... And waited... Some decorated trucks drove the opposite way.  After a while, I decided I would go eat breakfast where I could keep an eye on the street.  When I was done with my breakfast, the parade came by.  It was 11 by that time.  Island time... :-)

The parade was about 20 pick up trucks long, some with a float behind it, some with people in the truck bed waving.

This truck had 4 people in the bed with speakers on top of the cab blasting music. 

Running after the candy!