Hello all my loyal readers (looking at you, Abby 😉)
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have been very busy moving in and out of three different places, now I am in a temporary apartment while they fix the dorm. The dorm has a water piping issue, so I moved into my friend's apt until the power supply got on fire and there was no power so we moved into a hotel room with the other volunteers and now all the volunteers are in an apartment. It's all good though! 😄
Last week, there was a funeral for a student's family member. He called him his brother, but actually it was his 2 year old cousin. That's how families roll here, everyone takes care of everyone. Anyways, so we decided that the whole school would attend because he kept on mentioning it. It was our (volunteers') first Marshallese funeral. We were informed about the customs, but there is nothing like experiencing it. We all rode the school vans to the boy's family home, went in the living room where the casket was on the floor in the middle of the room. We all sat on the floor with who seems to be the child's mom, and grandma. A man stood up to talk about the concept of dying and how he fulfilled his life on earth but never gone from our hearts, then another man stood up to talk about the boy's relationship with our student. He thanked us all for coming and it means a lot to that student. Then we all stood up, got in a line to give our sympathies to the mother and grandmother who were still sitting, tossed money into the coffin which had a piece of plexiglass covering the opening. The children threw in a quarter and the adults threw in a dollar. After that, we went outside for a reception of donuts, some orange drink and a soup. The donuts here tastes very different than America's donuts, not sweet at all, denser bread. That boy would be buried at 5 pm that evening, one day funeral.
Sometimes funerals last 2 weeks, the dead person would be in the family's home until they are buried. They won't bury the person until all family members are present, even those living on the outer islands. No emotion is shown at the funeral, until the person is buried, then they will cry.
The boy will be buried at the family property alongside other family members who have already died. I saw them digging the hole when we were inside the house for the funeral.
Next Bōlaide (Friday), there is no school to celebrate the Marshallese culture. It is called Manit Day (Manit=Culture). We have several activities planned during the week to celebrate Marshallese culture. On Bōlaide, there will be an essay contest for high school students in the morning and field games for elementary students in the afternoon for the whole island, and then different events happening during the weekend.
