Food and funerals

The high school teachers are invited to funerals their students have in their families. The funeral I went to was to support a junior student of mine, Quinton, whose cousin had committed suicide. I went with Ashlee, Jordan, Allan, Ryan (the principal), and Jhan Dale. Several students from the school came too. We waited across the street from the house for Quinton to take us inside. We took off our flip-flops in front of the open door. In the middle of the living room was an open casket. The opening was facing away from the door, so I never looked in the casket. We sat on woven mats and waited for someone to talk. Ryan spoke for a short time and then we sang “Meet me in Heaven”. Ryan said a prayer and then each of us got up and put a dollar on top of the casket to help pay for food (It’s customary for families to serve food to the funeral guests and the guests give money). When we walked outside, a woman handed us a doughnut and Navy crackers wrapped in napkins. She also gave us a Styrofoam cup with rice, coconut milk, chicken soup, and some chicken meat. I talked to Jhan Dale and Ryan about the funerals on Ebeye and they said that some people go to funerals just to get food. Isn’t that terrible?
That was the shortest funeral I have ever been to. It was interesting to see how the Marshallese do funerals. I was told that there would be more funerals during the year, so I guess this is the account of my first, and not last, Marshallese funeral.