After School Practice

I just finished watching an after-school practice for the Marshallese Culture (Manit) Day program. The Juniors kept asking me for time during class to prepare for the event, but they never had anything planned to practice. I told them that they needed to have a song picked by the end of first period today, and they did. I made copies of the song that someone had written out, so the whole class could have the words. They said that they would meet in my classroom after school (at 3 pm) to practice. After helping Lorraine with the 3rd graders in the library, I went up to my classroom to meet with the Juniors. They were sitting on tables and chairs talking in Marshallese when I got up to my room (which is on the 3rd floor). They talked in Marshallese for a little bit and then one of the guys started moving the desks and chairs to the sides of the room. I had no clue what was going on, and I asked a student sitting next to me and he had no clue either (he probably wasn't paying much attention). One girl, Wanita, started directing everyone on where to go. They were going to practice a play. Since they were talking in Marshallese and I had absolutely no clue what they were saying, I decided to toss in my own English interpretation, which the students laughed at. :)
After quite a while of practicing the play (which didn't look like anything cultural to me...at least it was in Marshallese), they started practicing the song they chose. It sounded nice, but I couldn't tell you what it meant. :) The students really do sound good when they sing. Some of the guys were harmonizing, which is amazing compared to the guys in the U.S. which you have to twist their arms to sing (unless they are in choir).
Anyway, the practice finally finished at 5 pm. I was definitely glad because I had been really tired. Monday night I got about 3 hours of sleep, and that was after the power came on at 3 am. Yes, the power unpredictability is annoying, but oh well.

I'll have to post a blog about the program on Thursday. Should be interesting! Some of the younger grades are doing dances and action songs. They have been working really hard.