Drama: Part I

The past few weeks have been dramatic, definitely among the most challenging in my life, and very pivotal with respect to my feelings towards this place (Xavier High School). However, the past three days have been some of the most enjoyable, relaxing, and beautiful in my life. Pretty extreme, but true. This past weekend was the faculty retreat to Tol; the past couple of weeks were the last in the 1st quarter, but also belonging to a huge incident that spiraled into confusion, chaos, and near-calamity. Let me begin with a journal entry from this past weekend, and I will narrate what’s been going on in my life (and head) by bouncing back and forth from this weekend in heaven to the past few weeks of hell.

Tol – Friday

The hour and a half boat ride to the completely other end of this lagoon was the start of getting rid of all of my worries. The day was beautiful, but with a strong wind, causing the waves to be a little choppy, but making it perfectly safe to travel on, especially since we were on a bigger, more modern boat that a Korean research owned. The wind was a bit harsh, but definitely refreshing. My hands gripped the rail as I anticipated every
bounce from the waves. We would get splashed, but instantly became dry from the hot sun.

This place is nothing but serenity. It’s a lush community of families at the edge of the water, facing one of the many bays of Tol. If we’re not facing the other side of the bay, we face the west, which has no other islands in view, just a barely visible reef on the horizon which separates our calm lagoon with the huge Pacific Ocean. There is a dock here to swim and jump off of. The stray dogs are friendly, the grass is trimmed, there are no
drunks, no blaring boom boxes, and there is a working toilet.

And there are DOZENS of kids. And palm trees swaying in the warm sun with the cool breeze. But back to these kids: they love to sing together and dance constantly … and that’s basically it, other than looking really cute. They sing the same songs over and over again, but it never gets tiring. They also love playing dancing games with each other. They get so easily embarrassed, and when they do something outrageous (like sticking out in a crowd!) it causes everyone else to roll on the ground laughing and laughing.
I thought that only happened in cartoons when people laughed so much, holding their stomachs while suddenly losing their ability to stand up, but it happens. They entertained us for hours, fed us tons of food of local delicacies, bananas, and all the coconuts we wanted.

It’s now 8:15 at night as I write this on a bench outside of our meeting house (the place where we gather, eat, AND sleep) under a bare light bulb. Some of the teachers are learning a song in Chuukese under a palm tree. I can’t count the number of children that are in that group … probably 30 – some are hidden in the shadows. Right now there is no rush to do anything, which is a first; I’m comfortable, even though my bed is a table/place to
hang all of my clothes. It’s cool out and I just sit, play with kids, dance with the kids, and play and dance some more. It is definitely peaceful here.

It was basically the opposite of this feeling about a week ago…

XHS – Two weeks ago

The drama all started the day everyone got back from the Junior Community Service Project. Problem: to the shock and surprise of the teachers, most of the Juniors were chewing betelnut. Not good, especially how some of them were on super-duper probation. Two of them, a Palaun and Chuukese student, were on their, like, 5th strike already. Fr. Arthur, the morning before the Juniors left, even asked those two if they could control themselves. They
both said no problem. That same night, they both chewed. Basically, it is galactally stupid, and, after a week of deliberating and discerning, they are expelled. Huge call to make, but I think the right one. It is a problem here that things aren’t always carried out (especially disciplinary consequences) when they should be. Anyway, they get kicked out, and a few other students get a week’s suspension, while still other Juniors lose privileges and so on.

Here is the kicker: Apparently Fr. Arthur asked two Junior boys – Pohnpeian, and apparently trustworthy (the two things are not related) – to ask the Juniors themselves if they chewed or not, because Fr. Arthur believed that if he asked himself, he would be lied to. So these two boys brought back a list, the director compared it with his list, and then he picked who would
be suspended or not. And here is where the confusion comes in: for some odd reason, the two boys thought that Fr. Arthur’s list never existed in the first place, so they were convinced they were lied to, and upset that they put their “brothers” on suspension, AND they got the whole class pissed at Fr. Arthur, and they even rallied their classmates to skip class to help the suspended boys with their work.

Problem: they weren’t lied to, and it happens that these two boys that were rallying the class really only cared about their Pohnpeian “brothers” and not the other kids on suspension. Long story short (too late!) for many days it seemed as if the entire or most of the Junior class was going to rise up in a rebellion, causing expulsion if they continued to skip class; many Juniors were hurt with the fact that they were being led to face consequences when they didn’t even get in trouble; and there was even more drama when it became clear that it wasn’t a class issue, but an issue with a few boys being loyal only to the kids from their own island.

This seems like dumb, high school drama. Well, it is! Except that certain people that are supposed to be running this school let this whole thing spiral out of control, leading to boys skipping class even when they were told not to, leading to an entire group of students call Fr. Arthur a liar when he wasn’t, and now cause a huge divide between the Pohnpeian students and the rest of the students at this school. MEANWHILE, all of the Juniors were so bent on feeling “betrayed” by Fr. Arthur and by each other that they
forgot the whole reason for this mess and the REAL lesson they should have been learning: they broke the trust of the faculty and administration, and they need to be feeling some sort of remorse for their lack of responsibility on this CSP. They are pissed at us for not trusting them. Typical high school behavior – understanding that they did something wrong, but they don’t want any consequences for their actions – but it’s so disheartening. It’s all a mess.

But that’s really not the worst of it …

TO BE CONTINUED...