MLK Weekend and Chaplain Duty Watch

I have the island-wide duty chaplain shift this week.  Aside from being on-call 24 hours a day through the MLK Weekend (and therefore, no consumption of alcohol of any type), I am responsible for an article to be published in the Okinawa Marine.  I submit to you my article from this week's edition.

Re-Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In one of my favorite scenes from the 1988 classic "Coming to America", Eddie Murphy as Clarence the Barber describes a chance encounter with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You know, Sweets, I met Dr. Martin Luther King once.   Yeah, I met Dr. Martin Luther King in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee. I walkin' down the street minding my own business, just walking on. Feelin' good. I walk around the corner, a man walk up, hit me in my chest, right. I fall on the ground, right. And I look up and it's Dr. Martin Luther King. I said 'Dr. King?' and he said 'Ooops, I thought you were somebody else.'"

What is your memory of Dr. King?  How do you remember?  Unfortunately, very few of us have actual memories of Martin Luther King, Jr.; the majority of us weren’t born when he was assassinated.  We have history textbooks, old videos, and past-down stories.  With these tools, we teach, but we hardly instill memory.  The fact is that for most of us the memory of Dr. King garners little recognition in our lives - except another USMC 96-hour weekend. 

  

As members of the military, we should remember Dr. King for his commitment to the causes of freedom and democracy.  We should be inspired by his courage to speak out, to push forward in the face of innumerable threats. We should remember the modern day prophet who dreamed of a better tomorrow, a life of dignity, a hopeful future for all Americans.  As service members, by our very creed, we are committed to preserving the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Turn this weekend into a weekend of service.  We remember through action.  We carry on the legacy of Dr. King by turning dream into reality, by answering the call to grant dignity to all people.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Dr. King in Selma, Alabama.  He said his experience in the march, "I was praying with my feet."  May we turn this weekend into a weekend of service: pray with your actions, pray with your hands, pray with your feet.

becoming a "sensei"

A couple of months ago, I took on a new (very part-time) job teaching a beginner’s English class. For the past six months or so I have been doing a bit of one-on-one English tutoring with adults, and I assumed this would be more of the same, if in a slightly larger-group setting. To the interview, I brought with me a copy of my resume and some sample lesson plans I had worked up for other students. The man interviewing me looked over these papers seriously, and then told me they were very impressive looking, but that he couldn’t actually read English with enough fluency to understand anything I had written. Nevertheless, he offered me the job – I think based merely on the fact that I had thought to bring those papers with me at all. As the interview was winding down, he finally found fit to mention that, oh yeah, I wouldn’t be teaching adults at all – he was actually organizing a class for young kids, somewhere between the ages of 4-10.

And that’s the story of how I became an early childhood educator. (I know that, strictly speaking, 4-10 extends outside the early-childhood range, but when you’re working on foreign language skills with young kids, I think it makes the kids feel and act even younger.) I tried to explain to the organizer (the father of one of my students) that my experience with kids in this age group was limited to babysitting, being an aunt, and having siblings, and certainly did not extend to teaching of any kind. He was unconcerned, though, and so I am making it up as I go (and doing some online research on the side).

I teach two forty-minute classes every Tuesday evening, each with two students. My students (Yoshikage, Miu, Hayate and Ayuna) are adorable, but there is a lot lost in translation. We sing songs, read books, do crafts, and practice vocabulary. We count, talk about the days of the week and the months of the year, and I ask them about that day’s weather – although, this time of the year, the answer is always “cloudy,” so I think that’s the only weather term they’ll really learn. I can tell that Japanese students are trained to do a lot of repeating, as they readily understand when they’re supposed to repeat things after me. But sometimes I’m not at all sure that they understand what I’m trying to communicate - especially when I am reading to them. I read mostly for language exposure instead of content, since there are very few books in the library out here with the correct sort of vocabulary; most of them are way too wordy, and so the kids pay attention but don’t know what they’re paying attention to.

Of course, I do speak a bit of Japanese, and that sometimes helps me to transmit certain ideas or to understand their very basic questions. I don’t speak enough to know if, when they’re laughing together in class, they’re being funny or mean. But still, we stumble along together, looking for enough common understanding to learn and have fun at the same time. I think it’s going relatively well. I just hope they’re actually learning something. 

Cell Block 9

 “We need to make sure the best of the best go out on this thing to [deleted],” says the CO, “they should feel that they are getting rewarded.  They’ll get liberty, spend some money, and have a good time.  And when they get back --”

“We’ll throw them into lockdown and take away all their privileges,” interrupts the Sergeant Major.

“Exactly.” 

If only this wasn’t a fake conversation.

We’re on lock down.  As of the Friday evening before New Years, all movement off-base is restricted for personnel assigned to my battalion.   Those living off-base may only drive to their homes and their place of business (this part was rescinded after New Years Day).  While Leora and I live on a base, we were not allowed to access the main part of our base, as we live across the street.  As the order read: you can go to work, gym, place of worship.  And that’s about it.

Spouses are free to move about as long as they follow the rules and regulations of the current liberty order.  The problem is that since I am sitting at home being useless, Leora has to do all the shopping that I would normally be able to do (including the Exchange, the Commissary, and the Gas Station). 

Suffice it to say, we did not have the most exciting New Year.

So what happened?  What could possibly cause thing sort of punitive response?  Answer:  We made the News.  In the Marine Corps, getting your picture in the paper is never a good thing, even if it is just the military news.  http://okinawa.stripes.com/news/marine-okinawa-arrested-trespassing

Since New Years Day, a lot of the restrictions have been lifted.  I still can’t go to off-base establishments, but I can go to anything on any base.  This is good, not great – but good.

We will be on lock down for the next 23 days – to include a couple Marine Corps 96 hours weekends.  We’ll watch some movies, maybe go bowling (on base).

I’m personally more worried about the Marines.  They’re stressed and cannot get a release off-base.  They are angry, and there is nothing they can do about it (as the CO has threatened a full-court martial to anybody who touches the cause of this lock-down).  They are tired of being treated like tots; nobody likes being put in time-out. 

So, I guess that’s why they keep me on staff – to worry, to look out, and to care.  I just wish there was more that I could do, aside from loading them up with candy and pancakes (which I did today)…all in a day’s work. 

gift giving

Without claiming to know too much about the subject, let me just say that Japanese people take gift-giving seriously. I don't know when gifts are given, to whom, or by whom. Mostly, I know that it's traditional to give gifts - AND I know that the Japanese/Okinawan concept of what is a gift is radically different from the American concept. Not sure what I mean? I might have mentioned on the blog before that fancy fruit is a traditional gift here; one could easily spend $60 on a box of 4 mangoes or a melon tied up with a bow. But while fancy fruit is funny, it doesn't hold a candle to the kinds of boxed gifts that are being sold right now. This morning I went to Aeon, our local department store, to give you all a taste...enjoy! 

these are cups with strange fruit jellies inside (i think)

anyone need some tomato juice?

more juice

individually-wrapped slices of cake and what looks like flan. ok, not so weird - but still funny!

the Japanese here says "sea chicken"...so i'm thinking tuna? i know tuna is my favorite holiday gift.

boxes all wrapped up and ready to be purchased

bottles of fruit juice, instead of cans. the caption under select gift reads : the pleasure of choosing, the joy of giving. it's the choice that communicates the feeling.

here's a gift pack of ingredients to make your own Japanese soups.

oils!

coffee

Okinawans LOVE spam

more canned lunch meat

and then, of course, there's the actual meat!

and scary shellfish

and then there's always Yoni's favorite - the beer gifts!

in case you're wondering, i'm pretty sure "zero life" is calorie-free and alcohol-free...but it still comes in the beer gift box!

make-your-own gift box :)

A Harmonica for Hanukkah

One of the cruel realities of going to a Jewish Day School is the annual Chanukah Zimriyah.  Recollections of Cantor Tessler drilling us with Maoz Tzur for hours still haunt my dreams, and sweat drips down my back every time I think of doing Mi Y’malel in a round.

My class never got any truly great songs to sing; mostly, we handled the classics.  I have a memory of my sister’s class once singing, “I Got A Harmonica For Chanukah”.  When they busted out kazoos for one of the verses, I knew that I had found my favorite Chanukah song of all time.

“I know lots of boys

who got electric toys,

But I got a harmonica for Chanukah.

Some got two wheel bikes,

Some got flying kites.

But I got a harmonica for Chanukah.

I’m not complaining,

I’m not complaining –

Cause I know some little boys and girls

that didn’t get anything.”

I received some really thought out nice presents for Chanukah, and I am certainly not complaining about that.  I definitely could have used some electric toys, but I’m good.  No complaints.

For gifts, we do all right in Okinawa.  Toys for Tots cleans up each year, and I haven’t seen a single truly sad face near Santa in the Exchange.  But one of the realities of living in Okinawa is that Jewish supplies are not always available.  They can be ordered (or sent) before the festival, but there is not telling when they will get here. 

This year, we had a shortage of dreidels, but sharing is ok.  This year, we got no chocolate gelt.  The dentists rejoiced, and the holiday went on.  This year, we received no new metal menorahs to give out to the single Sailors and Marines.  Should they want to buy a menorah, there were none available in any of the stores on island.  This year, we got no candles.

So what do you do when you see that there are no candles left and people keep calling asking for them?  RP told me that he could get some PVC piping from the construction shop and make candles.  RP is highly industrious.  While that would be neat, and I would certainly enjoy the art project – I felt there had to be a better way.

Worried about telling people that they couldn’t celebrate Chanukah, I really thought hard about what to do.  And then it came to me: Catholics use a lot of candles.  I talked to my friend, Father Gelinas, the Catholic Chaplain on Camp Foster; he was more than willing to part ways with a couple hundred candles.  “That’s what we do for each other; it shouldn’t have even been a question.” 

Father Gelinas is a good guy, but he is also steeped in the ethos of the Navy Chaplain Corps.  We are the facilitators for all faith groups and care for all regardless of faith group.  In this season of perpetual Christmas specials and jolly music, Chanukah lived on – because of a Catholic priest. Go figure!

basic necessities

Before moving to Okinawa, Yoni and I had millions of questions. Where will we be living? What’s the deal with the electric current? What would Yoni’s job be like? Would he be away a lot? And on, and on. But while some of these questions were serious, big-picture ones, others were more mundane questions like: will I ever find anyone who knows how to cut curly hair? Where will I get Penny’s hair cut? Where and how will we see movies? – and more questions like this. One year later, we kind of have a handle on things.

First things first: haircuts. Yoni is the easiest in this regard. With the grooming standards of the Marine Corps as strict as they are, Yoni has his hair cut every two weeks (he says he’s supposed to do it once a week) on base at one of the many “salons” in existence for exactly this reason. These barber shops DO get busy, especially if you go at the wrong time of the day/week, but they are readily available all over the island. Penny’s hair is not as easy to wrangle. There is a dog-grooming place on Kadena Air Base, about 20 minutes north of our apartment. I’m pretty sure, though, that the groomer there had never seen an Airedale before; she never looked seriously weird, but she didn’t exactly look right, either. And it was pretty expensive – almost as much as we were paying on the upper west side. Then we decided to be brave and try an off-base groomer. They did a better job (and she got a bandana!), but it was also very expensive. Finally, a friend with a dog recommended an American woman (a military spouse) who was doing grooming out of her apartment. The price was right AND she had done Airedales before. I only hope she won’t hold Penny’s recent discretions against us!

And then there’s my hair. While there are hair salons on base (in what they call the “concession mall”), most women agree that they hairstylists there are not great. Instead, women seem to either find other spouses who cut hair out of their apartments, or to venture off base and hope for the best. On the recommendation of a friend with wavy-ish hair, I went to a lovely Japanese woman who spoke very little English (although you could tell that she had practiced certain expressions, like “is the water too hot?). Once I figured out how to answer the question of whether or not I wanted my haircut to be “round,” she did a great job.

Second: movies. There are seven military movie theatres on island. Well, maybe “movie theatre” is over-stating things a bit. I should have said “theatres where movies are shown.” They are all one-room operations, seat somewhere between 150-900 people, and come complete with a stage with curtains and everything (as the theatre is not only used for movies). Movies are rotated around the island to make sure they are being shown a minimum number of times in all the theatres. And while we do often get first-run movies, the movies we get are almost always action/adventure, family-friendly, or romantic comedy. It’s usually not too bad, although there are plenty of weeks when Yoni and I both agree that there’s nothing worth seeing. At least it’s cheap – $5.50/person for a first-run movie, and less for an older one. OH – and we have to stand at attention for the national anthem before the movie begins. (Really, this deserves an entire blog post of its own.) And it’s not like they’re just playing the star-spangled banner over the sound system. No, there are four or five musical montages made some time in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s with themes like “historical” and “nostalgia”, and one of them gets chosen to play before each movie.

I had more ideas of things to write about, but Shabbat is approaching and this post is already on the long side. So instead, I put this question to you: any aspects of daily life you’re particularly curious about / burning questions you’d like answered about “how do you do x”?? Let us know in the comments, and either Yoni or I will try to address it in the coming weeks and months. Shabbat Shalom!

Pearl Harbor Day

FDR said the day would forever live in infamy; the CO said it would be a day off.  Kind of.  Today the Non-Commissioned Officers (in the Marine Corps, that would be the Corporals and the Sergeants – E-4 and E-5) took over the battalion.  There was a sergeant serving as Battalion CO for the day.  He had to do all of the CO’s daily tasks.  Same applies for the various officer posts and Staff NCOs (E-6 through E-9).

RP2 Worth (My RP was promoted from Religious Program Specialist 3rd Class to 2nd Class a few weeks ago) served as the chaplain.  While he did not get the veil of confidentiality that I enjoy, he had some big plans for his day as Chaplain.

“Chaps, I’m just going to buy a big box of straws”

“Ummm, Ok.  Why?”

“When somebody comes up to me with a problem, I’ll just give them a straw and tell em to ‘suck it up’”.

This is why NCO day cannot be every day.  But he might be on to something.

What did I do with my day off?  I got sick.

So instead of going out and taking advantage of the time off, I did what I know best:  I sat on the couch watching trashy TV.   When MTV’s “True Life: I’m a Sugar Baby” seems like the best thing on, you know it’s going to be a very trashy morning. (Incidentally, a sugar baby is a person who has a sugar daddy or sugar mama; in this case, it included people who are desperately in need of a sugar daddy/mama).

I pulled myself together finally, and ran some errands.  Leora and I went to the farmer’s market where a little old Japanese lady walked up to me, and measured how tall she was in comparison.  She said something in Japanese.  She and Leora laughed a little bit.  The old Japanese lady than brought a friend over to show her how tall she was in comparison, or so I assume.  I’ve been living here for a full year, and I have only 10 words of Japanese to my credit.

Pearl Harbor Day 2012, I don’t think will live in infamy.  But it was certainly a welcome day off after a crazy week.