It truly all began about a year ago when Mr. Fielding (our English teacher and Drama coach) introduced Erica, Sierra, and me to the book "For the Good of Mankind", by Jack Niedenthal. Now, I've always taken a little pride in the fact that my mom has been the local public librarian for my enitre life, and I consider myself pretty well read, especially compared to most kids my age, but prior to December 2006 neither her nor I knew anything of the Marshall Islands (the key setting of "For the Good of Mankind") let alone the book itself. Whether or not my coach predicted that the small gesture of sharing a book would weave itself into an enormous project, I'll never be sure, but I have a feeling he did.
In a similar fashion to watching a well prepared propoganda video, this book draws pride, pity, sympathy, and even a little desire for revenge from an audience member, but without using personifications of evil to define an enemy, showing exagerated acts of horror on the 'enemy''s part, ignoring faltered acts on their own part, or (of course) a well-timed, heart-wrenching soundtrack. It does, however, contain a huge collection of memoirs of relocated Bikinians, who are currently exiled from their home atoll in the northern Marshall Islands, do to high levels of radioactivity created by United States' bomb detonations on the atoll in the 40's and 50's.
Because Erica, Sierra, and I participate in an extra-curricular activity called "Drama, Debate, and Forensics" (DDF), Mr. Fielding helped us create a Readers Theatre script from the book. Unfortunately, the DDF season overlaps with the basketball season here in Southeast Alaska, so Sierra had to finish her DDF season early.
With Sierra unable to perform the Readers Theatre any longer, Erica, Mr. Fielding, and I transformed the 12 minute Readers Theatre into a 10 mintue "Duo Interpretation of Literature". In those 10 minutes, Erica and I tried to tell the story of the Bikinian people, begining with Japanese occupation over 60 years ago,and how the Nuclear Testing Program affected the Marshallese culture, as well as their bodies and land.
In order to accurately portray charaters, and make them real to an audience, Erica and I spent hundreds of hours researching the history of the Marshall Islands (today called the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or RMI), the Nuclear Testing Program, the Cold War, affects of radiation exposure, and tried to understand what it would be like to be taken from sacred, ancestoral land. As we conducted our studies and developed our characters further, we became VERY passionate about the subject, and extremely dedicated to the Duo. Our coaches Forest, Mr. Fielding, Barbara, Billi, Jacqueline, and Brandon really pushed us to constantly revise, constantly rethink, constantly go further with the Duo, and we eventually began holding 21 hours of practice some weekends. When Erica and I took the piece to state, were we quite confident in it.
However, when we took 7th place (not exactly what we were hoping for), we were devastated. To me, our piece was a statement. Our Duo was a tool to teach people about a piece of history that is largely unknown or misunderstood. By performing our Duo for an audience I felt we were, in some small way, helping the Bikinians, Rongelapese, and all Marshallese, all victims of nuclear proliferation for that matter, to tell their story. Erica and I had huge aspirations for the piece, and the resluts at state made me feel like I had failed our coaches, and the Marshallese people. Our initial instinct was to simply give-up on the Duo. We had worked so SO hard on it, told such an important story, and we felt no one had really apreciated it.
After letting us mope for a couple of days, Mr. Fielding (being that amazing coach he is), suggested that we actually go down to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, meet Jack Niedenthal (the author of "For the Good of Mankind"), talk with witnesses to the Nuclear Testing Program, and perform our Duo for Marshallese residents!
See, about two months after we began the original Readers Theatre, Mr. Fielding had recieved a message from a woman in Chicago, requesting a copy of a script, or possibly a video of us performing the Readers Theatre, which her adopted Marshallese children could show in school. At first, we were baffled by the request (how could anyone have heard about our piece?), but then we discovered that a Marshall Islands' news website "Yokwe.net", had picked up on an article published about our piece in the Skagway News, and had inturn published an article about our Readers Theatre on their own. When Mr. Fielding presented the idea of turning our ten minute performance into a huge project and eventually a presentation and lesson plan which could be possibly taken to schools and cities around the USA (such as Chicago), Erica and I were estatic! But before we could travel around the country, teaching other Americans and peers about the history of development of nuclear weapons in the RMI, we would have to visit the islands ourselves.
There is a world of difference between understanding something intellectually, and experiencing it first hand. So here we are, five months later. Over the course of those five months we fundraised $11,000, expanded the original 10 minute duo into a 20 minute performance, added two speeches, incorporated clips of videos and documentaries, and interpreted a traditional Marshallese legend as another eight minute Duo. Tomorrow, we are finally beginning our adventure to the RMI, and I've never been more anxious in my life.
The Origins of SEFNA
One Book and One Crazy Idea
Friday.Oct.12.2007 (Day 1)
So, the adventure has begun.
But so far the road has been a little bumpy.
There exsists three ways to exit the city of Skagway and reach Seattle (where our flight-venture would begin) 1) Drive out the Alaskan Highway, over the pass, through Canada and down to Washington 2) Take off from the mile long landing strip on a good ol', six-seater, bush plane and fly down the canal to Juneau and catch a direct flight from there to seattle, or 3) Depart by sea and take a 6 hour Ferry boat to Juneau and catch the flight. Because it was late fall, and the reliability of the first two options depended greatly on weather conditions, our group (the appointed female chaperone--Jacqueline, Erica, Mr. Fielding, and me) opted for choice 3, which scheduled us to depart at 6 p.m. today.
I had to stay after school to finish a 'Beowulf’ final for English class, while Erica was rushing wildly around the high school, in and out of the English room, gathering homework, arguing with teachers, and just generally preparing for the journey we were about to undertake. By 4 p.m. (our school lets out at 2:30) my hand was sore and cramped. Words, thoughts, answers came to my mind and fleeted away again before I had a chance to fully write them down. As time ticked by, I became overwhelmingly anxious and flustered-- so I decided to SKIP the end of my English final in order to make photocopies of my other school text books, which I needed to make up homework while in the RMI. Haha…yea…that can’t ever happen again during my high school career. Mr. Fielding, my dedicated coach and teacher, was...unimpressed...to say the least. Anyway, at 5 p.m., an hour and a half after my test-fiasco, Mr. Fielding, Jacqueline, Erica, and I boarded the ferry and officially departed Skagway, tackling the first 100 of the 6,000 miles between Alaska and the RMI. The six hours it took to traverse those 100 miles by boat were painfully long and plagued by mild sea-sickness.
Luckily, we were able to entertain ourselves with a card game which Jacqueline taught Erica and me, entitled “The Food Chain Game”. Of course it was the Park Ranger who introduced us to the game which is designed to teach players 'the circle of life' and ecosystem structure. I have to say, it was quite an experience to sit in the quieted cafeteria of a ship cursing, laughing, and shouting things such as “My shrew wants to eat your preying-insect!” over a card game in which the desired card was ‘Fungi’.
I saw my Grandma on the ferry as well, and had dinner with her. Both of us, worn travelers, were abnormally anxious about the journey ahead. I was on my way to a foreign nation for what may very well become the adventure of a lifetime; she was on her way to see my Grandpa who had been medivacced from Skagway only days before and was now hospitalized in Juneau. I believe that she, my mom, and I have a lot in common.
When we arrived in Juneau, Forest (another amazing coach…but kind of crazy) and Alex picked us up from the ferry terminal. So day 1 of adventuring is complete, and it’s about 2:15 am. I guess I should go to sleep and get at least 3 hours of sleep before the flight tomorrow.
But so far the road has been a little bumpy.
There exsists three ways to exit the city of Skagway and reach Seattle (where our flight-venture would begin) 1) Drive out the Alaskan Highway, over the pass, through Canada and down to Washington 2) Take off from the mile long landing strip on a good ol', six-seater, bush plane and fly down the canal to Juneau and catch a direct flight from there to seattle, or 3) Depart by sea and take a 6 hour Ferry boat to Juneau and catch the flight. Because it was late fall, and the reliability of the first two options depended greatly on weather conditions, our group (the appointed female chaperone--Jacqueline, Erica, Mr. Fielding, and me) opted for choice 3, which scheduled us to depart at 6 p.m. today.
I had to stay after school to finish a 'Beowulf’ final for English class, while Erica was rushing wildly around the high school, in and out of the English room, gathering homework, arguing with teachers, and just generally preparing for the journey we were about to undertake. By 4 p.m. (our school lets out at 2:30) my hand was sore and cramped. Words, thoughts, answers came to my mind and fleeted away again before I had a chance to fully write them down. As time ticked by, I became overwhelmingly anxious and flustered-- so I decided to SKIP the end of my English final in order to make photocopies of my other school text books, which I needed to make up homework while in the RMI. Haha…yea…that can’t ever happen again during my high school career. Mr. Fielding, my dedicated coach and teacher, was...unimpressed...to say the least. Anyway, at 5 p.m., an hour and a half after my test-fiasco, Mr. Fielding, Jacqueline, Erica, and I boarded the ferry and officially departed Skagway, tackling the first 100 of the 6,000 miles between Alaska and the RMI. The six hours it took to traverse those 100 miles by boat were painfully long and plagued by mild sea-sickness.
Luckily, we were able to entertain ourselves with a card game which Jacqueline taught Erica and me, entitled “The Food Chain Game”. Of course it was the Park Ranger who introduced us to the game which is designed to teach players 'the circle of life' and ecosystem structure. I have to say, it was quite an experience to sit in the quieted cafeteria of a ship cursing, laughing, and shouting things such as “My shrew wants to eat your preying-insect!” over a card game in which the desired card was ‘Fungi’.
I saw my Grandma on the ferry as well, and had dinner with her. Both of us, worn travelers, were abnormally anxious about the journey ahead. I was on my way to a foreign nation for what may very well become the adventure of a lifetime; she was on her way to see my Grandpa who had been medivacced from Skagway only days before and was now hospitalized in Juneau. I believe that she, my mom, and I have a lot in common.
When we arrived in Juneau, Forest (another amazing coach…but kind of crazy) and Alex picked us up from the ferry terminal. So day 1 of adventuring is complete, and it’s about 2:15 am. I guess I should go to sleep and get at least 3 hours of sleep before the flight tomorrow.
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