Sunset on the lagoon during spelling bee.
A group of the Delap SDA 6th graders, including the 2nd place finishers from the bee.
Dusk at Robert Reimers resort.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
April 25 Sabbath: First a few more notes from Friday. I had planned to go to MIR where I could use the internet for the afternoon, but never made it, mainly because the two weeks leading up to May 1, which is Constitution Day for the Marshall Islands, are filled with track & field, games, spelling bees, essay contests, etc for all the students and the schools compete for various recognition. I got invited to watch the 4th and 5th graders participate in a tug of war competition. Lots of students were waiting in a field when we arrived and the ropes were there (with some eager students practicing), but no other adults (and no judge). We had also brought a frisbee, a volleyball,and a football for while we waited. Cameron actually had to leave to bring some of the older kids over to the public high school for some indoor events. I waited at the field throwing a frisbee around with a bunch of random kids. The biggest challenge is to make sure each kids gets thrown to in a fairly even distribution, even the littlest guys that really can't throw it back. They are so happy just to be included. The tug of war never took place, which meant a lot of disappointed 4th and 5th graders, but eventually Cameron came back and we did do a couple pulls with all the kids that were still hanging around. And we also had a few girls versus boys challenges (there were quite a few more girls than boys and they won two out of three that way)
Then we did a Jambo with as many kids as would fit in the pickup, dropping many of them at their homes before bringing the rest back to the school. There was still plenty of time before sundown, so Cameron and I went to the bridge to jump. The tide was fairly high but heading out, so there was a decent current flowing out of the lagoon into the ocean. That just meant we had to jump in on the lagoon side and swim to the edge quite quickly. I don't think the jump was more than 20 ft, but it was a lot of fun. We only did it a couple times each, then some other people showed up at the jetty, including some parents of students at the school, and Cameron thought it might not be showing the best example to be doing that. I can understand that. Apparently it is only us crazy white foreigners that ever jump off the bridge.
Vespers was a song service and a short talk by one of the high school students and then a rare early to bed night.
So Sabbath after church, Linzi, Carli, Matt, Junior, Tarzan, Cameron, another boy and I had lunch together. We made breakfast burrito type things and it was funny to watch the Marshallese boys eat those for the first time. Very suspicious at first. Matt has been suffering from an ear infection for the last few days and cannot hear anything unless you speak up quite a bit, so his week of teaching was rather rough. He is on antibiotics, but had not really noticed any improvement yet. Linzi had been sick for a few days last week and her students were complaining about missing Art class with her. Some of us played Denarii, a Bible based trivia game, after eating. Then I read for awhile and took a nap for an hour. After evening vespers, Daniel, Cameron and I went to Youth to Youth house to play some ping pong, but when we arrived they were locking up the building an hour early. Someone had smashed the last ping pong ball they had and that ended the evening. Cameron had an extra ball with him and donated it to them, but they still closed early. No matter, there is always something to do. We went back to the school and played a couple games of volleyball in the gym. Cameron kept playing and I made the mistake of picking up one of the littlest kids and swinging her around in a circle. Instantly I had ten other little ones at my legs, each begging for a turn. I had to keep that up for almost an hour and a half, putting one on my shoulders and carrying another one upside down while I ran a lap around the gym, twirling them around, flipping them, pretending to lower them head first into a large trash barrel, etc. Again the main challenge it to make sure you are spreading the turns around, because they have a hard time 'sharing' and they all need 'just one more, please Mr Autin'. After a while most of them had to go home and I was left tossing a volleyball to two little girls. Back at Cameron's we played a game of Scrabble with Matt and then watched “Nothing But The Truth”, a movie I had not heard of before (could be fairly new) that dealt primarily with 1st Amendment rights, the protections journalists have regarding unnamed sources, and the power of the executive branch to disregard those rights. It was 'inspired' by actual events, but was not based on any particular instance. There were strong ties to Bush's justifications for invading Iraq, the jailing of witnesses (who refused to testify or reveal sources) during the recent Congressional investigation into steroid use in baseball, and the general erosion of our freedoms since 9-11 under the guise of 'safety'.
April 26 Sunday: Slept in until 9 then got up, refilled our filtered water supply, got some laundry started and planned to go out to the island of Enemanot with the Hawaiians. We made macaroni and cheese again (using it up, now I've had enough for a while) and while we were doing that Cameron found out that the group of kids he had planned on bringing could not come after all. That turned out to be a blessing. We were running short on time and gave Daniel, Jezriel, and a few of the Filipino contingent a ride over to CMI (College of the Marshall Islands) and headed for the dock. Nobody was there, and the boat was still tied up off shore. Larry had apparently already left with a smaller boat and after waiting half an hour (and not being able to get in touch with any of the regulars) we went home. So Cameron made a few more phone calls and a Taiwanese friend of his wanted to meet us at the jetty to swim in the ocean. I'm not a strong swimmer, but I had a lot of fun. There are several ladders attached to the jetty and as long as you time it right you do not get battered too much against the rocks. And it really is a good workout; you can essentially stay in one position swimming against the current and whenever you get tired move over a few meters and stand on a shelf of coral. There are a few rocks you can climb on and jump into the big waves as they approach. From a few spots you can also jump straight off the jetty when the right sized wave comes through. The coral is not very forgiving to human flesh though and I have several cuts and scrapes on my feet and ankles and a black toe where I stubbed it against a rock and burst a few blood vessels. Nothing serious.
Cameron's Taiwanese friend Sophie, brought watermelon. There is a Taiwanese Technical Institute on the island and one of their main projects is a large teaching garden. The watermelon came from there and it was a very good one. Afterwards, they wanted to watch Amadeus, a film I have already seen and had no pressing desire to see again, so I went to use the internet and then walked home between rain showers.
April 27 Monday: A couple things happened today. First, Liam, who I mentioned in earlier notes, booked himself a flight home. Even though he was being disciplined, they had not planned on sending him back. Of course I do not know the whole situation, but from my brief contact with him, he generates a feeling of hostility all around him and if he has been that way all year, it is no wonder there have been problems. So we took him to the airport at 2 pm and we also brought Isabelle, one of the dogs that roam the school's property. A former SM had gotten the paperwork taken care of to have her shipped to Hawaii for quarantine and eventual emancipation to the mainland US. But of course it is never as simple as it could be and the baggage handlers required us to buy a can of dog food and tape it to the outside of the kennel and do a few other hoop jumps. That taken care of we went to event two for the day: the island wide fifth grade spelling bee. This is one of the events related to the festivities building up to Constitution Day on May 1. There were 13 schools participating from Delap, Uliga, Rita, Luara, Ajeltake, Long Island, Woja and Rairak and included public schools, Catholic, Baptist, LDS, SDA and Cooperative schools. Each team consisted of three students who worked together to come up with the spelling of the words. The first four rounds were moderated by a Marshallese woman from the Dept of Education and she had quite a bit of difficulty pronouncing the words herself. This was definitely an additional hurdle and cost several teams points. After a few complaints, a different member of the Dept of Ed moderated the rest of the rounds and things improved dramatically. The teams were under a three strikes and you are out format, with the top three teams earning cash prizes $100, 75, and 50 respectively. The tournament started just after 3:30 and after three and a half hours we were down to four teams. That can partially be chalked up to the generous three strikes, but also to the diligence of the students. Another half hour and we had Rita Baptist winning, with Delap SDA taking third. Collywobbles was the winning word. Even my spell checker as I type this isn't sure about that one, but I know it is spelled correctly, although I thought it was typically TWO words. We took the three team members and their teacher, Kari, and got a couple pizzas and then ice cream and brought them to their homes.
As soon as we arrived back at the school Toshiro and Junior were waiting and said we had to leave right away to attend his uncle's birthday party. So that is were we ended up. I was already full from the pizza and ice cream, but Cameron (who ended up giving his ice cream to another kid) got some more food and ice cream. There were 50 people, mostly kids, in a small house, to celebrate Toshiro's uncle's 53rd birthday. He is the fourth of the 17 kids I mentioned before after talking to Toshiro's mom. A ukulele was passed around and a large number of people played a song as it got to them. Then several people made speeches and toasts to the man of the hour and they sang a traditional island birthday song as we each went up to him, shook his hand and put money in a bucket for him.
April 28 Tuesday: I finished John Grisham's The Runaway Jury today just before the 6th Grade Spelling Bee. Delap SDA was one of 12 schools competing. After three hours and I lost count of how many rounds, Delap took second place behind Rita Baptist School. This edition of the spelling bee was a vast improvement over yesterdays, primarily because they had a native English speaking member of the Ministry of Education reading off the words and sample sentences. The first several rounds used words from a list that all the schools had been given to practice with. After that it was a free for all and some of the words I was amazed were spelled correctly. A rather impressive thing to witness. Concierge, fluorescent, synonym, and chronological were some of the words at the end (all spelled correctly). I missed the final words because I was getting some pictures of an incredible sunset from a nearby pier on the lagoon. This time the parents of the kids from the team were there so we did not take them out for pizza; they already had plans, but we took 5 of the other kids and got soft serve.
Back at the school Cameron had a board meeting, so I cooked pigs in a blanket and made some brown rice with broccoli. Then I did some more reading before sleep called to me.
April 29 Wednesday: After a quick midmorning trip to EZPrice for some supplies for the school, I hung out and started reading The Chamber by John Grisham. One of the SM's, Scott, brought most of Grisham's books and I've borrowed a couple. Each store has one type of most products and usually only a handful of cans or boxes of that item. In some ways I imagine this is what it was like in the Soviet Union before the borders were greatly relaxed. The difference being if you know which store carries the brand you want, you can get just about anything. Now the old man on the bus does not seem quite as eccentric. He just knew where what he wanted was. Another little incident out here reminded me of riding a city bus in SF while the driver read a newspaper propped up on the steering wheel. I did not like that. The other day we took a ride where a passenger was playing ukulele and it was out of tune. So he handed it to the driver who calmly tuned and played the uke, while continuing to drive the whole time. Safety first!
At one we will be heading out to the 4th grade spelling bee, which will be in Marshallese. This should be an adventure for everyone involved. Marshallese is still in its early stages as a written language, and much like written English before things got standardized with printing presses, you can spell many things however you feel like. The main greeting for example, Jokwe, is also spelled iakwe and no one bats an eye. One SM mentioned that he showed his word list (for the fourth graders) to some of the eight graders and they did not know how to spell most of the words.
Then we did a Jambo with as many kids as would fit in the pickup, dropping many of them at their homes before bringing the rest back to the school. There was still plenty of time before sundown, so Cameron and I went to the bridge to jump. The tide was fairly high but heading out, so there was a decent current flowing out of the lagoon into the ocean. That just meant we had to jump in on the lagoon side and swim to the edge quite quickly. I don't think the jump was more than 20 ft, but it was a lot of fun. We only did it a couple times each, then some other people showed up at the jetty, including some parents of students at the school, and Cameron thought it might not be showing the best example to be doing that. I can understand that. Apparently it is only us crazy white foreigners that ever jump off the bridge.
Vespers was a song service and a short talk by one of the high school students and then a rare early to bed night.
So Sabbath after church, Linzi, Carli, Matt, Junior, Tarzan, Cameron, another boy and I had lunch together. We made breakfast burrito type things and it was funny to watch the Marshallese boys eat those for the first time. Very suspicious at first. Matt has been suffering from an ear infection for the last few days and cannot hear anything unless you speak up quite a bit, so his week of teaching was rather rough. He is on antibiotics, but had not really noticed any improvement yet. Linzi had been sick for a few days last week and her students were complaining about missing Art class with her. Some of us played Denarii, a Bible based trivia game, after eating. Then I read for awhile and took a nap for an hour. After evening vespers, Daniel, Cameron and I went to Youth to Youth house to play some ping pong, but when we arrived they were locking up the building an hour early. Someone had smashed the last ping pong ball they had and that ended the evening. Cameron had an extra ball with him and donated it to them, but they still closed early. No matter, there is always something to do. We went back to the school and played a couple games of volleyball in the gym. Cameron kept playing and I made the mistake of picking up one of the littlest kids and swinging her around in a circle. Instantly I had ten other little ones at my legs, each begging for a turn. I had to keep that up for almost an hour and a half, putting one on my shoulders and carrying another one upside down while I ran a lap around the gym, twirling them around, flipping them, pretending to lower them head first into a large trash barrel, etc. Again the main challenge it to make sure you are spreading the turns around, because they have a hard time 'sharing' and they all need 'just one more, please Mr Autin'. After a while most of them had to go home and I was left tossing a volleyball to two little girls. Back at Cameron's we played a game of Scrabble with Matt and then watched “Nothing But The Truth”, a movie I had not heard of before (could be fairly new) that dealt primarily with 1st Amendment rights, the protections journalists have regarding unnamed sources, and the power of the executive branch to disregard those rights. It was 'inspired' by actual events, but was not based on any particular instance. There were strong ties to Bush's justifications for invading Iraq, the jailing of witnesses (who refused to testify or reveal sources) during the recent Congressional investigation into steroid use in baseball, and the general erosion of our freedoms since 9-11 under the guise of 'safety'.
April 26 Sunday: Slept in until 9 then got up, refilled our filtered water supply, got some laundry started and planned to go out to the island of Enemanot with the Hawaiians. We made macaroni and cheese again (using it up, now I've had enough for a while) and while we were doing that Cameron found out that the group of kids he had planned on bringing could not come after all. That turned out to be a blessing. We were running short on time and gave Daniel, Jezriel, and a few of the Filipino contingent a ride over to CMI (College of the Marshall Islands) and headed for the dock. Nobody was there, and the boat was still tied up off shore. Larry had apparently already left with a smaller boat and after waiting half an hour (and not being able to get in touch with any of the regulars) we went home. So Cameron made a few more phone calls and a Taiwanese friend of his wanted to meet us at the jetty to swim in the ocean. I'm not a strong swimmer, but I had a lot of fun. There are several ladders attached to the jetty and as long as you time it right you do not get battered too much against the rocks. And it really is a good workout; you can essentially stay in one position swimming against the current and whenever you get tired move over a few meters and stand on a shelf of coral. There are a few rocks you can climb on and jump into the big waves as they approach. From a few spots you can also jump straight off the jetty when the right sized wave comes through. The coral is not very forgiving to human flesh though and I have several cuts and scrapes on my feet and ankles and a black toe where I stubbed it against a rock and burst a few blood vessels. Nothing serious.
Cameron's Taiwanese friend Sophie, brought watermelon. There is a Taiwanese Technical Institute on the island and one of their main projects is a large teaching garden. The watermelon came from there and it was a very good one. Afterwards, they wanted to watch Amadeus, a film I have already seen and had no pressing desire to see again, so I went to use the internet and then walked home between rain showers.
April 27 Monday: A couple things happened today. First, Liam, who I mentioned in earlier notes, booked himself a flight home. Even though he was being disciplined, they had not planned on sending him back. Of course I do not know the whole situation, but from my brief contact with him, he generates a feeling of hostility all around him and if he has been that way all year, it is no wonder there have been problems. So we took him to the airport at 2 pm and we also brought Isabelle, one of the dogs that roam the school's property. A former SM had gotten the paperwork taken care of to have her shipped to Hawaii for quarantine and eventual emancipation to the mainland US. But of course it is never as simple as it could be and the baggage handlers required us to buy a can of dog food and tape it to the outside of the kennel and do a few other hoop jumps. That taken care of we went to event two for the day: the island wide fifth grade spelling bee. This is one of the events related to the festivities building up to Constitution Day on May 1. There were 13 schools participating from Delap, Uliga, Rita, Luara, Ajeltake, Long Island, Woja and Rairak and included public schools, Catholic, Baptist, LDS, SDA and Cooperative schools. Each team consisted of three students who worked together to come up with the spelling of the words. The first four rounds were moderated by a Marshallese woman from the Dept of Education and she had quite a bit of difficulty pronouncing the words herself. This was definitely an additional hurdle and cost several teams points. After a few complaints, a different member of the Dept of Ed moderated the rest of the rounds and things improved dramatically. The teams were under a three strikes and you are out format, with the top three teams earning cash prizes $100, 75, and 50 respectively. The tournament started just after 3:30 and after three and a half hours we were down to four teams. That can partially be chalked up to the generous three strikes, but also to the diligence of the students. Another half hour and we had Rita Baptist winning, with Delap SDA taking third. Collywobbles was the winning word. Even my spell checker as I type this isn't sure about that one, but I know it is spelled correctly, although I thought it was typically TWO words. We took the three team members and their teacher, Kari, and got a couple pizzas and then ice cream and brought them to their homes.
As soon as we arrived back at the school Toshiro and Junior were waiting and said we had to leave right away to attend his uncle's birthday party. So that is were we ended up. I was already full from the pizza and ice cream, but Cameron (who ended up giving his ice cream to another kid) got some more food and ice cream. There were 50 people, mostly kids, in a small house, to celebrate Toshiro's uncle's 53rd birthday. He is the fourth of the 17 kids I mentioned before after talking to Toshiro's mom. A ukulele was passed around and a large number of people played a song as it got to them. Then several people made speeches and toasts to the man of the hour and they sang a traditional island birthday song as we each went up to him, shook his hand and put money in a bucket for him.
April 28 Tuesday: I finished John Grisham's The Runaway Jury today just before the 6th Grade Spelling Bee. Delap SDA was one of 12 schools competing. After three hours and I lost count of how many rounds, Delap took second place behind Rita Baptist School. This edition of the spelling bee was a vast improvement over yesterdays, primarily because they had a native English speaking member of the Ministry of Education reading off the words and sample sentences. The first several rounds used words from a list that all the schools had been given to practice with. After that it was a free for all and some of the words I was amazed were spelled correctly. A rather impressive thing to witness. Concierge, fluorescent, synonym, and chronological were some of the words at the end (all spelled correctly). I missed the final words because I was getting some pictures of an incredible sunset from a nearby pier on the lagoon. This time the parents of the kids from the team were there so we did not take them out for pizza; they already had plans, but we took 5 of the other kids and got soft serve.
Back at the school Cameron had a board meeting, so I cooked pigs in a blanket and made some brown rice with broccoli. Then I did some more reading before sleep called to me.
April 29 Wednesday: After a quick midmorning trip to EZPrice for some supplies for the school, I hung out and started reading The Chamber by John Grisham. One of the SM's, Scott, brought most of Grisham's books and I've borrowed a couple. Each store has one type of most products and usually only a handful of cans or boxes of that item. In some ways I imagine this is what it was like in the Soviet Union before the borders were greatly relaxed. The difference being if you know which store carries the brand you want, you can get just about anything. Now the old man on the bus does not seem quite as eccentric. He just knew where what he wanted was. Another little incident out here reminded me of riding a city bus in SF while the driver read a newspaper propped up on the steering wheel. I did not like that. The other day we took a ride where a passenger was playing ukulele and it was out of tune. So he handed it to the driver who calmly tuned and played the uke, while continuing to drive the whole time. Safety first!
At one we will be heading out to the 4th grade spelling bee, which will be in Marshallese. This should be an adventure for everyone involved. Marshallese is still in its early stages as a written language, and much like written English before things got standardized with printing presses, you can spell many things however you feel like. The main greeting for example, Jokwe, is also spelled iakwe and no one bats an eye. One SM mentioned that he showed his word list (for the fourth graders) to some of the eight graders and they did not know how to spell most of the words.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
April 21 Tuesday: I got a little more background on what has been happening at the two schools on Majuro (and part of the reason, Jim has not had much time to arrange a meeting with the Arno irooj). This morning two SM's got dropped off at the airport. They were being sent home for some undisclosed, but apparently ongoing indiscretions. That is rather disappointing this close to the end of a school year. And Cameron told me this evening they were heading up to Laura to pull a teacher at that school. This one is not being sent home, but will be brought to the Delap school where he can be supervised a little more directly. There have been a number of small, but inadequately addressed issues with this teacher and his handling of discipline in the classroom. That has resulted in the students thinking he hates them and being quite disrespectful to him in return. Not a good learning environment, so they are switching some teachers around.
Jim, Cameron, I and two other SM's, John and Scott, who wanted to Jambo, headed to Laura in the pickup at 8:30 pm. Riding in the truckbed was more enjoyable on the way out than on the way back mainly because it was not as windy and John, Scott, and I could talk audibly. John is an accounting major and Scott, while he has had a great year in Majuro, is planning to change his major from education to psychology. We talked about books, the wonderful speedbumps everywhere, my trip, their experiences over the year, on occasion getting smacked in the head by low hanging palm branches if we didn't duck in time. We also had a large box for Matt, one of the Laura SM's, from some of his friends back in the US. On arrival, Jim unloaded his stuff, since he is going to stay up there for a few days and teach the classes of the one SM we were pulling out and make sure things stabilize. We got Matt his box and he happily tore into it. It was packed with crayons, water balloons, candy, Pringles,
fish crackers, and other goodies. The campus in Laura is much smaller, but the teachers living quarters are quite nice, definitely simple, but nice. After loading all the belongings of the SM we were taking back we made the very windy return trip.
I had a rude awakening this morning, early, when the cat of the house decided she would come into my room at 1 am and pee on my leg, the mattress, and the floor. No long term damage done, but not how I hope to be woken up again any time soon.
Cameron and I took a ride over to the US Embassy mid afternoon to pick up his new passport, a rather intense process going through security, scanners, etc, then returning an item to the Formosa store, and mailing a package for one of the Laura SM's.
April 22 Wednesday Liam (the SM mentioned yesterday) skipped out on their morning meeting, so it appears he is not taking this reprimand very well. Cameron said from their conversation in the truck cab on the ride last night, Liam was sincerely bothered that the situation was happening at all. He really likes the kids and did not want to be removed. He assumes he is going to be sent home like the other two SM's a day earlier, but that is not the case. On Monday, while I had been at the Laura point, Cameron had been interviewing some of the students individually, and while they were consistent and quite unanimous, their side is very different from what Liam is telling the administrators. I know how difficult dealing with a situation like this would be for me and am glad I do not have to deal with this one. Cameron and Jim seems to work well together as a team and I am sure it will be resolved in the best interests of all involved, but it is not an easy thing.
On some lighter notes, I can now unequivocally say I understand the phrase squeal like a pig. I have lived around farm areas off and on throughout my life, but being raised Adventist, most of my farm experience has been minus piggies. Sure I've encountered them at county/state fairs and you get your standard assortment of oinks, grunts, and so on. But nothing like the distressed animal nearby my lodgings. By the sound of it the owners are getting just enough bacon off him each day for breakfast and he has an amazing set of lungs. The squeals can last nearly 90 seconds at a pop and are shrill. Yet somehow he survives to do it again day after day.
Another thing I was thinking about on my return boat ride after being left behind, was how similar being in the lagoon at night is to standing in the middle of Black Rock City at night. You are surrounded by lights off in the distance,evidence of the life and activity going on in a 360 degree ring around you. Except that now the only sound is the lapping of the waves against the boat and the small engine purring away It still was a pleasant connection to make.
Yesterday, I finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, according to Alice Walker, one of the most influential black female authors of this century. It was written in 1937 and tells the life story of a black woman, thrice married. At the beginning I assumed that the title referred to the newly freed former slaves watching God to give them justice, but it ends up being connected with a climactic hurricane and the wrath of God implied in the ensuing damage. It takes a while to get comfortable with the cadence and phonetic spelling of the conversations between characters, but it is a rewarding read when you reach the end. I appreciate the glimpse into a way of life in the Florida swamps, as I will only ever know by reading.
A Marshallese joke: Why is it safer to drive in the rain on Majuro?
Anyway, I expect we will head to Rita this evening to spend some time with the kids there. Cameron also mentioned we should go jump off the Majuro bridge. I think he needs the stress relief right now and it actually sounds like fun, but probably not tonight.
Answer: Because there are less people/animals in the street while it is raining. Komol tata
April 23 Thursday: This morning I spent two hours exploring the tide pools just off the seawall at the SDA school. Sea cucumbers, eels, many types of crabs, shrimp, snails and larger mollusks, brittle stars and various fish were among the things I discovered. And I also made a man made discovery at the beginning of my time out there: a complete scuba tank and breathing apparatus lying in a pool at the base of the sea wall. There was absolutely no one else on the beach as far as I could see in either direction. I set the equipment on a flat rock part way up the embankment and went exploring the tide pools. No one came by in the two hours I was out there, so I brought the tank, which has no markings on it to indicate ownership, back to Cameron's. It is fairly heavy and that has definitely added to the mystery of how it arrived at the location where I found it. It was low tide and about 200 feet from where the reef drops off into deeper ocean. While I have no doubt the ocean is powerful enough to push a tank like this across the top of the reef, there is no plausible way for it to have gotten to the top of the reef if it had fallen off a boat or been dropped during a dive off shore and it's location is also inexplicable if someone was walking along the beach and decided to leave it there temporarily. The hoses and apparatus attached to the tank itself shows no sign of being battered by the surf, which I feel would have had to occur if it was pushed in from further out on the reef. We went to the neighbors and asked if anyone was missing a tank or had been asked about one. All clear there, so we now have SCUBA equipment. In the afternoon, I dropped off a dvd (pirated, of course) for one of the SM's, got a flat rate postal box, replenished our macaroni and cheese supply, and picked up a few oranges. The flat rate box is so I can send a book, some shells, and most likely part of my jetboil back home. I am realizing that getting fuel for it during the trip will be futile.
Back to last night: this time there were twenty kids waiting for us at Rita and one of their moms translated when it was story time. When we arrived, a bbq was just getting started in the front yard. This was good news to Cameron and David (a teacher at the school, originally from Burma), since both had skipped lunch during their busy days. We had our songs and story time (a moral story about not stealing and how sometimes our parents and other authority figures punish or reprimand us because they love us and do not want to see us going further down a bad path than we already have, not because they hate us). The host of the house asked us to eat with them, but Cameron knew there was not enough food already prepared (bbq hot dogs, chicken and white rice). So being the spontaneous guy that he is, we ran back to the school, grabbed the stuff to make four boxes of mac and cheese and quickly returned to Rita. They already had water boiling for us and I made the mac and cheese on the kitchen floor. (see picture) With our contribution there was enough food for everyone. Most Marshallese do not use utensils for eating, but there are usually a few forks if you feel it is necessary. The kids definitely do not find them necessary. We had peanut butter twix for dessert, something that I wish they still sold in the States. I prefer these over the caramel kind. The mother of Toshiro and Kraythia, and adopted mom to Kathy, was the translator for us this evening She was telling me she comes from a family with 17 brothers and sisters and all 20 of the kids there are hers or are her nieces and nephews.
Back at the school, we played a game of Scrabble before going to bed.
April 24 Friday: Today has been a relaxing day for me. I had cereal with slices of local bananas, an orange and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, read the last 150 pages of The World According To Garp, had a macaroni salad for lunch, refilled the water jugs from the filtered water supply, listened to the happy mixed babbling of Marshallese/English coming from the playground outside the window, and watched a group of four men net fishing out on the reef as the tide was coming back in. I think I will head over to MIR this afternoon to use the internet for a while and see what is happening in the rest of the world.
PS I did not get to the internet on Friday, but we went bridge jumping for a while just before sundown. I'll try and post again tomorrow, with news from the weekend.
Jim, Cameron, I and two other SM's, John and Scott, who wanted to Jambo, headed to Laura in the pickup at 8:30 pm. Riding in the truckbed was more enjoyable on the way out than on the way back mainly because it was not as windy and John, Scott, and I could talk audibly. John is an accounting major and Scott, while he has had a great year in Majuro, is planning to change his major from education to psychology. We talked about books, the wonderful speedbumps everywhere, my trip, their experiences over the year, on occasion getting smacked in the head by low hanging palm branches if we didn't duck in time. We also had a large box for Matt, one of the Laura SM's, from some of his friends back in the US. On arrival, Jim unloaded his stuff, since he is going to stay up there for a few days and teach the classes of the one SM we were pulling out and make sure things stabilize. We got Matt his box and he happily tore into it. It was packed with crayons, water balloons, candy, Pringles,
fish crackers, and other goodies. The campus in Laura is much smaller, but the teachers living quarters are quite nice, definitely simple, but nice. After loading all the belongings of the SM we were taking back we made the very windy return trip.
I had a rude awakening this morning, early, when the cat of the house decided she would come into my room at 1 am and pee on my leg, the mattress, and the floor. No long term damage done, but not how I hope to be woken up again any time soon.
Cameron and I took a ride over to the US Embassy mid afternoon to pick up his new passport, a rather intense process going through security, scanners, etc, then returning an item to the Formosa store, and mailing a package for one of the Laura SM's.
April 22 Wednesday Liam (the SM mentioned yesterday) skipped out on their morning meeting, so it appears he is not taking this reprimand very well. Cameron said from their conversation in the truck cab on the ride last night, Liam was sincerely bothered that the situation was happening at all. He really likes the kids and did not want to be removed. He assumes he is going to be sent home like the other two SM's a day earlier, but that is not the case. On Monday, while I had been at the Laura point, Cameron had been interviewing some of the students individually, and while they were consistent and quite unanimous, their side is very different from what Liam is telling the administrators. I know how difficult dealing with a situation like this would be for me and am glad I do not have to deal with this one. Cameron and Jim seems to work well together as a team and I am sure it will be resolved in the best interests of all involved, but it is not an easy thing.
On some lighter notes, I can now unequivocally say I understand the phrase squeal like a pig. I have lived around farm areas off and on throughout my life, but being raised Adventist, most of my farm experience has been minus piggies. Sure I've encountered them at county/state fairs and you get your standard assortment of oinks, grunts, and so on. But nothing like the distressed animal nearby my lodgings. By the sound of it the owners are getting just enough bacon off him each day for breakfast and he has an amazing set of lungs. The squeals can last nearly 90 seconds at a pop and are shrill. Yet somehow he survives to do it again day after day.
Another thing I was thinking about on my return boat ride after being left behind, was how similar being in the lagoon at night is to standing in the middle of Black Rock City at night. You are surrounded by lights off in the distance,evidence of the life and activity going on in a 360 degree ring around you. Except that now the only sound is the lapping of the waves against the boat and the small engine purring away It still was a pleasant connection to make.
Yesterday, I finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, according to Alice Walker, one of the most influential black female authors of this century. It was written in 1937 and tells the life story of a black woman, thrice married. At the beginning I assumed that the title referred to the newly freed former slaves watching God to give them justice, but it ends up being connected with a climactic hurricane and the wrath of God implied in the ensuing damage. It takes a while to get comfortable with the cadence and phonetic spelling of the conversations between characters, but it is a rewarding read when you reach the end. I appreciate the glimpse into a way of life in the Florida swamps, as I will only ever know by reading.
A Marshallese joke: Why is it safer to drive in the rain on Majuro?
Anyway, I expect we will head to Rita this evening to spend some time with the kids there. Cameron also mentioned we should go jump off the Majuro bridge. I think he needs the stress relief right now and it actually sounds like fun, but probably not tonight.
Answer: Because there are less people/animals in the street while it is raining. Komol tata
April 23 Thursday: This morning I spent two hours exploring the tide pools just off the seawall at the SDA school. Sea cucumbers, eels, many types of crabs, shrimp, snails and larger mollusks, brittle stars and various fish were among the things I discovered. And I also made a man made discovery at the beginning of my time out there: a complete scuba tank and breathing apparatus lying in a pool at the base of the sea wall. There was absolutely no one else on the beach as far as I could see in either direction. I set the equipment on a flat rock part way up the embankment and went exploring the tide pools. No one came by in the two hours I was out there, so I brought the tank, which has no markings on it to indicate ownership, back to Cameron's. It is fairly heavy and that has definitely added to the mystery of how it arrived at the location where I found it. It was low tide and about 200 feet from where the reef drops off into deeper ocean. While I have no doubt the ocean is powerful enough to push a tank like this across the top of the reef, there is no plausible way for it to have gotten to the top of the reef if it had fallen off a boat or been dropped during a dive off shore and it's location is also inexplicable if someone was walking along the beach and decided to leave it there temporarily. The hoses and apparatus attached to the tank itself shows no sign of being battered by the surf, which I feel would have had to occur if it was pushed in from further out on the reef. We went to the neighbors and asked if anyone was missing a tank or had been asked about one. All clear there, so we now have SCUBA equipment. In the afternoon, I dropped off a dvd (pirated, of course) for one of the SM's, got a flat rate postal box, replenished our macaroni and cheese supply, and picked up a few oranges. The flat rate box is so I can send a book, some shells, and most likely part of my jetboil back home. I am realizing that getting fuel for it during the trip will be futile.
Back to last night: this time there were twenty kids waiting for us at Rita and one of their moms translated when it was story time. When we arrived, a bbq was just getting started in the front yard. This was good news to Cameron and David (a teacher at the school, originally from Burma), since both had skipped lunch during their busy days. We had our songs and story time (a moral story about not stealing and how sometimes our parents and other authority figures punish or reprimand us because they love us and do not want to see us going further down a bad path than we already have, not because they hate us). The host of the house asked us to eat with them, but Cameron knew there was not enough food already prepared (bbq hot dogs, chicken and white rice). So being the spontaneous guy that he is, we ran back to the school, grabbed the stuff to make four boxes of mac and cheese and quickly returned to Rita. They already had water boiling for us and I made the mac and cheese on the kitchen floor. (see picture) With our contribution there was enough food for everyone. Most Marshallese do not use utensils for eating, but there are usually a few forks if you feel it is necessary. The kids definitely do not find them necessary. We had peanut butter twix for dessert, something that I wish they still sold in the States. I prefer these over the caramel kind. The mother of Toshiro and Kraythia, and adopted mom to Kathy, was the translator for us this evening She was telling me she comes from a family with 17 brothers and sisters and all 20 of the kids there are hers or are her nieces and nephews.
Back at the school, we played a game of Scrabble before going to bed.
April 24 Friday: Today has been a relaxing day for me. I had cereal with slices of local bananas, an orange and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, read the last 150 pages of The World According To Garp, had a macaroni salad for lunch, refilled the water jugs from the filtered water supply, listened to the happy mixed babbling of Marshallese/English coming from the playground outside the window, and watched a group of four men net fishing out on the reef as the tide was coming back in. I think I will head over to MIR this afternoon to use the internet for a while and see what is happening in the rest of the world.
PS I did not get to the internet on Friday, but we went bridge jumping for a while just before sundown. I'll try and post again tomorrow, with news from the weekend.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 18 Sabbath: Matt from the Laura school came down and is staying on the other couch for the weekend as is his habit. We all got up and Matt went with a group to the beach. Cameron and I went to church. Sabbath school was late starting again, but was very good. Then between ss and church Dennis, who helps run the Diabetes Health Center did a presentation on the W from NEWSTART, which is Water. Familiar to me, but a good reminder about the benefits of drinking plenty (of water).
After a lunch that consisted of making burritos with black beans, cheese, jalapeno salsa, lettuce, imitation scallops, etc with Ramsey, Ashley, Carli, and Cameron, the SM's were talking with Cameron about their experiences for the year and a few suggestions on improving next year based on some issues that the group encountered, mostly based on SM's not really upholding the standards they agreed to when signing up to come and the issues that was creating for some of the local church members living on the island. Apparently, during the orientation some of the islanders expectations were explained and others were not and the tensions created by not having clarification on some of those things until after people had been offended was the result. I think it has a lot to do with the arrogance many other countries sense from Americans in whatever way we do things being 'the right way'. Even when it is the right way (or more enlightened or pc), we should always keep in mind that 'When in Rome, do as the Romans”. From a biblical point of view Paul said it best when he said (paraphrased) that even when we ourselves know certain things are not sins and have no bearing on our salvation, if we know that by doing those things we make life harder on our weaker brothers, we ought not to do them. Eventually Cameron suggested we make a little trip out to walk between a few of the islands off Rita point. So he and I drove out and picked up a couple 7th grade boys and did just that. The timing of the tides was about right and the water was up to just over my knees crossing over. Cameron says on a good day you can walk out to the first seven islands from Rita point. We did not do that much. I found a few beautiful shells, but of course they were occupied and I do not need them so much that I need to kill a creature for its home. I did find and keep a delicate little puffed sand dollar. I am also realizing that I will need to get some more substantial slippers as the ones I am using are wearing out already, but they are much more comfortable than I remember flip flops being in the past. Who knows? They are immensely practical here.
Vespers was a fairly long song service and then they played a trick on us. They asked everyone to move to the front of the church. After giving that a few minutes with little movement, the reason was revealed. Each row would come to the front and sing a favorite hymn or religious song for everyone else. This meant that several rows towards the back were going to be solos, since they were in rows by themselves. Actually a few people slunk out the back as the front row was doing their song. There were three of us in our row and I think we did adequately. One of the last groups had five people, but only one lady sang and she played the guitar, performing a song in Marshallese that was very beautifully rendered. Pretty much everything here is designed to be participatory and for the most part I think it is a great idea.
Just after we got back to Cameron's place a storm hit and he said it was the strongest storm he has experienced in eight months out here. The rain pounded and pounded, the wind was making itself well known, the power went out twice for periods of half an hour, one of the windows was blown out of its track (but apparently this has happened before because several nails were in place to keep it in close to normal position. We taped the windows just in case one of them shattered. There is some damage visible in a number of places, fences blown down, sheets of metal from roofs knocked off, lots of down palm branches and other debris.
There is a video rental place down the street and someone picked up Ong-Bak 2, a martial arts film starring/written/directed/choreographed by Tony Jaa. I remember hearing a number of enthusiastic reviews for the first one when it came out, but I never saw it. The funny thing to me is that every single movie at the rental store is pirated. Every dvd has the stores brand name imprinted on it and they come in a paper sleeve, but you will not find a legal copy anywhere. All the video rental places are like this here and this one specifically is part of a chain. Even the cases on the shelves have home printed covers and descriptions of the films. And based on being in that store, the marquee at the movie theater, and seeing signs at other stores, the genres of choice on the island are horror and action, especially fighting like UFC. Anyway, the movie was subtitled from the original Thai, and was a fairly typical martial arts film with plenty of over the top fight sequences and a love story wedged in for good measure. Exciting to a point, then just plain unbelievable.
April 19 Sunday
Today was an adventure. A very large group, including many children and 7 people here in the Marshall's to adopt children, went to the rim island of Enekot. The adoptors (sp?) had three babies with them and a case worker from the government to observe. Apparently, this is a popular spot for adoptions, since it is has well established connections with the US and the paperwork/time involved is thereby greatly reduced. We had plenty of time to play frisbee with hordes of kids, go swimming, toss a football around, etc. Then we had a big feast, Marshallese style. I contributed cous cous and with the big group everything was eaten. I left immediately after eating with the goal of walking around the island looking for shells. All the way to the end of the island on the lagoon side I could see back to where the group was. Once I rounded the end of the island and was on the ocean side, I was out of view. I was not carrying a watch but kept checking the position of the sun because we planned to leave about five. Well I found many intriguing things at the end of the island and all along the ocean side, including a number of shells I would have liked to keep if they hadn't been already occupied by crabs. It seems that all the most beautiful shells are occupied either by their original or secondary tenants. Emptys have not been nearly as pretty. Lots of three and four inch sea urchin spines littered the shore. There are numerous black worms or anemones or sea cucumbers, I'm not sure which. They stretch out to almost a foot, but do seem to be anchored on one end. They retract quickly when touched. I guess that is sounding more like an anemone, but it is not like any I have ever seen before. I also spotted several gray eels all between two and three feet long. They are very fast and do not wait around at all once they are aware of my presence. I tried to get a picture, but never timed it right. I did use the movie function on my camera for the first time to capture a panorama from the island and also a brittle star crawling towards water. The water was at low tide and I was only ankle deep in the tidepools that stretch almost a hundred yards offshore. So as you can imagine I was finding plenty to keep me busy. And as I neared the full lap of the island, I was slightly disturbed to not hear the sounds of the quads that the little boys are running nonstop around a track on the island interior. Then I broke into the clearing and could see across the island that the picnic area was empty and the boats were gone. Uh Oh.
My first impression was that they must have wanted to leave earlier especially with the three babies and had gotten tired of waiting for me, when they were unsure where I even was, and just left in frustration and annoyance. I walked over to near the dock and there is a family that lives there. They were having dinner (I still do not know what time it was since my watch was in my bag and it was gone with the rest of the group). They told me the boat had already left, but were unsure about how long ago that had been. I went back to the picnic area and saw that their was a half bottle of water and an unopened Pepsi, so I was not going to die of thirst, which had become my second concern. I got into one of the gazebos as a small rain shower came through. There was shade and protection from the pigs and dogs there and I could have made a night of it there, with the plan to get a boat in the morning when someone would come by. It certainly would not be cold and I could do this quite easily. As I was contemplating these options. A young man from the house by the dock came over and asked what had happened. I explained and he thought for a while. Then said he had a boat, but was not planning to go to Long Island (the main island) until morning for work at the airport. He said I could stay in his hut and we could go in the morning. That would have been fine with me, but he thought some more and said if I could pay for two gallons of gas he and his friend would take me over now. I told him I did not have any money or my cell phone, since they were in my bag, but I would promise to get him two gallons of gas. So he retrieved his boat and his friend waited with me at the dock. The guy who owned the boat was named Justin and his friend was Jonathan. They are 18 and 20 respectively and said they are the only family each of them has. We talked about a number of things: Arno (they really hoped I would get to see it), the storm (they had been drunk and missed it), how it was that I am so old and do not have any children, the jellyfish bloom that appeared as it got darker, the names of some of the islands, where I was staying, etc. All the while I was thinking, how am I going to get money for two gallons of gas. I did not have Cameron's cell number memorized. I was sure I could call the school from the dock, but they would only have the office number listed and that would not help me. I had my camera with me and was thinking I could give it to someone working at the dock as collateral to borrow some money and retrieve it the next day when I could come back with cash or maybe explain it to a taxi driver and let him hold the camera long enough to get me to the SDA school and retrieve my wallet. But finding someone with enough English to make that work was certainly iffy. I could easily walk from the dock back to the school if I could cover the gas for my rescuers and did not need to use a taxi, but it would be an option to explore.
Well all that was unnecessary. As we approached the Shoreline dock, there were Toshiro, John, Sara, and four other kids from the group. They were all excited and laughing about the whole situation. They told me it wasn't until about halfway back that Sara (who we had been playing frisbee with) asked Cameron where I was. He has thought I was on the roof of the boat with some of the other boys because his bag and mine had been brought on the boat and he assumed it was me who did that. Cameron and another man, John, had gotten another small boat and gone back to see if I was still on the island, and since it was getting dark enough by that time, we missed each other on the water. The family on the island told them I had gotten a ride and they returned, getting back just after I did. The kids had my bag, so I covered the two gallons of gas for Justin and Jonathan and they left to return home. It is just one of those situations were everything worked out in the end and was an adventure to share with everyone else. We helped dry dock John's boat and dropped him and his boat motor off at his house. The kids wanted to Jambo (cruise around in the back of the pickup) for a while and we did, eventually dropping them off at their homes and heading back to the school ourselves.
This morning (Monday) Cameron and I got up early and left for Laura at 7am. He had a couple meetings at the Laura school. When we arrived, he did what he had to do and I walked out to the Laura point with more time to explore. I got a picture of a thatch house and some of the first gardens I have seen here, They were large and well maintained. I think based on Cameron's info, they are a side project of a Baptist couple that runs a school very near the gardens. It was good to see them flourishing. At Laura point I paid my dollar to be on the property and not wanting to miss my ride again, took careful note of the time and alloted a half an hour to walk along the lagoon side of the beach, then return and do the same thing on the ocean side and get back to the center close to when Cameron would be ready to pick me up. Again, I was fortunate to hit it at fairly low tide and it was through gentle lapping waves that I made my way along the lagoon. There were few striking shells, although the further I got from the point itself the more I did see. I found a very nice puffed sand dollar, about twice the size of the one I found before. They are so delicate compared to almost every other shell or object on the beach I am amazed any of them survive to be found intact. Extremely light, an almost paper thin shell and lacework-like patterning on the face. Aside from that find, my hour on the lagoon side had been a disappointment in shells, but extremely tranquil as I was the sole entity on the beach. Once I started on the ocean side I almost immediately began finding large shells. That may seem counter intuitive (it was to me at first), since we would expect more pounding waves and the rough corral reef to break most of them up. But the break point is nearly a quarter mile out from the beach and what actually hits the beach is closer to the waves in a bath tub. The problem again is that many of the fanciest shells still have mollusks inside, so they stay in the tidepools, but this time I did find a number of keepers and most were much larger than I've encountered up to this point anywhere else.
I got back to my pickup point right on time and had to wait a little while for Cameron to arrive. I had “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and read a chapter from that, but then Isaiah, a 25 year old from nearby came over and wanted to talk, make sure I was okay, etc. There was a group of them heading out to do some spearfishing. He waited with me until Cameron arrived. At the airport is a sign saying the Marshallese are the friendliest people in Micronesia and so far that has been very true (I can't compare against any other Micronesians, but the Marshallese are very helpful and friendly). On the way back from Laura, I took some video of the landscape, the narrowness of the island, passing techniques, a school getting out, etc. The video files are too big for me to attempt to load here. Maybe in Guam We also stopped and got some ice cream (first time since leaving the states – it was good and very fast melting in the heat) and later stopped again so I could try Green Milk Tea with Bubbles. The bubbles are actually solid balls in the drink that most closely resembled gummy bears in taste and texture. It was a mildly sweet tasting drink and something I would definitely try again. After getting back Cameron had to be in the admin office and I have been jotting down my notes from the past couple days. Now I just need to make a trip over to MIR and get this posted.
I also need to spend some time learning to break my notes into smaller paragraphs, but that can wait....
After a lunch that consisted of making burritos with black beans, cheese, jalapeno salsa, lettuce, imitation scallops, etc with Ramsey, Ashley, Carli, and Cameron, the SM's were talking with Cameron about their experiences for the year and a few suggestions on improving next year based on some issues that the group encountered, mostly based on SM's not really upholding the standards they agreed to when signing up to come and the issues that was creating for some of the local church members living on the island. Apparently, during the orientation some of the islanders expectations were explained and others were not and the tensions created by not having clarification on some of those things until after people had been offended was the result. I think it has a lot to do with the arrogance many other countries sense from Americans in whatever way we do things being 'the right way'. Even when it is the right way (or more enlightened or pc), we should always keep in mind that 'When in Rome, do as the Romans”. From a biblical point of view Paul said it best when he said (paraphrased) that even when we ourselves know certain things are not sins and have no bearing on our salvation, if we know that by doing those things we make life harder on our weaker brothers, we ought not to do them. Eventually Cameron suggested we make a little trip out to walk between a few of the islands off Rita point. So he and I drove out and picked up a couple 7th grade boys and did just that. The timing of the tides was about right and the water was up to just over my knees crossing over. Cameron says on a good day you can walk out to the first seven islands from Rita point. We did not do that much. I found a few beautiful shells, but of course they were occupied and I do not need them so much that I need to kill a creature for its home. I did find and keep a delicate little puffed sand dollar. I am also realizing that I will need to get some more substantial slippers as the ones I am using are wearing out already, but they are much more comfortable than I remember flip flops being in the past. Who knows? They are immensely practical here.
Vespers was a fairly long song service and then they played a trick on us. They asked everyone to move to the front of the church. After giving that a few minutes with little movement, the reason was revealed. Each row would come to the front and sing a favorite hymn or religious song for everyone else. This meant that several rows towards the back were going to be solos, since they were in rows by themselves. Actually a few people slunk out the back as the front row was doing their song. There were three of us in our row and I think we did adequately. One of the last groups had five people, but only one lady sang and she played the guitar, performing a song in Marshallese that was very beautifully rendered. Pretty much everything here is designed to be participatory and for the most part I think it is a great idea.
Just after we got back to Cameron's place a storm hit and he said it was the strongest storm he has experienced in eight months out here. The rain pounded and pounded, the wind was making itself well known, the power went out twice for periods of half an hour, one of the windows was blown out of its track (but apparently this has happened before because several nails were in place to keep it in close to normal position. We taped the windows just in case one of them shattered. There is some damage visible in a number of places, fences blown down, sheets of metal from roofs knocked off, lots of down palm branches and other debris.
There is a video rental place down the street and someone picked up Ong-Bak 2, a martial arts film starring/written/directed/choreographed by Tony Jaa. I remember hearing a number of enthusiastic reviews for the first one when it came out, but I never saw it. The funny thing to me is that every single movie at the rental store is pirated. Every dvd has the stores brand name imprinted on it and they come in a paper sleeve, but you will not find a legal copy anywhere. All the video rental places are like this here and this one specifically is part of a chain. Even the cases on the shelves have home printed covers and descriptions of the films. And based on being in that store, the marquee at the movie theater, and seeing signs at other stores, the genres of choice on the island are horror and action, especially fighting like UFC. Anyway, the movie was subtitled from the original Thai, and was a fairly typical martial arts film with plenty of over the top fight sequences and a love story wedged in for good measure. Exciting to a point, then just plain unbelievable.
April 19 Sunday
Today was an adventure. A very large group, including many children and 7 people here in the Marshall's to adopt children, went to the rim island of Enekot. The adoptors (sp?) had three babies with them and a case worker from the government to observe. Apparently, this is a popular spot for adoptions, since it is has well established connections with the US and the paperwork/time involved is thereby greatly reduced. We had plenty of time to play frisbee with hordes of kids, go swimming, toss a football around, etc. Then we had a big feast, Marshallese style. I contributed cous cous and with the big group everything was eaten. I left immediately after eating with the goal of walking around the island looking for shells. All the way to the end of the island on the lagoon side I could see back to where the group was. Once I rounded the end of the island and was on the ocean side, I was out of view. I was not carrying a watch but kept checking the position of the sun because we planned to leave about five. Well I found many intriguing things at the end of the island and all along the ocean side, including a number of shells I would have liked to keep if they hadn't been already occupied by crabs. It seems that all the most beautiful shells are occupied either by their original or secondary tenants. Emptys have not been nearly as pretty. Lots of three and four inch sea urchin spines littered the shore. There are numerous black worms or anemones or sea cucumbers, I'm not sure which. They stretch out to almost a foot, but do seem to be anchored on one end. They retract quickly when touched. I guess that is sounding more like an anemone, but it is not like any I have ever seen before. I also spotted several gray eels all between two and three feet long. They are very fast and do not wait around at all once they are aware of my presence. I tried to get a picture, but never timed it right. I did use the movie function on my camera for the first time to capture a panorama from the island and also a brittle star crawling towards water. The water was at low tide and I was only ankle deep in the tidepools that stretch almost a hundred yards offshore. So as you can imagine I was finding plenty to keep me busy. And as I neared the full lap of the island, I was slightly disturbed to not hear the sounds of the quads that the little boys are running nonstop around a track on the island interior. Then I broke into the clearing and could see across the island that the picnic area was empty and the boats were gone. Uh Oh.
My first impression was that they must have wanted to leave earlier especially with the three babies and had gotten tired of waiting for me, when they were unsure where I even was, and just left in frustration and annoyance. I walked over to near the dock and there is a family that lives there. They were having dinner (I still do not know what time it was since my watch was in my bag and it was gone with the rest of the group). They told me the boat had already left, but were unsure about how long ago that had been. I went back to the picnic area and saw that their was a half bottle of water and an unopened Pepsi, so I was not going to die of thirst, which had become my second concern. I got into one of the gazebos as a small rain shower came through. There was shade and protection from the pigs and dogs there and I could have made a night of it there, with the plan to get a boat in the morning when someone would come by. It certainly would not be cold and I could do this quite easily. As I was contemplating these options. A young man from the house by the dock came over and asked what had happened. I explained and he thought for a while. Then said he had a boat, but was not planning to go to Long Island (the main island) until morning for work at the airport. He said I could stay in his hut and we could go in the morning. That would have been fine with me, but he thought some more and said if I could pay for two gallons of gas he and his friend would take me over now. I told him I did not have any money or my cell phone, since they were in my bag, but I would promise to get him two gallons of gas. So he retrieved his boat and his friend waited with me at the dock. The guy who owned the boat was named Justin and his friend was Jonathan. They are 18 and 20 respectively and said they are the only family each of them has. We talked about a number of things: Arno (they really hoped I would get to see it), the storm (they had been drunk and missed it), how it was that I am so old and do not have any children, the jellyfish bloom that appeared as it got darker, the names of some of the islands, where I was staying, etc. All the while I was thinking, how am I going to get money for two gallons of gas. I did not have Cameron's cell number memorized. I was sure I could call the school from the dock, but they would only have the office number listed and that would not help me. I had my camera with me and was thinking I could give it to someone working at the dock as collateral to borrow some money and retrieve it the next day when I could come back with cash or maybe explain it to a taxi driver and let him hold the camera long enough to get me to the SDA school and retrieve my wallet. But finding someone with enough English to make that work was certainly iffy. I could easily walk from the dock back to the school if I could cover the gas for my rescuers and did not need to use a taxi, but it would be an option to explore.
Well all that was unnecessary. As we approached the Shoreline dock, there were Toshiro, John, Sara, and four other kids from the group. They were all excited and laughing about the whole situation. They told me it wasn't until about halfway back that Sara (who we had been playing frisbee with) asked Cameron where I was. He has thought I was on the roof of the boat with some of the other boys because his bag and mine had been brought on the boat and he assumed it was me who did that. Cameron and another man, John, had gotten another small boat and gone back to see if I was still on the island, and since it was getting dark enough by that time, we missed each other on the water. The family on the island told them I had gotten a ride and they returned, getting back just after I did. The kids had my bag, so I covered the two gallons of gas for Justin and Jonathan and they left to return home. It is just one of those situations were everything worked out in the end and was an adventure to share with everyone else. We helped dry dock John's boat and dropped him and his boat motor off at his house. The kids wanted to Jambo (cruise around in the back of the pickup) for a while and we did, eventually dropping them off at their homes and heading back to the school ourselves.
This morning (Monday) Cameron and I got up early and left for Laura at 7am. He had a couple meetings at the Laura school. When we arrived, he did what he had to do and I walked out to the Laura point with more time to explore. I got a picture of a thatch house and some of the first gardens I have seen here, They were large and well maintained. I think based on Cameron's info, they are a side project of a Baptist couple that runs a school very near the gardens. It was good to see them flourishing. At Laura point I paid my dollar to be on the property and not wanting to miss my ride again, took careful note of the time and alloted a half an hour to walk along the lagoon side of the beach, then return and do the same thing on the ocean side and get back to the center close to when Cameron would be ready to pick me up. Again, I was fortunate to hit it at fairly low tide and it was through gentle lapping waves that I made my way along the lagoon. There were few striking shells, although the further I got from the point itself the more I did see. I found a very nice puffed sand dollar, about twice the size of the one I found before. They are so delicate compared to almost every other shell or object on the beach I am amazed any of them survive to be found intact. Extremely light, an almost paper thin shell and lacework-like patterning on the face. Aside from that find, my hour on the lagoon side had been a disappointment in shells, but extremely tranquil as I was the sole entity on the beach. Once I started on the ocean side I almost immediately began finding large shells. That may seem counter intuitive (it was to me at first), since we would expect more pounding waves and the rough corral reef to break most of them up. But the break point is nearly a quarter mile out from the beach and what actually hits the beach is closer to the waves in a bath tub. The problem again is that many of the fanciest shells still have mollusks inside, so they stay in the tidepools, but this time I did find a number of keepers and most were much larger than I've encountered up to this point anywhere else.
I got back to my pickup point right on time and had to wait a little while for Cameron to arrive. I had “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and read a chapter from that, but then Isaiah, a 25 year old from nearby came over and wanted to talk, make sure I was okay, etc. There was a group of them heading out to do some spearfishing. He waited with me until Cameron arrived. At the airport is a sign saying the Marshallese are the friendliest people in Micronesia and so far that has been very true (I can't compare against any other Micronesians, but the Marshallese are very helpful and friendly). On the way back from Laura, I took some video of the landscape, the narrowness of the island, passing techniques, a school getting out, etc. The video files are too big for me to attempt to load here. Maybe in Guam We also stopped and got some ice cream (first time since leaving the states – it was good and very fast melting in the heat) and later stopped again so I could try Green Milk Tea with Bubbles. The bubbles are actually solid balls in the drink that most closely resembled gummy bears in taste and texture. It was a mildly sweet tasting drink and something I would definitely try again. After getting back Cameron had to be in the admin office and I have been jotting down my notes from the past couple days. Now I just need to make a trip over to MIR and get this posted.
I also need to spend some time learning to break my notes into smaller paragraphs, but that can wait....
April 17th: Friday
Wednesday evening I went with Cameron and two of the teenaged boys to a house in Rita (btw, when I walked to 'Rita' and thought it was not that far, I went to a point, but it was not at Rita which is a couple miles further down, I knew the map couldn't be to scale) and we had a song service and story with about 17 kids anywhere from 3 to 16 years old. After, on the way back we stopped at a community hall that has a open ping pong table and played a few games. Cameron is pretty good and some of the locals are extremely good. They have a lot of time to practice. Which is better than watching a lot of tv. Cable tv is available but it is too expensive for most people to afford it, and that translates into the hordes of kids and people mingling on the streets in the afternoons and evenings, playing volleyball, or any other game and just spending time together. I talked with Matt, the guy who will be teaching the scuba class and he has enough interested people to do two classes, which is good because normally he does a eight week program, but since I only have until May 13, he is setting up an accelerated course.
Thursday was overcast all day. I made arrangements to move over to the SDA school and took half of my stuff over there. I'll check out of the FlameTree Friday. We still have not gotten word of when we can meet with the irooj from Arno, so I'm treading water on that right now. We went to a Taiwanese restaurant this evening and had some really good food – mushrooms, vegetables, rice, cabbage and wasabi. Then stayed at the ping pong place until closing at 9pm. We played a game of Scrabble before I headed home for the night.
Today, I checked out of FlameTree, moved my stuff over to the Delap school, had another really good lunch at the Diabetes Wellness Center, got a smoothie at MIR while posting my last set of notes, traded four of my finished books for a few new ones (The World According to Garp by John Irving and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy), played with a kitten, listened to a sermon by Tim Mitchell, wrote out these notes, made couscous and am now headed to evening vespers. I'm glad for another sabbath.
Wednesday evening I went with Cameron and two of the teenaged boys to a house in Rita (btw, when I walked to 'Rita' and thought it was not that far, I went to a point, but it was not at Rita which is a couple miles further down, I knew the map couldn't be to scale) and we had a song service and story with about 17 kids anywhere from 3 to 16 years old. After, on the way back we stopped at a community hall that has a open ping pong table and played a few games. Cameron is pretty good and some of the locals are extremely good. They have a lot of time to practice. Which is better than watching a lot of tv. Cable tv is available but it is too expensive for most people to afford it, and that translates into the hordes of kids and people mingling on the streets in the afternoons and evenings, playing volleyball, or any other game and just spending time together. I talked with Matt, the guy who will be teaching the scuba class and he has enough interested people to do two classes, which is good because normally he does a eight week program, but since I only have until May 13, he is setting up an accelerated course.
Thursday was overcast all day. I made arrangements to move over to the SDA school and took half of my stuff over there. I'll check out of the FlameTree Friday. We still have not gotten word of when we can meet with the irooj from Arno, so I'm treading water on that right now. We went to a Taiwanese restaurant this evening and had some really good food – mushrooms, vegetables, rice, cabbage and wasabi. Then stayed at the ping pong place until closing at 9pm. We played a game of Scrabble before I headed home for the night.
Today, I checked out of FlameTree, moved my stuff over to the Delap school, had another really good lunch at the Diabetes Wellness Center, got a smoothie at MIR while posting my last set of notes, traded four of my finished books for a few new ones (The World According to Garp by John Irving and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy), played with a kitten, listened to a sermon by Tim Mitchell, wrote out these notes, made couscous and am now headed to evening vespers. I'm glad for another sabbath.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
April 13: Yesterday afternoon I did get some laundry done at a little 24 hour place down the street. There are quite a few of these laundromats scattered throughout the area of Delap that I'm in. The one I was at had an atrocious movie starring Barry Pepper playing on a tv while people waited for their clothes to run their cycles and a teenager with Downs Syndrome was enraptured by the tv. Based on the warning of a couple SM's from the school, I only washed the load and did not bother with the dryers. Everything dried just fine once I was back in my room and had a chance to hang it all up. Later when I went by the resort, it was really busy and I wasn't really interested in buying food just to use their internet, BUT I walked around the property and on a balcony above the restaurant I got a good signal. I know during the day it would be beastly hot on that balcony with no shade, but in the evening with a cool breeze it was just perfect. I checked my email, posted my latest batch of notes and just as I was getting ready to head back home I got a call from Cameron. He wanted to know if I was up for a rematch of Scrabble, so I headed over to the school again, dropping off my computer at home first. Good thing too because it rained steadily while I walked over to the school and I was pretty soaked by the time I got there. The rain is warm though and it actually feels good. Even at 8:30 pm. The moon was full a few days ago and is now waning, but it makes beautiful reflections on the ocean as I approach the school. The variation between high and low tide is substantial, although I have not timed it to go explore the tide pools at the low end of that spectrum.
Brief book reviews:
The Last Juror by John Grisham 486ppg. The jacket of this includes the quote “Classic Grisham, Full of Excitement and Colorful Characters” from the Denver Post. That says it all. The characters are well fleshed out and the story stays interesting with a nice little twist at the end. It relates to a brutal murder trial in a small southern Mississippi town and the aftermath covering approximately the decade of the seventies. While it is another legal thriller, it is told from the point of view of the towns new newspaper publisher, having taken over the nearly bankrupt old county paper, and he chronicles the changes the small community was undergoing. Themes of desegregation, the death of small town businesses, the Bible belt, etc all play intertwined roles in the story.
Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams 216ppg. This is a nonfiction work by the author of The Hitchhikers Guide... in which he travels the world with a conservationist from the World Wildlife Federation to find some of the animals closest to extinction during the time period of the late 80's when the book was written. They include chapters on the White Rhino, Kakapo, Komodo Dragon, Aye Aye, Baiji Dolphin, and several others. While there is a lot of humor in the descriptions of how they made their journey to find these creatures, it is also presenting an important glimpse into the fragility of our planet and the efforts being made to try and protect some of the species at risk.
The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis 121ppg. Essentially the transcripts from three lectures CS Lewis gave on how education shapes morality and an appendix in which he brings examples of his concept of 'The Tao' as presented in the lectures. He analyzes how certain textbooks can subconsciously introduce counter productive ideas to students when the authors put more value in style over substance. He discusses how any hierarchy of beliefs by default falls back on previous beliefs
The Confession of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Green 267ppg. A fantasy in which the title character is born at the end of the 19th century with the bizarre condition of reversed aging. He comes into the world with the appearance of an elderly man and gets younger as the years go by. I mentioned this one already, since it has several similarities to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. The story primarily takes place in San Francisco and those historic tidbits made it that much better since that is my birthplace also (the author is a Bay Area native). The title comes from the fact that Max is writing down a history of his life and it is a confession because he used his condition to manipulate a number of people, including his best friend throughout his life (one of the only people to know about his condition). The memoir is a way for him to clarify for those others why he did what he did. As I said before, I did not find Max to be a particularly likable character but he comes across as an authentic one. And if you are looking for a Hollywood ending stick to Benjamin Button. Max Tivoli will not give you what you want.
Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk 333ppg. Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel prizewinning author, who has lived his entire life in Istanbul. This is both a tribute to the city as he grew up in it and an analysis of how that affects Istanbullus as a collective people. I was fairly engrossed with the first third of the book as Istanbul is a complete unknown to me and the history and descriptions were fascinating. There is a sense in which he, coming from the elite class, has a very different experience than most people in that city and as the book continued his analysis does become repetitive and he spends an enormous amount of time on the lives of four poets/authors that heavily influence him as a young writer. While I did enjoy the first third of the book, I probably would not recommend it to others, although I would still like to see some of his other work.
PastWatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card 398ppg. In an version of the future in which the past has become reviewable and modifiable a group of scientists contemplate the changes that would occur if Columbus had not been able to complete his journey to the new world. It has an interesting presentation of Columbus' singlemindedness in his belief that God had ordained him to find the East by sailing West and how determined his entire life was towards that goal.
Seeker by Jack McDevitt 373ppg. This sci fi story takes place some 9000 years in the future, where a pair of artifact hunters (they seek out old abandoned space ships for 'antiques') are brought a cup which appears to come from a fabled colony that simply vanished after declaring they would start over so far away 'even God could not find them'. Backtracking from the cup they investigate to see if the colony indeed did exist and the fame, glory, and financial rewards a discovery of that magnitude would bring. They must contend with rival salvager's, an establishment that puts them on a similar level with grave robbers, and the only known intelligent alien lifeform besides humans, the Mutes. An entertaining read.
Are You Somebody: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O'Faolain 215ppg. I picked this book up a while ago partly because the title reminded me of a Miranda July short film called (I think) “Are You The Favorite of Somebody?” which contained the intriguing way of conveying the idea that everyone is valued by someone. The book title comes from the author's experiences in public where people will think she is familiar/famous, but unsure where they recognize her from. She is an opinion columnist for The Irish Times and a writer/tv producer who grew up in an Ireland where women writers did not have much of a voice. Religious, societal, educational, and other pressures pushed women down the path of marriage and (perpetual) motherhood. Nuala's life, through a series of what she has come to see as lucky events, took a very different course. From her upbringing in a small Catholic family of nine (small for that time according to her anyway), Catholic schools, deadend jobs in London, writers circles around Oxford, the various passions in her life and her search for love, she outlines the pivotal events that shaped her and brought her to where she is today. I actually thought the afterward added for this paperback edition was the most powerful part of the book and this is one that I will keep.
Brief book reviews:
The Last Juror by John Grisham 486ppg. The jacket of this includes the quote “Classic Grisham, Full of Excitement and Colorful Characters” from the Denver Post. That says it all. The characters are well fleshed out and the story stays interesting with a nice little twist at the end. It relates to a brutal murder trial in a small southern Mississippi town and the aftermath covering approximately the decade of the seventies. While it is another legal thriller, it is told from the point of view of the towns new newspaper publisher, having taken over the nearly bankrupt old county paper, and he chronicles the changes the small community was undergoing. Themes of desegregation, the death of small town businesses, the Bible belt, etc all play intertwined roles in the story.
Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams 216ppg. This is a nonfiction work by the author of The Hitchhikers Guide... in which he travels the world with a conservationist from the World Wildlife Federation to find some of the animals closest to extinction during the time period of the late 80's when the book was written. They include chapters on the White Rhino, Kakapo, Komodo Dragon, Aye Aye, Baiji Dolphin, and several others. While there is a lot of humor in the descriptions of how they made their journey to find these creatures, it is also presenting an important glimpse into the fragility of our planet and the efforts being made to try and protect some of the species at risk.
The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis 121ppg. Essentially the transcripts from three lectures CS Lewis gave on how education shapes morality and an appendix in which he brings examples of his concept of 'The Tao' as presented in the lectures. He analyzes how certain textbooks can subconsciously introduce counter productive ideas to students when the authors put more value in style over substance. He discusses how any hierarchy of beliefs by default falls back on previous beliefs
The Confession of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Green 267ppg. A fantasy in which the title character is born at the end of the 19th century with the bizarre condition of reversed aging. He comes into the world with the appearance of an elderly man and gets younger as the years go by. I mentioned this one already, since it has several similarities to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. The story primarily takes place in San Francisco and those historic tidbits made it that much better since that is my birthplace also (the author is a Bay Area native). The title comes from the fact that Max is writing down a history of his life and it is a confession because he used his condition to manipulate a number of people, including his best friend throughout his life (one of the only people to know about his condition). The memoir is a way for him to clarify for those others why he did what he did. As I said before, I did not find Max to be a particularly likable character but he comes across as an authentic one. And if you are looking for a Hollywood ending stick to Benjamin Button. Max Tivoli will not give you what you want.
Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk 333ppg. Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel prizewinning author, who has lived his entire life in Istanbul. This is both a tribute to the city as he grew up in it and an analysis of how that affects Istanbullus as a collective people. I was fairly engrossed with the first third of the book as Istanbul is a complete unknown to me and the history and descriptions were fascinating. There is a sense in which he, coming from the elite class, has a very different experience than most people in that city and as the book continued his analysis does become repetitive and he spends an enormous amount of time on the lives of four poets/authors that heavily influence him as a young writer. While I did enjoy the first third of the book, I probably would not recommend it to others, although I would still like to see some of his other work.
PastWatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card 398ppg. In an version of the future in which the past has become reviewable and modifiable a group of scientists contemplate the changes that would occur if Columbus had not been able to complete his journey to the new world. It has an interesting presentation of Columbus' singlemindedness in his belief that God had ordained him to find the East by sailing West and how determined his entire life was towards that goal.
Seeker by Jack McDevitt 373ppg. This sci fi story takes place some 9000 years in the future, where a pair of artifact hunters (they seek out old abandoned space ships for 'antiques') are brought a cup which appears to come from a fabled colony that simply vanished after declaring they would start over so far away 'even God could not find them'. Backtracking from the cup they investigate to see if the colony indeed did exist and the fame, glory, and financial rewards a discovery of that magnitude would bring. They must contend with rival salvager's, an establishment that puts them on a similar level with grave robbers, and the only known intelligent alien lifeform besides humans, the Mutes. An entertaining read.
Are You Somebody: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O'Faolain 215ppg. I picked this book up a while ago partly because the title reminded me of a Miranda July short film called (I think) “Are You The Favorite of Somebody?” which contained the intriguing way of conveying the idea that everyone is valued by someone. The book title comes from the author's experiences in public where people will think she is familiar/famous, but unsure where they recognize her from. She is an opinion columnist for The Irish Times and a writer/tv producer who grew up in an Ireland where women writers did not have much of a voice. Religious, societal, educational, and other pressures pushed women down the path of marriage and (perpetual) motherhood. Nuala's life, through a series of what she has come to see as lucky events, took a very different course. From her upbringing in a small Catholic family of nine (small for that time according to her anyway), Catholic schools, deadend jobs in London, writers circles around Oxford, the various passions in her life and her search for love, she outlines the pivotal events that shaped her and brought her to where she is today. I actually thought the afterward added for this paperback edition was the most powerful part of the book and this is one that I will keep.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Today on the bus ride back from Laura we passed a funeral procession. There was the ambulance at the lead (which serves as a hearse on the island) and about twelve cars following, all loaded with people. There is no central cemetery on Majuro, although many churches have a small one on their grounds. What appears to be far more common is that each family has their own plot on the property they own. This is clearly evident once you leave the city and have more land around the houses. They dot the countryside, a few here and a couple over there, most are well maintained, but some will only be identifiable by the tops of the crosses or headstones poking up from the abundant plant life. The bus driver pointed out the funeral chapel and a second service was underway as we passed it. We also encountered the first car accident I have seen on the island. It was a solo crash where a car had launched off the road, over a small palm tree and into a house. With a 25 mph speed limit the damage was impressive. I do not know if there were injuries, but the police were there and the ambulance was not, so I suspect everyone survived, despite the lack of seatbelts.
The bus driver lived in Orange County for five years in the late 90's and we talked about what is going on in California now and the economy as a whole. He was clear that the islands were largely unaffected by the economic woes of the US, but he was also clearly worried that it would not stay that way. I asked him about the presence of the Japanese and other asian groups and he told me the biggest difference is that only the American's have put money into developing the Marshall's. The Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese simply siphon money from the islands and send it back to their home countries. He really misses driving in the US and seemed to like taking trips from SoCal to Oregon and Washington on I-5 with his family. Now he is limited to a 30 mile circuit from one end of the island to the other. Both buses drivers (one out to Laura and one back) said they only work as much as they feel like, so if they make one trip and feel tired, they go home, but usually they make three or four trips in a day. Everything is relaxed like that and if you happen to need a bus when all the drivers feel tired, you are on your own.
The other funny thing that happened on the buses today was on the way to Laura. One of the passengers was an elderly man. I had been told that the Laura bus is essentially an express, and doesn't make too many extra stops between the endpoints, but also had been warned that that is really up to the bus driver and that can vary tremendously. Anyway, the elderly gentlemen called for a stop shortly after we left Rita. He hobbled into a store and came back shortly with a 20 pound bag of rice. We proceeded a while and he called for another stop. This time he came back with another 20 pound bag of rice (different brand apparantly that was important). A third time he called for a stop and had the driver pull in behind an obviously abandoned gas station. There was a little shop back there and after a few minutes he was back on the bus with a sack of something. At least it was not another bag of rice. When he called for stop number four, he got out and took the one bag of rice that had a handle and his grocery sack, heading for the back of a house close to the road. I thought that this was obviously his stop and so I hopped out with the other bag of rice and followed him. He indicated for me to put it down with the other bag on a small porch and I went back to the bus. Everyone on the bus was chuckling and a minute later I realized why: here came the old man with one bag of rice and the groceries. He loaded them back into the bus and went to retrieve bag number two. Not sure what the point was of all that, but it did amuse the other passengers. I guess I should point out that the buses are really not buses. They are essentially VW minvans, although I did not pay enough attention to mark a brand (definitely not VW). So once we were all loaded up again, we continued down the road. We must have been getting close to the old man's final destination, because he was jabbering at the driver and we slowed down. The old man wanted the driver to turn right into a hedge with a tree beside it that would have scraped over the bus like one of those arms in a car wash. After two tentative attempts at this the driver balked and went a short way down the road where there was an obvious road marked. We turned here and drove in a couple hundred feet to where the man wanted to be let out. There was no way we could have gotten there by following the old man's proposed course. And this time when he got out, he got out for good. The rest of the trip up to Laura was in a uproarious bus as they all made jokes about what we had just collectively experienced. That much I could tell, even though I understood not a word of it.
The bus driver lived in Orange County for five years in the late 90's and we talked about what is going on in California now and the economy as a whole. He was clear that the islands were largely unaffected by the economic woes of the US, but he was also clearly worried that it would not stay that way. I asked him about the presence of the Japanese and other asian groups and he told me the biggest difference is that only the American's have put money into developing the Marshall's. The Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese simply siphon money from the islands and send it back to their home countries. He really misses driving in the US and seemed to like taking trips from SoCal to Oregon and Washington on I-5 with his family. Now he is limited to a 30 mile circuit from one end of the island to the other. Both buses drivers (one out to Laura and one back) said they only work as much as they feel like, so if they make one trip and feel tired, they go home, but usually they make three or four trips in a day. Everything is relaxed like that and if you happen to need a bus when all the drivers feel tired, you are on your own.
The other funny thing that happened on the buses today was on the way to Laura. One of the passengers was an elderly man. I had been told that the Laura bus is essentially an express, and doesn't make too many extra stops between the endpoints, but also had been warned that that is really up to the bus driver and that can vary tremendously. Anyway, the elderly gentlemen called for a stop shortly after we left Rita. He hobbled into a store and came back shortly with a 20 pound bag of rice. We proceeded a while and he called for another stop. This time he came back with another 20 pound bag of rice (different brand apparantly that was important). A third time he called for a stop and had the driver pull in behind an obviously abandoned gas station. There was a little shop back there and after a few minutes he was back on the bus with a sack of something. At least it was not another bag of rice. When he called for stop number four, he got out and took the one bag of rice that had a handle and his grocery sack, heading for the back of a house close to the road. I thought that this was obviously his stop and so I hopped out with the other bag of rice and followed him. He indicated for me to put it down with the other bag on a small porch and I went back to the bus. Everyone on the bus was chuckling and a minute later I realized why: here came the old man with one bag of rice and the groceries. He loaded them back into the bus and went to retrieve bag number two. Not sure what the point was of all that, but it did amuse the other passengers. I guess I should point out that the buses are really not buses. They are essentially VW minvans, although I did not pay enough attention to mark a brand (definitely not VW). So once we were all loaded up again, we continued down the road. We must have been getting close to the old man's final destination, because he was jabbering at the driver and we slowed down. The old man wanted the driver to turn right into a hedge with a tree beside it that would have scraped over the bus like one of those arms in a car wash. After two tentative attempts at this the driver balked and went a short way down the road where there was an obvious road marked. We turned here and drove in a couple hundred feet to where the man wanted to be let out. There was no way we could have gotten there by following the old man's proposed course. And this time when he got out, he got out for good. The rest of the trip up to Laura was in a uproarious bus as they all made jokes about what we had just collectively experienced. That much I could tell, even though I understood not a word of it.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April 10 Friday: The morning was spent reading under a palm tree. I had a garden burger for lunch while using the internet and listening to a group of Asians somehow tied to OPEC strategize oil policy for the islands prior to a meeting with government officials. I got a text mid afternoon to see if I would be willing to do the children's story at church tomorrow. I said sure I can do that. I went to the SDA school for vespers at 7pm. After that I hung out at Cameron's place and we watched a dvd about “The Young Age of the Earth” that presented evidence that would support the age of the earth at millenia instead of millions of years. They discussed the rapid creating of coal and oil and the conditions that would have been required to enact that on a world wide scale. An interesting side note was that the program was partially sponsored by McKee Foods, based in Tennessee, probably better known as the company behind Little Debbie. Well it turns out Debbie is Cameron's cousin. We talked about that for a bit and I told him I have a vinyl record that had a Little Debbie song as the B-side.
April 11 Saturday: Got up early today, showered, ate a breakfast of rolls with peanut butter, banana, and honey. Made a mental note that tomorrow would be a good day to get some laundry done as I am running low on clean tropical weather appropriate clothing and the long sleeve items have no chance of being worn in this weather. Reread Matthew 25 that I had picked as the source of my children's story idea and made the 15 minute walk over to the SDA church.
I arrived about 10 minutes before the theoretical start time of 9:30 for sabbath school, but as was mentioned several times last weekend, everything operates on island time and sabbath school started promptly at 10 whether anyone was ready or not. The leader for the english class after we split up is Ethiopian and I asked him afterwards if he knew Adu Worku. Of course he did, small adventist world as always. Anyway, he likes class participation and makes sure everyone gets a chance to give some input on the topic. After SS Cameron came and told me that things were a little chaotic because the Youth group were supposed to be leading out for the service and they did not realize that until slightly earlier in the morning. But I at least had the children's story covered and knew about where it would be in the service. Church is theoretically to start at 11, but since sabbath school starts late and the youth were scrambling to get a rough program assembled, it wasn't until 11:30 that we got underway. Everything proceeded smoothly once we got started. There were about 20 kids for the children's story, most of whom are young enough to not be in school yet, so their grasp of English is highly suspect, but they are eager anyway and for the most part attentive. They like raising their hands, even if they do not have any idea what you are asking about. Quite a few adults commented afterwards that they really liked my story of the talents and using pennies to make it interactive. So it was at least a little productive.
After lunch, I took a nap for an hour, listened to a Roy Ice sermon on mp3 and finished reading CS Lewis' Abolition of Man, his brief book comprised of three lectures on how education shapes morality. It is a challenge to read at times, but that is also why I enjoy reading it. Close to 6pm I headed back over to the school for their vespers program, consisting of a song service and a Bible charades game. One boy was doing all the charade/acting and the audience was divided into two groups to do the guessing. The boy was actually impressive in pantomiming the various scenes. I have a hard time coming up with that kind of thing and he was doing it on the fly as a moderator would give him a new person or event. I got Samuel and Peter and nearly had Ruth (I guessed Naomi), but most of the points went to the other group which is fine. They were again going to have an open gym night, but Cameron wanted to get something to eat first, so we went to his place. He had made a rice casserole that was really quite good. Instead of going to the gym though we stayed and played a game of Scrabble. Later when his roommate returned we were talking about books and I was telling them about The Confession of Max Tivoli, which tells the story of a man born in San Francisco at the end of the 1800's who ages backwards, starting with the appearance of an old man and becoming progressively younger. They thought it sounded a lot like the recent Brad Pitt film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which none of us had seen. So Cameron went down to the movie store and rented it. I went by the FlameTree and picked up the books I have finished reading and brought them to see if they would like to ready any of them. We reconvened and watched Benjamin Button. It does have a similar theme to the book I read, the time periods are slightly different, one is a San Francisco story and the other from the Deep South/East Coast and they have very different endings. I liked the book better, although I found Max Tivoli to be a much less likable character than Pitt's character in the film.
April 12: This has been a lazy day. I slept in since we were up til 2 last night with the movie, had breakfast and a refreshing shower. I have tried to reach my scuba contact and have not been successful. Cameron says he would like to get certified at the same time I do, so that will make it more enjoyable and should work out for both of us. I still need to go and take care of my laundry and hopefully get some internet time in at MIR. It is Easter Sunday, so I do not know if they have any special events going on at MIR, which might change that plan. I'll see soon. And with the shuffling schedules, it now looks like I will head up to Laura tomorrow, where there are some good shell finding beaches and things like that.
April 11 Saturday: Got up early today, showered, ate a breakfast of rolls with peanut butter, banana, and honey. Made a mental note that tomorrow would be a good day to get some laundry done as I am running low on clean tropical weather appropriate clothing and the long sleeve items have no chance of being worn in this weather. Reread Matthew 25 that I had picked as the source of my children's story idea and made the 15 minute walk over to the SDA church.
I arrived about 10 minutes before the theoretical start time of 9:30 for sabbath school, but as was mentioned several times last weekend, everything operates on island time and sabbath school started promptly at 10 whether anyone was ready or not. The leader for the english class after we split up is Ethiopian and I asked him afterwards if he knew Adu Worku. Of course he did, small adventist world as always. Anyway, he likes class participation and makes sure everyone gets a chance to give some input on the topic. After SS Cameron came and told me that things were a little chaotic because the Youth group were supposed to be leading out for the service and they did not realize that until slightly earlier in the morning. But I at least had the children's story covered and knew about where it would be in the service. Church is theoretically to start at 11, but since sabbath school starts late and the youth were scrambling to get a rough program assembled, it wasn't until 11:30 that we got underway. Everything proceeded smoothly once we got started. There were about 20 kids for the children's story, most of whom are young enough to not be in school yet, so their grasp of English is highly suspect, but they are eager anyway and for the most part attentive. They like raising their hands, even if they do not have any idea what you are asking about. Quite a few adults commented afterwards that they really liked my story of the talents and using pennies to make it interactive. So it was at least a little productive.
After lunch, I took a nap for an hour, listened to a Roy Ice sermon on mp3 and finished reading CS Lewis' Abolition of Man, his brief book comprised of three lectures on how education shapes morality. It is a challenge to read at times, but that is also why I enjoy reading it. Close to 6pm I headed back over to the school for their vespers program, consisting of a song service and a Bible charades game. One boy was doing all the charade/acting and the audience was divided into two groups to do the guessing. The boy was actually impressive in pantomiming the various scenes. I have a hard time coming up with that kind of thing and he was doing it on the fly as a moderator would give him a new person or event. I got Samuel and Peter and nearly had Ruth (I guessed Naomi), but most of the points went to the other group which is fine. They were again going to have an open gym night, but Cameron wanted to get something to eat first, so we went to his place. He had made a rice casserole that was really quite good. Instead of going to the gym though we stayed and played a game of Scrabble. Later when his roommate returned we were talking about books and I was telling them about The Confession of Max Tivoli, which tells the story of a man born in San Francisco at the end of the 1800's who ages backwards, starting with the appearance of an old man and becoming progressively younger. They thought it sounded a lot like the recent Brad Pitt film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which none of us had seen. So Cameron went down to the movie store and rented it. I went by the FlameTree and picked up the books I have finished reading and brought them to see if they would like to ready any of them. We reconvened and watched Benjamin Button. It does have a similar theme to the book I read, the time periods are slightly different, one is a San Francisco story and the other from the Deep South/East Coast and they have very different endings. I liked the book better, although I found Max Tivoli to be a much less likable character than Pitt's character in the film.
April 12: This has been a lazy day. I slept in since we were up til 2 last night with the movie, had breakfast and a refreshing shower. I have tried to reach my scuba contact and have not been successful. Cameron says he would like to get certified at the same time I do, so that will make it more enjoyable and should work out for both of us. I still need to go and take care of my laundry and hopefully get some internet time in at MIR. It is Easter Sunday, so I do not know if they have any special events going on at MIR, which might change that plan. I'll see soon. And with the shuffling schedules, it now looks like I will head up to Laura tomorrow, where there are some good shell finding beaches and things like that.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The dock at Rita, where the Marshalls Dive Adventures scuba shop is, during a rain shower.
Coconut: The Next Generation
The giant tree, that is a t-shirt hanging vertically just right of center for perspective.
A pretty Marshallese spider; about 3 inches across (including appendages).
The room in my hostel, simple but clean and comfortable.
The KFC knockoff I mentioned before. I have been warned to avoid at all costs.
April 7: No real news today. Yesterday was the Arnoan Irooj's (pronounced ear raj; island chief) birthday, and he was not to be disturbed, so we do not know if we can meet him or not yet and he is the one with primary say and info on the new school on his atoll. It rained heavily most of the day today so I only ventured outside for about three hours in the middle of the day. It is raining as I write. Which is really a good thing. I think I mentioned water rationing a couple days ago and that is off for the time being. It is an interesting thing to watch: my room faces east northeast and I can see the clouds coming in. Even though the land here barely gets above sea level more than about 30 feet, the clouds seem to wait until they are over land to dump most of their liquid cargo. And it comes down in torrents. It pours off the sheet metal roofs and creates instant puddles all over the place. It also has kept the temperature down with a high today of 87 degrees, which is much easier to deal with, although I do feel I'm acclimating some. Another amusing thing I have seen is that laundry gets dried on a line outside, but no one bothers to bring in the laundry before another rain shower hits. They will just leave it there until they need it I guess. I borrowed a cell phone from the SDA school and got a new sim card for it, but hopefully I can find out from Verizon tomorrow why my phone wasn't working. This evening I got a pizza at the Flametree (recommended as one of the best pizzas on the island). They prefer the thin crust style here and it was pretty good, but it was huge for one person - $10 for the equivalent to a large Tomatina's pie although not THAT good and now I'm sure I will not need to eat at all tomorrow. In my adventure out during the day I made it to the Marshall island Visitors Authority (MIVA) (everything here is known by its initials, including almost all the stores, the RRE (resort), CFC (restaurant), WAM (boat builders), ELM (car dealer), MIR (resort), NTA (telecomm), KLG (Kentucky Fried Chicken knockoff), etc) and got a map of Majuro and also a more detailed map of 'downtown' Majuro, a seven mile strip that encompasses the towns of Rita and Delap and most of the tourist resorts. Things are fairly sparse from that section until you get to the far end of the atoll and the town of Laura (where the second SDA school is). Laura is about 30 miles away from where I'm staying or an hour by car since the speed limit all over the island is 25 mph. The island we went to on Sunday is called Pikriin according to the map.
On Sabbath I had talked with a couple that had until recently lived in CA. The husband, Craig, said he was a good friend of the manager at the Flametree where I am currently staying. I was talking to the manager, Isaac this evening after eating and he had an interesting story to share. He is a pastor in the Assembly of God faith and originally from Fiji. He said back in Fiji he had studied the Bible enough that he discovered the Sabbath/Saturday doctrine and tried to keep it within the Assembly of God framework. He told me that he had found Amazing Facts and really enjoyed the programs and the teaching style they incorporate. But he always seemed to be too busy to send in for cd's and sermon info that was offered. Then without knowing or being asked, Craig brought him a bunch of Amazing Facts series, including many of the ones Isaac had wanted to get. So we talked some about how God works in such mysterious ways. He wants to talk with me more when I have more time. I also learned that they have a diabetes center at the hospital that is run by Adventists and they serve a breakfast and lunch buffet everyday with vegetarian/vegan options which is rather unusual for the islands. I guess diabetes is a problem because most of the food options are what I would call junk food, I have seen some whole wheat bread, but almost everything is white bread, and rice is for sale in every corner store by the 50 lb sack. While there are some fruit, vegetables seem almost non existent except out of a can.
April 8: As much as has been going on, I've been feeling a little unproductive and needing a goal/some exercise. Using the MIVA map as a guide I walked to the Majuro bridge this morning; it took an hour round trip so I gauge it at about three miles for the loop. I want to walk out to the end of the island closest to me and the map shows that at about 6 miles. That will take a big portion of the rest of my day. So, I did it. I think the map is not to scale because it was certainly not 6 miles. I got to the end of the road in about an hour and twenty minutes. I did not go all the way to the end of the island because that would have meant going through several people's yards or wading along the shore and I only had my hiking shoes with me. My feet are not so tough yet that I can walk that far in flip flops without some serious toe damage, so I did not attempt that. Again, using my map I checked off the landmarks, stepped into the Momotaro store during a rain shower and got some crackers, stopped at the Formosa supermarket, passed the Awa Zero bowling alley and the Happy Hands craft center at the Catholic complex, saw the impressive Willmart, and checked into the Marshall Dive Adventures shop at Robert Reimers resort. Next week I should get in a couple days of scuba and be certified. On the way back I stopped under a thatch gazebo to read while waiting out another downpour. I ran into a couple that were riding the first bicycles I have seen here. They got them from the resort they are staying at, but it seems like bicycles would be a great transportation option here and there just aren't any. I missed the Alele Museum, but I have to leave a few things for the next five weeks or I may get bored. Not likely.
Got word from principal Jim that the Irooj from Arno wants to meet early next week and probably next Wed or Thurs. we will go to Arno to see the school site. One step at a time I guess. Things will work out I'm sure.
Some things I have noticed: almost no cats but myriad canines running free; impossibly tinted/metallic windows on cars (there is no way this would fly in the mainland), also one silver spray painted car right down to the tires, I was amused needless to say; no one wears seatbelts mainly due to the speed limit, but I'm sure that creates problems for any Marshallese coming to the US; the best of American culture showing up here at the islands movie theater (Friday the 13th and Fast and the Furious 4 (Really? There are four of these things?))
Tomorrow breakfast buffet at the Diabetes Center and then probably a trip to Laura. Sounds good to me.
April 9: Well I awoke to pouring rain, so I figured Laura might be better saved for a nice weather day. Turns out it would have been just fine, the sun came out and stayed most of the day, but by then I had already changed plans. I read in the morning, went to the Diabetes Center for lunch and had a wonderful fresh SALAD for the first time over here.
Books I've finished reading so far: Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk, The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Green, PastWatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I am also close to finishing Seeker by Jack McDevitt and Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. I'm glad I brought quite a few books, but I know I need to lighten my load and that is probably the smartest way since they are 'non-essential' weight. I'll put together some reviews soon.
On Sabbath I had talked with a couple that had until recently lived in CA. The husband, Craig, said he was a good friend of the manager at the Flametree where I am currently staying. I was talking to the manager, Isaac this evening after eating and he had an interesting story to share. He is a pastor in the Assembly of God faith and originally from Fiji. He said back in Fiji he had studied the Bible enough that he discovered the Sabbath/Saturday doctrine and tried to keep it within the Assembly of God framework. He told me that he had found Amazing Facts and really enjoyed the programs and the teaching style they incorporate. But he always seemed to be too busy to send in for cd's and sermon info that was offered. Then without knowing or being asked, Craig brought him a bunch of Amazing Facts series, including many of the ones Isaac had wanted to get. So we talked some about how God works in such mysterious ways. He wants to talk with me more when I have more time. I also learned that they have a diabetes center at the hospital that is run by Adventists and they serve a breakfast and lunch buffet everyday with vegetarian/vegan options which is rather unusual for the islands. I guess diabetes is a problem because most of the food options are what I would call junk food, I have seen some whole wheat bread, but almost everything is white bread, and rice is for sale in every corner store by the 50 lb sack. While there are some fruit, vegetables seem almost non existent except out of a can.
April 8: As much as has been going on, I've been feeling a little unproductive and needing a goal/some exercise. Using the MIVA map as a guide I walked to the Majuro bridge this morning; it took an hour round trip so I gauge it at about three miles for the loop. I want to walk out to the end of the island closest to me and the map shows that at about 6 miles. That will take a big portion of the rest of my day. So, I did it. I think the map is not to scale because it was certainly not 6 miles. I got to the end of the road in about an hour and twenty minutes. I did not go all the way to the end of the island because that would have meant going through several people's yards or wading along the shore and I only had my hiking shoes with me. My feet are not so tough yet that I can walk that far in flip flops without some serious toe damage, so I did not attempt that. Again, using my map I checked off the landmarks, stepped into the Momotaro store during a rain shower and got some crackers, stopped at the Formosa supermarket, passed the Awa Zero bowling alley and the Happy Hands craft center at the Catholic complex, saw the impressive Willmart, and checked into the Marshall Dive Adventures shop at Robert Reimers resort. Next week I should get in a couple days of scuba and be certified. On the way back I stopped under a thatch gazebo to read while waiting out another downpour. I ran into a couple that were riding the first bicycles I have seen here. They got them from the resort they are staying at, but it seems like bicycles would be a great transportation option here and there just aren't any. I missed the Alele Museum, but I have to leave a few things for the next five weeks or I may get bored. Not likely.
Got word from principal Jim that the Irooj from Arno wants to meet early next week and probably next Wed or Thurs. we will go to Arno to see the school site. One step at a time I guess. Things will work out I'm sure.
Some things I have noticed: almost no cats but myriad canines running free; impossibly tinted/metallic windows on cars (there is no way this would fly in the mainland), also one silver spray painted car right down to the tires, I was amused needless to say; no one wears seatbelts mainly due to the speed limit, but I'm sure that creates problems for any Marshallese coming to the US; the best of American culture showing up here at the islands movie theater (Friday the 13th and Fast and the Furious 4 (Really? There are four of these things?))
Tomorrow breakfast buffet at the Diabetes Center and then probably a trip to Laura. Sounds good to me.
April 9: Well I awoke to pouring rain, so I figured Laura might be better saved for a nice weather day. Turns out it would have been just fine, the sun came out and stayed most of the day, but by then I had already changed plans. I read in the morning, went to the Diabetes Center for lunch and had a wonderful fresh SALAD for the first time over here.
Books I've finished reading so far: Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk, The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Green, PastWatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I am also close to finishing Seeker by Jack McDevitt and Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. I'm glad I brought quite a few books, but I know I need to lighten my load and that is probably the smartest way since they are 'non-essential' weight. I'll put together some reviews soon.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
When I first posted this I forgot to caption the pics, so here goes: These were all taken on a private island last Sunday, there is a coconut floating on the water, a fist sized shell I found, a palm hart being consumed by snails, and the afternoon sun light playing on the atoll as we prepared to leave.
Hello everyone, just writing a note from the Honolulu airport at 3:30am. The flight to Hawaii from SFO was calm and I read most of the way. My mom, Gabe, and Scott saw me off. The airline alliances are interesting. I bought a ticket from Continental, had to check in at the Northwest counter and the actual plane I was on was a Delta jet. I think my next leg to Majuro is on a Continental plane though. It will be my first crossing of the international date line. Here in Honolulu it has been overcast with brief scattered showers, but it quite warm even at this time in the morning. The terminal is an open air one so the breeze wafts in occasionally. Just before I left the mainland I check the weather in the Marshall Islands and it looks like I have showers forecasted for the first week or so. We will have to see how that affects things.
Right now the terminal is empty, probably for another hour until everything comes to life. The last few days have been rough for me. I feel quite relaxed at the moment, but it was hard to say good bye to friends, my mom, my grandfather, and others. I kept most of the tears private. It is very easy for me to leave things behind. The relationships are a lot harder and I hope there will be enough contact through the miracles of the internet. Two years seems a long time, but I know it will pass quickly. When I get back, as others have said, it will be both surprising to see how much has changed and how much has stayed exactly the same.
April 2: Mostly slept on flight from Honolulu to Majuro. Had to pay $35 for going over the allowed weight limit on my bag. Continental had a great chill music channel and the meal was decent. Plenty of drinks/water offered. Quite different from the Delta flight the previous day. The plane was half full and about a third of us disembarked at Majuro, the remainder having stops on the islands between there and Guam. From the air the little strips of land only support a small road, then at points where it widens, a single row of houses fronting the road or houses on both sides of the road. On the ground from nearly every point you can look left and see open ocean or right and see the inner water of the atoll. My minibus ride to the Backpackers Hostel took us over a bridge, which was the highest point I've seen so far. The dormitory is comfortable, reasonably private and secure enough for me to leave my stuff without worry. Isaac, the proprietor was asleep at the desk when I arrived, but seems to be a very pleasant man and I will talk to him about renting an island at some point. I am going to take a few days to adjust my sleep cycle and acclimate to the heat/humidity. That was more than I expected, but I should have known better. After settling into my room, I walked further away from the airport for about a mile, just seeing what was around. There are plenty of little shops, a few large supermarkets (quite expensive everything as much as at home plus markup to cover the cost of getting it out to the islands), and many little houses. There is an awful lot of trash along the sides of the road and at one point when I went down to the beach I was amazed at the trashed piled up there. There were many crabs and quite a few unremarkably colored fish. Three little girls pointed out what appeared to be a date palm and asked many questions, which I couldn't understand at all. They were busy throwing rocks on the beach when I moved on. I found an “internet cafe” at the National Telecommunications Department for 8 cents a minute and used three dollars to check on email. I will need to find out about cooking fuel tomorrow and look at my food options. After walking around for a while I returned to my room and slept for a couple hours. Now I plan on finishing reading the first book of the trip and writing this.
I mentioned in a previous note that the weather forecast was for showers. Well that appears to mean five to ten minutes of very light rain with the sun shining. On my minibus ride a co-passenger who has been here a couple days was saying that they really needed the rain because nearly all their drinking water is rain catch and there has not been much in the past couple weeks, so maybe some harder rain will be coming.
$5 (minibus) + $20 (hostel) + $3 (internet cafe) = $28
April 3: Jet lag set in today, and I spent most of it sleeping or reading. I did make it to one of the larger markets I found yesterday and bought some food for the next few days. The hostel has a refrigerator in the dorm and as I am the only one here at the moment I have free reign. Again, like yesterday, just about sundown the rain came, only for about 15 minutes and then just the breeze continues. I studied my lesson for the week and will attempt to find the SDA church in the morning – services are at 11 so I should have plenty of time. The temp got up to 92 degrees, which is not bad, but I am just not acclimated to the humidity. I have been conditioned to think of CA as a moisture rich state, what with our wet snow, etc compared to say Utah, but this is taking it to a whole new level. As I said I stayed close to the hostel today sleeping and listening to the sounds of life around me – chickens, dogs, the occasional siren, and the many voices of children shouting, laughing, crying.
Hostel $20 + groceries $15.01 = $35.01
April 4 First Sabbath. This was a good day all around. Thomas, one of the hotel staff was just getting off his shift, when I came by the office and asked Isaac about how to get to the SDA church. Thomas said he lived right by there, so we caught a taxi together. It was actually very close and the driver did not even want the $1 fare when we arrived. I had found a Majuro yellow pages that said services began at 11, but I assumed that was just church and that ss would be before that. So I got to the school early: 8:45 and everything was closed up, so I meandered through the campus and took a few pictures. Soon a few people began appearing and I confirmed that ss would start at 9:30. Only a handful of people were there when it started but by the time we divided into classes there were at least 30 people, and twice that for church. There was one other visitor – the dad of one of the student missionary teachers at the school. The congregation is a mix of natives and other islanders, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Americans, several Brits, a couple Scandinavians and an Austrian. I met Cameron, who is the vice principal for the school. He is incredibly helpful. After church most people disbursed quickly and I talked with a couple that had lived in Woodland, CA recently (she is from Kiribati, an Island about 500 miles south of the Marshalls). They were looking at a number of islands to move to as they are expecting the collapse of the US. As I was leaving to go eat lunch the school's maintenance man Ramon, told me to come back at 6:30 for an evening program.
So, I had lunch and a nap and then started reading through CS Lewis' Abolition of Man. I had read the first essay once before and got halfway through the book before it was time to head back to the Delap SDA school. The evening program consisted of a song service lead by a couple students and two SM's. Then some students lead out in a bible trivia game. Afterwards, I was talking to Cameron again and Jim, the principal. They are just going into their spring break and the timing is good because they were planning on going over to Arno to check out the site for the new school (which is the site of the old school – long story about an old chief that did not like the SDA school and a new chief that does want the school back). So next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday the three of us will take a trip over to Arno. Cameron said that once the visiting father of the SM leaves I could stay at the school and he showed me where I can get free wifi (the only place like it on the island and it is just down the street from where I'm staying right now), says he knows a hookup for scuba, invited me to a bbq with some of his friends for tomorrow and back to the school for game night with the students. Two of the biggest sports on Majuro are volleyball and basketball. Well the gym had a volleyball game and two half court basketball games going on at once on what should be a single full court. Rather chaotic, but everyone goes with the flow and it actually works reasonably well. There are a lot of good volleyball players here. I've also seen a lot of street baseball and almost all the kids are using folded pieces of cardboard for mitts. Anyway, Cameron and I played several games of volleyball and got handily beaten each time. Got to meet several of the other teachers from the Delap school and a few from the Laura school on the other end of the island. About 11, I headed home for the night having had a full day.
Hostel $20 + Offering $5 = $25
April 5: Woke at 6:30 to the beginnings of a big storm. Closed my window and fell back to sleep to the pounding of the rain. Got up at 8, had a simple breakfast, got a cold shower and then did some reading/puzzles until it was time to head over to the SDA school to meet Cameron. Played a game of ladder golf and hung out until about 12:30 when we headed over to the Robert Reimers Resort dock to meet up with the Hawaiian contingent (all friends of Cameron's, who grew up in Hawaii). We loaded the boat (including a quad we had to carry over the side) and headed out to one of the private islands on the east side of Majuro.
The owner Jerry, was introduced to me when we first arrived and Cameron recommended I take a walk towards the far end of the island while they were setting up the bbq etc. Jerry has a floating dock, water slide, a number of water craft (canoes, kayaks, longboards, etc) and a bunch of picnic spots and bungalows spread out on the interior side of his island. Additionally, there are about a dozen pigs and piglets and a host of beautifully colored chicken and roosters. The quad got unloaded and immediately put to use by the kids on a track made through a large portion of the island. There were a couple other quads already there and a large group of boys, ages 6-13 taking turns driving. So I headed towards the other end of the island where Cameron said there was a giant tree. I followed a rough jungle path that was heavily littered with coconut husks and thick vegetation. I ran into several of the pigs out here as well. There were an abundance of skinny lizards that were too fast to take a picture of. I found the tree probably a quarter mile down the trail and it was indeed an enormous specimen. A massive trunk and a number of auxiliary appendages make for a substantial tree. There were a number of medium sized crabs crawling over its surface and they quickly retreated to their crevasses as I approached. My return towards the picnic area went through the water along the shore and there I found a large spider and many pretty shells (pictures available). People were already eating when I got back, so I joined in.
There was a great pasta salad, lots of rice, and all manner of Hawaiian bbq's meats. Guava nectar to drink, so that was excellent. After eating plenty, several of us played frisbee on the beach, then threw around a football for a while. I got in the shade to get away from the sun since I am not used to the direct sun yet and do not need to burn at the beginning of this trip. Sitting in the shade I found a couple beautiful shells (occupied by hermit crabs) and watched them interact.
We played a little more frisbee and then started packing up the boats to return to the main island. I was looking forward to a cool shower to clean off the saltwater, but as it turns out we were hit by a driving rain on the way back and were completely soaked in short order. That made a lot of people cold, but that is really really subjective as since I have been here it has not been cooler than 82 degrees (that has been the temp at sunrise the past couple days) and has gotten up to 94. The hard thing has been getting used to the humidity. People were also talking about a water rationing plan that goes into effect tomorrow, because they have had much less rain than normal. They said that today we got almost 5 inches of rain and that helps out a lot, but the rationing will still be activated. Another point of interest is that a baby pilot whale has found its way into the atoll and tradition says that that only happens when an Island leader or important person dies, which has not happened yet in this case anyway.
Hostel $20
April 6: Today I need to get all these notes posted on the intertubes, contact verizon to find out why my phone does not work (the Marshallese Telecommunications Authority may have something to do with it), and buy some more food.
Right now the terminal is empty, probably for another hour until everything comes to life. The last few days have been rough for me. I feel quite relaxed at the moment, but it was hard to say good bye to friends, my mom, my grandfather, and others. I kept most of the tears private. It is very easy for me to leave things behind. The relationships are a lot harder and I hope there will be enough contact through the miracles of the internet. Two years seems a long time, but I know it will pass quickly. When I get back, as others have said, it will be both surprising to see how much has changed and how much has stayed exactly the same.
April 2: Mostly slept on flight from Honolulu to Majuro. Had to pay $35 for going over the allowed weight limit on my bag. Continental had a great chill music channel and the meal was decent. Plenty of drinks/water offered. Quite different from the Delta flight the previous day. The plane was half full and about a third of us disembarked at Majuro, the remainder having stops on the islands between there and Guam. From the air the little strips of land only support a small road, then at points where it widens, a single row of houses fronting the road or houses on both sides of the road. On the ground from nearly every point you can look left and see open ocean or right and see the inner water of the atoll. My minibus ride to the Backpackers Hostel took us over a bridge, which was the highest point I've seen so far. The dormitory is comfortable, reasonably private and secure enough for me to leave my stuff without worry. Isaac, the proprietor was asleep at the desk when I arrived, but seems to be a very pleasant man and I will talk to him about renting an island at some point. I am going to take a few days to adjust my sleep cycle and acclimate to the heat/humidity. That was more than I expected, but I should have known better. After settling into my room, I walked further away from the airport for about a mile, just seeing what was around. There are plenty of little shops, a few large supermarkets (quite expensive everything as much as at home plus markup to cover the cost of getting it out to the islands), and many little houses. There is an awful lot of trash along the sides of the road and at one point when I went down to the beach I was amazed at the trashed piled up there. There were many crabs and quite a few unremarkably colored fish. Three little girls pointed out what appeared to be a date palm and asked many questions, which I couldn't understand at all. They were busy throwing rocks on the beach when I moved on. I found an “internet cafe” at the National Telecommunications Department for 8 cents a minute and used three dollars to check on email. I will need to find out about cooking fuel tomorrow and look at my food options. After walking around for a while I returned to my room and slept for a couple hours. Now I plan on finishing reading the first book of the trip and writing this.
I mentioned in a previous note that the weather forecast was for showers. Well that appears to mean five to ten minutes of very light rain with the sun shining. On my minibus ride a co-passenger who has been here a couple days was saying that they really needed the rain because nearly all their drinking water is rain catch and there has not been much in the past couple weeks, so maybe some harder rain will be coming.
$5 (minibus) + $20 (hostel) + $3 (internet cafe) = $28
April 3: Jet lag set in today, and I spent most of it sleeping or reading. I did make it to one of the larger markets I found yesterday and bought some food for the next few days. The hostel has a refrigerator in the dorm and as I am the only one here at the moment I have free reign. Again, like yesterday, just about sundown the rain came, only for about 15 minutes and then just the breeze continues. I studied my lesson for the week and will attempt to find the SDA church in the morning – services are at 11 so I should have plenty of time. The temp got up to 92 degrees, which is not bad, but I am just not acclimated to the humidity. I have been conditioned to think of CA as a moisture rich state, what with our wet snow, etc compared to say Utah, but this is taking it to a whole new level. As I said I stayed close to the hostel today sleeping and listening to the sounds of life around me – chickens, dogs, the occasional siren, and the many voices of children shouting, laughing, crying.
Hostel $20 + groceries $15.01 = $35.01
April 4 First Sabbath. This was a good day all around. Thomas, one of the hotel staff was just getting off his shift, when I came by the office and asked Isaac about how to get to the SDA church. Thomas said he lived right by there, so we caught a taxi together. It was actually very close and the driver did not even want the $1 fare when we arrived. I had found a Majuro yellow pages that said services began at 11, but I assumed that was just church and that ss would be before that. So I got to the school early: 8:45 and everything was closed up, so I meandered through the campus and took a few pictures. Soon a few people began appearing and I confirmed that ss would start at 9:30. Only a handful of people were there when it started but by the time we divided into classes there were at least 30 people, and twice that for church. There was one other visitor – the dad of one of the student missionary teachers at the school. The congregation is a mix of natives and other islanders, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Americans, several Brits, a couple Scandinavians and an Austrian. I met Cameron, who is the vice principal for the school. He is incredibly helpful. After church most people disbursed quickly and I talked with a couple that had lived in Woodland, CA recently (she is from Kiribati, an Island about 500 miles south of the Marshalls). They were looking at a number of islands to move to as they are expecting the collapse of the US. As I was leaving to go eat lunch the school's maintenance man Ramon, told me to come back at 6:30 for an evening program.
So, I had lunch and a nap and then started reading through CS Lewis' Abolition of Man. I had read the first essay once before and got halfway through the book before it was time to head back to the Delap SDA school. The evening program consisted of a song service lead by a couple students and two SM's. Then some students lead out in a bible trivia game. Afterwards, I was talking to Cameron again and Jim, the principal. They are just going into their spring break and the timing is good because they were planning on going over to Arno to check out the site for the new school (which is the site of the old school – long story about an old chief that did not like the SDA school and a new chief that does want the school back). So next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday the three of us will take a trip over to Arno. Cameron said that once the visiting father of the SM leaves I could stay at the school and he showed me where I can get free wifi (the only place like it on the island and it is just down the street from where I'm staying right now), says he knows a hookup for scuba, invited me to a bbq with some of his friends for tomorrow and back to the school for game night with the students. Two of the biggest sports on Majuro are volleyball and basketball. Well the gym had a volleyball game and two half court basketball games going on at once on what should be a single full court. Rather chaotic, but everyone goes with the flow and it actually works reasonably well. There are a lot of good volleyball players here. I've also seen a lot of street baseball and almost all the kids are using folded pieces of cardboard for mitts. Anyway, Cameron and I played several games of volleyball and got handily beaten each time. Got to meet several of the other teachers from the Delap school and a few from the Laura school on the other end of the island. About 11, I headed home for the night having had a full day.
Hostel $20 + Offering $5 = $25
April 5: Woke at 6:30 to the beginnings of a big storm. Closed my window and fell back to sleep to the pounding of the rain. Got up at 8, had a simple breakfast, got a cold shower and then did some reading/puzzles until it was time to head over to the SDA school to meet Cameron. Played a game of ladder golf and hung out until about 12:30 when we headed over to the Robert Reimers Resort dock to meet up with the Hawaiian contingent (all friends of Cameron's, who grew up in Hawaii). We loaded the boat (including a quad we had to carry over the side) and headed out to one of the private islands on the east side of Majuro.
The owner Jerry, was introduced to me when we first arrived and Cameron recommended I take a walk towards the far end of the island while they were setting up the bbq etc. Jerry has a floating dock, water slide, a number of water craft (canoes, kayaks, longboards, etc) and a bunch of picnic spots and bungalows spread out on the interior side of his island. Additionally, there are about a dozen pigs and piglets and a host of beautifully colored chicken and roosters. The quad got unloaded and immediately put to use by the kids on a track made through a large portion of the island. There were a couple other quads already there and a large group of boys, ages 6-13 taking turns driving. So I headed towards the other end of the island where Cameron said there was a giant tree. I followed a rough jungle path that was heavily littered with coconut husks and thick vegetation. I ran into several of the pigs out here as well. There were an abundance of skinny lizards that were too fast to take a picture of. I found the tree probably a quarter mile down the trail and it was indeed an enormous specimen. A massive trunk and a number of auxiliary appendages make for a substantial tree. There were a number of medium sized crabs crawling over its surface and they quickly retreated to their crevasses as I approached. My return towards the picnic area went through the water along the shore and there I found a large spider and many pretty shells (pictures available). People were already eating when I got back, so I joined in.
There was a great pasta salad, lots of rice, and all manner of Hawaiian bbq's meats. Guava nectar to drink, so that was excellent. After eating plenty, several of us played frisbee on the beach, then threw around a football for a while. I got in the shade to get away from the sun since I am not used to the direct sun yet and do not need to burn at the beginning of this trip. Sitting in the shade I found a couple beautiful shells (occupied by hermit crabs) and watched them interact.
We played a little more frisbee and then started packing up the boats to return to the main island. I was looking forward to a cool shower to clean off the saltwater, but as it turns out we were hit by a driving rain on the way back and were completely soaked in short order. That made a lot of people cold, but that is really really subjective as since I have been here it has not been cooler than 82 degrees (that has been the temp at sunrise the past couple days) and has gotten up to 94. The hard thing has been getting used to the humidity. People were also talking about a water rationing plan that goes into effect tomorrow, because they have had much less rain than normal. They said that today we got almost 5 inches of rain and that helps out a lot, but the rationing will still be activated. Another point of interest is that a baby pilot whale has found its way into the atoll and tradition says that that only happens when an Island leader or important person dies, which has not happened yet in this case anyway.
Hostel $20
April 6: Today I need to get all these notes posted on the intertubes, contact verizon to find out why my phone does not work (the Marshallese Telecommunications Authority may have something to do with it), and buy some more food.
Blogger issues with OpenOffice
I have been taking lots of notes on my trip in OpenOffice and for some reason Blogspot cannot handle the text when imported into their interface. If anyone has an idea why that may be I would love to hear it. Until I get that figured out I'll just post a brief note. I'm fine, it is humid to a degree I was unexpecting and the low temp so far has been 81 degrees, it is beautiful and I am enjoying it so far. Yesterday I spent the day with new friends on a private island having a Hawaiian barbeque. Hopefully, I can get the bulk of my notes published here soon.
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