My apartment

Our apartment is fantastic.  I'll let the pictures show for themselves.....

Outside

 Kitchen

 Living room

 Bedroom

 Bathroom (ps-no more bucket showering for these girls ;))

Some funny stories related to our apartment.....

Living without a door knob.

On last Monday night, we got locked out of our apartment.  Our door knob was pretty sketchy to begin with; it was rusted & very loose in the door.  Either way, there were times you’d lock the door & just jiggling it would open it up.  It was also proven on Monday night that there were times you wouldn’t lock the door & would get locked out.  After jiggling the door knob around for maybe 15 minutes, we decided to go straight to Elfren for help.  Billy came over to try & help too (his 3 year old son Adriel was already hanging from the door knob in an effort to help us get it to open).  Long story short, Elfren & Rocky (the school security guard) got straight to business & ‘broke’ into the house.  

Adriel climbed through the small opening & was inside for maybe 5 minutes before actually unlocking the door (he was mostly just kicking the door while inside).  That same night, it was found that the door knob is unfixable and was therefore removed from our door so it couldn’t lock us out again.  We agreed we’d be okay for the night without a door knob.  We locked the door for the night & covered the hole with a post-it (to keep bugs & wandering eyes out).

We’ve kindly asked for a new door knob each day, as there is no way for us to lock our door when we leave, but to no avail.  We thought people were just forgetting about our request, but on Thursday we got the real news—apparently there are no door knobs on Ebeye.  This explains a lot!  We’ll see how this situation advances in the next few days.  But until it’s fixed, we’ll just continue to hide our valuables wherever we see fit when we leave the house. J

Update:  On Monday morning, our principal came with a new door knob!  Problem solved.  Luckily, in the making of these progressions, nothing was stolen from our apartment. Success!

War against the rodents.

We’ve boobietrapped our house this past week.  We set out traps for all sorts of rodents that we’ve seen evidence of them living here including cockroaches, ants, mice & rats—we’re not messing around here.  Luckily, we only saw a couple of cockroaches prior to setting the traps and since we haven’t seen anything.  All we’ve gotten so far is one rat trap that had been set off & moved from its spot—thank God there was no rat in it.  Although I’m totally for this war against the rodents, I definitely don’t want to have to deal with any of them directly if they’re caught.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Game time

Marshallese Church!

     Tuesday was our first school/teacher’s meeting.  We discussed the broken bus which is keeping us from starting school, attendance & grading which are the 2 biggest issues for the teachers, and went over general introductions/who will be teaching what.  The Ministry of Education does indeed have rules & regulations that the schools are to follow, but schools sometimes do not implement these & hold student to strict compliance.  We had heard that the internet bill had finally been paid, but after sitting on a bench directly outside of the school for 15 or so minutes trying to get the wireless to work on my computer, I learned that the bill had not been paid & we wouldn’t be getting internet for ‘another week or so’.  Children tend to flock to computers or any type of technology, so I ended up staying outside with Juwae & Dragel, showing them pictures from home then teaching them ‘minesweeper’ and other computer games—I’m sure now that they are hooked & will be knocking on my door on random week nights to play the games again.  J

      That night we attended our first church service.  At the party we went to last weekend, we met the pastor that would be preaching the service.  We finally figured out what time a church service started here, so we had to go!  When we walked up there was a band of 3 young men singing; two were playing keyboards.  People were just beginning to come in; this was a relief because we definitely thought we were running a little late!  We were directed to sit at the front, in the first aisle facing the pastor & band.  The service was held for 5 young men & 1 young woman that are leaving to attend school in Majuro—a school of Theology, in which they will also learn to become pastors and spread the Word.  The pastor spoke of the sacrifices one gives up to follow this path and to do God’s work.  He used Liz & I as an example, like missionaries, because we stepped out of our comfort zone, left our family, friends & all that’s ‘comfortable’ to us, in order to come here & do our work—teaching the Marshallese students.  He really stressed how God gives people like us, who are driven to go & do their work, strength in order to do all to make it possible.  It made me teary-eyed thinking about this, but it also made me very happy to see how appreciative the Marshallese people are that we have come.  They do know the ‘sacrifices’ we’ve made to be here, but they are so thankful we are in fact here!  It was a very, very nice service & I can’t explain how happy I am that I went.  The singing is beautiful.  People are so open and expressive of their feelings, their prayers, their messages to and about God—it was refreshing to see something completely different than what I’m used to back home.  A huge thanks to Rose who sat with us & interpreted the messages & songs for us.  :)

After the service (about 2 hours in), the 6 students going to Majuro lined up in the front and everyone else formed a line to go to each of them, shake their hands, wish them well & give a donation.  Dinner was then served—white rice, spaghetti with chicken, pasta salad, fish, boiled flour dipped in coconut & rice balls dipped in coconut (the last 2 being my favorite!!!).  At this point I was starving, but needless to say, I didn’t make any sort of dent in the heap of food that overflowed my plate.  As we ate, there was singing—first, a group of women from Gugeegue went up to sing then the women from Ebeye.  Rose really knows how to sing ; I am proud to claim her as my new friend.  :) 

As the Ebeye women sang, members of the Gugeegue crew went up, threw some water at them & danced silly in the crowd.  This is common and makes it a sort of fun little competition between the women.  It was hilarious to watch and nice to see the women let loose.  The women were having a great time, as was I while watching & taking video. 

Around 11:30 we headed home really glad about how we spent our night.  I definitely feel the sense of community here, especially after attending church.  Religion & God are so important to the Marshallese; it was more than comforting to see that in practice.  I look forward to seeing more Marshallese events/celebrations/practices like this, only to become more aware & appreciative for them myself!  Everyone was so warm & welcoming; I couldn’t be more thankful for the experience or more excited to become more involved in their community.

First Marshallese Party

On Saturday after some P90x action, jumping off the dock into the lagoon, and participating in my first game of volleyball here, we attended our first Marshallese party!  It was held for a young man who is moving to Iowa to complete his senior year of high school.  We were asked to sit at the main table along with the young man the party was for, his father, and his grandfather.  We were served our plates second after those men.  On the plates were chicken (the same chicken they were cutting up the night before), a hot dog, some sort of amazing potato & egg salad (it tasted like mashed potatoes), a brown rice dish with vegetables & meat, fish (both fried & raw), and a heap of white rice.  Soda and bottled water were also served.  Everything was delicious!!!  I made a decent dent in the food, but there was no way I could finish everything they had served me.  We girls ended up splitting the raw fish; we were all nervous to try it, but Liz & I took it like champs (Anna had a different reaction—without even trying it, haha!)  As we ate, a group of other high school aged guys were singing along with a ukulele—while we couldn’t understand what they were singing, it sounded beautiful.  After dinner, we played some more volleyball (which I was SO excited about!!), sat around bwebwenato-ing (chatting), and just soaking up the experience.  It definitely made my day!  Afterwards, Naoki brought us to meet another Philipino family on island.  Conor, a previous volunteer that taught on Ebeye, had told us about this family during orientation.  They were like his ‘host family’ while he was here; they we had heard all of these amazing things about them, so we were definitely excited to go & meet them!  Afterward we headed over to Naoki’s house for some drinks.  The other JOVC volunteer, Kenta, was also there.  He just came this weekend & will be teaching math at the Catholic high school on island for the next 2 years.  We taught them a few ‘American’ drinking games; it was hilarious, they were great sports, and we had a really good time!  

****video coming soon....

The feast

 Liz & Naoki

Late night Lagoon swimming

No worries, no one’s trying to break in……

Yesterday we spent the day in Ebeye using the internet, grocery shopping & trying out some new restaurants.  Tonita hooked things up for us again; she not only gave us a place to hang out all day, but she got us the password for free wireless internet at the elementary school!  She’s amazing.

            On Friday we found $1 brownie mix at some random store, so once we got back to the Gug we decided to whip them up.  We noticed that the mix expired a year ago, but we were craving brownies so bad we didn’t even care.  They turned out terrible.  Fail 1.  Afterwards, we decided to do a power hour.  Anna, not being from the Midwest, had never done one before/didn’t even know what it was, so this was a necessity (weaksauce).  We went to the little shop on island and asked the girl to kindly double bag the beers to conceal them for us.  She ended up putting them in a huge black garbage bag and then into a box…this will do.  A small island is a small island and word is sure to travel quickly, especially when a little boy climbs up into the window right as we are checking out.  We could not stop laughing about this.  The worst part of this all was that there was a church service going on right next door—we had NO idea that church was held here on not only Sundays but Tuesday and Friday nights too.

            We continued with our fine plan, being as discreet as possible.  Anna had rented a movie, “Deadwood Trails,” from the shop which doubles as Sunset Rental so we decided to start it.  Considering all of us had fallen asleep somewhere around 15 minutes in, this movie was also terrible.  Fail 2.  We all woke up around a really gruesome part in the movie (a guy was bashing another guy’s head in with a rock…sick).  This was at the same time we all noticed that there was a continuous banging noise outside of the house.  We immediately thought someone was trying to break in, as at the back of our house there is a piece of plywood that houses our A/C unit in one half of what would otherwise be a sliding door.  I, being paranoid to begin with, peer out the back window and am unable to see anything.  The windows are nearly impossible to see out of because the outside is full of green and black mold.  There are also NO street lights of any sort here, so it was pitch black out except for the small light on the back of our neighbor’s house.  We move to my bedroom, closer to the light, and are only able to see a hand and part of the 3 water catchments out back.  All that’s being spoken is a bunch of Marshallese with some “ribelles” thrown in the mix.  They’re talking about us (maybe) but we have no clue what it is they are saying.  Our next assumption is that they are trying to break the water catchments.  This is NOT OKAY-- Anna and I make the only rational decision to go outside to see what is going on, armed with a head lamp & 2 cans of pepper spray, leaving Liz behind to guard the door with a stick in case someone tried to come in.  We get outside and hear commotion coming from our neighbor’s house.  We knock and a child answers the door (not one that lives there) and we notice about 15 people sitting in the living room.  We talk to my neighbor who kindly tells us that the men out back are just cutting up chicken quarter legs for a barbecue tomorrow.  While we were somewhat relieved, we shared with him our obvious concern that this was a) going on at midnight and b) that it sounded like someone was bashing in our plywood door.  I mean, we were both holding pepper spray with terrified looks on our faces.  He told us he would tell them to stop.  We headed back inside to let Liz know that this is apparently just another normal thing that happens here.

            Note to self: next time there is loud banging outside your house, it’s probably just a huge machete hitting the concrete, in an effort to cut up chicken & bones.  Regardless….why it took like 10 Marshallese men to cut up chicken at midnight of all times, I will never know.

Week 1 at our site!

Tomorrow will be a week since we got here!! Things have been going really great so far.  I feel like Liz & I have gotten a ton accomplished.  Here's my best effort to summarize our time in Gugeegue (pronounced Goo-G-Goo) thus far....

We've spent a couple days in Ebeye so far.  I really like Ebeye already.  There are tons of homes built right next to one another & loads of children running around everywhere, but it's quaint & beautiful in it's own right.  The streets are narrow, but there are only a few that loop around & throughout the island, so it's really hard to get lost-- thank goodness!  We had a nice meal at the Ebeye Hotel & today at La Boujie (To all the other WT vols: yes, there IS a La Boujie here...we can't get rid of it! haha.  To everyone else, we ate La Boujie very frequently during our orientation; it was good, but when you get to order off of their menu for yourself it is so much better).  We tried to go back to the Ebeye Hotel prior to La Boujie, but they were out of bread, bacon & french fries so we had no choice but to look elsewhere.  Their breakfast was amazing!  I ate a pancake with scrambled eggs & BACON.  Really good.  I've been skeptical of meat since being here, but because I don't want to get sick, but bacon is a completely different story.  

We finally went grocery shopping!  I’ve never seen groceries so expensive before; apparently there’s no ‘price control’ here.  I mean, obviously there’s no price control—a box of Franzia costs $30!!!!  This might be a hard year….just kidding, but I was absolutely bamboozled when I saw this.  Luckily, we have found a couple other grocery stores that offer more of a selection of food..and at cheaper prices!  Today we  found a store that had Organic Soy Milk and is right next door to a pizza place-- these were the highlights of our morning.  

Noaki led us to a nice sandy beach on the lagoon-side.  We spent the day snorkeling and reading on the beach.  It was amazing!!  Afterward, we tried to walk to Nge, the next island north of Gugeegue, but the path was blocked.  I guess all you have to do is walk on the reef during low tide to get there.  Hopefully we'll get to do that soon; apparently the snorkeling there is amazing!

I really have no idea what we would do with our neighbors.  We used their laundry machine to do about 8 loads of laundry (majority of the clothes were left behind by the girls from last year…..but were not in any condition to wear without washing/disinfecting).  It was an amazingly productive day.  And now we have about 4 times the wardrobe we did before.  :)  Billy put a hose through my window and now we have a huge tub of full of water in our shower that we can use instead of running back & forth between the other WT apartment.  He even let us use his clothes line and clothes pins.  Good thing we shared some of our beloved cupcakes with them. :)

Anna, for the 3^rd time now, is back in Gugeegue staying with us!  Apparently her supposed host family didn’t want to host, so she came back to Ebeye yesterday and stayed with us.  This morning she left to meet back with her principal’s wife who offered to host her, but by afternoon she was back again.  She’s going to try to get back to Santo on Friday; maybe her room will be built by then?  We’re not really sure.  Anyway…..til then we’re just all being flexible.  (It's Friday now that I'm actually in town putting this online--Anna's actually staying until Monday now.  Haha)

Sadly, we have no working radio on island, so we couldn’t listen in on the WT check-in, where all the outer island volunteers (majority of the others) get an hour on the radio with the field directors and one another.  We’re not included in these check-ins because we are ‘supposed’ to have internet….we don’t, but that hasn’t changed anything yet.  Hopefully one of the two radios on island will get fixed soon; it'd be awesome to hear how everyone else is doing!!

Majority of our nights have been spent making dinner then going out to the beach/sunset/or abandoned ship wreck and watching the sunset.  The sunsets have been unreal!!!  It's been really relaxing to just go sit outside and journal or read and take pictures of the skyline at night.  This will definitely keep me sane during my year.  I'm truly amazed at how beautiful the scenery is.  

School starts Monday (or maybe later...we heard this today, so we're not really sure)!!! Our classrooms were opened yesterday, so we got to check them out and start cleaning/going through everything that was left.  Hopefully we will get the keys soon so we can get into them, clean, and decorate more!!   One of us will be teaching 9^th grade, the other 10^th—we haven’t decided which yet.  I’m still hoping to teach some math and maybe science, too, but for now I’m definitely teaching English.  There are 2 periods for the day based off of the busing schedule from Ebeye-- one period for 9^th & 10^th grades, the other for 11^th & 12^th.  What I’ve gotten so far is that we’ll start teaching at 8:30, or whenever the early wave of buses get here from Ebeye.  I'm looking forward to getting started; and to meeting all of the other teachers at the school!  I think if school doesn't start Monday, we will have a little orientation with Laura & get the run-down on how things work here.  Lots will be happening in the next few days, so I'll be updating as soon as I can!

I hope everyone is doing well where they are.  I miss you all!!

Gugeegue

I got to my island on Saturday!!  It turned into a long day of travel as we spent the night before hanging out with all the other volunteers that we won’t be seeing until the end of December.  I think we ended up going to sleep around 2 or 3am and waking up at 5:30 to finish our last minute packing & get to the airport 2 hours before our flight.  The flight was only 45 minutes long from Majuro to Kwajalein, the US Military base.  The rumors are true—Kwaj is like a mini US suburb.  It’s eerily quiet with very little going on.  While waiting in line to get through customs and then more waiting for our luggage, we met a couple really nice people.  One was a police man on Kwaj that gave us his contact info and told us to call him if we need anything.  Another was a diver/videographer that was on his way to Bikini to shoot the first ever 3-D footage there for German National Geographic (awesome).  After all the waiting, Liz, Anna (she is going to Santo, Kwaj) & I made an immediate B-line to the food court (we heard rumors of Subway & Burger King both being here, so it was obviously our first priority once on island).  The rumors were in fact true & I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before so I was not about to hold myself back.  The 3 of us basically had a fast food buffet for lunch-- my final “American” meal was made of a Subway Melt (Erik, you know what I’m talking about ;) ), Burger King fries & onion rings, and Anthony’s cheese sticks.

Besides eating fast food like savages, we were surrounded by white people wearing American clothes….it felt like home.  Regardless, we stuck out like sore thumbs wearing conservative Marshallese long skirts & muumuus.  This actually played into our favor because everyone knew us as the ‘new WorldTeach volunteers.’  The first person to actually talk to us was the commander of the military base.  He was friendly enough & guided us in the right direction.  From then on we made it to the base headquarters, met more very important military men, and were comforted when every single one made it clear that they were the people to go to if we needed anything at all even when we are out at our placement sites.  I told them that knowing this would make my mom very happy & I’d pass the info along to her.  :)  Additionally, we were thanked for what we came here to do & reminded of how much we are needed in the education system here/how big of a difference we will make.  It was a very nice visit to Kwaj & we left feeling very privileged for having the chance to meet all of those very important people on base.

Next, we were directed to the dock.  The plan was for Liz & I to get onto the military ferry and make our way to Ebeye; Anna would grab her luggage & hop onto another plane to Santo.  Once at the dock, the principal’s wife from Anna’s school was waiting for us.  The new plan was for Anna to spend the night with us in Gugeegue & fly to Santo on Monday (this didn’t really surprise us because all during orientation we were told to ‘be flexible’—mostly, I think I was just excited for Anna to see our new home, too!).  We got on a water taxi with Tonita and stepped onto Ebeye within 15 minutes.  No one on Ebeye/Gugeegue knew Liz & I were coming that day, so there wasn’t any type of “plan” in place.  (This is all really funny, too, because I really LOVE having plans & knowing what’s going on most of the time.  No worries though, I’m already broken in from the last month of chaos and plan changes).  Luckily, things always magically work themselves out here.  Tonita called a man that drives for the high school in Gugeegue (where I’ll be teaching) and we ended up waiting for about an hour for him to come get us.  While waiting, our vice-principal Carl randomly rode up on his bicycle.  We didn’t talk with him much, but again, he was unaware we were coming.  Once our ride showed up, we drove through Ebeye, not seeing much of the island, and got onto the causeway leading to Gugeegue!  The causeway is a gravel/dirt/sandy road about 20 feet wide & filled with potholes.  It is only 6 miles long, but it took us about a half hour to drive it because our driver was very careful to zigzag and avoid majority of the potholes.  As we drove the treacherous road, I was wondering how anyone decided to put 2 large high schools way out on Gugeegue when over 90% of the student population lives on Ebeye.  Last year, the volunteers had to teach their high school students at the elementary school in Ebeye because the buses were broken down.  As of now, the buses are working & classes should be held out here on Gugeegue.  We’ll see how that actually works out when the time comes…..

We finally arrived at our apartment!  It’s one side of a duplex.  Before we even came here we heard that local people call it ‘the castle.’  The apartment hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time; the last 2 volunteers left a ton of books, school papers, clothes, and random things/junk here, but on top of that everything was covered in dust, sand and/or mice feces.  I can’t say we were thrilled, but the apartment is nice & we would have ended up cleaning it before getting settled in anyway.  Again, this is all just a part of us learning to be flexible. :)  We have electricity & air conditioning which is crazy to think about because at times during orientation we had neither (and that’s on the capital island).  The water pump is in the process of getting fixed, so we have no running water & have to get it from across the way.  Currently there is no internet at the school or apartment, but that might also be fixed soon (I really have no idea).  Across the yard are the other WorldTeach apartment (which is empty this year) and a few other homes.  Kiddy-corner from the apartment is the high school.  Further beyond the school are a Catholic high school, a volleyball court, and a few other houses.  There is a gravel road to the left of our apartment that leads straight across the island, from ocean to lagoon.  Ocean-side is mostly rock & coral; on lagoon-side there is a dock where people fish.  The road loops around the island, going by more homes, some pig & chicken coops, the stores, and the church.  That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far, but there’s definitely more walking/exploring to come.

We share the duplex with a Fijian family: Billy, his wife Svioki (who is still in Maj), and their 2 children Grace & Adriel.  Billy was very friendly & welcoming right away; he even brought us filtered drinking water!  Laura & Elfren are a couple from the Philippines; they have been very helpful and friendly so far (and very apologetic for not having our apartment clean when we got here…..they had NO idea when we were even coming, so I feel awful when they apologize).  Christopher, Nelly and their 5 children also live across the yard.  Christopher is one of the two police officers in Gugeegue.  Their son, Jawae, has stopped over everyday since we have gotten here.  He is the nicest little 8-year-old ever.  He has given us a small tour of the island, brought us to the store, and introduced us to another American teacher living here, Tristan, who is from Washington & lives here with his girlfriend.  They are both very friendly & Tristan has offered a lot of advice so I am thankful.  They are moving to Majuro sometime within the next 2 weeks, so I hope to talk with him more because he actually taught at KAHS (where I will be teaching) for 2 years.  So far, all I’ve gotten was that it was ‘rough.’  Naoki is from Japan & will be teaching Math at KAHS.  He has been living here for 6 months and is in the midst of learning both Marshallese & English.  I hope to learn some Japanese from him this year!!  I think I’ve covered everyone we have met so far…

Since in Gugeegue, I haven’t done much other than clean, unpack, walk around the island, and hang out with the kids.  We have yet to go grocery shopping, so we’ve made plenty of trips to the little shops that are about a 2-3 minute walk from the apartment.  Anna has been here for the weekend, so that’s been nice.  I’ve avoided packing and chosen to watch a season of Grey’s Anatomy and play cards with her instead. :)  She was supposed to be picked up at 5pm on Sunday.  Around 9:30, with Anna already snuggled back into our couch, there was a knock on the door.  In our pajamas & non-Marshallese clothes, we answer to Tonita who is now here to pick Anna up.  This is just another example of “Marshallese time.”  We saw her off & now it’s just Liz & I in our little apartment in Gugeegue.  Home sweet home.

Weeks 2 & 3 in summary.....

Laura Beach

We took our first trip to Laura beach!  The weather was gorgeous & the beach was mostly white sand so that was definitely a treat.  Kool-aid + $9 rum=who would have thought that’d be a drinkable mix J  I even tested out the dry bag for my camera & was able to get some decent pictures while snorkeling.  This trip was just what we needed to relax before our long week of classes & teaching.

Dinner at the US Embassy

            I’m thinking this is just a ‘formality’ for all of the American teachers that come here.  I mean, I’ll take a nice pizza dinner & a cool Marshallese flag pin, but other than that, I just felt 'somewhat special' for about 40 minutes until they abruptly rushed us out of there.  On top of that, I couldn't even take my camera beyond security to document the experience.  :)

Practicum

            After all of our teaching lessons, Practicum week finally came.  We have been working in groups the past week trying to plan a unit to teach from Wednesday to Friday.  This “Practicum” is advertised on the radio as a summer day camp, and any students were encouraged to come.  If there weren’t enough students, our field directors used candy to gather more (this is funny and would be totally creepy in the states, but it’s not here J ).  I was in a group with all of the teachers that will be teaching at high schools.  We were to teach independently for an hour and a half.  The first day, we had 7 students all of which were males.  This group was comprised of 1 guy that had already graduated from high school, 4 guys that were definitely over high school age & had never attended school, and 2 men that were over the age of 40.  Based on this, we definitely did not have a realistic high school setting to teach in & get practice in.  Additionally, on the first day we were told we needed to end our lesson a half hour early.  We got no warning of this prior to starting our lesson for the day, so you can imagine how caught off guard we were.  After day 1 being behind us, things started to get better.  6 of the 7 men showed up for class everyday, they were much less shy, and classes went more smoothly as they began to participate.  I taught on day 2 of the Practicum; things went well for me.  Day 3 was the best of all because we finally got some actual high school students!

Mid-Service Extravaganza

      This celebration concluded our week of Practicum....with a bang.  The 'extravaganza' was held at the "China Restaurant" (a Chinese Restaurant, with outside decor of half-buoys plastered all over the building).  The food was decent, but the karaoke was definitely the most amazing part of the night.  Our field director, Todd, really belts it out on the mic.  Mariah Carey & Celine Dion have got nothing on him....honestly.  

Teacher Appreciation Dinner

     This means free food & open bar at the Marshall Islands Resort.  Here we saw nearly every 'ripalle' on the island, networked some, and just let loose!  A few of us stayed a little later after the bus took the rest of the group back.  This entailed karaoke & some random man giving me his little baby girl that he had in the bar with him.  Marshallese babies are SO CUTE.  I held her for maybe 2 hours (in the bar) -- him & his wife were totally okay with it.  Apparently, small Marshallese children cry at the sight of ripalles; this girl loved me instantly (this makes me feel special).  I offered my babysitting services to them in December while I'm back on island for mid-service....we'll see if that goes anywhere.  haha.

Enemanit

      On Sunday a small group of us took a boat (called ‘The Boom Boom’) to Enemanit, a smaller island on the Majuro Atoll.  There were teachers from the Co-op school, including some past WorldTeach volunteers, and a large Marshallese family.  We got connected to this trip by randomly hitchhiking with a friend of the boat owner, who told us to call him up & try to get in on his Sunday trip.  Mission accomplished.  The island was beautiful-- much cleaner & smaller than Majuro.  We explored a little of the island which was filled with pigs, chickens & jungle.  We fetched some coconuts, drank the water & ate the meat, and saw a small pig being prepared for Sunday dinner….a little glimpse into what the ‘outer island’ life might be like.  We spent the rest of the day eating Marshallese foods & snorkeling.  The coral & fish near this island are gorgeous.  There’s even a sunken plane there that we snorkeled by.  Great day!

Alright, week 3

     It really feels like we've been here much longer than we really have.  I think we are all just very eager to get to our islands & start settling in.  All week we have been busy with our final language lessons, speakers, and other random events that WT schedules for us.  We had a community fair this week-- some local non-profits & organizations came to talk to us/give us more info & resources on the actions that they support in the RMI. I was really excited to see two conservation groups--1 for water & 1 for overall conservation of species & wildlife.  I really am hoping to be able to teach a science class at my high school, but if that doesn't work out I plan to start an Environmental or Conservation Club at the school.  Additionally, some of the groups that were represented cover sexual education, domestic violence, substance abuse, and diabetes--all huge issues here in the RMI.  I hope to incorporate all of this information into my curriculum during the year--especially in the Girls' Club that Liz (my roommate) & I plan to start :)

      The highlight of our final week in Majuro was definitely the 'End of Service Event.'  This was held at Majuro Bowling, nothing more than a closed bowling alley (only opened by request) that got flooded in the last few months.  Either way, we bowled (30 of us on 2 lanes), I broke my lifetime record of 60, and I beat the two other people I played against!  Oooh Ohhh!  Don't worry- we didn't hitchhike, we rode back with Todd......blasting Ke$ha the entire way.  I couldn't get enough.

     We were scheduled for a language lesson yesterday, but our language instructors decided to teach us how to climb coconut trees; how to husk & open coconuts; how to eat pandanus; and how to weave baskets, windmills & balls out of coconut tree leaves--another perfect day to end our stay in Majuro.

     To be honest, the last 2 days have been a little hard.  Volunteers have started leaving Ajeltake & going to their placement sites.  It sounds crazy, but in the past 3 weeks I've made some amazing friends that I feel like I've known for years.  Tonight is the final goodbye as Liz & I leave for Gugeegue, Kwajalein bright & early in the morning.  I hope to have internet access on a more regular basis than what I've had, so plan on getting more updates in the near future.  (A special shout out to Mandy- Steph gave me your email so I can keep you updated on how she's doing!!  We will talk soon :) )

   

 I love & miss you all!

Majuro!!!!

I’m here & alive!!!  It’s been far too long without writing and so much has happened, so here is my best effort in briefly over viewing the past 2 and a half weeks.  I’ll start with my first week here……

It’s been quite the road to getting here so far.  I left Milwaukee on Tuesday morning, flew to LAX, and waited there for 6 hours until all of the other volunteers showed up.  It was pretty easy to pick them out of the crowd, as they were all overloaded with bags.  From LAX we left for Honolulu.  It was night time & we were all exhausted (as it was 4 AM Central time) so getting to the hotel room to sleep was my top priority.  We left the hotel at 4AM the following morning to get to the airport.  Our flight left Honolulu 2 hours later & landed in Majuro early on Thursday, July 21^st (we missed out on Wednesday due to the time change).  Landing was an adventure in and of itself, as at some points you could only see water beneath the plane and no land.  At the airport we met our field directors Todd & Laura, who both were volunteers last year, and 3 volunteers that came early from Australia.  Right from there we were on our way to the Ajeltake Elementary School where we are living for the 3 weeks of orientation.  The bus was running late, so instead we piled into 2 pick-up trucks and a van…all 26 of us & ALL of our luggage.  At the school there are 3 classrooms for us to sleep in:  one is all girls while the other two are co-ed.  We each set up our individual sleeping mats & got situated.  After unloading, we went to walk around and explore the beach.  The ocean side is 30 feet behind the school, and the lagoon side is across the street behind people’s homes—the rumors are true, it does only take about 2 or 3 minutes to walk from one side to another.  To get there, you just walk through their yards—no big deal.  The beaches are coral, and there is very little sand.  There are stray dogs, chickens, and pigs all over the place.  The main amenities at the school are bathrooms (equipped with cockroaches, but lacking toilet seats) electricity, and bucket showers.  We also have a cell phone to share among the 30 of us (011-692-456-7609….call me J).  That number will actually be mine & my roommates for the year once I get to Gugeegue, as the volunteer from last year left it for us!   

We went to town on day #2!  Ajeltake is about 45 minutes from town-- taxis are rare out there, but hitchhiking as completely acceptable.  You either flag a car down or jump into the back of a pick-up truck.  There are speed bumps in front of the school we live at, so that gives people no choice but to slow down & acknowledge us.  Some stop to pick us up but there are those who just slowly drive past.  Majuro is busy but small and is packed with houses and small businesses.  At points you can see both the lagoon & ocean.  The people seem friendly, but are very shy.  Some ask if we are WorldTeach/which islands we will be on, while others just stare.  I bought some essentials from town: a hand fan (best purchase yet), a brush (to scrub my laundry), and a Guam dress (we can wear these when we swim and while we are at Ajeltake, but in town they aren’t the most appropriate).  As a girl, it is best to have both your shoulders & knees covered at all times.  It is also highly recommended that we always wear slips or basketball shorts under our dresses or skirts.  Majuro is a little more lax on these customs, but the outer islands are more traditional. 

Our schedule is pretty jam packed full of language lessons, group talks, and teaching lessons.  My Marshallese is improving, but we’re all still not totally adjusted to the time change, so all the information is hard to keep straight.  We have had some free time, and we were able to go for a swim in the lagoon.  The water is very pretty but not super clear.  At times you’ll randomly swim into a garbage bag, diaper, or other random trash people throw in the water.  There is no trash system here anymore as the dump got full and is no longer open.  As a result, people have trash pits in there yards, usually on the edge of the beach. 

On Saturday night, we went out on the town (despite any advice that it may not be safe for us ‘ripalles’).  At first there were about 10 of us that wanted to go.  After it started to rain and numerous hitchhiking attempts were unfulfilled, the number slowly dwindled down to 6.  At one point, a pick-up truck pulled over to pick us up, but once a couple of us were halfway into the bed of the truck, we noticed something big in the back-- a sea turtle to be exact.  We were all shocked and decided not to accept the offer; plus I doubt all 10 of us could fit back there with the huge thing.  Eventually, a taxi came by and we got into town.  We decided to go to the RRE hotel/Tide Table Restaurant, as that would probably be the safest.  Sure enough we saw one of our field directors there along with two of the guys that had come to speak to us at Ajeltake.  Guess it’s safe enough. J

            It already feels like we’ve been here a decent amount of time already.  Everyone knows who we are & where we are living.  People even call the WorldTeach office if they see us around town--word travels very quickly here.  So far, I’m really enjoying myself though.  It’s nice to be around all the other volunteers for the time being, but I’m anxious to get to my island, start settling in, and stop living out of my luggage!