I went to Arno last weekend. I typed a long blog post but then my old phone ran out of battery and died when I was close to finishing! Argh so I lost everything. Finally getting around to typing it again. I will try to remember everything that I typed.
There are several volunteers living in Arno and since it's the closest atoll to majuro, a few of us wanted to go there for a visit. It is a hour long boat ride that goes there and comes back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The limited schedule means that we would be missing some days of school so we had to get approval to go. We got approval and waited for the day to come. The day finally came and we took off to the dock to board the boat. It cost $13 one way.
The boat that goes to Arno.
Ariel and I on the hull waiting to go
People boarding the boat. The boat was full of people and their cargo (food, drinks, and jugs of gas). Arno does not really have a food store or gas station. They have mom and pop shops that sell a few things like rice and spam but not food stores.
Loading the truck with copra (coconut from the outer islands that is made into coconut oil or coconut items here).
Close up of tuna boat. You can see the net hanging from the back of the boat and the helicopter on the front of the boat.
We went under the bridge. I was so excited to go under the bridge!
Then it was the big blue ocean as far as the eye can see. I wanted to sit on the hull of the boat for the entire trip but after about 5 minutes I decided to go to the middle of the boat because it was too rocky and water would splash on me.
Sitting in the middle of the boat. I was still getting wet and becoming cold because of the shade.
The other passengers of the boat
See the video of the rocky boat ride
Finally, Arno in the horizon!
Map of Arno... You can see the dock (Arno) on the left part of the map. We went to Matolen, Ine and Japo (villages along the bottom central part of the map. Arno is more spread out than Majuro, but it is too narrow to live on for the most part.
Unloading the boat. You can see some of the canisters of gas and coolers.
We waited for our bags to arrive and boarded a truck that one of the volunteers sent for us. There are no taxis in Arno like there are in majuro. There is only one dirt road connecting the villages.
See how people work together to unload the boat. It is always fascinating to watch how they work together.
From the cab of the truck
Of croutes I grabbed the opportunity tosit in the back of the truck. It was a very bumpy and long ride.
Remember the gas jugs that rode on the boat with us to Arno... That's how the residents get their gas since there are no gas stations.
Road. Arno has much more trees than Majuro.
We arrived Matolen after about 1 1/2 hours. Of course I went to check out the beach shortly after arriving.
The volunteer in Matolen was still at school and would be home shortly. I decided to stretch out my legs and take a Jambo (walk) to her school. It took 20 minutes.
School! 1st-8th graders go to school here.
7/8th grade classroom. There are 9 students in that classroom. The kids are just the kids that stayed after school, not the actual students.
Children. They were fascinated by me, another "ribelle" (white person)
It was time to relax. I jumped (literally-it was about waist level on me) onto a hammock and just enjoyed the sights, then fell asleep for a bit.
On Saturday, we spent most of the day relaxing and catching up while it rained.
Host mother cooking us pancakes for breakfast. The coconut shells and husks are used to start fire.
Host sister, the cutest thing around. She was fascinated with my camera. She liked to look at things through the viewfinder
Sitting around waiting for the rain to pass
It's not often that you find a pig on a beach!
When the rain stopped, we walked from the host family home to the end of the main island (before the small island)
Two guys walked past us with a bunch of fish and squid on their bike. They had just finished spear fishing. They invited us over for dinner but it was too dark by the time we walked back home.
Wherever we go, we are sure to find Marshallese children who are curious about ribelles (Americans) and just join us for the walk.
The water was too high for us to walk over to the other islands so we didn't.
The sunset was starting as we started to walk back. We walked back to the host family in the dark and were too exhausted to walk the other 45 minutes to the next village like we planned to so we all stayed over another night in Matolen.
This is how Arno gets their electricity. All homes have solar power that was donated by Taiwan.
Time to walk 45 minutes to the next village (Ine) for lunch.
Beautiful water and trees
"Kitchen" area. Most kitchens are outside of the houses,
Teaching another volunteer the alphabet while waiting for our lunch to be ready
How coconuts are husked. The black thing sticking from the ground in the middle of the unhusked coconut pile has a sharp edge.
Close up of the tool to husk coconuts.
We walked over to the third village-Japo.
Resting after all that walking.
Fido dug a hole in the sand for its back legs to go in then lied on the beach.
Playing with different settings on my camera and love how this pic turned out
!
Getting limes from the lime tree
Japo school
Kids
There are huge holes like this all over Arno. Some holes like this can also be found on Majuro (not as many as on arno). People use it to burn trash.
While waiting for the truck to come drive us to the dock, I took a short walk and fido came with me!
It was raining when the truck came to get us and the cab was full so we sat in the back holding a tarp to cover ourselves and our bags. Island style, yo
Bye Arno!
Hello Majuro!
The boat ride to Majuro was much more calmer and smoother. I read my book on the boat while other people slept.
Arno is much more cleaner and less populated than Majuro. I enjoyed my weekend there!
One thing I found interesting is that although 3 volunteers live on the same island, all 3 have very different living situations. One has a bedroom inside another larger room, another has a small 2 room "apartment" while another has a room in a 3 bedroom house. Two houses have an outhouse, while one house has a bathroom inside the house. Family dynamics is also very different for the families that I saw. Just interesting..
Thanks for a great weekend, Arno!
