Jenny's visit

Jenny came for a 6 day visit. We did a lot of stuff-Laura beach, Eneko for one night, home visits, and just general sight seeing stuff. Jenny said she had a good time, I hope I was a good tour guide :-)

When she was here, I realized how much I have adopted the "island life".  Time does not have much meaning here and I have become used to living in the moment, not worrying about the time.  Just a realization I had.  

I got my fourth tattoo while she was here.  It took 2 hours and only cost $90.  I am sill in awe of the price! 

Out of respect for Marshallese culture, I won't post the full picture til I return to the mainland.  For now, this will do... 

The curves represent wind/water and the phrase (Enaaj emman) means "everything will be ok".  I wanted something to represent my life here for the past year.  I really love it and want to look at it all day! Ha!

Climate Change

Last week, we had nonstop rain for 5 straight days along with strong winds.  We were informed that it is a possibility that a typhoon would form.  Thankfully, nothing major happened here in the Marshall Islands but my thoughts go out to the people in Vanuatu.  The storm started here and went down to Vanuatu.  During orientation, we learned that storms usually start here before moving out to sea, but there have been times when storms hit the Marshall Islands.  Thankfully, World Teach has a plan to keep us safe in emergencies, both natural and man made.  The Field Director called a Stage 1 (be prepared to meet up, pack up a bag with a few clothes and necessities).  Stage 2 means to go somewhere on island and stay with a group.  Stage 3 means to evacuate to somewhere else in the country and Stage 4 means to evacuate to America.  We never moved to stage 2, thankfully.

I found this link (Climate change in pictures) on Facebook and shared it but thought it would be a good match for this blog post.  There are some pictures of the Marshall Islands on the bottom of the link.  Those pictures are near where I stay in the dorms.

Climate Change is very real and happening here... Coral Reefs are dying, water levels are rising, and temperatures are getting hotter.  There is a good Marshallese poet who writes about issues impacting the Marshall Islands.  She spoke at the United Nations Climate Summit this past Fall and got a standing ovation.  Go to this link (Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner) to read her poems.  By the way, her mother is the Minister of Education.

Namdrik

There are only two hospitals for the entire Marshall Islands region. One is in majuro and the other is in ebeye/Kwajalein I believe.  All the other islands have a clinic with a nurse practitioner who treats conditions to the best of their ability. If a person's condition is too great for a nurse practitioner, they will come to Majuro to get treated at the hospital.  

The ministry of health also sends teams to the outer islands periodically (at least once a year) to do well baby checks, immunizations, health/nutrition education, etc.  Chinilla and I got invited to go to some atolls to do hearing screenig and see deaf children on the islands. The one that finally worked out was namdrik and we went there on Monday. I was very excited because there are two volunteers on island and they had told me that there are two deaf children that they know of. 

We boarded a two propeller plane with about 24 seats run by Air Marshall Islands and flew over to Namdrik.  The plane ride took 50 minutes over mostly the blue ocean. We flew over two other islands/atolls. 

Bye Majuro!  It is from the airport looking towards Rairok, Delap and Rita.

Can you see the land through the clouds?

Jaluit atoll! (Hey to Taylor, Veronika and John!)

Then we spotted a small island.  It was Kili island!  I didn't realize that it was so close to Jaluit. It is a bit hard to see in the pictures because it is so small haha.

Look to your left of the propeller almost exactly in the middle of the picture.  That is Kili.  Close up pic below. 

Approaching Namdrik.  I was so surprised to see so many trees on the island, compared to Majuro. 

The water looks so clean! 

I also tried to find the runway.... Nope... Landed on a strip of grass. 

Off the plane! 

When we got off the plane and walked to the "airport", a bunch of people (police officers, etc) walked towards us and shook our hands. 

Damn, I have to bring the life jacket with me.  World teach requires us to have a life jacket and beacon anytime we travel on a boat.  I was hoping I could leave the life jacket on the plane.  

Welcome to the airport which is basically one room building with bathrooms. 

Then we got on a boat to go across the lagoon to the village.  The airport is about 5 miles away from the village on a dirt road through the "jungle".

Of course I had to get "christened".  While getting on the boat (pontoon boat), my shoe came off in the water and then I slipped when I put weight on the foot without the shoe and gave myself a nice bump on my shin.  That is Namdrik' gift to me, haha. 

Namdrik's lagoon and pontoon boat

Namdrik' postal service. Packages come on planes a few times a week, then it is put on a wagon, loaded onto the boat and delivered to residents.  Everyone knows when planes come so they wait by the water to see if they got any mail. 

Sailing over the crystal clear waters across the lagoon on plastic lawn chairs 

A selfie!

You can see the village in the distance. 

Village with a welcoming committee of children and adults. I immediately found the two volunteers.  The guy has a white tank top and red/white hat, the lady has a blue floral dress.  They are standing near the yellow building. 

They were very surprised to see me.  They were standing there because they were waiting for some packages to arrive.  They were very excited to show me their life on island.  I saw their home, their school (see below), and just the village. 

They also pointed out the two deaf children immediately, who were surprise, surprise, waiting to see who came to visit. 

About 400 people live in this atoll.  There used to be about 1,000 but most of them moved to America. 

Dirt road through the island, this view goes towards the airport. There is only one vehicle on the island and it was broken when we arrived so that is why we rode the boat. Most people get by on bikes. (See below)

We worked in this building.  It is a community center and the clinic is right behind it in cream/maroon colored building. 

People waiting for their turn in the community center to get whatever they need done. 

Chinilla doing hearing screening on a baby in a clinic room.

Deaf girl! Tolplynn.  She was fascinated by me but also shy (like most Marshallese people).  She would nod her head anytime I tried to get her to sign so finally I just pointed to her hands and had her copy me. At the end of the day, she wouldn't leave my side and had learned maybe 10 signs! 

Rebekah teaching middle school students the alphabet. They were very excited to spell their names to me. 

The girl in the blue shirt is Deaf.  The girl in orange shirt is her classmate I think.  They both were glued to me all day. 

Namdrik Elementary school.  It is k-8 school, there is no high school on island. High school students go to Jaluit high school. 

Another view of the path. See two poles with a rectangular thing on top? It is solar panels.  Most homes are powered by solar electricity on Namdrik. 

2 Deaf kids and I... The boy is quite hilarious, very theatrical.  He is able to communicate with people using gestures and is very easy to get along with.  He did know a few signs.  He watched us teach the alphabet and show some children how to spell their names.  He understood that we were talking about names and would point to different people to get their names spelled out.  Finally, I pointed to him and asked "what".  He didn't know so I found out his name and taught him how to spell his name.  He was thrilled and memorized it after one try. At the end of the day, I had Chinilla ask him and he spelled it all by himself.  He was very proud. 

One of the last babies we tested's mom has an older brother who is deaf.  I asked her about him, seems like he does not have any formal language.  I wanted to see him, but she said he lives too far from the village to be able to go and come back quickly.  

Just some Namdrik kids.

Kids on dock waiting for us to leave.

 Bye Namdrik! :-(

Thanks for a great day!

Back to the airport

Shot of the full plane 

As we were leaving the village, Chinilla saw the pilot standing among the residents (argh!) so we had to wait at the plane til he was ready to leave.  Thankfully it wasn't too long of a wait.  Welcome to Marshall Islands! 

Waiting... Group shot

I really enjoyed myself seeing how the people on outer islands live.  There are only two "stores" that sell canned meat, personal items, and some candy.  There is no phone or Internet service although some of the other outer islands do have Internet service.  

We all were exhausted and most people slept on the plane ride back.  I couldn't sleep because I was too excited to see what I would find in the water underneath me (nothing major). I took a good cold shower when I got back to my room.  It was very hot with very little breeze so we all were soaked within 15 minutes of arriving 

Ekiden

Ekiden is a Japanese style relay race.  The Embassy of Japan hosted the first annual Majuro Ekiden.  Schools from the entire island had teams of 18 people running different distances, including children (running short distances).  10 schools in total participated.  The race started at Laura, and ended at Delap park after going close to Rita, the other end of the island.

When I first found out about this race, I was excited and wanted to participate, then I found out that teams went by school.  I got a little worried because my school would not be participating due to the small number of students.  No one contacted me asking me to join their team (childhood all over again haha) and I asked some people I knew who would be running. No response so I signed up to volunteer figuring that I would be involved somehow  if I would not be run if.  When I sent that email asking to volunteer, I mentioned that I would prefer to run but couldn't find a team, madness started. 

I sent that email last Saturday, got a response telling me to call someone (Carlon) cuz some schools were still looking for runners.  On Monday I called the number and he told me that Uliga school was still looking for a runner and at the same time the woman I originally emailed told me that Laura was still looking for a runner so I emailed both schools, no response from either person so I emailed Carlon on Wednesday telling him that neither school responded. He told me he signed me up with the Uliga team running 1.5 miles.  I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping to run a longer distance but at least I would be running.  I asked him for information, he told me that Uliga team would have a meeting.  On Friday (day before the race), I emailed Carlon again telling him that the captain hasn't told me details of the race (what time and where to meet), he told me that Uliga already found someone else but that Delap was still looking for someone.  That was at 415, schools close at 5 so Chinilla called Delap school, the school said they would look for the person responsible and call us back.  By 430, no call yet so we decided to drive to the school and find him.  He was not hard to find and I signed up to do the 17th leg, 2.5 miles.  Good thing the island is small enough to be able to arrive to the school before 5!  We agreed to meet at 6:30 where he would pick me up. 

So I met him at 6:30 the next morning.  He drove me to Delap park where all the other teams were meeting and they rode onto buses to their legs of the race.  Since I was close to the end, he told me to come back around 11 at my leg starting place.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to go for a little run before the run.  I ran 4.5 miles, finally had a good run because I have been sick for a while. 

It was time to go to my leg starting spot. I arrived, and waited 2 hours with the other women.  Finally the runners from leg 16 were on their way.  Laura team came first, with a 3 mile lead.  Then coop, then Woja, then Ajeltake, then Assumption, then it was my turn.  I steered running in 6th place and ended my leg in 4th place.  I stayed after I was done to see the final leg runners come in.  I never saw the final Delap runner come in. I left after 8 runners came in, and saw the 9th on the road.  No Delap.  I hope he is ok. 

The Laura runner for leg 16 is another volunteer and when he came in, he told me that the Laura team wanted me on their team but found out I was on the Uliga team.  Sorry, Laura team!  If I had known I would have joined Laura team. 

I have a bib from the Marshall Islands to add to my collection!  05 is school number and 17 is leg number. 

Large group of young boys (interestingly, no girls) waiting at start area with us. 

They had this chart telling people which team was where and in which place.  So cool to see the changes!

Placements after my leg.  Notice that Laura already finished the race before I came in!

I ran past Delap school on my leg and many kids/staff members were there cheering me on. It was nice to get that support.  There were also people on the side of the street close to the end of my leg watching and cheering us.  I saw one of the babies that I do home visits for.  He was confused to see me.  Haha. 

The end for legs number 17 and 18 was at Delap park.  I got some food and waited for the last leg runners to come in.  While waiting, I saw one of my students from my kindergarten class and the brother of another child I do home visits for.  This island truly is small and I bump into people I know all the time. 

I enjoyed myself at the race.  I will post more pictures if I find any more from other people. 

Sick

The sick bug finally caught me.  I think I have the flu along with the cold and bronchitis.. Just everything bundled together at once.  I went to the doctor and he took a minute look at my throat and then gave me Azithromac without looking at anything else.  I hope that the medicine will make everything go away soon!  I hate being sick. 

Wōn (turtle)

There are sea turtles all over the region although I have yet to see one.  I hope to see one before I leave.

The Marshallese people eat turtles at big events such as a kemen (baby's first birthday), funerals, etc... We were warned during orientation that if we see a turtle lying upside down on their shell on land, we have to leave it alone although we would want to turn it back right side up and let it go.  It is a dishonor to Marshallese people if we did that.  Fortunately I haven't seen any upside down turtles or been served turtle meat.  People on the outer islands have talked about their experience with that. 

On Saturday, I was riding in the back of a truck to get to Laura beach.  While riding through Ajeltake, I saw four men carry a turtle onto the bed of a pick up truck.  It was already dead and upside down.  I was thrilled to finally see a turtle outside of aquariums and zoos.  I still hope to see a live turtle in its natural habitat. 

6 months!

1/2 of the year... How did it arrive so quickly?!? 3 months until I return to America...

Some highlights of the month:

-my birthday 

-yoga

-irooj funeral

-Chinese new year-made dumplings and spring rolls

-baseball game

-saw a turtle (dead one-more on that later)

-first time being sick here

I read 10 books this month, including "Gone Girl"... Still reeling from that book!

For the next month anniversary, Jenny will have come and left! Her visit is gettig closer and closer!