I am back in the Marshall Islands again! Only for two weeks this time though. I am fortunate to be able to continue my work with EHDI and to be able to see Chinilla and the families I worked with last year. This time, I am bringing someone special with me-Chris! I am excited for him to see what life was like for me last year although we hadn't met yet.
We were able to get a direct flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu which cut down on our travel time. We left Las Vegas at 2 am, arrived in Hawaii at 5 am with three hours to spare until our flight to Majuro. Of course I slept the entire way. Chris slept a little bit.
We ate at Starbucks and walked to our gate. We sat at our gate looking for Chinilla who would be on the same plane as us. The plane took off from Honolulu and of course I slept the entire way. Chris watched a movie on his laptop.
We could only see the ocean for miles, then we could see the turquoise waters. We were finally back in Majuro! Once we got off the plane, the heat and humidity hits you like a wall. Some things will never change!
We went through "immigration" and got our stamps, then waited for our bags.
We saw some people I knew from my volunteering days including Chinilla's family and two former volunteers who were there to pick up the new field director for WorldTeach. Chinilla was able to give us a ride back to the hotel with a few stops along the way to grab lunch at a bbq shack and get internet activated on our phone/laptop.
The rest of Saturday was spent at the hotel resting from our long trip and jet lag. We walked to the food store to get some snacks, grabbed dinner at Tide Table (BBQ bacon and cheese hamburger) and watched the sunset then went to bed. We both were pooped!
It is so good to be back. I felt like I never really left. Many people were surprised and happy to see me. One thing that I was sad to see is that the shoreline of RRE is damaged from the bad storm that hit Majuro in the fall. I will post a picture of that in another post.
Sunday
We woke up a bit early due to jet lag, so we were the first people to get breakfast at Tide Table. We decided to get a regular American breakfast because Chris did not know how his body would handle Marshallese food.
After breakfast, I decided to show Chris around the island before going to Eneko. I showed him all of Rita up until a bit before the bridge. I was told to rent a car because I wouldn't be reimbursed for taxi fares. I was terrified at the thought of driving in Majuro although the speed limit is 35 due to children and dogs running across the road. It wasn't bad driving in Majuro after all!
We got back to the hotel and got ready for our day trip to Eneko island. It was so nice being able to ride on a boat without having to bring a life jacket or beacon!
The day was spent swimming, visiting our fish family (they asked about you, Abby and said a big hello!), "hiking" through the "jungle" and just relaxing on the hammock.
(https://youtu.be/dUP2yEmPxJU for mobile users)
(https://youtu.be/zb795l5ODAw for mobile users)
(https://youtu.be/Eugz7hICDcc for mobile users)
(https://youtu.be/P0hmJ9ddyRg for mobile users)
We rode a working boat back to Majuro. The clouds started getting dark and it poured just after we got on the boat.. Lucky! Of course we didn't leave til 30 minutes later due to Marshallese time. We arrived to our hotel, took a shower and ate dinner at... Tide Table! 😱. I had a tuna salad, yum! We drove to my favorite spot to watch a sunset and watched the sunset.
On our way back to the room, we saw a huge coconut crab on the sidewalk! Or maybe it was a huge hermit crab... Whatever it was, it was huge! The biggest crab I have seen on land here!
Monday
Today begins the reason I am here-to work with the EHDI program. I spent the morning planning for my next two weeks here. In the mornings, we will alternate two groups: 0-24 months and 2-5 year olds, both coming to school twice a week. We will be doing home visits in the afternoons visiting 1-2 families per day.
We ate lunch at Riwut where Chris got to sample some local delicacies such as sashimi (raw tuna mixed with lime and soy sauce), fried fish, Jakarta (coconut sap), iu (coconut and condensed milk food), and a fish eyeball 😳. See the video! I couldn't even watch him eat it.
(https://youtu.be/8_M47913wiI for mobile users)
We drove to two children's houses to let them know that we would be starting school because Chinilla couldn't reach them on the phone, then we drove to Ajeltake where I was able to see the girl who I developed a connection with last year. I was very relieved to see that she remembered me. She smiled and ran to me for a hug. When we left, she seemed sad. 😢.
After the visit, we went to Chinilla's mother in law's house to see her 2 month old baby. She is a sweetie! Chris even got to hold her for a bit!
The rest of the afternoon was spent cooling off and relaxing until it was time to see the sunset..
Time for bed and a new day tomorrow of school and home visits!
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