Right under the date she has written 7:00 pm on the beach at sunset! :)
Hi everyone... It is one week into my adventure & I've come to 2 important realizations. First, it is time consuming to write letters and second, the Marshall Islands requires us to use official RMI stamps and they are very hard to come by! They are having a stamp shortage! I've decided to write one letter & have asked my mom to send it out. (this is why I am doing the blog). I will respond to personal letters privately!
I got my first batch of mail today! (The field directors bring our mail from town every Monday and Thursday. We are about 45 minutes out of town. ) it was like Christmas and made my day! When I head to my island I fear there will be a much longer delay.
Okay, on to the good stuff! RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands) is the most beautiful place I've ever been. There are palm trees & pandana trees all over with a nice mixture of other island plants that make for beautiful scenery. Add in the lagoon which is an amazing clear blue and has splotches of green a mile or so away where tiny islands of the atoll sit, and the ocean which runs into the sky & it's pretty amazing. I can't complain. I frequently sit on the coral beaches & watch the sunset with Cornelia and chat about our current adventure.
Side note from Mom(Shauna)...When she met Cornelia in Los Angeles, there was an instant bond between them. Heidi told us they are like soul mates.
I haven't been swimming too often yet. Orientation keeps us busy from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with short breaks for swimming or sleeping or eating. I've been swimming lagoon side a few times and encountered my first jelly fish. SCARY! I haven't been been swimming ocean side yet because I fear what might be lurking in the water. Only a few people have ventured out ocean side and every one of them have seen multiple sharks! I imagine the snorkeling is amazing but I'm going to have to wait to go with some locals on Maleolap so they can take care of me.
Besides the beauty I'm surrounded by, my next favorite thing about the RMI is the clothes! The girls were advised not to bring much from home because we could buy everything here for a decent price. Clothes are more expensive than I'd like but shopping sure is fun. We get to wear skirts, guam's and mumu's plus a slip (so we don't show the silhouette of our legs) and it really isn't bad. The guams are my favorite because they are the coolest and most comfy and have a pocket for my much needed chapstick! :) The clothes are made from the obnoxious designed material and Carnelia and I have made a point to find the worst designs possible to add to our wardrobe.
We have to take bucket shower which I love! Don't get me wrong, I'll enjoy a real shower when I get one in 11 months, but for now I enjoy my cold bucket of water. We talked to Heidi on the phone and she said they have made a few shower stalls with something like a pallet for the floor and then put some poles up and hung tarps around them. She said it is really hot in them during the day so she takes her bucket shower at night. She can look up and see all the stars and it is a little cooler. We also have to do our laundry old-school style by hand. What a task! Actually, the hardest part about laundry is getting my clothes to dry! The humidity here is out of control!!! I'm sure the humidity is at 200 % every minute of the day!! Keeping that in mind and the fact that it rains at least 10 times a day, you can imagine air drying my clothes is challenging. This brings me back to guam's, they dry fast! Maybe 2 hours in the sun and they're ready to wear!
If any of you were wondering, Marshallese is hard!! I can listen and read it fairly well considering my short exposure, but I can't pronounce it well at all. I think I struggle with because, they have sounds that my mouth doesn't know how to make.
Another challenge here is the food. OH MY GOODNESS! Initially we weren't fed traditional food, but it is slowly being put into our diets. I've had fried fish, deep fried fish (like chicken nuggets but fish nuggets) grilled fish and raw fish. I've also had coconut rice, pumpkin rice, plain rice and cold rice. I've tried them all but really only liked the plain rice so far. Octopus has been offered but I didn't have the guts to try that yet. I've had coconut milk('ll grow to like it because it is a crucial part of my diet in 2 1/2 weeks and fresh pandanas. (I'll grow to like that as well) and to top it off breadfruit! We've had breadfruit prepared a couple of ways but I've only liked one so far. They fry them and make chips out of the slices and boy are they tasty! Go figure. Don't worry, I'm not starving yet.
All in all, this has been a great experience. Everyone here is excited to start teaching but we all dread the day (Aug 13 or 14) we go to our islands. We know that is when our challenges will really begin!
I haven't been swimming too often yet. Orientation keeps us busy from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with short breaks for swimming or sleeping or eating. I've been swimming lagoon side a few times and encountered my first jelly fish. SCARY! I haven't been been swimming ocean side yet because I fear what might be lurking in the water. Only a few people have ventured out ocean side and every one of them have seen multiple sharks! I imagine the snorkeling is amazing but I'm going to have to wait to go with some locals on Maleolap so they can take care of me.
Besides the beauty I'm surrounded by, my next favorite thing about the RMI is the clothes! The girls were advised not to bring much from home because we could buy everything here for a decent price. Clothes are more expensive than I'd like but shopping sure is fun. We get to wear skirts, guam's and mumu's plus a slip (so we don't show the silhouette of our legs) and it really isn't bad. The guams are my favorite because they are the coolest and most comfy and have a pocket for my much needed chapstick! :) The clothes are made from the obnoxious designed material and Carnelia and I have made a point to find the worst designs possible to add to our wardrobe.
We have to take bucket shower which I love! Don't get me wrong, I'll enjoy a real shower when I get one in 11 months, but for now I enjoy my cold bucket of water. We talked to Heidi on the phone and she said they have made a few shower stalls with something like a pallet for the floor and then put some poles up and hung tarps around them. She said it is really hot in them during the day so she takes her bucket shower at night. She can look up and see all the stars and it is a little cooler. We also have to do our laundry old-school style by hand. What a task! Actually, the hardest part about laundry is getting my clothes to dry! The humidity here is out of control!!! I'm sure the humidity is at 200 % every minute of the day!! Keeping that in mind and the fact that it rains at least 10 times a day, you can imagine air drying my clothes is challenging. This brings me back to guam's, they dry fast! Maybe 2 hours in the sun and they're ready to wear!
If any of you were wondering, Marshallese is hard!! I can listen and read it fairly well considering my short exposure, but I can't pronounce it well at all. I think I struggle with because, they have sounds that my mouth doesn't know how to make.
Another challenge here is the food. OH MY GOODNESS! Initially we weren't fed traditional food, but it is slowly being put into our diets. I've had fried fish, deep fried fish (like chicken nuggets but fish nuggets) grilled fish and raw fish. I've also had coconut rice, pumpkin rice, plain rice and cold rice. I've tried them all but really only liked the plain rice so far. Octopus has been offered but I didn't have the guts to try that yet. I've had coconut milk('ll grow to like it because it is a crucial part of my diet in 2 1/2 weeks and fresh pandanas. (I'll grow to like that as well) and to top it off breadfruit! We've had breadfruit prepared a couple of ways but I've only liked one so far. They fry them and make chips out of the slices and boy are they tasty! Go figure. Don't worry, I'm not starving yet.
All in all, this has been a great experience. Everyone here is excited to start teaching but we all dread the day (Aug 13 or 14) we go to our islands. We know that is when our challenges will really begin!
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