Imelda's shoes and other adventures

I set off on Monday morning toward Robinson’s department store in hopes to find the office to buy a ticket to get to the Clark Airport for when Ray and I go to Malaysia. The Lonely Planet has been a heaven-send, though only somewhat reliable (thing change quickly) and I soon got lost. I got adopted by an old guy who decided to be my tour guide (though he had no qualifications and had less of an idea where he was going than I did!). I reluctantly followed him off course for about 5 blocks from where the ticket office should have been, trying to ditch him several times, but he was pretty persistent. Finally he just asked for money, I gave him 20 pesos, and tried to find my way back to the correct street again. I was on my way back, feeling somewhat perturbed, when the “Schwarma Snack Center” sign caught my eye. I stopped in there for a falafel and hummus pita sandwich and a mango/banana shake (yum, what a lunch!) . I had found my way to “Middle East Street” in Manila and I couldn’t have been happier! A young couple about my age walked in and sat down at the table next to me. The husband said, “hey this is our table (pointing at the one I was sitting at) and asked if they could join me.” I was delighted to meet them. The husband, Zaid, is from Oman and the wife, Maricris is from Cebu (Philippines). She had been working in Oman at a shop that made fancy chocolates. Zaid kept coming back and back to the shop, buying chocolates for everyone and anyone he knew. Maricris thought he really liked chocolates, but the truth was that he really liked her. Well that was 5 years ago, and now they have a cute little son and another baby on the way. They were in transit to Cebu and didn’t have much on their schedule until the next day. When they heard I was going to the Imelda Marcos shoe museum, they said they would like to come along. I was glad for the company.

We caught the LRT (light rail train) in the wrong direction accidentally. None of us knows our way around Manila very well. We ended up at the crazy-busy Pasay rail station on the South Side of town. Then we took the MRT train around to the Northeast side of town. It was so tightly packed I was touching about 10 people at once. Let’s just say that it was an intimate Filipino experience! I thank my lucky stars that I’m tall, otherwise it would have been hard to breathe. Then we got off the MRT train one stop too far, so we had to backtrack a ways. We got a taxi and rode over to Marikina, hoping that the museum would still be open. We were exhausted, hot, and sweaty after a 3 hour trip to Marikina which should have only taken 30 minutes had we known what we were doing! But thankfully the museum was open, and we visited 750 pairs of Imelda Marcos’ 3000 pairs of shoes. It was quite a sight! After that we went to the local fruit market and indulged in mangos, grapes, papaya, tangerines, you name it! Maricris taught me the best way to eat a mango (I've been making a mess all these years when I really didn't need to...you just slice off the two sides and then make a criss-cross pattern in the fruit. When you flip it from concave to convex, you get lots of little squares of mango that you can eat right off the peel, thus getting the mango juice in your mouth rather than on your face like I usually do). We caught a jeepney back to the LRT and took the LRT back to Ermita (where we had met) and said goodbye. I grabbed my backpack, took a shower, and went back to the LRT station again to try to find the bus to Banaue in Northern Luzon. From the LRT station, I got in a taxi which got stuck in traffic and it turned out that the bus station had been relocated to different place than the Lonely Planet said. We finally found it, with only 5 minutes to spare (thank goodness I made a prior reservation!) and I hopped on. By that point I had lost my voice and I was completely exhausted, but so happy to be on board. The bus looked to be on it’s last leg, and I was a bit nervous about spending an all-nighter (9 hour) ride through the mountains on it, but I was just glad to be on board and resting. The air conditioner was freezing (I had nothing long sleeved) and the vents would not close, so I stuffed a plastic bag in them, put my towel over me and fell asleep.


The next morning I woke up in Banaue, a small town surrounded by beautiful rice terraces which have been there for 2000 years. The Ifugao people developed an brilliant way of irrigating all these terraces from the top down to the bottom by diverting mountain streams from terrace to terrace all the way down the mountain. Of course because machinery cannot make it up the hill, all the work is still done by hand. I hired a guide, Joven, to show me a traditional Ifugao village. He explained that his people were once fierce head-hunters, but not anymore. Another interesting thing is the level of English fluency among Ifugao and other hill tribe people! Because it’s a world heritage site, there is a huge tourism draw, so after their traditional tribal language, they learn English as their second language instead of Tagalog. It’s amazing how multi-lingual they have become. Tourism is a blessing and a curse…it disrupts their traditional way of life, but there are many positive things about it too. It provides jobs to young Ifugao men and women who would otherwise move to Manila and leave behind their home. It provides markets for older Ifugao men and women to sell their carved rice guards and beautiful woven fabrics. It also gives the tourguides a reason to understand the traditions and history of their people so that they can share it with others. The next day Joven and I hiked up and across the terraces for 3 hours. It was a magnificent scene, and truly gives a better idea of the immense scale and amount of labor involved in cultivating rice on a steep hillside. That afternoon I caught a bus heading toward Bontoc for my next desitation: Sagada.

Funky Manila

The CNN weather report on TV said that it was going to rain all weekend in Manila. Fortunately the weather man got it all wrong. Since I arrived on Saturday night it has been warm and clear. Yesterday it was sunny and downright hot!
I really, really like Manila. I am not a city person, but this one is really great. I think what I like most about it, is that even though it’s a huge city and it has its fair share of poverty and problems, the people are incredibly friendly, down-to-earth, and warm. I felt the same way in Chicago…big city, yet people still act like Midwesterners. Well Manila has a similar feel. The city moves fast (holy cow, what a shock after living for 3 years in Majuro where the pace is less than ½ speed that Manila moves at). Filipinos are industrious, hard working, quick moving people, but they don’t get self-centered in all this hustle and bustle. They still treat others with kindness and respect. I love that!

I am also amazed at the level of English fluency among Filipinos, even those who have never left their country. This is a people who really value education and learning. Aside from these reasons I love the Philippines (after only 24 hours in the country) is that it’s a cheapskate’s dream vacation! The exchange rate is very favorable for those earning dollars, euros, or pounds. For example: 3 Mangoes, peeled and prepared = 20pesos (40cents). A decent room at a guesthouse is 500 pesos ($10), and an hour-long massage at a professional place is only 300 pesos ($7). There is so much natural beauty on these islands, from Ancient Rice Terraces on hillsides in Northern Luzon (I’m heading there tomorrow), white sand beaches and coral snorkeling with whale sharks in the Visayas, and plenty of jungles and volcanoes (some still active) to trek. Combine wonderful people with the great prices and a beautiful environment, and I’m really wondering why I didn’t come here a long time ago!

Yesterday afternoon (after attending church and meeting lots of great people), I decided to walk toward Rizal park. It’s a beautiful green space in the middle of Ermita district of Manila and a place where all the cute Filipino families spend time together on Sunday afternoons.  On my way there, I met a nice Filipino guy named Miko who asked if he could accompany me.  I was cautious at first, but soon realized that he was harmless.  His job contract on an American Military base in Mindenao (Southern part of Philippines) just ended and he's home to Manila to regroup and look for work again. Underemployment has always been a problem here (there are so many highly skilled people with not enough positions for them), but more so now that the economy has taken a downturn.  Miko is about my age (though he looks like he's 25 like all Filipinos do...they are such beautiful people!)  His funny friend Raul came along with us. They are an unlikely pair...Miko is a well dressed young Filipino and Raul is a somewhat disheveled man in his 50s? with crooked teeth and a big grin.  It was fun to walk around with them.  I had them pose for my pictures in the park (which made all the families watching us laugh!) and then we walked back down the boardwalk by Manila Bay and took a Jeepney ride to town for dinner.  I'm so glad they were around, because I really wanted to ride in a Jeepney but it's so confusing to figure out which one goes where and how much.  They are so fun and funky. Filipinos got the idea for this form of public transport from the US military who occupied their islands during and after WW2. Jeepneys are elongated Jeeps with two benches in the back facing each other. But they’re not camoflouge colored! They are all pimped-out with bright colors, flashy signs, and sometimes pictures of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Anyway...you can't beat the Jeepney price! (7 pesos/15cents) for a ride across town!  We went to dinner at a nice authentic Filipino restaurant where I discovered that it’s difficult to find vegetarian Filipino dishes. Even the dishes under the “vegetarian” section have a few pig snouts/tripe/worse thrown in for good measure! I like adobo sauce, but not the meat so much. But I have to say that the Pancit was my favorite!
Niko gave me his cell phone and perhaps we'll hang out again when I get back from Northern Luzon next weekend.  His story is so sad, though he doesn’t seem to wallow in self pity (I probably would).  He was married and had two kids here in Phl.  Then his wife joined the Overseas Filipino Worker program and moved to California, leaving their children with her parents here.  That was four years ago.  I asked him if he had plans to join her, he must miss her.  His reply was that he can't because in the intervening years she met and married an American and got US citizenship, now with no intention of continuing her life with Miko or the children.  It's such a heartbreaking story, and unfortunately it's not uncommon.  1/10 of the Filipinos live overseas in order to remit money home to their families here because the exchange rate is so favorable and they are such industrious, well qualified employees (I have met many in the Marshall Islands). OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers inject so much capital into the Philippines economy (over $12 billion per year) that the government provides incentives to the families of OFWs (my Filipina friend in Majuro's kids got free welding lessons during their summer break from University...isn't that hilarious? Her delicate little 20 year old daughter spent her break from Nursing school taking welding lessons with her brother!)  But moving far from home often has really devastating consequences if you leave a spouse behind. I wish that the American government would make it easier for families to be together. One of the reasons I voted for Barrack Obama was his promise to make American Immigration more family friendly.

I went for a massage yesterday which was fantastic.  Sweet girl, 20 years old, from Pangasinan province (3 hours north of Manila).  Most Filipinas look about 10 years younger than their age, so she looked like she was 15.  She kept calling me ma'am, which feels akward. I experienced that first with my Filipino colleagues at CMI...it is very strange to be called "Maam Britt" by colleagues who are my age (or my parents' age!)  But it's 10 times worse here!  Another funny thing is that as soon as you meet a friendly Filipino/a, they always inquire lots of details: Where are you from? how old are you? Are you married, single, divorced?  I think I need to figure out more efficient ways to answer these questions.

Next destination on my trip is Banaue and Batad and Baguio. It’s a 9 hour bus ride to Banaue (starting at 10pm tonight!). Supposed to be very scenic, but I won't see much until we're almost there. Today’s agenda includes getting a haircut, arranging bus tickets, and a visit the Imelda Marcos shoe museum.  Isn't that a hilarious?!? I love the Philippines!

On Friday (the day before I left Majuro) I was talking to my Dean of Academics, Joe.  He and his wife are lovely people from Mindenao province.  He said, "Britt, my wife and I will fly from Manila to Davao and visit my brother (president of a very progressive SDA University in the mountains there).  Would you like to come with us? Of course!! I am so delighted!  It only costs about $50 to fly down there (to Davao) and they can get me on a bus/ferry heading to the places I wanted to visit in the Visayas just after that.  Prior to our conversation, I had wanted to see Mindenao (it has a reputation for being extremely beautiful), but it's not safe to go alone, due to terrorist activities in some parts of the island. But to go with Joe and Becky will be really wonderful.  From there I think I will catch a bus to Surigao City (northern tip of Mindenao) and take a ferry to Leyte Island.  There are lots of natural caves, snorkeling with harmless whale sharks, a natural bridge and thick jungles to trek in Leyte and Samar islands.  Then I'll fly back to Manila to meet Ray and get ready to leave for Borneo. Two weeks is definitely not long enough, but I’m going to see as much as I can. I’ll write about the Rice Terraces and post pictures with this entry when I return next weekend.

End of a Semester, Beginning of New Adventures

The semester has finally ended! Yahoo! For some reason, while the fall semester flies by, the Spring Semester (which was actually shorter than it was supposed to be) has dragged on and on. I’m so thankful to be finished and have prospect of a change of pace ahead. Graduation was wonderful. Now that I’ve been here for almost 3 years, I have good relationships with more and more of the students. I would guess that about 40% of the students in the graduating class of 2009 are former students of mine. It was such a happy occasion that by the end of the night, my cheek muscles hurt from smiling so much.

Part of what makes life here interesting is that one can never count on technology to work the way it should. One day a couple of weeks ago, the technology in my life all ganged up on me on the same day. I woke up in the morning to discover that my phone line was dead. So when I got to work, I called NTA to request service. Next I arrived at my office to find that my computer froze when I tried to start it (now this is worrying me…my colleague Dean’s hard-drive melted down taking everything with it, and I’m worried that this may be an omen). I powered it down and then turned it on again, only to discover that the internet in our building needed to be reset in order for it to work. Frequent power outages here take their toll on electronics. As there had been a power-outage the night prior, the air conditioner in my office was no longer working and neither was the internet. So I spent 15 minutes running around campus looking for someone from IT and someone from Physical plant to reset the switches in our building to enable things to work again. I went to use the copier (which is a complete lemon anyway), and of course in addition to jamming during every use, it now has an electronic malfunction and also freezes during startup. After running here, there and everywhere trying to resolve all these problems, I vented to my students, who were studying at the conference table outside my office. “The technology is ganging up on me today!” I exclaimed. They all smiled a bit sheepishly (as is typical of Marshallese), and Malachi suggested, “Perhaps you need to pray more!” which is also a very unique and typical Marshallese response to problems. Yes, perhaps I need intervention from a higher source than IT and the physical plant!! Ha ha ha!

Speaking of technology failures in the Marshall Islands….I would like to share with you an excerpt from an email which I received this week. I am not making this up:

”Iakwe CMI COMMUNITY,
This is to inform you that the CMI Basketball Court is temporarily closed for urgent and critical repair works to its “rusted” lighting arms. One of the lighting arms fell off last night luckily no one was hurt or injured. Therefore if you are walking by the basketball court area, we advise you to be “CAUTIOUS” at all times and avoid walking too close to the basketball court area.
Komool tata for your understanding and cooperation,
Safety and Security Office”

What the!?! At first I though perhaps this was a joke, but no, sure enough, when I walked home that day, there was yellow police tape around the ENTIRE front of CMI where the basketball court is. This is where we will held graduation last night! Luckily they took all the lights off the top of the other poles before they fell on someone during graduation.

Last month we had a Young Women’s activity at church. The purpose was to teach the girls how to make some traditional Marshallese Local food (and to teach me how too). Most people here eat rice and fried chicken, which is not local and not very healthy. So I was excited to learn some authentic meals. Well, what we cooked was called “Millenium” and it’s a new recipe concocted by the daughter of one of the young women leaders. We cooked for about 4 hours! It was a mixture of boiled, mashed breadfruit (the consistency of mashed potatoes), grated coconut & coconut milk, lots of sugar (not exactly a local ingredient), and tapioca starch. It tasted good. I don’t think I’ll ever have the patience to cook it again (after all, it takes at least 3 hours to make). But the very exciting thing is that I got to try grating coconut all by myself. Every Marshallese family has a little stool with a metal coconut scraper on the end of it. You grate the coconut by sitting on the stool and scrapping the coconut with both hands and a rocking motion. It looked like fun until I tried to fit myself on the stool and realized that coconut scraping stools are made for people who are about 5 feet tall, not 6 feet tall like me. I sat down and my legs were so long they completely obstructed the scraper. That did NOT work. So I scooted back to try to find the scraper and fell off the back side of the stool. Definitely NOT! I tried kneeling on the stool, but then I couldn’t get the right amount of torque on the coconut to scrape it correctly plus I was completely unbalanced and unwieldy. I was about to give up on the whole idea when one of the other leaders suggested I sit side-saddle. Well, finally I found something workable and managed to scrape a bit. But it takes talent to scrape all the white coconut meat evenly and I ended up scraping little bits of brown shell into the beautiful white pile of coconut shavings below. Well, it was a good learning experience.

This will likely be my last blog for a little while. Tomorrow I’ll embark on a 10 week trip to Southeast Asia. Ray finally got her tickets and we bought ourselves tickets to Borneo and over to Singapore. After that we’ll use ground transportation for most of the rest of the journey. The itinerary is definitely not set in stone, which is a great way to go, because you never know what great stuff you’ll find along the way that you want to stop and do. I’ve posted my tentative route map. I’ll explore the Philippines for 2 weeks on my own while Ray finishes school. Around June 5th she’ll fly to Manila and we’ll take off for Borneo, Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, (possibly Sumatra for a few days), and train from the South to the North of Thailand stopping along the way. After that, she’ll have to fly back home because she’s starting a new job in Mexico shortly thereafter. After she leaves, I’ll have 3 weeks on my own again, during which I hope to cross from Northern Thailand into Laos, take a boat down the Mekong River into Luang Prabang, bus across into Vietnam near the de-milatarized zone, train/bus down from central to Southern Vietnam to Ho Chi Mihn City, and loop back through Cambodia. If time permits, I really, really, really would like to spend a week in Myanmar, but we’ll see how things go. The military generals are acting up at the moment and have transferred Aung San Su Kyi from house arrest to prison. She is an amazing woman of courage and grace!! She epitomizes the courage and grace of many Burmese people, who I would very much like to meet. Hopefully things will calm down a bit before then. It’s going to be the trip of a lifetime! I can’t wait!!

Acts of Kindness

In the past several weeks, I have learned once a again, that I should never judge another human being in whose shoes I have not walked. This point was driven home by an experience I had the other day. I'll get to it later, but first there's alot of background detail: The Douglas family lives in Illinois. They adopted a Marshallese toddler girl about 10 years ago. Unfortunately (unbeknownst to them) she had already contracted tuburculosis prior to the adoption, and struggled with significant health problems for the rest of her life. Despite challenges, she was the light of their lives, and her death two years ago was devastating. I met the Douglases when they were trying locate their daughter's birth family to share the sad news. Over the last 2 years, Kathy, Bruce and Lydia have helped to care for their daughter's siblings here in the Marshall Islands by sending money for school, packages with food and clothing and toys, and otherwise checking in from time to time to make sure things are ok. The father of the family has issues with alcoholism and abuse and it has tragic consequences for these kids. My friend Annie (a neighbor and "Auntie" to the kids) helps out as much as she can and every so often I check in as well.

Also living in my neighborhood (at the catholic church) is Lino, who suffers from schizophrenia. His story is also devastating. He was also adopted by an American family as a baby and grew up abroad. He served in the US Military and had a wife and child of his own. I'm not sure at what point his schizophrenia became an issue, but it caused alot of problems in their domestic life. It caused him to be violent at times. After one such domestic incident, he was arrested and deported to the Marshall Islands (since he never obtained US citizenship). Now at approximately age 30, he lives here on Majuro without family (I believe his birth mom is from Ebeye...not Majuro), without medical care, and without an ability to speak Marshallese. The parishoners at the catholic church give him food and he does some landscaping work (beautiful work actually) around the Assumption church and school. But our hospital and our community are not yet ready to cope with such extreme cases of mental illness. Most of the neighborhood believes that his bizarre and sometimes aggressive behavior is due to a "Black Magic" spell that his ex-wife cast on him. They do not acknowledge that this is a medical illness that can be treated.

I have had several experiences with Lino on my morning and evening walks to work at the college. Most of them are harmless, non-sensical conversational exchanges. He is obviously very intelligent because he talks about all kind of world events and people who are obscure to me, but he's in a different world entirely. One time while I was riding my bike he even chased me down the street yelling lyrics to an old Duran Duran song. His unpredictability makes him somewhat unapproachable, yet I'm sure he needs to feel acknowledged. So I've decided lately that when I see him, instead of avoiding what could be an aggressive confrontation, I will be the first to say hello and call him by name. Sometimes he ignores me, other times he acknowledges my hello. But the greatest thing is that he has not been confrontational since I started greeting him by name. Then yesterday, the coolest thing happened. I was making the trip home from CMI with two gigantic boxes that the Douglases had sent for their daughter's siblings. I was struggling under the weight of them, but I couldn't exactly leave one on the side of the road. As I began to cross by assumption, I put them down for a minute to take a rest. Lino approached me and offered to help. "Here," he said, "let me help you with that." I was so appreciative and impressed by his thoughtfulness. I asked how he was doing and he told me he was fine and that I really ought to introduce myself to (some guy whose name I didn't recognize). I asked him who that was and he said, "you know, the Texas cattle barron." "Oh, ok, I'll try." When we got to my house I thanked him and offered him a drink of water. He declined and went his way pretty quickly. This simple exchange reminded me of an important lesson. First, that I should not judge others, and second that there is goodness and kindness in all people, regardless of their situation, their past behavior, and regardless of appearance. I believe that if we allow others the opportunity, they will show it to us. I was grateful for Lino's simple act of charity toward me. Sometimes I get so caught up in serving other people that I forget to slow down and allow them to help me. It is through acts of service that I most poignantly give and recieve love, so this small act meant very much to me. I am grateful. And I hope that Lino's family out there knows that he's doing alright. That despite the complicated state of his life right now, he's doing ok, and he made a difference in my life this week. I also want to say that I am really grateful for the Douglas' example of generosity. During these tough economic times, there are many reasons not to be generous. But they have chosen to give of themselves, and it brightens the day of those children who do not get treats very often (just look at their faces in the pictures!). What a good experience to witness these things and be inspired by them!

Marshallese Moments

It has been a month full of very classic Marshallese moments that I would like to share. Luckily I had my camera handy to catch a glimpse of the funny yet typically Marshallese things that happen around me on a regular basis.

The first incident happened as I was walking home after dark from my office. Internet service is still quite new to the island and it’s expensive to buy internet service for home, so after work hours, I frequently stay at work to virtually keep up with the world outside this island. I was on my way home one night (a short 5 minute walk from the College) and was somewhat vigilant about dogs (they get meaner after dark) and strangers lurking in shadows. I’ve never had any bad experiences with strangers, except occasional conversations with Lino, a mentally-ill man who lives at the Catholic church in between the college and my house, who occasionally gets verbally aggressive (but never violent). Anyway, I was half-way home when I saw something gigantic coming out of the darkness, running down the middle of the road. Right down the middle of the road emerged a gigantic hog, running quickly away from something, toward me. He crossed the road and ran into someone’s yard out of sight. Now this would be no big deal if we were in an outer-island, but this is considered “downtown!” There are even traffic jams on the road outside my house during rush hour. But that doesn’t stop this pig from running wild. Sure enough, the other day I was on my way to work and he came running up the road right in the middle of rush hour! (see photo) Majuro is such a strange mix of rural and urban life!

Another crazy thing that happened this week at CMI. I had just finished Math class when I stopped by the science lab next door to give a message to my colleague, Dean. He and two students were just wrapping up their Marine Science lab, in which they were dissecting a Tuna and a Unicorn fish. They happily showed me some fish intestines and eyeballs. Balos (one student) was busy working on the fish with his scalpel. Aside from Dean’s instruction about fish anatomy, this activity was not too much different from daily life (Marshallese young men regularly catch and clean fish). Then I looked up and saw Balos’ lab partner Jefferson, who had brought a lemon to class which he was squeezing onto the slices of sashimi that Balos was taking off the fish and happily munching them! Sashimi is a Marshallese specialty, so dissection day is synonymous with lunchtime! I just shook my head in amusement. Only in the Marshall Islands! I wish I had my camera at the time so I could have captured the scene, but by the time I got back down to the lab, the tuna was the only one left in the room.

Tonight I went for pizza with some friends, including my two new colleagues from New Zealand. While we were waiting for some other friends near campus, Helen was remarking how her mother would freak out if she were here to see all the children playing in the road (parents nowhere in sight), some dragging each other down the street while sitting on a scrap of plastic (like a sled without a hill and without snow). Then, right as she was saying that, we looked up and saw a man holding a downed power line (I assume it was live) in his hands. Evidently a tree had fallen onto it and brought it down, so he was holding it up over his head to enable cars to drive underneath it! Oh my goodness, life here is a bit different than it is where most of us come from, but it makes for great stories!

One really cool thing that happened a few weeks ago was that two Beaked Whales were spotted in Majuro’s lagoon, in different locations. Mike, Peter, Isabel and I went down on Friday afternoon to swim with one of them. It was between 10-12 feet long, and the most beautiful creature! It was very friendly and curious. It would swim up towards us from below and then breach right next to us. It was just absolutely amazing! The Marshallese boy who was out there swimming with us (who lives nearby) said that it had been hanging out by itself near the buoy for about 2 or 3 months. That was not a good sign. It should have been out in the deep water where there are squid to eat and other whales to socialize with. Dean says that he thinks that perhaps the whale was in hospice here in the lagoon, because two days later it washed up on the beach dead. We were pretty saddened by the news, but grateful to have had the experience of meeting him while he was alive. I took my underwater camera and got some fairly decent pictures, as did Peter with his camera, and Dean with his super-high-tech underwater camera. Dean found that the whale liked to play with plastic bags, so he would locate some colorful bags and bring them out to his newfound friend. He will be missed!

Just before Easter, Stacey invited Suze and me over to her place for dinner and egg-dying. Friends and family from home had sent her 2 Paaz egg-dying kits. It was the first time I have dyed eggs in about 15 years, and my first experience using Paaz kits (we were always too frugal at my house for that, we always used a few drops of food coloring). Well, it was a fun and entertaining evening. Both my friends are much more artistic egg-decorators than I am. Something has gotten into Suze lately. Ever since she started dating Rob, she has become so much cheekier. Her cheekiness makes life amusing. Well, this time she pulled out some special cellophane egg-decorations that go around the outside of an egg. When exposed to heat, the cellophane contracts and fits the shape of the egg. So Suze decided to try it in the microwave (without reading the directions). Everything was great and she was watching through the microwave window when suddenly there was a loud explosion and she jumped backward. Upon opening the microwave, we found that Suze’s egg had become yellow and white sludge all over the microwave. Upon closer reading of the directions, there was no mention of a microwave (for reasons we now understand). Luckily no one was hurt, and it only took Suze 25 minutes to clean up Stacey’s microwave.

I’ve been volunteering at the weekly basketball practice that the Marshall Islands Basketball Federation puts on for girls on Saturday mornings. Giff Johnson, the editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, and a really fantastic guy, coaches the practices. It’s great exercise, a good chance to make new friends, and also to build the confidence of local young women, who don’t usually get much playing time on the male-dominated neighborhood courts. Giff is anticipating getting together a women’s team to represent the Marshall Islands in the Micronesian games next summer. I can’t play on the team because I have not been a resident of the RMI for 7 years, but I’m looking forward to practicing with them.

After basketball one day the weather was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist taking my snorkel and my camera and riding my bike out to the tide pools by the bridge. They are on the ocean side, so they get a great assortment of ocean creatures that swim in at high tide, but at low tide you can snorkel in the pools without getting battered by the waves. It was just beautiful. I rested on the beach for a while and enjoyed a few minutes of solitude before heading out to work on the program review report that our Liberal Arts and Sciences department is responsible for producing. Since then things have just gotten busier and busier at work and I’ve been spending more and more weekend time at work or working at home. We only have two more weeks left in the semester before finals, yet there’s so much to be done! (Including 20 transferring students who need advising on everything from admissions to financial aid to housing before they move oversees). Then in 3 weeks it will all come to a screeching halt for 2 ½ months and we’ll rest our brains and bodies. It’s a pretty extreme contrast, and not too good for the sanity (I can vouch for that!), but I love my job, and to live and work in a place as interesting and challenging as this island is a treat. Well, it’s late and I have a stack of 30 tests that I still have to grade. I’ll try to write at least once more before leaving for the summer. The destination is Southeast Asia, but the itinerary is still up in the air due to civil unrest in several countries and problems with my friend Ray getting her one-pass miles converted into a ticket. But it will all come together, I’m sure. More on that later…

Back to Majuro

So far this semester is off to a rip-roaring start! Well, it’s not even the start of the semester. We’ve just finished midterms and spring break. But I just feel like life has been moving at warp-speed and dragging me behind it!

I moved back to my old apartment block just before the trip to FSM, which has been really great. I LOVED my new place in Uliga, but it was on the other side of town from all my friends in my Small Island community, and I just got lonelier and lonelier in my new place. I found myself watching hours and hours of TV and not really getting out and doing anything meaningful with my life. So Stacey took on my lease and I moved back to “Jane’s Corporation” in January before I left for my trip. It’s a different apartment (4 doors down from my old one) but the layout is exactly identical. So far it has been really great to interact more with my Marshallese community and I feel less isolated when I go to church because I’m more involved in the lives of these friends and visa versa.

One of the funnest things about living in a country where English is spoken as a second language is small but very amusing mistakes that change the meaning of what someone intended to say. Take this sticker from the Division 7-12 store, for example. It just cracks me up every time I read it! “Thankyou, and have a New Year.” To which I respond, “Ok, thanks, I’ll try!” Another really funny one is the answer that one of my students wrote on their homework. The question read: Please write the set {Adam, Eve} using a written description. The student wrote, “The set of the first two people who landed on earth.” Well, yes, I get the idea...but according to the Bible, they didn't exactly come in a UFO! I also love this sign that I saw on the bathroom door at Monica's Chinese restaurant earlier this week. "So wait, you're encouraging smoking, or not?" One more funny thing that reminded me that yes in fact I am in the Marshall Islands: I went to the Tide Table (an American style restaurant) a couple weeks ago and my friend ordered a hamburger. The waitress said, “Do you want a hamburger sandwich or with Rice?” What!?! She tried to clarify, “Hamburger between two pieces of bread, or surrounded by a lot of rice.” Oh, that clears it up! Ha ha ha! Oh my goodness, I love living here!

In late January, after tossing around the idea for several weeks, some friends from work and I finally got bored enough that we jumped off the Long Island Bridge. The bridge is the highest elevation in the entire country (it’s about 30 feet from the water at low tide and about 25 feet at high tide). It’s the place where smaller boats can cross from the relative calm of the lagoon out to the Ocean. It’s also a hang-out spot for locals to fish or just shoot the breeze. So after Peter checked the exact time of high tide (to make sure there was enough water below…low tide would not be smart idea!) we headed out there. Although it doesn’t look very impressive from the side (that’s Stacey and I in flight in the photo), it’s pretty intimidating looking down from the top. We were cheered along by a group of Marshallese guys below on the Lagoon side and several cars whizzing over the bridge just behind us. Overall it was not bad. We jumped three times, didn’t break anything, didn’t land on any sharks or the decks of any boats. I would say overall we were quite fortunate. And it was fun, but I don’t think I’ll be making a regular habit of doing it.

Things are going really well at the College. It has been a nutso school year with Accreditation proceedings and such. We got the happy news in early February that the college has been removed from sanction for the first time in 7 years! We’re in the clear! But we couldn’t celebrate just yet, because the visiting team of 10 people who read our self study were on their way to inspect us for our regular 6-year accreditation visit. It went well (though I missed most if it because I was stranded in Honolulu on my way back…long story…the hotel forgot to send me a wakeup call and I had to wait for 2 more days for the next plane. Yeah, it sounds like a great place to get stranded, but it was rainy and miserable and I was stressing because I had no one to cover my classes or meetings with the team.) But now CMI's in the clear as far as the accreditation problems we've been fighting for such a long time. Though we won’t know the final decision on our accreditation until July, the exit report from the team was very positive, and it’s likely we’ll get full accreditation for somewhere between 3-6 years. Wow, all the hard work paid off, and now we can fine-tune little by little instead of constantly overhauling what we’re doing. 2+2 club has grown gigantic. We have between 25-30 students we are working with to transfer to Universities abroad in August. This little grass roots effort has mushroomed and it has become like a part-time job now (though I don’t get compensated and we still run the club without any college funding). But it’s exhilarating to be a part of helping them make this transition, and then to hear about all that they are learning and doing after they transfer. (By the way, that picture is of my reserved bike parking at CMI. Actually, it’s the reserved parking for the College President, but it’s close to my office and luckily he doesn’t mind sharing with smaller vehicles :) Cheeky, ain’t I?)

I went to California for a conference about teaching Critical Thinking in Berkeley during the last week of February. It was fantastic, but not as fantastic as seeing my family again. Honor and Grant came down from Salt Lake and the whole family was together in one place for the first time in years! It was a whirlwind 4-day visit, but was fantastic to spend some quality time together. I really lucked out and got sent to a great family! Honor generously offered to let me "borrow" the fantastic blog she posted about our time together because I’m lazy to write and also she’s so much better at keeping to the point and putting lots of pictures! Thanks Hon!

This week has been spring break. I spent the first half catching up on grading midterms and calculating midterm grades and then went on a day trip to Eneko Island (on the north side of Majuro lagoon) with some colleagues. I just got a camera with an underwater housing, so I went crazy and snapped a lot of pictures while snorkeling. The reef at Eneko is beautiful and pristine, and the variety of fish is just beautiful. While there I found Nemo and his little cousin, too!

I also got to spend some time cooking up summer traveling plans with my friend Ray. She is a teacher at Co-op Elementary school on Majuro by day and teachers part time at CMI in the evenings. She is a really, really cool person, and I’m looking forward to tromping around South-East Asia with her this summer. She and I coincidentally both landed in Kosrae during holidays just after Christmas, and found that we are similar travelers (ie: we prefer to go hiking and spend time outdoors away from the crowds, and we also like to get to know the local people and learn from them). So last weekend we exchanged our frequent flier miles for round-trip tickets to Manila, Philippines, and we’ll use that as our jumping-off point for some adventures in other countries in the region. We’ll try to visit Provinces in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and perhaps Macao or Hong Kong. Not too sure about the itinerary yet, but it’s exciting! I’ve never been to the Asian continent before, but living here in Majuro has given me lots of opportunities to get to know many Southeast Asians who are living abroad like me, and they are wonderfully nice! So I’m really looking forward!

Well, that’s about it (in a nutshell). More later…

Cali Trip From Honor

This blog entry is "borrowed" from Honor, since we spent the whole weekend together and she wrote such a nice blog about our family bonding time already. She graciously copied it over to my blog too. Thanks Hon!

Another of Mother's dreams came true on February 25th. Britt was flying in from her Island Paradise for a conference and made it possible for Grant and me to come home as well so we could have the whole family together again. It's the first time in about 2 years (the last being Christmas of '06, but Cash Man wasn't even there yet).

Britt arrived at SFO a few hours before Grant and I arrived in Oakland. She scooped us up and we headed home.

As Britt bragged about on her blog, she had found a CRAZY sale on Target brand jeans out in the RMI ($1.50 / pair) and had bought a pair for each of us. These might be the only photos we ever have of Mom wearing REAL jeans. I was surprised that we got her to wear them in the first place, but it was so fun! My favorite quote from the evening was when she said, "It's like being squeezed to death WHILE feeling like your pants are falling off!" Never have I heard such an accurate description of the styles these days!

Britt spent as much time as she could playing with her nephews. I was excited to see how the cousins would do around each other - thinking that they'd be little pals, but that first day proved to be otherwise. I'm sure you can see it in both their faces in the picture above, but they sized each other up, realised that they'd be competing with each other for attention from the same group and promptly claimed ownership on anything they didn't really want to share. They eventually warmed up to each other as the days passed and one evening while at our parents house, I saw them together on the floor playing with a train. Grant was saying and signing "train" like he was trying to teach Cash. Cash just giggled and kept playing.

I wasn't quite sure how the 3 of us fit on the couch together, but as Britt later pointed out to me I was laying on top of her, taking up most of the room. Britt, that's the price you pay for precious sibling physical bonding! You know I'll squish you anytime, anywhere! That's how much I love ya!

The second night that we were in town, we got together for the first family dinner. Uncle Clay had quite a knack for distracting Grant who was in a bit of a bad mood. I'll love these pictures FOREVER!

After dinner our friend Nancy came over to snap a few family pictures. What you see here are photos Mom took with our cameras while we were posing for Nancy. I'll post her pictures as soon as they're available.

Grant got his fare share of spoiling from his Grandparents, Aunts and Uncle. This was his first experience with licking the brownie bowl, and I'm sure it won't be his last.

One of his favorite features at Gr'ma & Papa's house was the piano. Any chance he got, he was testing out just how much sound he could get out of it.

On Friday evening we stopped by Trader Joes and Britt found Grant a kiddie cart. I don't think Grant has EVER had that much fun shopping. He was a pretty good little cart handler, even if he wanted to run more than walk.

On Saturday evening we had the second and final family dinner. While I'm sure Mom was hoping for some sweet family dinner pictures, her children made sure that our true personalities shone through. Cammie posed for the pizza bite and I was trying to, but at the last minute, my food fell in my lap.

We all went to church together on Sunday before Britt, Grant and I headed back to the airport for our departure. As we were all in the bathroom changing into our traveling clothes, Mom managed to snap one last picture of her girls. Looking at that picture, I can't help but think, "We're sisters?! How did we all end up with such unique looks?!"

While it probably wasn't the most choice setting for a photo (with the pink and white bathroom tile that EVERYBODY knows from the Stake Center in the background) I love that usually the quirky memories are the most fun and often held the most dear.

What a WONDERFUL weekend it was!