Visitors!

From my journal: February 6, 2010

I had a fantastic surprise today!  A couple of my World Teach friends from Majuro showed up in Ine today on a chartered boat.  One of the girls brought her parents along who were here visiting from the States, and also a bunch of her Marshallese high school students.  So it was a big crowd that arrived unexpectedly at my door this morning.

They were here to see some outer island life, snorkel, and just get away from Majuro for the day.  The best part was that they brought s’mores-making-stuff to share with my family and all the kids.  The neighbor kids were really shy of all the new ripelles in town, so I had to run around and practically drag the kids to my house.  But once they realized we were going to give them chocolate, they were eager to stay and a bunch more started showing up.  So for about a half hour, I felt like a s’mores factory, roasting marshmallows over a coconut shell fire and whipping out s’mores to hand out to the kids.  Of course, everyone loved them and had a great time, and my hands were covered with sticky, melty marshmallow goo by the end.

The high school kids that came along made me realize just how different life in Majuro is from the outer islands.  They were all especially impressed with my ability to make a fire with coconut husks (bweo) and shells (lak) because in Majuro they cook with stoves so they don’t need to make fires.  It’s really not too hard compared to building fires with wood in America.  As long as you get the initial husk good and sparky, the rest of the shells you pile on top eventually light up if you fan it with a breadfruit leaf for a bit.  I suppose it is not as easy as turning on a store, but the coconut fires give all the food a good smoky flavor.  The only problem with outer island style cooking occurs during the rainy season when everything is wet, including the husks which make them impossible to light.  But the rains have stopped and the sun has come back for the season.

On the way back from my run today, I stumbled upon a most hilarious sight.  My neighbor kids were gathered in the road having burlap sack races using the big bags used to pack copra in.  They were hopping and falling all over the place with their legs inside the big bags.  When they ran out of burlap sacks, they found smaller rice sacks which were way too small, causing lots more falling over.  I love the ingenuity these kids have in coming up with new ways to play.