Yesterday we, along with several other teachers and locals,
hopped a boat to a small island across the lagoon from Majuro called
Enimanet. This small island was
beautiful. It was natural and
wild, the way the Atoll was made. There
were chickens, pigs and dogs running around all over chasing and playing with
each other. We even saw a troop of
5 tiny baby pigs parading around the island and were able to get pretty close
to them. There were roughly 50
people on the island including the US Ambassador and legendary NBA coach Tom
Newell. It was great being able to
chat with Coach Newell and hear his thoughts on basketball today. He mostly travels around the world now
giving basketball clinics in poor countries.
We
left from a pier right next to the US Embassy owned by the Kramer family, one
of the most influential on the island.
It was an older wooden boat, but easily handled the 25ish people that
were on board. As we left the pier
we had about a 10-minute boat hop across the lagoon, but to the east we saw the
dark clouds coming. Only a few
minutes into the boat ride the squall hit us and it quickly became a soaked and
rocky boat ride. I loved it and so
did Neyla, but Janae, who is prone to motion sickness, wasn’t a huge fan. This was actually Neyla’s first boat
ride ever and what a boat ride it was!
She loved the bouncing and the sheets of rain and waves that crashed on
us. This was just the first of
many great firsts we would have yesterday.
As
we arrived at the island we were taken aback by the beauty. White sandy beaches, plush palm tree
forests, bright blue waters and some great wooden huts for the non-sea
goers. It was still raining pretty
hard as we arrived, but as we settled in the sun peeked out and we were excited
for another first for Neyla, swimming in the ocean! She had her swimsuit on and headed in the lagoon. At first, I wanted to immerse her
slowly to get used to it, but we soon realized that it should be done like a
band-aid. I put Neyla standing up right
on the edge of the ocean and as soon as a tiny wave came and receded her feet
began to bury in the sand. She did
not like this and let us know so with a nice baby shriek. I picked her up and tried to calm her
down, but every time I put her back in the same baby shriek was roared.
So
Janae and I decided to skip the slow entry and take her deeper while we hold
her, and boy did she love this!
We’ve never seen Neyla so happy and having a grand ole’ time. She was splashing and laughing and
loving every second of playing with mommy and daddy in the ocean. Our neighbor, Marilee, was kind enough
to give us a little baby floating device so we didn’t have to hold her and
Neyla like this even better. This
way we could swim around her and surprise her and she was elated. So far, Neyla had two big firsts, now
it was our turn.
One
of the many island gatherers brought a paddleboard and was very willing to let
anyone try it, so Janae and I did.
I went first as Janae hung with baby Neyla and co. I paddled out and only 20 feet later I
saw so many amazing schools of fish below me I was shocked. There were thousands of roughly 6-inch
long fish that were a sort of light blue in color and they actually lit up as
well. It was like I was watching
National Geographic, but instead of on TV it was through my own eyes. I kept paddling beyond the diving
platform that included a slide and a high dive and found a sunken plane. Just off shore there is a sunken plane,
helicopter and jeep for snorkelers to explore. Aside from this amazing beauty, the paddleboard was super
fun. Especially in the lagoon side
where the water is quite calm, you felt like you could paddle forever. However, I quickly came back and
allowed Janae to go exploring.
As
I came back to the beach and took Neyla and Janae headed out, the clouds
quickly became ominous yet again.
I decided to take Neyla back into the huts for a lunch break and as we
did the downpour came. We watched
mommy out on the paddleboard getting soaked in what was a monsoon type
downpour. As she made it out to
the platform she ditched the paddleboard for a second and went down the
slide. This is what I love about
Janae so much, as most people hurriedly left the water she loved the stormy
downpour and embraced it. She kept
paddle boarding all through the storm like nothing was happening and she loved
it. Just as she returned to shore,
the clouds broke and rain stopped.
We
had some lunch in the hut and afterwards I decided I was going to try my new
snorkel gear. I threw my mask and
snorkel on and headed out with our new neighbor, colleague and friend,
David. This was yet another first
for me. I had never snorkeled
before. I had no idea what I was
in for, but in just a few moments I would see a rainbow of fish all surrounding
me that I could reach out and touch them.
David and I swam all the way out to the sunken airplane, where it was
about 20 feet deep and we were about 300 yards off the shore. I was so intently looking at the
beautiful array of fish that I hadn’t realized just how far we had swam. At this point, I looked at David and
asked, “Is there anything dangerous out here that I should be worried
about?” To which David started
laughing and said, “I’m not sure I should answer that right now.”
As
we returned to shore David told me that there were several types of sharks out
there, but that most of them weren’t dangerous. I was sort of glad he didn’t tell me that while we were out
because I didn’t want to think about those sharks on the swim back, it was calming
just to look down at the amazing fish below. A bit later David and I swam back out to the platform and
decided to give the high dive a try.
It wasn’t like a high dive in America. This one was rusty and rickety and had no side handle to
hold as you walked out. This being
my first time I was a bit scared, but David courageously walked up and dove in
like it was no big deal. As I
climbed the ladder, by the way it is literally a ladder, to the top I realized
this is a bit higher than I was used to, but as I got to the railless top of
the board I saw the fish below that I was about to jump into. You can’t quite tell when you jump in,
but if you go underwater and watch someone jump in it really is quite amazing
to see the fish scurry off in every direction when a human comes crashing into
their abode.
We
had arrived at the island a bit before 1:00 and now it was approaching 6:00 and
our boat was leaving very soon. I
got out of the water to dry off and was mesmerized by what I had seen and
experienced. The pigs and dogs
fighting, swimming with Neyla, paddle-boarding, snorkeling, diving into the
fish and seeing the sunken plane were all phenomenal experiences all packed
into 5 hours that I and we will never forget.
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