Bryan asked me to guest blog about my first impressions of
Majuro (pronounced Madge-ew-row). Let me first say Yokwe, or hello (and
goodbye) in Marshallese. My first impression is that I love it. And it’s hot.
That probably ranks up in the biggest surprises. I thought the climate was more
temperate. When I saw 80 degrees before we came, I thought of the summer days
in Chicago where the warm breeze feels good on your skin. I’m no meteorologist
but I guess when you mix in 100% humidity, it turns into 80 feels like 100. But
let me also tell you, we are 15 feet from the ocean, and the breeze you get off
that puppy feels great. So we open the windows, turn off the AC, and let the
ocean mist cool us off. Did I mention we live in paradise? May I also mention
running AC is 4x the energy cost as that of the States?
The town is dilapidated. The buildings are in rough shape
not just because the country is poor, but because the ocean is brutal on
buildings. Our apartment is only a year and a half old and already there’s some
rust on the outlets, mold in the ceiling. It’s just the problem with living on
an island. We’re in the city part of the island (I’ve heard people refer to it
as downtown which always makes me smile). There’s no ocean boardwalk or pristine
walking paths. There’s The Road. There’s one road that goes through the whole
island (the island is shaped like a U and very skinny). When I asked the name
of the road, I got an “I don’t know, The Road?” So that’s what we call it.
The people always make an experience so let me tell you the
people seem great. It’s a small town here, 20k people in the capital city.
Everyone knows everyone, in a good way. We meet new people every time we go
out, and they always go “oh… you’re the new Coop teacher!” (well they say that
to Bryan, I’m now the teacher’s wife, which could be a whole other blog post).
We’ve been invited to and gone to the US Ambassador’s house, and the Australian
ambassador’s party is tomorrow. We’ve met a few of the teachers… one’s from
Canada, one couple from South Africa, one from Fiji, one from Japan. One of our
hopes as we raise Neyla is to make her globally aware. This is a start.
When we first moved into our apartment, it was mostly
furnished. One of the things the previous tenants left were straws and I
thought, how strange, they must love to stay young (they were the ones with all
the fun loops). Then I figured it out: coconuts. Coconuts, coconuts, coconuts.
Did I mention I love coconuts? I am currently sipping coconut juice straight from
the source with… you guessed it, my old tenant’s straw. Anyone know any good
recipes using fresh coconut? Email me.
Here are some other fun facts and surprises in no particular
order:
1)
You can find pretty much all your basics here,
albeit for a premium over what the cost would be in the states. My most
surprising find was the exact Melissa and Doug toy set that I had gotten my
niece for her birthday. Small world.
2)
There are sandy beaches here but mostly they are
rocky. I have snorkel gear coming with some swim shoes, hopefully soon. Until
then I have to stick to the sandy beaches. Note: don’t send packages parcel
post to here.
3)
Bryan and I tried to go to Ace Hardware (yes,
THE Ace Hardware, the only US chain that I know of here so far). On the door it
said closed for a week. I put that one in my “pace of island living” mental
folder.
4)
The food here has been really good so far. I had
“traditional” Marshallese food which consisted of pumpkin rice and fried
chicken. Today I had all you can eat sushi…. For $12. If you try to get
American food at the grocery store it can get very expensive, but for all the
local stuff it’s very cheap. Also I’m pretty sure that all you can eat sushi is
the most expensive meal in town.
5)
The Marshallese have two favorite sports: basketball
and tennis. That happens to be my two favorite sports as well. That will work
out splendidly.
6)
Bugs. My worst fear was cockroaches in my home
but I have been very lucky so far and don’t have any. They are on the island,
but I’ve avoided that so far. We did buy pasta and when we boiled it, we saw
some ants floating in our water. We made a mental note to buy the plastic
wrapped pasta going forward instead of the boxed kind.
7)
Bryan and I really like that there is such a
de-emphasis on stuff. People have stuff, but only enough to get by. There’s not
a shopping culture here and it’s quite refreshing.
In the words of my neighbor: “I love it here! But I pretty
much love life wherever I live.” Amen, my friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment