Sunday, September 26, 2010
We arrived to Bouj (one of three villages on an approximately 7 mile long island) at around 11 AM (I believe I mistakenly said 11 PM in the last post). Since the tide was extremely low, we decided to wait a while before taking our dinghy into shore. TC and Paul read and napped, while I mainly read. I wasn't as sleepy since I'd been able to sleep from midnight to 8 AM.
Around 4 PM, the tide was up, and we figured we'd better go check in before it got too dark. The acting mayor met us at the dock, and gave us permission to jambo (walk) around. It was a little like a homecoming for TC and I since this was one of the same islands we'd been to three and four years ago during our Spring Break trips. However, since it was Sunday the whole island was relatively quiet. There weren't many people around at all.
We were entertained by a mother hen and her many chicks crossing the road. One of her babies was dawdling and appeared to have lost them, so we helped it back to its family.
We met Claire who is a World Teach teacher from New Orleans, but just spent the last four years going to college in Minnesota. The poor girl had a horrible ear infection, but she said she was feeling somewhat better as the previous night was the first time she'd been able to sleep in two days. I learned that the World Teach teachers have to purchase and carry in their own antibiotics and treat themselves when in such remote locations. Claire said she felt really lucky to be in Ailinglaplap since just a few miles away at the next two villages were two other World Teach teachers, so they don't feel as isolated as some of the other teachers.
Claire's host father, Lee, is the Catholic deacon. He provided us with some coconuts to drink and we all chatted for a while. As we were talking, the saddest looking cat I've ever seen came up alongside us - he was missing his nose. It looked as if it had been bitten off his face. Claire said she didn't think it had much longer since he was having a hard time finding food since he can't smell it.
As it got closer to sunset, we realized we needed to get moving if we wanted to re-anchor Cherokee to a more protected spot. Apparently, Aemmon, a big supply/copra boat from Majuro, had the same idea. They moved from lagoon side to just outside the pass. Although, I think their reason for moving was mainly so that they could load and unload cargo from Bouj and the island across the pass. I was able to get some neat shots of it silhouetted against the colorful sky.
We ended a great day with a pasta dish and homemade garlic naan (we no longer have bread). It was going to be alfredo, but TC and I turned it into a thick spinach, sun-dried tomato, onion, and garlic with some parmesan, but more monterey jack cheese cream sauce. We all thought it was quite tasty. I'm learning to become more creative in my cooking.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment