We woke up and decided to move to Jeh Island, which is the northernmost island in Ailinglaplap. TC, Paul, and Johnny came here over 10 years ago, and TC, Chris, Swinton, Alex, and I came here almost three years ago.
We hung out on the boat for the hottest part of the day - reading our books. We are doing a lot of reading on this trip, and I am not complaining.
Paul was the first to head on to the island, but I wasn't at a stopping point in my book yet, so TC and I headed in almost an hour later. TC and I remembered that there is a lot of coral close to shore and it would probably be near dark when we returned, so we didn't take the dinghy. Paul had paddled in on a kayak, TC and I paddled in on the other kayak and the stand up board.
It was fun to see one of the boys we had met the last time we were here. We came across him, as he and another boy were pushing a huge cart of coconuts. Now that is a big chore - not only to load up the cart (it was at least twice the size of the average wheelbarrow), but to push it back to their home.
We saw some men carving out new outriggers, so we stopped to chat. One of them was the doctor that we had met on our last trip, who so graciously provided outrigger sailing canoes for our memorable afternoon. He even remembered us! The new canoes they were building were about the same size as the ones we had sailed on. He said it takes them about three months, if they don't run out of any of the necessary supplies.
We asked Morten (the doctor) about Selvin, the Filipino pastor of the SDA church. He told us that Selvin had moved down to the SDA school, so TC and I decided to jambo on that way. When we got there, it didn't appear anyone was around, so we just refreshed ourselves with the layout of the campus. I saw class schedules posted on the wall. TC saw that Selvin and a woman named Leonora had the same last name and said, "Selvin must have gotten married."
We went towards the apartment on campus and found not only Selvin, but also Paul, as well as Selvin's wife Leonora and his new son Nerman (7 months old). He said that since there was no American teacher this year, he had moved from the Pastor's house near the church to this apartment at the school. They live a very simple life - three mattresses on the floor, a little two-burner propane stove, two plastic chairs, a small table. However, you can tell they love each other and are very happy.
Selvin told us that not long after we left 2.5 years ago, they had a famine where the island ran out of food for about two months because no planes or boats came (they're supposed to come 4 months a year). He said that the food we had brought from Ebeye, as well as the cans we gave him when we left were what helped. He told us no young coconuts could be found on island since everyone was eating them for food. He said he's learned his lesson and now keeps a 5 month supply of food on hand, but that it's hard because it's very expensive to buy 5 months of food at once. (He and his family live on a small stipend.)
As we were walking back to the boat, Patrick, a man Paul had talked to earlier in the day, stopped us to give us a bag of coconuts. Just another example of the kind and generous people that the Marshalls has to offer.
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