Day 5 • 30 June 2016 • Life on Majuro

Arriving in the Marshall Islands meant that we had to go through the first of our several passport control points, and it went off without a hitch. We were picked up by a shuttle from our hotel and drove along the elbow-shaped atoll that forms the southeastern corner of Majuro.

The welcome sign at the airport.

To illustrate where things are on Majuro, the large photo shows the approximate positions of airport and hotel on an aerial view, and the satellite image shows in which corner of Majuro Atoll we find ourselves.

Everyone liked the license plates!

The Hotel Robert Reimers in Majuro. Colette Reimers, the manager, has been very helpful in connecting us to the right people, and she runs a very nice establishment.

After checking in at our hotel we were confronted with the first “irregularity” of the trip. These irregularities are, unfortunately, a constant feature of all the trips I plan, in some part because I don’t plan “normal” trips but insist on creating a trip that is better, more educational, or more unusual than the trip a typical tourist would experience. Sometimes the locations are extreme (as they are here), sometimes it is the specific activity we are interested in, but on every trip, something has needed to be modified, reshuffled, or otherwise fixed. Today we learned that the following day is when the most important fishing competition is being held. Not only that, but the boat considered the “ferry” to Arno Atoll, our next destination, is actually a fishing boat—and one that is part of the competition! This means that we have no transportation to Arno. Fortunately, in this close-knit community, people help one another out, and our host on Arno arranged for the mayor of Arno Atoll to give us a lift!

After lunch, we visited the Alele Museum, a small center in which the history and culture of the Marshall Islands—as well as the controversies over atomic testing and climate change—are on display. We had a wonderful talk with Carol Curtis, who is currently the curator of the museum and who has in-depth knowledge of the islands and their history. Carol explained many things about the islands, including how to get around, some of the difficulties with water sources in the age of climate change, her own visits to a variety of atolls, and the difficulties associated with life on a narrow corallogenic strip of land in the middle of a vast ocean.

Sign of the Alele Museum.

Students looking at the Alele Museum's exhibits on the history of the Marshall Islands.

Map of the Marshall Islands, using traditional map-making skills. If one is familiar with the overall position of the atolls in the Marshall Islands, it is easy to see how this map works and how accurate it is.

A narrow strip of land is sometimes all this atoll is. With the road in the middle and a house on either side of the road, there is only ocean beyond that.

In order to visit Arno Atoll, it is necessary to self-provision, and so we went shopping. Whenever I travel to a new place, a visit to a supermarket is always an educational necessity. There are a lot of things one can learn about a place via shopping for food! In the Marshall Islands, almost everything is imported, and it is not easy to obtain some of the things we take for granted. One of the meals we planned for was a breakfast consisting of instant coffee (the small all-in-one-packets) with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bananas. We could not find bananas, and there was not enough bread in the store for the number of days and people we needed to serve! In addition, many of the canned goods were past their due date, which meant we had to change our meal plan some, and visit a second store.

Carrying back the provisions from our shopping trip.

With the day’s mandated activities at an end, I suggested that everyone try out their snorkeling gear on the lagoon side behind the hotel. The team took up this challenge with gusto, and everyone was excited to see what secrets of the ocean he or she could discover. This discovery included the use of camera equipment under water!

By dinner time, everyone was suitably tired, from the odd “time-lapse” jetlag, from walking in the hot and humid climate, and from snorkeling. With another early day tomorrow, I expect we will all get a good night’s rest.

One more note: there is no Internet access on Arno Atoll, which means that I will not be able to post anything for three days. The next posts will go up when we return to Majuro on 4 July.

Snorkeling on the lagoon side.

First coral reef photography of the trip. Photo courtesy of Schawna Mitchell.