March 15, 2008

Another Majuro Update
I’m suffering today with a head cold. Seems to be a lot of this going around. You wouldn’t think that in this tropical climate we’d have “winter” colds and flu. Our yoga teacher has been VERY sick with the flu for over a week. And a lot of the children have colds. I probably picked this up from one of the kids. My kindy kids are very used to me by now and they love to come up for hugs and cuddles. Last week three little girls accompanied me to school and they all wanted to hold my hand. I love it, though; that’s why I do it.
We have a yacht race this weekend. I had some T-shirts made up for our crew. They have our boat logo and “Sequester Crew; 2008 Race Season; Majuro, Marshall Islands”. Can’t wait to give them their shirts on Sunday and see their faces.
I have responsibilities at the Skipper’s meeting tonight; as Membership Director I need to be available to renew memberships and update my records. The previous director was not very organized (she’s the first to admit it), so the records are not complete. Fortunately I’ve inherited my mother’s organizational skills so I’m getting them in order. Ted is out doing my errands today (picking up t-shirts and shopping) so I can rest for tonight.
Ted has more work than he can handle. Everyone seems to want his expertise. He barely has time to do anything on Sequester.
I’m still hoping to get a nursing position. But we’re on “island time” here, so I must be patient. The previous government spent all the money and didn’t keep good records and no audit has been done for years. So it is all in a muddle and the new people are trying to sort it all out.In the meantime I’m busy with handicrafts. We finished our first set of lessons this week (there were 5 of us in the class). We made lots of jewelry, but we’re ready to move on to flowers and baskets. So we’re trying to organize more lessons. We’re weaving with coconut leaves. Most of the other islands (Fiji, Tonga) use pandanus leaves, so it’s a little different up here. The leaves have to be boiled, stretched and dried: they are prepared by the women on the outer islands. They also collect shells from the beaches. We can buy the prepared leaves and shells used in the crafts. My goal is to become a master weaver. But I think I should have started weaving as a little girl. At any rate, it is fun, and even more fun when a bunch of us women weave together. I’ll be an island woman yet! Karen