March 21, 2008

News from Majuro
The past couple weeks have been very busy ones. The final yacht race of the season was the Sunday before last. It was a great race, with 8 boats participating, and almost every yachtie on one boat or another. We had our usual crew of girls, and they loved their custom-made T-shirts. We were quite a hit at the after-party. The day was gusty, with showers, so the sailing was challenging. We had to change sail area frequently, and had our best result yet. Our goal was to beat the yacht Seal, a 42-foot traditional wooden monohull, and we came mighty close, but didn’t quite get her. Our last race we were 20 minutes behind, but this race we were 6 minutes behind on corrected time. We actually beat her on elapsed time, a first! This racing thing is new to us and we still don’t completely understand handicaps, but we sure are having fun. The big trimaran, home-built 65-foot Windswept, participated for the first time and she won, beating a large 77-foot monohull and a really decent 45-foot catamaran. In fact, the top 6 boats were only 10 minutes apart. So an exciting race and a good party to follow.
Last Sunday was the annual yacht club picnic, held at one of the smaller islands in the lagoon. We all picked up our crews and sailed out for the day for games and good food. This was the last event of the season, and was well attended, maybe 75-100 people. We arrived back at the anchorage just at dusk, tired and happy.
I’ve been busy with handicrafts lessons. Last week we learned how to weave flowers, and this week it has been baskets. There is a core group of 4 of us who are really serious about learning how to weave, so we will continue on next week with more basket making. We found the jewelry and flowers pretty easy, but are having difficulty with the baskets. It’s not as easy as it looks when our Marshallese instructor whips one up, fingers flying as she weaves. We feel all thumbs. Our instructor is an older woman who speaks very little English, but has all the skills to make anything we want. We’re so pleased she is willing to teach us these crafts. Many of the younger women have lost these skills.
Next weekend is Ted’s birthday and 2 of our girls want to cook him a special dinner and bring it out to the boat. We can’t tell you how impressed we are with the young Americans we have met here. There are about 45 of them who have volunteered for the WorldTeach program. They sign up for a year to go to developing communities to help by teaching. Not all are certified teachers, but all are college educated and have a desire to experience the world outside their borders. Many of them are based here in Majuro, as it is the largest island with most of the population (about 32,000 people). But others are based on the outer islands, hundreds of miles away. It has been very challenging for them this year, as the local airline went bust in October and there have been no planes flying amongst the outer islands. That, plus unreliable ship traffic, has meant that they have been stranded out there for the year, not able to come back to Majuro for visits, or go home to see family at Christmas. This has also meant that the islanders have not been able to get to Majuro for medical care or supplies, and many islands have a food crisis, surviving on coconuts and whatever fish they catch. The yachts that have made trips out have taken sacks of flour and rice and brought back sick patients for the hospital. But then the patients have trouble getting back to their islands. This is REALLY third world and we are out in the middle of nowhere, with the islands hundreds of miles apart from each other. All of the young American teachers have had an incredible experience and say they don’t know how they could ever describe this place to someone who has never been here. There is nothing like experiencing the world first-hand. Our relationship with them has made our experience much more enjoyable and 2 of our girls have adopted us as their “host family”, as they kind of got lost in the shuffle in getting a Marshallese family. We will sure miss them when they leave at the end of the school year to get on with their lives. We will look forward to next year’s group and try to make a similar connection. Karen