“what the eff am i doing?”
“by the hammer of thor, where am i?”
“great scott, what was i thinking?”
these thoughts and more were tangled like noodles in my skull as i flew from honolulu to majuro; the last leg of my journey to the marshall islands. i had just popped the ear phones from the in-flight movie from my ears and turned to the window next to me. there were thin, gauzy clouds above and fat, puffy ones below. there were white dots in the ocean far below that I thought were maybe fish or dolphins, but they were everywhere so i decided they must be the sun glinting off the tips of waves. my lost feelings were not soothed by the blue and white, however. then i spied, coming from the bottom of one of the low flying puffy clouds a rainbow. a rainbow. a rainbow going straight down from the cloud to the ocean. a small rainbow. i remembered God’s deal with Noah, that God would not abandon God’s people. my thoughts quickly raced from that story to whatever psalm or psalms talk about how God does not forsake God’s people. i belong to God. God will not let me perish. i trust in God and God has my back. let nothing and no one stand in my way!! (these are a bit out of character for me to think, if you know my spirituality…maybe i’ve been spending too much time in catholic volunteer programs)
nothing stood in my way as i descended the stair to the ground of the majuro atoll of the marshall islands. it was hot but not as hot as i was readying myself for. it smelled weird but not as weird as i thought it might. it was dirty but not as filthy as i thought it could be. the two second year members of my jvi community were there to meet me and the two other first years. mike and emily, meet shannon, bridget, and aaron. this is the marshall islands jvi community for the next 10 months. we’re what happens when 5 substances collide.
that first night, mike and emily drove us to the other end of the island to have a sunset picnic. i put pictures of it up on my photos link, which i have endeavored to set up. hope it works for ya. the next days and days have been spent getting acclimated to the island. our house is what it is supposed to be; a house in the third world. its neither clean nor particularly filthy. it is simple and adequate. i don’t think many would call it comfortable. but it is walls and a roof and serves its purpose.
this week has been full of preparing for school, which starts monday, august 13. i will be teaching two classes of freshman english and 2 classes of sophomore biology. i am also in charge of a freshman homeroom. assumption high school has a strange way of getting ready for the school year. every day there were to be meetings at 9 am. we head over more or less on time (the school is about 30 yards from the house). we wait. and wait. and wait. after maybe an hour and a half, someone will declare that the meeting has been cancelled or moved to the next day. this happened 3 of the 5 days this week.
in the interest of not writing a novel, i will close by saying that i am safe and healthy. well, except for the urinary infection that i incurred on monday. blood was coming out somewhere it wasn’t supposed to. not a lot, just a little. I saw the doctor. before giving me the pills that cleared it up in no time he made sure to ask the following question several times: “have you been using the women? it’s very important. have you been using the women?”
see you soon
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