8/21/07 Part 2
Anyway, the next day we got up at 7am to go to the airport. We stood in line for about an hour waiting to get our baggage checked because each bag is completely opened and searched because the country cannot afford an x-ray machine (or just chooses not to buy one, spending the money on 100 flag poles outside of the new conference center instead). After the bags were searched, we were told that there was no room on the plane for us. We booked these tickets on Continental months ago. Our field director pulled some WorldTeach strings and we were put at the head of the standby list and were luckily able board the plane, which took off much later than scheduled. When we arrived on the military base at Kwajalein, which is a high security missile testing site, our bags were searched again, this time by two separate dogs, one for drugs and the other for explosives. We were then escorted off the base, not because we were important but because we were a security risk to the US military, and into the ferry waiting area. The ferry is an old world war 2 landing craft (the kind that landed at Normandy) that has been fitted with some benches and transports Marshallese people back and forth from Ebeye, the 2nd most densely populated city in the world, and the home of the majority of the kids I will be teaching. We were met by Laura, the American head teacher at the high school, and my boss, at the ferry waiting area. When the ferry arrived, we started loading our luggage aboard it – we each had 2 checked bags and 2 carry-on bags, so it was a lot of stuff. Then Laura got a phone call indicating a special boat was coming out to pick us up. So, we got off the ferry, and while we were unpacking our luggage from this boat packed shoulder to shoulder with tired Marshallese people coming home from work, they formed a little assembly line to help us get our bags off. We felt like pretty big idiots. But, then when the “special boat” didn’t come after 2 more hours we felt like even bigger idiots. So we got on the next ferry. After a 25 minute ride, we arrived at Ebeye, slum of the Pacific. Imagine a shanty-town where people use metal scraps propped up against one another for shelter, sleep 15 to a room, and the streets are always FILLED with masses and masses of children. 15,000 people in .14 square miles. That is Ebeye. We drove through on the one road, then started the 5 mile (but half hour) trek to Gugeegue. Gugeegue is an island roughly the same size at Kwajalein, but only 300 people live there, and it is home to both my high school and myself. In the late 90s, someone decided to connect Gugeegue and Ebeye with a 5-mile causeway bridge made of garbage. This causeway is possibly the worst “road” I have ever seen, and there are foot-deep potholes every three or four feet.
My apartment/house type place is the nicest building I have been into since arriving in the Marshall Islands outside of the Outrigger. It has two bedrooms, a common with a couch and two chairs, a large kitchen table, a bathroom with a shower, and a full kitchen. Our water comes from the roof, which used to go through a UV filter into the catchment so it didn’t have to be boiled, but since the light broke and there is no Marshallese word for “maintenance,” we have to boil everything we drink, which really isn’t a big deal. What is annoying is that there is no water heater, so showers are always icy. When you look at the back door you can see the lagoon about 100 yards away and when you look out the front door you can almost see the ocean over some bushes about 120 yards away. It’s beautiful.
Unfortunately the housing situation is not so great for the other volunteers. I am sharing my apartment with Staci, a girl who volunteered last year, has a contract this year, but hasn’t come back from the states yet. Connor and Alex, who will teach at the middle school in Ebeye, have no housing at all. They wander back and forth between my apartment and Boomer and Ashley’s place (sleeping on floors and couches), which is pretty defunct – there’s not a working stove, so all of the cooking has been taking place in my apartment. Boomer and Ashley came together and are also teaching at the high school. Some efforts are being made to find Connor and Alex housing, but their principal has a hard time accepting that sometimes it requires action to remedy a situation.