7-15

My apartment building

It’s super hot again! It’s the kind of hot where I find myself wondering why I haven’t hopped in a taxi. Two reasons really: 1) I like to walk so I can get some extra exercise and 2) I like seeing people as I walk down the street. Last time I was here, I had people I meet in random places remark that they see me walking on the street all the time. I like being in a place where people recognize me and where I feel like part of a community. It was so hot today that I broke down and bought a can of Diet Coke. Much to my surprise, I didn’t like the taste of it. Maybe I’ll try a Diet Pepsi sometime and see if it tastes better to me.

I think my Marshallese must be getting better because my English is getting worse. I saw an American friend of mine today and I said to her “I feel very blessed to see you again,” which is how you would say it in Marshallese: “I lukkun jeramon nan bar loe yuk.” When I took my students up to Salt Lake last winter semester to do some work, they were laughing at the accent I got when I spoke English with my Marshallese friend. I shudder to think what I will sound like when they come in 3 weeks.

I also treated myself to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Tide Table. They have what, in my opinion, are the best fish n’ chips on the planet. (I imagine some people would disagree, but the fish is fresh tuna, and I love the tuna here.) While eating, I noticed the new mission president and his wife sitting a few tables over. (For those of you who are not LDS, the mission president is the person in charge of all the missionaries in a particular area, in this case, the Marshall Islands mission, which consists of Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.) I was going to leave them alone, as they had arrived on the island only 3 hours earlier, but as I was leaving I decided to introduce myself without telling him about the project I am planning to do with his missionaries. I figured it might be a bit unkind to ambush the poor man so soon after his arrival. But as we were talking, it all just came out. So hopefully I didn’t make him want to get back on the plane and leave.

I’ve been wanting to go swimming in the ocean all week, but the tide has been out in the afternoons, which is when I have time to go. So instead, I went out and took some pictures of the ocean. My apartment is in a very narrow part of Majuro, so we have a nice view of both the ocean and the lagoon side of the island. I walked over to the lagoon side to get some good shots of my apartment building (it is nicer inside that it looks on the outside) and because there were some kids swimming that I wanted to photograph. Off in the distance, I spotted a small fishing boat and tried to take some pictures of it, but it was moving around a lot because of the waves. So none of the pictures really turned out.



One of the beautiful things about language is the ability to say novel sentences that we’ve never said before. In my case it’s one I hope I never say again: “This would be a really good time to have a moo moo.” I came home tonight to discover that we were out of cold drinking water and that I’d have to change out of my pajamas and go down to the little store nearby if I wanted some, which is what prompted my remark. As I did not have a moo-moo to slip on, I had to settle for my running shorts and a t-shirt. I’m actually glad I had to leave the apartment because as I was coming back in, I got a glimpse of the lagoon. The moon was low in the sky, crescent shape, and a sort of dusty color. The ocean water was dark except for occasional bits of light reflected on the water. The only real light came from 6 or 7 large fishing boats that were in the lagoon. It was beautiful in way that I really can’t describe. Unfortunately, it was too dark to capture in a picture.