8-9

The way our schedule has worked out we have appointments for our experiment Tuesday through Saturday but not on Monday. This being the case, we decided to take advantage of our day off and go snorkeling on Eneko, one of the islands off the end of Rita. As you may or may not remember, Majuro is an atoll. Imagine an island with a big mountain in the middle. Now imagine that the mountain sunk into the ocean, and all the remained was the outer rim of the original island, forming a circle around a lagoon. This is Majuro, expect that it’s not a complete circle. At the end of Rita (on the Eastern side), there are small islands that go on for miles. Eneko is one of those islands. It’s far enough out that you can’t walk out there when the tide is out. You can only get there by boat. There are a couple of houses where people live, but it is owned by Robert Reimer’s Enterprises (RRE), and they have a rental house there and you can pay for day trips out there, which is what we did.

Our day began in true Marshallese fashion. We went out for breakfast at Dar’s Coffee Corner, and had to wait forever for our food. Then we arrived at the RRE dock downtown to meet the boat that was going to take us to the island, only there was some sort of problem and it wasn’t working. They worked on it for about 40 minutes, while we sat around waiting, and then finally decided to take us on another boat.

The boat ride out there was amazing. I’ve done it before, but it was not less spectacular this time around. The sun was out, the wind was blowing, and the water was perfect. After about a 20-minute (or so) ride, we arrived. As you can see from the pictures, it’s pretty amazing. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves, although we’d occasionally see another person. As soon as we arrived, we got in the water and snorkeled. It was AMAZING! The water was perfectly clear, and there was a reef just off the shore where there were tons of fish. I can’t even begin to describe them all. We all ended up going in different directions.

In addition to snorkeling, we walked around the island, looking around and collecting shells, and we also had a picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips, and breadfruit. Later in the afternoon, Carmen, Wendy, and I took a nice nap on the beach.

The weather was good when we first got there, but later is stormed for a while, and the water was pretty choppy on the way back. But it was a great trip and we all had tons of fun.

I think I’m noticing a pattern for our little excursions. After a while, they all start to feel pretty similar: we go somewhere, we go swimming or snorkeling, we look for shells or take a walk, we eat, we go home. But somehow, I don’t get sick of it all. I think this is partly because of the fun group I am with. It’s been fun to see different sides of my students’ personalities and really get to know them better. We really did pick a good group to come with us.