I'm here!

So the plan was to write a nice big blog post on my laptop and upload it, along with pictures, onto the internet when i had access. Well, my laptop died yesterday so that's not going to happen....

But here is a super quick update!

Majuro, capitol of the RMI: humid, full of bugs, and rather dirty. But also really interesting- I really want to walk around and explore and take pictures of everything: the dilapidated houses, the palm trees, the mangy cats and dogs and the roosters and children running around, the lagoon, the ocean, the sky.

Orientation: we are learning Marshallese, which is lots of fun. Our teachers are Marshallese kids from the local high school, which we're staying on the grounds of. we're doing practice-teaching too. I've got a class of 4 9th-graders and i'm trying to teach them about similes. Marshallese kids are typically very shy and don't talk in class even when you practically beg them to participate, so I was happy to find that I could get them to talk a little.

Laura Village (apparently named after Lauren Bacall...don't ask me why): this is where i'll be living and teaching after orientation. It's on the same atoll as Majuro, connected by a bridge, so you can drive from one to the other. Which we did, sitting in the back of a big pickup truck for a somewhat bumpy and very beautiful ride. At the end of the village is a gorgeous beach where we swam and ate coconuts and our lunch and went snorkeling. Absolutely incredible. The village is a lot prettier than Majuro: more trees and other vegetation, the smell of breadfruit instead of industry or human waste, houses much farther apart, and just generally gorgeous. Ohhh man I gotta figure out how to put some pictures up. I can't believe I'll be living here.

Our house: ...and we might not actually end up living at Laura. The house we were supposed to be staying in doesn't have plumbing or electricity yet, and we can't exactly move out there with no running water, stove to boil water (which we MUST do for drinking water, tooth-brushing water, and cooking water), or fridge for food. School apparently starts around August 17, and if the house isn't ready by then I don't know WHAT we're going to do. I hope they figure it out because I can't wait to move in. Heather knows how to raise chickens so we're going to having chickens for fresh eggs, and I want to build a barbecue pit and buy or make a hammock. I even have all these great ideas for food to cook with the limited resources (basically, fresh produce and dairy products are either unavailable or VERY expensive, except for the ubiquitous coconuts and breadfruit and possibly also limes and papayas...so it's canned food and pasta and rice).

That's all I have time for now ($5-an-hour internet, ahhhhh!) but I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures so far, and I'll try my best to keep you posted! Also I bought stamps and I would love to know your addresses.

love,
sarah