[password] shipnavire1
[status]
position 07 06.182n 171 22.427e
April 4
Bilgewater Band did its first private gig yesterday. Our only Kiwi friend on the island, Liz, from Wellington no less, turned 40, and had an afternoon party on the edge of the lagoon. Ben, an English clarinet player and Mark, American fiddle player, joined us in some excellent music making.
Life is very good here in Majuro in the Marshall Islands. (Click on the link to see where we are). This week we apply to extend our visas, so we'll know by the end of the week if we can stay.
My work at the university is slowly getting underway. I've been meeting with students and helping them with their assignments. Very satisfying. Mak, who runs the MBA programme at the university, wants to start a small business mentoring programme and I'm helping design it. Right up my alley.
David is loving his work and the agency that employs him.This week he visited half a dozen agencies to offer places on a "Working with suicidal people" course he has designed. He discovered that they are all funded by his boss, Julia. She has her fingers in every pie going, including an ex-convict, late of San Quentin, who runs a large gang of other dubious characters, rebuilding the lagoon foreshore. More on that wonderful story when I get to that blog post.
On Thursday the organisation David works for, had a special lunch to celebrate several staff members' birthdays and to welcome us as part of their 'family'. We were the only white people in the room. It was good being part of a Marshallese event as most of our interactions are with ex-pats. I'm really enjoying that community, they are a cosmopolitan, well-educated, adventurous group of people. I think they are easy to meet and get to know because of the transitory nature of our lives, as it is with the yachting community. We all know we only have a brief time to know these people so we get on with it.
In the last update I mentioned the yacht club elections - well I'm the event director and David is the prize director.
We are still occasional sailors and converted Navire from a floating apartment to a yacht, to sail to a nearby island for Easter. The palm trees and turquoise water reminded me that I was in the tropics.
We are off on a bike ride to explore some more of this island.
Cheers
Janet[END]