From Charlie Guthrie: 8/25/07

Well we’re still stranded, looks like for another week. They have to send the engines of both planes to the states for repair. However, it has been suggested that they might be renting an engine for the big plane. So I spent this past week with the volunteers of the WorldTeach program; 3 of them and I taught ourselves how to play bridge out of my Hoyle Book of Card Games (thank you Mom). Bridge is a lot of fun, you should try it.

This extra delay would be fine, except that the place we have been staying is an elementary school classroom, and they are starting school on Monday. This means we had to move out. Fortunately, I am able to stay with Chris and Ray in Laura (town at the far end of the main island of Majuro), and I have been doing that for a couple days, and will continue to do so until I leave. However, there are 20 WorldTeach volunteers that aren’t so lucky. They don’t have anywhere to go just yet, and may be sleeping on floors of other volunteers stationed in Majuro.

Today we visited Ejit, which is an island on Majuro Atoll (I should really find a map to put up here). It is accessible by boat, or land bridge – that is to say, you can walk across the reef in low tide. Coming here was a little bit tricky because we had waited a little too long and the tide was not exactly low – we had to wade through knee-deep water in the dark to get here.

---

For a further update it looks like the both planes are out of commission for the foreseeable future. Erin and Sarah met with the Bikini Government Mayor and Senator to charter a boat for all of the school employees (at least 75% of the staff is in Majuro) to Kili but we don't know when any action will take place.