February

We have 4 months to go and I’ve been thinking about my time here and what will happen when I leave. I’ve compiled a list of the things that I’m okay with now that I never thought I would be and a list of things I’m really going to miss when I leave.

Things I’ve gotten used to:

• Bugs- I’ve become completely fine with bugs everywhere, including on me. Ants often crawl on my body and instead of feeling dirty like I used to, I just calmly kill them and continue what I was doing.
• Carrying around a large stick to scare off attacking dogs- Most of the dogs on Ejit show me respect even when I don’t have the stick and it’s gotten me out of a few problems in Rita with dogs there. So far I’ve only had to hit one. There’s a pretty cool tooth mark on my escrima stick from when I struck the dog on the jaw.
• Eating deli meat a month or so after the sell by date- It obviously doesn’t hurt you because I’ve done it for months but the idea of ‘expired’ meat made me queasy in the beginning of the year.
• Wet clothes- when low tide is pretty high (more than 1 foot over the mean low tide mark) it’s impossible to cross the reef without getting a little wet. This means that I’ve had to walk around town and run errands with saltwater wet shorts. Clothes dry quickly here but I got used to it pretty quickly.
• Snot- the Marshallese have no taboos against nose picking, snot rockets or spitting. I’m not exactly okay with the first two but I’ve learned to ignore them. Spitting is something that I’ve taken up myself. As long as it’s not full of betel nut and it’s outside I don’t mind it.
• Dogs barking at night- If I’m asleep the barking no longer wakes me up.

Things I’m going to miss:

• The kids of course.
• Coconut water- I really really love fresh coconuts, and if I win the lottery or something later on in life I’ll have them imported.
• Walking across the reef at night. Stars at the equator twinkle red and blue and the light pollution is really low in the middle of the reef.
• Snorkeling- there are still some beautiful reefs here.
• Spear fishing- like snorkeling but with a purpose.
• How friendly and easygoing the Marshallese are.

On a side note, pink eye has come to Majuro big time. Tons of kids and adults have it and we canceled school today because the only teachers without pinkeye (including substitutes) were the three volunteers.