#tcingc

Work’s been going surprisingly well - update to come on that later, because I went to Uganda for a long weekend, which is way more interesting!

Six of us who work at ASYV traveled to Lake Bunyonyi in the far south of Uganda. Saturday morning we were lucky to arrive at the Kigali bus station exactly when the bus we needed was leaving, so the trip took only three hours, including time spent going through immigration. We paid about $3.50 per person for the 2.5 hour drive to nearby city Kabale, $2 for a taxi ride to the lake, and $1 for a boat ride to our lodgings.

The Rwanda-Uganda border crossing was busy but relatively painless. We walked across the border, surrounded by dodgy men offering to exchange our money, and re-boarded our bus on the other side.

The lodge, Byoona Amagara, was a beautiful, secluded space on an island in the middle of the lake. We slept in a geodome with an open front that looked out on the lake and with birds singing noisily around us.

The lake is in a very hilly area and is studded with islands that used to be the peaks of hills. It’s the second deepest lake in Africa, with a maximum depth of 900 meters!

We went canoeing twice in giant canoes made from hollowed out tree trunks that were extremely difficult to steer. Both times we canoed a mile out to a special island where we saw...

ZEBRAS! And waterbuck, something adjacent to an antelope whose name I’ve forgotten, an otter, and the Gray Crowned Crane which is Uganda’s national bird and stands a meter tall. Not exactly a safari but it was still pretty fantastic.

I step out of the office and am greeted with a lovely view of the center of the village. I need a break. It’s bunny time.

The path is lined with pretty flowering bushes, which temporarily distract me from Bunny Quest 2k17.

I enter the farms on the outskirts of ASYV’s land. I pass cabbages, avocados, bananas, guava. Eating the produce is not permitted unless it’s already fallen from a tree. I contemplate throwing rocks at trees until something falls down and then decide that maybe I shouldn’t steal food from an orphanage.

The bunnies are near - I can smell them. Literally. Gross.

It’s been an interesting few weeks.  I’ve worked with and consulted for a government body.  I’ve met new people of various walks of life and experienced plenty of tradition and varieties of food.  This summer was a good one.

The Banking Commission + Nik and I

Yesterday, we had a send-off party hosted by the Banking Commission.  The party demonstrated the hospitality of, not only the employees of the Banking Commission but by extension, that of the Marshallese.  It was great.  There was a barbeque done, sushi, fish.  Sultan’s wife is an excellent pastry maker and she baked two cakes which were delicious!  Sultan and all the other managers gave speeches.  We gave our speeches as well.  Everyone was in a light mood and this brought a great end to a successful project. 

Additionally, some staff of the banking commission were kind enough to give us gifts.  I had a Marshallese headband called a wut, bracelet and matching earrings.   Today, Marlynn, one of the staff in FSD department also gifted me with another beautifully designed wut and earrings.

I love the crafts that the Marshallese make with pandanus leaves and local tools.  It reminds be of the Cameroonian cultural artifacts I have at home.  Now that I think about it, I hope I can get through American customs with these.

Pandanus leaves is sort of a staple in the Marshall Islands.  It’s found everywhere.  The museum’s name, Alele,  is derived from the Alele basket.  This basket is made from pandanus leaves and host a family’s valuables*.  It is kept by the eldest female in the family and passed down matrilineally.

Clothing

The Marshallese were known to have some of the most intricate woven designs of clothing in those days.  The clothes were made out of pandanus leaves and are very sturdy.  Large floor mats were also made form pandanus leaves.

Tattoos

A lot of Marshallese have tattoos.  Coming from a culture where there isn’t a lot of tattooing, it was unexpected.   Marshallese tattoos have significant meaning relating to culture and tradition.  For example, some designs can only be done by people of chiefly ranks. Before Christianity in the Marshall Islands, all Marshallese had tattoos.  Nowadays, Marshallese who do have tattoos wear western motifs.

Nuclear Tests

The US carried out 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands mainly in Bikini and Enewatak.  The nuclear fallout was disastrous.  To put it in perspective, the fallout experienced by these tests is compared to dropping 1.6 Hiroshima bombs everyday for 12 years.  Marshallese and their progeny are still suffering from the side effects of the radiation they experienced.  This has rendered Bikini uninhabitable to this day.

Sea Life

The Marshallese are expert fishermen, boat makers and circumnavigators.  The Wu pictured below is a wooden fish trap made from twigs like bob (pandanus roots). It is immersed about 15 feet in water and left for a few days to trap fish.  Marshallese have always been known to be great navigators.  In the past, only a few people were taught the secrets of navigating the oceans.  Stick charts were constructed to interpret the wave patterns and other natural phenomena. When people went on voyages, the stick charts weren’t taken on the trips.  They were memorized.  Today, very few can interpret the stick charts although almost all government offices have some variation of the stick chart/picture of a stick chart hanging on the wall.

Wu

Stick chart

Arno

On Thursday night Daisy and I decided to go to Arno, the closest atoll to Majuro. We would have gone sooner, but there is only one boat to and from Arno each day. It leaves only during the week, staying in Arno for 30 minutes and comes back to Majuro. Under normal circumstances you need to stay the night to do anything. However, Matt worked out a deal for us with the boat’s captain; the boat stays a little longer and we can have an hour at the beach in exchange for a $40 tip for the captain.

 Arno is next to Majuro, but it’s still a 2 hour ride each way

Matt and Solomon (the ship’s captain) the night before

We left the dock at 10 o’clock sharp. This boat not only carries tourists and Marshallese back and forth, but also supplies. This is the main way people on Arno get living essentials such as food because Arno has very little infrastructure. It is primarily a tourist island and there are only 1,000 Marshallese living there. We got into the dock at 12 o’clock, giving us an hour to get to the beach and back.

 Unbeknownst to us, one of our expat friends was also going to the island with her friends for the weekend. We hopped a ride with them on the back of a truck for the short ride to the beach. There is only one dirt road on the island and a handful of stores. The “City” of Arno was mostly trees with a few houses in between.

 We drove up to the beach, and it was beautiful; the whitest beach I had ever seen. The white color is due to the sand being composed mainly of ground of seashells. This is one of those beaches you find in a tourist guide. The water is pristine, the beach is undisturbed, and there’s nobody for miles down the beach. We quickly got in, savoring the few minutes we had. We also needed to save enough time to take plenty of island paradise pics. We got back to the dock by 1:30 and headed out satisfied that we made it to Arno before we left.

The water was super clear and the beach was empty

You can barely make out the islands on the other side of the atoll

The island was covered in palm trees and not much else