Mardi Gras and Ebeye Again

The past few weeks have been an interesting time here on Kwaj. We had a Mardi Gras celebration put on by MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation). It included a parade and beach celebration. They even spruced up some golf carts, and the school marching band performed. It was a lot of fun, and I collected enough beaded necklaces to last a lifetime.

I snapped a few photos of the parade, which included a variety of organizations on-island, the school, emergency services, and a smattering of other groups. I included a photo of the marching band as well, but blacked out the faces of the students - so that picture will look a bit bizarre.

Black spots on faces to protect student privacy. 

We also took another trip to Ebeye during these past few weeks, this time to go out to dinner. There are no sit-down restaurants on Kwajalein, and so any desire to "eat out" is pretty much a non-starter unless you go to Ebeye. So we took the ferry over to Ebeye one evening, and found ourselves at La Bojie - one of the small local restaurants.

I'll admit, it didn't look like much, and I was a bit worried about how my stomach would hold up after eating there. I ordered the teriyaki chicken with garlic rice, and it was actually pretty tasty. I felt fine afterwards too, so no health or cleanliness issues to speak of.

Evening on Ebeye - from the dock

La Bojie

From our table, while eating - it was a bit of a slow night for them

Otherwise, life is pretty routine on Kwaj at the moment, with school in full swing for the second semester. I'm teaching a few new classes this semester and the kids seem to be really enjoying them. One of them is Business Law, and the class discussions have been really quite fun. The other is Web Design, with the kids ultimately learning how to design web pages and hopefully taking responsibility for part of the school website when they're done.

I'll leave you with a few neat pictures to close out this post. We recently had a full moon out here, which is not all that weird of course... but it looked incredible. Being where we are on the earth, the full moon ends up being incredibly bright. It's almost unreal. Check it out:

Full moon on Kwaj

Full moon on Kwaj

A visit to Roi Namur

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post. I apologize for the huge delay, but it's just been a busy time. School has been in full swing, and then winter break arrived where I returned to Chicago for a few weeks. But that has already come and gone, and I've been back on island for a few months.

During the last few months, I got to take a trip up to the island of Roi-Namur. It's a smaller island where only about 100 or so people live and work. The main operations on the island involve radar, and so we took a tour of the island and some of the facilities. The trip there involved a smaller plane than I'd ever been on though, so that was... interesting. But ultimately a problem-free experience.

Interior of the plane

Right outside the airport on Roi

Roi Namur is also the site of a major battle against the Japanese, and some incredible WWII ruins. It was a quick battle, and US forces bombarded the heck out of the island in advance. But the Marines did land on the island and had a fierce fight to take every yard of land. The pieces of that battle still litter the island. Take a look...

After the Roi trip, life mostly settled down into pretty normal daily routines of school and island life. There was a big holiday celebration on island, but since it took place after dark - I don't really have any pictures to show for it. But there have been a few other neat events and excursions that I'll try to update on later. For now, it's back to work, as parent-teacher conferences are this week.

Here are a few additional random pictures to give a flavor of the last few months on island...

Remains of an old pier

An evening walk

Island police hanging out outside my building. Hiding perhaps?

Touring the island some more

The first quarter of the school year is now behind us, and I'm on the fast track toward winter break. It's amazing how quickly time seems to fly by here, as I'm just five weeks away from the holiday. It seems like just yesterday I was getting off the plane to start the school year.

This past weekend was Veteran's Day, and so we had an extra day off. This afforded me the opportunity to join a group of my colleagues on a bit of a tour around the island (they rented a golf cart). So we checked out some of the WWII sites and hit some of the island "attractions" as well. We drove by the golf course first, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a decent size, 9-hole course. It's not in the best of condition, but not bad considering our location. I used to play golf as a kid, so I'm looking forward to giving it another try out here... hopefully when very, very few people are around. It's been awhile. Hah.

We then hit two different glass beaches, where pieces of old glass long ago tossed into the ocean have washed ashore - many of them smooth and eroded down over years and years in the water. Some are really quite neat, with colorful and smooth chunks of glass sitting among the sand. It sounds a bit trashy, and much of it is indeed the result of ocean trash - but it's a fun little scavenger hunt experience.

After the glass excursions, we drove around the island a bit more and hit a few unique locations that I hadn't seen before. The Japanese cemetery that commemorates those Japanese soldiers who lost their lives during the Battle of Kwajalein was a particularly neat sight, as I had no idea such a spot was on the island. Apparently, each year a group of Japanese come to Kwajalein to pay their respects at the cemetery as well.

Our little tour continued for a bit after the cemetery stop as well, but this post is getting rather lengthy, so I'll wrap up here for now. Basically, it was a nice weekend to explore Kwajalein a bit more and break out of my typical work routine that prevented me from really getting out and about as much as I should have. And one of these days, I'm actually going to do the real WWII site tour that wraps around the island. I keep hitting various stops on the tour by accident, but never the whole thing. One day...

Naval Ship visits Kwaj, end of quarter

We had quite the neat opportunity about a week or so ago. A US Naval ship came into the harbor after finishing up a really amazing project. Not far from Kwajalein sits the wreck of a German heavy cruiser, the Prinz Eugen, from World War II. Once the ship capsized, it was basically just left there to rot, but the oil inside the ship remained.

Unfortunately however, that oil had started to leak, and so the Navy decided it was time for a cleanup. A ship came out with a team of Navy divers and pumped out all the oil, but when the ship was done, she came to Kwajalein for fuel and supplies. During that brief stop, the crew was kind enough to let the Jr/Sr high school students on board to tour the boat.

I got to tag along for one of these tours, and while no pictures were permitted inside the ship, I was able to get a few shots from outside.

It's hard to believe, but the first quarter is over and I've been on Kwajalein for about 2.5 months now. It's been quite the whirlwind, from an epic journey, to exploring a new life, and starting a new school year. But things have settled into a pretty normal routine now, with school five days a week and a few days of relaxation on Sunday and Monday (our weekend).  But now that it's coming up on winter back home, it certainly feels nice to walk outside to this...

We're also expecting to finally get out shipment of household goods, so that will be a nice little surprise when they finally arrive. Things will feel a bit more like home here.

Speaking of which, there are only about seven weeks or so before I'll be heading to my actual home for the winter break. It's going to feel strange coming from a tropical island to frigid Chicago (when many people are doing the reverse), but it will be nice to be back amongst friends and family again. And I will be very happy to see my canine buddy again...

Casey - or CaseyRaptor, or the CaseMonster... I have too many names for him. It's a problem. 

I knew it would be tough for leave him while I went on this little adventure, but I honestly wasn't prepared for my own emotional response. I miss the little guy! He's a handful sometimes, but I didn't realize how attached I was to this pooch until I had to leave him behind. Getting him back in December will be a heartwarming moment, but it will kill me again to leave him in January. If I'm not able to find a way to bring him out here, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay, because giving him up for good is just not an option.

Thank you to Chase (if you read this) for looking after him, and to the rest of my friends and family who may be helping care for this critter in the coming months. Ya'll rock!

Ebeye

I had a chance this weekend to visit one of the islands that is neighboring Kwajalein. The island is called Ebeye, and it sits around 4 miles from Kwaj. In fact, it's so close that during low tide, it's technically possible to walk between the islands (but not generally a good idea).  Ebeye is not owned by the United States, but is a part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). A ferry runs between Ebeye and Kwajalein about 10 times a day to shuttle workers and visitors back and forth.

The ferry, right before boarding

The trip by ferry takes about 20 minutes, and is a fairly pleasant journey across a small part of the lagoon. We enjoyed the short journey and as we got closer, Ebeye became visible off the side of the Ferry.

Ebeye has a population of around 16,000 people, but has an exceptionally high rate of poverty and unemployment. It's unfortunately been nicknamed the slum of the Pacific. The population density is enormous and the quality of housing is rather poor. That said, the people were all exceptionally kind and we had a great opportunity to walk around the island and do a little shopping.

Those are just a few shots of the island - I took quite a bit more, but it gives you a general idea of what the place looks like. On some level, it's not a bad place to be really, crime is low, people are friendly, and climate is fabulous. But the overcrowding and dire living conditions are abundantly clear.

Yet these islanders are generally the ones who provide the lower wage labor on Kwaj, from the maintenance staff to the check out clerks, the people of Ebeye are a critical part of the operation at the Kwajalein base. Without the base, many of these folks would have even fewer economic opportunities.

And the United States recognizes this contribution... we allow students from Ebeye to study at the American school system on Kwajalein. About 40 or so kids from Ebeye come over on the ferry every morning to go to class at the American school, There, they gain a stronger education than would be possible on Ebeye, and ideally get a chance at college or career readiness. Better still, due to a compact of free association with the Marshall Islands, anyone on Ebeye can come to the United States without a visa, at anytime.

So ultimately, we stayed on Ebeye for about an hour and a half, explored a bit, and took the next ferry back to Kwajalein. It was quite the contrast going between the two islands...

Quite the difference - a Kwajalein neighborhood

The Beach and Small School Woes

We had a chance to check out a different beach this past weekend. Hamilton Beach is one of the adult beaches on Kwajalein, with unescorted kids being entirely disallowed, and all kids disallowed by late afternoon. When we arrived, there were no more than 10 people at the beach, and it stayed that way for most of the day.

Arriving at the mostly empty beach... what a view! 

It was really a neat experience - the waters were warm and crystal clear, and the lack of people meant that you could really relax and enjoy the water without worrying about being bothered, or bothering others. We hung out for a few hours chatting with a few friends and had a pleasant afternoon.

I got a little roasted again, so I need to do a better job with the sunscreen. I swore I put it on this time, but apparently it wasn't good enough for living this close to the equator. So while it was an enjoyable weekend, I'll be sleeping on sun scorched skin for a few days now... again. Oh well... I'll figure out this sunscreen business eventually. Or my skin will turn into leather. Whichever comes first really.

The water looks like something out of a postcard.

But life isn't all beaches and and relaxation... school has been in session for over a month now. And my school is really quite an amazing place, with polite kids, small classes, and an incredible environment. Yet one of the biggest issues I hear from my students (and see myself) is the lack of curricular opportunities as compared to the states. With just 114 kids in the building, the chance for unique electives is sadly limited.

We do our best of course... the kids get to take art, music, home economics, wood shop, and computers. I think that's pretty darn impressive for a school of our size! But if a kid is perhaps interested in agriculture, auto mechanics, or speaking German, then they're basically out of luck. The same applies if they want to take most of the Advanced Placement courses (we have a few, but most AP's aren't offered). We do an incredible job with what we have, but we just don't have the ability to offer a ton out here.

So one alternative has been to phase in online classes in an attempt to include more electives. This lets the kids take classes in a whole array of subjects that we can't possibly offer. Some of my students will be starting this right now (we just purchased access to an online system), and so I'm interested to see how it compares to our in-house classes, and what the students think of it all. Several of my courses will be using this online content to go along with my teaching, so I'll get to see some results firsthand.

Guest Post: Tim Ryan - Teaching band and chorus on Kwajalein

Never in my life did I think I would be the band and chorus director for a school on an army base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!  Welcome to Kwajalein-a hidden paradise found in the Marshall Islands.

Kwajalein is a small atoll that once was a battleground site during WWII.  Today, The USA uses Kwajalein as a defense missile base-and there are many unique jobs found on Kwaj.  I so happen to get to be in charge of the central Pacific's most dangerous band!

Currently, I'm teaching 5th grade band, 6th grade band, Jr High band, High School band, stage band, and I will be starting from scratch this year a choir program that has been non-existent for years.





My favorite part about being here is how well music is respected. Kwajalein Jr./Sr. High school has 114 students total and I have 70 of them in my band program. The entire 5th grade class chose to do band this year and nearly all the 6th grade decided to come back to band this school year.  The first day of choir I had 21 students show up. By the second class I had doubled to 42!

Right now I'm working on getting a trailer mounted to my bike (everyone travels on bikes here).  I will keep updating as I continue my journey here on Kwaj!