Justin's Homework Friday in Majuro

Friday morning: Majuro, Marshall Islands. These three pictures are of the great deep sea, South Pacific, shark infested, aqua blue water fishing adventure. The picture, top right, is uncle Chad reeling in the fish you see on the left. The rod that he is reeling in on is worth $1300.00. The fishing trip cost $450.00, they provided everything including sandwiches, plus they let you keep your catch. Everyone enjoyed their sandwiches except for one guy that was puking off the side of the boat, Grandpa. Catching tuna was the best part, first we had to go to where the birds were swarming, and that’s where the tuna are. Once they grabbed your hook you had to pull the line in with your hands. Once the fish were in the boat, the crew grabbed the fish and slammed their head on the side of the boat to kill it. When you catch a big fish you kill it a little differently, everyone knows that Babe Ruth could hit a home run, but I bet he couldn’t hit a four foot long wiggling sea monster with a bat. So when you catch a big fish the crew grabs a baseball bat and swings at the big fishes head until it stops wiggling a.k.a. DEAD. 

hair cut in Majuro

 

LOW TIDE

These pictures were taken during “king tides” (when the high and low tides are “supersized”- so to speak) which occur only every, we have not counted yet, so many months, 4-6? These are taken on the lagoon side out  of our back door.    1. kids pulling up treasures

2. “Happy” stands on a pizza, notice complete with pepperoni. and is watching fish. The exposed coral is even prettier under water to the snorkeler as it is almost always haven to schools of tiny blue fish (I would use the scientific classification complete with life cycle details but we will save that for more of my creation brochure donated articles- so to speak).

3. More pizza…from the snorkel they look more like donuts (also not the scientific class…)  Haven to black hand sized ek (fish in Marshallese)

3 More coral

  4 Some one at PETCO REALLY MESSED UP! The entire aquarium section must have been dropped in our lagoon. Every time snorkeling you see fish from a different isle usually five new isles. 

5 Not an ek, the Brenda braided look seen at any tide at your local Kingdom Hall and if you did not recognize the one eyed blond that would Montana's’ own.

JAMBO JAMBO AT THE BARRETTS’

To our beloved who may wonder “I’ll bet Vince has been taking pictures and updating the blog and has decided how many pictures can a guy take when the shore line is 50 yards apart and 30miles long”---You are right! So here are a few anyway—when in truth we are overwhelmed by there is an awful lot to do in trying to teach an old guy “ewi wawen ej ba kajin majol”… I have never faced anything more frustrating in my life , plus service ,meetings, you know the life saving routine…continuing… there is also no espn(there is none)we are still reduced to occasional tv sent on cd—which has somehow lost its pull, an  ”atol” sized computer lap top screen with no sports—baseball never counts unless you are pitching or gimping to second base .

What you see may look like fun,,It was!  courtesy  of the “happy God” and a little going away party for a couple from Guam, here for a month plus, to work on the Translation home. They too are need greaters originally from Idaho. This is the homestead in the background hosted still as only “Lynn from Brooklyn or is that long island , no we all know home is where the “truth” came into the picture—that would be MONTANA!  The only down side was I travelled halfway across the world, hidden on a tiny spec of an atoll (a word I never would have defined in trivia pursuit) and guess who gets stuck organizing a few “games”….THE MAN WITH A PE DEGREE… funny , no one has asked about my degree or for that matter even if i graduated from high school.

Anyway enjoy the dances…they were way better live as well as with some local music and audience participation songs…and in English Lynn organized a chorus of the beautiful people to sing two of the new Kingdom songs as a goodbye (one being the song of dedication…and since we ,Micronesia, still have the old song book  and have not heard the new songs, there were a few tears in the crowd… not those of us with a degree. ……The brother in the last row just couldn't stay seated ! His hips didn't move quite like the sisters’ , also lost in the still photos.

From the ATOL…

1.WHY IS THIS TREE CALLED A “FLAME TREE’’?

2. Circuit Assembly …Attendant to self…anywhere but Majuro…”Oh my goodness Here I go to return lovely children to their parents”…however in Majuro, attendant to self …”Boy this is a really good part!”. Baptismal candidate with grandpa Brother Zechariah.

  4.”The women are a large army!” nice application to you “highlanders”.

Translation Home

“If Jehovah wants the house!”………….On all of Majuro we figure there may be six we actually only know of four homes which are of this size 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms and now after the building committee add on, there is office space to accommodate the translation team!  If you recall our home search more than one bedroom is the exception not the rule. The search for living space and office space went mostly unsuccessful for  some time including options to build, not desired because of difficulty finding leased land and high building costs. Then this home was noticed by “word of mouth” in a perfect location with a nearby smaller home thought to be perhaps used for the office space. Negotiations with the smaller home fell to owners lack of cooperation and desire for “high” price. Looking into the larger home proved successful with no doubt Jehovah’s direction behind the scenes.  

It turns out that the owner  was living on Ebeye, a tiny island off the atoll of Kwajalein.  Guess where she lives on Ebeye? (stay tuned for answer)   This large home was built for family use but the family never used the home and it was new and unoccupied! Go angels.  The owner “coincidentally” on Ebeye lives next to the Kingdom Hall and has a very friendly and neighborly relationship with the missionaries living next door.  On contacting her, she proves very interested in renting to the brothers.  The price is very reasonable and she was willing to pay the costs of remodeling for the additional office space!  We will let you know when the neighbor in Ebeye becomes a sister (we hope)!  

The first picture is the front view of the home.  As can be seen the home is in “rural” part of Majuro closest to the Laura congregation.  Picture two is also a front view capturing existing landscaping.  This third picture shows back view including the patio area which was enclosed by cinder block by the building committee (and with a little help from some of us ‘need greaters’ )  Brothers from Guam and Phonpeii came and lived in the home while getting it ready for the translation team.  They have been here two months and are almost finished.  They hope to have the office running by September 1.

Anybody out there?

Needless to say we have been a little slow with any new pics. Hopefully these will get us back on track if anyone is out there. Picture one is taken from ocean side looking west on about the second week of May. About two weeks later the sunset would not be in this frame, so we take a short walk to the lagoon side to now in June to catch picture 2 as the sun sets now in the  lagoon probably into July before its’ return.

3. We drove out to the west end of Majuro to capture this one. Unlike this picture if there are no clouds on the very horizon we are told that just as the sun disappears it emits a green glow. We returned a week later for a congregation picnic to say goodbye to some of the construction team working on the translation home (STAY TUNED  for blog 2) as well as the CO and wife.  Most of us on a cloudless evening witnessed yet another one of our grand creators signatures of aw as the sun dropped into the sea and for only a brief second there sat on the horizon the most beautiful praiseworthy “greener than green emerald” to disappear to the viewers open mouthed expressions of “wow”  ,” did you see that”, a few  “I missed  it “(that would include Lynn which is good so we can go back camera in hand) ………………………   PRAISE JAH YOU SUN AND….