January 17, 2011- 4-H Nene Picnic Day!

      Today was the culminating event of another successful 4-H Ebeye Citizenship Club, the outer island picnic on Nene!  This is the third year of the club, and our third time to take the long, but fulfilling journey to one of the most beautiful islands in all of the Marshalls. The citizenship club with our neighboring elementary school students from Ebeye is all about being good neighbors, learning about and sharing our varying cultures, and protecting our environment through clean-up days and enjoying the pristine environment of the outer islands.  The outer island picnic is a favorite event of every club member and their families. It starts with the boat ride to Ebeye from Kwajalein and meeting up with our friends from the Ebeye Public School. Then, we take a 25 minute bumpy bus ride down the man-made crushed coral causeway connecting the islands between Ebeye and Guegeegue.  Finally, the bus stops when it can go no further due to the shoreline growth, the narrowness of the end of the last island before Nene, and the impeding reef.  Next, we reef walk. Today, the tide was coming up enough to wet our feet as we headed across in the 70 degree plus water. It makes the reef slippery, so you have to navigate carefully.  Once across, there’s another short walk through the brush until the island of Nene opens up before us with tall coconut palms shading an area of white, soft sand and green, grassy patches.  There’s one small home located on the island along with a pig pen and a covered area for cooking, eating, and relaxing in the heat of the day.  For fresh water, a couple of water catchments provide plenty for the small number of regular residents, and with no electricity, Nene can be categorized as true outer island living in a gorgeous setting far from the suburban lifestyle of Ebeye. There’s no way to get there except by boat or on foot, so once there, and without plans to have someone with transportation meet you when you arrive back to the causeway, you have to be ready to live the simple life of an islander, fishing for food, doing your business in the surrounding jungle, and “camping out” in the fullest sense of the word.   

     When we arrived, someone had just caught a few small fish for lunch or dinner and had them sitting in a small metal pan in the shade. A mattress situated under the cover of the cooking area provided a perfect resting spot for one of the residents who immediately took to my friend’s smiling three year old and began chatting with him. We brought our picnic foods, which usually includes both Marshallese and American fare ranging from coconut rice balls and breadfruit delicacies to cheese and crackers, fruit, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches. A particular favorite today was the cinnamon spice popcorn brought by one of the second graders on the trip from Kwaj.  Last year, I remember everyone enjoying and trying the boiled breadfruit still in its hard, bumpy, green outer casing from the abundant breadfruit trees on the island. It’s yellowish and stringy and reminds me a bit of sweet potato in looks and taste. It definitely requires a toothpick or dental floss after trying it out.  We also usually have the pleasure of drinking coconut juice straight from the coconut, but yesterday presented a few challenges for our friends with power being out on Ebeye and at the school, which kept our Ebeye friends from being fully prepared to refrigerate and cook their local dishes to share with us, so instead we enjoyed and shared what we had in the extremely generous nature of the Pacific islands cultures.  Several of our group swam and searched for beach glass, which is in abundance on Nene, but mostly we just relaxed from our long, hot journey, basking in the beauty of life on an atoll.

     Due to rising tides and the bus and boat schedules, we couldn’t stay on “island time” for long and had to head back after only a short while on Nene to catch our bus in order to make the next boat back to our home island in time.  But before leaving, we discussed the beauty of the island asking, “What do you think of it here? Emon? (good?)” to which there was a resounding, “Emon, Emon,” from the Marshallese crowd and cheers and clapping from the American crew.  “Well, we want to keep it this way, right? In fact, we’d love to see Ebeye and the rest of the Marshalls become this beautiful again, right?” So, we talked about packing out what we packed in, taking our “Kobej” and putting it in the trash can, and making sure the water and land in the RMI stays as magnificent today as it was years ago, just like Nene.  This is one subject that appears to need little to no translation as the kids can all see the importance of a clean environment in the islands when they experience it first hand, including what it can be and should look like from the perspective of the virtually untouched outer islands. It was a perfect end to another perfect 4-H outer island picnic event, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s journey!  :)