October 15, 2007 (Day 4) and October 16th

We got up at about 4 AM and had to go wait outside for the taxi to take us to the airport. We got on the plane and Shelby and I were actually sitting next to each other and Mr. Fielding and Jacqueline were in front of us. The flight took about 5 hours and I was working on memorizing my speech on Marshall Islands history. I also slept some, just because it was a long plane ride. It was a rather interesting flight though, we left Hawaii at about 8 AM Monday morning and the flight was only 5 hours. We got into Mauro at about 11 AM Tuesday morning, it was very strange, we skipped Monday afternoon and night. : D As we flew over Majuro, it was the most amazing beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It was the first time either of us had seen an atoll not from a picture.

Finally we landed and when we walked outside, it was like walking into a sauna because it was so hot. We walked towards the airport and Jacqueline took pictures of Shelby and me in front of the ‘Welcome to Majuro’ sign. We waited in the airport for a while until our bags came in. Finally once we got through customs we were met by several people who were associated with Jack Niedenthal and they all had leis and flower crowns for us, it was probably the nicest introduction I’ve ever experienced. Jack’s wife had made them all for us, they were absolutely gorgeous and they smelled very good. However because they were real flowers, they didn’t last very long and they died soon after. Lani (Jack’s assistant) drove us into town to the Flame Tree, which was where we were staying. The man that ran the hotel and hostel was named Isaac and he was very nice. He showed us to our rooms and we settled in and set out to explore Majuro. Kathy Stratte, the principal of one of the schools we performed for, came and picked us up and showed us around a little bit and then drove us over to the Youth to Youth Health center and introduced us to everyone. There we met Lunes, one of the managers; he was also very nice. The people that we met in the Marshall Islands are probably the nicest and most generous people I have ever encountered. We set up plans for what we would do the next day for our practices at Youth to Youth. Then we walked around for a little while and had lunch at a little restaurant across the street from the Flame Tree. After we had walked around for a bit we came back to the hotel and ate in their restaurant. We ordered the cheese pizza and it was the cheapest best cheese pizza I’ve ever had. It was also the cheesiest pizza I have ever had. It was seriously like in one of those movies where the cheese is oozing off the pizza, it was amazing. After dinner we went back to our rooms and settled in for the night. We had had a very busy first day just exploring Majuro. This surely would be the start of an experience that I will never forget.