Back in April (we were still living in Thailand at the time), Tam and I found some more information about the Marshall Islands. We knew people that went over there regularly while we were living in Hawaii, and they always came back raving about this secret mysto-amazing place with friendly people, relatively intact culture, warm clear water, infinite amounts of sea creatures, amazing wind, and perfect waves.
It required a little more research, obviously.
Hmmm?
We both decided we would like to live there, in spite of finding a few things that made it seem a bit challenging. You know, just a few minor things that left us with some exclusions to us simply jumping on a jet and zipping over.
We knew that The Bikini Atoll and the Enewetak Atoll had been used extensively as atomic test sites, but we really didn’t understand the full scale of it. There were twenty-three bombs tested on Bikini (one that was over a thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima), and forty-four on Enewetak during the period from 1946 to 1958. Both of these islands are less than two-and-a-half square miles in size.
These areas remain radioactive to this day, so we decided not to move to those atolls.
But it still looked like an amazing place to live, if we could get on the islands that lie far to the south of the glow-in-the-dark ones.
It turns out that the Marshall Islands are one of the least-visited places on earth, with less than ten thousand tourists a year visiting a population of only just over fifty thousand Marshallese people. The Republic of the Marshall Islands covers a total area of 750,000 square miles, but only has 70 square miles of land mass over 1,150 islands and islets.
It is really spread out.
Also, the average elevation across the entirety of the Marshalls is seven feet above sea level , and the highest natural point is thirty-three feet (at which tide is that measured, I wonder, high or low).
But, these are classic Pacific Ocean coral atolls, with perfectly clear eighty-five degree water, and coral reefs everywhere. Where there are coral atolls there is always amazing kitesurfing, surfing, free diving, fishing, and tons of other stuff to do in the water.
We had to figure out how we were going to get to visit, and where we could live.
We were starting to realize that it was really tough to find a place to live there, and we thought it may not happen.
Then, by the grace of Tam’s FaceBook account, we discovered Kwajalein Island on the Kwajalein Atoll.
It is the location of a US military Garrison, on an island that is three-and a half miles long by three-quarters of a mile wide. And, yes, a whole six feet above sea level (I still wonder which tide they measure that on)
Just over a thousand people live on the island, and most are military personnel, military contractors, logistics contractors, and their families. Lots of computer nerds and rocket scientists, if I had to guess. It turns out that in order for us to live on the island we would need to work there, but I am by no means either a computer nerd or a rocket scientist.
Shit.
You don’t get to live on Kwajalein if you are not one of those on contract or a family member.
It wasn’t looking too good.
I have to step back a bit here: we have always agreed that we would keep our nursing licenses active, which would take four hundred hours of practice every two years. This way we could work if our retirement plans were to fail (oh no!), or in order to take travel opportunities when they arose.
Well, guess what?
There is a hospital there.
And guess what?
We took contracts there.
For one year.
We started the process with paperwork in April, and we barely finished our federal clearances and background checks, medical, dental, and vision checks, and were notified just two weeks ago that we would be signing contracts.
It was a long process. Now we are in the manic phase of packing and preparing to ship our stuff to the island. Tam leaves in three days, on November 3rd, and I go a month later, on December 3rd.
Yeah, I ain’t too happy about that part either. You all know that my hatred of winter, and snow, and scraping ice off windshields runs very deep.
Oh, and, of course, I will miss the hell out of Tam for that month. She still hasn’t stopped rubbing it in incessantly that I will be stuck here in the cold while she is basking in the warmth of the island.
I just hope I am not frozen to the floor when it comes time to get on my flight.
So, we finally have our plan, and it seems a good one. I find myself excited for a new adventure and a new cultural experience, and (don’t tell anyone I said this) I may even be a little excited to work as a nurse within that new culture, learn a language, and learn from them some new and better ways to live.
I still wonder what tide they are measuring the altitude above sea level from, though.
Wind, Water, Waves, Wander 