Views from MLSC islands

Japan has suffered a terrible earthquake and tsunami. Our sincere condolences to those who are trying to recover and restore a semblance of peace.
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I recently traveled to MLSC offices in Majuro and Ebeye (in the Republic of the Marshall Islands) and Pohnpei (in the Federated States of Micronesia). The purpose of my trip was to conduct a follow-up training on using Prime (the Kemp's case management system). Our MLSC tech, Ekeziel (Bong) Robles, handled the heavy work, addressing both hardware and software issues and working late into the night on all islands. My job was to give some simple demonstrations of using the system and then be available to answer questions during a hands-on practicum.

There are no daily flights into and out of the islands, so our time at each place was dictated in large part by the flight schedules. This meant a bit of time in Majuro, very little time in Ebeye, and mostly the weekend and Monday in Pohnpei. The Majuro staff gave up a state holiday in remembrance of nuclear testing victims to attend the training session. The Ebeye staff had the two days of training crammed into a day-and-a-half. The Pohnpei staff came in on Sunday for the bulk of their training.

I had a little time in both Majuro and Pohnpei to take some photos, and got just a tiny glimpse of Ebeye through the lens.

These are not in any particular order...

on the way home--from the Chuuk airport

this plane was grounded and we had a 6 hour "wait"




Ebeye

on the ferry from Kwajalein to Ebeye



views from the ferry arriving at Ebeye


Room at An Roshi hotel


view from the hotel balcony


Majuro



views from Rita (the northern end of Majuro)


baseball in Laura (the southern end of Majuro)


Bong at Laura park



gate keeper to the end of Laura





Manase and Bong at Laura



Japanese Peace Park







roadside vendor selling kelaguen-style tiny sand-crab meat


an example of the ever-present mural work in Majuro



view from the hotel shore


seating at hotel waterfront



the hotel


the hotel's extension where we stayed





Majuro office staff with Bong


Majuro Office Staff: Bob Katz, Talofou Manase, Roseann, Sunny Beero, Melanie, Wagner Joash, Ben Kilawe



Pohnpei

MLSC office in Pohnpei



Another Ben


Danally




Edwina and Sal


Susin



Ben, Erwine and Bong setting up for training


Bong during the training, dealing with tech issues


Edwina and Susin during training



Pohnpei scenic









at The Village (for lunch)



The Village


Tino, Ben and Bong











view from the airport "departure lounge"