Aerial photos of Kwajalein

I was looking at the Kwaj Scuba club website and saw that there were some good aerial photos of the island. I thought that some people might like to see what it looks like here. Some of these photos are pretty old. There are some buildings that no longer exist and some new ones that have been built. The trailers that you see in some photos were temporary housing, (temporary being 20 years!), but they are all gone now. Check it out.

http://www.kwajaleinscubaclub.com/photos/photo_thumbs.php?top_view

The 3 story building near the water, on the right side in photo 17, and the far left side in 18, is where our rooms are.

There are also pictures of Ebeye, which is where most of the Marshallese that live on the atoll are located.

I also uploaded a few photos that I have taken over the last few weeks to the website.
Living on Kwaj

Blowing bubbles...

Cindy and I are finally enrolled in a SCUBA class. Getting certified has been something that we have talked about for a long time. We just never found the idea of diving in the cold,cold water of the northwest too appealing. Up there you need to have a dry suit. Here in Kwaj, even a wetsuit is optional. We have been doing the classroom work and have completed two pool dives. This weekend will be our first ocean dive, which will be off the swimming beach. It should be fun. There has been a lot of studying to do, but we have a great teacher.

There is a lot of SCUBA activity here on the island (what else is there to do here?). The SCUBA club (http://www.kwajaleinscubaclub.com)(which you have to join to dive here), is very active, and diving is actually pretty inexpensive to do (once you have the gear). We are looking forward to exploring the waters around the atoll and maybe even checking out some of the wrecks, many from WWII.

One more hobby to take up our time and disposable income! (as if the boat wasn’t enough!).

Rain... rain... RAIN... Rain... rain...

It is definitely the rainy season here at Kwaj. It has been quite a bit wetter than before. The rain squalls are a daily occurance now. There is a weather channel that shows radar, forecasts, summaries and such. When leaving the room to head for work or to the chow hall we always take a look to see what to expect. We often are hurrying off before something arrives or waiting till it passes through.

We can’t always wait it out though. We had one day where we had over 5” of rain !! We have had several days with over 3.5”.  The island gets covered with puddles and small ponds, but most of it drains off pretty quickly. The rain is not really cold, but you can get soaked pretty quick and with strong winds it can get kind of chilly. When you get cold is after you go back inside an air-conditioned building! 

I was encouraged to keep a change of clothes at my office, so that when you get soaked on your bike you can change to something dry. It would be miserable sitting in wet clothes for hours. I have used my spare clothes a few times.

 

Of course after the rain, the sun comes back out and then it gets really hot and humid.  Always interesting weather out here.