Ebeye Island

Greg and I decided we wanted to visit Ebeye Island the other day. In order to do this we had to fly over to Kwajalein and then catch the ferry over. I had to respect their culture and toss my short shorts and dig out my long skirt first lol. When we told people on our island we were wanting to visit it we sort of got looked at with a blank stare and the question of "Why?"

The island is less than a mile long and about 200 yards wide, yet is populated with around 15,000 people! It is the 5th most densely populated place in the world.  Ebeye is 3 miles north of Kwajalein island. One of 93 islands that make up Kwajalein Atoll, it is the bedroom community for the Marshallese who work at the military base. Following WWII, when the US took possession of the Marshall Islands from the Japanese, the US conducted several nuclear tests in the Marshalls (most famously at Bikini Atoll) and moved many Marshallese to Ebeye. When the US started to use Kwajalein Atoll for other missile tests, Marshallese from the mid-atoll were also moved to Ebeye, thus setting the stage for overpopulation and various social and economical problems such as a lack of food, water, jobs, and money. 

The island is very much third world living conditions. Sometimes up to 40 people living under one flimsy shack, sleeping on the ground. 

One thing that really amazed me is the amount of smiling kids you found on the island. The island population is estimated to be over 50% populated of children, which is easy to see as soon as you step onto the island, there are kids running around every where. But like I said these kids literally have nothing and couldn't be happier, it really made me a little embarrassed to know the average American's child's Christmas list these days consists of things like Ipads, Cell Phones, and crazy materialistic things. The children on Ebeye would be happy with a used soccer ball they could kick and play around with outside. It's nice to see children outside playing and SMILING, they would even run up to us and  want us to play with them, which melted my heart!  I caught a cute pic of these two girls climbing on Greg's arms hanging like monkeys, I wasn't strong enough for that so they climbed on my back. =)

They must be a little used to the American's coming over once in a while, because they don't speak English but know enough to yell "PICTURE PICTURE" when they saw me walking with a camera. And unfortunately some American must have shown them how we pose by throwing up "Deuces" and making duck faces lol, because every time I went to take a photo the kids would throw up their peace sign and make a silly face! It was still cute, I even jumped in for one! 

There were quite a few stray dogs hanging around the island too, which I am a huge animal lover but they were very neglected, as you can imagine if the living conditions for humans were poor how they would be for dogs. They aren't treated as pets around there either, a dog around home you would naturally go up and pet (at least I would) and when I was petting this sweet dog it wasn't sure what to do and the islanders looked at me like I was crazy. 

Made me really miss my little Chihuahua! I wish I could take all the dogs and kids there and give them a good bath and the health care they need. It was definitely a life changing experience that really made me thankful for everything I've been blessed with in life, and realizing what little these kids have they are still so happy and make the best of it all. Although their view is UNREAL, check out this shot I got of my man looking out the window of a busted up shack that still had one wall up. 

I really enjoyed my day over on Ebeye Island, although it's third world and it was a little sad it really opened up my eyes. And I absolutely adored the children and their little smiling faces!