31 March (Day 15)

This was a pretty chill day. We spent some time this morning at The Ark: City of Refuge. It’s a compound of housing and schools that basically runs like a commune. People who have no money or homes can come to The Ark and receive a place to stay in exchange for working there. It houses about 730 people and is run by Christians. They survive on donations.

Two years ago students were placed there for their teaching, and Sandy said she would not do that again. The teachers in the schools are people who live at The Ark. It’s the job they do in exchange for their room and board, and so they’re not actually certified. She said that they would often leave the GVSU students to teach because they were embarrassed at their lack of education and skill. The problem with

The Ark is that the jobs are not paid. They are provided with food and housing instead. But in order to stay at The Ark you need to work there, which prevents you from getting a paid job, and you can’t afford to move out of The Ark without money. It’s sort of a catch-22. It’s also a Christian organization which requires praise and worship daily, which is an issue for people in need who are of a different faith.

They do house and aid a lot of people, though. And what we saw of their school today seemed nice, even if the teachers aren’t certified. One thing that a student on our trip commented on, though, was the level of happiness. The mood at The Ark was quite somber, especially compared to the township that we visited yesterday. Our tour guide was very chipper, though, so it may just be the personalities of the other people we saw.

We leave tomorrow for holiday. I’m bringing my computer, so hopefully I can keep up with my writing, but I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have. So I wouldn’t count on too many updates in the coming days. But since we’ll be on holiday for Easter, I think that Heather and I are going to decorate eggs with Raiatea and Genovesa tonight. It should be fun; we brought a Camp Rock egg dying kit with us because we heard the girls like the Jonas Brothers. I’m excited! Also look forward to updates on cage diving, the game reserve, the elephant park, and bungee jumping when I get back from holiday!