KAREN EARNSHAW
The seventh and eighth graders at Wotje Elementary School are starting to prepare their introductory words that they will use to welcome virtually the Oregon students who created the miniboat Panda Express which sailed into their atoll a couple of days after Christmas.
Principal of the school, Lokjen Emos, told the Journal that the students are eager to work with their stateside counterparts to fix the “sensor” in the navigation system’s satellite connection. “We (the school) have already received the manual by email. We will all work together to reinstall the equipment.”
Lokjen said that one of the organizers of the miniboat program, Kama Almasi — the Director of Oregon Coast STEM Hub at Oregon State University — has a friend, or at least knows someone, who lives in Kwajalein. “She said she’s going to give him the spare parts and in two or three weeks he will bring them to Kwaj and then send them on to Wotje.”
The story of the boat’s voyage to the Marshall Islands began as a summer project at the Curry Public Library. Students aged 10 to 18 built the boat and it was launched on November 3, with the students eagerly watching its progress via satellite.
One of the organizers, Bronwyn Greathead said: “We had met weekly at the library for two hours and the kids did all the work, with some occasional help from adults. I was amazed at how quickly they took to all aspects of the project, from painting to wiring. They were much more capable than I was.”
Then, in late December, the students saw the boat was closing in on Wotje Atoll. The site of Educational Passages (who are the instigators of the miniboat projects) reported at the time: “On December 26, the Captains and crew of the M/B Panda Express noticed that she was nearing the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Sure enough, the next day, Panda was reporting from the middle of Wotje Atoll!”
A few days later…“We watched her reports with bated breath until on December 28, she reported again from a sandy beach near Wotje’s remote Meichen Channel on an island called Ukoon. While she waded in and out of the tides, connections were being made for her recovery.”
And this is where Majuro Weather Station Electronic Program Specialist Ronnie Bungitak and Wotje Mayor Rithen Lajar enter the story.
Ronnie said on Monday from Lae Atoll that he received an email from the organizers of the Panda Express project: “I saw that it was in Wotje and so I sent the email to the Mayor.” He had met Rithen about four months ago, when he and the weather team were on Wotje to fix some of their equipment.
Mayor Rithen: “My friend Ronnie let me know about the boat and sent a link. I opened it and it showed me a (satellite) picture of the boat next to the main channel. I got in contact with the doctor (Kama Almasi) and she asked us to rescue the boat.”
She agreed to provide some funds for gas, so using gas from his store, Rithen found a few guys who were going fishing and they said they would bring the boat back. “The guys were going to be out for a few days, but it turned out they came back that night. I heard they were back and got the boat from Captain Kino’s house.
“Me and the principal took it to the school.”
This Monday, Principal Lokjen told the Journal that they don’t yet have a schedule for the virtual meeting of the two classes. “But I want them to know we are available any time. It will be good to see the perspective between the two classes.”