August 1st-A Perfect Day on the Atoll

     What a perfect way to start the month of August. This is one of those days that epitomize the advantages of living in a tropical paradise. The day started off as any weekend should by sleeping in, then breakfast at Café Roi (or the Chow Hall as all the residents refer to it), which fills your belly, but falls short of meeting even Waffle House standards as it’s hard to get in truly fresh fruits (that haven’t baked on the tar mac from Hawaii and then Kwajalein before making it to the tiny island of Roi-Namur) and to even have bacon, milk, and other luxuries for our small, isolated atoll. The coffee is strong this morning, and the bear claws are sweet, and it’s part of our employment package as unaccompanied residents (without family and housing, we are given 3 meals a day “free” through our meal card), so we relish in what we have rather than what we don’t. Then, it’s back to my boyfriend’s BQ room (Bachelor’s Quarters), the college dorm room type accommodations provided free of charge to any contract employees without a dependent spouse or children. Living in the BQ has been quite an adjustment for me since I’ve had housing with my former spouse and then children for all but the last 3+ years of my time in the Marshalls, but it has its moments. In the last few years, budget cuts have forced the contractors to reprioritize who is allowed housing based on how many people they manage alone instead of the extensiveness of their degrees, training, and so forth, and unfortunately, teachers, such as myself, are no longer consider managers worthy of housing, so I remain in a BQ which only allows people 21 years and older to visit or reside in because in the end, it’s better for my kids to stay with their dad in the home they’ve lived in all of their short lives than the alternative of living back in the states with
a horrible economy and even worse job prospects for teachers at this time. But today, with the kids still in Alabama visiting family with their father, the chow hall and BQ are a welcome respite from the expense and craziness of grocery costs and responsibilities that are evitable living stateside. Just coming back from vacation has reminded us all too regrettably at times of why we continue to live on this tax free military base, free of charge for housing, food, and most other every day expenses others face.
     After breakfast, we relax in our room until lunch, and then begin planning an afternoon at the beach shack. These types of afternoon outings on Roi are the main reason why it is hard to leave and one of the best examples that I can think of the tropical paradise the rest of the world probably pictures that we live in every day. Preparing a delicious garbanzo bean salad from a recipe we saw in Jet magazine at the store yesterday, we wet our appetites for our lunch time adventure. Add some spicy Italian sausage and some jumbo frozen shrimp on the “Barbie” as they say in Australia, and we are ready to go. Swimsuits, check; reading materials, check; beers, check; food, check. Hook the cooler up to my bike (the main mode of transportation for everyone on the islands), and we are set. Hanging out at the beach shacks on Roi is, for sure, one of my fondest memories of the islands and will be for years to come. My boyfriend's beach shack is secluded on both the left and ride sides with scagliola and coconut trees and in the center left is a concrete pad with a metal picnic table and to the right is an old wooden cover left over from the last owners who had a deck attached. He also has a wonderful hand built concrete block grill, and the best beach shack shower on the atoll, in my opinion, enclosed in a bamboo fencing and wood privacy stall. While we get a little exercise sweeping and raking up the leaves, palm fronds, and coconuts that have dropped over the last 6 weeks we have been away, the charcoal grill warms up for our dogs. The sound of the waves just a short distance in front of us is soothing, and with the sun high in the sky, the water is as beautiful as ever. That’s the one thing I have never grown tired of in 13 years on the island, the amazing color and clarity of the waters in the Pacific. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the waters around tourist destinations such as Fiji and Tahiti, and our water is similar to that, but there’s no photograph or camera in the world that can truly capture the beauty of the water here. The various blues and greens that change with the amount and varying heights of colorful coral jutting up out of the water is absolutely breathtaking, and it’s so clear that you can see anything and everything from the ripples created by the constant movement of the waves straight down to your feet as you stand close to shore or snorkel off the beaches. I can’t wait to jump in, so after cleaning up and grilling our lunch, we sit down to a delicious fresh meal, the best I’ve had since returning from the states where it is taken for granted by most how fresh and tasty the fruit, vegetables, and meat are that we pick up at the local grocery or restaurant. The only negatives are the flys. There are at least 10 swarming around me and landing on my skin before we even take the food off the grill. I spray on some “Off,” which they stay away from for a bit, then they risk coming in again, and it’s a constant “fan hand” going between my plate and Rene’s until we are done. They don’t like the garbanzo bean salad, maybe because of the vinegar, but the shrimp and Italian sausage is hard to stay away from. Every time we encounter the flys, it reminds me of a story my boyfriend told me of the day he and his friend spent all day at the beach shack and finally ate their hamburgers while running up and down the beach to keep the flys away. I’m not sure why they are so prevalent here, maybe because of the regulations from the environmental office to not allow chemicals or spraying often so we do not damage local flora, fauna, and native species, but it is bad until “the flys go to bed” around sunset. After lunch, it’s a brief swim in the warm, salty waters of the Pacific, and a cool shower in the best beach shack shower in the Marshalls…a perfect afternoon at the shack, or at least as perfect as it gets anywhere in the world that I know of. As we head home, we look forward to relaxing and watching a movie while the day winds down to a close. This is what it is all about, and this is what I will miss most when I have to leave the islands.