August 23, 2010-Storytelling

     My darling 6 year old always has a story to tell. And even though I don’t believe the actual art of storytelling is one of my natural talents, there are plenty who are talented in this, without even knowing it. Listening to stories of other’s life experiences is one of my favorite past times, and one of the things I’ll miss most about life on Roi. Today, we had another incredible morning of diving above the airplane graveyard and on one of the most magnificent coral heads in the lagoon, but what I most relish about our day is the storytelling done on the boat before, between, and after diving. I used to think, when I was younger, that you had to be old to have a good story to tell, a lifetime of stories to make it worthwhile, and it’s true that you may have more stories to tell as you mature in age, but you don’t have to be old to have a wealth of stories to share or even just one to contribute in a meaningful way. In fact, my children, at ages 6 and 8, already have so many stories about their lives. They may not always remember them, but we do, and when we go camping, those stories of their lives and ours are always requested as we sit around the campfire making s’mores or wait at the picnic table for the charcoal to get sufficiently hot to grill our dinner.
     The boys never get tired of hearing our stories, even if they seem boring to us or they’d heard the stories before, so we share them again and giggle about the funny parts and tear up at the sad parts, but more importantly, every day we make more memories to share during storytelling time later. Today, our friends on the boat had several stories to share that made us laugh and began to cement a budding friendship between the four of us. And each day I’ve spent on Roi eating at the Chow Hall or at the Outrigger Bar, I learn more about the people who have chosen to live on this tiny atoll, and I treasure the closeness and general joy it provides to daily life here. Just as so many love to read memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, and other non-fiction accounts of people’s lives, famous or not, this type of casual, verbal storytelling, is not only fascinating, but it is also heartwarming. It brings meaning and purpose to living in what could otherwise be a very stifling, small group of islands without much in the form of entertainment options, especially if you are not into water sports.
     For the Marshallese, their language is all oral, and one of the most important ways to pass on lessons and history of their culture generation after generation is through verbal storytelling. The Republic of the Marshall Islands Ministry of Education is currently in the process of trying to get their oral language formalized in a written format, but it is not an easy task, and there’s still very little in terms of their myths, legends, language and cultural history written in their native language. To make it more challenging, most Marshallese cannot even read their own language when they do have the privilege of having their stories translated into Marshallese, so storytelling is what has held their culture in place while so many outside Western influences have come into their nation and tried to change things for the better and sometimes, the worse.
     It’s what draws me to write down my days, my adventures, simple and uneventful they may be compared to others, in order to record life in a place hidden away from the world in so many aspects, to record the history of my family and our adventures for my boys like the Marshallese are trying to preserve and record their family histories, and to help me remember how good life was and is for me on the atoll. It’s what keeps me writing down stories in the form of children’s books to share the many small, but adorable sayings and activities of my boys as they grow, and it helps me remember those stories to share with them later around the campfire when they are grown and have their own families. That way we never forget who we were, who we are, or who we have become because of those experiences. Life is difficult at times, that’s for sure, and sometimes all we can preserve are those stories, those memories, that bond us together as family, friends, and human beings struggling to just be content and at peace with whatever life brings us and more importantly, to enjoy the life we have before it slips away into the sea like the sun at the end of an adventurous day on the water.