One of my favorite pastimes is reading. As I often have a pull inside me to write, today, I had a pull in me telling me to take a book down to the beach shack and read. It’s one of the most relaxing things I could do for myself, sitting in a shady spot with the sound of the waves lapping at my feet and immerse myself in someone else’s world, someone else’s life adventures. I tend to read the genres I like to write, which are personal narratives, biographies, and even a little historical fiction here and there. I’ll try others genres recommended by friends or chosen by my book club, but if I am free to choose whatever I want, I always gravitate toward the memoirs. I can’t imagine a life without reading, and I am lucky that my love of reading has cultivated a love of books for my two boys. My oldest son will actually beg for books more often than a new toy, and once he has found something on his level that draws him in, he will finish an entire book in one sitting, and he’s only been reading for a couple of years. Right now, we are reading a series of books entitled “How to Train Your Dragon.” I read a chapter or two out loud to them at night as they snuggle into their beds, and the first few nights, he whined for me not to stop. I told him it was developing his patience and making the book even more exciting as it leaves him with a sense of suspense each night about what is going to happen next, but he told me that he doesn’t like suspense. He could read it himself, and he would probably be done in only a few hours, but it’s family quality time for us, and selfish for me as I love reading to kids, my own or anyone else’s who care to listen. I tend to give my children books for presents and incentives for appropriate behavior, and fortunately, they are happy to have a new book just as much as any other prize. If they are bored, reading is the first thing I recommend for them to do, and most of the time, they are satisfied with that, even though the rambunctious of being boys sometimes gets the better of them, and they start picking at each other and wrestling in the middle of looking at books. My older son often reads to his younger brother, and that’s one of those sights as a mother and an avid reader that touches my heart. I hope they will always enjoy reading as a pastime and not just as something they have to do for school or work.
Reading is especially important to our community here on Kwajalein as well. It helps keep many of us sane throughout the year. It can be tough to live on a 3 mile long, ½ mile wide flat piece of coral only a few feet below sea level seeing the same people and going to the same events and places every day and night without a way to escape. Reading helps us escape until those much anticipated vacations where we get to attend cultural events, go to our favorite restaurants, visit family, and spend money and time realizing how good we actually have it in the islands, and then we can come back and handle it another year.
The thing is, the lifestyle and community has not changed much since the base was set up here back in the 50’s and 60’s. There are a few less people, a few more TV channels, and more access to the outside world through the advent of the internet (although we are still on a dial up system, which is very slow and makes us feel as if we are still in the dark ages compared to the wireless high speed connections in the states), but it’s basically the same. We still don’t use cell phones. We still ride bicycles everywhere. We still have the same chow halls and see movies in the outdoor Richardson Theater, whose stage was once graced by the famous Bob Hope! The only “restaurant” for residents is still the snack bar, although it has been renovated once or twice over the years and is now a conglomerate of fast food joints instead of a local buffet and/or grill as it has been in the past. In fact, we have many “re-treads” here on the island, people who come back for a second or third “tour,” and there are many who just come back to visit now and again and relive their days on the atoll. When I have the chance, I always ask, “So, how’s it feel to be back?” And I always get the same reply, “It feels like I never left or like I was just on an extended vacation.” This proves my point that it really doesn’t change that much. While the rest of the world is constantly changing, we are in a time warp of sorts, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s part of what attracts and keeps residents here, sometimes for 30-40 years, if not all at one time, then over the course of several tours that add up to that amount.
One long term resident told me that the only real difference he has noticed over the years is the lack of after work social time around the island. He said that now you ride around after work and see the lights from TV screens shining in the homes around the island instead of seeing all those people at the local sports games and events happening around the island. That’s the disadvantage of the increased technology all over, I believe, with people inside playing video games, socializing on Facebook, and watching TV instead of making those real connections with each other outside work and school and enjoying the outdoors like previous generations have had so much more motivation to participate in than us. Despite that change, there are still adult and child sports leagues and many, many events to get us off our butts and out of the house here. It’s a very social island, and when people PCS (make a permanent change of station or move off island in other words), they always talk about how they will miss their friends and the social connections they made here. Even after moving back to the states or wherever they go, that’s what they remember and miss about the atoll, friends. It’s easy to make them here because if you don’t make friends fast, you may become quite lonely, and you have more time to spend with them, and it’s easier to get together because we all live so close. Overall, it’s a very sheltered, small community, and because of that, we are all very close and involved in each other’s lives on a daily basis. For me, this is another reason why pastimes such as reading can be a good escape when you need a break from the “rock fever” we all get from the quaintness or our small town environment.
Unfortunately, reading is another thing we as Americans sometimes take for granted. The ability to read, the access we have to books and the passion for reading, which is encouraged for many of us growing up with books at home, with parents and teachers who read to us, and with reading being so important to move ahead in our educations and careers, it’s a given for us. Reading is simply part of our lives, period. I’ve learned from the juxtaposition of cultures here that books and reading are not so readily incorporated into life on an atoll so far away from these important resources of education. Because of this, the 4-H Ebeye Citizenship Club I lead decided to hold a community reading night for our Marshallese members at their public school library a few months ago, and the results were truly inspiring. I gathered some books left over from donations to the school’s book fair that had not sold and decided to bring them over on the boat to allow each child who attended to take one or two home to read and enjoy as most kids do not have any books of their own at home. This is heartbreaking to me because I still treasure the set of “Little House on the Prairie” books my mom gave me so many years ago. I can’t imagine life without books, and I wanted to share that passion and love for reading with these kids who don’t have the opportunity to grow up around books.
Before our group went over for the book night, I was told by a friend that the Marshallese do not keep books at home because the glue in the binding attracts rats to their home, and my heart literally sank, but I came up with a plan. I would still take the books along with plastic zip lock bags to take them home in and keep them dry and hopefully safe from the rats, at least for a bit. The rats out here could chew through that plastic in a minute, but I was not to be dissuaded from my plan. Thankfully, I was rewarded with a passel of kids who thoroughly enjoyed being read to, completing a craft and word searches related to one of the books read, and just sitting and looking at books. They all left with at least one book, and the teachers who attended and are part of the club were equally excited to take the rest of the books back to their classrooms to use. It’s not that they don’t get donations of materials from those with big hearts on the nearby American bases, but so often those donations are just sent over in boxes and piled up in unused classroom, and no one ever sees them, much less uses them. This way, they are not overwhelmed with boxes and boxes of materials someone else is throwing out because we only took a small amount to share, and also because we enjoyed them together, provided an example of how our culture helps instill a passion for reading in our kids, and gave them a chance to pick out and take what they knew they could really use, and that gave me so much more joy than just sending a box of books over ever could.
I cannot imagine growing up without library story times, books stores to sift through all the latest titles, and nights reading under the covers with a flashlight before bed, but these kids do not have these opportunities, and it’s a shame, but I thank the 4-H Club members from Ebeye for allowing us to share our books, time, and love of reading with them, and we look forward to more such events this coming school year because to me a childhood without books is like summertime without the ice cream truck. You will survive without that special treat, but life is so much sweeter with it.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
August 3, 2010-The Island Commute
It’s been exactly one week since we arrived back in the Marshalls from vacation, and I’m already in the groove of “reverse commuting” back and forth between Roi and Kwajalein. What a privilege to have 10 weeks off in the summer! This is the first time since living here that I have had the chance to spend some time really reflecting on life and enjoying the island without any responsibilities. Between working on my college degrees, raising kids, and then working full-time over the last decade, I’m not used to arriving back from vacation and still having a month to settle in without heading back to work, so technically I’m not really a commuter, but I have been taking the early plane a couple of days a week to take care of errands “downtown” as the Roi residents call it, and preparing for the start of school and my kids arrival back on island at the end of the month. Most of the commuters live on Kwaj and work on Roi because there are no schools or housing available for children on Roi, so managers and engineers who have families cannot both work and live on Roi. Commuting here means taking a 20 minute flight on a 19 seat metro liner propeller plane twice a day to go back and forth to your office. Normally, I’m anxious to just get in the air and back down again because I have to get to work when I’m returning from Roi for the weekend, but this morning I was able to relish the sites as we flew. Because of the small size of the plane, we do not fly as high as commercial jets, and it’s a gorgeous ride right through the clouds. On the 6:30 am flight, the sun rising and shining through the cotton ball cloud mountains is soothing to me. When the clouds part, you can see the dots and lines of coral islands covered with green flora all along the way. As far as commutes go, I’m sure most would say it’s better than the potential road rage incidents and traffic jams in the states.
Once firmly planted on the ground again, I have a chance to look at some materials in the teacher work room to prepare my ELL classroom (English Language Learning) for the upcoming school year. I am most interested in the Manit Day (Marshallese Cultural Day) materials from a couple of years ago when the school used to have an official school event and observance of this holiday. I would like to see this event brought back this school year, and my mind started planning in advance the details of setting this up as I tend to do when an idea is put in my head. It would require a lot of after school work from our Marshallese aids and students as there’s not enough time in the school day to plan such a large scale event for the entire elementary school, but therein lies the rub. You see, I feel privileged to have so much time off here, and considering our teacher’s schedule during the year (8:15-3:45) with only a 5 minute commute to and from our homes, on bicycles no less, those who live and work on Kwaj are really quite blessed. The relaxed pace, short or no commute, annual month long vacations, the weather, safe environment, and excellent water activates right outside your door are the advantages of life here. But, it’s not that way for all the employees.
We have almost the same amount of Marshallese employees and students who come from the island of Ebeye every day as we do resident employees and students. The commute and life for these Ebeye residents is not quite as relaxing or luxurious as our own. They start their day before the sun has even risen to catch the LCU (landing craft units from the military outfitted with wooden box benches for seats) before it’s full and to ensure they get to work on time. Some arrive a couple of hours before they are due to be at work because if they don’t get one of the early morning boats starting around 5 am, they will have to pay money to catch a water taxi if one is even available or they risk missing work or being late. The kids who are privileged enough to go to school on Kwaj (5 a year from Ebeye are admitted at the kindergarten level through a special Marshallese student program offered by the base), often have to get ready for school under the supervision of another relative because mom and dad had to catch the early boat. As for breakfast, they may be provided with a few dollars to get something at the local snack shop or they may have some packaged, highly processed snack or nothing at all before getting on the boat to head to school. After a 30 minute ride at 7 am, they catch the bus from the dock to the school, and then it’s straight to class. After school, many participate in sports, so they go to homework clubs and have a small snack, then head out to games taking place between 5-7 pm. This means they can’t get on a boat back home until 8 pm, and then there’s still dinner and any homework they didn’t get done at school to complete, and that’s an extremely long day on their own for K-6th grade students on an island away from home where everyone speaks a foreign second language to what they have grown up with. Okay, I realize kids in the states are overscheduled and probably are away from home and commuting back and forth to sports and extracurricular activities just as much as these kids are, but the difference for American kids is that they go home to relax in a climate controlled home with running water and full-time electricity and a refrigerator full of food. They usually have their own bedrooms or share them with only one sibling, and they have access to books, the internet, and all kinds of things considered luxuries for Marshallese on Ebeye who often live with 5-10 people in plywood shacks with intermittent power and water obtained from a jug carried back and forth to Kwaj every day to refill as there’s no running, clean water from the tap. These conditions are partially due to the presence of the base out here.
More and more Marshallese move to the tiny, overpopulated island of Ebeye every year to try and find one of the few jobs available to Marshallese on Kwajalein, and if they can’t, they simply live off the generosity of their family members and friends who do have jobs on Kwajalein. The Portuguese, Germans, and Japanese were all here before we took the islands from the Japanese during WWII, and decided it would be a good place for a military base, and you can see their footprints as surely as ours in the last names of the local families and in the concrete and rebar bunkers and pillboxes decaying around the islands. I am not placing blame on anyone for the way the Marshallese live today as it is a convoluted combination of factors which contribute to the present day issues; I simply wish I could do something more to help as most of my work over the years here has been teaching English to the Marshallese, and they are the most patient, generous, kind, and fun-loving culture I have ever been blessed to know and work with, but there are very few who are willing to stand up and fight for better living conditions with their own leaders in particular. Americans are known for their power, and I don’t think most of us realize how far and wide our influence reaches and how many cultures and countries attain to have the power we do.
Many of us live in a secure, middle class, consumerism lifestyle in the states where we enjoy freedom of speech, and we are raised to question everything, to fight for what we want and need and not give up until we have it, and my only regret is that this is sometimes at the expense of others, whether or not we even realize it. Not everyone else is educated and brought up as Americans are, and I am the first to be thankful for being an American, and I love the determination and “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps mentality,” we’ve developed to survive. These are the types of traits I would love to see others adopt, our good qualities, but our ways of running a country and preserving a culture may not be best for everyone else. I would like to see us come into whatever new countries we are negotiating with for one reason or another and have an honest, equal discussion of values and understanding of what makes each country great and then decide how we can help them become the country they want to be, not what we think they should be because that’s what has worked for us. I know, we probably wouldn’t have the power and privileges we have if we had handled ourselves like this in the past with other countries because not every country is going to respond equally honestly and diplomatically to us, so call me an idealist, a hippie if you want, but a world governed by the principals of love could be so much more peaceful than one governed primarily by who has the most power and money.
There are wonderful things that have been accomplished for others because of America’s generosity and concern for others, and I am proud of that. I just hate to see my friends who are not American suffer due to our footprint on their land. It’s the way of the world, I know. We do the best we can and leave the rest to God, fate, and free will. I pray someday the RMI will find a way to pull itself up by its own bootstraps as America has to give its people a better life than they have now. There is no less corruption in their world than in ours, but maybe we have been better equipped in our education and culture to overcome it faster than they have. And guess what, if the Americans had not come to lease these atolls, I probably would not have been blessed to have the opportunity to fall in love with the people and culture here. I just wonder sometimes what it would be like today if everyone had just left the islands alone, lazy days of tending garden in the mornings and making palm frond mats in the heat of the day while the men fish for their family’s sustenance, then talking story around a fire and eating traditional foods from the land and sea at night. Thank God these elements of the culture have sustained the test of time as many stories are still passed down and traditional foods and mats still prepared for us to enjoy today and share with others who come to the islands and take the time to get to know this beautiful island culture.
Once firmly planted on the ground again, I have a chance to look at some materials in the teacher work room to prepare my ELL classroom (English Language Learning) for the upcoming school year. I am most interested in the Manit Day (Marshallese Cultural Day) materials from a couple of years ago when the school used to have an official school event and observance of this holiday. I would like to see this event brought back this school year, and my mind started planning in advance the details of setting this up as I tend to do when an idea is put in my head. It would require a lot of after school work from our Marshallese aids and students as there’s not enough time in the school day to plan such a large scale event for the entire elementary school, but therein lies the rub. You see, I feel privileged to have so much time off here, and considering our teacher’s schedule during the year (8:15-3:45) with only a 5 minute commute to and from our homes, on bicycles no less, those who live and work on Kwaj are really quite blessed. The relaxed pace, short or no commute, annual month long vacations, the weather, safe environment, and excellent water activates right outside your door are the advantages of life here. But, it’s not that way for all the employees.
We have almost the same amount of Marshallese employees and students who come from the island of Ebeye every day as we do resident employees and students. The commute and life for these Ebeye residents is not quite as relaxing or luxurious as our own. They start their day before the sun has even risen to catch the LCU (landing craft units from the military outfitted with wooden box benches for seats) before it’s full and to ensure they get to work on time. Some arrive a couple of hours before they are due to be at work because if they don’t get one of the early morning boats starting around 5 am, they will have to pay money to catch a water taxi if one is even available or they risk missing work or being late. The kids who are privileged enough to go to school on Kwaj (5 a year from Ebeye are admitted at the kindergarten level through a special Marshallese student program offered by the base), often have to get ready for school under the supervision of another relative because mom and dad had to catch the early boat. As for breakfast, they may be provided with a few dollars to get something at the local snack shop or they may have some packaged, highly processed snack or nothing at all before getting on the boat to head to school. After a 30 minute ride at 7 am, they catch the bus from the dock to the school, and then it’s straight to class. After school, many participate in sports, so they go to homework clubs and have a small snack, then head out to games taking place between 5-7 pm. This means they can’t get on a boat back home until 8 pm, and then there’s still dinner and any homework they didn’t get done at school to complete, and that’s an extremely long day on their own for K-6th grade students on an island away from home where everyone speaks a foreign second language to what they have grown up with. Okay, I realize kids in the states are overscheduled and probably are away from home and commuting back and forth to sports and extracurricular activities just as much as these kids are, but the difference for American kids is that they go home to relax in a climate controlled home with running water and full-time electricity and a refrigerator full of food. They usually have their own bedrooms or share them with only one sibling, and they have access to books, the internet, and all kinds of things considered luxuries for Marshallese on Ebeye who often live with 5-10 people in plywood shacks with intermittent power and water obtained from a jug carried back and forth to Kwaj every day to refill as there’s no running, clean water from the tap. These conditions are partially due to the presence of the base out here.
More and more Marshallese move to the tiny, overpopulated island of Ebeye every year to try and find one of the few jobs available to Marshallese on Kwajalein, and if they can’t, they simply live off the generosity of their family members and friends who do have jobs on Kwajalein. The Portuguese, Germans, and Japanese were all here before we took the islands from the Japanese during WWII, and decided it would be a good place for a military base, and you can see their footprints as surely as ours in the last names of the local families and in the concrete and rebar bunkers and pillboxes decaying around the islands. I am not placing blame on anyone for the way the Marshallese live today as it is a convoluted combination of factors which contribute to the present day issues; I simply wish I could do something more to help as most of my work over the years here has been teaching English to the Marshallese, and they are the most patient, generous, kind, and fun-loving culture I have ever been blessed to know and work with, but there are very few who are willing to stand up and fight for better living conditions with their own leaders in particular. Americans are known for their power, and I don’t think most of us realize how far and wide our influence reaches and how many cultures and countries attain to have the power we do.
Many of us live in a secure, middle class, consumerism lifestyle in the states where we enjoy freedom of speech, and we are raised to question everything, to fight for what we want and need and not give up until we have it, and my only regret is that this is sometimes at the expense of others, whether or not we even realize it. Not everyone else is educated and brought up as Americans are, and I am the first to be thankful for being an American, and I love the determination and “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps mentality,” we’ve developed to survive. These are the types of traits I would love to see others adopt, our good qualities, but our ways of running a country and preserving a culture may not be best for everyone else. I would like to see us come into whatever new countries we are negotiating with for one reason or another and have an honest, equal discussion of values and understanding of what makes each country great and then decide how we can help them become the country they want to be, not what we think they should be because that’s what has worked for us. I know, we probably wouldn’t have the power and privileges we have if we had handled ourselves like this in the past with other countries because not every country is going to respond equally honestly and diplomatically to us, so call me an idealist, a hippie if you want, but a world governed by the principals of love could be so much more peaceful than one governed primarily by who has the most power and money.
There are wonderful things that have been accomplished for others because of America’s generosity and concern for others, and I am proud of that. I just hate to see my friends who are not American suffer due to our footprint on their land. It’s the way of the world, I know. We do the best we can and leave the rest to God, fate, and free will. I pray someday the RMI will find a way to pull itself up by its own bootstraps as America has to give its people a better life than they have now. There is no less corruption in their world than in ours, but maybe we have been better equipped in our education and culture to overcome it faster than they have. And guess what, if the Americans had not come to lease these atolls, I probably would not have been blessed to have the opportunity to fall in love with the people and culture here. I just wonder sometimes what it would be like today if everyone had just left the islands alone, lazy days of tending garden in the mornings and making palm frond mats in the heat of the day while the men fish for their family’s sustenance, then talking story around a fire and eating traditional foods from the land and sea at night. Thank God these elements of the culture have sustained the test of time as many stories are still passed down and traditional foods and mats still prepared for us to enjoy today and share with others who come to the islands and take the time to get to know this beautiful island culture.
Monday, August 2, 2010
August 2nd-Lazy day on the Atoll
Just another lazy day on the atoll. It’s the lazy days that set my mind rolling about anything and everything under the sun. After a wonderfully long vacation, I am a few pounds heavier than I would like to be, so I set off for a long walk around the island of Roi-Namur this morning, and the memories began flooding back. Upon walking past the illustrious Chow Hall, I could almost smell the delicious food and fun of holidays past. It’s always special at the Chow Hall on holidays, which usually includes all the crab legs, shrimp cocktail, silky chocolate pie, and berry tarts you can eat. It’s our family meal out here since we cannot always be with our biological families on the usual Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter dinners. Picking up the pace a bit, I look to my left and see a bank of grey in the sky above the coconut trees, but to my right are blue skies and cotton ball clouds, so I know I’ll most likely make it around the island without getting wet. The grey can hang around half the sky for most of the day without ever dumping, so I stopped waiting out the potential rain a few years back. Even if it does rain, it will be warm, and the trade winds will blow it to the next island quickly. As I pass the exposed reef near my friend’s beach shack (affectionately known as the “Gabby Shack” in honor of its former caretaker), I remember mornings with my boys walking the reef, finding a juvenile moray ell stuck in one of the pools until the tide came back in or it jumped into another pool leading back to the ocean as it did when nervous from our “sightseeing.” Walking the reef and finding treasures is one of our favorite pastimes here, and such an educational experience in nature for all of us. Walking past my boyfriend's beach shack, I smile at the thought of our camp outs and teaching the boys the art of roasting marshmallows and not simply setting them on fire as my oldest son likes to do. All the afternoons of sand castle building, Easter egg hunts, and feeding the hermit crabs just to watch their antics come rushing at me like the wind that has picked up since I turned the corner around the end of the airport runway.
Just as the colors of the ocean here amaze me, so does the brilliance of the greens in the plants and grass during rainy season on the atoll. It really is beautiful, so beautiful that I can see why the native Marshallese spend so much time under shady tress outside instead of in their meager unairconditioned homes on the neighboring islands. I pass a few hanging out in this manner on my way toward the radars. The tell tale sign of the radars presence nearby is the buzzing in my Ipod headphones, so much at times that I have to take at least one out of my ear while walking past the danger zone. The radars and their capabilities are the reason we are here, but most of us don’t have the privilege of working directly with them, so we sometimes forget the larger mission of missile defense research and space tracking that the range serves. The mission of the range is what brings us here, but not what keeps the families and civilian employees living here for years at a time. For me, it’s things like the beautiful tree lined road leading past the scuba shack where we once found empty coconut shells to clack together and sound like horses for the viewing of “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” at the outdoor Tradewinds Theater, and the days exploring the island in a golf cart with my boys. Even though my man says he has seen every nook and cranny of the island already, we almost always find a new one along with some WWII treasure like a busted old radio or the abundant bullet shells kicked up by the recent rains or trucks traveling through the jungle. Roi-Namur is sometimes called “Roi Resort” for those who live on the neighboring base of Kwajalein where my children and I reside, but it is very quiet and sometimes “boring” to those who are used to the big city life on Kwaj. It is never boring to me. It’s about making your own fun with treasure hunts in and around the WWII ruins in the jungle, geocaching, fishing the reefs, and snorkeling or diving the surrounding clear, colorful waters. In fact, I may end up missing Roi and all my adventures here more than Kwaj when it’s time to go. It is my home away from home, my family in the middle of the Pacific.
Just as the colors of the ocean here amaze me, so does the brilliance of the greens in the plants and grass during rainy season on the atoll. It really is beautiful, so beautiful that I can see why the native Marshallese spend so much time under shady tress outside instead of in their meager unairconditioned homes on the neighboring islands. I pass a few hanging out in this manner on my way toward the radars. The tell tale sign of the radars presence nearby is the buzzing in my Ipod headphones, so much at times that I have to take at least one out of my ear while walking past the danger zone. The radars and their capabilities are the reason we are here, but most of us don’t have the privilege of working directly with them, so we sometimes forget the larger mission of missile defense research and space tracking that the range serves. The mission of the range is what brings us here, but not what keeps the families and civilian employees living here for years at a time. For me, it’s things like the beautiful tree lined road leading past the scuba shack where we once found empty coconut shells to clack together and sound like horses for the viewing of “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” at the outdoor Tradewinds Theater, and the days exploring the island in a golf cart with my boys. Even though my man says he has seen every nook and cranny of the island already, we almost always find a new one along with some WWII treasure like a busted old radio or the abundant bullet shells kicked up by the recent rains or trucks traveling through the jungle. Roi-Namur is sometimes called “Roi Resort” for those who live on the neighboring base of Kwajalein where my children and I reside, but it is very quiet and sometimes “boring” to those who are used to the big city life on Kwaj. It is never boring to me. It’s about making your own fun with treasure hunts in and around the WWII ruins in the jungle, geocaching, fishing the reefs, and snorkeling or diving the surrounding clear, colorful waters. In fact, I may end up missing Roi and all my adventures here more than Kwaj when it’s time to go. It is my home away from home, my family in the middle of the Pacific.
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.
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.
July 31, 2010-Beginning and Ending, The Island Years...
I never thought I’d experience the highest highs and lowest lows of life on a miniscule tropical island in the middle of the Pacific. The choice was mine, and it was the life changing decision to get married and move away from small town USA, Alabama, to be exact, that sent me on this journey. I did not make the decision lightly; although, I was only 22 at the time, and hope and faith in the ideals of love, marriage, family, and a fairy tale life probably influenced my decision more than actual life experience or maturity. I say this because you never know where life will take you, no matter how many plans you have or how dedicated you are to being in control of your life; in the end, life and God, or whatever higher power you believe in, reveals to you that life is never really in your control, and plans are good, but pliable, and you must be pliable too, in order to roll and change with them. I had plans when I moved to this tiny dot of coral between Hawaii and Guam called the Marshall Islands. The naivety of first love and security was the reason I came, but not what would sustain me in the long run, and I was smart enough not to view the world totally through rose-colored glasses all the time because my own parent’s marriage had dissolved after 23 years and 3 children, and my mom was left without a college degree or a solid way to support herself, so I planned to finish college (I was only halfway through when I moved to the island), and I planned to be married at least 4 years before having any children, and I planned to work and figure out what I wanted to do for a career, and I did all of these things over the last 13 years, but there were many other things that happened along the way that were not planned including the worst kind of betrayal, divorce, and surprisingly enough new love, life, and joy in the oddest of places, but I do not regret the initial naïve choices that brought me here, I only wonder about them from time to time. It’s the “What if” game we all play when things don’t go the way we planned. And now, I’m in the middle of taking a leap of faith and leaving the tropical paradise I have almost grown up on because, well, it’s time. But before I go, I wanted to record the experiences of what will most likely be my last year here, to reflect on all that’s happened and on this place I’ve called home for so long, and finally, to let go of the past, so I can move forward in peace.
Writing has always been a form of therapy for me, and I have felt a pull the last year to start again, to allow it to cleanse me of the lemons life has thrown at me during my time here. So, this is where it begins and ends, on a three mile long island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, home to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and to the United States Army Kwajalein Atoll military defense base. You may find the story boring and not read a word further, and that’s fine. That’s for you to decide, but I still need to write it and share it with any who care to read it. You may fall in love with the islands I write about as so many before have done. You may want to come live here like almost everyone we meet on our travels does when we tell them where we live. It’s a tropical paradise in looks and description, but it’s also small town America overseas, and it’s an example of how the American footprint alters life drastically for locals wherever we go. It’s the prime example of the difference between visiting somewhere and actually living there, which is never quite the same with the good and the bad all wrapped up together.You can’t hide from life or its sorrows. And joy is found in the strangest moments. So, this is my daily story of a year living on an Atoll.
Writing has always been a form of therapy for me, and I have felt a pull the last year to start again, to allow it to cleanse me of the lemons life has thrown at me during my time here. So, this is where it begins and ends, on a three mile long island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, home to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and to the United States Army Kwajalein Atoll military defense base. You may find the story boring and not read a word further, and that’s fine. That’s for you to decide, but I still need to write it and share it with any who care to read it. You may fall in love with the islands I write about as so many before have done. You may want to come live here like almost everyone we meet on our travels does when we tell them where we live. It’s a tropical paradise in looks and description, but it’s also small town America overseas, and it’s an example of how the American footprint alters life drastically for locals wherever we go. It’s the prime example of the difference between visiting somewhere and actually living there, which is never quite the same with the good and the bad all wrapped up together.You can’t hide from life or its sorrows. And joy is found in the strangest moments. So, this is my daily story of a year living on an Atoll.
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