Over Christmas weekend....

We worked on Christmas (Friday the 25th here ..a Frisbee night).  It was just a half of a day.  At 11am, I went down to the main office (just another shipping container turned into an office) and offered to help set up for the party San Juan was putting on at 2pm, for all the Marshallese and Ex Pat workers.  I had enough beer in the truck to cover the bed of the pickup and then some.  That was my help, I put the beer on ice.  The party was ok, the food was ok, the thought was very nice.  I didn't stay long, cause I was dog sitting and it was a Frisbee night.  I missed the man camp dinner, regrettably.  The menu was steak, lobster, crab....and I can't remember the fillers, but I'm told it was incredible.  Those ladies and gentlemen know how to cook.  My phone has an app called "map my run", and I used it this weekend.  Below are the "screenshots" of some of the activities.  I should have worn it while walking the dog I was house sitting, I didn't wear it while surfing because the phone would have gotten wet, even though its in a waterproof case.  The same with Kiteboarding.  I also didn't wear it for the last game of Frisbee tonight (Monday the 28th)....



This is Friday night Frisbee, it doesn't include the mile bike ride there, then to the dogsitting deal...walking the dog everywhere, and then the bike ride back to the dogs house.....



Ultimate Frisbee on kwaj...

This one is out of order...but its Saturday the 25th, sailing a sunfish with Jim (in another sunfish) in the lagoon
 

I can't seem to get these in order.  This one is after we got back from Kiteboarding from 9 am to 2:30 pm on the 27th.  I went surfing at  5pm which would be that lower left point.  The line on the far left is where I went to the lab to get my board, then came back to surf.  I didn't wear my phone surfing, cause it would have never survived, but after surfing I went in town to Jobe and Ambers and had a few beers....then we got up and met at the marina at 9:30 on the 28th to go kiteboarding again...
 



ultimate Frisbee on kwaj Friday night...






 

This would be Sunday morning with Jobe, Amber and Kristen going kiteboarding.  I had to have put 8 miles on the kiteboard that day, zipping back and forth around that north spot where we parked the boat.  I would have worn the phone, but it has the music on it for the Bluetooth speaker, plus I might have trashed it kiteboarding....


 

This would be the day of the 28th, very similar picture to the 8.82 mile one that went north into the lagoon...but it doesn't include the all the kiteboarding...or the Monday night Frisbee game....

December 24th 2015

Thursday, the 24th of December.  I get to dogsit/housesit for a few days in town!  It will be nice to sit on a couch, with my new buddy Duke!

I've found some pics on my phone....because the supposed waterproof camera isn't waterproof, even after they fixed it once...

 

This is the "map my run"version of our little sailing trip last Monday.  I guess I didn't start it until halfway out in the lagoon

This is my drunken sailin buddy for the Sunfish from the Yachtclub.  So far we have not tried to pirate any ships.

This the MacGregor 36 catamaran that I wanted to buy.  Its nice, but I may get more use out of the Nacra 17 racing cat that I am now trying to buy...for much less money

That is Ken and Lynda who bought the boat and were nice enough to tak me out.  Great people, very easy to be around. 

So they dress up the boats with lights and stuff then sail them in a line past onlookers at the beach, too bad my Night pics didn't turn out.  I hear they do this alot in ports around the country.

Someone's on one of the small boat marina boats and has it decked out.  Those are the rental boats we can rent for $15 an hour plus gas.

12-18-15....Thursday....

Took the sunfish out with Sherri tonight.  We've been doing this for about 6 weeks now.  I've heard she loves it as much as I do.  I bought one of those blue tooth connected speakers, downloaded a bunch of music, and play it while we sail around the south end of the lagoon.  We bring too much beer.  She holds on to the rudder and steers the little boat and I hold on to the sail.  Usually, I yell at her a lot cause she gets distracted and steers the wrong way.  That wouldn't be a problem on a power boat, but this one has a boom that can swing violently around.  It's aluminum alloy.  Its hard.  It can easily knock a person out.  Last week I calmly told her there was going to be some aluminum flying, cause she got distracted.  It swung around like a bullet, and she didn't even duck.  I did, but apparently, her being a bit shorter, saved her from getting a little egg on her head.

Tonight, however, was a nice low wind relaxing sail...no one died.

Dec 14th, 2015

A few videos from the past two weekends....it's been fun....but then again...every weekend is fun

December 8th, the real one

So I posted a picture of our group who I play volleyball with.  There's a good story behind most of them there.  I'll go from top left.  Joanna, she's our coach and cheerleader.  A great girl, which there aren't too many of on this island.  That's Steve sitting next to her, who is an incredible skateboarder I'm told, a great athlete, spearfisherman, surfer,  and an all around great guy.  Karen is next sitting behind her husband Dan.  Dan made their wedding rings out of something I can't recall, but he said it was one of the rarest gems on earth.  They are both leaving to sail around the world for at least 5 years.  Super easy to be around.  Sitting next to Karen is Ray.  Jermemy (eating the cookie) is a great guy too, even though I don't know him too well.  After Dan, is Cory.  He's a SeaBee, some sorta chief or something.  Completely great guy.  He is a great actor too, at Frisbee on several occasions he "tries" very convincingly to get the Frisbee from less skilled players, only to let them save face.  Don, at the bottom left there is near my age, but a much better guy, and a great sportsman, not to mention his athleticism.  Mariel, has improved in all the sports she plays out here tremendously.  She has this thing about taking pictures of herself, but is one of the nicest girls on the island.  Then there is Lee, who is now home, and that guy wearing some woman's glasses

The group photo in question


 

December 8th? 2015

I started typing in "Oct...".  This place has me forgetting time.  I spent the day on Bigej today, or rather the exposed low tide sandbar at the north end of Bigej (pronounced just like Fiji, except ...yea there is a "B" instead of an "F").  The "trade" winds have returned to the Marshalls, which just means it's blowing east again.  We had a two month period of pending doom and gloom with strong west winds, which is very abnormal for this place.  Two sailboats lost their lives, the beach at Camp Hamilton (about a half mile from my shoebox) got sucked away.  Four feet of sand was just pulled away in two months and there was this little cliff of sand left held together by the coconut tree roots there.  That little beach  (about a hundred yards long) is next to the Yacht club and where the sunfish I love so much are launched.  So with that 4 foot drop off it made it a challenge to get even the 100 pound sunfish in the water.  So the easterlies have returned and brought back at least half of the beach/sand to Camp Hamilton.  All those shifting winds in the past four months also built the huge sandbar on the north end of Bigej.  Bigej is an island about 6 miles north of Kwaj, but still on the same Atoll.  Most people don't get up there.  Hell, most people around here don't seem to do anything.  Fortunately, I've found ones who love doing my kinda activities.

Kiteboarding.  This place, this island, is not at all conducive to learning to kiteboard.  It's not really even a great place to kiteboard.  The rules issued on the behalf of safety, the direction of the wind, the amount of areas to "bail out" in, the depth of the water, ......all of it makes it tough to learn and to enjoy.  So we went to a better place.

We (Joe, Amber, Jobe, Jen and I) left the harbor just before 8am this morning and headed up the atoll in a slight headwind, which meant a bumpy ride in a Zodiac.  Joe and I were in one (his wife Kristen opted out, cause she's not quite sold on kiteboarding.....but she can surf like a pro) boat and the other 3 on another similar boat.  We took our beatings on the zodiac for 5 miles then go to Bigej pass.  The pass is a quarter mile long opening on the east reef of the atoll that basically lets whatever is happening in the ocean for a thousand miles, into the lagoon.  So strong east winds pushing for a thousand miles of open ocean created some pretty nice swells thru the pass.  I've not been in rough seas in the ocean, I can only imagine.  I've made this trip before using our 27 foot boat in somewhat calm seas with large swells coming thru that pass.  Its' just incredible, and humbling at  the same time.  One moment you are up high and you can see all the land possible, then you dip. It changes.  This huge blue liquid deal just changes, and the next moment you cannot see a thing except sky and deep blue water that is  higher than is comfortable for a guy from Ohio (fortunate enough) driving a boat in an ocean he has no business driving in. 

So we're basically in an inner tube today with a 40hp engine, doing the same thing I was feeling sketchy about in a boat meant for the ocean with twin 140 hp engines.  Of course the good thing about inner tubes is that they don't sink.  The pass was really choppy (read.....it was a bit of a beating), the swells weren't as ominous as they could be, and have been.  So it worked out  and we got there.  The north end of Bigej.  I set up first, cause, well , I'm a bit hyper, but then got nervous about being first, cause this place has done nothing to make me confident in my kiteboarding skills....however...

It was completely perfect.  I made a video,  there isn't much I could edit from it and keep people from having a seizure or something.  Its pretty bad, but it's a place to start.  We returned to Kwaj around 4pm.  There wasn't much time between the 8am arrival and our 3pm departure that we weren't tearing it up out there.  I may be sore tomorrow.  We are going again of course.

Yes the whole point was to go kiteboarding up here.  It was completely perfect.  I'd be we all spent at least 5 hours on a small board, ripping up and down this shoreline................

This is as we pulled away.  Two Marshallese guys, sound asleep on their beach.

I'm fairly certain high tide will wake them up...

sooo beautiful, maybe this pic doesn't quite explain it.  its one of those deals where you ....had to be there



We came back  on Monday.  It was painful getting out of bed, but completely worth it

It is completely amazing what these kites can do.

I was actually practicing to jump the boats that were sitting there.....but I thought better of it.  Maybe I am growing up
 

The main island of Bigej, completely lush and full of coconut trees starts a little to the right and goes on for much longer than the sand bar pictured here

we had about 6 kiters up there that day.  great people.  I wanted so bad to jump over those boats...

December 1, 2015

I wish there was more time.  We played volleyball tonight.  Indoor league deal, where you know everyone.  It was Lee's last night on the island.  There is something about coming here the first time and the memory of who was on the plane with you, even though you had no clue who they were then.  Lee was on that plane with me January 6th of 2015.  Slightly smaller, lightweight, Phillipino American.  Completely cool.  He's an incredible athlete that I could not keep coming back to Frisbee, but couldn't stop him from volley ball.  I would guess his weight around 140lbs, and height around 5'9", but he could jump.  Not only could he jump, but during volleyball games at the beach, he would jump way too early, but he kind of just floated up there all Matrix like until the ball finally came down to him where he would spike the shit out of it.  Most of his spikes hit the net, but shit it was cool.  Here are some pics.

Yea, so that's Lee that I'm pointing at.  Those glasses I had just found sitting there, not sure why I put them on, but I left them there, for the woman who owned them to .....find them

This is from a few weekends ago.  Joe spearfished this 53 lb dogtoothed tuna without any shark bites out of it...

it was a big damn fish......I have yet to be invited for a cookout.  However, I did have the best meal I've ever had in my life at the ADFADSFAF   Sarah and Ted had me over for their Indian "Thanksgiving".  All Indian food.  I cannot tell you how great it was. 

October 28, 2015

Saturday,

My roommate just came home.  Saturday night he plays poker out here.  Its a $40 buy in.  He came back with 280.  The Thanksgiving day tournament was a $100 buy in.  He came back with second place and $280.  James, once again, has the heart of gold.  He rented a Hertz big ass van to steal a Llama that he saw being abused on his way to ...somewhere.  Him and his friend Roger, fought the llama into the moving van and they dropped it off in an animal sanctuary they new of. 

His life has been a bit harder than mine, so finding this place has been even better for him than it has been for me, as impossible as that could be.

Wednesday November 25?, 2015

Wednesday....

Its the day before "Thanksgiving".  We work tomorrow, but are off and paid for the Holiday on Friday.  I've gotten myself a little bummed out trying to educate myself about the ...about all the crap that is going on in this world.  I have a sister who doesn't read this, but is completely sold on the whole religious war deal set forth in the bible.  Muslims vs Christians.  The Paris idiots I've read were not refugees, were not Syrian, but European Nationals.  The little news I see out here on TV (the AFN or armed forces network) always refers to them as "terrorists".  I'm not sure how they know their religious beliefs, but they are reported to be Islamic extremists.  I have a "Facebook friend", who now proudly lives in TX, loves Donald Trump, and posted a picture of an atomic bomb (orange reddish mushroom deal) with the text "We have been at peace with Japan since (insert actual bomb dropping dates), Its now time we make peace with Islam".  WE completely suck as a species.  A friend of mine posted an Onion article that had a picture of a earthish planet with the headline ...Distant planet worries that it may someday be habitable by humans.

I don't get it.  I mean how can we be so cool as individuals to each other, but separate us into groups and we become complete jackasses.  This island is a great example.  There were a number (I'd guess a very small but extremely vocal) of people (long time residents of Kwaj (say at least 4 or 5 years)) that convinced the overseer' of the island (Commander, ....?) construction workers were all idiots and we should be quarantined to this side of the island.  In March, there were a few houses in the residential section that got "invaded".  We were blamed first, even though there were only about 40 of us here, and I was nearly the youngest.  It turns out it was some of their kids.  How does it start, I don't know, but someone starts it, and so many follow like sheep with the hate, never really questioning things...

11-24-15

Tuesday....

I posted this on Facebook today.  I found an old flashdrive....

I'm remin....remininx...reminiscing over a summer spent with two really great people homeless in tents and kayaks in Alaska. The blurry one has the best story behind it. I put the bear spray in my back pocket (directions said only to use within 25 ft) and grabbed some pans walking toward the bear, as it ran towards me the third time. I remember hearing Tom tell Jessie to take pictures "you should make some money off of this" as he pushed her out into the cove in her kayak. ... I kept banging the pans as the bear kept running towards me. I'm thinking "shouldn't the bear go somewhere?" and "why am I still walking towards this bear so fast?" Apparently grizzly bears can't see that well. I was speaking English as I yelled "hey bear". I guess they go by their sight, and it had to get close enough to see how ugly we were. For some reason Jessie spent the night in her smelly dads tent. I woke up in the morning to something big in the weeds next to my tent.

It wasn't a bear, but I thought for sure it was as I unzipped the tent.  Tents, of course, are like forcefields to 800lb bears.  It was a cow moose and her calf.  They ran off to the water, kicking Toms kayak along the way, and swam away into the cove.

Tom and I being goofy

Stewart BC on Canada Day.  These people know how to have fun

um...yea
 

That little fuzziness on the other side of the cove was a pic of the second time the bear ran at us. The third and fourth times...well, I didn't get a picture ok
 

We used Tom's 4cyl Honda pulling a trailer with 3 kayaks and a bunch of shit up thru BC to get to ?  I can't remember, but we left the car and trailer there for the summer...
 

November 22, 2015

Sunday...

I played ultimate with the firemen last night (Saturday night).  They play in a field just behind the Vets Hall where most the island goes to do their drinking, especially on a Saturday night.  We don't really see too many of them out on the patio in the back mainly because we quit playing around 7pm or so.  Most the fireman are pretty good guys.  I watched two of them collide at near full speed trying to cut off a Frisbee I had thrown to a team mate.  I don't think I've ever seen two guys hit at such high speeds.  There bodies just completely bounced and went the respective opposite directions.  NO one was injured.

I went from there back to my shoebox to sleep, cause I heard the boat was leaving at 7am.  The company boat.  Someone else was taking it out and wanted me to come. 

I'll try and finish this later

November 20, 2015

I live the best life.  Yes, I'm grateful.  I can't stop being grateful.  I am completely cognizant of how well things have worked out for me in my life.  I am a white guy, born into a (at the time) middle class family, with the best parents.  I don't know that they were always great together, but growing up with them, they didn't let on that there was too much animosity between them.  They got in arguments, and we (my two older sisters and I) would ask them if they were getting a divorce.  Mom always said "yes, and you're going with him".  We would say something smart ass, or not, but us being there and being obnoxious usually calmed the storm. 

When I was little, they would send us to bed, and we would sneak down to the top of the stairs to listen to them talk at the kitchen table.  I'm pretty sure they new we were listening....

November 17, 2015

Tuesday...

This weather out here is so strange compared to Ohio.  I have not gotten past the fact that it is not July or August anymore.  I can't believe its mid November.  Back home there is all this Christmas talk on the radio.  There is radio here but I don't listen to it.  There is AFN TV here, but I don't listen to it either, there is just no time for that here.  Back home there is leaves changing, temperatures changing, sports change, clothing changes, moods change.  All of it kind of reminds you of the time of year it is.Today is the closest I felt to a November day.  It started raining at noon, when we left work to try and get some sleep for a big concrete pour at 8pm tonight.  The pour would last at least 8 hours.  It has not stopped raining.  Apparently there is one of those Chinese New Year looking deals on the radar just south of us dumping rain.  We had a volleyball game tonight, scheduled at 7:30,two miles from my shoebox, but because of work I couldn't go.  Then I found out on facebook, thru an accidental post,  that the work got cancelled (yea communication within this project sucks).  So the rain stopped long enough for many of us to make to the chow hall somewhat dry, but still having to wade thru 6inch deep puddles.  Then the rain started again.  At 6:15 I packed a cooler full of dry clothes and tennis shoes and a towel, then headed out the door in my swimsuit sandals and an old tshirt.  I loaded the cooler on the back of my bike and headed off in a pretty good rain.  The temperature had to be around 78 to 80 degrees.  This will sound funny, but it was cold.  It reminded me of November in Ohio.  Chilly.  You have to understand that your body, ok my body, acclimates, has acclimated.  My air conditioner is usually at 78 degrees, any lower and I come out of the shower all chilly.

We won our volleyball game tonight. Well, you play best two of three, and we won the first two. I can't believe there was a team so pathetic.  I pretty much thought we were the most pathetic.  We have a huge amount of athleticism, but were lacking volleyball skills.  That seems to be changing.  So we beat them the first two games, so we didn't need to play a third, but I got them to stay for some practice.  That was so much more fun than the game. 

I saw the guy who is "care taking" for the very nice Gemini catamaran moored out in the harbor tonight at volleyball.  The same catamaran that I offered the guy, who no longer lives here, but is trying to sell it for 60k, ...I offered him 30k thru a facebook message.  I told him it was most likely an insult, but it doesn't hurt to ask.  He wrote me back after a few days saying that it is priced to sell at 60k in "my market" (Kwaj).  Its been for sale since I got here.  Anyhow the guy who is looking after it here and usually he says hi to me or at least acknowledges my presence ....didn't tonight when I saw him at the indoor gym we play volley ball at.  Its a 2014 boat, a nice one at that, I see where he's coming from.  It's too bad.

The other guy, meaning the guy who just bought (4 months ago) the 36 ft Macgregor catamaran was at the gym tonight also.  That guy never stops smiling.  Everyone was talking about a b boat (they call the rental boats "b boats") that went down last weekend or so.  It got flooded somehow, and a May day was called, and the boat got towed back in upside down.  All parties were rescued.  There is a 6 mile limit to the b boats, I guess so the small boat marina can come to a rescue if they must.  I heard it was the guy who owns the catamaran that I really want that was "captain" of the b boat that went down.  Of course, being the evil guy I am, I wanted to make an offer on the catamaran at that time thinking he just lost (which I hear they lost a lot of crap...scuba, personal and so forth) a bunch of stuff along with having to pay for the boat repair (if he was at fault for the sinking).  I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to do it.  I just suck as an evil business man.  Ken was still smiling tonight at volleyball (they played before us).  It turns out it wasn't his fault the boat went down, it had some sort of hull leak. 

I lined some people up to go wakeboarding with Larry's boat last Sunday out to Bigej.  The only other guy who uses the boat besides me told me it was running great, and that the fuel filter clog issue was resolved.  He was wrong.  I had D and K on the boat, along with Cory and Cotton.  D and K are a very athletic mid thirties couple getting ready to go sailing in Europe for 5 or so years. D is from Alaska and K from Cleveland. Great people.  Cory and Cotton are two land based Navy personnel who play Frisbee with me on a regular basis.  Cory is around 25, and married.  Cotton just recently turned 21 and never drinks, and I'm told is very religious.  Cory is very athletic, extremely so....very fast, jumps great and he is also a guy with great sportsmanship.  All around great guy, especially for as young as he is.  Cotton is also a great guy, has a heart of gold, but the athleticism and coordination of a lanky 13 year old.  He will be the guy everyone wants on his team once he finally calms down enough to harness his own energy.  I told Cotton jokingly that I was going to "take him down to the park to pick up cougers". 

I went thru all the trouble of getting the boat in the water.  Trouble means getting there early to hook the hose up to each engine separately to make sure it runs, which of course there always seems to be a battery issue, and Sunday was no different.   So I get them both running, shut them down, the go take the key from the lock box, start up the John Deere tractor to tow the boat the ramp.  I put the boat in the water, then get off the tractor go wade to the boat, climb into it, then take it off the trailer and go dock the  27 foot cabin cruiser myself.  Tie it off, then take the trailer back to the boat yard and spray it off, get on my bike and ride the quarter mile back to the marina and hope everyone shows up.  They did and we took off, and the damned boat ran like shit.  Somewhere there was still a fuel filter clog.

These are the troubles I face.  It's terrible.  :)

November..something...ok 13th or so, 2015

Friday, lol the 13th, 2015...

I posted on Facebook "I have NO idea how i got so lucky with this life.....but I'll take it.".  Ok so I'm full of euphoria/endorphins and way too many beers.  Seriously though, I had a guy dress up as ....me...for Halloween. I mean how great is that....  I get a lot of comments from Ultimate players that I cannot ........well there is all that, I mean people are really nice out here, for the most part.  It is all Americans, except for the Marshallese workforce here mainly during the day.  I hear there is a lot of weenies on island, but haven't really met too many. 

Then there is the sun.  I know that is truly the key to my euphoria out here.  Of course the sun out here couldn't have created the great family I grew up in.  I have a memory of my pre 10 year old life, that involves laughing so hard at something at the end of dinner that I couldn't stop.  It wasn't so much that I couldn't stop, it was that I was having so much fun laughing, that I really didn't want to stop. One of my sister probably got me started doing something stupid, but I couldn't stop... It felt good, of course it did, who doesn't love laughing.  My sisters and parents ( this is how I remember it, it could be wrong, but who cares to correct me), left me in the kitchen.  I was laughing so hard I was crying.  It was basically nothing that I was laughing at.  That was my childhood gift to laugh so hard I cried, ...and couldn't (/could) stop it. 

THAT is how good I feel here...mostly

October 7, 2015

Saturday,....or our version of Friday....

I traded emails all day with my surfing friend Joe.  Joe actually can surf, just to clear that up.  My surfboard is the size of the Titanic and still I can't stand on the damn thing.  Joe's board is well, very similar in size to a tooth pick.  His former girlfriend and now wife Kristen, has a board slightly resembling a splinter.  They took a trip to Fiji about a month ago and got married there.  I'm not trying to distract from the fact I can't surf, just being descriptive.  Along those lines...Kristen is a mostly quiet with that look in her eyes that says "I'm quiet, but you're stupid"...Ok, that's wrong she is completely nice....maybe I'm just being insecure.  The look is more like "I'm sorta quiet because I don't completely know you, but I'm fairly sure you don't want me opening up". She has the athletic body and blonde hair you would expect from a good surfer. Joe is, according to his phone number, Jewish.  That's part of the code he uses to help you remember his 4 digit number.  Yes, it is kind of sad to need help remembering 4 digits.  I don't know if he looks Jewish, but he is in shape cause he can paddle that damned toothpick just as fast as I can paddle while lay on top of the titanic and not get wet while paddling the half mile paddle from the "Shark Pit" to "Met Rocket".  We did it one evening.  I couldn't believe it.  He was basically swimming next to me, cause I sure as hell couldn't see his board.  I was basically on a kayak and I was feeling like a champion paddling right alongside him, until I realized I was on a "kayak". 

We tried the kiteboarding.  He went first.  There just wasn't enough wind.  He came back, and on the way back Kristen showed up.  She's not a real big fan of the kiteboarding.  She doesn't say it, but I can see the "why do you two idiots mess with those kites and lines and all and never get anywhere " look.  Ok, so I read a lot into her eyes.  She never disagrees with me though when I read her eyes out loud.  Joe gave my kite to me and suggested a down winder to some beach with an acronym.  There are a lot of acronyms being thrown around here for landmarks.  I did my normal pre race struggle getting into the bindings and took off.  It was on an off.  I went by our man camp where I saw ten or so heads in the water bobbing around.  It didn't work out, there just wasn't enough wind.  There were a few moments where some upwind locations seemed possible but in the end, I ended up at the acronym beach all safe and sound with Joe there as support. 

Some guys saw me later at the chow hall and told me "it looks like you're starting to "get it"", in regards to the kiteboarding.  Obviously they were the heads bobbing at the beach I saw as I went by.  I held back the whole "ummm I've been kiting before ....blah blah blah".  .

November 5th, 2015

Thursday...

We lost our very first volleyball game tonight for the indoor league.  It was a team of 3 Marshallese, 2 girls and a guy, and the guy and his wife who own the catamaran I wanted to buy.  I found them a 6th player since they only had 5.  The two Marshallese girls had played beach volleyball with us a few times, and they were pretty good.  The Marshallese guy, who I'd never seen before was real good.  During the warm ups someone served the ball fast to him and he put his hands behind his back handcuff style, leaned forward and hit the ball back perfectly.  We had a ton of athleticism on our side, but only a few really good players.  I would love to say I was one of them, but not so much.

The Marshallese people out here, whom we work with every day, are great.  They seem to be always happy, always laughing, and always ready to help out if you need it.  They have names like Bilwa, Belele, Batlock (who's last name is also Batlock), Rambo, many of them have American names, but not the American whininess.  They are tough.  Bilwa is around my age.  He's missing most of his front teeth, but he loves to joke around. The guy just smiles a lot.  I think his smile is more genuine without the front teeth. He drives around in the bobcat all day, or as much as he can get away with.  Whenever I want to use it, I ask the rest of the Marshallese where Bilwa's "car" is.  They are mostly treated with respect and dignity by the Americans out here, but there are a few bigots that I happen to work with that don't.  One of the superintendents, who is a great guy, gave a great talk to everyone when the RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands) people were not around.  It was basically a "Do no disrespect them" speech.  I later asked one of the bigots I work with if he listened to the speech.  He didn't seem to think he disrespects them.  He is also the guy who gave me the speech about "using your economic advantage to win women over in poorer countries.".  Obviously, he has little respect for anyone.  He doesn't see it, and never will.  I guess morals are not part of everyone's resume. 

11-1-15....knock knock kncockin on heavens doorrrr

Aaron is married to Darlene.  They have some offspring.  Carlin, Carlos, Car....I'm not sure his ten year old kids name, but he's played Frisbee with us a few times.  He's pretty much half our height, but he's good for a kid that small and normally uncoordinated.  He is better than his dad.  That will be the most negative thing I will ever say about Aaron.  Aaron dressed as me tonight for Halloween.  He had a little bag of cement and a magnifying glass. He had a note on his shirt that said "Keeping it hard for Kwaj"  He had a Frisbee that said  " Bens Kwaj ultimate".  Ok, so I can't really recall what it said, but it was incredibly tilted to sounding very similar. Aaron is bald, so he really doesn't look like me.  Then there is the fact that no one  here actually knows what I do. I've never had someone dress like me for Halloween or otherwise.   It doesn't matter where Aaron and Darlene move, I will forever be their friend. 

Tonight was Halloween night at the Vet's Hall.  Last night was Halloween night at the "Snake Pit".  For some reason the Vet's Hall has a better turnout then the Snake Pit.  I'm guessing its an "Amercan" thing.  Although, there were a lot of people at both of them, the island fluff (otherwise known as the housewives) seemed to be more inclined to the Vets Hall.

It was f#%^@$% awesome.  My last trip back home I grabbed my fake mustache and some face paint. 

I cannot remember a time where I danced so much.  I went with the fake, very 70's looking mustache and the round, blue 70's style fake sunglasses with blue tint.  I was ready to use the idea if anyone asked that I was an "entomologist".  Then , with a misguided brain fart, and my own lack of humor, I googled "founder of ultimate Frisbee".  The fake mustache was mid to low 70's style.  The glasses were kind of the same.  I figured that's when Ultimate Frisbee was invented.  I mean that era.  So, given that everyone here knows I'm responsible for the Ultimate, I figured it would be fun to go as "Joel Silver"...."the founder of ultimate Frisbee".  I have no clue if he actually was.  It didn't matter I had to have something to go with when I got to the Vet's Hall.  It didn't work.  People missed the incredibly witty deal I set up. I tried it on a few people, and got basically "you are a complete idiot" look.  So I switched it to "I'm a pornstar" .  Ok, so I didn't really come up with that on my own, but enough people suggested it that I went with it. 



yea....I got no pics...just yet

October 30, 2015

Friday,...

Try to out content me, never mind I'm so content it won't matter if you do.  Try endorphins, they work.

Oct 30, 2015

Friday Morning around Midnight Oct 30...

I walk out of my place, can't sleep, I have someone, something, everything, nothing on my mind.  All of it's positive.  I just feel lucky, completely, utterly lucky.

There's a full moon tonight, or maybe it just looks close to one, cause its been so bright lately.  It's easy to see in the tides.  Surfing, or attempted surfing, had me keeping the eye on the tides since I got here.  It's like all the canoeing I did back home left me peeking over every bridge I drove over to see the creek or river below.  Full moons change the highs and lows of the tide.

So I walk out of my place, cross the "road" and in another hundred feet Coral Sands beach is under my feet.  I don't know who named it that, but it's far less glorious than you might guess from reading this, but its no less spectacular in what it offers.  The clouds out here hang low in the sky.  It has to be the dew point, the point where moisture condenses and rain falls (I think).  In Ohio, in the summer, its around 4000 ft, out west where the humidity is much higher it can be 17,000ft.  Cloud base here seems to be much lower.  It has to be the humidity.  3000ft.  That is my guess as to the cloud base.  They may start low, but they have that same height that you would see in a on of those cumulous nimbous deals...the storm clouds found in the Midwest in summer.  So the moon is shining on these clouds.  Shining and making them very white way up high, while lower portions and lower clouds stay dark.  Ok so that's my best attempt to put it to words...let me just say its gorgeous, and I am completely fortunate to witness it.

October 26, 2015

Oct 26, Monday....

It was a Frisbee night tonight, which means I'm high right now on endorphins.  Some weekends around here are amazing.  This was one of them.  There's this energy out here for me that is probably no more than being in good shape and the power of the sun.  I think everyone feels it in Ohio or maybe anywhere outside the tropics, I certainly did.  Winter, slowed me down.  I welcomed it because of that.  I wanted rest. I wanted a great excuse to chill, because as long as the sun is out, I'm on the move.  I think about it now, for 12 years I not only moved 28,000 thousand pounds of firewood at least 3 times before winter, I also cut it up and split it with an axe too(ok there was one month I borrowed my friends wood splitter cause it was all knotty pine). 84000 pounds of wood I moved in basically in the months of April and May.  That's when the sun comes back.

The sun never leaves here.  It's always like the Midwest in July or August, complete with the humidity.  Its a never ending humidity here though.  There are no cold fronts coming through and sweeping away the humidity for brief moments.  There is not winter to let you rest.

I've only been passed on a bike twice on this island, and I caught up with one of them.  Solar powered Ben

Here are some pics from the Swashbuckler's Ball.

Beth, Sean, and I can never remember that guy on the left's name.

The view looking east from the Yacht Club.  $60 a year membership ...so many benefits.  The best one being the free use of the Sunfish and the Hobie Cat.

You might have to look hard, but I have a peg leg.



Alex and Jamie in a swordfight....with palm fronds...

They did such great job decorating

Lisa and I in a Sword fight.....I won....I think it was rigged but it turns out winning wasn't the best thing.

Beth, Monika and Kacie....
 

Oct 18, 2015

Sunday...or the islands version of Saturday...

Half of this island was turned into Zombieland tonight. Probably 400 zombies and 200 participants ran in the "Zombie Run." The Scuba club had scuba zombies coming out of the water at Emon Beach to chase kids. The fire department went over board. The Seabeas dressed like Zombies in uniform and launched water balloons. I was with the folks from the BQ's where a sprinkler sprayed water out onto a "closed" street complete with caution tape and a guy wearing a hard hat and a high vis vest and flashlight saying to the kids "sorry there's water main break, you'll have to go around this way" pointing to detour thru the bushes where 16 of us waited. 

Pretty damned cool.

October 17, 2015

Saturday night, Oct 17, 2015....................


I'm not sure where to start.  Saturday dinners are the best at our cafeteria, they have another name for it here, a military name like DEFAC or something.  Steak, and some seafood, and some other great part of a meal.  Saturday is not the day to miss.  I was going to skip it, to go to the gym and then play ultimate with the Firemen.  I didn't.  I'm not really sure why I decided to go in there and try and keep the food on my plate to a minimum unsuccessfully, but I did.  The gym still happened.  I was only there  for a half hour, cause I really don't stop moving too much.  A long time resident of the island, B, was there.  He has two daughters that graduated from Kwaj high.  He's from Cleveland.  I've been trying to help him with kiteboarding.  He's a long time windsurfer, trying to convert.  I met him at our Frisbee field when he was playing with his new kite.  His two high school daughters were here helping him.  That was early in the year, when Frisbee didn't happen sometimes.   So I waited a bit, making sure he didn't attach the lines to the kite wrong, and then left. 

Bruce has helped me at the Yacht club, getting me signed off on the Sunfish, and taking me out on the Hobie Cat a few times.  Just a solid good guy.  He kind of looks like an old Christopher Reeves.  He might be 60. 

After the gym, I went to the store and bought some beer and stuff, then headed to the field behind the fire department to play Frisbee with the firemen.  Great guys.  Some of them don't look like they are in shape and can run like a gazelle.  There is one that is in great shape that runs like a sea tortoise after a bit.  All of them are great to play with.  Two women play.  Maria, from Germany, has gotten a lot better.  The new girl, who doesn't like it cause she's new and can't throw the Frisbee doesn't like it so much.   I'm not sure how long we played, but it was well after dark.  I went over to the Vet's Hall after to have a few beers, where I saw my coworkers.

Oct 15, 2015

Thursday, October 15th....

On this beautiful little Island (Kwaj), I have this roommate.  I always thought I had a pretty good heart, but he's shown me how far I have to go.  As an example, on FB, there was a post of a video of some teenage girl talking about selling or buying some thing from/to a British guy.  She makes some ridiculously uneducated comments...like "I speak American" or "I'm not sure why he keeps mentioning pounds, maybe its because the planet England is so much closer to the sun...........".  So I show it to him so he can see how ridiculous this young girl is, who is featured on youtube as "the worlds dumbest girl".  The first thing he says is "awww that poor girl, she's branded for life at such a young age, that's terrible".  I envy that he saw it that way, and am humbled.

Oct 8, 2015

Thursday, Oct 8, 2015...

I just noticed something missing out here on this island tonight.  There were around 40 regular people back in Ohio, in Columbus that I played ultimate Frisbee with.  A few were professors at OSU, a couple had Ph D's in Physics, one had a Doctorate in Astrophysics.  Almost all were either working on their Masters or already had it.  Of course they were all young, most around half my age.   I swear I was the dumbest guy out there, or at the very least the most uneducated. They were so smart though.  It wasn't just their intelligence, it was the way you could see them hold back when someone did something stupid or said something stupid.  Maybe it was just youth.  Maybe they were just great kids....

I sat around the opposite of that tonight.  I'm not sure how to describe it.  NEGATIVE.  I guess that sums it up.  There was one in the group that, well, I was hoping for better.  Maybe it was the alcohol.
 It was kind of a middle aged .....one person complains about something and the rest of chime in with similar stupid complaints or complete agreements with original complainer.  Oh shit, am I complaining now?  lol

Oct 7 2015

Wednesday....

NW winds gusting to 43mph on an island built mainly for east winds.  Ebeye is the same way.   There is a container ship sitting out in the Lagoon for a week now, unable to dock due not so much the high winds, but the direction of them. 

The ferry to Ebeye was stopped this afternoon due to the big NW winds.  800 Marshalese were stuck here.  Thankfully they were given the respect they deserve.  Especially here in our mancamp.  I found out between the time I got off work and before 5:30 that they were stuck here.  I showered and headed to the chow hall where I had seen 50 or so of our (San Juan Construction and otherwise) Marshalese workers hanging out under the shelter house next to our Chow Hall.  Sandra was there and I told her I had cleaned off the other two beds in my place, but she told me they already had them taken care of.  They also had made dinner to cover them too.  Those poor guys don't eat like we do.  They had a beautiful meal tonight.  I've no clue what it was, but it's better than the rest of our island eats, and guaranteed better than what they eat on Ebeye.   Online on our "Coconut Wire" the electronic newsletter they asked for people to open their "homes" to the Marshallese.  On Facebook the same sentiments were put out there.  I heard later from several people that they were all taken care of.  There are some amongst us that don't give the Marshallese enough respect.  Fortunately, today, those rare people weren't in the lead of things.  They work harder than most of the ex pats (Americans).....ok no they don't, but they work just as hard.  They are good guys...great guys....

Here are some photos I stole from Sheri's facebook page.  These boats were moored in the south east corner of the lagoon that normally fights off easterly winds.  The Harbors on Ebeye and Kwaj are also meant to protect against easterly winds.  There were 8 or 9 boats out there moored up, maybe more.  Not all of them have owners on the island.  Sometimes people buy a boat out here and then have to go back home, leaving a Kwaj friend here to try and sell it for them.  I've heard of one Kwaj "friend" who doesn't really make too much of an effort to sell them, but also puts an effort out to make them safe, so he can take advantage of a nice boat. 

Bummer for the boat owners....if they are even here on island

Oct 6, 2015...

Tuesday, Oct 6....Do they make caulking guns full of Neosporin?

October 5th, 2015

Monday October 5th, 2015,

Time is flying out here.  While talking to another contractor out here, he told me he was here until Aug.  We were talking about the tax deal, and that if you are out of the country more than 330 days you don't have to pay federal withholding taxes on your income.  I said "Oh, so you are only  here a couple of months"  ...."you will not be able to take advantage of the break".  I was thinking it was June.  Its weird, there are no seasons here to remind you what time of year it is.  Its also funny that I thought it was only June....and its October.

I've settled in out here.  Work keeps getting in the way, the weather too.  For the most part its Frisbee on Friday and Mondays, and beach volley ball on Sundays.  Its hard figuring out how work in Kiteboarding, surfing the gym.  I really look forward to all of these things. 

The big concrete pours we do are at night.  We start at 10pm and work until daylight.  It's cooler at night.  There are no breaks, no lunches, no stopping period.  That kind of level of intensity could not be kept up during the daylight hours due to the intensity of the sun and the humidity.

We all kiteboarded on Sunday.  I didn't do so well.  I tried to go out with my running shoes on because we were planning on walking on the roof at low tide to get started.  We ended up going to a different area inside the lagoon.  I kept the shoes on to see how it would work.  It didn't.  Having 3 beers didn't really help either.  It took several hours to fight my way back upwind which normally (without shoes) isn't a problem.  I lost the board at one point along with one shoe.  I got the board back and took my other shoe off and threw it into the lagoon.  I figured maybe two shoes would wash up on Ebeye.  While body dragging back to the board, I pulled my right leg over a coral head and scraped it all up.  It was pretty impressive the amount of blood.  Later, at volleyball the lifeguard at Emon Beach gave me some pure alcohol to throw on it.  That was nice.

Here are some pics that I've been meaning to share...

The Harbor....small boat marina in the foreground...with one boat tied up...
 

The grey boat is the ferry to Ebeye, Amber is one of the pilots.  The tug boat ..well I'm not sure what it does, and that cargo ship in the back is our cheese, and beer, and a few other items...

This is the 36ft Macgregor Catamaran I was hoping to buy.....it sailed here in the 70's from Hawaii....breaking records unofficially and unwittingly

I am a Frisbee missionary