1-11-15
I went to Emon Beach (it means perfection in Marshalese) where the swap was supposed to be. Turns out I was a day early, however there were some guys and girl playing volleyball. They were all very nice, even though I sucked. They were a bit serious about it, stating rules I had never heard of, and some I had but never thought anyone on a beach in the middle of no where would care about. It was still fun, and nice to find a small group of active people. I did bring up the Frisbee with not too much luck, judging by their reactions. Here's a pic of Emon Beach this morning....
As you can see its a terrible place to be.
I've been learning a lot. It's a strange mix of people out here. Many are ex military, many are lifelong contractors, some are ex patriots living cheaply in Guam, the Phillipines, or Taiwan. Some of the older lifelong, ok, just one, is mostly pretty creepy. One old guy has a wife in Taiwan, it seems legit, as legit as legit as a long distance marriage can be I guess. I talked to another this afternoon at the cafeteria. I knew he was the mechanic for our company. I didn't know he had been out here that long. He sat down after I did at lunch, then Bert joined. Bert is a completely big guy, about 6'4" and over 300 pounds. He's been pretty cool to talk to. Deep voice but mainly talks about normal things. The mechanic started telling us there is no running water on Ebeye. Ebeye is the Marshalese island 15 minutes away by ferry from Kwajalein. I'm told its smaller than Kwaj, but instead of 1500 people it has 15000. The mechanic matter of factly told us about his life on Ebeye because he married one of the women there. He'd had two children by her, but for whatever reason you cannot marry a Marshalese woman and bring her back to Kwaj, nor can you bring the kids you may have with her. He tried to enroll them in kindergarden over here but was told it would cost $6000 per child. It is free for Marshalese who find their way to the U.S. to get an education. Free college. I'd guessed it was because we completely screwed them in the '50's. He told us there is no running water on Ebeye. They bring the water from Kwaj in 5 gallon buckets back to Ebeye on the ferry. He knows this because he lived there for 2 years until he got his wife and kids to move to the States. He said a 5 gallon bucket becomes your friend. He also told me his wife is completely lazy and that he is barely married to her. I'd guess mainly because he never sees her. She lives in Enon(?) Oklahoma in a community of Marshalese that work in meat packing plants there. She has the chance to go to college for free but won't do it .
I've heard the last lab manager married a woman on Ebeye and brought her back over to Kwaj. It's illegal to do that, so he was fired and immediately sent home. It seems fairly evident if you break the rules out here you get sent home. Its not like there are crazy rules. I did realize today that I need to buddy up to a guy who likes to fight and drink and buy stuff. I'll try and keep him in line until he buys a bike with a trailer and maybe a surfboard. After that, I'll let him get stupid. He'll get kicked off, but he'll need to sell his stuff cheap right before he goes. Yep, this is where I step in. It's a joke of course.
I also learned last night, well not just last night, that while I thought we were screwing the Marshalese (which we are). It turns out the Marshalese are screwing their own people too. The landowners down here get the money the U.S government gives to the Marshal Islands.
The people are screwed.
1-16-15
The first paycheck or paystub was placed in my hands this morning. I freaked when I looked at it, then looked closer. They screwed up and paid me for two weeks instead of the one they owed me for. The money is still great, 3x greater then what I've had lately, and there aren't any places to really spend money down here. I'm guying a surfboard for $500 tomorrow, then there is some dive equipment, and a bike. After those things....there isn't much more.
I'd asked around 5 or 6 to come to Frisbee in the park by the cafeteria last Monday. All of them said they would. I set things up, then watched an older guy new to kiting fly a trainer kite around. He said he was going to break out the 10 meter Cabrina kite boarding kite. His daughters showed up to hang out and fly his trainer kite. No one showed up for Frisbee. I was willing to skip a meal, but then felt bad about hanging out hoping this guy would provide entertainment with his kite(ie hurt himself), so I rode over to the cafeteria for a bite to eat. I keep telling myself I'm going to skip a meal, but haven't been able to yet. I came back, still no one showed up for Frisbee. I picked up the cones, watch the new kiteboarding guy to make sure he connected the strings to his big kite correctly (which meant I wouldn't get to see him sail across the park and hit a tree or something). I headed out to the surf spot to see if anyone was there......and build some repoire with them since I need approval to join the club and surf out there. I see the point. Same with hangliding....someone gets hurt and they shut the site down. Nobody was at the surf spot, I saw the tide was too low...
That's a pic of the opposite side of the island....but you can see the tide is low
Jan 18, 2015
Its your Friday here, so its Saturday. Yeah that kind of talk confuses me too. Some are still calling Friday Thursday and Saturday Friday. Our work week here is Tues to Saturday because we are a day ahead. So I'm sitting here in the Kwaj Lodge on Saturday writing this. I'm off work tomorrow. I got off work tonight at 5 as usual, then rode the bike to the Kwaj lodge, our preliminary housing until the "man camp" is up and running. I changed clothes then skipped my second meal since arriving nearly two weeks ago, to go to the gym. I rode home (yes the lodge is mostly home now) passing the "Ocean View" bar, better known as the "Snake Pit". Its an unusual bar open to the people riding by in front , playing music too loud out the front with at least 600 miles of open Pacific beautiful blue ocean in the back. I also passed a few coworkers who told me they were heading there. I showered and headed down there. There were a bunch of the Marshalese workers there and some of my coworkers. The Marshalese were feeling pretty good. They have a 7pm curfew on Kwaj. I overheard at our "safety meeting" this morning that apparently some of the Marshalese didn't make it to the ferry to Ebeye on time. They called it trespassing. "You have to make the 7:30 ferry back or you are trespassing" is what John the Marshalese warehouse manager said to the group of around 30 workers. I don't know, I thought it was kind of sad to use the word trespassing. We took their island 50 years ago and now THEY are trespassing. They are really nice people. It was a sad moment in my head, much to the opposition to their many smiling toothless slightly drunken faces as they departed.
Several people that I've hit up about playing ultimate Frisbee told me that "someone is starting a league or something" or "hey someone on the Rover is starting up Frisbee stuff". I put a post on the local facebook page "Kwaj net" and then the local periodical that gets put out electronically weekly. The "Rover" is a TV channel that just posts Kwajalein stuff. I hadn't turned on my TV since I got here, but did to find the ultimate Frisbee league thing. It was my post!! hahahaha I made the TV !!
OH YEA baby!
1-18-15 I think
Big day big day. I played volleyball with the extremely rule oriented guys this morning...sans Kate, the 15 year old who kicked ass and didn't care about rules. Two of the guys had a spat, one walked off. I got schooled on the rules, which was fine, perfectly fine...cause I was being active. We played until around 11.....then I ran around with my boiz until 11:45...left them ate lunch then headed off to John and Christy's house to buy the surfboard, get signed off and go surfing. Christy is nice, John is super cool. They are both around 50, but young. They live at Dome 181 at Northpoint. They have these fiberglass dome shaped dwellings on the north shore. They're strange but resilient I'm told. 3 or 4 igloo shaped and colored bumps that people live in. Strange. John and Christy have been in theirs for 5 years. Plenty of room for two....I would guess around 1000 square ft. I followed John out to Devils Point or Picadelly Peak or what the hell ever he called it. He kept talking to me about surf stuff, I had no idea what he was saying.
We got in the water, and I followed him on my surfboard like a champ for around 200 yards. Something strange happened after that....He kept going and I couldn't...well I couldn't keep up anyhow. I was done....shoulders spent. John is 51, 6'3" and around 210lbs,but he's been surfing since he was 25. Before I met John, I had a total of 2 minutes on a surfboard. It's a lot of work, and there is no possible other way to work those muscles.
I'm going to go to bed now, I wish I could type faster and have more of whats in my head written here. There's so much.
Oh oh Oh...we had 5 tonight for Ultimate Frisbee! It was good, although no one's really in shape for it lungwise or handlingwise, but that's ok....we played!!
January 21, 2015
The surf spot, at least one of the better ones, is about 200 yards from my office/lab, and the shed they let me store my board in is 100ft, and the outdoor shower (they seem to be everywhere on this island) is about 50ft. Its perfect. I took my stuff to work today. Sandals, swimsuit, board leash, and some extra water. John was supposed to go tonight but he wasn't there. There were a few others out there. Its really gorgeous, I mean the water is perfectly warm 85 degrees and clear. I don't know how I've been so lucky. I actually got up and turned into the wave tonight, but met one of the others soon after the turn. Shawn told me it was his fault ..that it was my wave, but he didn't expect me to turn. I didn't expect me to turn either! I think I'm going to like this whole surfing thing. I still made it back in time to get to the cafeteria for a salad, fruit, and chicken and taters.
Jan 22
From an email to my sister:I would love visitors, although it wouldn't be worth anyones time or money to come here. Its just not geared to tourism. NO restaurants, One hotel, and it seems to be full at the moment, background checks...
it was Bingo night at the vets ...It looks like half the island was there. I took a pic of the bike there as I rode home (from surfing). Someone rode past on there bike and I said "wow, bingo is pretty popular" He replied "Well, there's nothing else to do". Little does he know! There is plenty to do here, just not enough time.
Here is a pic out the back door of my office/lab. My body is sore from (trying to ) surfing, however, my soul is doing pretty good!
1-24-15
Work is over at 5pm, so we (Ray, the lab technician) and I leave the double Connex box at 4:50. Its Saturday (your version of Friday), so it's ok to leave a bit earlier than the rest of the week. We head back to the new parking spot with the company truck. The older (last week) parking spot was much closer to the cafeteria....about 5 minutes closer by bike. The company truck gets parked and I jump on my bike, leaving Ray in my dust. He's unable to catch up with my superior strength and the head wind facing us as we head back to the Kwaj lodge. I get to the lodge about 2 mins before he does, and quickly go upstairs to change into gym clothes and go get a workout. At the gym, I have the place to myself for 5 minutes before an out of shape 65 year old shows up. Then, a guy from our group, much younger around 27, shows up, then one more. I finish my work out in about a half our, because I still have a little crossfit in my system. I hopped on the scale and despite staying out of the cafeteria for dinner,(not to mention surfing 4 nights this week for 2.5 hours, riding my bike back a mile in strong headwinds to the lodge, and running twice this week) I've not kept my weight where I wanted.
The police (??), made us start parking near the power plant on Wednesday. The power plant is about 5 mins further away from the cafeteria than where we were parking. I've never heard so many grown men cry like babies. I was pretty sure someone was torturing them secretly. Most of them could use the exercise, and of course most of them don't really recognize they need it. Most don't smoke, which is strange for "operators"(guys who run backhoes, track hoes, dozer and the like), and most don't drink (much)....which is even more strange. They do have complaining down to a tee though. San Juan, at least for me has been perfectly honest and forward with things. No lies have been told, and they have provided for what they said they would. All in all, it's pretty freaking amazing. They still bitch. They bitch about small things, but the most annoying thing is listening to them tell me how bad it's "going to be". Shut up, look around, shut up, oh and look at your f'''''''''''''''''''''' paycheck.
1-31-15
Nearly had an accident on my way to work this morning. Almost laid my bike down, the back tire came around skidding way more than I was comfortable with. It was my fault. I was being a little hyper at 6am, going about 25 mph downwind on my bike and ran a stop sign. It was still dark out, and the guy who I nearly hit didn't have any lights on his bike. I didn't either, for that matter. I freaked him out. We got over it. I was pumped for work
I don't know why but I seem to really enjoy just blasting past people on my bike. Even if there aren't people I just enjoy going fast. I'm always racing people who have no idea I'm racing them. I win a lot. My legs feel so strong. I feel really strong. I work out every day, only about a half an hour but its a complete half hour. Also, now, my lab technician and I have started doing work outs in the lab. I have my smart phone alarms set for about every hour. One hour is workout, the other stretching. Its made the days go by so much faster. I called him my lab tech. His name is Ray. We are nearly completely opposite people who get along fantastically well. We both give each other hell and we both don't get offended. He's from Vegas, and thinks because there's no real bars here that there is nothing to do. I got him playing Frisbee with us on Mondays. I'm fairly certain I've slipped on what had to be his lung a few times. Its funny to see a guy, to hang out with someone who hasn't really lived, at least not in the sense that I have I guess. I mean, the first day we spent in the lab cleaning everything up, a cockroach surprised him. It was a big cockroach granted, like two inches, but he nearly ran me over getting away from it. It's actually the only one I've seen since I've been here. He's never been snorkeling. He did ok, he liked it. He's never seen a shark. There were some 6ft Nurse (?) sharks in the harbor and I threatened to throw him in the water. I joked about tossing him in the water, cause he thought the sharks would attack him. Its weird for me to meet scared people, but I guess I have my fears too.
