Bilwa has the best laugh

Bilba......and that's not his name.....

Today, he starts telling me about how one of our new safety guys approached one of the guys (not sure if he was "rebelle" (white guy) or Marshallese.  It's probably not important to the story any how.  The important part is that he was a KRS employee.  KRS is the "king" on Kwaj as Bilba put it.  They are the military contractor that runs the island, and has run the island for quite a while.  KRS = Kwajalein Range Services.  They may be based out of Georgia.

So to set this up better, there are 10 or so San Juan guys working downwind of some old Kwaj housing units.  At the industrial boat dock on the industrial side of the island. They are basically mobile homes, made in the fifties or sixties.  They called them at the time "Silver City" because there were a slew of them together located lagoon side on Kwaj, and they are covered in galvanized/silver tin. They are now kind of dispersed on Kwaj, and a few are halfway up the "causeway" .  The "Causeway" is the 5 or so islands north of Ebeye.  Shell, North Shell, Loi, and a few other islands I can't remember make up the "Causeway" that extends ten miles north of Ebeye.

The San Juan guys, working "hard" to get things together for the next barge at the more industrial boat ramp that has some acronym name that I can't recall, are doing their thing when the KRS guys start doing something to the "silver city" trailers.

I wasn't personally there for this, and it may be totally a moment where you "had to be there", but Bilba's laugh, as he finished the story has led me to this post.  So Bilba (still not his real name, and not sure why I feel I need to protect his real name, except that his laugh  was soo loud and so extended it deserves to get him fired...not really...but it was great).  A friend told me "that's all the Marshallese have left is to laugh".  That part is kind of sad, but its true, and they certainly do laugh.

So Bilso explains to me how the safety guy approaches the KRS workers, chest puffed, and declares "hey you guys can't do that while we are here working, those things are full of asbestos and we are downwind working"...."I'm the safety guy for San Juan, you have to stop doing that".  So the guy says "ok, I'll be back".  He comes back a bit later with the bigger KRS guy who says "you're absolutely right, these trailers do have asbestos in them and you are down wind, YOU guys have to move................