My recent move to Chugach (August) from San Juan Construction has been a fairly good tradeoff. I traded more life for money. In other words, making less money is just fine, given that I will get to experience more life.
That original thought was only related to time. The hours Chugach works are from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. San Juan was working 6:30 to 5:30, and they are a construction company, which if you've ever spent time with construction companies, they are always behind. Always. Since leaving them, things have rang true to that axiom. One foreman from San Juan Construction reported to me that he put in 90 hours one week. They are behind which makes me feel good about leaving them.
I now report to work with 90 guys at 7:30am, 86 of them are Marshallese. The numbers were different at San Juan. They had many more "rebelle" or white guys (read Americans). 70 total with maybe 47 Marshallese. The point is I now spend more time with the Marshallese, specifically two of them ...Tiny and Wagner. However, getting to know the rest of them has been great. The guys I grew to appreciate and genuinely liked to be around at San Juan were all Marshallese. Language barrier or not, they were awesome to work with, to spend time with.
I've gotten to know these guys a little more, maybe because there are less "rebelle" to talk to at Chugach. Humans are lazy. It's easier to talk to someone that speaks your language. It is work to talk to the Marshallese, their accents and English language skills are great, but its just easier to talk to another American.
So my choice has forced me to embrace them even more.
It's Christmas time on Ebeye. Our manager started two weeks ago speaking about the lack of sleep all the (Marshallese) workers would be getting and pleaded with them to be careful, and to remain focused on work. "I know you guys are goin to be up late dancing and getting ready for Christmas" and "we all want you to be safe over here during Christmas and to stay focused on work".
I had no idea. These guys are always looking for extra hours normally to provide for the circle of folks they cover back on Ebeye. Always looking for weekend work.
December seemed to change all that. Everyday of this month , many were absent. I sat down for "roll call" one day and talked to "Billabong" who had his head resting on the crux of his arm on the table. "what time did you go to bed last night ?"..........."3am" he replies...."Jesus" "why do you say his name?" "why were you up so late last night?" "We were dancing". They were practicing their dance for Christmas.
I went over there last year for Christmas, just for a few hours. A group of us went to two churches....it was different than in the States. Crowds sat around while overly loud music played on speakers in the church and tons of Marshallese danced in unison to the music, while more Marshallese and a small percentage of "rebelle" sat watching.
They go into debt to pay for their kids outfits, to buy the material to have them sewn. Many kids belong to different groups at a church or two, so its very expensive for them.
I have a soo much deeper appreciation for Christmas on Ebeye now, and am going to head over much earlier this year.
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