I guess I have to change this to First Month on Kwaj

Hopefully, I'll get some pics today while exploring around the island because its the weekend now.  I'm going to the "Kwaj Swap and Shop" from 9 to 11 to see what I can do about a surf board, a crucial element to my survival here, and a crucial part of my dream life-living in a place I can go surfing everyday after work. 

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!

The bottom pic is the crowd at the vets haul to play Bingo on Thursday night. 

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.





 

 

 

 



Pre Kwaj.....

Ok, so it was cyber Monday.  Going into work wasn't really necessary, but I wanted to get some hours.  My boss (ok so its a dated word) had told me years ago that he would "cover" me during slow periods of the year.  This meant I could come in and put some time in the materials testing lab doing just about anything I wanted, even if it meant just surfing the web.  Of course he didn't say this exactly, and I never had any intentions of going to work and doing nothing. However, there was a new project starting on Wednesday...so there were only two days to kind of get thru.  Last year I spent a week cleaning the trucks out, and getting the maintenance done on them.  I'm not real good at just doing nothing, however, it seemed I had relaxed a bit this day.  I was mopping the floor in the lab, between eating and looking up free things on Craigslist.  It seems I also looked under the architectural/engineering section of the jobs listings.  I've looked there before, and its totally out of curiosity.  I don't make enough money where I'm at, but I have a boss that is straight forward and completely behind me.  He's the kind of guy everyone wants to work for.  Most of my coworkers are great too.  I was just looking out of curiosity, every time I've looked before its been for something in Detroit or even something local, but with a different company that I am familiar with.  I like where I work.  Honest....my boss respects me, and my coworkers respect me, and I them. 

THAT day though, about the fourth post down in the "arch/engineering" part of the job listings it said "Concrete Lab Manager on the Kwajalein Atoll".  I kind of thought it was a hoax.  I read on.  It said in quotes "Ben you have the certifications we want, and its a dream location, we want you Ben".  I googled the "Kwajalein Atoll", and just looked at pictures that day.  It looked like an island that was really a runway and not much more.   I'm thinking "who cares, if its a runway island.....its in the south pacific....and the pay is really good", so I start the application process that day.  It took a few days it turns out, to complete the online application for the construction company.  They wanted copies of certificates, of resumes, of...well ...of all the stuff I hadn't had to deal with.....ever. 

So last night, 5 days after I accepted the  job offer 6000 miles away, David, from the COA meetup group had a get together for me.  It was kind of nice, also kind of hard to talk to everyone.

Its pretty cool to have good people in your life.

 

 

The worst of all this is that I've had to find a home for my best friend, Benji

 

 

 

I actually cried a lot about abandoning this little guy.  He found his way to me 5 or 6 years ago.  He wouldn't let me touch him for a month even though he ran around with my two other best friends at the time - Guiness the great dane, and Champ the crazy mutt from next door.  They both left in different ways, but Benji remained.  He' been my buddy for 6 or so years.  He's a little more "cat-like" in returning affection, but he still does and I get sick at the thought of "Abandoning" him.  Even though Catie will love him and treat him like a little prince, and her ferrets will entertain him, I still feel pretty crappy about leaving him.  Maybe worse I feel crappy that I may not feel so crappy once I set my mind to it.

 

I haven't really bought into any of it, this whole "go earn too much money on a beautiful island in the south Pacific" thing.  I mean, the application process was long, the first two interviews were a few days apart.  I called to get the email address of the engineer from the second interview to thank him for his time, and the HR rep said that one of the owners would be calling soon to talk about lab equipment.  "So after 4 is ok?" she said.  I fully expected a call in the next few days, and when it didn't come I felt good, relieved even, in the idea that I wouldn't have to find a home for my best friend, or leave some really great people, or leave a great girl who I'd been struggling to get to know.  I was kind of happy to click back to reality.  Of course, that's when he called and offered the job.

 

Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Tuberculosis screening.......not to mention a physical...oh and can you recertify for the "field tech level one" you have that expires in Feb? 

 

That leaves me here, in a nice room at a Best Western in Albany NY on December 18th.  This kind of makes it serious.  Amy said I should check the company out, get a vendors license and all or something.  She did bring me back to reality, and I googled them as much as I could to satisfy myself that they were legit.  I had a few scary thoughts between then and now, but started to quit worrying when I remembered how broke I am and no one would go thru this much trouble to take the $5 in my checking account.  Then they told me that they would fly me to NY to take this recertification rather than let me wait until it was available on the 8 or 9th in my home city Cbus.  Apparantly, they want me out there before the 8th or 9th.  So they spend $1300 to send me to Albany NY to take this test I hope I do well on tomorrow.  This means I really am leaving my best friend, and the other best friends, and the girlfriend I was hoping to become best friends with. 

 

12-19-14-

 

I'm sitting in the airport in Albany waiting on the trip back home (thru  D.C)

I've done too much research about the Marshall islands in the past week or two.  I knew about Diego Garcia, the Phillipines, Guam, Puerto Rico... but not about what we did in the 1950's to the Marshallese.  Its all fairly depressing.  White men suck.  I'm going ahead with this with the part of the quote "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."  Even if I'm not so much a believer in God the rest of the quote applies, it also relieves me of all guilt...well not about Benji.

 

I'm nearly positive I'll get the recertification, despite it being so much harder in NY than in Columbus Ohio.  It all means I'm going .....to the islands 6000 miles away on the other side of the international date line.  I'm not really anxious, or apprehensive, its just plain strange to think about.  One moment I was  sitting at work in a city I've been all of my life, a months later, I'm going to be on an island in thee middle of  nowhere .  This island is nearly the best definition of the "middle of nowhere".

 

12-20-14

.....I keep trying to find more blogs or websites that will help me figure out what I should bring.  The HR person from SJCC sent me a checklist and a website to help a bit and it did.  I'm starting to really look forward to this.  Like it will be a totally healthy thing to shake my life up a bit, and of course the improved resume and knowledge will not hurt a thing either.  There is also the fact that my pay is going to basically double..........and I'm going to an incredibly gorgeous place.  I am still...the luckiest guy I know. 

 

 12-22-14

Went to the lab today to pick my coworker, Ryan's brain. I met Ryan thru my sister.  He was a friend of hers thru church.  He's 26 or so now, but when this started he might have been 21.  I'm not sure how I thought of him, but I had a moving job for the autistic school that I did side work for.  I called my boss Reggie that day too, to ask him if his son might need some extra money.  I told him I could pay his son "$30 an hour for maybe 5  hours" to which Reggie replied "I'll do it, the hell with Andy for that money".  That is where Ryan and Reggie met, helping me with a side job.  It wasn't a week later that Reggie told me he was needing more "technicians" when I suggested Ryan,  he immediately said "he's hired".  Ryan and I have been there together nearly 6 years, he took the lab manager part, and began his college education geared towards getting a civil engineering degree, and I toward as many national certificates in the field as I could get, and field work.  I've never really wanted to be in the lab, not because of the type of work, but because it was inside.  I don't like being inside....

 

 

     Ryan kind of hooked me up with much of what I will need to succeed in my new position, all of which I will have to read up on.  Reggie is using me as an excuse to have a get together for us tomorrow at "The Crazy Mule", where ever that is, after work.  I'm going in to make sure my side of things workwise is as complete as it can be.  Reggie has been joking around about me "not taking him with him" and how he was going to explain to his wife tonight where he could be if she wasn't "holding him back".  I did some more electronic "paperwork" for SJCC, to make sure I wasn't holding up the "onboarding" process as they like to call it.  The HR lady, Lori , keeps commending me for keeping my side of the paper work going.

   I met with the guy who used to do my taxes before I realized it wasn't that complicated and shouldn't be THAT expensive.  He didn't really tell me anything I didn't know, but for some reason I needed the security in his answers before I wrote "EXEMPT" on my W-4 form.  We talked for about 5 minutes,  maybe 8 about taxes.  The rest of the hour was about travelling and dogs and MMA.  He told me he had been diagnosed with lymphoma nearly 2 years ago.  I don't know, he is a very out of shape, large guy, more so than when he had did my taxes 15 years ago.  He talked about his diagnosis and how it made him take the mostly "no expenses spared" cruise to Alaska with his wife.  Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and a train to Denali.  He said it was part of his "bucket list" mainly after the doctors had ran him the "probabilities of survival" of his lymphoma.  85% if he makes it 2 years, which he was nearing.  He said he wouldn't go back to Alaska again, after I asked him.  I only asked him because I thought it was so beautiful up there. It's a completely different beauty than the Caribbean, but I would go back up there, if I had the choice, but would probably try to avoid the kayak thing for extended periods, but I can't see doing it on a cruise ship either.  We talked about the Caribbean, which he had only seen from a cruise ship.  He told me that the Caribbean cruises were mainly about partying, not so much about beauty, because "once you've seen one island" the rest are mainly the same. I guess that's true......when seen from a cruise ship.  I may never know. 

 

12-23-14

     I can't seem to sleep so well lately.  I wake up at 3 or 4 am and start thinking about all there is to do before leaving.  The longest tenant at my 5th avenue  place told me he was getting married this coming weekend, and that his new wife and him would start looking for houses in February.  He's been there 5 years, so there is going to be some work needing done and I hate to dump that on my sister, but there's not going to be much of a choice given the timing. 

 

12-23-14

 

I found this looking for blogs on Kwaj tonight....

 

 

The island is small, we're talking 1.5 square miles in area. You can bike from one end to the other in less than ten minutes. Bikes are the main mode of transportation and they rust after a few months being in such close proximity to the salty sea. And, if you've never attempted this, it is a trick to ride a bicycle piss-drunk. But funny to watch people wreck. As you might have guessed, we have a lot of alcoholics and we're proud of it. We have cookouts on the beach and a couple of clubs to party in. Most everyone is friendly, I mean, on an island this small you don't want to piss a lot of people off, so it's a good time had by all. Another great thing about living here is there are no bills and no taxes. Housing, food, internet service is provided. So, you pretty much save everything you earn unless you really can put away a lot of alcohol. And I mean a lot considering alcohol is not taxed and a big bottle of Absolute runs you like $10. Now you see why we're alkies?

 

 ...well as long as I can get them to play some serious ultimate before the whole drinkin thing takes place....or maybe surfing. 

 

12-16-14

 

This may be strange, going from a place where I can hide and be nearly anonymous, to a place where  hiding is going to be a bit more difficult.  I'm looking forward to shaking up my life.  None of the blogs I've read have been too bad.....

 

12-31-14

 

I can't say things here are going to end close to the way I was hoping, but, there is only so much control

 

I am completely, at this point looking forward to this.  I've spent the last few days visiting people but mostly being responsible by getting legal forms, many of them, filled out, witnessed , initialed and notarized.  The responsible guy would have had this stuff done and filed a while ago.  I guess I've never been that guy.  My friend John helped me out there today.  I had wanted to come see his place anyhow, and especially before leaving for so long.  He's got what he called an "old warehouse" in  one of the suburbs.  It was more of a historical turn of the century landmark that he had a shop and an apartment in.  I was impressed.  It's exactly what I envisioned myself having had I lived near downtown Columbus, but there are no building like this in Columbus.  3 stories, metal trusses, brick walls with huge doors, and huge half round windows. Pretty damn cool.  We had lunch, or, rather I ate and he had some tea....but he told me about "bareboating" in the great barrier reef.  He had done it the first year with his son who was living in Australia at the time.  The second year his daughter really wanted to go, and bring some friends.  He told me it was a catamaran around 40'.  I couldn't believe they would let some guy from (wherever) Ohio take a $300,000 boat out around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  They spent a half of a day with him then let him loose the first year with just his son.  The second year he had more trust as a returning customer that didn't destroy the boat and just let him go (with 5 twenty year olds).  When I asked him the cost, thinking it would be around 5k, he told me it was half of that.  I would completely love to get some of the good people in my life out on that catamaran!

 

An old friend Lauryn called me this morning.  I knew she was kind of desperate because of the time and the time she spent explaining her troubles.  She needed some help moving stuff out of her studio.  I spent a few hours, 2 days before moving to an island 7000 miles away, helping someone move.  I can't believe I said yes.  I am a sucker for anyone needing help though.  Ok she did pay me and I'll admit I needed it.

 

On a side note, I am so thankful for winning this lottery!  WHO get's this lucky in life?  Hopefully, I can and do return the Karma given to me on this one and on the rest of my life, even though its not plausible given the amount I need to return, and the time I have left.

 

Jan 3--

 

Debbie, former half parent to Guiness (my now departed Great Dane), picked me up at the airport in Honolulu at around 3 pm.  That meant I had been up for 15 hours since Hawaii is currently behind Ohio by 5 hours.  She had already asked me to go to a wedding at 7pm, and I had been invited by a local girl, Tiffany, to a cookout at her sister’s house that started at 4pm.  Tiffany, while a Hawaiin native, had been doing a residency in Marietta Ohio for at least two years.  I’d met her thru a “Meetup” group in Columbus called the Columbus Outdoor Adventures, which I was an organizer for.  She had finisher her residency and was home for a spell before taking a job at a hospital in California.  Debbie and I got to the cookout, despite having google and the address, about an hour late, but the food was still out and plenty of it.  Tiffany, after introducing us to everyone (at least 25 of them), started explaining the food.  I can only remember “Sticky Rice” and octopus that was caught earlier that day.  There were many dishes and Debbie felt bad for bringing grocery store Sushi and Fruit, but we didn’t really have time to prepare things.  We stayed about an hour and got “leighed(sp)” by Tiffany’s parents, who happened to have a few extra non organic ones laying around.  As her mother put it around my neck she said a woman must “leigh” a guy and giggled, which seemed to embarrass her daughters.

 

We stayed about an hour at Tiffany’s sisters.  I told Tiffany that we couldn’t come because I didn’t want to show up eat and run.  She insisted we come and that others would be coming and going and it would be no big deal.   Off to the wedding.  The wedding was one of Debbie’s grad students.  They were probably both near 30, and an extremely attractive couple with a large group of equally attractive friends.  I forgot to mention, we had stopped by a thrift store and picked out an “Aloha” shirt as Debbie called it, for me.  It was very Hawaiin, but not too gaudy.  They had a drink at “the wedding” in a punch bowl with rum on the side if you wanted to add it, but it was great the way it was.  Ginger, pineapple juice, mint leaves.   I’ll have to say the wedding wasn’t really a wedding but an exchange of vows and a gathering of friends.  They were hippies.  Not hippies in the traditional sense that you could pick out from a distance (ie unkempt hair, unfashionable clothes, etc), but once the vows started, it became obvious.  Maybe I’m just cynical.  They had a friend there that was a (I’ll screw this up) “makahulu” or “mukuhulu” dancer, which Debbie told me is a huge deal in Hawaii, and she thought the girl (around 30) looked too young to be a makuhulu.  It was about the dance, a deeply traditional Hawaiin dance to bless the couple.  I’m fairly certain the couple didn’t really know how significant her dance was, or at least the groom didn’t.  He kept smiling and kind of awkwardly raising his eyebrows cheesily while looking at her dance.  Plus, he couldn’t say the name of her title/dance any better than I can remember it.  We met another former grad student of Debbie’s there too, Erin.  We talked about playing Ultimate, and told him we would be playing the next day at a park near 12^th avenue and invited him.   We skated out of that nicely odd wedding around 9ish to go to yet one more party.

 

Debbie had kind of mentioned it earlier, but didn’t think she, let alone me, would be able to stay awake long enough to make to a third party at 10pm.  It was her climbing friends.  Well, they don’t really climb together anymore since the Hawaiin government made it illegal around 3 years ago, after a rock fell on a hiker (the rock had nothing to do with a climber or climbing) and killed her.  That group of climbers, led by Debbie, has been lobbying for years to get the climbing reopened in Hawaii.  They had success, as Debbie told me in a few weeks at certain spots, and after various paperwork was filled out, some would be allowed to climb.

 

There was a pig at the party that I didn’t get to see.  Debbie had told me about this wild pig that the movie crew filming the TV show “Lost” had basically befriended, domesticated, fed and when they left abandoned.   The climbing community became the pig’s new friends, after feeling bad for the pathetic little guy wandering around unable to feed itself.  So Debbie’s friends,                and                , an American who had married a Japanese girl pregnant now with their 4^th child, took this pig home and it’s now a bit of a family pet.

 

We arrived back at Debbie’s apartment around midnight, at which point I had been up for 25 hours straight along with 5 beers in the last 7 hours.  We both crashed hard.

 

Debbie’s apartment was the nicest place she has had yet since she’d moved back out there.  2 bedrooms on the 11^th floor of one of the many apartment buildings in downtown Honolulu.  On the south side she had two sets of very large sliding windows, one of which opened up to about an 18inch wide by 12 foot long balcony that wasn’t really good for anything.  The north side was the other side of the building that had sort of venetian windows that she never shut.  The sliding windows on the south were rarely shut for that matter she said.  The apartment spanned the width of the building with the kitchen and living room on the south side,  bedrooms on the north.

 

INSERT PIC

 

I didn’t wake until around 9am, which was too early, but the sunshine reflecting in wouldn’t let my eyes stay shut any longer.  She had gotten up a few hours earlier and had been working on her computer.  She made us some waffles while I tried to text my cousin Seamus and give him an address to the field we would be playing ultimate in later on.  Seamus was stationed on Oahu for 3 years in the Army.  He told me he had 5 or 6 others to play with us.   Tiffany had 5 or 6 also she said, and Debbie’s one backed out.   It was kind of cool to think 4000 miles away from home and all that was familiar to me, I would be playing ultimate with 3 good friends, who had brought other good people out.  We had a blast. 

 

There were some completely new people, some completely non athletic people, some who played well, and some who played excellent.  It was a great mix of guys, girls, young and old.  Two games in about two hours and everyone was spent.  Tiffany’s group headed off one direction, Debbie, Seamus and his two buddies and I headed to the Kona brewery to get some burgers and beer.  I am proud to say  the youngins (Seamus, Jones and Wade) were too wore out to be much fun at the restaurant.  Seamus just kind of kept staring past me like there was a tv back there, but it was just wall.

 

Debbie dropped me off at the airport at 5:45am this morning so I could resume my flight to Kwajalein thru Majuro.  My two 50 pound bags went thru the agricultural screener.  I can’t imagine how that thing works.  I checked in, left the bags and waited around until gate 12 opened.  I kept eyeing people as they arrived at the gate, keeping an eye out for possible Frisbee players.  There were a lot of sort of boring older white looking men, a large percentage of overweight and or older people and a lot of native looking people.  Not too many prospects.  Then I realized not all these people were headed to Kwajalein.  Many were going on to Guam, the Philipines and New Zealand.

I’m sitting on the plane now wondering what Majuro will be like.  Debbie’s friends that joined us later last night at the restaurant kind of gave a wincing look when I told them I would be going to the Marshal Islands.  The guy, Chris, agreed after I told him I read something about the “armpit” of the Pacific.  When I told him I would specifically be going to Kwajalein he told me “oh, you’ll be ok, that’s a nice one”.  So I guess I’ll be ok.  Its good go know.  They passed out customs declarations sheets to everyone but those of us heading on to Kwajalein.  I guess since it’s a US military base there will be no customs.

I’m still looking very much forward to this.  Looking forward to shaking my world up.  Everything will be different.  I won’t know a soul.  The weather is opposite.  It’s a small island 3miles by ¾ of a mile.  No cell phone, no car, no familiar friends, and coworkers.  I guess I like to go big when getting out of my comfort  zone.

1-11-15

Its been 6 days.  I can completely say the food rumor is false, but then again,  someone told me the food this year is better than the food last year.  There's a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables every day and then the rest of the stuff, which isn't too bad either.  My lab tech, Ray, and I have gotten along well, in spite of our differences.  By differences I mean he has a new dodge charger, I have a church bus and a prius, he has two kids and an ex wife, I have or had an awesome dog, he thinks there's nothing to do here because there are only two bars (even though he's not much of a drinker he says), I can't wait to get off work to explore.  Those sort of differences are fine because he can take my grief, and we get along well.  That's so important because we will be working side by side for the next month at the very least until things really get rolling out here.  Here's Ray....hardly at work--

The lab isn't too bad.  We spent a day cleaning it up after it was unused except for storage for at least 6 months.  The Marshalese workers were using the microwave and the oven, which I was never really able to clean up.  There was about ten pounds of rice in there, 2 of which were in he microwave.  Ray also found a 2 inch cockroach and practically ran thru the wall trying to get away from it.  He's a ninny when it comes to bugs and spider webs.  There is a rumor that they are going to put us in rooms, 4 guys to a room with no dividers.  If that happens I will be sleeping in the lab.  Its got A/C, its kind of remote and its also next to the best surfing on the island.  I think Rays' buddy, the cockroach left with the rice, and the spiders are kind of small and feeble, so it will be perfect.   I've spent most the workweek, and will continue to, learning what they already think I know, and getting the labs credentials back with the national accrediting agency (AMRL).  There is an engineer back in Colorado for San Juan who is helping me with that.  This concrete and soils stuff is incredibly boring, but I've actually enjoyed a little forcing myself to try and master it.  It must be I like challenges. 

Its the weekend now (Sunday morning) which is Sunday and Monday out here, since we work Tuesday to Saturday.  Things were pretty routine this first week.  Get up around 4am, try to talk to people back home since its 11am there, go run two miles if I feel like it, ride the bike a quarter mile to he cafeteria that opens at 5:30, eat too much breakfast food (fruit and veggies too), get to the safety ...I mean "safety" meeting at 6:30, hang out for a half hour, listen to the guy talk, which goes something like "well, we're basically going to be doing the same thing as yesterday, Greg will be working on the batch plant, you guys will continue working on the equipment shed, and the mechanics will continue......" blah blah blah.  Then we head off to our air conditioned lab and begin the ten hour day.  Lunch comes at 11, we leave at 5 minutes til, Park the newly acquired truck in a designated parking spot, ride the bikes a quarter mile to the cafeteria, eat too much, talk, then head back to the truck and back to work at noon.  At 4:50 we head back to the designated parking spot, ride bikes to the cafeteria or in my case to the Kwaj lodge where I change into shorts and tennis shoes and head to the cafeteria, eat a little then I head to the gym.  I ask Ray what he did last night and it seems he either talks on the phone (Vegas, which is where he's from, is only 4 hours difference) or watches a streaming movie on his computer.  That's pretty much what I hear the rest of the guys do too, but they are older (55 to early 60's).  I've been just going to the gym, then going exploring.  I did make it to the surfing spot out by our job site, and talked with some people there.  They told me I have to join the "surf club", which I'm not sure what that means.  There's a nine ft board for sale, but its expensive enough that I'm going to wait a little bit to shop around before I put that kind of money down.  I need to buy a bike too, as the one they loaned me expires in 3 weeks.  The bike will be another $300 it seems.  I'll get better pics of a gaggle of bikes today, but here's a typical modified one-