Filed at 1:02 pm under Roi Namur the Novel by glennstu
Iakwe, it is time for chapter 2 of the novel I’m working on. Here it is:
Chapter 2
In the morning I found my own way to the cafeteria. I was told I needed a meal card but they decided to cut me a break recognizing I was new in these parts. After getting some hot cakes and eggs I sat myself down at one of the long tables by myself and started to eat. Shortly afterwards a friendly thin black man of medium height with a beard and dread locks sat down and introduced himself as RG Dread. I eventually learned his real name was Reginald Osbourne from Kingston Jamaica. He said he recognized me as new to the island by not recognizing me. It seems all the folks here know each other at least by name and face. “What’s your name mon?” he queried.“Matthew” I replied.“Well Matty it is a pleasure to meet you, I be honored should you let me show you around a bit.”“Thanks that’d be great and I go by Matthew usually.” Reggie worked in the optics lab but in his free time he ran the tiny 25 W radio station called KVZI 97.9 FM. In Reggie I had found a kindred spirit as we both loved reggae music and as time went on we would spend hours talking about it or else sitting back listening to some roots over a cold beer. He explained to me that having arrived the day before, a Saturday, that it was the last day of the work week on Kwajalein atoll. They work Tuesday through Saturday since they are on the other side of the date line and this allows them to line up with the people back in the states and allows better communication state-side. This being a Sunday morning he had free time to show me the island. Read more »
Filed at 1:40 pm under Roi Namur the Novel by glennstu
Hi, it has been a while since I posted because frankly I ran out of humorous and informative stories. In the mean time I’ve been working on writing my first novel (actually it is not the first novel I ever started but hope to actually finish it). To that end, I’ve decided to start a new feature on Roi Rat journal. That feature is that once a month I will add a new chapter from my book and the following will be my first installment. I’ll attempt to add one around the first of the month so look for the next one on March 1, 2010 AD (CE). This is only a very rough draft of the book so once it is a best seller you can look back at the draft and see how much it has changed. Without further ado here is the book:
Today is a good day, I don’t think I even need my meds. I am sitting outside at a table in the “Rest Home” where I have been staying since I left Roi. They call it a “Rest Home” but let’s not fool ourselves, it is a psychiatrict hospital. It is located outside Tucson, Arizona. I think they sent me to this particular home because the desert seems as far away from Roi as one could get. It is a sunny day in early March and they’ve said they may even take some of us to a Spring Training game later. My doctor has suggested that it would be therapeutic for me to write about my time on Roi, that perhaps if I wrote in chronilogical order of my time there that somehow I would remember what really happened and not what he calls my lunatical ravings. I wish to God that what I remember happening as clear as remember getting out of bed this morning and putting on my slippers was only my imagination, that my friends did not suffer the horrors that they encountered, that these eyes never saw what they saw that I never had stood on the dark chasm of death until my rescue. Well, I will start at my first day on Kwajalein atoll and we’ll see where this story takes us. Maybe I do need my meds today. Read more »
Filed at 12:45 am under Diving by glennstu
Iakwe,
This week on Discovery is shark week, one of my favorite weeks of the year television wise. It sure has brought back lots of memories of my time on Roi and the great diving there. Tonight they had a show on the 10 deadliest sharks. Unfortunately I missed the first half of the show because 2 of the sharks on the list I dove with off Roi. Those were the white tip and the grey reef shark. I saw and swam with a number of those as well as nurse sharks and black tips while on Roi. There are tiger sharks there but I never saw one nor did anyone I can think of. But shortly before I arrived a tiger was caught either on Roi or Enniburr. My friend had its jaw. Watching all these shows is making me crave going diving again. Read more »
Filed at 7:54 pm under Travel by glennstu
Last night I watched the movie Letters from Iwo Jima which I quite enjoyed. By coincidence today my mother sent me some letters I had written to my family when I worked in Riyadh back in 1991. Though far removed from Roi-Namur I thought it might be interesting to see where this Roi Rat had worked in other over seas assignments. It is not unusual for Roi Rats to work in various places over seas. I’d say we were an adventurous lot. So this following letter was written on July 11, 1991. It was a predecessor to letters I would eventually write from Roi.
Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry for writing a group letter but I had intended to write individual letters and have never got around to it. Besides, I’d probably just write the same thing to everyone anyways.
On my way over here I came through Amsterdam, and enjoyed myself quite a bit. I found the Dutch to be a good humored people, though I haven’t figured out why they would laugh every time I spoke Nederlandes (Dutch) to them. My command of the language helped me to make friends. A few times it didn’t help, like when I would get on a Dutch plane I’d greet the flight attendant in Dutch. She would see my obvious Dutch features and see my Dutch name on my boarding past and would make the false assumption I was Dutch and then proceeded to rattle off a bunch of Nederlandes in reply. Although I speak Nederlandes, I barely understand a word of it. I assumed she was telling me where my seat was, though she could have been telling me I looked like a drowned rat[Foreshadowing of my future on Roi where I did look like a drowned rat at times] . When I went to England 4 years ago I felt like I was visiting somebody’s grandmother’s house. You know, old and stuffy with a bunch of antiques. Visiting the Netherlands seemed more like a Studevant reunion. The people looked like Studevants, they acted like Studevants, they drank beer like Studevants. What I enjoyed the most was visiting fishing villages on the Zuider Zee (South Sea), and a boat tour on the canals in Amsterdam. I found a picture of one of our ancestors that I’ll show you if you come to Seattle but I did not find any living Studevants. So much for the Netherlands. Read more »
Filed at 11:56 pm under Fishing by glennstu
Perhaps when I described the huge tuna that I caught off Airok folks may have had their doubts about the size of the fish I caught despite the photo I included. That’s fine. But let me tell you, this week I received some photos from former Roi resident Rob Corbin with actual untouched photos of fish he landed along with our friend Mike shown in the photos. Actually I do not know who caught which fish but let’s give the credit to Rob until I hear differently. If you recall from my post on July 26th of last year, Mike and Rob are dedicated fishermen who have made a science of this great sport. It has paid dividends as you can see from these photos. Read more »
Filed at 7:50 pm under Travel by glennstu
Aloha,
Today I watched the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and sighted a Kwaj. sign in the stands. I can recall guys going there for the Pro Bowl as the closest professional football game to Kwajalein atoll. I enjoy watching any sport called football, while my favorite is what I refer to as “real football” or what my country men usually refer to as soccer (short for association football), I grew up cheering for the Cleveland Browns and have always loved American rules football (where ironically you rarely use your feet and the guys that do are not respected by their teammates). So knowing I am about to enter a dead time in American football viewing I enjoyed the game itself but I also quite enjoy the shots of Hawaiian scenery and some of the unrelated stories about activities to do there. One sport that I was ignorant of before today is the ancient Hawaiian sport of paddle surfing. Read more »
Filed at 11:45 pm under Diving by glennstu
Posted February 1, 2008
“I swim like a fish in the sea all the time, if that’s what it takes to be free I don’t mind” – Toots Hibbert
Sunday mornings on Roi-Namur for me meant it was time to go diving. The local activity center provides Bayliner boats for fishing, diving, and other water activities. The Roi-Namur Dolphins SCUBA club has several buildings on the Lagoon side of the island near the marina where members can store their equipment. So my Sundays would start early, with a hearty breakfast skillfully prepared in the cafeteria. Next, I would load any equipment I had in my apartment onto the trailer on the back of my bike and ride down to the SCUBA shack as we termed it. There I would gather the rest of my equipment to be loaded onto the boat. You could comfortably fit 4 divers onto a boat and 5 if you needed to in a pinch. Four was optimum as you had 4 ways to split the rental cost but you weren’t too packed. So while the other guys got ready the day’s captain would head over to the marina and sign out the boat then steer it over to the SCUBA dock where the crew could load the boat. Today we would be heading towards Speedball, a favorite site due to the large school of sharks that frequent it. I think the site got its name because it is close to where in ancient times they would launch Speedball missiles from or something like that if my memory serves me well for a change. Read more »
Filed at 12:22 am under Island Life and Cultural by glennstu
Yokwe. Tonight I was sitting in the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings playing buzztime trivia with my friends. I was having a decent night having won one game and finished second or third in all the others and had a perfect game going into the last question when I heard a voice behind me talking to his buddy and mentioning that a basketball player had played at Kwaj. The average person would have minded his own business but then the average person does not go and live on a small tropical island for 3 years, so instead I turned around and asked the dude if he’d been to Kwaj. That might sound cheeky to you but there is a certain camaraderie amongst Kwaj and Roi survivors. As it turned out he had lived there approximately the same time as I did but perhaps a little before me but with some overlap. Naturally we discussed life there and common acquaintances etc. Turns out there is a reunion group here in Tucson and if you’re a part of it please contact me because I’d like to participate. I registered on some kind of Kwaj roll at some point or you can get a hold of me through this highly entertaining and informative blog site. But our mutual reminiscences brought to mind a story that a good friend of mine from Kwaj once told me. To protect his identity I’ll refer to him as Sam. Read more »
Filed at 5:18 pm under Island Life by glennstu
Posted 1/1/2008
The title is kind of a tease because I only know one Roi-Namur ghost story. There was a huge battle fought on Roi back during WWII. There were quite a few Japanese soldiers and a few American soldiers who lost their lives during the battle. Some of the more notable sites are signposted. You would think that with that many guys giving up the ghost some of the ghosts that got gave up would still be hanging around. So if you know of any good ghost stories or even some bad stories about ghosts on Roi or Enniburr please send them to me and I will add them to this blog.
OK here is my Roi ghost story. Read more »
Filed at 12:04 am under Island Life by glennstu
Well Christmas is almost upon us so I would like to thank all of my readers and wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Most likely your next question is, what is Christmas like on Roi-Namur. That is a very good question but it is one I cannot answer. I spent almost 3 years on Roi but never a Christmas on Roi. My first year there, 2002, I skipped off to the Philippines to visit a friend there. It was my first Christmas in a different culture but the Philippines is a Christian nation so they celebrate on Christmas Eve. I spent Christmas Eve with my friend’s family and it was quite fun and there was a lot of celebrating going on around town. In sharp contrast, nothing at all was happening on Christmas day. Evidently they do not celebrate the actual day of Christmas in the Philippines. Read more »
