Drowning Miss Daisy
The day that I am posting this blog is Daisy’s 7th birthday. It seemed appropriate to post it today. When I met her she was only 3. I talked to her mother’s cousin last night and he told me Daisy still calls me baba (father). This article is also about a trip to 1st island with some guys I knew.
I’ve had few zany adventures to write about since my return from Ailinglaplap last month. Life has settled down to the drudgery of day to day living on a tropical island. Last week though, I received a phone call from my friend Atma telling me that my friend Jabyokwe’s daughter Daisy had nearly drowned and was in the hospital on Ebeye. It was too late in the day for me to catch a plane down to Kwajalein so I would have to wait until the next day to visit her. As it so happened Atma and Jabyokwe’s sister Rosalina came up to visit me that day so we all flew down together. To get to Ebeye from Roi-Namur you must first fly to Kwajalein then walk or ride a bike from the airport to the marina where the Army operates a fleet of Landing Craft that we simply refer to as LCMs. Their primary purpose is not to transport me to visit my friends on Ebeye but rather to provide a means for the workers on Ebeye to get to Kwaj every day and then safely back home at night. They have a series of benches for the people to sit on and an awning to ward off the elements covers the whole shebang. So after taking the necessary vehicles I eventually arrived at my destination. My friend Atma (Belenty’s aunt see my Ailinglaplap story) is often my guide over there. She has stayed my friend through several of my romances and has at times attempted to play the matchmaker to help me out some. She’s become good friends with Jabyokwe and Rosalina who claim to be sisters. I’ve made numerous references to the odd way of reckoning sisters in this country so I should have known better but for a long time I believed these two really were half sisters as they described themselves to be. I finally figured out that their mothers were sisters and have not yet resolved in my mind why they throw in the half part. So the two ladies, Atma and Rosalina started off through the tangle of buildings that is Ebeye. I’ll have to capture Ebeye on film for you as it stands in stark contrast to Ailinglaplap. Where as Airok looked every bit the tropical getaway Ebeye is quite accurately known as the ghetto of the pacific. The island is much smaller than Kwajalein but is the home of about 10,000 people. The homes are usually just one room. They have no building codes there that I’m aware of and I often spot exposed wiring. The floors are concrete slabs and the walls are usually plywood. Despite the poverty the rooms I’ve seen have been kept reasonably clean as far as appearance. You won’t find much clutter there (unlike my apartment). When by myself I usually stick to the two main roads that traverse the island north and south. But this night my friends led me through narrow alleys between the homes and businesses. In the center of town is a large open building. It is used for various community events such as weddings etc. This night there was a ladies’ volleyball game going on with a considerable number of people in attendance. We found Jabyokwe and Daisy at the game. I thought it was odd because it was my understanding that Daisy was supposed to be in the hospital recovering. I don’t always get my questions answered so they left me in the dark for a while. I finally gathered that the hospital decided it was a good idea for Daisy to get some exercise and fresh air. The 5 of us then headed for a restaurant to get some supper where I heard the story of what happened to her.
Figure 1 Daisy and Jabyokwe
On Tuesday some people were hanging out by the beach talking story (my friend Atma included who always just happens to be in the right place at the right time) when someone (Atma when she told the story to me) looked out and saw a child floating in the water motionless. Atma told someone to rescue her so they ran out and retrieved the child. No one at the scene knew CPR so an ambulance was called and she was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately the girl has revived completely. They kept her in the hospital for observation for several days. A friend of mine here explained it was probably to insure that she did not get pneumonia. He explained that salt water is more likely to get in the lungs than fresh so it is a higher risk.
Figure 2 Daisy at the restaurant (she was suppose to be in a hospital)
By the time I saw her she seemed completely recovered and as energetic as any 3 year old. Daisy is a beautiful little girl with large eyes and a very charming personality. She usually throws her arms around me when she sees me. This is quite unusual for a Marshallese child that age as most are a bit afraid of Haoles. She’s also starting to call me Papa. It makes me wonder what her mother’s intentions are towards me as her mother is behind the designation. Well, her mother is a real jokester. She is probably the funniest Marshallese person I’ve met since I got here. She makes everyone laugh. I can’t point to any specific jokes she tells but she just has a way of making people laugh. Atma told me she had the whole boat laughing yesterday on the way over to Kwaj. Her face isn’t something to write home about (although I guess I’m doing it right now) but she is probably one of the most enjoyable women I’ve ever been around. At least that is how I feel at the moment. In contrast, I consider her sister Rosalina to be quite beautiful. Rosalina is as quiet as Jabyokwe is outgoing. It is not just the fact that she hardly speaks English but even amongst friends I’ve noticed she does not talk a lot. But she is real friendly with me and I always enjoy my time with her. It is amazing that I’ve known Rosalina for over a month and only last week I noticed she did not really understand English very well. Her and Atma were at my room watching a movie and Atma was translating the movie for her. That was pretty much when I put one and one together.
Figure 3 Mother and Daughter in the Restaurant
After dinner Jabyokwe and I took Daisy back to the hospital. I was curious to find out what the hospital was like. I half expected it to be a ramshackle affair with dingy rooms, flies on the wall, and exposed incandescent lights. It turned out to be rather modern and reasonably clean. I guess it was built in the last few years. A lot of the staff is from Fiji. I’ve had several friends here who were nurses there and were from Fiji. Daisy shared her room with one other girl. Jabyokwe spends her nights there sleeping in the bed with her daughter. I met other ladies there who were taking care of their children as well. The one item that caused me alarm was I noticed there was no soap in the soap dispenser in her room. After putting Daisy to sleep Jabyokwe and I walked across the street and bought our own soap for the room and some other staples such as cereal. Jabyokwe shared some cookies with the other families there when we returned to the hospital to check on Daisy. The little angel was still sleeping peacefully. So Jabyokwe walked me down to the LCM landing so I could catch a boat back to Kwajalein where I would spend the night. I found out yesterday that they released Daisy the following day and she is doing just fine.
Figure 4 Benjamin (on right) and his buddy on a different dive trip
This weekend my friend Benjamin flew up from Kwajalein with some of his friends with the intention of diving on the wrecks of WWII aircraft. We would be accompanied by several others of his dive buddies from Kwaj. We ranged in age from Dale who is even older than me to Benjamin who is only 23. Notice his name is not Ben as I long supposed. But for ease of typing I henceforth refer to him as Ben as most other people here do but don’t let Benjamin know because he prefers Benjamin. But he’s not quite as anal about it as I am about having both of my Ns. Jeff and Eric N (not the usual Eric who has appeared in past stories) completed our crew. But unfortunately we were spoiled by the elements. We got up early Sunday morning intent on a fun day of diving only to be foiled when they put up what I call the “red flag of death” to warn boaters that there was small craft warnings and thus we were prohibited from using the Army boats. I blamed the whole thing on Dale. He is a very cautious person and phoned ahead to see if there were small craft warnings here on Roi. I figure he put the idea in their mind. I didn’t really blame him; it just gave us something to tease him about though he provided many opportunities. So we had to cast about for something to do here. Let me tell you, if you take away water sports there are not a lot of recreational opportunities open to the adventurous spirit on Roi. We decided to test out the new water trampoline. Ignoring the sign that said do not use when there is a small craft warning we swam out to it. It was good fun to jump on but a poor cousin to diving. That humored us for the morning but we needed something to do in the afternoon. We decided we’d go snorkeling at Sally Point, which is located at the end of Roi next to 1st island. Once we got there someone came up with the brilliant (I’m being sarcastic) idea to wade over to 1st island while the tide was still low. This we did. There are large cement blocks still in place from when there was once a narrow gage train running to 3rd island. A small shark scampered between our feet on the way over. Just before we got to 1st island one of the guys spotted a police van on Roi. It occurred to me at that moment that what we were doing was against the regulations. I encouraged my friends to keep out of site but knew in my heart that it was already too late. I hoped to find a glass fishing buoy on the ocean side of the island but had no luck whatsoever. We strolled around the ocean side of the island looking for stuff but not really making a great find. Eventually Dale and I decided to turn back while the others proceeded along the lagoon side. On our way back we spotted Mark the Marine cop. He gave us a thorough dressing down then a ride back to Roi on the cop boat. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the water trampoline that they installed here on Roi.
It has been some time since I started this article and must apologize for not finishing it when I remembered where I was going with it. I thought I would finish off by telling you some more about my friends. Jabyokwe has quite a few relatives that I am friends with, particularly the ladies in the family. I think they are trying to make me feel at home in this strange land by including me in their family. Her cousin Yolanda always calls me cousin, her beautiful sister Rosalina calls me brother (thought I would prefer that she thought of me as a kissing cousin) and her daughter calls me Baba that in Marshallese means Daddy. I guess this is just a quaint island custom for making strangers feel at home. Another interesting (to me) footnote is that Jabyokwe’s name literally means “No Love”. I asked her Aunt why her parents named her this. She told me her father was having an affair at the time she was born and did not want her and did not like her so he gave her that awful name. I am not sure that is true. I like the name because it sounds strange but I just think it was an awful thing to name your daughter considering what it means. My friend Eric (the usual Eric) said we should change the name to Innayokwe that would mean Yes Love. The word Yokwe or Iakwe also means hello. The little girl Daisy is the most adorable little girl I have ever met in my life with the exception of my own daughter and my sainted sister when she was small. Daisy has tons of personality and I have noticed she is a ring leader for her friends. She loves to sit on my lap and when we walk down the street she usually holds my hand. We get a lot of strange looks from people on Ebeye. I am beginning to sense that her mother may think of me as more than just a friend. It might be because she has been telling people we are getting married soon. I have no intention of marrying her but have sometimes thought I wouldn’t mind adopting her daughter. I am a bit more interested in Jabyokwe’s sister Rosalina. In the picture below Rosalina is holding two packs of cigarettes which is odd because she doesn’t smoke. You cannot tell it from the picture but she has extremely long hair and usually wears it braided. She is not as fat as she looks in this picture. In fact she is built about perfect. I think her clothes were just baggy.
Figure 5 Rosalina (on left) and author (on right)