An Octopus, 2 Parties, and a Wedding
Sunday night here we had a Karaoke to benefit the Enniburr Children’s Christmas fund. We earned $401 towards our fund, which is to buy Christmas presents for the children there. That is not the amazing part. The amazing part is that I sang a few songs and it was actually requested that I sing an enchore. Not only that, but they had to pay extra money for that. I don’t sound as bad when I have a microphone and can hear myself. That is an amazing but true fact. This is somehow related to the rest of my story but mostly I am bragging that someone, for the first time in my life, wanted me to sing.
Monday morning (yesterday) I woke early to go diving. With threatening skies, we headed out the pass to the ocean where we like to dive the most. We wanted to go to speedball, a favorite spot because of the large quantity of sharks, but it looked like the skies would open any minute so we wanted to get in the water before we got soaked. …We quickly donned our gear and dropped into the ocean. Though for the most part, the dive was not as spectacular as speedball, I was rewarded when I spotted an octopus. I tried to signal one of the other divers who had a movie camera but he was oblivious. I took a picture and will include. We did our second dive at my favorite spot, North pass. I like it because there is usually some good current that brings jacks to feed which brings sharks to feed on the jacks. I was not disappointed. We saw lots of sharks and also a sea turtle. I did not want to return to the boat for two reasons. One, the dive was great. Two, I could see from the drops hitting the surface that it was pouring out. Air in a tank does not last forever so eventually we had to surface. That was when the adventure started. It was pouring cats and dogs and to make matters worse there was a stiff breeze. We hoisted the anchor and headed through the pass that was quite rough due to the exchange of currents.
Figure 1 Octopus
The rain felt like hail on my body as we attempted to speed home. The tiny boat would leap as we hit the next wave so we were holding on for life. To make matters worse the visibility was so bad we could not see Roi-Namur that was only a few miles away. We had to rely on our compass. The scary part was earlier we discovered the compass would never point to north even when we headed north. So I did not completely trust it and my instinct told me we were headed too far south. Fortunately, my shipmates ignored me because the compass heading took us almost to the exact spot where we wanted to go. Eventually we could spot the lights at the airport and as we neared the island familiar landmarks, like the power plant, became visible. The rain was still coming down in sheets when we made landfall so we unloaded in a torrential downpour. I usually hang my equipment out to dry after I wash it. I still hung it up but wandered what the point was.
Figure 2 Another Octopus Photo
I got back to my room around 1 pm, soaked to the bone, shivering, and with wrinkled fingers. I took a very long, very hot shower that revived me. Next up on the agenda was a one year birthday party for the son of one of the guys here. In the Marshall islands a one year birthday party is a big deal. The reason is that traditionally there was a very high infant mortality rate. They figured that if a child lived to be one then he had a good chance of reaching adulthood so they always throw a big party to celebrate. The parties are often similar to wedding receptions. I went to one last year that had a band. The party was suppose to start at 1 but due to the inclement weather it was postponed till 3. It turned out that I was the only rebelly (haole [gringo]) to show up other than a woman that I don’t particularly care for. But I felt welcome for the most part but hardly knew anyone there so did not stay long. I had another party to go to on Ebeye.
To get to Ebeye I had to first catch a plane down to Kwajalein. I then checked into the Hotel there and headed over to the marina to catch an LCM to Ebeye. While waiting to get on the boat I spotted my friend Annie getting off. Her and her husband had been the ones who put on the Karaoke the night before. She said to me “aren’t you tired?” She didn’t know the half of it but in reality I wasn’t really tired yet.
My friend Tommy was waiting for me at the landing on Ebeye. As soon as I saw him I realized I should have dressed better for the occasion. I was only wearing a T-shirt and shorts. When Tommy saw me he said “why didn’t you dress better, I wanted to take you to my cousin’s wedding?.” I apologized knowing that even for a party I was underdressed. I’m use to life on Roi-Namur where we are pretty informal always. So I asked Tommy if he had an extra dress shirt I could wear. We went to his house via a taxi. A taxi on Ebeye costs 50 cents no matter where on the island you go. It isn’t that big of an island. Most of the taxis are pick-up trucks. You often ride in the back. We got to his house and he brought out a nice dress shirt for me. I told him I looked better in it then he ever would and he agreed and told me I should just keep it. I told him I would wash it and give it back when I was done but he insisted I keep it. We headed back to the center of town where the wedding was to be held in a K of C hall. It was a large structure with a roof but no walls. There were bleachers set up around the outside. In the center they had set up hoops for the bride to walk under that were decorated with flowers. We got there just before the bride and groom were to make their entrance. The bridesmaids were all wearing matching blue flower print muumuus. The groomsmen had on white shirts and pants and blue flower print vests that matched the muumuus and tablecloths. I thought the bridesmaids were quite pretty. They had their hair worn in tight braids from their foreheads. I don’t know what that is called but that is what it was and they all had long black hair. I wish I could say that the bride was pretty and I guess her face was alright but she had followed the path of a typical Marshallese woman over the age of 25 and was quite plump. It didn’t help that it appeared she had put the cart before the horse if you catch my drift. I mean to say it may have been a necessity that they were getting married. In contrast her husband was quite thin and was wearing a white tuxedo. The bride wore a typical white bridal gown for those of you interested in such things. I also wish I had brought my camera but I had left it behind because I was afraid I would lose it somehow. We stayed there for a while but then Tommy decided it was time to head over to his place for the birthday party. We caught another cab and arrived at his home. His house was much larger than most of the homes I have been to on Ebeye. But typical of most Marshallese homes, there were virtually no chairs to sit on. They did manage to drag out a couple of chairs for Tommy and I to sit on outside but the rest of the family sat around on the floor in his home. They actually had what I would call a dining room table in one of the rooms but no chairs at it. I was also impressed that they had a bathroom though I couldn’t figure out how to flush it (I had occasion to use it while there). The party was originally planned for earlier in the day but the storm had forced the starting time to be delayed to 7:30. 7:30 came and went and the guests had failed to show up. After much time I finally caught on that 7:30 in the Marshall Islands probably meant 9:30 in reality.
One Response to “An Octopus, 2 Parties, and a Wedding”
 Comment by Cat August 30th, 2007 at 5:00 pm |
Hi Glenn, These stories are GREAT. Brings back lots of good memories from the past too. I like how you describe a typical marshallese woman over the age of 25 by the way… Hhahahah LOL |
