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 Bob and not because my favorite singer of all time was named Bob Marley. Read more »
Filed at 12:53 am under Cultural and Uncategorized by glennstu
It is with great sadness that I write of Lucky Dube passing. Dube, 43, was shot dead in a hijacking in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, on Thursday night, police said. He had just dropped off his son when he was attacked.
This post has little to do with Roi-Namur I admit but still Lucky Dube presence was felt even on that tiny island. I always began my radio show with Bob Marley’s “Rastaman Vibration” followed by Lucky’s “We Love It”. Other of his songs were requested by my audience. I had the great pleasure of going to one of his concerts years ago, in the early 90s in Seattle Washington. It was actually one of the first reggae shows I ever saw, a sunsplash. At the time I am ashamed to admit, I did not know who he was but was greatly impressed by his singing. I’ve been to many concerts, both rock and reggae, seen many of the most popular artists, The Who, Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Ziggy Marley, BB King, Wise Rokobili, and so many others but honestly I am not sure I could name an artist with greater range of vocals than Mr. Dube. He was a good man, who lived a clean life. He did not use Marijuana, did not drink or smoke cigarettes. He was devoted to his family and to his country. It is terribly sad to think that greedy criminals could take the life of one who has given so much to the world and to South Africa. This great man did more for the world in his short 43 years than most of us, including myself, could ever hope to do in 70 or 80 years. I don’t imagine they will ever read this blog but still I’d like to offer my thoughts and prayers to the family and loved ones of this great man.
Technorati Tags: reggae, bob marley, radio, kvzi, lucky dube, wise rokobili, South Africa, Johannesburg, Marshall Islands, Kwajalein, Roi, Roi-Namur, Micronesia, travel
Filed at 10:59 pm under Island Life and Cultural by glennstu
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. Read more »
Filed at 10:10 pm under Island Life and Cultural by glennstu
A Dave Barry article that was posted this week on the Miami Herald web-site brought to mind an incident on Kwajalein atoll. The article discussed modern art in public places and questioned whether the average tax payer would appreciate large sums of money being spent on an object that essentially looked like a mangled air conditioner. It was something like that. It reminded me of a controversial art object on Kwajalein. In this case it was a mermaid statue that (parents don’t let your kids read this part) had her breasts exposed. I would not say it was exactly anatomically detailed if you catch my drift but if you looked at it and were a love starved bachelor you could imagine that they were breasts. There are many such bachelors there especially on gender deprived Roi-Namur. Well, a certain well intentioned woman decided the statue was pornographic and complained to the authorities. I hope this lady never goes to Europe because I’ve seen photos of the statues there such as Michelangelo’s David and Venus de Milo and they are much more detailed than this mermaid. But the authorities on Kwaj are sensitive to offending the public so they covered the mermaid with a t-shirt. I don’t know if the lady in question (who is an otherwise nice lady that I was friends with) did not consider that good enough or they were worried the t-shirt would come off but eventually they removed the statue altogether based on one person’s complaints. Read more »
Filed at 8:08 pm under Cultural by glennstu
Many people have never heard of the Marshall Islands or if they have it may only have been in reference to Bikini where nuclear testing was once done. A few more may have heard of Kwajalein, a US Army missile test site, and some may have heard of the World Class SCUBA diving and fishing that exists here. But those who have been to the islands and certainly those lonely men on Roi-Namur would have heard of the legendary Arno Atoll. While conducting my in-depth research on the subject of Arno I came across this description of Arno on the internet:… Read more »
Filed at 11:40 pm under Cultural by glennstu
Iakwe,
Here are some grooming tips from the islands. Many Marshallese will leave one finger nail (the pinky) much longer than the other nails. This serves a utilitarian purpose as they use it to slice open fish they catch. They are then able to eat the delicious guts. Their favorite I’m told is the stomach because it contains more fish.
Have you ever noticed a Marshallese person with offensive body odor? No. Why? The people I know all have good hygiene habits but it is more than that. I was told this is because they eat herbs that prevent body odor. It is remarkable in this hot climate. I asked my friend Junior what herb it is but he did not know the name but promised to find out for me. I think if someone could bottle this they could make a killing selling it.
Filed at 10:53 pm under Island Life and Diving and Cultural by glennstu
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. … Read more »
Filed at 10:02 pm under Cultural by glennstu
Maybe after reading all of these highly informative and entertaining blogs about life on scenic Roi-Namur you’ve decided to start a challenging and rewarding career living and working on Roi-Namur. One day you meet a beautiful island girl who still has many of her teeth and the two of you fall in love despite the warnings I mentioned on the non-politically correct versions of my blogs that have never been published to the general public.
If you’ve ignored all my other warning DO NOT under any circumstance ignore this one…. Read more »
Filed at 12:32 am under Cultural by glennstu
Assault on Enniburr (or how I spent a year on Enniburr one Sunday morning)
originally published on June 13, 2002
As I have already spoken of in my chapter on Adopt a Beach, I have spent many a night staring across the lagoon at the 3 visible lights on Enniburr, pondering what it was like there and what goes on at night. Enniburr, often referred to by Americans as Third Island, is the nearest island where the Marshallese live. There are about 900 people on that island which is smaller than Roi-Namur. I have walked from the lagoon side to the ocean side of the island in less than 5 minutes, and that included stopping at a friend’s house for a quick hello. But for the longest time I had never traveled there. What intrigues me about the place is that there is no public electricity or running water. Some people have generators for their personal use. All the drinking water comes over on the LCM (a converted landing craft used as a ferry). So when one of the cleaning ladies at work invited me to her church I jumped at the opportunity to visit Enniburr…. Read more »
Filed at 11:19 pm under Cultural by glennstu
Originally Published on March 21, 2002 - Since originally writing this I learned a lot more about the Marshallese people. Not everything I wrote was accurate so what’s new? I would invite my Marshallese readers to correct errors I have made. I would like to restate once again my love and respect for the Marshallese people who treated me so well. I think I increased my understanding of the people the most by spending a week on Airok. One thing that impressed me was that this is principally a pre-agrarian culture that has leaped into the 21st Century. That is to say, that until recently and on the outer islands this is still true, they were basically a hunter and gatherer economy. The men would fish and the women would gather vegetables and fruit. Since the arrival of Asian and European travelers they have made a significant leap in economic evolution yet still retain many of the traits that have helped them to survive hundreds of years. Their ability to adapt to the new culture is a credit to their intelligence and determination.
At long last I have completed my next installment of
my life on Roi-Namur. A lot of expert research went
into this highly informative and interesting article.
Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Indigenous Peoples of the
Marshall Islands
Somewhere between 2000 and 500 BC the first Micronesian navigators are believed to have arrived on the Marshall Islands. They might have followed the route shown in Figure 1 below. They lived here for many years in peace, occasionally committing acts of cannibalism etc. Micronesia was ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The first Europeans to site the Marshalls were the Spanish in 1529 who were seeking a western route to the Spice Islands….
Read more »
