Filed at 6:49 pm under Island Life by glennstu
It gets lonely here so far from my friends and family so last spring I bought an aquarium from a woman who was leaving to move back to the US. It is an extremely large aquarium (at least 55 gallons, maybe more, I’m not sure). It came with all the accessories including a device to catch fish with. This device is a large tube with a plunger on one end that you pull on to create a suction that pulls the unwary fish into it. I’ve tried to use this device numerous times and never had any success. I guess the fish here are too wary for me. … 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 10:06 pm under Island Life by glennstu
During the battle that took place here in WWII the island of Roi-Namur was peppered with bombs and ammunition. Many of them did not immediately explode and are still present on the island. Residents here are warned never to touch any they happen to find and if they do see some to contact the authorities who will safely dispose of it. Last week an incident took place that could have proved fatal. Here is the story as it was told to me by the police lieutenant here.
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Filed at 1:31 pm under Sailing by glennstu
Voyage of Moonshine
The title of this article may give the reader the misimpression that I am writing about a booze cruise. I will assure you that it was hardly the case. Last Saturday at lunch one my colleagues Bruce mentioned that he was thinking of sailing his boat from Kwaj up to Roi-Namur but that he did not have a crew as his wife and kids were stateside. I quickly volunteered to help. Bruce gave it some thought and later in the afternoon phoned me to ask me to go. Things fell into place quickly. I managed to book the last seat on the last flight down to Kwaj (only one of the planes was flying that day) and arranged for a room at the Kwaj Lodge. … Read more »
Filed at 9:53 am under Island Life by glennstu
Iakwe,
This is a slight departure from my normal blogs. I just added some photos that my friend EriC sent me a while back. EriC is a dedicated surfer and a wicked guitarist. We were once in a reggae band Tribal Fusion together. Our original drummer was a former professional surfer if I have the story right who has actually appeared in national surf magazines. The main point of this blog though, is to tell you I’ve added these surf photos and if you’ve surfed on Kwajalein atoll and you have some photos to share please let me know.
komol tata,
2NGlenn
file photo of Eric surfing on North Pass (click to make larger)
Technorati Tags: Surfing, North Pass, Marshall Island, Kwajalein, Roi, Roi-Namur
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 11:22 pm under Island Life by glennstu
Adopt a Beach (Roi Style) - originally published January 10, 2002
My household goods have not arrived here yet so I’ve had to find other things to keep me busy. My boating lessons don’t start until next week and I need to get my c-card to dive. But they have a program here called Adopt A Beach. It is where you can adopt an area of the beach to maintain and use. I decided this would be a good idea so I did it. I’ve got a lovely area with some coconut trees and a big pandana tree for shade. I took over the area from Smitty who isn’t her anymore and it had really gone to pot in his absence. Pretty much all that was left over from the Smitty era was some fishing floats dangling from the tree. I guess they were to give a nautical feel to it. …
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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….
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