2/14/08
This last weekend was a 4-day weekend because of Liberation Day in Kwajalein Atoll, the day when the Americans came and killed all the Japanese occupying it during World War II. It was supposed to be a fun weekend. It did not go as expected.
The projector in my house broke. The lamp burnt out, and a replacement costs $500. The dvd-rom drive on my computer stopped recognizing discs. I now have no way to watch movies in my house. Very sad.
On Saturday morning, someone came to the door at 800am trying to use the minibus they gave Conor and Alex for the commute since they are now homeless and are sleeping on the furniture in our living rooms. It was the same guy who is a teacher at the elementary school and brings his budweisers with him to class and tried to fight the principal. I answered the door and told him to go away and then shut the door in his face.
On Sunday morning, my principal knocked on the door at 615am, wearing dress pants, a tank top, and a winter jacket, and wanted to know if he could borrow our projector. I told him it was broken but the other one was in Laura’s house. I guess he decided it would be better not to wake Laura, because he drove all the way back to Ebeye without a projector.
On Sunday, I cleaned my entire house. I did this because our WorldTeach assistant field director invited the Senator of Kwajalein, the Ambassador to the RMI from USA, and our whatever-of-education from Ebeye schools guy to my house for breakfast on Monday. The primary purpose was to discuss the future of the program with the Senator, since we haven’t been receiving much outreach from the community in terms of helping Conor and Alex do their jobs in Ebeye. Anyways, we were ready with coffee, tea, muffins, and sliced apples, and an immaculate house. No one showed. They completely blew us off. It was just as well – I have met all 3 of these people before, and no meeting involving any of them could ever be productive.
The rest of Monday was also disappointing because we were unable to get into Ebeye to see the festivities. Our school was involved in athletic events, and there were all kinds of races, tournaments, and an outrigger sailing competition that we missed because no one bothered to provide us with transportation even though we had all expressed interest.
One part of the festivities on Monday was a 7-mile run from the far end of Gugeegue to the far end of Ebeye along the causeway. I had been excited to run in it for months. Word on the street was that it would start at 3, but when I went out at 3 no one was on the causeway, so I went inside. Mr. Ken came over at 4 to say that he just saw about 30 people leaving on the run. I quickly changed clothes, put on my shoes, and grabbed my ipod after just having eaten a pb&j sandwich, and started sprinting down the causeway. I caught up with the last place person (who had already begun walking) after about 1 mile. I found out later that I started about 6 or 7 minutes after everyone else did. I finished the 7-mile race in 6th place in 50 minutes. It was fun, but I was a little disappointed because I’m certain I would have been in the top 3 if I had been able to start with everyone else. There was serious prize money involved – first place was around $100, and I received $15 for 6th. The race was mostly Marshallese men, but there were some Filipinos that ran and one enterprising American high schooler from Kwaj that came in second. I got to run parts of the race with a few students of mine who were brave enough to run, and tried to keep up in their bare feet. We offered them shoes but they are apparently more comfortable running without them. About 1/3 of the men ran without shoes. I almost broke my ankles 5 times with shoes – I wouldn’t have made it a quarter of a mile without them. About 2,000 people lined the streets of Ebeye to watch the race. They were very encouraging, which was great. My hope is that maybe some of them will now know my name, and call me Matt instead of just ripelle (American, or literally “person who wears clothes”) next time I’m in town.