(21 Jan. 87) Here on Legan again. The Minuteman mission Monday night went off course and had to be terminated. Another mission is scheduled for next Tuesday. I see that the ground crew hacked a path through the vines and undergrowth on the lagoon side of the island. I made my way to the north end and took some pictures of the Fairy terns. I have decided to put in order some notes I collected the past few weeks.
Some info on Marshallese living on the atoll:
There is the story told on Kwajalein about the old Marshallese man who, before entering the snack bar (Marshallese – jinak bar), put his packages, including a brown paper bag containing $80,000 in U.S. currency, on a bench outside. After he finished eating, he picked up his packages, including the money and went on his way.
Times have changed a lot since that story began making the rounds. There has been a large influx of people to Ebeye from throughout Micronesia, all searching for the good life. Marshallese still leave their possessions lying around but sometimes they return only to find the goods have been permanently relocated.
About 600 islanders who live on Ebeye work for the U.S. Government on Kwaj and Roi Namur and receive American wages. Other islanders from radiation contaminated atolls receive a settlement for their displacement. The bad news is that they have to live on Ebeye, a 68 acre coral rock with only a few coconut palms and 10,000 people living in extremely unpleasant conditions. I previously wrote that tests earlier revealed a third of the men, women and children had tested positive for syphilis. The total income on Ebeye amounts to $2500 per person (10,000 people) per month. Not divided up evenly, of course.
I visited a constable once. His home is situated maybe 50 feet from the beach on the east reef, facing the Pacific Ocean and the easterly winds. It’s also the east side that is prone to the first point of landfall for typhoons. His home was put together with some used lumber and corrugated metal roofing. Out front an old door was left open and a gap of about 8 inches runs around the top of the wall, open to the breeze but there was none at the time. Instead, sitting in a back window, an air conditioner was turned on high. The floor consists of the island’s coral and sand. On the sand are a new western style bed, a TV, a recliner near the door and a top of the line Nikon camera sitting on a table.
There is a new car dealer on the lagoon side. The dealership consists of a small wooden shack and three Japanese models out front. There is one gas station to serve the few car owners on Ebeye and no traffic lights to worry about. The constable’s wife picked us up in their car and drove us to their home. She took down the yellow taxi sign on the car’s roof. Car owners sometimes use their vehicles as public transportation to pay for their gas. In either case, there are only four short blocks on the island and the people pay to ride through the slum in style. No destination. They just make circle after circle and then get out. Cars don’t last long on Ebeye since the Easterly winds are saturated with salt from the Pacific. Sometimes on an outer island my glasses would become coated with salt within minutes and I couldn’t see anything if I didn’t constantly wipe them clean. So I decided to not wear them at all.
My favorite rich person from Ebeye is Kitlang Kabua, a grandmother in her mid-sixties with round, coke bottle thick glasses. She is a member of the iroj or chief class and, I was told, owns a significant part of Kwajalein Island. Members of the Kabua clan hold many positions in the Marshallese government. Examples include Amata Kabua. president of the republic, Imata Kabua, senator, and Amatlain Kabua, mayor of the capital city of Majuro, to the east of Kwajalein.
Kitlang shares in a seven figure rent payment from the U.S. Government. This quiet lady doesn’t have to work yet every morning she takes the ferryboat to Kwajalein Island, six days a week. There she goes to her job at the PDR (Pacific Dining Room), where she buses tables until the afternoon. Whenever I think of the word dependable, I think of her.
On Kwajalein Island one morning a Marshallese gentleman drove down to Echo Pier in a pickup truck loaded with an Amiga computer and all the extras, worth about $4,500. He had purchased the unit from one of the Americans on Kwajalein for $1800.
He placed the delicate equipment on the edge of the pier, out in the bright sunshine, next to the salt water, uncovered. I checked the spot several times during the day and everything was there when when the man loaded his computer on a water taxi late in the afternoon for a bumpy, salt spray filled ride back to Ebeye.
Marshallese are frequent flyers. Every day of the week Ebeye residents fill the terminal building at the airfield on Kwaj. Men in their Hawaii shirts, women in their MuuMuus and dozens of children drinking cokes and munching on Cheetos, wait for their flight to arrive. They fly AMI’s (Airline of the Marshall Islands) twin-engined turboprops to short grass airstrips on atolls throughout the republic.
Or they try to get on the always full 737 jets of Continental Air Micronesia to destinations across the Pacific, including the west coast of the United States. In Honolulu, you can always find Marshallese at the airport restaurants or at the continental passenger lounge.
In addition to suitcases, the baggage compartment of these jets may also contain items such as woven sleeping mats, a large green breadfruit, or a tuna wrapped in plastic. Seriously ill Marshallese needing medical attention are also frequent flyers on Air Mike.
Finally, a word to anybody in the market for a good investment. Ebeye is an entrepreneur’s dream. Just about any business is certain to be a success. The residents who have money would love new places where they can spend their money. But if you absolutely want a sure bet, open a doughnut shop and bakery. Marshallese love sweets and think nothing of paying fifty dollars for a birthday cake or buying large bags of doughnuts and cinnamon rolls to go with their coffee. The only expense would be a security guard during the hours the shop is closed and for an escort when you make your daily deposit trips to the bank. Once again, the only negative factor is you would have to live on Ebeye.
0200 – I received a call from the Kwajalein Police Headquarters advising me to watch for boats coming ashore tonight.
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 2
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