As I have mentioned holiday season is here in the Marshall Islands. The Christmas trees are decorated, people are singing/playing carols, there are even lights on the houses and stores. It is weird to experience something that is so distinct to home in a place that sometimes feels so foreign and underdeveloped.
Anyway, life has been interesting—as it usually is here in the RMI.
1) Life can be dangerous here. Like I stated in a previous blog post, I fear for my life every time I hop into a taxi. Well, I should probably fear for the lives of the people outside of the cab especially the children playing in the street. The streets are too crowded, and there isn’t enough space set aside for kids to play. Unfortunately while in a cab, a little girl ran into the street and was hit by the car. I believe that the cab driver was not at fault. The little girl darted into the street and the driver hit the brakes as soon he could. While the girl hit the front end of the car and the pavement, luckily there appeared to be no external damage….no visible blood, no visible broken bones. If the situation was not bad enough, an adult ran into the street (maybe a father, uncle…not really sure) to get the girl and then proceeded to physically threaten the cab driver. After a few intense minutes of shouting and I assume apologizing the situation was over. There was no police and no ambulance, just an awkward taxi ride to the other side of town.
2) Last Friday was a nation holiday in the Marshall Islands. Apparently this holiday has three names: Gospel Day, Komolol Day, and Thanksgiving—komolol roughly translates to thanksgiving in English. This holiday commemorates the day that the missionaries brought the word of Jesus Christ to the Marshall Islands (at this moment everyone can secretly make their own assumptions and judgments about this holiday). A cool thing about this holiday, the people who were participating in some of the celebrations were very into it which was very cool. There were two parades, one in the morning and one in the evening. A parade in the Marshall Islands is much like a homecoming parade in high school. You get bunch of cars, van and trucks and pile as many people in, on and around the vehicles—car surfing is highly encouraged. Add some streamers and cardboard signs and maybe a loud speaker and you have a parade. Cars in the parade honk their horns, blast their radios or shout and chant slogans or phrases. (My favorite was “*bang* *bang* *bang* JESUS! *bang* *bang* *bang* JESUS!”) For added spectacle/confusion, there is only one main road in the country, and while there may be a parade in progress other people not participating have their normal lives going on. So while the majority of the automobiles are participating in the parade there will be a spattering of trucks, cars and taxis just trying to get to the other side of town. Oh one must have enough gas to be in the parade, but if you are running out apparently it is ok to pull off the route to get gas and join back in with a 10-20 car gap.
3) At one gas station gas prices jumped from $4.72 on Thursday night to $5.08 on Friday afternoon.
4) I went sailing. On Sunday the Meico Beach Yacht Club sponsored a ‘learn to sail day.’ I was able to go sailing on a 40-something foot yacht with a retired couple from New Jersey. It was cool. I am going sailing again this weekend…it should be fun.
5) My students have suddenly become enthralled with the “who is your girlfriend?” question. It is pretty funny especially since I don’t have one. Since this is such a small place/island/country I see my students everywhere and my students see me everywhere too. If I am hanging out with any girl (either in a group or by myself) they automatically assume that she is my girlfriend or even my wife. And when the students see you hanging out with different girls on different days they think that you have multiple girlfriends. At least the stories I hear from them are entertaining and make me laugh. Just like right now when my student came up to me and said “Darren, I will have a dream tonight that one you will have a girlfriend.” My only response was “Thanks.”
