Sunday, June 12

We have been waiting all week for the trip back to the beach party island. The family from the other hotel won't be making the trip, because they're on their way back to Ohio. The other mother from our hotel has opted out today, citing the long trip last week was a bit much for her to handle, and kind of wiped her out. So we're going it alone. Except for the final visa papers and occasional (if irregular) visits with our birthmother, this is really all we have event-wise to look forward to. The rest is just passing time and trying to gather the last bits of records from the hospital, for which we haven't got a schedule.

We tried to sleep in a little, and after waking, take it easy to relax before we head to the beach. We don't want to arrive in any state of worked-up, nor do we want to run out of steam before the day ends. We stopped for beer at the Payless on the way back to the hotel after dropping off the birthmothers last night. They sell beer by the can at the supermarket, even when you buy them in packs; it's just easier to get the quantity that way. Beer runs close to two bucks a can, so with a couple twelve-packs of beer and one of Coke, we ran a sixty dollar bill. I considered grabbing a thing of rum, but beer is what was requested. I thought more might be better, but there were only a half-dozen or so beer drinkers last time, so this allowed four beers each as my contribution. If it turned out to be not enough, I'll get more next time.

We packed one cooler filled with cold things from the fridge, including the orange soda left over from the picnic, but not sent with the family; they didn't seem to dig it at the picnic, so we didn't think they'd want it after. We don't drink orange soda, so we figured to bring it with and put it out for everyone to share.

Last week we were close to an hour early. We were cordially invited back, but told we didn't need to be quite so early. We left the hotel a few minutes after noon, knowing it was a ten or fifteen minute ride, thinking we'd get there closer to ten or fifteen minutes before the boat left. We did arrive about twenty after, but only the boat and boys tending the boat were there.

They greeted us less daunted this time, since we're not total strangers now. We brought our offering and lemonade and baby-tending bags onboard and set to waiting. While we waited, one of the boys excitedly waved us to look over the aft end of the boat, where there was a ray or skate swimming along the bottom of the little bay in which the boat was docked. It made its way away from the boat and circled back. We also saw a number of needle-nosed fish, about eight or ten inches long, swimming just beneath the surface. I'd seen the same in Fiji, but they were watching us snorkel from just inches away. They happily floated just inches out of reach, and if you stuck your mask just beneath the water, they would peek right in the front of it.

After a few minutes Kenneth arrived and I helped them load a couple of coolers and such. He warmly greeted us and asked about the others. I gave him the lowdown about the Ohio-bound family and he said an absent farewell and was glad that they were at the end of this leg of their journey, hoping the best for them on whatever comes next. He also encouraged us to bring the others next time, saying that they'd be taken care of and no one should be weary after.

As we bantered, he ran around the boat making ready to sail. A couple other trucks arrived, the first packed with a couple women and a literal truckload of teen and pre-teen girls. Another truck arrived filled with a few more adults and more teens and pre-teens. Mere moments after the last of them stepped aboard, we backed out and headed across the lagoon.

The sky was clear, the sun bright, and the wind much more gentle than last week. As such, the waves were more gentle and the ride much less bumpy. We disembarked and reassembled at the picnic area. I tried to offer my services in moving stuff around and getting things set up, but was told to just take it easy and enjoy myself.

After things got underway, they brought over a couple pots of pig that they'd made. One of the guys made it to the island very early, slaughtered a couple of the smaller pigs and made a tasty Pork Adobo, a Philippine dish that is delicious.

Claire made acquaintance with the wives and settled into one of the bamboo huts, while I settled in with the men on a picnic table under a tree on the edge of the beach. We sat around chatting about where everyone came from or does or stuff like that, while eating the pig dish and having some beer or Coke.

After a while, there was a fresh grilled tuna, which was also tasty. Then the rum was opened, and beer and rum and fish and pig were all consumed, all the while chatting about this and that and nothing important. Just letting the week slip away.

It seems a typical Marshallese work week, at least for a lot of these guys, is Monday through Saturday, so Sunday is their weekend, thus the effort to have a beach party cook-out day every week. I met a couple more guys that work with Kenneth doing the construction stuff. Some of the guys from last week were there, and some weren't.

One of the guys not there last week runs the Best Hardware store, and he shared some recent laments about a shipping mishap he's dealing with. It seems he has two shipping containers full of supplies for his stores floating about the ocean, enjoying an extended tour of the south Pacific. They had arrived, on time and as expected. The containers were off-loaded from the ship. Then they were returned to the ship and the ship left, on time and as expected. In the middle, though, no one took or had time to take his merchandise from the containers. At first I misunderstood, because I asked “did they at least unload them,” to which he indicated they had. He understood me to be confirming the removal of the container from the ship, though, not the merchandise from the container. A bit of confusion passed and we clicked on the miss, and got it straightened out.

I checked in with Claire a few times, and found she was being pampered with the other wives. Occasionally one of the husbands would stop by with drink or food or other necessity. She introduced me around and sent me back with the men folk, as is the custom on the island.

After the heat of the day built up, and everyone had their fill of pig and fish, we retreated to the water. We drank more beer or rum or soda or juice, as was desired, and continued sharing stories and comparing notes on how things are done, and debated how things should be done in the world. You know, the blather that men toss around when the pressure is off and the beer flows.

It started raining, and some of the kids ran for shore and the protection of the palm trees. The men teased that they should get out of the water before they get wet from the rain. After the rain, one of the guys pulled out a genuine Cuban cigar he'd picked up in Guam. Apparently it got there via China or Taiwan, and he got it while there for some other reason. It'd been a while since I had a draw from a stogie, and I gotta say, it was a smooth and enjoyable cigar.

Claire brought Grace out to see what the beach was all about. Not wanting to get Grace wet, Claire stopped in thigh-deep water. Kenneth, being the gracious host he is, tipped a couple boys out of a kayak, and pushed it over to Claire to use as a floating crib for Grace. Grace settled into the bow for a bit and floated by the women, who were in the water nearby. Too nearby, as the guys would occasionally “drift” a little upstream to give space to the women. The women would drift a little closer to the guys, I think because we had the beer.

Someone mentioned computers, and someone else mentioned I did something with computers, so they asked about that. I tried to keep it at a human conversational level, but they were still impressed. We chatted a bit about the differences between Mac and Windows PCs, and I mentioned the other operating systems, and discussed what some of those differences are, and that aside from where the menus and buttons are and looked like, they're fundamentally the same for most users. Usually it's a browser and special program or two that people use. They seemed to agree or accept that it really boiled down to the software you wanted to run, or what you wanted your software to do, and what that constrained you to for an OS.

I again mentioned that IT work is a huge potential for Marshallese workers. Since the agreement between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands is such that there are no travel or work restrictions, they have a huge potential head-start on other “offshore” operations. I noted there looked to be an empty building across from my hotel, and another underused one down the road a stretch, and that with the right contacts in the U.S., and training of Marshallese, that someone could quickly break into the market. There are people here that are certainly capable of the work, but who are probably just lacking the specific training, resources, or opportunities. I suggested that with a proper set-up on the island, decent bandwidth to the Internet, and their ability to freely travel and work within the U.S., that someone just needed to get that ball rolling. They suggested I should be the one to do that.

One of the guys there mentioned his cousin or brother-in-law or something like that was the general manager at the NTA, and said he would introduce me if I could improve the network or service. I didn't see it, but the paper apparently had an article discussing the lower rates, but not any higher speeds. All of the guys are jealous of my 25M/s at home, since most of them are sharing the 300K/s that everyone gets on the ten-cents per minute rate, or are paying $2100 for unmeasured 500K/s service. Outlandish!

Time passed and it was time to head back. A flurry of activity as uneaten food and other supplies were packed and everyone made it to the boat. We left, and unlike last time where we cut a little tour around some of the lagoon, the boat headed straight across. We made it back to shore about 7PM, and were back at the hotel twenty minutes later.

We each showered and Grace got a bath, washing off the sticky salt and sand from the day in the sun. I got a little too much, as was evidenced by my red forearms and neck, but it wasn't too much too much, and will likely fade in the next couple of days. I used to hold a tan, but no more. It's either burnt or pale for me. Too tired for any more adventure, we turned in early.