On the plane from Honolulu to Majuro, I initially sat next to a pair of characters from Oregon. I’d say they were in their late 50s. Bob and Steve were going way past the Marshall Islands to Truk, a member of the Federated States of Micronesia. Their mission: to scuba dive and take fancy pictures of sunken wrecks. They were admittedly in the full-swing of their mid-life crisis.
Bob said, “I made some mistakes, but that’s how you learn. But looking back, the one thing I missed out on was travel.” Clearly, Bob and Steve were making up for lost time. When my mid-life crisis arrives (in 2027), I can confidently say that making up for a lack of traveling won’t be on the list of crazy things to do.
As we approached the Marshalls, I spotted Mili and Arno atolls from above and the beauty of ring-shaped clusters of islands struck me more viscerally than a photograph could. The islands are so narrow in the midst of the vast Pacific. And together, they create donuts consisting mainly of holes. Soon enough, we spotted Majuro atoll and the plane curved around to parallel the largest island, which happens to also be Majuro (so I live on Majuro, Majuro – island, atoll). As we descended, an almost alarming sensation came over me because I stopped seeing land altogether. On both sides of the plane, all I could see was ocean. It felt like the plane was landing on water. But shortly, the plane did touch ground and I could see that there was about 30 yards of land on either side of the plane.
My first exposure to Marshallese politics occurred on the drive to the Ministry of Education (MOE) after I got off the plane. The building directly across from the MOE used to be the Chinese Embassy. However, Taiwan has thrown millions of dollars at the Marshall Islands, as Taiwan has to a handful of other countries, to get the Marshall Islands to recognize it as an independent country. China menacingly said: “It’s Taiwan or us…” The Marshallese eyed their bank account and retorted, See ya! So the guy that picked me up from the airport pointed to the building and said, “Don’t mind that building. It’s the Chinese. We’re trying to drive them into the sea.” Oy! Apparently, there’s also a general racism against the Chinese in the Marshall Islands because the Chinese immigrants tend to be industrious shop keepers, beating out the ethnic Marshallese at business. This creates resentment akin to anti-Semitism in Europe. I’ll probably write more about that later.
The Marshall Islands is a far-flung atoll nation. Most of the outer islands lack electricity and telephone lines. Therefore, when I first walked into the MOE, I made a Kramer-like double-take when I saw two reception desks. One had telephones as we’d expect; the other was a CB radio. All of the islands do have radio, so the Ministry communicates with many of the schools that way. Talk about a challenge to manage.
Majuro itself is a pretty small place. About half the population of the country, or 25,000 people, live in Majuro. The island is mostly a big shanty town dotted with such conveniences as supermarkets, 2 banks, a bowling alley, movie theatre, video store and a few bars. One thing is for sure, there’s not much in the Marshall Islands for tourists other than the ocean itself. I met with a publishing representative that sold a line of English as a Second Language textbooks to the MOE and she mentioned there were cockroaches in her hotel room. She’s staying at one of only 2 hotels. Speaking of that, my biggest trial so far has been cleaning my new house. It hadn’t been lived in since mid-April, so there were cockroaches and plenty of gecko poops everywhere. I bought yellow dish gloves and went to work. The place is liveable now.
