Dear Diary

While in Ebeye I made sure to keep a detailed diary. Here is it:

5/8/08 – It was immediately apparent to everyone when I got off the plane that this was my first visit. Can’t go anywhere here without police escort. Am the only white person waiting to go to Ebeye. Got driven to docks in a Port Authority van and saw all the wide open spaces and manicured lawns of the base. Swimming pools, tennis courts, skate park, basketball courts, and all of them deserted. American style homes stacked down the street with square lawns. Got a burger and chips at a lunch counter from one of the saddest looking dudes I have ever seen. Tired Marshallese workers lounge around and wait for 2:40 shuttle to leave. Entering Kwaj, Marshallese workers have to scan their hands in a finger print scanner like something from Star Trek. Wierd. Read in paper that it averages two degrees hotter in Ebeye than back in Majuro…

5/9/08 – One road rambles around this dirt and tin place. Taxis everywhere. Don’t know why. You could walk from one end to the other in 20 minutes. Everything has surprisingly clean and organized feel. Kids are less outwardly friendly than in Majuro. Only really “nice” place in the whole town is the King’s place. Private boat launch. Dogs don’t bother anyone and every little kid asks for a quarter. Water was supposedly tested positive for E. Coli and Conner and I both had Kool Aid today. Am not sure why. I might have some sort of bug or worm.
Found out that five kids from Ebeye get the privilege every year of attending school on the Army base. The chosen start in kindergarten and go all of the way through.
There are abandoned military installments across the lagoon that Marshallese families have moved in around. There are locked doors that they cannot break into but inside there are machines that continue to run…

5/10/08 – There is a road build of dynamited coral that connects Ebeye to Gugigoo – a nice place with space. Some people say that it was built by the king because he has a house out there and wanted an easier way to get there. Some say that it was built because they were trying to get people to live out there and alleviate crowding on Ebeye.

Walked to next island over from Gugigoo and it was deserted. Strange to think that you can go from third highest population density to deserted tropical island in about 40 minutes.