June 9

Yesterday Alan Capelle and his wife invited us in for cookies. The invitation was vague, "My wife will make cookies for you. Come at noon." I assumed we would have cookies and coffee. No. She was actually making cookies and wasn't even nearly done by the time we arrived around 12:15. After the cookies were done, she packed a enormous container for me to take home.

The traditional setup for a house is much the same as rural America had 100 years ago. They have a separate cookhouse since they use fire to cook with, separating it from the house reduces fire risk and the everyday problem of having your house filled with smoke. The cookhouse was about 200 feet from the house and was one of the nicest I have seen. It was a large 20x30 foot room with a concrete floor, shelves, tables and a cabinet. The cooking area was along one side of the house (shack really) and consisted of a oven made from a large oil drum placed on its side in a concrete housing with a space below for the fire. It reminded me of a pizza oven or a kiln. The fire is fed with coconut husks which burn hot and fast. It obviously takes some skill to obtain the correct temperature for baking but having an oven with the markings rubbed off the dial, I am familiar with this problem (ha ha). In addition, there are three large oil cans placed in coral rubble and hemmed in with a wood fence. The fire is built in the drums and is insulated by the coral rubble. They lay iron rods over the drum and put a frying pan on them and voila you have a three burner stove!!

Alan's family are definitely the upper middle class on this island. His relatives are all important people in the Marshallese government and they run the copra operation on the island. They act as middlemen buying the copra for cash from various families doing the work then sell it to the ship when it comes monthly (or whenever). This ensures a good cash flow on the island. Most islands just sell the copra direct to the ship when it comes in however infrequently that is.

In the Marshall's, men and women do not tend to socialize together so I sat with Lynet in the cookhouse while her daughters rolled out cookies and Jordan sat with Alan on the front porch. I have been to dinner parties where this happens in the US so it isn't that strange. Lynet has 9 children and about six are currently home. They were all busy doing chores except for the ones under 9 who played. The children are all very well behaved and I am constantly aware of my loud rambunctious son. Of course, the Marshallese just laugh at everything rather like the Japanese so I never know if they are shocked or just adore children so much that it doesn't matter what horrid thing a kid does, it's just ok. I think they must think I am somehow infertile because I have only one child. We chatted about a huge variety of topics including that she is from a family of 15 (!) and she is from Ebeye in Kwajalein. The US has rented the entire atoll except for the island of Ebeye where the locals live (and work for the US missile range which occupies the rest of the atoll). The locals receive money yearly for rent. Since land is matrilineal, the women get the money. I think it really helps balance the society since everything else is so male dominated. This makes Lynet fairly well to do and she married into a fairly well to do family so it makes them essentially part of the ruling class.

Their home is a 3 bedroom cottage with a small store attached. It has a TV and a short-wave radio. They listen to NPR broadcast from Kwaj! They are very gung-ho on educating their children and are proud that their older son is in college in Majuro and their daughters are in High School on Ebeye (children must qualify for a limited number of places in High School and it seems like less then half actually make it). I think they are excellent examples of maintaining cultural traditions yet still participating in the modern world in a positive way. They understand the children must be educated, they teach English at a young age and they enforce school attendance.

We were discussing parents and I mentioned in the US when my grandmother got very old she lived in retirement home. Lynet, in a very proud Marshallese way (smiling and laughing) said that parents are brought to live with their children when they are unable to care for themselves. I have to admit it is a great solution when you have 8 children to share the responsibility and people don't work 9 to 5 jobs and of course this is the way it always was in Western culture until as recently as 50 or so years ago. We discussed the size of families and she indicated her older daughter has one child and is going to try not to have any more! I guess there is a transition in thinking about family size or at least in educated well to do families.

It was a very interesting visit and I felt that I learnt a lot about their family and their culture. It is a pleasure to chat with someone who speaks fairly fluently. Occasionally the accent is difficult to understand. I thought she said grapefruit when she really said Breadfruit. The letter "j" is problematic and it took a while for me to understand that Alan's Uncle is Minister of Justice. Since we have been here a while, I know people in Majuro and since this country is so small, I know relatives of Alan and Lynete who we've met there. I have a horrible time remembering Marshallese names though and I tend to only remember the people with Western names.