Staying On Majuro
With only 2 weeks to find out as much as we could about the Marshall Islands, it's people, culture and arts, we did not have much time. We focused our research on Majuro Atoll with the intention of visiting other atolls, but did not have time to travel off island. Any trip off the atoll by boat is a guaranteed two day trip and we did not have two days in a row free. Another problem is that air travel between islands is a bit sketchy. The Marshall Islands have an airline called Air Marshall Islands but most of the people we talked to called it “Air Maybe”. We were told Air Marshall Islands have 2 planes, a big one for the outer atolls that require longer flights and a smaller plane for the closer atolls, and that the smaller plane was in for repairs. The entire time we were there the smaller one was in for repairs. In the end of the book Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould, he talks about wanting to leave the atoll he had lived and taught English on for the past year and there were no seats left on the plane (operated by Air Marshall Islands). With a stroke of luck there were people on the plane who decided to stay to do some filming of the atoll so he was able to get a seat and fly off the island. Peter writes that soon after he arrived back in Majuro the plane broke down and the folks who stayed on the atoll to film were stuck there for many months before they could get a ride back to Majuro.
During our trip we met a Swedish student who had been studying the anthropology of a southern atoll named Ebon for his master’s thesis. He found out that one of the planes was broken down and had to take a boat back to Majuro a month and a half early to ensure he would make his flight back to Sweeden. This is the reality of living in a developing country, where the conveniences that we take for granted such as reliable air service, meet the inconvenience of a lack of preventative maintenance. Either way you look at it, we weren't taking any chances and we decided to stayed on Majuro. |
Majuro, By The Numbers
Majuro is the capital and most populated atoll in the Marshall Islands. The 2011 census calculates the population of all the Marshall Islands at 53,158 and the population of Majuro at 27,797. This means that more than half of the Marshall Islands population lives on Majuro. This in its self is not that shocking until you figure in the total land size of Majuro, which is 3.75 square miles. Keep those numbers in mind and add in the 35 mile length of the Majuro on its longest axis and you have a lot of people living in a very small area. At its thinnest, a strip of land in Ajeltake, they have a road and that’s it. In order to build the airport on the island they had to import land from somewhere else.
Majuro is separated into six different larger villages with many smaller communities (wetos) over the 35 mile stretch; Djarrit (Rita),Uliga, Delap, Ajeltake, Rairok and Laura along the southern side of the atoll. Getting their names from WWII soldiers, Rita is named after Rita Heyworth and Laura is named after Lauren Bacall. The stretch of land from Rita to Delap only takes up about 4 miles but is by far the most populated, our guess would be that around 20,000 of the 27,797 on Majuro live in this small area. Even more surprising, despite the small size of the atoll, we talked to many people who had never been to Laura. The northern side of the atoll consists of islands connected by stretches of coral. When the tide is out you can walk from small island to small island. |
Getting Around Majuro
If getting around the Marshall Islands is difficult then getting around Majuro is the antithesis of inter-island travel. There is one main street in Majuro and a select few offshoots of that one street. To get from place to place (remember that the majority of Majuro’s population lives in a 4 mile stretch of south-east portion) one simply needs to walk or hail a taxi which will cost them $.75 for a ride anywhere in the main city area. Simply go to the side of the street you are looking to travel down, hold out the number of fingers traveling in your party and if the taxi is not otherwise occupied it will pull over. As a courtesy, if they are full of other passengers they will honk to let you know they will not be stopping. There is also a bus service available, but the bus is just a minivan and does the same thing. The advantage to taking the bus is traveling outside of the populated area because it’s the same price from Rita to Laura. Taxi’s will charge extra to leave the populated areas to go to locations such as the airport or Laura. Laura has a very beautiful beach with some of the only sand on the atoll.
Once you get into the taxi there’s no need to give a street address, there are no street numbers, you tell the driver where to stop or turn. Remember, there is only one main street so it’s impossible to get lost. Most of the time I’m geographically challenged and I even mastered the street system in one day. If you want to send mail to someone you send it to a Post Office box and they can pick it up there. Probably the best thing about riding in a taxi, besides not having to walk a couple of miles, is meeting the people of the Marshall Islands. They are by far the warmest, kindest and most gentle people we have run into in our lives. While in the back of a taxi you can meet all kinds of people, as well as their families. In many cases, Julie and I were in the back of your average Hyundai compact car with a mother and her 2-3 kids, carefully balanced on her lap while the driver and another passenger were in the front. We even got to know people because we rode in the same taxi as them on multiple occasions. The speed limit was 25 miles per hour and this was enforced with speed bumps as well as a police force. The police had to share t-shirts with the fire fighters because budget restrictions would not allow the fire fighters to purchase shirts to help people identify them. The whole time we were there we only saw the police pull one car over and that was for not yielding to pedestrians in a cross walk. The taxi drivers never hurried over the speed bumps, sped up to splash through puddles or failed to put on a turn signal to let you know when they were pulling over to pick you up. They would even slow down when people were walking in front of puddles so they didn't splash them. People did own cars, but there were not many. At $.75 per ride wherever you wanted to go it did not make economic sense to buy a car unless you lived outside of the populated area or owned a business of some sort. We never waited more than a couple of minutes for a taxi. Julie and I never did an official count but if we were to venture a guess, in that 4 mile area there were probably 50-60 taxis heading up one side of “the street” and back down the other, always looking for business and always smiling when we got in. |
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Family
Family and community are extremely important to the Marshallese people. Taking care of each other is a way of life on the islands and if someone is in need it’s expected that their neighbor will help. An example of this is drinking water, there is no aquifer to tap into and only 8% of the water used is purified salt water. They simply gather rainwater since it rains every day, sometimes 2-3 times a day, and use it for all of their needs. 80% of water comes from these catchment containers. With the national minimum wage at $2.00 per hour and the annual salary at $6,476 (according to the 2011 census) not many families can afford the $1000 rain barrel that stores all of the water. If your family has one then you help those around you and share the water reserve, even if its your last gallon.
Families generally sleep together in one room. They take their shoes off at the door to keep from bringing dirt into the house. The cleaner the house is, the less chance of vermin or bugs coming in. If your family can not provide for everyone then it is the obligation of the other families to take others in until you can afford to provide. We saw this first hand when families from the outer atolls would send their kids to school and to live with relatives in Majuro. It was common for students to come and stay with family in both K-12 as well as college educations. This is why its sometimes difficult to determine who among our students is related, they literally consider each other family whether it’s brother, sister or cousin. Despite this family dynamic, marriage is not common. Couples simply move in with each other, usually the female’s parents’ house until the couple becomes financially stable and can afford their own place. Influence from other cultures is making weddings more of a common event but for now they are still an event celebrated by a minority of people. We noticed many of the young men had short hair with a single long braid in the back of their head. We asked around and it seems many of the young men will grow and keep this braid until he meets a girl and they become a couple. At that point he cuts off the braid, the courtship is over and he is no longer considered single. |
Diet and Health
The main diet consists of fish and rice, however there is invading cultural influence that is changing the diet and adding medical difficulties to the population. When we say rice we mean heaping amounts rice with a side of fish and when we say changing diet we don’t mean healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables. The contemporary Marshallese have the same problem urban America has; do you purchase an apple that will last one meal or a bag of chips that will last for multiple meals? Do you buy a gallon of milk or a case of soda (128oz vs. 144oz) when the case of soda costs less than the milk? According to the World Diabetes Foundation, 35% of Marshallese people have diabetes and 75% of those over the age of 50 have the disease. The hospital has just completed a new building dedicated to treating those with diabetes. There wasn't a time we walked by when it was not busy with patients and families tending to their needs.
The Marshall Islands diet used to be breadfruit, coconut, pandanus fruit and fish, but the Majuro people (especially those in the most populated south-east portion) seem to have forgotten or given up this diet. As we walked around we could see coconuts un-harvested on the trees and ground, bananas just rotting away on the trees and pandanus fruit that had fallen to the ground. The older population (35 and above) of Majuro seemed to appreciate the natural foods of the atoll but with the median age in the Marshall Islands at around 19 years old, they didn’t make up a very large portion of the population. Even fishing for their food has dwindled over the years, with the lagoon being overfished and the 2 supermarkets providing fresh fish there is really no need to go out and get it yourself. The only fishing we saw, besides the fishing tournament, was done by kids for the fun of it and for something to do. Although we did not travel to other atolls we are told the rate of Diabetes is lower on the outer atolls. There, the availability of junk food is not as prevalent, although it is still available. The need for the natural foods the atoll provides is still there. Rice is still a staple on the outer atolls but is portioned out smaller and other nutrition needs are met with the natural foods. |
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Government
Government in the Marshall Islands in set up similar to that of the United States. They have 33 senators, called Nitjela, (from 24 districts throughout the Marshall Islands) representing the people and a president who is nominated by the senators. The president is the head of state as well as government.
Beyond the government of senators and president there is the lingering quazi-feudal system. The Marshall Islands has three classes consisting of chiefs or Iroij, clan heads called Alap, and workers called the Rijerbal. The chiefs have the ultimate say in land usage and settling arguments. The clan heads oversee and maintain the land the chiefs own. The workers pretty much do what their name implies, from farming the land to constructing whatever structure the chief says can go there. We’re not really sure how the senators and president fit into all of this since the senators represent the people but the chiefs are in charge of the land. However, we can tell you that the president of the Marshall Islands has been a chief every time but one. Chiefs own the land. They have final say over all of it and can change their minds about a decision at any time. If the chief allows you to build a school on his land and then something happens and the chief no longer wants the school to be there, maybe he dislikes the color or curriculum they are teaching, he can simply take the land (and anything on it including the new school) back. There would be no room to argue on the schools behalf because if the chief wants it and it’s on his land, he gets it. We heard that it was not completely uncommon to have the chief grant someone permission to build a house on his land and when it was finished he would take the land back and live in the house himself. There are also categories of land that take a really good diagram to explain. The important part of this is that although chiefs own the land, it’s passed down along the mothers side of the family because “you always know who your mother is”. |
Social Issues
The social
issues that plague the Marshall Islands, in particular Majuro, are a direct result
of its location and identity development. Basically, there’s nothing for the
teenagers to do. One hundred years ago
there was a more “traditional” living style where everyone had a job to do and
you worked until that job was done. The
women did household obligations such as cooking, cleaning, child rearing and
weaving while the men did the hunting and fishing. With the adoption of other cultures and
technology throughout the years these roles are changing and today’s youth are
struggling to catch up. Years ago, the youth
might have had to scavenge for food or help prepare meals (once very labor
intensive from the gathering of food to preparing it) or they had to fish for their meals. Now all they need to do is walk down the street and buy their food. In short, there is not much for teenagers to
do on Majuro. Think about what you do
when you get together with your friends… you eat, drink and hang out. Eventually you might watch the game, drive
somewhere, go golfing, bowling or to the movie theater but these are all things
that do not exist in the Marshall Islands.
When the youth get together at the end of the day they simply eat (junk food),
drink (carbonated or alcoholic beverages) and hang out with no other
options. There is also a movement
towards smoking, chewing tobacco or Betelnut (a natural type of tobacco that
grows on the islands) and using inhalants to pass the time.
There is no mini golf course, roller-coaster or bumper cars… there’s NOTHING TO DO. When there’s nothing to do you just hang out more, leading to eating more, leading to drinking more and you end up with diabetes, alcohol abuse, and teenage pregnancy. The sense of boredom also can lead to helplessness which is why the suicide rate is high on Majuro. In 2008 (these were the most recent numbers on file) there were 10 suicides in 16 attempts which are down from 2003’s 28 suicides in 42 attempts. These are all questionable numbers however because suicide is considered disrespectful and many suicides are not reported. There are outreach programs, such as Youth to Youth, available to help kids who are battling these issues and give them a positive vision of the future. When we finished all of our interviews on any given day we also fell prey to this boredom, we would look at each other and say “what now”. We found ourselves walking slower and really adopting “Island Time”. Our slogan became “what else are we gonna do?” because we had no other options. Should we catch a taxi to dinner or walk? We chose to walk because “What else are we gonna do”? Should we go sit on the beach and watch the ships or stay in the hotel room? We thatched the ships because “What else are we gonna do”? This was the same boredom that is currently causing the social issues in the Marshall Islands. |