The Marshall Islands aren't exactly what I pictured.
They are run down and dirt and trash is everywhere. It reminds me of the poor parts of the Dominican Republic. I live next to the ocean just like most of the people here, but there is no good beach for quite a ways away. All I have here is rocks. My apartment is full of termites, cockroaches, ants, and geckos. It leaks and shakes when the wind blows. I don't have anywhere to put my clothes or other things. Everything I have is in piles on the floor. The toilet works about half the time and the only fresh water available is rainwater. I'm teaching in a very hot classroom where the glare on the chalkboard is so bad that I can only use about half the board. There are not enough books for everyone, so the students have to share. I teach six classes and sometimes wonder if I'll ever have free time again. I work everyday of the week. Yes, I know your question. "You work on the Sabbath?" Yes, but it is mission work that I don't have to do. I go to church and Sabbath School where I sometimes teach. Then in the afternoon is when the work begins, but it's fun. We go out into the neighborhood and do Band-Aid clinics for the little kids who run around with infected sores all the time. On Sunday I write lesson plans and prepare for Monday's classes.
The people here have very little pride in their culture and land. One of their favorite songs goes like this.
God bless the Marshall Islands once again.
He sees all the problems.
They're not getting any better;
They're only getting worse.
God bless the Marshall Islands once again.
I think they truly believe that song. Everywhere you walk you see the rotting remains of cars and houses. Children run through the streets, dirty waifs turning to stealing, lying, and cheating to make it through life. They play among the broken graves of the cemetery, cracked lives with no better goals than to grow up to work as a clerk at the bank. Is God here? Does He see these poor people who don't care enough to clean up their land and their lives? The problems aren't getting any better. A father goes to the local conveyance store with his small son who's crying for bread. The father buys fifty dollars worth of chewing tobacco instead of food. Dogs, cats, and pigs run wild through the dusty streets with the children whose pass time is chasing rats. Baseball games are played with gloves made from cardboard picked up by the side of the road. Students are sent to school to learn English and enough material to be able to go live the Promised Land. But instead of being taught by professionals, they get teachers who are still in school themselves and have never taken an education course in their lives. Instead of taking pride in their work, the kids look for the easiest way to make it through school so that their fathers don't beat them. A student sent home with a discipline notice sometimes comes back with a few bruises that didn't come from the basketball game.
On the other side of life, the students who take an interest sometimes do get the chance to go to the States. Most of the leaders of the classes are the students who are committed Christians. The president of the sophomore class is also the leader of the SDA church at the other end of the island. More about life is learned by the missionaries than by the students. The neighborhood people recognize us as the second best high school in the entire island, and we are taught by kids barely older than the students are.
If you lift your eyes up above the trash by your feet and look at the world that God has made, the country is beautiful. The deep blue of the ocean radiates with the amazing colors of the coral reef. There are islands on the distant horizon and palm trees bending in the cool sea breeze. Stars are plentiful in the distant sky, while a local child climbs up onto the bench next to you just to be there beside you. He comes to see the strange Americans and to feel someone cares for him.
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Richard Wright Copyright 2001