Daily life here in the Republic of Marshall Islands is a challenge for some of us, but for others it’s as easy as buttering up a slice of Wonder Bread. As an RMI citizen, I find it hard being a father. As I observe one man’s life, I see lot of difficulties that he has to go through. For example, he has to set aside everything and think first about his family. He has to think about what he has to do to feed his family such as getting up early in the morning and doing lots of work around the house, and getting the kids ready for school.
The difficulties that I see being a father is that he has to work hard to support his family due to the fact that he has a poor job or he doesn’t have a job at all. In this case he has to go out and find other jobs that are better and pay a decent amount of money just to feed his family. Or he has to go out to the lagoon or the ocean side and fish just to feed his family. Aside from working hard, they have to maintain the household by cleaning up the house and taking care of the things around the household. Another thing they have to do is to pay bills. The men who don’t have jobs wind up taking care of the house and the kids while the mother is at work. Here in the RMI it happens that most fathers that don’t have jobs usually end up being a taxi driver.
The difficulties that I see being a father is that he has to work hard to support his family due to the fact that he has a poor job or he doesn’t have a job at all. In this case he has to go out and find other jobs that are better and pay a decent amount of money just to feed his family. Or he has to go out to the lagoon or the ocean side and fish just to feed his family. Aside from working hard, they have to maintain the household by cleaning up the house and taking care of the things around the household. Another thing they have to do is to pay bills. The men who don’t have jobs wind up taking care of the house and the kids while the mother is at work. Here in the RMI it happens that most fathers that don’t have jobs usually end up being a taxi driver.
Being a father is a lot more difficult than you think. Before you make the decision of becoming a father, think about the consequences. My advice: go to school, finish college and get a good job before you think about having a family of your own and becoming a father.
Lolelaplap Voices is a wondderful blog. it is refreshing to read honest comments about the tough challenges of people trying to do right by their families, their culture, and their country - everyday life - in the Marshall Islands. It is also refreshing to read comments from young Marshallese who appear to be looking inward for most solutions and not to what other countries or other people from other countries can do for them. And finally, it reminds all who sometimes forget, including me, how tough life is in the RMI for most. Hope to see more and learn more.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very compelling post and follow up comment from Reality_Check. Little do most know that Marshallese women often carry the burden of working to support the family.
ReplyDeleteI will re-share this on these Kwaj-Net websites:
kwajnet.tripod.com
facebook.com/KwajNet
twitter.com/KwajNet
plus.google.com/103605508731152787818/posts
kwaj-net.blogspot.com
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Marshall Islands? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Marshall Islands in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia,39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez