While we were still in Majuro, word got around to all the cruisers that the mayor of Ailuk was looking for boats to volunteer to take supplies from Majuro to Ailuk. Since we were the only boat intending to go directly to Ailuk, I gave the mayor a call to let her know we could help. She arranged for a delivery at the wharf, and a couple days before we left, we loaded up Exodus with large bags of rice and flour and cases of motor oil.
Upon arrival in Ailuk, our first stop was to go to shore to say hello to Anious and his wife Emily. Anious is a minister at one of the churches in Ailuk, but all the cruisers know him by his radio callsign “Pumpkin.” There is an SSB cruisers radio net in The Marshalls called The Yokwe Net (Yokwe means hello in Marshallese), and Pumpkin is one of the weekly net controllers. They were expecting us, and after the pleasantries were dispensed with, they asked us about the supplies we brought from Majuro. Emily explained that it had been months since a supply ship had been there and that there was absolutely no rice or flour on the island. She asked if we brought more than what the Mayor had given us to bring, and when I said no, she was visibly distraught. Didn’t we know what they needed? Didn’t we know that we should have brought more? Didn’t we know the school has had to go to half days because the kids aren’t getting enough calories? No! No, we didn’t. And the idea of telling her that we brought what we could given the space available on board rang hollow in my head. They would look at our boat and judge it to be huge (and us to be rich). Anyway, after I got over my own pride of not being appreciated for what we *did* bring, and I realized that she wasn’t trying to make us feel bad but was just genuinely disappointed, I started to feel really, really bad. We probably could have squeezed another 15 lb bag of rice here or there, but when I asked Tim about it, if he thought we should have brought more, his response was priceless. “Well, it is what it is now.”
We didn’t waste any time getting in touch with friends back in Majuro to let them know how much Ailuk needed more supplies. With Pumpkin on the Yokwe net, I have no idea why this wasn’t previously communicated and disseminated among the cruisers more thoroughly.
We had our own supply of rice and flour on board, and I couldn’t resist it when kids from the village would come to the boat to see the boys and they would bring papaya or kasava to trade. I would ask them what they wanted to trade for and they would always say rice or flour. I would give them a sandwich bag full and their faces would light up and they’d smile from ear to ear. Eventually, word got around, and we were getting more requests than we could honor given it would still be weeks before we could reprovision for ourselves.
In the end, as our stay in Ailuk was drawing to a close, we decided to go directly from Ailuk to Kwajalein instead of stopping at more of the outer islands on the way. In Kwajalein it would be possible to provision, so that meant we could leave most of our dry good supplies with the people on Ailuk. We cleaned out our supply of flour, rice, ramen noodles, pasta, breakfast crackers, etc. Our dilemma is that we didn’t know what to do with it all. If we gave it to the acting mayor (the mayor herself was still in Majuro) then the supplies would go into the stores that are sold and any money earned from that would simply line the pockets of the people on the island who already have the most. We also questioned whether we should give it to Anious and Emily to distribute, because, let’s face it, churches can be as political as anything and we worried it wouldn’t necessarily go to the people who needed it most, especially considering that there were other churches on the island too. As it turns out, Tim had become friends with a young man with a family who spends most of his days harvesting copra (more about that later), and we decided to leave our supplies with him, and in return he brought us a bag full of handicrafts made by some of the women in the village, including his wife. If you are questioning why we would trade with them instead of just giving them the food, given that clearly they needed it and clearly we could spare it, then please read my cruising runner blog post that helps explain my thoughts about this.
Gresham Family Exodus 