180 Bags of Cement
I buy the cement before I knew whether it was going to make it on the boat, only because I am afraid that it would run out and there would be no cement in Chuuk while the boat is waiting for me on the dock. This leads to me telling the store that I needed it delivered one day, then changing it three or four times.
The day the boat is confirmed, I go to the store and told them I will be back the next morning to have the cement delivered. Thursday morning I arrive at the store and tell them to prepare my things. I wait for 20 minutes and they tell me that the truck is broken down. It won’t be ready until 11. No problem, I’ll do my other shopping first. We manage to get 50 bags of cement (out of 180) on the boat on Thursday. Fifty more are left in the rain, but covered, because the boat can’t open it’s storage in the rain.
The boat is supposed to leave at 2 on Friday. I get to the store at 8:30 to tell them to deliver the cement at 9:30. The woman tells me it’s already 9:30. I check my watch; it’s 8:30. She checks a clock. I’m right.
I walk to the dock and wait. At 9:30 no one’s there. It’s cool, Chuukese time. After 10 there’s no cement and no sign of the men who will load it. It’s running close to our 2 p.m. departure and 130 bags are left to load. Luckily people from Kuttu are loading things, and I tell the flatbed driver to pick up some young men to load the cement. I walk to the store and they’ve done nothing. Apparently the truck is having problems again. So she goes and talks to them and they say they’ll get it ready.
I walk to the loading area and it’s clear the truck’s not ready yet. First we need engine oil. It takes a few minutes to retrieve, and the mechanic returns with a five-gallon tank. He spills a pint before he finds the hole, and empties what looks like a gallon of oil into the engine. Meanwhile, the driver from the day before talks about his problems with the truck the day before. I realize that he never turned it off during his deliveries, because he was afraid it wouldn’t restart. Every time he parked it, he also looked for something to block the wheels to make sure it wouldn’t roll away. All the padding is torn away inside the cab, and the entire steering column is visible under the wheel. The windshield is spiderwebbed, and a couple promotional stickers for mosquito coils cover the middle, where the cracks are especially bad.
This morning, they’re trying to charge the battery. The mechanic fiddles around with it for a big, then climbs underneath. He starts poking around, and the engine starts to sputter. He pokes his tool around a couple more times underneath, touching different spots. He hits the magic place, and the engine turns over and starts. We’re in business.
We get to the dock and the young men aren’t there yet. Luckily another truck is unloading. Just as it’s our turn, the flatbed pulls up and everyone jumps out. We unload 40 more bags and it’s back to the store. There’s a short comedy number where my driver has problems with the forklift. He knocks over two stacks of cement. The last stack gets on, and we literally throw the 10 extra bags off.
I still have to grab the invoice, and I tell the driver. “It’s OK, I forgot water.” I go to get the invoice, thinking he’s thirsty. I come back to see him filling the radiator directly from a hose. There’s no cap, so when it’s full and he walks away, boiling water starts bubbling out.
We load the last bag of cement at 12. Two hours left. I run back to the office and rush through the last minute things I always have to do. I write checks for money I owe, send some mail, leave notes for things others need to do.
I knew all along that the boat wouldn’t be leaving on Friday, but I had to be ready in case it did. So when I got to the dock all ready to leave and my principal was going the other direction, I wasn’t surprised. At least I would have a free night to relax.
That night my digestive system did some interesting tricks, and it became clear I had some intestinal parasites. I called the Peace Corps doctor the next day, and she told me I couldn’t take the boat.
