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food and an excellent harbour:for ships when
trading and leading exports.
An atoll
generally consists of many islands that can be used for various purposes.
Finally,
.
medical patients are afforded a safe evacuation in the sheltered waters of the
iagoon.
- Killi is a single island surrounded by treacherous waves.
This accounts for
very poor fishing and hazardous treding situations much of the year.
The canoes of
these people are in a constant battle with the ocean, and occasionally the ocean
wins. (A few wonths ago when the sea.vas "calm", one Lisherwan tried his luck « the
outcome was a broken canoe end no fish.
attempts
During the months Lecember to March no one
canoe fishing; one look at the oceau and the reason is clear.
During these
months the people must buy their food from the ficld trip ships.
Tne frequency and efficiency of the field trip ships secns incredibly bud to
those of us who have come from a country with ae highly organized transportation
systen,
However, I will discuss them here only as they relate to the Killi
situation.
Generally, these ships come every 3 or h wonths.
The last ship stayed
16 hours, but because of the waves it was unable to do any trading.
It departed with
the promise that it would return when finished with its other stops.
return, but it was now very poorly supplied.
vores
supplies that were needed.
The ship did
‘The people could not buy all the
One rajor item, kerosene was unavailable; and this was
the second ship which had come to Killi‘with no kerosene.
been able to buy kerosene for more than 6 months.
Thus these people had not
However, most important the food
supplies were inadequate; thus, during the most difficuit months for fishing, the
supply of canned food was inadequate.
A lagoon is surrounded by many islands; Bikini is en atoll surrounding a Iagoon.
The Marshallese generelly use their land area on an atoll in this way; one or more
of the largex islands are used for living area, others are used to provide coconuts,
as sanctuaries for birds and turtles, and as natural "pens" for livestock, mainly
pigs and chickens.
Killi as a single island offers no such resources.
Turtles
generally avoid inhadited islands, and the Killi men only .rarely are able to catch
any.
On Killi, the pigs live right in the village with the people, as do the
chickens.
I think you can easily see the superiority of an atoll to sn island as
whe
Bag tg
suited to the }Marshallese way of life.
What advantages does Killi provide?
It is
described as a "lush" southern island, and there is no question that Killi gets a
good deal more rain than Bikini does.
The major Xi1)4 handicraft product 46 a straw
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