The Island

I’m taking ideas as to which Dharma Initiative station you think I’m currently living in. I’m thinking its “The Ant”, but I’m open to suggestions.

It’s possible that I’ve been watching too much Lost lately, but I don’t think so. I think I really live on the island. While I’m not seeing odd octagon shapes on all of my food yet, there is a wealth of compelling evidence. For example, my house is full of signs of a civilization that once was - one that I know almost nothing about. We have the water tower and pipes that suggest that at one time this house enjoyed running water. There is even what appears to be a solar water heater. That’s right...there was running hot water. (If only I had learned more about plumbing repairs when I was at Partsmaster.)

As well, in my room there is a door that leads to another small room that at one time was a dark room. All the way out here in the bush, someone created a dark room. All the old chemical powders to mix fixer and such are still there, along with photo paper and the enlarger and other equipment needed for developing and printing photos. While I have not found a projector with film of a Japanese man explaining my duties, I do find hundreds of old black and white photos of Japanese men and women standing in what is now my house. I’m still looking for the projector though…

We are always fighting off wild creatures such as snakes (well...Alice fought it off) and ants (which I think might be the others...they are always accompanied by columns of smoke….from the fires we set to get rid of them….). I haven’t seen a polar bear yet, but I bet its out there.

Another and possibly most compelling reason I’m almost certain I live on the island is that there is a button I have to push every day. Every night as the sun goes down and our tiny battery is drained of it’s solar energy, a loud and shrill alarm goes off warning that we MUST hit the button (on the inverter). I’m honestly not sure what would happen if we didn’t push the button, but I’ve been warned that its something like the end of the world.

It’s possible that most of this is explained by the fact that my house at one time belonged to the Japanese NGO, Association to Aid Refugees (AAR). This was in the heyday of Meheba when this 750 sq. km. camp was home to 120,000 refugees and was teaming with NGO’s, foreign aid money, and infrastructure. But I don’t think that’s really it. I mean, it doesn’t explain the button.

I’m waiting for the polar bear….