There is an entire culture of boat people, or droges, who live on boats and are permanently anchored in the bay. These people, primarily off the grid, exist in a water world of merriment and wonder. The droges seem to have life figured out pretty well, working jobs on land in order to keep the boat floating, and bathing in the sun or fishing off the reef otherwise. Many of them don't have a social security number or bank account, they don't pay rent (or taxes), and they seldom talk about politics or the housing market. Living on peanuts, and reusing the shells.
Working on the dock one day our crew met Chris, a mid-30's bay dude who lives on his boat with his wife, 2 daughters, and a dog. Chris is the type who doesn't know how to stop smiling, and I suppose with that living situation a sense of humor is a necessity.
As we worked, Chris loaded his family into his dingy, leaving his boat, for a mid-afternoon family adventure. Everyone was smiling, and the whole family looked happy to be on board. Hours later, the crew and Yaku were cleaning the dock when the best droge moment occurred.
You could hear it before you could see it, a high pitched screeching wail that can only be created by a 4 year old. Ella, Chris' toddler was obviously suffering some deep injustice. As the dingy rounded the corner, the first visible sign of distress was Ella's naked bottom sticking out of the front of the boat. As she squirmed away from her mother, she threw her arms up in a final display of agony before leaping over the side of the moving watercraft. Her mother, as mothers do, leapt to her rescue, barely grabbing Ella in time to save her from quieting down.
"Get her out of the F**king boat!" Chris was laughing harder than us.
As the craft beached, Ella rolled off the side of the boat into the water, her screech turning into a gurgle momentarily before resurfacing and resuming. This time, louder. Her mother climbed out of the dingy to calm her naked suffering child, and Chris came over to talk to us.
"Hey Yaku, do you have a lighter for this dooby?"
Droges.
EDIT: I made a mistake. They are Derros, for derelict boat owners, which makes more sense. A Droge is something that you drag behind a boat in very stormy seas so you can slow down and stabilize the steering.
2 comments:
Topher-It sounds as though you & Alex are realizing that there are alot of other people out there. It is ashamed that what the world does not know is that all of them are why the world spins. It is a strange interdependence out there that certain people over look. Just as an ecosystem of animal & plant life, what everyone does can effect the whole picture! Imagine what the world would be like if everyone could see it through the smiling face of a four year old with innocence. Maybe everyone needs to jump in the water and wake up. Afterall, we are really all in the same boat!
Nice entry. The ones where you simply describe poignant events are the most revealing... for being an engineer, you seem to have an elegant way with words. The succinct and illustrative story is not something everyone can muster.
Anyway, I've thought about the droges more than other things since you wrote about it. Thanks! It's nice to be exposed to different perspectives.
And your above poem: I mean, it's no Whitman, but it certainly isn't as cheesy as you might think.
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