We had just finished a major event, and the boat was loaded with all ICEJ and Simul staff. I don’t know if I missed the boat (which was a fire nation boat from Avatar), or if I chose to swim along behind, but it was a long, exhausting swim across the ocean to the island of Nauru, where we were scheduled to have lunch with the king.
I arrived a bit after the boat, and was the last in line for lunch. By the time I made it up to the table, there wasn’t much food left. Ray was in charge of food distribution, and he stopped me when I got to the table. I was starving from my long swim, and impatient to eat, but it soon became apparent to me that he wasn’t going to let me eat until he was sure that everyone else had had their fill. I was angry to be treated that way, but there was enough for me in the end.
We sat for lunch at a large square of tables on a balcony overlooking the sea. The king was a skinny red headed young man with glasses. While we ate, he had us go around the room introducing ourselves and telling him where we were from. He pretended to know something about our home states and nations, but it was obvious that he’d never been off the island.