私達は火を開始しなかった (We Didn't Start the Fire)
I'll get back to stroking egos in a bit (ya hear that, Lisa?). In the meantime I figured I'd write about my second go around teaching at the fire stations.
Once again I find myself at both Camp Foster and Camp Hansen teaching English to the fire fighters there. I'm still not quite sure why an American base would have Japanese fire fighters and American EMTs, office staff, and whatever other kind of personnel you have in a fire station. If you're going to do that, then why not just go all the way with it and get some American fire fighters imported from bumfuck Idaho? On second thought...maybe not, cuz I'd be out of a job. So keep on doing what you're doing American military.
Since this is my second go around at the dog and pony show, I suppose one could say it's going even better than it did last summer. And I've learned quite a few things about fire fighters on base since then. For one thing they already know a buttload of English. They just happen to know all the horrible bad words you're technically not supposed to say on a regular basis. The American's that surround them are clearly some foul mouthed little bastards. How else can you explain why some people have a bit of trouble putting grammatically correct sentences together, but know all about fist fucking? Or muff diving? Then there are the people who don't know what those things are and want an explanation. Someone (one of the older dudes as a matter o' fact) actually gave a demonstration on a box of tissues. I think everyone got the point then.
Second thing I've noticed is that, despite being fire fighters, they don't actually seem to ever fight any fires. Not sure how it is in the regular Okinawan world, but on base there are apparently no fires ever. Yet somehow they still remain busy, typically getting summoned away to assist people that have collapsed in the streets, can't breath, or are suffering from some other random ailment. When they're not doing that they're watching TV, telling lewd jokes, eating, napping, or training. It makes the 24hr shifts they work every other day seem not so bad when you think about how much down time there is. Plus it gives them a chance to kick it with the fellas and be away from their families, which is like every Japanese dude's dream.
Now, for my own amusement, I'm going to imagine a battle royal in which fire fighters and police officers fight each other. Kind of like that scene from Anchorman with all the news crews converging on each other with medieval weapons and Molotovs.