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This oral history is from an interview conducted by the Oral History cluster of the Landscapes of Injustice project.
Yeah, there's a position open, fill in a FAO form. So I filled in a form and sent it off and I got hired so. I left Juno in December of '66 and I flew down to Barbados, which was the headquarters of the Caribbean regional project and I was down there in January. So it was quite a shock from Alaska to Barbados. I was there for two and half years worth the regional Caribbean project. But I didn't liked Barbados that much so I asked for a transfer and I got transferred to the Central American Regional project. And my work was on survey boats, trying to find new fishery resources. So we were long lining, we were pole and line fishing or trolling off of the Guyana, Serena, what else was there....? I guess, Guiana and Serena, I guess were three, two countries. And then long lining, what else?.....But anyway, we more or less, I was able to visit most of the countries in the Caribbean, which was kind of nice. But I didn't like that so much, so I went to Central America and that was the regional project also, so Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica. And I was there for about a year, I guess. But I wasn't feeling that good so when I left Barbados I paid my way back home, went to see a doctor 'cause I wasn't feeling that great. And he, the doctor I saw, he said I had diabetes and he started to giving me pills. I didn't get the second opinion and flew down to Costa Rica, still wasn't feeling that great. And I think the problem was that I was drinking too much in Barbados, I think.
I am not feeling that good, so maybe I should go, quit, go back home.So I resigned and then I got a letter from FAO saying
Boy you should go see another doctor. I don't think you have diabetes.Because every time I go to, or I have to send a medical to Rome, headquarters. So they said,
You go see another doctor,see another doctor, he said,
Oh, nothing wrong with you. So I stopped taking the pills. By that time, I had resigned and the replacement had come. So the chief scientist said
You can stay, if you want. There is all kind of work. But I said,
Oh no better go. But then by that time, Ben Jones from Alaska had applied for FAO and he got a posting in Brazil. And I had always wanted to go to Brazil, so I wrote to him and he said,
Oh yeah, come on down.So I came back here and I just waited for a year before the posting from Brazil came. And but during that time I didn't look for any job or anything, but I did go and I took with my camera, I took all the pictures of the buildings on Steveston Highway. At that time, most of the buildings were more or less like it was in the 1930's. All the buildings were still standing, lot of them weren't being used, but all the buildings were still there, so those photos are in the National Museum, that collection. Anyways, I was here for a year and I did that. Then I went to Brazil and I was there for five years. It was my best assignment. Really? Yeah, I was in Copa Cabana for two years and then they shipped me down to Rio Grande, which is way near Uruguayan boarder, which is kind of..... I didn't like that too much but.....anyway. So after that, I went to ...after that project was finished, I went to the Middle East, and that was the regional project also – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Baleen, and Catar, Iran, and United Arab Emerate's, all that in two and half years, doing survey work, too. Trolling, mostly trolling there...but I didn't like that too much. Then from there when that project terminated, I went to Thailand and I was based in Phuket, which was kind of nice 'cause it was still undeveloped, relatively undeveloped at that time. This was '69? '69 – '71, I guess. I was there for two and half years. And there we were doing a survey work, too. This was pole line fishing, where you throw out baits and catch the tuna, but this was the Long Tail Tuna, which was a coastal species. Odd looking tuna, quite long. But that was terminated after two and half years so I went to Philippines and there it was more a desk job. It was a regional – no it was just a Philippines project, but it was just mainly statistics, gathering statistics. And from there, I was there for what... year and a half, I guess. And I got transferred to Sri Lanka, which was the Indo Pacific Tuna Project, which is a regional project, but they were just gathering statistics on tuna. So I got to visit most of the countries in there. But I was there only for about a year, I guess.
I don't care if you kid fish,but he says,
if something happens to you,it would come down on him. So he tolled us back, that was 1950. '51 we did the same thing, we got caught again.
What do you think of the war?He says,
Oh,he says,
in the end it was probably good.He says,
Look, you can go anywhere you want, you can do anything you want.So if he said that, I had no complains about the war. He said that! He lost everything. He had to build two houses, he had to build a new boat. You know his old boat was still fishing when he returned. God... It's so awful. So if he said that, what can I say? I see. And do you have memories of the family that you worked for on the sugar beet farm? Yeah apparently they came and visited. Well there were two brothers around the farm and the oldest one, apparently he retuned to visit. But I wasn't here, I was overseas so I didn't meet them. Yeah, they treated us well, I guess. Had an amicable relationship. Yeah, yeah. I think my mother learned a lot about western cooking from the wife of the second brother. Oh okay. Yeah, I think that's where she learned how to cook lemon pies and apple pies. And how to can because in Alberta you canned everything, even beef. Even beef? Oh yeah. Really? Oh it's good. You can can beef!? Oh yeah, it's just really good, oh really tasty. So how does that work? Do you shave it and then can it? Or do you cut it up into pieces? Well she would cut it, I remember it was in chunks I guess, cut the piece of meat to fit the jar, but it was really good. Was it really? Oh yeah. Oh interesting, I'd like to try that. Yeah things were different then. So beforehand then your mother cooked mostly Japanese food when you were younger? Yeah. Yeah, I don't remember, but I think – well even now I eat mostly Japanese food. Do you? I only – well I have porridge in the morning and sandwich in the afternoon, but at evening it's generally rice. I just can't do without rice. I know that feeling.
That would be just terrible!
Ah it's probably a good thing,so I didn't pay much attention. Of course I accepted it, but
Yeah.So I went up to Cottage Lake in Kodiak Island, that's where they have the Kodiak Bear. I was there for...I worked in there in summertime. It had bears there, I think I saw twelve one day. But that's when I decided I'd go, better I go to see because I couldn't run fast enough from the bears