The first day, Friday, the games were held at the MHS gymnasium. What a pleasant day! Everything was clean, cool, bleachers pulled so everyone would be comfortable, restrooms clean and fully stocked. If supplies were used up, items were replaced immediately and cheerfully.
The next day, the games were held at the Ada Gym because the MHS gym had already been booked for another event. It was like going from one well-ordered world into one that needed a lot of help! No air-conditioning or fans, some bleachers pulled out, some not — no continuity whatsoever — generally dirty appearance, but the real kicker were the restroom facilities!
Usually when I am at Ada Gym, I will get into my car and drive to a store or restaurant to use the facilities, but this day, I decided to just grin and bear it. My grandson said I should not use the restrooms that are open to the public because they were “NASTY.” So since the Japanese girls were playing at that time, I made my way to the women’s locker room. It didn’t look too bad so I proceeded into the restroom area (two stalls). The first one was unflushable and was filled almost to the top of the bowl with water and toilet tissue.
I proceeded into the second stall and what to my wondering eyes should appear — my apologies to “The Night Before Christmas” — but a filthy black toilet bowl with a little clean water in it; however, there was plenty of toilet tissue, so I made use of that toilet. Then when I started to flush, I noticed that the lid of the toilet tank was partially off the tank. Uh-Oh, I thought, this doesn’t look good — and sure enough the toilet wouldn’t flush! I tried a number of times to no avail, so I finally went back out to the bleachers. I didn’t see anyone around who was checking on things and to whom I could report the horrible conditions. Most people I spoke to about this just shrugged and said “that is the way it always is.” That attitude is unacceptable.
I was ashamed and every resident of the CNMI should be ashamed that Japanese visitors to our island had to be subjected to conditions such as these. These were young people who must have been as mortified at these conditions, as I was. AND we want them to go back home and try to convince their family and friends that Saipan is a wonderful place to vacation!
There is absolutely no excuse for filth or unworkable toilets. People are being paid a salary to take care of this facility. If MHS can have clean, workable facilities, so can Ada Gym and everywhere there are public restrooms on Saipan. It doesn’t cost a lot of money — just good, old-fashioned elbow grease, a plunger, a broom, mop and a few cleaning supplies to handle most of these situations — and most importantly, a human body available to handle things like all of the above. I know the leagues/teams pay a user fee. Where is the money going? If the people who should be taking care of this cleanup, why not use the fees to hire a cleaning service to do the dirty work! And while I am at it, does anyone ever wash the mop that is used to wipe up spills and/or wet spots on the playing floor — it is disgustingly dirty.
Something needs to be done at once to correct and prevent further occurrences such these. The outside toilets are even worse. I can only hope that the next time I have reason to go to Ada Gym that things will have improved.
SYLVIA WAGNER HAYWOOD
I Denni, Saipan
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