Skip to main content

Getting Started

We are still trying to get all of us well.  And we are still trying to adjust to our current time zone.  Each day is a little better.  I was able to stay awake until 8:30 last night, and sleep until 4:30 am.  But this morning I'm sneezing through tissues faster then everyone in the house.

My husband went off to his first day of working on projects up at AWR.  He wasn't feeling perfect, but he must have been good enough, because he hasn't come home yet.  He is really excited to be helping AWR again, and asks that you pray that God will guide the projects and make them turn out in the best way possible.

This morning my kids started homeschool again, which is good, because we need some things to do in the apartment every day.  I was able to get an order of gluten-free foods shipped here, so we get to eat more things then rice, though we do love rice.  Yesterday we ate potato squash curry, with Jasmine Rice.  Today for lunch we had brown rice pasta spirals with tomato sauce and cashew cheese sauce.  William is begging for seaweed and rice, and another meal of Pad Thai.  Araya is wanting me to gather the remaining ingredients for spring rolls.

In the afternoon William ready to get outside.  He had finished his school work, but Araya still had a ways to go.  I needed to get some fresh air and sunlight.  So we grabbed our things went down to the beach, this time not the one straight out from our apartment, but rather one just north of here that is part of the Guam War Memorial National Park - Agat Beach and Ga'an Point. 

 
 Our resting spot was not so restful on July 21, 1944.  US forces lost around 1,000 people.  Japan lost around 10,000.  The island was not secure until August 10.

She did finish her English assignment on all varieties of verbs, in spite of distractions.
William is the only one with a full set of snorkling gear his size.
It didn't take him long to figure out what to do with it.
There wasn't much to see in the murky water, but he still thought it was fun.  Once we have gear for the whole family, we will go find a better place to snorkel. 

 While keeping an eye on both kids, I wandered a bit with my camera.  A white bird landed on the rocks.  Now that's interesting. There aren't many birds left on Guam, due to an infestation of the nocturnal Brown Tree Snakes, who like to eat bird eggs.  I did a little searching online and discovered it is a Pacific reef-heron (Egretta sacra).  You can learn more about this bird and other birds on Guam here. 



This morning when William and I were out walking just at dawn we saw a Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus), native of Taiwan.  It has a distinctive forked tail.  We had a camera with us, but it is hard to photograph birds on a wire.  All we got was a silhouette.   But you can see photos here.





Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 7, 2013 at 8:56 PM

    Thanks for sharing. Glad things are going ok.

    My mom's first husband, Floyd Smith, died during the liberation of Guam. He was in the US military forces when they came to take the island back at the end of WWII. They'd been married less than a year when he was sent to Hawaii and then on to Guam. It's likely he was killed on Agat beach.

    I'm guessing William will LOVE snorkeling. It's a nature lover's dream!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ~marci~January 8, 2013 at 12:49 AM

    So glad to know the birds are beginning to return to Guam. That was a project that was in progress when I was there, but it takes a long time to repopulate a region.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TamiJanuary 8, 2013 at 3:40 AM

    That's neat that you got to see a bird there. Very nice spot for Araya to finish her school work even though it could be difficult to stay focused, very pleasant. Great motivation for William to finish school work with snorkeling as the reward. You are making good memories.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 11, 2013 at 5:34 AM

    I'm loving how you just learn about everything you're seeing! Thanks for taking us along on the journey. Makes you feel a little closer. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pohnpei, Part 3: Liduhduhniap Falls

(Note to those who weren't with me on Pohnpei in 1988.  You are welcome to listen in, but I am writing mainly for my fellow teachers, myself, and my family.  There will be some things you won't understand.  Just skim those parts, if you wish.) We stayed in this lovely building.  I think it used to be painted blue.  The lower floor used to be Mr. Quail's house.  The lower left apartment was Mr. Keith's.  Remember him?  The maintenance man?  We stayed in his apartment.  The building is still in good condition, but the cupboards and cabinets need help.  The particle board has swelled after all these years, and the drawers no longer work.  The building behind "Mr. Quail's place" is a cafeteria on the ground floor with  girls housing up above.  The boys are in the building that the nice Philippino lady, I think her name was Ramie, who taught typing lived in.  And there are a couple guys in the apartment in th...
9 comments
Read more

Guam 2020: Post 2 - First Full Day on Guam

I'm doing pretty good, jet lag wise for the first day. I was able to sleep until 4:45 this morning. On past visits to the island, I woke up at 2 or 3 AM and was unable to go back to sleep. I've been busy all day. We took a hike with our friends, Roger and Amy Krum, and their children Nathan and Alyssa. There is a mural at the parking area that wasn't there before.  It depicts the traditional sailing boat of the Chamorro people, and the ancient latte stones. We went south on the highway, just a little ways to the viewpoint for Cetti Bay.  Then across the road is the trail to Mt. Lam Lam, the highest point on the island.  It was such a beautiful afternoon with temperatures in the low to mid 80's and a nice breeze off the sea.  The trail goes up through grassland savannas with trees and flowers along the way.  We saw the Bamboo orchid that grows in the grass. There were some little blue pea family flowers and some yellow pea family flo...
3 comments
Read more

Mother's Day - Meal and Music

To start the morning out, I was banished from our home.  The kids were working on a surprise, and they didn't even allow me to be in my bedroom to wait.  So, I went to garage sales (there aren't many on a Mother's Day morning, but I scouted them out anyway), I bought gas, and went back home.  They said they weren't done yet, only 10 more minutes though.  So Rob took me on a 20 minute walk.  They weren't done when we got back, so they sent me to my room this time (am I in "time-out"), and around 30 minutes later I was finally called for breakfast.   Ok, it was  worth it, waiting for breakfast until 10:30 A.M. this morning.  My kids made a gourmet meal for me, nicer then the finest restaurant around, and there is not chance of me getting "glutened' here. My plate looked like a serving platter itself.  They made Baked Hashbrowns in a heart shaped pan, and then filled the center with my favorite recipe of scrambled tofu, garnished wit...
7 comments
Read more