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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.





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  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!

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  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

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