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Guam Sabbatical - Day One

I have a surprise for my blog readers.  Normally I post from the Pacific Northwest highlighting all four seasons of the year.  Well, I've made a temporary move with my husband and family to a tropical location.  Guam is our new home for a while.

Our plane arrived right on time last night just after dark, but it felt like about 1:30 in the morning.  There was a large group that met us at the airport with a Plumaria lei for each one of us.  Our little apartment smells like the sweetest perfume, reminding me of my year on Pohnpei. Araya had a fever and a cough by the time we arrived.  I think the push to get here is catching up with her, and now I have the cough and William has the fever.  This morning I slept as long as I could, but finally got up after just laying there a while.  I heard a rooster crow, so I figured it must be getting closer to time to get up.  No, it was 2 AM!   (7 AM, yesterday Pacific Standard Time.)  Oh, well, I was awake.  Food sounded very appealing, so I made myself a breakfast with the food they had left in the refrigerator.  My worship time was nice and quiet.  The internet required a password, yet unknown.  So I started unpacking suitcases.  William got up at 3:39 AM, Araya at 4:50 AM, and Rob sometime after that.  It wasn't long before there was nothing else to do, besides wait for the sun to rise.  As soon as we could see, we went across the street, around the cemetery, and straight to the beach.  We were going to go straight through the cemetery,  but a pack of dogs felt threatened by our intrusion, so we diverted to the left, which actually was a good move, as we found a little dirt road to walk on, which got us out of the course, wet "grass".

We walked by a breadfruit tree, loaded with young bread fruit and I remembered the different forms of breadfruit I ate on Pohnpei.  Breadfruit "potato salad", and fried breadfruit chips were my favorites.  I hope some ripens before we leave so my kids get the same experience.  The view at the beach was lovely, if you didn't look at all the garbage above the high tide line.  My kids and I decided we will form our own  trash patrol, and improve "our" beach. 

We got a tour of Adventist World radio this morning.  It's been 21 years since I was there last.  That was when a friend and I took a break from our work in Thailand and flew to Guam to visit friends. On that trip I also met up with the man who would later become my husband, and decided he was kind and generous and worth writing letters to.  In the 1988-1989 I was on Guam twice, once for Christmas break, and later in the spring to get my troublesome wisdom teeth removed.  During that trip a typhoon blasted the island, and all flights were grounded, so I didn't have to go back to Pohnpei for a whole week.  No, I did no plan that, but I certainly enjoyed the break which refreshed me enough to end the school year on Pohnpei with more energy. 

Things have changed on island since those days.  I think there was one, brand new Taco Bell then.  I remember how eager my friends and I were to go there and eat a bean burrito with some mild sauce.  Now there are Taco Bells all over the island, and a Home Depot, Ross, K-Mart, and Cost U Less Grocery.  The prices are higher then the states, but not as high as I thought they would be.  And the little grocery just down the road, Kimchee by name, is an excellent grocery.  We found the ingredients for Phad Thai, Curry, and Pak Boong, all for reasonable prices, so we know that we will be eating well.  Not far from there is a little produce stand run by a church lady.  We bought eating bananas that will be ripe in a couple days, a big hand of cooking bananas, and a bag of those nice tangerines with the green skin that I used to eat in Bangkok.  She threw in some green mangos as a bonus, but I  haven't purchased any sugar, salt or chili powder to mix and dip them in.  I think it was Yin back in Bankok that convinced me that that strange mixture was worth trying.

The little Toyota Corolla they gave us to drive fits me just fine, with a pillow add for extra elevation.  I enjoyed taking it on a drive into town to see what the island looks like in the daylight, and to find a few needed items in the stores.  Unfortunately, before we got back home, William had a fever, and I was coughing.  William went straight to bed without complaint, in the middle of the afternoon, and hasn't woke up yet.  I am hoping I can put off falling to sleep at least a little bit longer, so that tomorrow I'll be a bit closer to adjusting to Guam time.

And just so you know, we are 18 hours ahead of you in Pacific Standard Time.  That means that right now the sun is about to go down on Friday night.  I am looking forward to Sabbath rest and peace.

(Photos to follow - once they are on my computer.)

Comments

  1. Oh, I'm happy you are there and enjoying the warm sunshine while your usual home is entering its grey stage. What a beautiful place for color therapy! Thank you for telling us what it's like. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Enjoyed reading your experience and descriptions! So glad some things you were concerned about are better than you thought. (:

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad it's better than you thought. Enjoyed your descriptions.

    ReplyDelete

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