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Guam 2020 - Post 20 Kids at Church, Shark's Cove and a Rainy Day

This Sabbath we went to church and found more kids than usual in attendance, and less adults in attendance. I think there was something happening in another place on the island that people were attending. This meant that there were fewer adults to sit with the kids. At the beginning of church someone invited the kids to go find an adult to sit with. The kids didn't move. So Rob and I moved forward one pew and sat in the middle of a bunch of kids. Soon kids were swarming around Rob and trying on his reading glasses. A little girl moved right up beside me and started leaning on me. Kids were moving from place to place, changing seats with other kids, changing pews. There was a general buzz in the room. But when it was time to sing, they sang clear and strong, all focused on the music.




During the sermon I took out my journal and found a photo of the view of the sea from near AWR and started drawing it. Several kids became magnetized on my page, trying to see what I was doing. Several wanted to hold my phone for me. I decided to hold it myself so it didn't move to a different pew with someone. During the sermon every kid in the pew in front of me fell asleep on the bench or the floor. A tiny little boy fell asleep in the arms of a guest on the other side of the isle. During the final song the busiest boy zoomed to near the piano and grabbed a microphone thinking he would sing for everyone, but the microphone was off. A lady went zooming up and intercepted the microphone. And then when all was calm again, he zoomed up to the electric keyboard and faked that he was playing. Good thing it was almost time for lunch.



After Potluck we joined Ben and Cheryl Stern, who were our friends in the 1990's back in College Place, for a walk on the beach. A young male doctor, Tim, and a Physician Assistant, Matt, joined us. They took us to Sharks Cove. Back in December 1991, that is where Rob and I went snorkeling with Julie Winkle, and Greg Vence. My rental car was broken into and my bag was stolen. It was at that point I decided that Rob was a nice guy and worth getting to know better. It looks really different now. But we were assured it is the same place. We knew it as Shark's Pit back then.


You walk along on the beach, but in some places you have to walk over, through or around limestone rock formations. The tide was high, so there was a lot of water walking, but none of it was that deep. We came prepared and wore water shoes or dive booties. The weather was pretty comfortable. Not too hot or humid. When we got to the end of the walk, it started to rain hard, but there was some sheltered rock area where we could keep mostly dry. I liked it there because it was almost like a private beach. Only a few will do what it takes to walk back there. The noisy crowds were left behind at the parking lot.








n Sunday and we planned to spend time driving around the southern half of the island in the afternoon. It had poured rain once about every hour this afternoon. We thought the rain had slowed down and set out on our journey. When we got to the first viewpoint, it started pouring rain right after we got out of the car. Repeat at the second viewpoint. The third viewpoint was pleasant, with no rain. There was a memorial to the Guam residents who fought in the Vietnam war, many Plumeria blossoms in bloom, and a view of the southern mountains on the island.




Next we stopped at Umatic and the bay where Magellan was said to have first landed on Guam. We to a little walk next to the bay and then headed back to the car. We would have stayed there and walked around more, but a man had crazy music blaring out of a loud speaker next to his pickup truck, totally ruining the atmosphere.





So we drove through the town, and up to the Spanish Fort. We got out of the car and it started pouring rain. So we went back to the car and thought we would sit and wait for the rain to stop, but it rained harder and harder. We changed parking spots to where we could see the view a little better, and the rain continued. We finally concluded that it was not a good day to be a tourist, and drove home. We will come back another day.






























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