As mentioned in the last post, there are most definitely things here in Guam that you would not find in most parts of the US. The following is a list of observations which is by no means exhaustive, yet might give you an idea of things which we are learning to accept as part of our ever-evolving definition of "normal".
1) Wild dogs live here in abundance. When I say "wild", what I mean to say is that they roam the island freely just as the deer roamed freely about our house when we lived in Pacific Grove. I have not encountered any of these dogs in close proximity to determine just how wild they are, nor do I have any desire to do so. I am content to observe the mangy creatures from the safety of the car and to note the decided difference between the feelings evoked by seeing either a graceful deer or a filthy dog. You can feel free to assume from the previous statement what my thoughts on this might be.
2) As unappealing as these dogs can be, they are nothing to the wild pigs which roam about. If the word 'pig' conjures up the image of a cute little Charolette's Web or Babe-style pig, then 'pigs' do not roam about here. These animals are hairy, scruffy, and ugly. There is a section of land here on Andersen where hunting is permissable and these pigs are the most common trophy.
3) It is just as common if not more so, to see pick-ups with a crowd of people hitching a ride in the bed. More often than not, these trucks appear to be a "family vehicle" with half of the family in the cab, and the other half in the back.
4) Folks here are resourceful and use the back of their pick-ups for more than jeopardizing lives. While enjoying a family drive after church last Sunday, I observed 3 trucks which had protest signs mounted in the back pleading for the use of shark fins in soup to be put to an end.
5) The first time I saw a tire stand, I chuckled to myself and wondered about the poor individual who thought a profit might actually be made by throwing a pile of tires on the side of the road, standing under a tarp, and waiting for someone to drive up in need of a tire whose origin was a mystery. After driving around for a few more days, I realized that either the same individual had set up multiple stands or he was only one of many who thought that this was just a great idea. Needless to say, this is not uncommon and people do seem to make use of these stands. My fifth observation might be the very thing which keeps these guys in business...
6) Potholes. I don't know how there could ever be a shortage of jobs on this island as long as there are people who are willing to take a job with the road department. The potholes here can be out of control in some areas. We drove down to a beach the other weekend at the very northernmost tip of the island (incidentally, the same tip which Magellan sailed by during his famous voyage) and the road was so bad that there was a dirt road which had been created over time paralleling the paved road in order to circumvent the nastiness of the potholes. I am not sure what makes the roads so prone to this problem, though PJ told me at one point that the asphalt here contains coral. I'm not even sure why this would contibute to the problem, but for as little as I know about the composition of roads, the fact that these contain coral might as well be a factor in this situation.
7) While annoying at times, the roads can be quite useful should you want to follow the Tsunami Evacuation Route signs that are posted about the island. These blue signs are smaller with white writing and, in my estimation, seem altogether too inconspicuous for the impending disaster which they are supposed to direct you away from.
8) Boonie Bees. Upon arriving, we have been warned by many about the aggressive bees which inhabit this island. These bees do not lose their stingers as "normal" bees do, allowing them to sting repeatedly. From what we have been told, the initial sting hurts, but the increasing pain which follows the sting is miserable. The bees are territorial and make little hives almost anywhere, thus making their territory very broad and the chances of encountering them very high. We found our first hive in our front yard on moving day, pointed out to us by one of the kind movers who is native to the island.
9) Geckos are abundant. I actually captured one for the first time today. We see them all over our house and are slowly getting used to sharing our personal space with these small intruders. I have been able to make my peace with them by considering the fact that they are most likely living off of any bugs that they can find in the house. There is one Gecko who lives in the air conditioning vent in the dining room and will come out most often in the afternoon to hang out on the wall. Maddie has named it 'Sarah' and so now, every Gecko we see is Sarah-except for the one in the bathroom light which Grant has named Henry.
10) Almost any window here has steel storm shutters to protect the glass during severe weather.
11) Coconut palms are plentiful. I feel nervous whenever taking the kids for a walk that a rogue coconut might happen to fall directly onto one of their heads. I always try to hurry them under the trees which are laden with the fruit, but of course these are the trees which fascinate them the most. They garner much entertainment from gathering anything they can find to throw in the air in the hopes of knocking a coconut down.
12) The are cylindrical metal containers hanging from many fences are not decorative touches, they are snake traps. When baited, they contain either live rodents and/or potatos.
13) It's always been pleasing to me when I find a little sandcrab at the beach. It makes me feel as if I'm experiencing the beach as God created it to be-in more of a 'natural state'. The same goes for finding a beautiful shell. For those of you who might be amused by this, understand that I've been conditioned by childhood experiences at Huntington Beach which is largely devoid of anything but sand, questionable water, and wanna-be surfers. Since we've hit the beaches here, we have encountered large crabs who probably snack on sandcrabs while roaming about the shores which are littered with exotic coral, shells, and rocks.
Different? Yes. Home? We're all here together so most assuredly, yes.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Hafa Adai!
We're here! I won't go through the details of our journey right now. I've tried to sit down and encapsulate our journey here a few times, but it just made me feel exhausted and at a loss for words. Actually, I did get a pretty thorough recap of the day written up and saved to be posted at a later time...but that was on my new netbook that was subsequently left in a bag with my I-pod, run over by a car, and then rifled through, such that now my netbook is trashed and my Ipod is gone. Yes, that was a bad day and no, I do not want to expound any further. Anyhow, we truly felt the prayers of many. THANK YOU to all of you who were lifting us up! It was just about as smooth as it could have been, though there were many moments when I thought I heard circus music playing in the background as we dealt with the logistics of 3 kids, 3 carseats, 1 double stroller, 6 carry ons, and 8 large bags.
We've been here now for about 3 weeks, the first of which we spent in a hotel and the latter two in our new house. We are living on Andersen Air Force Base in a duplex shared with some lovely neighbors who have 3 girls close in age to our 3 children. It's been awesome to have kids right next door who share our yard, though this has required working with Maddie and Grant on the concept of personal boundaries. They tend to loiter a few feet away from the neighbors' back door, waiting expectantly for the chance to play with their new friends. Our household goods arrive on Monday, which will be wonderful since I've felt like we're in something of a holding pattern until our house is set-up. That being said, this three weeks has made me so thankful for the reminder of 2 important things; 1) We are home and complete when we are anywhere together as a family and 2) we can get by with very few things and be just fine. Our house does not have a garage, and is a bit smaller than our previous homes. Storage may be tricky, making the second reminder a timely one as we might need to 'shed' some items in order to organize well.
This is most definitely a different place and a totally new experience for each of us. The whole concept of how far Guam is from home started to unfold when we took off from Hawaii and flew over the ocean for another 7 hours-that was a lot of ocean. Maddie totally gets the distance concept while Grant seems to think that we could drive to Lili or Bunny's house easily if we so desired. It's somewhat comforting to me at times to see how innocent and unaware my kids can be in the midst of what feels like a lot of turmoil and change. They certainly feel the effects of the move, the time change, and the new enviroment, and yet their small and simple little world continues relatively untouched amidst it all; a sweet thing to see.
Here are a few first impressions since being in Guam, in no particular order....
- It's hot. There is not one moment when you are outside and have need of a sweatshirt, still a luxury to us after the last 2 years during which a sweatshirt was almost standard for most of the year (though that was the only slightly negative thing about the last 2 years that I can think of!)
- It's humid. I would have paired humidity with heat prior to moving here, but I have learned that there is a difference. I've lived in heat, but heat + humidity is another story.
- It's small. This island is 30 miles in length and is 12 miles across at it's widest point. It's kind of a trip when I navigate for PJ as we drive around, simply because we cover a lot of the map in a short amount of time. I will say, however, that it doesn't feel too terribly small (yet) due in part to the traffic and the speed limits. The highest speed limit posting I've seen was 40, though the street just begs for speeds of at least 60. I say street (singular) because there is essentially one main drag that we use (Highway 1-go figure) down the "busier" side of the island.
- It's a mix of Western society and developing nation. There is a lot here in the way of restaurants and stores that you would see in the US, and English is written and spoken everywhere. Of course there is also much that you would not tend to see stateside, but I'll write more about that later.
- Guam has a significant and interesting WWII history that we can't wait to delve into.
- The sky is absolutely phenomenal-it seems so huge and constantly impresses on me the feeling of being on such a tiny piece of land with such a huge surrounding ocean.
- The ocean. That's it. It just is. There are not many words to describe how marvelous it is and no pictures that will do it justice. I'm not much for water unless I'm truly comfortable with the temperature. Each time we've been down to the ocean here, I've walked right in with no problem. I'm not one for swimming in water where I can't look down and see all the way to my toes-no problem here! I'm not one for big waves unless I'm really feeling brave or either of the two criteria listed above are met. Here, there is beach upon beach where the so-called waves merely lap the shore with the gentleness of a pool disturbed by someone performing a graceful dive into the water. I'm not making any of this up! Do you want to find out whether or not I'm exaggerating? Why don't you come visit and find out?! (On a sidenote, this blog will probably be used as a shameless ploy/propoganda tool to convince our most beloved friends and family-YOU- to come and visit us)
- The weather can change on a dime. In the space of less than one minute, many times without hardly any warning, you can go from being soaked with your own sweat to being soaked by a sudden tropical downpour.
- The flies here have something wrong with them. They don't "shoo". You have to wipe them off of your body with your hand.
- If you have any predisposition to bug bites, look out. My poor children (minus Taryn, thankfully) and I continue to suffer from multiple bites-many of them fairly large.
- If you don't like geckos, forget coming here.
- If you love our family above your aversion for geckos, please do come here (see, I told ya).
- If you want to go to the grocery store and have the same selection for the same prices that you do at your local grocery store, stay where you are.
- Craving Starbucks? Don't expect to satisfy your craving on this island unless you can settle for the new pumpkin spice latte which is widely advertised and available at your local....Circle K.
- The jungle is fascinating and also terrifying to me. The concentration of plants is so great that there is just no seeing through it. I find myself thinking often about the guys who were here during the war when it was (I would imagine) even more uncleared/untamed than now. Talk about sacrifice! That could not have been pleasant or easy in the least bit.
- God's creative hand continues to appear wherever we are as we marvel over the vastly different, yet uniquely beautiful areas where we've lived-praise be to the one and only Creator!
These are just a few of the things that stick out most in our first few weeks 'on island' as folks keep saying.
Until next time....
We've been here now for about 3 weeks, the first of which we spent in a hotel and the latter two in our new house. We are living on Andersen Air Force Base in a duplex shared with some lovely neighbors who have 3 girls close in age to our 3 children. It's been awesome to have kids right next door who share our yard, though this has required working with Maddie and Grant on the concept of personal boundaries. They tend to loiter a few feet away from the neighbors' back door, waiting expectantly for the chance to play with their new friends. Our household goods arrive on Monday, which will be wonderful since I've felt like we're in something of a holding pattern until our house is set-up. That being said, this three weeks has made me so thankful for the reminder of 2 important things; 1) We are home and complete when we are anywhere together as a family and 2) we can get by with very few things and be just fine. Our house does not have a garage, and is a bit smaller than our previous homes. Storage may be tricky, making the second reminder a timely one as we might need to 'shed' some items in order to organize well.
This is most definitely a different place and a totally new experience for each of us. The whole concept of how far Guam is from home started to unfold when we took off from Hawaii and flew over the ocean for another 7 hours-that was a lot of ocean. Maddie totally gets the distance concept while Grant seems to think that we could drive to Lili or Bunny's house easily if we so desired. It's somewhat comforting to me at times to see how innocent and unaware my kids can be in the midst of what feels like a lot of turmoil and change. They certainly feel the effects of the move, the time change, and the new enviroment, and yet their small and simple little world continues relatively untouched amidst it all; a sweet thing to see.
Here are a few first impressions since being in Guam, in no particular order....
- It's hot. There is not one moment when you are outside and have need of a sweatshirt, still a luxury to us after the last 2 years during which a sweatshirt was almost standard for most of the year (though that was the only slightly negative thing about the last 2 years that I can think of!)
- It's humid. I would have paired humidity with heat prior to moving here, but I have learned that there is a difference. I've lived in heat, but heat + humidity is another story.
- It's small. This island is 30 miles in length and is 12 miles across at it's widest point. It's kind of a trip when I navigate for PJ as we drive around, simply because we cover a lot of the map in a short amount of time. I will say, however, that it doesn't feel too terribly small (yet) due in part to the traffic and the speed limits. The highest speed limit posting I've seen was 40, though the street just begs for speeds of at least 60. I say street (singular) because there is essentially one main drag that we use (Highway 1-go figure) down the "busier" side of the island.
- It's a mix of Western society and developing nation. There is a lot here in the way of restaurants and stores that you would see in the US, and English is written and spoken everywhere. Of course there is also much that you would not tend to see stateside, but I'll write more about that later.
- Guam has a significant and interesting WWII history that we can't wait to delve into.
- The sky is absolutely phenomenal-it seems so huge and constantly impresses on me the feeling of being on such a tiny piece of land with such a huge surrounding ocean.
- The ocean. That's it. It just is. There are not many words to describe how marvelous it is and no pictures that will do it justice. I'm not much for water unless I'm truly comfortable with the temperature. Each time we've been down to the ocean here, I've walked right in with no problem. I'm not one for swimming in water where I can't look down and see all the way to my toes-no problem here! I'm not one for big waves unless I'm really feeling brave or either of the two criteria listed above are met. Here, there is beach upon beach where the so-called waves merely lap the shore with the gentleness of a pool disturbed by someone performing a graceful dive into the water. I'm not making any of this up! Do you want to find out whether or not I'm exaggerating? Why don't you come visit and find out?! (On a sidenote, this blog will probably be used as a shameless ploy/propoganda tool to convince our most beloved friends and family-YOU- to come and visit us)
- The weather can change on a dime. In the space of less than one minute, many times without hardly any warning, you can go from being soaked with your own sweat to being soaked by a sudden tropical downpour.
- The flies here have something wrong with them. They don't "shoo". You have to wipe them off of your body with your hand.
- If you have any predisposition to bug bites, look out. My poor children (minus Taryn, thankfully) and I continue to suffer from multiple bites-many of them fairly large.
- If you don't like geckos, forget coming here.
- If you love our family above your aversion for geckos, please do come here (see, I told ya).
- If you want to go to the grocery store and have the same selection for the same prices that you do at your local grocery store, stay where you are.
- Craving Starbucks? Don't expect to satisfy your craving on this island unless you can settle for the new pumpkin spice latte which is widely advertised and available at your local....Circle K.
- The jungle is fascinating and also terrifying to me. The concentration of plants is so great that there is just no seeing through it. I find myself thinking often about the guys who were here during the war when it was (I would imagine) even more uncleared/untamed than now. Talk about sacrifice! That could not have been pleasant or easy in the least bit.
- God's creative hand continues to appear wherever we are as we marvel over the vastly different, yet uniquely beautiful areas where we've lived-praise be to the one and only Creator!
These are just a few of the things that stick out most in our first few weeks 'on island' as folks keep saying.
Until next time....
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