Chess – the game of kings

Alex and I have taken up playing chess.  This is the one game where he can trounce me.  Not only can he win, he can win in 5 moves, sometimes less.  He comes out of nowhere really.  I’ve been learning lots just playing him.  Chris Field and I are playing chess over the internet at a site called Netchess.  The games are incredibly engaging and good fun once you get over the crying and whining.  If interested in playing me, just let me know.  It doesn’t take much time, a couple minutes a day, and it’s a good way to stay in touch.

The 2 words I dread to hear from Alex:  Check mate!

Saipan

Saipan is the main island of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Part of the same geologic formation as Guam, it lies a few hundred miles north. I just returned from a 3 day work trip and was able to tour the island with my counterparts at the Department of Environmental Quality. The island is much smaller (13 miles x 5 miles) and has only 60,000 folks. They have hit hards times economically. Like Guam, they depend on tourism but even more so. They’ve long held an exemption from the US minimum wage and thus the manufacturing on Saipan was attractive. The garment industry thrived there using chinese immigrants. The exemption is in jeopardy as well as the commonwealth’s control on its on immigration. If you’ve been following the Abramoff story, Jack was a big player in keeping Saipan a ‘made in the USA’ haven for manufacturers. With Jack gone, I believe life there is about to undergo a monumental restructuring. Anyhow, the people of Saipan, Chamorros and Carolinians, need to figure out how to emerge from their economic recession. I’m guessing that won’t be for many years. It’s a beautiful place with lots of WWII history. Here are a couple pics.

The flame tree.

A view from Suicide Cliff where the Japanese jumped to their death rather than surrender to the Americans.

Cave Drawings

Davis and I went on a short hike at the northern most tip of Guam, Ritidian Point. This area has recently become a National Wildlife Refuge. Prior to refuge status it was part of one of the military bases. In addition, to having one of the most beautiful beaches on Guam it is the site of a former Chamorro village. A short walk from the village location are caves cut into the limestone in which the Chamorros would take shelter during a typhoon (in the time before cement buildings). Pictographs have been found on the cave walls that may be 500-1,000 years old.

In addition to the walking through areas with mythological significance to the Chamorros, we also saw pig bones which Davis thought was the best.

Ritidian beach’s soft white sand.

Tarza pools

Went on a 1 mile hike on the southern part of the island to the Tarza pools.  It’s a fresh water pool nestled in a fairly barren valley.  There’s a little rope swing and enough cool water to whisk the heat away.

Happy birthday Lyla!!!

To our little niece in Boise: We’re so sad not to be with you on your big day. All of us think of you often (and Henry) and wish you a great year. Davis has put together this little video just for you (and Henry). Hope you enjoy it!!

Love,

Uncle Wally, Auntie Gwen, Cousin Alex, Elli and Davis

(In Davis’ defense, the video and audio are out of sync when I play it back.)

Kadun Benadu anyone?

Kadun Benadu is a deer stew made with onions, garlic, lime juice, coconut milk, yams and deer meat.  My friend Danzel, the hunter extraordinaire, gave me the back strap and neck of a deer he shot last weekend.  He also dug up a couple huge yams.  I took these to my neighbor George’s house for a cooking lesson.  George is an old harley rider who was once part of the Syndicate Motorbike Club in Southern CA during the 60’s.  He’s now the neighborhood caretaker knowing who is coming and going.  Nice guy who has a shop full of tools and a garden full of fruit and peppers.  George taught me the art of making this Chamorro dish in his outdoor kitchen.  We had the stew over rice and added a special hot pepper sauce called Fine Denny de Nanci.  Delicious.

Here we are with Monica, George’s daughter.

Beatlemania hits Guam!

I remember my first record album was the Beatles red album back in the early 70s.  I was alive during the british invasion, but only a toddler in the 60s.  Well, Beatlemania is back.  This time in Davis who is 6.  Davis remembers listening to Sgt. Peppers at Ben Ben’s house (Pierre and Ingrid’s) in Seattle and was reminded of those songs as I played the newer “1″ CD.  Now, he can’t get enough.  I dusted off the old VHS copy of a Hard Day’s Night and our evenings are now spent answering every question imagineable about the Beatles.  It’s been fun reliving it.  I’ll have to get a pic of him dancing and singing.

I awoke to an earthquake last night…

Around 330am, Guam time, the bed rolled just enough to wake me up for the briefest moment.  I remember thinking “was that an earthquake?”  Then my years of training of sleeping through the night as kids wailed down the hallway kicked in, and I immediately fell back asleep.  This is the 3rd quake we’ve felt since we left Seattle.  The first was in Tokyo on our only night stay.  The second was the first month here, again while we slept.  That one rocked the room for several seconds.  Last night, I felt just a ripple.  The quake was a 6.2 between Tonga and Fiji on the other side of the equator about 3200 miles SE of Guam, and about 300 miles beneath the surface.  I took the kids down to the shore after work to check out the waves.  I had heard from some coworkers that the waves were huge because of the quake.  They were right.  I wish I had taken my camera.  The waves got as big as 12′ I estimate.  The wind was howling and a brave kite surfer was zooming back and forth across the waves, getting airborne once in a while.  We climbed the rocks out to the edge of the surf and soaked in the power of the Phillipine Sea.  Amazing!

A little history of Guam.

I’ve taken this straight from Wikipedia. You can go to their site for an explanation of some terms like “commonwealth”, “organized territory”, and “insular” if interested.

Portugese Ferdinand Magellan reached the island in 1521 during his circumnavigation of the globe. General Miguel López de Legazpi claimed Guam for Spain in 1565. Spanish colonization commenced in 1668 with the arrival of Padre San Vitores, who established the first Catholic mission. The islands were then governed as part of the Spanish East Indies from the Philippines. Between 1668 and 1815, Guam was an important resting stop on the Spanish trade route between Mexico and the Philippines. Guam, along with the rest of the Mariana and Caroline islands, was treated by Spain as part of their colony in the Philippines. While Guam’s Chamorro culture is unique, the cultures of both Guam and the Northern Marianas were heavily influenced by Spanish culture and traditions.

The United States took control of the island in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Guam came to serve as a way station for American ships traveling to and from the Philippines, while the northern Mariana islands passed to Germany then Japan.

During World War II, Guam was attacked and invaded by the Japanese armed forces on December 8, 1941. Before the attack, all military dependents were transported away from the island and away from imminent danger. The Northern Mariana Islands had become a Japanese protectorate before the war. It was the Chamorros from the Northern Marianas who were brought to Guam to serve as interpreters and in other capacities for the occupying Japanese force. The Guamanian Chamorros were treated as an occupied enemy by the Japanese military. After the war, this would cause some resentment by the Guamanian Chamorros towards the Chamorros in the Northern Marianas. To this day, Guam and the Alaskan Aleutian Islands remain the only U.S. soil, with a sizeable population, that suffered under foreign military power occupation. Guam’s occupation lasted for approximately thirty-one months. During this period, the indigenous people of Guam were subjected to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps and prostitution. The United States returned and fought the Battle of Guam on July 21, 1944 to recapture the island from Japanese military occupation. The U.S. also captured and occupied the Northern Marianas. After the war, The Guam Organic Act of 1950, which established Guam as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, provided for the structure of the island’s government, and granted the people United States citizenship.

It’s not always tropical.

Several of you have commented on our adventure looking like a ‘vacation’, ‘fun in the sun’ and all the other things that make living here a great pleasure.  Guam is not just a tropical vacation destination.  As I drove to work this morning and listened to the local news program go on and on about the garbage being left on the side of road, I am reminded about the dirt under the rug.  Guam has many problems, not the least of which are things that mainlanders probably take for granted.  The island is struggling with mega-solid waste piles, nasty waste water issues, and a crumbling school system just for starters.

The island has one landfill that is way beyond it’s capacity and recently burned for about week as the department that manages it has struggled to keep the growing pile covered with dirt.  The US EPA has been asking for its closure for about 20 years now and even issued an enforcement action that is now under the court’s jurisdiction.  Gov Guam, as the bureaucracy is called, has struggled to make taking care of the landfill a priority.  Thus, the island residents face monetary penalties, and continued leaching of contaminants to  local stream beds and beaches the streams drain to.

Waste water, you know the stuff you flush, has been going largely untreated right into the ocean near the island’s population center and capitol.  The infrastructure, the pipes and treatment plant, have fallen in disrepair and were largely ineffective.  Gov Guam has borrowed millions of dollars to reconstruct that infrastruce and redirect the waste water.  It’s been about 9 months, and the project is nearly finished.  Soon, we will be treating the waste water and discharging effluent a couple thousand feet below sea level far from the shore.

The school system is battling all those issues that are familiar to inner city schools:  overcrowding, double shifts in school buildings, low pay, and high teacher turnover.  It seems that every few months or so, a major problem occurs at the schools.  The latest was a lack of funds to pay its staff and janitorial services almost causing a shutdown.

These are the types of issues that have really piqued my interest and are getting some attention from me.  I have the luxury of working on problems, both internally and externally, that an undersized organization on a small island faces.  One thing is for certain, I have lots to do at the office.