Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a whirlwind here recently. I keep saying I need to sit down explain what's been going on, but when I finally have a few minutes I tend to just fall asleep.

No hiking trips though, I figured the girl should have one set of stitches out before doing anything that may involve getting another set in. ;)!

The week started off pretty rough. I got a phone call early Monday morning from my brother about this tragic event. The female victim went to our church when we lived in KS, and babysat our kids a few times. Her whole family is quite amazing, and her death was quite a shock to everyone. Please pray for her family and her church family, that God brings everyone peace and healing that only he can provide.

petting an ayuyu (pronouced ah-ju-ju-
 Chomorro for coconut crab) at
the market

Every Wednesday downtown is the Chamorro Village night market. The market is open daily, but on Wednesday night it really opens up and becomes a huge event attended by tourists and locals alike. There's food stands everywhere, local crafts, multiple DJs, and plenty of people dancing. It's normally one of the first things that people do when they arrive here, but we hadn't until last week. I'm so glad we finally did. I was a bit concerned about the crowds and such (it was very busy) but it was such a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere and quite a bit of fun as well! I see now why so many make it a weekly family event.


For last Friday's field trip we went to Two Lovers Point. Admittedly not the MOST educational of places I could have picked, but a very popular island site none-the-less (that and ever since the oldest girl heard about it she's begged to go). It was amazingly beautiful, and thankfully we arrived before the hotel tourists really started to show up so it was relatively quiet until just before we left. The story behind the point is the old "star crossed lovers" tale, but with a local twist (any one else notice how it seems every culture has one of these stories?). The Village Chief's daughter was supposed to marry a Spaniard, but she fell in love with Chamorro. Dad gets mad, and tries to force his daughter to marry the Spaniard. In the end, she and her lover stand on a high cliff, tie their hair together, kiss and fling themselves into the water.

taking in the view

The water is so clear and blue!

I found it pretty interesting that on the backs of these stone pictures of the tale was the story in a different language: English, Chamorro, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

story in pictures

Friday night we went to another local market, this time in the village of Mangilao, which is just north of where we live. The market goes on every Thursday and Friday, but last week it was expanded and extended through the weekend for the Donne' (aka Boonie) Pepper festival. It's a local little pepper that can pack quite a punch, and the locals use it in about everything. We sampled, tasted, talked and no kidding left with 6 jars of different types of jellies. I mean come on, where else but here could you find spicy star apple (star fruit) jelly? That's my excuse anyway. :)!

Saturday was an early morning. Once a year they do an island-wide beach cleanup that starts at 7am, and the kids and I signed up to help with the beach up the road that we love so much. I was very proud of the kids, they all worked really hard and even climbed around in the less accessible areas to make sure it was really, really, clean.

My plan from there originally had been to go home, shower, and immediately head out to go grocery shopping. The shopping part got delayed though. While at the cleanup we were all given T-Shirts, and we could use the T-shirts to get $5 admission to Underwater World (post about our last visit) as well as a $5 plate lunch from the restaurant there. I figured it was a pretty cheap fun event that we could do, and the kids had worked really hard for it. By the time we left Underwater World, went to the grocery store and came home it was 3, but it was well worth it. We all slept hard that night!

Sunday morning we went to church, and then Sunday afternoon we met a few families from the boat at Gab-Gab beach and hung out for a while.

Beyond that has been normal home school, library trips, having friends over, getting stiches removed......and for myself I've become pretty in the Guam Naval Officer Spouses Club, which is a great group and gives me something to do with out the kids. :)!

Having fun and keeping busy as always!