Back in the States

Hi Readers, Family, and Friends,
We wanted to keep you updated with what has been happening in our lives post-Saipan. We have been in the states for about 3 weeks now and have been adjusting to life back in the states.  We will keep this blog on the internet as a resource for people who will be going to Saipan or want to learn more about it and also for us as a way to look back at our time in Saipan. We want to keep blogging about our life in Minnesota so please follow us on our new blog:

http://grantandkara.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for your love and support in reading our blog, it has been a great experience and we are excited to keep on blogging!

Grant and I waiting in the Saipan airport getting excited about flying to the states!

In Christ,
-Kara and Grant-

Glass Balls/Japanese Floats

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

     I hope that life is finding you well. This blog is about a hobby common to the Pacific Islands, whether it be Guam, Saipan, or any of the other Marianas Islands.   The topic is that of searching for glass balls while beach combing.  If I had more time on Saipan, I would search for more glass balls as there are still places on the island that are virtually inaccessible to humans unless they have a background in climbing and repelling by rope.   I have seen such areas and expect there to be many glass balls yet to be found there, but they are becoming rare.  In the 70’s one could find more glass balls, but they are no longer made today or at least not for fishing as was their original purpose. 

     Glass balls come from Japan and were originally used as net floats.  A great website for both pictorial amusement and research is http://home.comcast.net/~4miller/aboutfloats/about.html .  Amongst my friends on the island, the place code named “Lobster Lagoon” that proved to be a place to still occasionally find glass floats earlier this year.  The chances of finding them at this location, however, have diminished as there is a house located above the trail head that has its own private trail leading down to the crevice.  During a heavy storm or typhoon I’m sure that this family would be the first on the scene to find such beauties. 

     I will not share this location with anyone because it is a secret to be earned from many days of hiking and exploring the island.  One of my regrets about Saipan is that I did not make friends that shared the love of exploring and trailblazing that I have.  The longest I had ever spent in the jungle was 6 hrs and I nearly didn’t make it back due to exhaustion.  It would have been nice to have a friend to explore the jungle and beach comb with.  I could have headed up a group at church, but I didn’t feel that the interest was there.  I wish everyone the best of luck in finding these beauties on Saipan and other islands in the Marianas chain.

This glass ball was given to me by a friend on the island of Saipan.  You can see that the original roping is still attached. At first, I had the idea that I would try and get rid of the added sea grunge, but I figured that it was a lost cause.  I even thought about bleaching the rope, but I figured that it might weaken the rope and lead to it fallen apart.  What I will say about cleaning a glass ball is that soaking it in non-bleach or non-corrosive dish soap for a few days and lightly scrubbing the glass with a steel wool sort of scour dish pad will take off a little bit of junk off of the glass. 

This glass ball is one I found at Lobster Lagoon.  It is smaller a a little cleaner than the big one that was given to me.  An important thing to know about glass balls that many people make the mistake of doing is in regard to a shipment of these objects back home.  The truth is that you cannot ship these objects by air.  Because glass floats are sealed glass blown objects, they cannot be flown by plane.  When the air pressure changes, the glass floats will break. So, DO NOT SHIP THESE HOME BY PLANE.  Instead, ship the glass floats by parcel post while wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap.  The parcel post will be a lot slower than shipping by plane because it is shipped by boat, but at least your beach combed treasure will be safe.

This picture was taken at Jeff's Seaside Museum in Guam.  The museum is attached to the restaurant located on the south side of the island named Jeff's Pirates Cove.  I did not care too much for the food, but the museum is worth visiting despite its extremely small size.  It is actually the size of a shack, but is filled with lots of beach combed material and Guam WWII era treasures.

This is a the row of glass balls in the lower glass shelf at the museum in Guam.  I'm not sure if this is true, but I have a hunch that the glass balls were originally made from melted down glass sake bottles from WWII.   In Japan today, One can still find glass floats but many of them are actually made just for tourists or enthusiasts. 

Saipan Community School 8th Grade Graduation

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

     As I write this blog, I am actually sitting in Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The topic of this post is Saipan Community School graduation.  It takes place on the day before the last day of school.  This year's eighth grade class was a good class overall and I felt a little more attached to them having taught them for two years which is 2/3 of their life as junior highers at our school. This eighth grade class only had 2 girls by the time of graduation, which created a unique class dynamic.  My prayer for the graduating eighth grade class is that they would continue to grow and search for God.  I say this because not all of the students at our school are Christians.  I pray that the influences they had while at SCS will influence them more towards Christ and his love.
     After graduation night, the last day of school (May 25th) was a half day filled with lots of food and games.  I have attached a few photos below of our time together.  This "fun day" is a day spent with their homeroom class and teachers.  Junior high teachers pair up to tackle the responsibilities of homeroom.  My seventh grade homeroom class ended up feeding the 6th grade home room because they had brought so little food.  Let me rephrase that... they brought food, but it was junk food.  I hope you enjoy the photos and explanations (click on the photo to enlarge the image).

Kara at eighth grade graduation standing next to Pastor Roger Abe of Saipan Community Church's Filipino Service.

Me with one of my Korean eighth grade boys at graduation.

Me with one of my two eighth grade girls. The beads around my  neck were given to me by Mary Grace's mother.

 

Me with one of my Chinese eighth grade graduates.  I tutored this boy and he has come a long way since I had first met him.

Me with Mary Grace.  She spoke as the Salutatorian for her class. She is wearing many beautiful flowers and the island tassel with what looks like corrugated green circles actually happen to be dollar bills haha.

On Mary Grace's wrist was a bracelet that is made of the National Flower of the Philippines known as the Sampaguita or Arabian Jasmine (Jasminium sambac).  I was told that in the Philippines they usual make these into large wreathes for graduates.  The neat thing about this flower is that it is one of the most fragrant flowers I have ever smelled.  Due to limited availability in Saipan the wrist bracelet was all that could be done. 

I was invited to eat dinner with Mary Grace and her extended family and friends.  I have felt very privileged to know Mary Grace and her family.  If there is one thing I have learned from the Filipino community of Saipan it is generosity and the overwhelming sense of kindness.  In the states, I would wager that it is very uncommon to be given gifts by students or be asked to dinner by them.  I pray that when I have kids someday I will be able to instill this sense of kindness in my own children towards their teachers.

This is a picture of the food we had during our homeroom party. Starting in the front and zigzagging left to right we have Kara's Mexican roll-ups (in tin foil), Chinese fried rice, various types of Sashimi (thinly cut raw fish), Sushi, Korean Spice Rice Cakes with toothpicks in them for quick grabbing, chocolate cup cakes, BBQ pork skewers, chips/dip, ?, doughnuts, and popcorn.  The drinks were off to the side.  In this picture is my seventh grade homeroom partner Ms. Nierras.

This is a picture of some of my students playing Halo during the party.  The expression on their faces is exactly why grades go down at different times during the year.

My Birthday!

Hi Everyone,
I had an awesome and wonderful birthday! It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had. The celebration started by being sung two a few times at school. On Saturday Grant took me out for my birthday dinner at Tony Romas. I love Tony Romas because there used to be one in Omaha and my family and I went there a lot so when I came to Saipan, I was very excited about the restaurant. The waiters/waitresses sung to me and brought me a red velvet cake with ice cream, yes I did share it with Grant, and it was absolutely amazing. Then Grant and I headed to the Taste of the Marianas to hang out with friends and to enjoy the entertainment. That night was my favorite night of entertainment so far. I loved the hula dancing, warrior dancing, and most of all the fire dancer. It was a great start to my birthday weekend.
On my birthday which was on a Sunday this year I started the day by skyping with my family which was great. Then I headed to church where the entire church sang happy birthday to me:) From there I had no clue what was going to happen on my birthday.  I packed two bags full of items since I was not sure what I was doing or where I was going. As soon as we were in the car my friends handed me a list of things I needed to complete on my birthday so I thought I would share some of the items on the list:
*wear a pretty swimsuit
*pray it doesn't rain on your special day
*dress up cute for an evening of fun
*ask the lifeguard to borrow the red floaty
*ask for a ride on a golf cart
*shout I'm a pretty pretty princess while jumping into the pool
*get happy birthday sung to you at least 3x
*find 25 A's
I am happy to report that all of those items were completed and it was a lot of fun getting to play along with the list.
We started the day by having a mothers day brunch at Lao Lao Bay which is one of my favorite spots on the island. I was sung happy birthday there by the singer who was playing for everyone. I had a great lunch and enjoyed the mothers day cake. From there we spent the afternoon hanging out in the pool there and I had fun swimming, embarrasing myself by asking the lifeguard for his floaty, and hanging out with my friends. I did end up getting a ride on a golf cart right away since we parked so far away, one of the employees asked us and I said yes!
From there we headed to the Dinner Cruise. I have gone on the cruise 2 times before and loved it both times. It was fun since some of my friends had not gone before on the cruise. It was a night of dancing, watching the fish, hanging out, and having fun with friends. I spent part of the night sitting on the end of the boat with my friend Becky, just soaking up the beauty of Saipan and thinking about how much I am going to miss this place. The singer/entertainer for the night Jerry was a hit as always and I had a lot of fun singing along and dancing along to the music. I even did a duet dance with my friend Laura:0
After the Dinner cruise, we went night swimming. We ended up getting stung by jellyfish so that part was not so much fun. We ended up at my friend Amy's apartment pool so we could end the night swimming with friends.
It was an amazing birthday and the first surprise birthday I have ever had. I love my friends so dearly who made this day happen and shared this day with me. These girls are such a blessing from God and they have made my time in Saipan so fun and so meaningful.I will cherish all of the memories I have with them, but this day will always stick out in my mind because it rocked!!!!

Spirit Week at SCS

April 16-20th was Spirit Week at SCS. This was a fun week of dressing up and getting the kids excited about school spirit. The Friday before there was a skit of Superheros who have traits from the fruit of the spirit. It was a very funny chapel and it got the kids excited about the upcoming week.
Monday was Crazy Hat Day. Tuesday was Twin Day. Wednesday was Superhero Day. Thursday was Class Color Day(my class was blue) and Friday was Cultural Day. I really enjoyed Cultural Day since I was able to see my students dressed up as their culture. My classroom is a multi-cultural classroom. I have Chinese, Korean, local, Japanese, and American students. They had all of the kids stand up on the stage at chapel on Friday and it was so great to see an array of cultures that our school is made up of. My students enjoyed spirit week and it was fun seeing them getting excited about school spirit. I took a lot of pictures so I hope you enjoy the ones I picked to share:)

Crazy Hat Day!

Twin Day! I loved their outfits!

Twins!

Pink Girls!

Superhero Day! My co-workers and I.

My class of superheros!

One of my superhero students.

Mrs. Flores and I.

Our principal got into the spirit too!

Mr. Martin- one of our amazing teacher aides.

I was Butterfly Woman.

Class Color Day- Blue!!!!

Two of my former students. I love this picture because it shows the diversity of our school!

My class of the nations!

Island Girls!

One of my Korean students dressed in traditional wear.

My student and I.

10 more days of school!!!!

Exploring Saipan's Jungle

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers,

     I thought I would share my experience of exploring the jungle last Sunday as it may have been my last on Saipan or at least first to last time.  I am not writing because I found something cool while exploring.  I'm writing this time to share how much effort it takes in order to explore the jungle in a crazy place like Saipan and some of the experiences I have had.  I hope you enjoy the wildlife pictures.  If I am able to get out exploring one last time hopefully I will take more pictures of the plant and animal life.  So before I share some pictures from my exploration last Sunday, I'll share some of my experiences and hints I've learned by trial and error.
     One thing I've learned is to always pre-hydrate and take vitamins/minerals.  If I were to do hiking on Saipan over again I would supplement with minerals more often.  The reason for this is the constant threat of cramping.  I don't know if it because I was born in a cold place or my body just sweats more than others, but lake of fluids has at times taken its toll on me.  Potassium can help stop muscle cramping, but you need lots of minerals not only potassium and salt.  Salt only further dehydrates your body.  One day I spent about 6+ hours in the jungle exploring and even with pre-hydration two nights before I still cramped up and felt like throwing up.  Luckily I didn't blow chunks, but I realized then that more needed to be done and that even though I went into the jungle with 6 water bottles and 4 Sports Drinks (like Powerade etc)  I still needed more.  The heat in Saipan is anywhere from 76-96 on a consistent basis, this is further amplified when it rains or you are in dense jungle.
   Two, listen to the sounds in the jungle in order to catch yourself from getting hurt.  If you hear buzzing look around for a boonie bee hive they are so small a hive of 30-60 bees might be under a leaf or attached to a twig.  If you hear rustling, look for lizards or rats (yes the jungle has rats and they are ugly), if you hear noise that sounds like a human look for at the plants to make sure you haven't ended up on a pot farm or been in the path of a crab poacher.  One time I spotted a crab poacher and he was so quiet that if I hadn't caught a glimpse of his camo-fatigues I would have guessed it was jungle lore come to life.
    Three, always bring flags to tie to trees and put your own sign on them in permanent marker.  Mine was a black cross.  It is important to do this because the jungle can grow thick and the sky can turn dark making it hard to see your path.  Also, when I have been extremely dehydrated I have found that my sense of direction becomes almost nil and the only thing that has helped me get out of the jungle are my flags.
     I hope you enjoy the pictures of wildlife and plant life below. Click on the picture for a larger image.

 I know what you are thinking; I Photo Shopped this little guy onto a
leaf... No, he is actually real and sat there long enough to get a quick picture.
This lizard is called a Green Anole or in Chamorro a Guali'ek.  They were
first found on Saipan in the 1970's but may have been here longer.

This is an example of a boonie be hive that has been stripped of
its outer paper and only the comb remains, yet it is securely attached
to a twig!  If it had not been abandoned and it was not the dry season,
a hive like this might hold 60 small boonie bees and would have stung me
something awful.  To see a large hive on our blog type in "boonie bees,
Saipan" on a Google search.  The hive I had previously shown may have
 been ahoney bee hive, but I'm not sure either way I have seen much bigger on
Saipan.

This little guy is one that I often see on Saipan.  Saipan is home to a
number of lizard species known as skinks (no, not stinks).  This particular
Skink is not a native species and is causing problems for the local species that
exist. This skink is called the "Curious Skink" or in Chamorro: Guali'ek Halom Tano'.
It is called this name because it often investages disturbances on the forest floor where
other species might run away this one investigates.  It is often confused with adult Blue
Tailed Skinks which are native to Saipan because the adults of the Blue Tailed species lose
their blue tails in adulthood and appear brown like this species.  This picture helps me identify
it as a foreign species because all other skink species in the Marianas have 5 front toes.  This
species only  has 4.  It is as shame that it is causing problems for the young Blue Tailed Skinks because
that species is so beautiful.  In the jungle you see Blue Tails all the time as they are a bright neon blue.

A really cool orb weaving spider that almost looks like a tick
if it weren't for the fact that it was decorating my backpack with its
web skills.  Can you see the web on my backpack?  

Sometimes I forget that even though WWII is over the war among the ant species of Saipan
is always in full swing.  I believe these are fire ants that are taking the dead  body of a large ant to their
nest for eating.  Don't let them get on your feet as they do swarm and bit a little.

One of the most common spiders we have on Saipan... Not sure of their name but they are  just
about everywhere. 

I like the color contrast of this decaying fruit.... I believe it is a Jackfruit that has
become too ripe and is rotting.  

A cool picture of a hollow tree trunk that looks like an upside down
scream face.

The thickness of the jungle on Saipan even during dry season!  You
can barely see my orange flags weaving down the slope.

This may not look like much but all of those white branches are
thorn bushes I had to chop through to make progress up to the top of the hill
I  was trying to scale.

This is a view of the road leading to Suicide cliff from the trail I was blazing on Sunday.
I will maybe try to explore further up suicide and try and find the path that leads to the bottom of  the cliff
from the right side of the road.  We'll see it may be that farm fields are in the way or I may not have time before I leave to explore its dense jungle.