Eco Camp

Dear Readers:
Since June 13th Grant and I have been working at Marianas Trekking for their Summer Eco Camp. We just finished our third week at camp. The groups are set up according to age and Grant is in the older group(Barracudas/Piranhas)ages 9-12 and I am in the younger group with the (Sea Turtles and Cocunut Crabs) ages 4-8. The one word I would use to describe camp is: active. There is never more than 10 minutes that the kids are sitting still, we keep them really busy! A typical day would look like this: snorkeling at the beach, games in the field, lunch at the resort, swimming in the pool, more games at the pool, and one rotating activity. The rotating activities means that we have one per day, they are: horseback riding, go karts, putt-putt, hiking, dance class, and arts and crafts. The camp starts at 9am and ends at 3pm. It is definitely a tiring day but each day is an adventure of its own. I really like the fact that we are outside all day because I think it is great for kids to be outside more and there is so many activities to expose them to. Kids can come for any length of time they want from one day to the whole summer. Most of the campers sign on for a 2-week period. I have built some good relationships with the kids that stay for 2 weeks and it is fun to see them everyday. Having new kids all the time keeps it interesting tho! My favorite activity is snorkeling at the beach because it is fun to go snorkel with them and to enjoy watching the fish go by. Also where we snorkel there are a lot of starfish which is my favorite:) I also love that I get to teach them new skills such as baseball. I taught the kids how to hold a bat properly before we played a game of "wiffle ball" baseball. Another thing which is great is Grant and I used to work at Ingham Okoboji Camp in the past and have been able to teach the kids here the fun games we loved from camp. I enjoy working with Grant even though most of the time the groups are split up. It is nice to share everyday what happened everyday and to share stories. The kids say the cutest things and I have enjoyed my time with them so far. Here are some pics from the 1-3 weeks of camp.

Saipan, MP Life

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

I thought I would post short pictures with descriptions that detail some of our daily life experiences in Saipan that tend to be different than what we see in the states.

1. Is a picture of the toes of my right foot that were bruised when the flip flops I was wearing failed to give me the tread I needed when hopping over a muddy pool of water. The toes were not broken and are healing nicely. It is the exact reason my wife and I bought Choco Sandals.

2. Pictures of advertisements before the movie showings in Saipan's only movie theater. In the states there are public service ads/announcements, but the kind we have in Saipan are often related to the ocean so I thought I would post a few since many of you will not make it out here.

3. A picture of the termites we had crawling in through the cracks in our front door. There is a termite season on Saipan and this year was mild compared to the stories we hear from those who have been on the island longer. I suppose it could be similar to army worms coming out in my home town of Duluth, MN. The termite season starts around the beginning of the dry season. They fly out in the thousands from their nests and then die a short time later and their wings fall off as they die so that the begin to resemble red ants...

Summer Vacation

Hi Everyone,
I feel as though June has been flying right by! We started our summer break officially on May 24th after working 2 days in our classroom. Grant and I spent a lot of time going on dates together and really enjoying the island! It was great to have time to see the places we love to go to and to have lots of time to go. It was also fun to try new places on the island which is amazing that after a year of being here there is still lots to do. Some of the things we have been up to are: going to the Taste of the Marianas festival and the Flame Tree Festival, going to parties with friends, sunset dinner at PIC, going to baby showers and goodbye parties, going to Lao Lao Bay for the day to swim, taking Amy to Mandi Spa for her birthday, and my favorite thing we did in June is to snorkel at Pau Pau to look at the starfish.
It was a relaxing time off and we so enjoyed spending time together!
We had three weeks off of work until we started our summer jobs at Marianas Trekking. We will blog about this soon!
Hope you enjoy the pics!

Flame Tree Arts Festival

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

This will be a somewhat shorter blog post as there is not a whole lot to say. This past week/weekend was the Flame Tree Arts Festival on Saipan at American Memorial Park.
As I said previously I wanted to go find a story board, but did not have much success. There was one small board for $75 but it did not captivate me with its carving so I gave up trying to find a board despite the unique cultural significance. I then almost bought a painting that was done on a leaf. It was of a palm tree sunset but my wife convinced me that he was asking for too much and that leaves on the wall were just too weird. Heeding her advice I was rather distraught for a while thinking that I wouldn't find anything, but then came to find a flower pot for $10 that was on sale at a pottery stand. The artists selling the pottery were from Southern High School on the island! The picture I have posted doesn't do its beauty justice as it is a rather dark picture that doesn't show you the unique blues and greens in the pot itself. When I bring it back to the states you may admire it at that time. The turtle carved into the clay is just awesome. I am soon to plant a flame tree seed or two inside of it to see if it will grow. I will let you know how that goes! The thing I like most about it is that it has a turtle on it, the color, the small starfish on the other side, and that it says "Saipan" in large letters across it. It will remind me of the beauty of Saipan always. Kara also managed to find something the first night of the event which went on for a few days. Kara bought some hand made ear rings from a woman who started making them for fun. The artist said that she worked at the local hospital as a nutritionist and was glad we were enjoying island life.
At the festival there were also local dances I have posted a few pictures and will describe them to you as best as I remember them. There were performances by many age groups and cultures. Food vendors were also present at the event but not as many as were at Taste of the Marianas a couple weeks previous. My next post will be about local things I find amusing or that we have dealt with in our first year on the island and perhaps some more WWII stuff that I have to research before I write about it. Until then enjoy the photos!

Sincerely, Grant

Picture 1: Tahitian Dancers on Stage
Picture 2: An Asian dancer doing the "Dance of the Moon Gods" (I think that was the title the singing was in a foreign language so I could be wrong)
Picture 3: KJ and I sitting on the ground in front of the stage. The back ground is dark because I used the flash...
Picture 4: My flower pot (a very poor picture of it that doesn't do it justice)

Saipan Time:

Memorial Day 2011 & Flame Trees

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

I felt that we needed to go back in time to Memorial Day, because we forgot to write about it. I also feel the need to write about Flame Trees (as many of our friends have also blogged about it) and because the Flame Tree Festival is about to start at American Memorial Park.

Flame Trees...where to begin? I decided to research Flame Trees in order to understand why they are in Saipan and where their beauty originated. This is what I have found... there are well over 60 different species of what are known as "Flame Trees." If you were to type the word "Flame Tree" into Google you would mostly find references to the Australian Flame Trees (which there are many in Australia). Flame trees reside not only Australia but in many tropical and sub-tropical areas around the world. The type of Flame Tree we have in Saipan (according to my brief research) has been given the name: Delonix Regia and it originated in Madagascar. I realized this by comparing the flowers with those of the Flame Trees of Australia and noticing the differences. Other English names it has been given are: flamboyant, flamboyant flame tree, flame of the forest, flame tree, gold mohur, gul mohr, julu tree, peacock flower, royal poinciana. The Flame Tree is a very beautiful tree and I am thinking about trying to grow one in a pot in our apartment as the seeds can easily be taken out of the shell like seed pod. I would share a unique poem by the Palauan poet Valentine Sengebau (whose adopted home was Saipan) as he wrote a poem about Flame Trees that is sad and uses it to refer to the tension between cultures on the island and points to the fact that Flame Trees are not indigenous to the island much like things that take away from the Chamorro & Carolinian cultures. I fear copyright issues so I won't post the poem, but know that these trees are tied to the island like their roots.

On Memorial Day, Kara and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around American Memorial Park. The flags were flying at half staff in remembering those lost in Joplin, MO during the tornado that had gone through Joplin. Kara and I also took time to watch the video at American Memorial Park that describes the capture and taking of Saipan. It shows video of a baby in the water off of Banzai Cliff and a woman jumping to her death. It is a very touching video that reminded me of the same gut wrenching feeling I had watching the video of the bombing of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. This video also reminded me of what America stands for and our purpose for being here.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Taste of the Marianas 2011

Taste of the Marianas is an annual event that happens every Saturday during the month of May at American Memorial Park in the village of Garapan. This event is different than the every Thursday “Street Market” that occurs in Garapan all year round. The neat thing about Taste of the Marianas is that it includes local music, dance, and food. It truly is a taste of the island as many hotels bring their kitchen staff to the event and cater to the public with somewhat cheaper prices than they do in their restaurants during the week. For those readers from my home town of Duluth, MN this event is similar to the Bayfront Blues Festival, but with less people. Like the Blues Festival, people buy tokens for the various vendors at the event. Tokens are one dollar each but there are blue tokens that represent two yellow coins ($2) if you decide to purchase a lot of tokens. The local craft vendors at the event also require tokens. This can add up if you wish to purchase a story board. A story board is a wooden carving tells the history of a given island peoples. These can be very costly depending on how elaborate and how important the story. For example, one that tells the story of the Spanish coming to the island years ago would fetch more than one about a lesser event, which may take less carving detail to explain a story. Each board comes with a print out of what it represents. Before Kara and I leave Saipan we may purchase one with spare tutoring money as a memory of the time we have spent here. I hope you enjoy the pictures I have put up about the event the descriptions of the photos are below. If you want to see some of the dancing whether traditional or from the youth of the island you can easily watch various videos from the event that have been posted on YouTube. Just type in Taste of the Marianas into Google and you can see dance groups some being “non-traditional” as you will find out.

Sincerely,

Grant

Pictures:

-Kara and I under one of the many tents that were set up.
-Female Dancers
-Kara and Amy&Matt G. with Dave Bucher on his own side.
-Picture of my meal (2 chicken kabobs, 2 pork kabobs, and two shrimp (didn't eat the shrimp b/c it tasted funny, but the kabobs were really, really good and a bigger helping than I normally receive at street market on Thursdays).
-Pig being served at the same stand I got my dinner from.
-A somewhat comedic male dance group who danced over fire and sat on it. The rain started one of the two nights we were there and these guys being caught in the rain decided to be funny and point to the sky as if they were doing a rain dance haha.