Dear
friends, family, and readers:
My mission in blogging is not only
to write about our lives in Saipan, but to also inform and research things I
find interesting about Saipan. This blog is primarily comprised of pictures
with explanations attached that show different aspects of our lives in Saipan I
find interesting.
Kalebrera
Cave is a well know cave on Saipan. It
has ancient Chamorro paintings on its walls and is somewhat special in that
sense. The Chamorro have called Saipan
their home for over 4,000 years, it is not surprising to see such pictures
inside. The picture I took isn’t that
good, but I tried to capture the eerie skull face that appears inside the cave
if you know where to look. Can you see
it?
Eric
W. Johnson (related to one of my students at school) has two pages that talk
about his experiences with the caves. He
has a lot of great galleries to look through on his blog.
Picture 2: Coral (gravel) Pit of
Saipan, MP
Simple
picture of a pit they use for coral/limestone road construction and other
things. One cannot actually go down into
the pit because it is private property and the gate is barred.
Picture 3: Water Jug Creation a.k.a.
Curly
On
Saipan, we get our drinking water from companies that sell 5 gallon water
jugs. Once you buy a jug at full price
you can have it refilled for only $2.00 or $2.50 if you decide to go to a gas
station or have it delivered to your door.
Because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on decorations at our
school apartment, I thought I would hot glue gun the caps of these bottles
together. I found that in order to make
it stronger I stick the caps onto a card board back. If you really want to make them strong you will
poke holes in them and tie them with string instead and skip the hot glue… in
reality it would probably be quicker and more effective than gluing them… oh
well… live and learn I guess. Curly is
made out of 44 caps (a total of
$110/220gallons) and two Pringles caps haha. It is definitely something fun one can do on
rainy days in Saipan, the catch is you need to collect a lot of caps either
from school or from your friends in order to do it… I have one other bottle cap creation that is
about to fall apart in our bathroom…it is a large cross. I may repair it when it breaks by attaching string
to it so that the glue holds longer.
Picture 4: A Filipino Bush Cutter
(otherwise known from some misguided horror story)
This
guy was cutting the grass around our school and is not the most creepy one I’ve
seen on island as every guy has their own unique style of protective gear
(sometimes the lack there of makes them even creepier). In Saipan, we don’t really “mow” grass so
much as keep it extremely short using large gas powered weed whackers. I do not
know how these guys wear such heavy clothing in the heat; it will forever
remain a mystery to me. If it didn’t
rain so much maybe it would be easier to mow and keep grass short… Not only is their outfit scary (as I think
about Halloween coming up), but if they don’t see you they continue to cut
grass which leaves one vulnerable to being hit with sticks, pebbles, and diced
lizards.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and my silly quips about Living Life in Saipan. Kara and I have lot of stuff coming up so there will be more blogs in the near future. I will also hopefully have more time to explore the island. I was going to go this weekend, but it is so rainy today the jungle would be hot and slippery. I may go looking for sea shells today at some beach or I may just sit at home and clean/watch movies and what not. Perhaps Sunday will provide me more time to go exploring in the jungle... That's life from Saipan!
Sincerely, Grant
The Time in Saipan is Guam Time:
