Tour of Guam

This morning I woke up at 5:30am which I think is going to be the usual for this trip. I laid in bed and thought about trying to go back to sleep, but it was clearly not going to happen. I knew the second half the day I was going to have to start working, so I put on my swimsuit and headed out to the beach.

The Communications Specialist for Western SARE is this nice woman who lives in California. She brought with her an extra snorkeling set for me to use so I wouldn’t have to rent one.  The bay that the hotel is in is protected from fisherman, so the snorkeling is supposed to  be amazing. And it was!  I couldn’t believe that at 6am the water was still the temperature of bath water.  I saw a fish about the length of my foot to my knee, that was stick straight and silver, it didn’t look like a swordfish, but just a silver stick.  It was so cool!  There was fish that were neon green and neon pick spotted.  A school of these large fish was coming right at me and they just split in half and when right around me. That was awesome! But the funniest part was that one of the first fish I came upon was a blue fish.  It was sort of on its own, but there were a few other fish in sight. I started swimming towards me and I was excited to see it so close up! Then I realized, this fish had NO fear. It sort of lunged at me and I swam backwards, putting some distance between us. Then it did it again and got so close that it freaked me out and I had to thrash around to stand up!

That was a great way to start my day, because the rest of it did not go so good.

After my snorkeling adventure, I came back, showered, and grabbed some breakfast.  Some of the members on the Administrative Council (our board of directors that we work for) said they were going to rent a car and drive around the island and do some sight-seeing. I joined them and it was a hoot.  It was 4 men all at least in their upper 50’s and older and one woman who is 65. These 4 men were just bickering and teasing each other the whole drive which was fun.

 

They paint the bottoms of all the coconut trees and power lines white, we think it has something to do with pest protection.

 

 Some thick vegetation giving us sneak peeks of the ocean

 Being on an island is still hard for me to wrap my head around!

 Some houses on the hillside

 Apparently teeter-tottering is dangerous enough on Guam you need to slow down...

 Due to typhoons, everything is made out of cement, down to their roofs. This is the plainest bus stop I saw, most of them are painted different colors and have some sort of art.

 We saw this pig appear out of no where, then suddenly there were...

 THREE BABIES! They were SO cute!

 I wanted to pick them up so bad! They came right up to us. However the thought of fleas entered my mind and I decided against it. But SO CUTE!

We went and saw a lot of the historical sights and all I heard was, you weren’t even born at this time, you have probably never even heard of this, etc. which I guess was nice to hear since I am still adjusting to saying “I’m 25”. I have to say that for most of the drive, I think I was experiencing culture shock. I just couldn’t comprehend what my eyes were seeing, it didn’t feel real.  The pictures will have to speak for themselves.

The big thing they all wanted to see was Yoiki’s Cave. I in my young age had never heard this story, but here is the background: Shōichi Yokoi was a Japanese sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during the Second World War. He was among the last three Japanese holdouts to be found after the end of hostilities in 1945, discovered in the jungles of Guam on 24 January 1972, almost 28 years after US forces had regained control of the island in 1944.

 Here is the layout of the cave... it's crazy to think about.

 Yokoi came back to Guam for the memorial of his cave a few years later, he is top center in the blue shirt.

Here is the entrance to one cave

 This gives you a different perspective of the size of it.  They say it was so well hidden, no one would have EVER found it (clearly they didn't for 27 years)

 It was right next to the Talofoa river.

 This is opening of the cave on the other side.

 Another mural of the cave

We went to see this cave and it is pretty impressive! I just can’t comprehend this man living like this for 28 YEARS!  They people on the island have turned this sight into an amusement park almost. You ride a monorail down to get to the cave.  They also have a bumper cars, a little museum, and a ghost ride… it looked like something off of a Scooby Doo episode. It was old, and there wasn’t a soul around!

 These are some of the weirdest trees I've ever seen.. They grow branches upward like a normal tree, and also grow root/branches towards the ground.

 BAMBOO!

 The first set of waterfalls down the Talafoa river

 We had to walk across 2-3 suspension bridges to get to the cave

 

Ghetto and Glamor next door to each other.

 The catholic church on the island, really beautiful!

 The water is SO clear and warm! The waves break quite a ways off shore which is nice!

 I thought this was so beautiful. There was this little bay and what looked like part of some abandoned bridge. It was too perfect not to take a picture of.

 I don't have a lot of pictures of myself from today, but one of the other guys got lots of group pictures he said he'd give me. I love the contrast of the ocean and blue sky, it is breathtaking!

We went and saw a few of the war memorial sites as well, but I won't reveal all of my pictures or we'll have nothing to talk about when I get home... if I come home :)

Once we got back from the sightseeing, the madness began. I walked into the ballroom where the main meeting was being held tonight and was told that all of the folders containing the conference materials never arrived, as well the printer we shipped…. So we couldn’t even print off the conference materials when they didn’t show up. I was sick. We spent so much time and money having these folders professionally made and printed, and the communications specialist spent months on the programs and other documents.  It was probably the most important box we needed and of course didn’t show up.

Phil, my boss, was just frantic. Luckily his wife is here and she is one heck of a woman. It was decided that the programs were the bare necessity, so she went to a copy center and had some more programs printed.  We’ve run out of everything else too; lanyards, pens, name tags, etc. even after we packed extra of everything. I felt like we prepared so long and hard for this conference, and things are not going as planned. But as my wise companion Sister Thompson once said, “Life is messy, make plans in pencil”. 

Luckily the staff at the hotel has been BY FAR the most amazing hotel staff I’ve EVER seen. They have gone above and beyond. They have let us use their ribbon to make our own lanyards and we’ve made name tags by hand.  It sure isn’t pretty, but luckily, the islanders are not picky people.

It has been extremely interesting to meet all of the people from different islands.  They have flown in from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, American Samoa, Yap, Chuuk, Saipan, Pohnpei and Rota.  Even though these islands are all in the same region and have generally the same climate, they all face such DIFFERENT issues when it comes to agriculture.  I love being at the registration table because I get to know each one of their names and faces- though I can’t pronounce most of their names!  Despite all of the hiccups, the information from the speakers is most important and l think the conference will still be a success.

However this is only the first 2 hours of the conference-- we still have two days to go!