Before dinner:
Rob Watt gave a short devotion and we sang a song before dinner.
The food was plentiful and the line long.
This is what a Guam style Thanksgiving dinner plate looks like. It is mostly the turkey dinner but there is always the addition of rice to any meal. Jen sure looks like she is going to enjoy it!'
I really like taking pictures of our students and they like to get their pictures taken!
I just got back home from the last scheduled PIU staff prayer meeting. It was a potluck. On Tuesday I go to the doctor for my regular check up and I would imagine I have at least gained back the 3 lbs. I lost over the summer! I don't have a scale so I am guessing. I have not been bike riding as much because the sun goes down earlier and earlier every day. By 6:30 PM it's dark.
I know, I remember back in the states, that 6:30 PM sounds like it's late getting dark. I remember those days I went to work in the dark and came home in the dark. Because of the close proximity of the equator (only 13 degrees south of here) the sunrise and sunset does not change dramatically.
I have been on 2 boonie stomps since my last post. The first was to "Sharks Hole" and even though I had my camera with me, all I returned with were some shells. Below is a collage of shells and sea glass. A group of about 40 set out from campus but not all went to Sharks Hole. Some chose to hang around the beach near where we parked.
The surf was high and the rocks were sharp. Most of the trek is a walk on the beach but in one spot there is a lot of very sharp lava rock. On the way out, I bumped into some rocks and got black and blue. On the way back one stomper (who shall remain nameless unless she decides to tell the story) was thrown onto the rocks by a 7 foot rogue wave and required 10 stitches. At the time I was climbing over the rocks assisted by a Department of Agriculture worker. (The people are so friendly and helpful here.)
The DOA workers were starting to look for rhino beetles which are not native and doing damage to palm trees, in the North island and they found some. There has been an erradication program going on for a while in the south part of the island but now they will need to start the same program in the north.
The second was a boonie stop down the "Spanish Steps" which is on the Navy Base. One of the men at the Lutheran Church of Guam stationed at the Navy base arranged and led the stomp. It was an opportunity not to be missed because access to the military bases is very restricted.
At the bottom of the cliff (requiring handy ropes strung for stommpers) is "Spanish Well" which is dry and then a flat hike to the water. Not a sandy beach and the currents were still strong from Typhoon Nino that passed near Guam at least a week ago. That was the reason the waves were so strong on the Shark's Hole stomp.
You may notice that I almost never have any pictures of the stomp itself. Most of the time I am thinking about hiking and not falling -- not taking pretty pictures. So, the pictures are all of the destination. I have no pictures of Shark's Hole because my camera was in a bag I can use underwater or to keep it dry if I happen to get wet. In the trek to Shark's Hole, everything I had with me got sopping wet. It was a bit cool and rainy so I had a sweatshirt on. It got totally wet and weighed about 10 lbs. when I got home and took over a week to dry.
The Spanish Steps were just steep with no place to take pictures safely without holding up the whole group. That's one fun thing about boonie stomps. They are group affairs because it is not something I would do by myself.
Soon it will be the end of 2009. I hope that you enjoy the Christmas season for what it is supposed to be -- not presents and candy canes but to celebrate the birth of Jesus as he came to earth as a man. The purpose of his coming was not for us to have all the trappings of Christmas but to die on the cross so that we might live.
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