Interesting Things on Guam

The college has been blessed with funds to build the pavilion pictured below. What I want you to notice is the forest of posts under the roof. They are what seem like metal jacks holding up the concrete roof while the concrete cures. I was told it would take 21 days to cure. This is with a new kind of concrete. Previously it would take about 4 months to cure.

The forest is now gone and work has continued. I think they are installing electric wire encased in concrete.
The tree below is a very wonderful example of God's creation. The trunk consists of a chaos of trunklets. I can actually see daylight though the trunk. But, from a distance, it looks like one trunk. When I look up in the branches, they are going everywhere, but from a distance it looks like an organized tree. It's like a bush that looks like a tree. Beautiful and strange. Order from chaos.
The rainy season has arrived. I haven't been taking my camera with me bike riding because I don't know if I will get wet. I see lots of people carrying umbrellas. When it rains, it pours, the wind blows, and lasts quite a while. Today it was partly cloudy and didn't rain at all. Last Saturday I got drenched. It's a good thing people don't melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.

I enjoy hearing the rain falling outside or on the roof. It's one of the things the Lord created that I really enjoy -- like I enjoy his sunshine.

Independence Day Fireworks Celebration

Anne Stinnete and I went to see the fireworks display on the Guam Navy base. Following are a few pictures of the display. It was a wonderful time despite the rainy season downpour soon after we arrived at the viewing area. We ended up eating our Jamacian Grill dinner standing up but we stayed dry!

I really need to discover how to take night pictures without the flash. But that would mean reading the book!

Enjoy.......

Random thoughts on Guam

Joyce Owen agrees with me. People complain about the traffic here but we don't think it's as bad as Folsom, CA.

Everyone complains about the bumpy roads. If you really look at it, most of the rough parts are caused by laying pipe across the road and doing a really bad repair job on the pavement (the pavement washboards like dirt roads). But, I don't see much that compares to the parts of Ponderosa Rd in Shingle Springs.

On the other hand, I have run into many many cars whose dome lights don't work (including mine) and my theory is going over oto many bad repair jobs.

Not that there are no pot holes. There is one that cars wouldn't even notice but I hurt after riding through it on my bike. There is grass growing in it.

There are a lot more birds than there were when I was here in Feb. 2008. Sometime between then and last October, sparrows showed up. There are now thousands of them (at a guess). When I arrived in October, it seemed like I only saw them near hotels and restaurants. Now, I see lots of them everywhere I go.

We had a thunder shower on Monday. I am told it is the start of the rainy season. It has been relatively dry and the ants have disappeared, mostly, from my kitchen. I assume that they will reappear in force when it really starts to rain.

I have a TINY kitchen. It's so tiny, the fridge door won't open all the way -- it runs into the stove. There is only one drawer in the cabinet. I didn't bring much and I didn't buy much but I had to expand the kitchen into the dining area because there was no place to store stuff.

My workshop is finally set up. I sometimes have to walk sideways but my tools are all usable.

The flowers are beautiful here as well as the fish at Ypao beach. I will do a post on flowers and one on fish soon. I have a waterproof case to take fish pictures while snorkeling.

Here, if one store is out of something, probably all the rest are also because they all come on the same container ship. I was looking for a "network coupler" and 2 stores were both out. Last week, they were still out.

If you see something you like, grab it, there may not be any when you run out. For example, if I see chocolate chip mini morsels, or fat free cheese, or fat free dress, or half and half, I grab it and freeze it.

I like discount bins at the grocery store. I get sandwich meat and freeze it, yogurt, and other things. Just don't pay any attention to the expiration date.

I was taught to always freeze bread. It will turn green in the fridge before you can eat it if you don't. Keep rice in the fridge, they get bole weavels (bugs) if you don't and it is a pain to pick them out of the rice. Much easier to just refrigerate it. Long grain Jasmine rice from Thailand is the best when cooked in a rice cooker. California rice is short grain and it makes a real mess of the cooker even if you wash the raw rice.

A rice cooker is an essential part of kitchen equipment. Pour in the rice, water, plug it in, and push the cook button. The switch pops when it's done. Yum. I never ate rice in the states. Here, I never buy potatoes.

Any other kind of food needs to be in the freezer, fridge, or sealed containers -- or the bugs WILL get it.

I am told potatoes grow here - the purple and orange ones. Cherry tomatoes grow really well here. They are sold in the grocery stores but aren't any cheaper. I gotta start farming in a pot.

Cochroaches here are about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. I have seen only one in my apartment and it was alive. I smashed it wth the first thing that came to hand, and then I had to wash the floor and the masher tool. I was told that I then needed to either throw it outside or flush it because dead isn't dead. All the others I have seen have been dead.

There are gecko's everywhere. They are not the cute green ones like in Hawaii. They are a light tan and poop on things and run across peoples ceilings. I have one living behid my refrigerator. Probably helps keep the bugs down.

There are also little lizzards running around everywhere inside and out. One time I saw a monitor lizard about 1 foot long - it ran into the Men's Dorm. I don't know how it was ejected.

Bannana's grow everywhere here. I am spoiled by the taste of the local bannana. The commercial ones in the stores have no taste in comparison.

Guam Sunsets

I have been riding my new bicycle around the UOG (University of Guam) campus and have seen some pretty nice sunsets and cloud formations. Last week I took my camera every evening and took pictures of the sunset. This is the result:

Sunday, May 24, 2009


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009


Saturday, May 30, 2009

It had been raining but it sure looks like a grass fire to me. Of course, it may not have rained where the smoke was.


A different sort sunset with rain in the area.


Sunday, May 31, 2009

What do I do at PIBC

The Lord has showered me with blessings here at PIBC. I can think of no other words for it. Teachings in patience and all of the people I have worked with have been so patient and kind -- even when I make things that used to work not work anymore. This has happened more than once.

Sometimes it seems like I work on anything that plugs in a wall: PC's, laptops, the phone system, the fax machine, the network, and overhead projectors, PC projectors, printers, copiers needing toners and drums. It really makes this job interesting. Although a lot of what I do I forget about soon afterward, there are a few projects I will not soon forget.

In Feb/Mar of 2008, I visited PIBC for 3 weeks to work on computer issues and to find out if I should come back more permanently. While I was here, the network connection from the Study Center to the PIBC office area just quit working one morning. Electronic equipment seem to do this regularly in this tough on electronic equipment location. The network cable was wired through conduits around the building (a very long way). In order to get the office back up on the Internet quickly, a wirless router was installed using a network cable wasn't being used at the moment.

The office was running on using wireless internet exclusively for over a year. It became evident that the office computers really need to be hardwired for shared data (I have received quite a number of comments about "SlowBooks" or "NoBooks"). Now Tim Plaxton has installed Cat 5 cables to the 4 most important PCs to network together and it then took a few hours to put the cable ends. Now I am told they have "FastBooks" and the Internet is quicker and more reliable.

Below is a picture of the entire office network hardware except for the cable modem. It consists of a wireless router, the 16 port switch, and a fan (this is Guam which is very tropical) to keep things cool.

Another project that has helped or Internet access is moving the MCV Cable from an office at the other end of the Administration/Classroom building to the office area. It is a long project that I will not soon forget.

A long time ago, MCV Cable was installed. At the time PIBC had the choice of underground conduit installation or overhead. Alas, the decision was made to go overhead (which was cheaper). This resulted in the pictures in my previous post showing the wire draped over roofs and sagging in the middle. MCV came and discovered a conduit that went to the utility pole where they needed it. I'm not sure why it was put there in the first place but it was empty!
It took a while before MCV came back because it was the dry season and there have been grass fires. MCV needed to fix service for folks with no service before working on projects like ours. One day they arrived and put new cable through the conduit and a couple of days later it was hooked up and working. I spent a quick half hour swapping the router and connection points and we were back up and running with really great service from MCV pictured below.



Then there is the project to move the Study Center which is called on campus the "Dinex". Tim did his part of stringing Cat 5 cable with very long ends at my request because I was just lea ring how to put the ends on. I got the first half all hitched up and most of the updates done. Then one of the brand new pieces of equipment (a wireless router) ceased to work. Progress was dead in the water for weeks. Finally I got the new wireless router and every started working again.



Unfortunately, weeks had past. I had to start all over with the windows updates and other updates. Yesterday I found out that Microsoft released Vista Service Pack 2!!! Now I have to go back and update everything again.

The route used to get Internet to the Dinex is very interesting (to me anyway). The Dinex is built from 3 shipping containers. Therefore, it is literally a tin can. Wireless doesn't penetrate. For my cell phone to work, I usually put it on a window sill.

Here is a diagram of the route to the internet connection in the library. After getting the replacement wireless router, I made sure it stays cool. It is sitting on a cooling rack with a fan blowing on it.

We also have GTA telephone and DSL. GTA was extremely helpful helping me determine that what was wrong with our DSL was the wireless router. It has been a very reliable system to work with except in the past week or so we have had sporadic problems with multiple phone numbers and DSL as well. I understand work was being done out on the main "back road" which seems to have disrupted our service in a weird fashion. So far, today, everything seems to be back to normal.

Living on Guam is an adventure and lesson in patience. I was so used to California where things pretty much worked with great regularity. TV, internet, power, telephones. Here, most of the time utilities are reliably on but then again mysteriously things go wacky. For several weeks the power went off for 5 - 10 minutes just about every day. Now I haven't lost power for a couple of weeks. The Lord is really teaching me things about myself -- to rely on Him because a lot of times relying on me just doesn't do any good. Another ongoing lesson is working with godly people on a daily basis -- there really is a difference.

Now I am going to post this now without going over it yet again.

PIBC Graduation

It has been a busy couple of weeks culminating in Commencement exercises today.

Sonny Kenbaroy gave the valditorian speach. I have had the joy of getting to know Sonny in the last couple of months as he has been about the office and working with him to create graduation invitations for the seniors.

The graduation speaker was Chief Obaklechol Kuniwo Nakamura from Palau. He served in the Palau public service for many years including two terms as the President of the Republic of Palau. He has served in numerous public capacities and is currently a businessman and consultant. In addition, he is Chief Obaklechol, the first ranking chief of Ngerchol Hamlet in Peleliu State. By virtue of his title he is a member of the Peleliu State Legislature.

He gave a great speach encouraging the students in Christian service and living and insight into some of the problems they will encounter as Christians in Micronesia. It was a very interesting and informative speach to me as I learn about Micronesian cultures.

Micronesian's really know how to honor the graduates with colorful lei's. I really enjoyed running around snapping some pictures of the graduates.



Sonny is getting married next Sunday to the lovely lady.

Parking Lot Cat Update

I am sorry to say that when I took the parking lot cat to the vet because he was looking so ill, that he had full blown feline AIDS. He was suffering, so I had him put to sleep.

The vet I took Parking Lot Cat told me he did an informal survey catching feral cats and testing them for FIV and 50% tested positive. So, if you live on Guam, I would urge you to get your cat inoculated if your cat goes outside.

Parking Lot Cat was so ill that I did not really get to know his personality. I bet he would have made a great pet. He was fixed. So, he was someone's cat sometime and he was used to people.