I bet 1 Fijian dollar...

At the beginning of 2010, Brian and I, our friend Julie and her parents, and our friends Cat and Jimmy spent a couple of days in Fiji. Our trip consisted of relaxing at the resort, an inland cultural tour, and a day on a sail boat. Our friend Julie is quite the jokester. The entire trip she would say, "I bet you 1 Fijian dollar that you won't ..." (One Fijian dollar is worth about 50 cents.)

The Fijians used to be cannibals. Actually, the last practicing cannibal died in the 1950s...so pretty recently. Most cannibal meals were for revenge or ritual and not for basic sustenance. For instance, there is a true story of a Christian missionary who was eaten. It is a huge disrespect to ever touch a chief's head. The missionary grabbed a comb that was in the chief's hair and that was the end for him. They ate him, everything. They even tried to eat his boots without success. The surviving boots are in a museum in Fiji. This occurred in the 1800s. Another odd cultural fact is that the chiefs could have multiple wives, AND all of his wives were buried alive with him when he died.

Today's Fijians appeared to be pretty poor. They have an unemployment rate of 30%. (These trips always remind me how much I have to be thankful for!) Lots of Indians live on the island too. The original Indians in Fiji were imported by the British as slave labor to cultivate sugar cane, and today many of their descendants remain.

Here are some photos from our trip:

RELAXING AT THE HOTEL

the nightly fire dance

sunset from our hotel

Brian and Jimmy played chess and had too many beers while Cat and I went to the spa...

some chess pieces were missing, so they had to substitute beers

cooling off in the pool

INLAND VILLAGE CULTURAL TOUR

we saw a ton of waterfalls traveling inland on the "long boat"

packed in on the "long boat"

a quick swimming spot on the way to the inland village

one of the villagers waiting for our arrival

Cat and I posing with some villagers

this was the village's health clinic

along the path in the village

doing one of their war dances

lunch in the village (probably where we all picked up the stomach bug)

the villagers farewell song

SAILING

our boat anchored in front of the island where Castaway was filmed

Julie was driving the sail boat!

at an island stop along the sailing trip

part of our crew (Cat, Jimmy, Brian, me and Julie's mom Sue)

Tweed's Cave and Double Reef Beach

You can hike to a secluded beach here on Guam and have the entire place to yourself. It is very relaxing. Last Sunday, Brian and I hiked to Double Reef Beach. We packed water, snacks, sun screen, and books for the adventure. The hike to Double Reef beach was about 2.4 miles and about 340 feet down through the limestone forest. We were the only people there although we did pass one family on our hike out. We crossed spider webs every couple of feet. Brian isn't a big fan of spiders and the hike was a little stressful for him...

On the trail to Double Reef beach, we passed Tweed's cave. Here's a little description of Tweed's cave from "The Best Tracks on Guam":

Nearby is where US Navy radioman George Tweed hid from the Japanese during most of their World War II occupation of Guam. He successfully evaded the Japanese with the help of Chamorros. From October 22, 1942 until his rescue by the US Navy destroyer McCall on July 10, 1944, he was sheltered by Antonio Artero in an isolated rocky crevice within the coastline cliffs on Antonio's ranch.

From what I understand, Tweed was radioing information to the US about what the Japanese were doing on Guam. The day he escaped, he radioed the Navy boat near Guam. When he could see the boat from the shore, he swam out to meet the boat.

the top of the trail

me reading on the beach

Brian reading

the secluded, shady beach

Do you see the monitor lizard?

a common tree along the trail

the limestone forest

coconut palms

me looking for the most stable route

Our Christmas Tree

Since the cat has a knack for climbing the tree, I have sparsely decorated this year. I left off some of my favorite ornaments and also most of the ornaments that are either heavy or breakable. Although I bought a fake tree this year (my first fake tree), it seemed to turn out pretty well. The real trees that I've bought over the last 2 years have died and turned brown very quickly. I am sure this is because the trees are shipped to Guam on a boat! The bottom of our tree was pretty bare until this past week...we've received all kinds of packages in the mail from our family. And, we were very excited to put them under the tree!

Ypao in the tree

tree with packages!

Rota Walk 2009

On the air force base, there is a street where most of the commanders live. As you get to the circle at the top of the hill, the houses get bigger until you get to largest, which is the base general's house. If you live on this street, Rota Drive, you are required to decorate your house with Christmas lights for a night called Rota Walk each year. Everyone turns on the lights, the street is shut down, and revelers walk up and down the street to check everything out. Rota Walk this year was crazy; it seems like everyone tried to outdo each other.

Most of the commanders yards/houses were themed to reflect their squadrons. For instance, the Chaplain had a live nativity complete with band. Brian's commander had an old bull dozer and a crane in his yard decorated with Christmas lights. Our other RED HORSE friends had Santa in a man lift and a bobcat scooping up lit presents! The air mobility command had a miniature C-17 attached to a zip line that went over the street. As kids came by, the mini C-17 crossed the street and dropped candy! The combat communications guy had a children's Christmas movie playing on a huge satellite dish in his yard. One guy had a life-size parachuting Santa. Another commander had a miniature airfield lit up in his yard complete with air traffic control tower and a blow up plane landing with Santa. The head doctor had two machines shooting foam out over the street...it looked just like snow. And then the general had carabao rides in front of his house. These people were giving out Italian ice, chili, temporary RED HORSE tattoos, and more!

Unfortunately, it was hard to get a decent photo of the lights but I've attached a couple.

Some of our other friends, who are Jewish, live at the end of the street. They were a little irritated that they had to decorate for Christmas and spent nearly $1000 on lights...

Carabao rides

the mini C-17 in the upper right hand corner

Brian's commander's RED HORSE and antique dozer

a 360 view of the street

RED HORSE 2009 Year in Review

If you are interested in what Brian does at work, check out the attached video.

Craig Morgan Comes to Guam

While I was at work yesterday, I got an email announcing that Craig Morgan, the country music singer, was going to be performing at our base amphitheater at 7 PM. SWEET! The mini-concert was sponsored by the USO and free for everyone. It turned out to be very different from concerts that I have attended in the past. First of all, there were only a couple hundred of us there. Second, there was no real boundary...I could have walked right up to the stage. And third, we sat only 50 feet from the stage! It was GREAT! Apparently, Craig is a huge supporter of the military and actually used to be in the army himself.

This leads me to another subject: Most of you probably only associate the USO with Bob Hope and concerts in Iraq or Afghanistan, right? I definitely used to think the same thing, but they actually do a lot more. USO blog forthcoming...

Brian gets the nickname "Woody" from Toy Story

me and my cowboy hat!

GEAR Race - December 2009

There are a series of races on Guam called Guam Extreme Adventure Races. The first six are short, and then the grand finally can last almost 24 hours. The racers follow a trail through the jungle marked with chalk, flour, and red flagging. Yesterday, Brian participated, and the race was super muddy...check out the photos below.

our friend Julie before the race

the trail head

Brian, his partner Matt, Julie, and her partner Noemie

Matt and Brian

The Three Wolves Shirt

Our friend sent me an email several weeks ago. The email stated, "Kate, I sent Brian a package; do not throw its contents out." We got the package and this beauty of a shirt was inside. Brian has worn it proudly, even to his office Thanksgiving party. The real mystery of the shirt was revealed when I saw some of the reviews on Amazon.com. Here are a couple of the reviews...there are over 4,000.

Dual Function Design, November 10, 2008

By	B. Govern "Bee-Dot-Govern" (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to 'howl at the moon' from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.

Great compliment for my skin art, May 19, 2009

By	overlook1977 (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

Unfortunately I already had this exact picture tattooed on my chest, but this shirt is very useful in colder weather.

I think some of the benefits are exagerrated, May 8, 2009

By	Go Down, Moses

So I got this wolf shirt because of, you know, the sweet wolves on it.

However, having owned this shirt for three weeks now and having tried it out in a variety of situations, both formal and informal, I'm beginning to believe that some of the benefits ---- as described by other reviewers ---- are exaggerated. For example, not ONE supermodel has approached me. Some of you may be used to having supermodels approach you on a regular basis but, believe me, I am not: I would notice one should she appear in my vicinity.

Similarly, I have not been invited to a vision quest, even though I wore my wolf shirt in New Mexico.

There is one thing, though, and that is that whenever I wear the wolf shirt I have a lot less issues with involuntary urination. I have not studied it long enough, however, to establish a cause/effect relationship.

Once, however, while wearing the wolf shirt I was mistaken for Schneider, the building superintendent on "One Day at a Time."

So I guess the jury is still out.

Underwater Pumpkin Carving??!!!

Our friend Julie and Brian entered the underwater pumpkin carving contest. Here are some of the photos...

the pumpkin on the left won 'funniest pumpkin'

this one is Julie's

notice this one has a scuba mask in it

just before the hour long underwater carving session

Habitat for Humanity's Quiz Nite

On Friday night, we did Habitat for Humanity's quiz nite again. Our team got 2nd place in the costume contest, but we didn't do very well on the trivia...

brian was a good sport!

the pacman cast

brian is going for 5000 banana points

Clyde and Pinky

Blinky and Pacman