Obyan Beach with the Doggos

Playing around with the GoPro a couple weeks ago:

• Video 1
• Video 2 (starts getting exciting right around the 3:00 mark; excitement stops shortly thereafter)

Sex(ual Harassment)-On-The-Beach

At the beach today, just sitting in the water with the dogs, beach "security guard" walks over. He's maybe in his late twenties and seems friendly enough, so we make small talk for a second, then this:

Him: Be careful out there. Are you here with someone?

Me: Yes [looking at my dogs]. We come here all the time. I don't swim by the reef anyway.

Him: I mean besides your dogs?

[I ignore the question, hoping he'll get the hint.]

Him: Where did you park?

Me: [Thinking maybe he has the authority to ask as part of his job] Over there - Why? Is that a problem?

Him: [Shrugs.] It's fine... You aren't here with anyone? Your husband or your fiancé?

Me: I'm here with my dogs. [In fact, there are only 3 other people on the beach, and they clearly are not with me.]

Him: Why isn't your husband or fiancé with you?

Me: I came here to be alone [hint hint] with my dogs.

Him: Do you have a husband or fiancé?

[I pause, just to let him sit in the awkwardness for a second.]

Me: That's a very personal question. 

Him: I was just wondering because... usually I see people here with their husbands and their dogs.

Me: Uh huh. 

Him: But you're just here alone, so I was just checking.

Me: Right. Well, clearly I'm fine.

Him: I guess you're just independent [smirking]. 

Me: Yeah... gotta go give them some water so... [walking away].

If you're a man reading this, you may not understand why it's worth a blog post. If you're a woman, on the other hand, you know. We deal with this shit all of our lives, on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. It's more than an annoyance too. It destroys the atmosphere because your guard has to go up. Why did he want to know where my car was parked? Is he going to try to follow me? Or will he be out there when I get to my car? 

Of course, I push those thoughts aside and try to enjoy the day, but I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, checking to see if he's watching me. Yeah, he's probably just an awkward guy. He's not local; maybe he grew up in a culture where men and women don't interact much until marriage, so he just doesn't know how to talk to women. I don't know. 

But one thing is certain: my marital status was none of his damned business. 

Pizza Delivery

Interesting aspect of #IslandLife: ordering pizza. We have a Pizza Hut, but last couple times I had a craving and called them, they were not accepting any more delivery orders for the night because the one driver had too many pizzas to deliver. 

When there is a driver available and you place your order, the next step of course would be providing your street address. But here, we do not have street addresses.  I'm told every street has a name, but no one really knows them. (We call our main roads "Beach Road," "Back Road," and "Middle Road.") So, without using any actual street names, you tell the Pizza Hut operator how to get to your street. And then you describe your house and maybe your car if it is parked outside, since there aren't any house numbers. Those directions are entered into their system (in full) for future orders. (When you get your receipt, your directions are printed out on it for the driver.) 

Island directions are a language in and of themselves, like "turn right on the gravel road after the mom-and-pop [store]," or, "left at the cemetery and keep going until you pass the chicken farm," or "back where the old McDonald's used to be [a decade or so ago]?"

Now I guess I'll return to reading the news while I wait for my pizza to arrive...

By Air and By Sea

By Air...

The flight from Saipan to Tinian takes less than ten minutes from takeoff to landing, so I recorded the whole thing.

...And By Sea

My friend Ike took me on an exhilarating ride on a small boat across the open sea from Tinian to Saipan.

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

Beach Videos

My Favorite Beach on Tinian (on the Planet, actually)

Enjoying a Really Low Tide with the Dogs at Obyan Beach, Saipan

Lovely Obyan Beach, Saipan

Exploring Obyan Beach with the Dogs

Toads in a Hole

The most amazing thing happened tonight. It may not seem amazing to everyone; I'm not sure it would have seemed amazing to me before I moved to this island. But one of the pleasures of living in a tropical haven is enjoying all the natural surroundings: exotic plants, bright blue water, soft, pink coral sand, and, of course, the wildlife. 

Earlier this evening, the dogs and I saw our little toad who lives in the backyard with his mama. He was squatting right next to a baseball-sized hole in the yard (perhaps an old well or something?) and looked right at us before hopping directly into the hole. It seemed strange that an animal would instinctively do something so counterintuitive, but I guessed that he must know a way out that I couldn't see from above ground.

A few hours later, I was making a little fire out back and decided to look in the hole with my headlamp. In the bottom of the hole, maybe four feet down, was little toad. When he looked up at the light, however, I noticed another set of black eyes underneath him: his mama! She was stuck down there and he'd gone in after her!

I tried using sticks to help them out, but they seemed lethargic, resigned to their fate. I knew I could not let them die like that, but how do you get two big toads out of a little hole in the ground without hurting them?

Finally, I remembered that toads are amphibious (thank you, fourth grade science teacher), so I filled a bucket with water and returned to the hole. I was really scared as I poured the water on top of our little toad family - are they too dehydrated to swim? Is there enough room in the hole for mama to stretch her limbs? Would they drown before they had a chance to surface?

For a few seconds, I held my breath, waiting for a toad to pop out of the now-flooded hole, but nothing happened. An air bubble floated to the surface and I realized I had to do something fast; I grabbed the stick I'd been trying to fish them out with earlier and gently slid it down the murky well until I felt resistance. I jiggled it slightly, not really sure whether it was helping or hurting the situation, when suddenly two air bubbles floated to the surface, followed by little toad!

I was so happy when he jumped out of the water - I half expected him to gasp a big breath of air like a mammal would- but he just hopped away. Mama was still down below. I wasn't sure about her. She's an awfully fat toad, and I figured I'd have to somehow turn her sideways to get her swimming. Anyway, I had to try.

After jiggling the stick around for a few seconds, I actually felt her move a bit, and a couple air bubbles rose to the surface. I slid the stick down further and somehow managed to pull her up enough that she could extend her legs. Almost immediately, her big ole toad nose broke the surface of the water. Mama was free!

She hopped away into the night, toward the coconut tree stump where I'm sure little toad was waiting, and hoping.

Article in the Saipan Tribune

"Granddaughter of WWII Veteran Explores Missed Connections," Saipan Tribune, Dec. 4, 2015