The Grotto with Nick

Nick and I decided to plan one last trip together out here right before we head back. We had loads of options of where to go, but in the end, we decided to settle on the simplest possible place... Yes, back to Saipan. Nick has never been before, and I during my previous two visits, I thought the diving and history were a combination he would really like. We had also planned to take a short hop to an even smaller island closer to Guam called Rota... but a week out from our trip the tiny little airline called to tell us all flights were cancelled for the rest of the month because their plane was broken. Apparently that can happen? So we canned Rota and just went to Saipan. After we arrived (30-minute flight!) and got settled, we went straight to the island's premier dive destination, The Grotto:

Always nice when you see one of these guys in the first five minutes of the dive.

I dove the Grotto two years ago when I went with friends, and I remember our guide saying how much different it is to dive at night. So we made a point of diving the Grotto at night and weren't disappointed:

yum yum :)

There are some massive turtles that head into the Grotto's caves to sleep... this one was 4-5 ft. long. Apparently there are some that are even bigger that we didn't see!

Sleeping Napoleon wrasse

parrot fish

Our first minute into the night dive when we were still in the first Grotto cave, Nick was filming a turtle we sighted immediately. As our flashlights swirled around the dark waters, we realized there was a shark... no two sharks... also swimming around! Glad this was not my first night dive with sharks because in this small of a space, that could have been a little crazy :)

 

And yes, the turtle actually ran smack into the camera while Nick was recording :)

More of Nick's impressive macro shots

Pretty gorgeous stuff! The Grotto was well worth the trip back to Saipan for me, and I'm so glad Nick got to dive it before we take off. More to come from Saipan...

Guam Heroes Run 2012

As of Monday morning, we didn't know how the 9/11 Heroes Run was going to go this year. Between change of command and our move, it was a fairly last minute when Nick and I knew for we'd for sure be here to head it up and for his command to agree to support it. As of Monday morning, the T-shirts weren't in and it seemed like friends and commands were calling to say they wouldn't be able to make it.

Tuesday morning had a very different vibe. We woke up to perfect weather. We got to the race site early to set up. I was arranging things on the registration tables and getting things in order (including the T-shirts which came in Monday afternoon... just in time!)... I looked up and there was a huge line of literally a hundred people that appeared out of nowhere to sign up and make a donation. A few minutes later and the parking lot seemed absolutely filled!

Whole commands ended up showing up for the run, including the group of chief selects.

 

We ended up having a great turnout - close to 250 people!

Photo by George W. Rape

Nick gave a pre-race speech and explained the course route.

We headed to the start line (we = everyone but me... someone had to take pictures!)

 And they're off! 5K to go...

 Nick reminded me of the uniqueness of Guam as a Heroes Run race location. The very course these 200+ supporters ran on Tuesday was a battlefield during WWII in which many Americans lost their lives fighting the Japanese to take back Sumay Village and Orote Peninsula.

Hey, look who's crossing the finish line first...

Looks like my guy posted the time to beat... 17:53.

Some of my close friends from my crossfit group came out for the race too. Definitely going to miss these girls. They are amazing athletes.

The rest of the day was filled with comments from people thanking us and the command for organizing the race. And on that note, thanks to the Travis Manion Foundation for including Guam and giving us a meaningful way to honor some amazing people. We were excited to hear that a few people from Nick's command want to continue the race again here next year. And so the 9/11 Heroes Run lives on in Guam.

"If not me, then who?"

I just returned home from one of my last trips to the Commissary here. Standing in line to check out with the next few days' groceries, I glanced at the cover of the recent Stars and Stripes newspaper where I found myself face to face with one of the saddest headlines I have seen in some time:

War-weary US is numbed to drumbeat of troop deaths

Here's an excerpt:

"American troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a pace that doesn't often register beyond their hometowns. So far this year, it's 31 a month on average, or one per day. National attention is drawn, briefly, to grim and arbitrary milestones such as the 1,000th and 2,000th war deaths. But days, weeks and months pass with little focus by the general public or its political leaders on the individuals behind the statistics."

I guess what makes me so sad about this article is knowing how dramatically life has changed for the close friends, colleagues, and family members of the individuals behind the statistics. I get that it's easier to pass all the sadness by when it doesn't touch us personally, but it seems so unfair that the Americans who carry this burden of sacrifice hold such an incomprehensibly enormous share of it.

This Tuesday, Nick's command is hosting the second annual 9/11 Heroes Run here on Guam in support of the Travis Manion Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project. It's a small event... a 5K run that will be over within an hour. We don't know how many people are going to show up at this point. We don't know the sum of the donations we will collect. In fact, we don't even know if the T-shirts and race prizes will be here in time for the actual race.

What we do know is that the community on base around here has been incredibly supportive of this very grassroots event. Last week Nick went around to different commands on base to pass out posters and announce the race. He was met with enthusiasm and and participation and gratitude that such an event was taking place in our little community in this small corner of the world. Everyone I've talked to seems excited about an opportunity to show support for those who have made great sacrifices for our country during these past 11 years.

I hope this 9/11 you too will find a way to celebrate or recognize or grieve or do or be to honor the individuals behind the statistics and support those who carry this burden. I don't know exactly what that looks like, and it will be different for everyone. But please don't let your hearts be numbed to the drumbeat of sacrifice. It will mean so much to those whose share of the burden affects every minute of every day.

And if you wonder why this call is for you, remind yourself of the words Travis Manion spoke explaining why he chose to serve:

"If not me, then who?"

____________________________________________________________________

To donate to the Guam 9/11 Heroes Run in support of the Travis Manion Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/GuamHeroesRun

The Last Fresh Factor Post

If you told me two years ago when we moved here that I would become a local food columnist, a farmer's market regular, and a champion of local agriculture, I would have raised an eyebrow and said, "Who, me? Really?"

Last week I submitted my last Fresh Factor post and wrapped up the local produce column I started writing in March. In all, I have submitted some 24 info-packed, photo-decorated articles to the Guam Guide over the past six months. It's nice to know that some of the tips and tricks it took me two years to figure out around here won't all take off with us when we leave in a couple of weeks. It was also fun to learn that the blog has been syndicated in Korean!

But more than that, the Fresh Factor represents what has turned into a fundamental change in how we now approach health and nutrition. My journey to Thailand where I discovered the value of local produce came just weeks before Nick's command brought a paleo expert out to Guam to speak at a family retreat. A year later, we aren't 100% paleo, but we have adopted many of the principles, such as cutting out wheat and much of the dairy we were consuming before... eating whole rather than processed foods. Generally speaking, we eat a lot less fluff and a lot more green stuff.

The biggest difference for me personally, as I've shared with many of you, is that after 20+ years suffering through seasonal allergies, sneezing and popping Sudafed all the time, my allergies have gone away completely. And I am not nearly as prone to getting sick as I was before. This realization was driven home when Nick and I were sorting through all our drawers and cabinets a few weeks ago. I found an unbelievable amount of medicines I'd bought to treat cold and flu symptoms... they had all expired. But more fascinating was the fact that we hadn't needed hardly any of them in the past year. The only medicine I had purchased since changing our diet was one box of Sudafed for a cold that came while I was traveling after Christmas (and also, coincidentally, after not eating so well during the holidays). That's it.

I took a picture of the medicine because at the time of this discovery, I was filled with so much gratitude for how healthy we have been (I hesitate to write that in case it's an omen to jinx us). To me all of this medicine represents how many times we could have been sick but weren't. And how simple it was to take a major variable out of the health equation simply by eating less crap (and understanding what "crap" is disguised as). It's so obvious that the way to better health is through diet and exercise. The trick is I thought I'd been eating healthy all along until the very principle of what is healthy was redefined.

So without further adieu, here's the final post for the Fresh Factor, which features a weekly calendar spelling out where to go on any particular day to find the good, fresh stuff around here... and a soursop smoothie recipe. I am so glad I had this opportunity to get out in the community more, to tour farms, to try so many tropical flavors, to meet more of Guam's kind and caring local people. There are so many things about this place I feel like I am just starting to figure out right as we're packing our bags.

Three Weeks

I woke up this morning, Tuesday, face to face with the realization that in three weeks from today, Nick and I will board a one-way flight out of here and our time on Guam will have come to its end.

It's weird to be here in this transitionary state. Our house is now a shell of itself, stocked lightly with boonie furniture. It doesn't look or feel anything like home anymore. I still have enough of our kitchen stuff here to cook meals, but it isn't as cozy on the sofas, and watching the beginning of football season on a 20" TV leaves much to be desired. Worst of all is sleeping on a rental bed. I can count on one hand the number of times I have slept through the night since they packed up our bed... our amazingly wonderful bed that we won't see until the end of October (sigh).

To combat the depressing state of our house, we have been spending as much time outside of it as possible. We have changed our patterns up a little bit. During any unfilled chunk of free time in the afternoons, Nick and I have started heading to the beaches around base just to sit there. We watch the coconuts roll through the waves in the rising tide. We harass the tiny hermit crabs as they go about their way. We throw shells and pieces of coral into the sea. We let the sun warm our skin and let the breeze weave through our hair and we look out over the breathtaking view often in pronounced silence. It's as if the more hours we log at these stunning shores the more we can take them with us somehow.

Hermit crab photo shoot

I've started to recognize that every time I do a hike or head to a farther away beach around here, it is likely my last time. We had a pastor visiting our church from off-island this weekend, so a group of youth and young adults from the church took him hiking Sunday afternoon to Talofofo Caves and Waterfall Valley. It hit me as I was at the bottom of the biggest waterfall looking up that this would likely be my last time in beautiful Waterfall Valley. This Sunday will be my last time to sing in church with my friend and coworker Kevin. Last Thursday I submitted my last Fresh Factor post for the Guam Guide. After today I only have one meeting left with my women's Bible study that has carried and lifted me through the last two years.

For the most part, I actually find myself pretty ready to move on. Not having our stuff here, combined with our house's desire to spontaneously start breaking in every possible way (we currently have no A/C for the third day in a row)... all that plus rainy season and winding down at work has created a recipe to naturally shovel us forward into the next realm.

But there are some lasts that I am absolutely dreading... our last Sunday at church... my last youth group... the going away party with our friends.... and most of all, boarding that plane at Guam International Airport one last time. I know our time here is up... we've had our two years and then some. All that was promised has come true. And it has been absolutely wonderful. But it has to be said that when you find yourself in paradise, you wish paradise could go on forever. In our case, paradise will be lost, and it will all happen three weeks from today.

Anniversary Together

Today Nick and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. And what's remarkable about that is not the fact that we've made it seven years... or even that seven years has gone by. What's remarkable is that he was actually here on Guam with me to celebrate in person. We had a pretty low key day. It's Monday. We both went to work and operated among our various separate worlds during working hours.

But then, remarkably, we both came home. Together. We went out to eat for Thai food. We got frozen yogurt. And we came home. Together.

As I wrote in Nick's card earlier thanking him for these incredible two years together, I followed up that thought with, "I don't want it to end!"

And I don't. I don't want this time of being together to come to an end. I want it to go on forever.

One of the things I love about Peyt's Island (which I am also struggling to figure out how to end... but not end), is that I can go back and reread what I have written this time last year. Or in August's case, two years ago. Today marks my third anniversary-related post in which I have summed up significant eras or moments in our dating or married life as a reflection on our anniversary. From 2010, we have Five Years and Counting, the post recapping the journal entry I wrote in 2001 wondering whether or not I could be a navy wife for five years. Having just arrived on Guam, my vision captures the possibilities that our two years ahead would hold, not yet knowing all that was yet to be.

A year later, my whole understanding of being a military spouse had changed. In addition to several other unexpected tragedies that year, our anniversary fell just a few raw weeks after 31 of America's toughest heroes were taken in one tragic moment. And so To Love A Warrior emerged from the depths of my soul, trying to make sense of this enormous risk we military wives take in wearing the ring of someone who carries our heart away with them into dangerous lands, never for sure knowing whether we may get it back. I spent our anniversary in Thailand with a friend, while Nick was in San Diego preparing to attend a heart-wrenching memorial service. 

This seventh anniversary was a simple one. There was no fanfare to brag about or extravagant gifts exchanged. In fact, it rained most of the day. So much so that we didn't go to Two Lovers Point to watch the sunset (we got a "rainset" instead, Nick informed me). We went to a restaurant on Guam that served great food and had a wine list that consisted of "We have red wine and white wine." We joked about boonie dogs and chickens on the side of the road on our way there. We talked about our respective days at work and our upcoming seventh honeymoon.

And then we came home. Together.

Together on Guam at seven years :)

We came home to an empty house, sprinkled with the eyesore of boonie furniture. The only decor is a smattering of anniversary cards from close family that line the microwave, and the tropical flower arrangement we dedicated to our anniversary at church yesterday... resting unceremoniously on our boonie dining table.

And yet even in this empty house, I know I have everything I will ever need. Because me and my favorite friend in the whole world are here together. I can't help but wonder if in the years from now I will look back on today and put it up there with one of our best anniversaries ever.

If only it didn't have to end...

The Fresh Factor: Going Bananas

This Fresh Factor article about bananas posted last week. And now the timing of the headline couldn't be more perfect. This, friends, is why we are going bananas this week:



Only five weeks until go time...