The Fresh Factor: Cilantro Solution!

This is the next stop on my farm tour of Guam... Marianne's Nursery, home of culantro, the magic secret to getting fresh cilantro flavor out here. Loving this gig! Check out this most recent article at The Guam Guide!

Cocos Island and Coral Gardens

It's been a while since I've posted any dive pictures here. Specifically, it's been almost four months... not coincidentally, the exact same amount of time since Nick and I went to Palau. We had heard the rumors that after diving Palau, diving in Guam (or just about anywhere) is ruined. Our amazing experience there confirmed those rumors, so we hung up our BC's for a while.



Nick and I have still been out snorkeling and exploring on the weekends and even some weeknights, but we don't usually bring our camera anymore. Two reasons. One: I have already shared here many of the places we go. Second reason: There's a law of nature that if you don't have a camera, you are more likely to see awesome stuff. That was true on our dive this past Saturday afternoon at Gun Beach, when we saw an octopus in the rocks within the first sixty seconds of our dive. I haven't seen an octopus in the water in ages, and since they hide in rock crevices, they are usually pretty easy to photograph. Bummer.

Meet Anet... hi!

Today I did a boat dive with a new friend of mine, Anet, who is also trying to get in more dives before they move back to the States in August. With Nick off island this week (getting hit by the super typhoon in Japan... awesome!), I figured I'd take advantage of this completely free week and go. I debated on whether or not to bring the camera, but I am so glad I did!

Our first dive off Cocos Island we saw a turtle, a spotted eagle ray, and a white tip reef shark. I felt like Guam was showing off a bit, as if to say, "Okay, maybe I'm not Palau, but I'm still awesome." Message heard, loud and clear.  Here are some of the shots:

This guy swam right up to us... hi!

At 2 ft.+, this is one of the biggest puffer fish I have ever seen. I didn't think it was a puffer because I'd never seen one with spots and a thin tail like this.  I showed the guide these pictures. He said a head this puffy has got to be a puffer...

 

Lots of butterfly fish 

and all kinds of fish

Big conch shell

Plenty of gorgeous blue starfish

Our next dive was to Coral Gardens. When Nick and I had our boat we only dove here once or twice. It's close to shore and a few odd reef breaks, so the visibility isn't usually as good as some of the other nearby sites. There aren't any turtles, sharks or rays hanging out in these parts, so it's not as spectacular in terms of marine life. I would usually turn my nose up at the mere suggestion of this place. I feel like the ocean taught me a lesson today. 54 minutes here flew by like seconds. There was so much to see! The corals here really are gorgeous.

The corals rise up out of the soft white sand, fold after fold, and keep going as far as the underwater eye can see. Tucked away among the folds are little hiding creatures.  

Vibrant colors

Beautiful shapes and textures.

And then this...

 This giant spiny sea slug... it is about 2.5 feet long and hanging off this coral shelf, swaying in the current. These things aren't that rare, but usually they are plopped on the ground somewhere, not moving. This one was a sight. And it was slightly massive.

Here's one of my favorite moments from the day... this starfish hugging its lounge chair... 

And that wraps up this most recent round of diving... and brings me to 75 total dives. I have now spent over 50 hours of my life breathing under water. That's 50 hours alone with just my thoughts and my breath, contemplating this fascinating world teeming with such colorful and curious life. I continue to find myself amazed.

Joining In The Fun!

A few months ago back in February, my dear friend Sara, who I've known since high school, wrote a blog post with this same title. Sara of These Lees is one of the wittiest people I have ever met, and she was one of the first close friends I knew to keep a blog going. In fact, her blog is what inspired me to start Peyt's Island in the first place, so I suppose I owe her a big high five for that (or our firstborn... until they're potty-trained). In addition to having a wildly entertaining, gorgeously styled blog, Sara is also a full-time accountant and has a toddler. How she still has time to write so cleverly is beyond me, but I'm so very glad she does because it makes these 9,000 miles between us almost disappear (almost... sigh).

Anyhoo, I was reading along as I religiously do, and came across the explanation about the blog award Sara was given by another blogger. I was so proud of my friend for receiving a Liebster Blog Award! It was her turn to award her five favorite bloggers, and I happen to be one of them. Can't say I'm surprised. I mean, who wouldn't want to read about rummage sales and mending? Well, it's my turn to award some truly deserving and well written bloggers with a Liebster Blog Award. Here's the gist:

"Liebster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea of the Liebster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers in the hopes that it will bring many new friends/followers. So, in the spirit of good fun I am passing this award on to five other bloggers."

 The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare- other bloggers.
5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!

The hard part is only choosing five. But here goes!

1) The Tofu Fox - My friend who identifies herself as the Tofu Fox just started this hilarious and informative blog about being a military spouse stationed in Japan. Even if you are not a military spouse and are not ever planning to step foot in Japan, this blog will still have you marveling at the unbelievable cultural differences between there and, well, anywhere else you've ever been. She posts often, and her posts are jam-packed with unique content and pretty pictures.


2) Seaweed & Sassafras - Abby is a military spouse who I overlapped with here in Guam. She's now back stateside and her homemade centric cooking blog is simply adorable. Her ideas, her values, her photography, her recipes, and her writing style will all make you wonder if you can be her friend too. Her awareness of buying local produce and her local-produce dinner party were the inspirations for some of my Fresh Factor posts. If you go to no other link on this entire post, go to that one. The pictures look like they are straight out of Martha Stewart Living.


3) Samaritan Blog - I found this blog the most unexpected way. I googled our high school friend's name looking for more information about his tragic death last spring. I came across this gracious and eloquent post, To survive and not to survive at the same time. I have no idea how or if the author knew our friend, but I found her words that day seemed to explain what no one else's could. I have since enjoyed reading her almost daily posts of inspirational quotes, videos and essays all related to her simple but powerful mantra: A case for organized compassion. This is the only blog on the list that I don't personally know the author, but I am so thankful for the nuggets of truth and light she brings to my day.


4) Alakimi - If you want snarky, hilarious and totally random life commentary, check out Kimi's blog, which focuses on "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happy Hour." My only complaint for Kimi, who I have known since I lived in Annapolis eight years ago, is that she doesn't post enough for how funny she is! Maybe that's because someone just had a wedding :) Here's a great example of Kiami's blasts of pure genius ("Does God have an Irish accent? I hope so.").

5) Blah Blah Blonde- My awesome little cousin Erika (not so little anymore) has a fabuloso side career as a Miami fashion blogger. She may have more followers than qualifies for this award, but I wanted to give her a shout out because I am just so impressed with how many doors have opened for her because of her blog. Exhibit A: She was recently featured in the Miami Herald. Exhibit B: She got to go to NYC's Fashion Week as press. Ridic! Way to go little Erika :)

Hands down the hardest part of joining in the fun is leaving out so many of my favorite bloggers (many who didn't make the cut because they have stopped posting... you know who you are!). Check out the people on the right if you're looking for more worthwhile blogs to read. So grateful for this rich way to keep in touch and to be inspired by these compelling friends and writers.

And let me take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to my fellow blogger friends for being my most frequent commenters. Only those who blog know how much it means to have that feedback. Thanks for so loyally filling the white space! It keeps me going...

The Fresh Factor: Hydroponic Lettuce Farm

I certainly had no idea when I landed here (almost two years ago!) that one of the highlights for me on this island would be touring farms. I went to a hydroponic lettuce farm on Monday. Here's the write-up. I am still amazed at how absolutely perfect each head of lettuce is that comes out of the hydroponic system. Perfectly sculpted and packed with nutrients. Thanks to Grow Guam Hydroponic for the tour and to The Guam Guide for the opportunity to feature some of the awesome things taking place behind the scenes. Have a great weekend everyone!

Made in China

Before I move on from our excursion in China, there's one more topic I want to tackle. Since moving to Guam, I have become a lot more aware about where the products I buy come from. Part of this is because living out here, where every single item (except fresh produce and fish) has to be specifically shipped, that extra step (and fuel) often makes items more expensive than in the States. Even if it's still a price you're willing to pay, often the process of it getting here seems so ridiculous, I lose all desire for it.

A quick example is the bag of frozen shrimp from the commissary. Since growing up in Florida, I am pretty particular about where my seafood comes from. The shrimp come from the waters around Thailand, head to the USA for distribution, are distributed to commissary channels, then flown back to Guam. By the time they get to the freezers here, those shrimp have traveled more air miles than 70% of all Americans (basing that on the stat I heard that only 30% of Americans have passports). My paleo palate cringes at the thought of consuming something that has traversed the globe (twice).

Another example is all the excitement of going back to the States to shop at places we Guamanians harp on about missing, like Target, that incredible, one-stop shop where you can get all that cute stuff you need all in one place (I can't believe they have Starbucks inside them now too... that is genius... multiple addictions to feed all in one place!). But these last few times back in the States, I have left Target underwhelmed. Just about everything in there was made in China... or Bangladesh... or Thailand... or the Philippines. It seemed really stupid to fly all the way from Guam to peruse the shelves of things made just hours from my home, only to lug them back across the giant ocean. I started to wonder if anything is made in America anymore (I also still wonder why the Occupy movement didn't adopt the "Buy American" platform as one mass consumer solution to creating jobs and jump starting the economy. They had the attention of millions... sigh).

Traveling to all of these Asian countries has been a blast, but when it comes down to buying souvenirs and such, it doesn't seem to matter where you are. Thailand, Korea, Singapore, etc. So many of the things to buy there are made in China. It takes a lot of the fun out of finding some authentic gift for a friend back in America when everything was actually made in China, just like all the products at Target, right down the street from where your friend lives.

So actually being in China looking for souvenirs was great! No guilt about buying things made in China! One of my favorite discoveries of the entire trip was stumbling upon this paper flower shop in the old part of Beijing. The shop was completely empty of people except for the lady at the counter who was molding a piece of white paper into the shape of a lily. I was in awe but bought just one flower since we were at the first stop of our first day of touring. We went back to the shop on the last afternoon of our last day so I could peruse the selection and pick out an entire bouquet.
 
I hand-carried the fragile paper crafts back with me so they wouldn't be damaged in the long journey back. They now sit beautifully arranged in a vase on our kitchen table. I am usually opposed to fake flowers, but these flowers aren't trying to be real. They are art.

Many of the handicrafts we saw in China impressed us. We saw massive copper vases, etched by hand. We ran our fingers across beautiful silk prints and marveled at ornate coffee tables carved completely from jade. The Chinese are incredibly talented, patient, and hardworking artisans, and they have beautiful things to show for themselves. Part of me thought, no wonder Americans seek out products made here.

With all we saw in China, I know there was so much more that we did not see. We did not see any of the factories where all of those Target products are being made en masse getting ready to ship across the Pacific Ocean to our American shopping carts. My sister tipped me off to The Story of Stuff, a 20-minute YouTube video you might want to check out. Apparently all of the stuff we buy has an average shelf life of six months. American consumers (all of us) have been groomed to buy, buy, buy... and throw away, throw away, throw away. So we keep basking in the glory of new inexpensive stuff and money keeps flowing through the system. The kink in the chain for me is that after traveling to these places, it's harder to ignore the fact that very little of that money is making it into the hands of the hardworking people who actually make these products. Americans gasp about human rights but still insist (through the purchases we make) on having mass quantities of cheap products made overseas.

Since being more mindful of where my products come from, I have started to follow the Buy American movement. Turns out there are still a number of companies nestled in the hills of Tennessee and the riverbanks of Maine (New Balance!) that actually manufacture goods on American soul. They hire American workers, paying them American wages, and are subject to American labor laws and regulations. Many of these companies (like Bullet Blues jeans) go to the trouble to make sure every part of their product was also made in the USA. I haven't made any drastic consumer changes yet (if anything, I've stopped buying unnecessary stuff for the time being), but I am definitely starting to see the connection between buying American and lowering the unemployment rate.

There is a movie coming out soon called Made in the USA: A 30-Day Journey in which American filmmaker Josh Miller travels around the States using only things made in America and interviewing companies about what it takes to stay in business in America. Josh just finished his 30 days filming throughout the month of May, and his slogan really caught my attention, especially around Memorial Day:

We’re willing to DIE for our country,
but are we willing to BUY for it?”

Good question.

As China continues to grow in economic power, it naturally becomes more of a military threat to the USA, if for no other reason than we've turned it into that. While I have been resigned to think I don't have any control over these big changes in the world power shift, I'm starting to think that's not true. Every dollar I spend on American products and every dollar I don't on products made in China... that dollar is a vote for America. So maybe it isn't so much about Election Day around here as it is about what we as individual Americans will elect to spend our money on. Do we want to continue fueling the economic powerhouse across the Pacific and filling our landfills with cheap crap? Or do we want to transform our dollars into jobs for Americans, more tax revenue for schools, and a better future for our kids?

Something for this island girl to think about over the next few months as we shift our thoughts, our lives, and our buying power back to the mainland, back to America.
______________________________________________________________________

There is a growing community of bloggers, tweeters, and Facebookers who have already done a lot of legwork to consolidate listings of companies that make American products. Here are a few I recommend if you're interested to learn more about the products still made on US soil:


Buy American Challenge - Read more about the rationale for buying American and learn a simple strategy for making basic changes to your buying habits.

The Buy American Movement - a nonpartisan nonprotif organization dedicated to establishing a focused, coordinated, and effective buy American movement in the United States.


I Choose American Campaign - A listing of products made on American soil, as incorporated into a strategy for families to save our country.

The Fresh Factor: Watermelon!

Latest Fresh Factor post, including a recipe for watermelon salad... yum!

In Search of Wisdom

Writing in Manila

Two years ago as I was saying my goodbyes to dear friends in San Diego, I received a particularly special parting gift. April had picked out for me the most beautiful journal I had ever seen. The cover was soft brown leather and embossed into it was the image of an owl. April's farewell note to me on the first page read, "I hope these big old eyes will watch over you and bring you wisdom."

I began writing in that journal a week before we left for Guam. I wrote about the sadness of leaving our beautiful home and wonderful friends. I wrote about the anticipation of arriving in a new place, of making a fresh start. I made my plans to fill those pages with wisdom. "Mistakes... there will be many," I wrote. But what a perfect place to make them, safe within those pages.

My second entry was written high in the sky somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on our 12-hour flight between LA and Tokyo, the longest segment of our one-way itinerary to Guam. I used that time and space to recap all the many moves I made growing up. I wrote about each precise memory of the special going away party in Houston. Loading up the Beast to start our trip from Ohio to Oklahoma. The family meeting when my parents announced my dad's job in Tulsa had been downsized and we would be moving---again.

I wrote about my hopes for Guam. I wrote about how I wanted to spend my time... reading, writing, playing the piano, sailing, diving, fishing, and spending as much time with Nick as I possibly could. I wrote down my fears, not knowing what was in store for the two whole years ahead.

Two months later, I returned to those pages on an exciting train ride across Tokyo from Narita airport to Yokahama Station. I marveled at all of the world and its people I would lay eyes on and what it all meant. It was my first trip to an Asian country, and it was so neat to capture a new place in words before I had a chance to do so in pictures.

Days later I returned to those pages again broken in a way I never had been before. The unexpected September tragedy was too much for my soul to understand. The emotions spilled out from my fingers and bled onto the pages. I wondered what wisdom the wise owl could possibly hold for me amid such unexplainable sorrow.

Throughout the past two years, I have turned to those pages so many times. At a coffee shop in Phi Phi Island in Thailand. After a particularly compelling Bible study. On a plane heading to Alaska. In a hostel in Manila after our first day at the orphanage. About to land in San Diego for the first time after moving. There are so many snippets of me and my experiences resting on those pages. So many moments of wisdom that came to their full realization in my quiet moments of reflection in the Owl Journal.

On our second day in Beijing, I returned to our tour vehicle after our walk across Tiananmen Square. Mysteriously, the second bag I had packed that day containing a few snacks and comfort items had disappeared from the car. I had not taken it out of the car, and the driver swore he left the car locked when we all went to lunch the stop before. But my bag was not there. I gave a sigh of relief knowing my passport, money, wallet, and camera were all safe in my purse. And then I realized... the Owl Journal. The Owl Journal was in the missing bag.

I knew at that point I would never see my journal again. I had no identifying information, not even my full name that someone could Google (there's no Google anyway thanks to the Great Firewall of China). Those thoughts, ruminations, epiphanies and memories are now moments lost in time and space. I imagined all those hours of thinking and writing, all those lessons of my soul, sinking into the lost crevices of a landfill outside the city gates. My words, so priceless to me, tossed aside as common waste.

Upon returning to Guam and telling the story, a few people have come up some really fascinating conspiracy theories... that the Chinese government took my bag (why did they leave everything else in the "locked" car?) and that my journal is now being translated into Chinese and my "wisdom" shared with countless people. Maybe someone would read this blog post and my journal would be returned to me one day (extra doubtful considering my blog does not exist in China). While that's a very gracious response, and perhaps a great subplot for a novel, I'm not so optimistic. I'm pretty sure it's just gone.

At that moment in Beijing, halfway through our tour, my default mode was to mope and pout. I was sad and angry, and I knew filing a police report or taking any action wouldn't result in getting the journal back. As we boarded the Dragon Boat at Summer Palace, I forced a smile for April's picture. We got on board with the first tour group of Americans we had seen since we'd arrived in country, many of them sistahs (as April likes to say).

Halfway through the boat ride as I sat there moping in the mist, the group of Americans started singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," in perfect a capella four-part harmony. I felt like I was in a movie (Sister Act?), when the flash mob around me broke into "Joyful joyful, Lord we adore Thee," forcing me out of my troubled slump. So yes, to recap... just thirty minutes after my journal disappeared, a black American gospel choir showed up on my dragon boat in China to remind me to be joyful (believe it). When I got off the boat, a Chinese girl came over and asked if she could take a picture with me. It's like the universe invaded doing everything it possibly could to make me smile (mission accomplished).

In grieving the lost journal I have come to realize (for the second time this year) how enormously thankful I am for Peyt's Island. Most of my memories of our last two years have been safely captured here, where I can turn back to them as I wish. They don't hold my deepest, innermost thoughts as those pages did, but they are close.

I have been reading the Chronological Bible in a year, so as we flip to June I am about halfway through. In the days after returning from Beijing without my book of wisdom, I marveled that the pages before me now happen to be Proverbs. As I read through Solomon's musings, perhaps for the first time straight through, I'm not surprised that this fresh dose of heavenly wisdom is making its way into my day with such precise timing. Its messages are simple: Work hard. Live with integrity. Choose your words carefully. Be slow to anger. Seek wisdom. It's a great reminder that even with the Owl Journal forever gone, I have all the wisdom I will ever need in this lifetime among these pages.

At an artisan shop near the Great Wall, I bought a framed paper cutting of an owl (yes, the owl is one single piece of black paper cut into by the artist's blade to create the white contrast). It looks remarkably like my owl did and now hangs on a wall in my kitchen looking over me. Its big, smiling eyes are a reminder that no one can ever steal my wisdom or my joy.

He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers. Proverbs 19:8