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Greetings from Guam 'When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learnt in 7 years.' - Mark Twain Speaking of ignorant, someone finally took issue with my mad ramblings. In my last article, which was about nothing in particular - my standard literary delicacy - I was way off base on a number of items...hold on, I'm counting. Hmmm, twelve, thirteen, fourteen...okay, it looks like I pretty much got everything wrong. (Yikes, a flashback to my ninth grade Algebra final.) For the sake of time, I am not going to go back and fill you in on all the errors of my ways. I think it would be best if you all just walk over to your respective refrigerators and take the article down and burn it. No, seriously, a friend of mine dropped me an e-mail pointing out the errors. This friend is a long time resident of Guam - I think born and raised here. Oh man, now I'm nervous. I can't believe people really read this stuff. Anyway, if he wasn't born and raised here, I'll let you know next week when I recant this article, too. Regardless, one of his points deals with something I said about the Catholic Church - GASP! I mentioned that, even though gambling is illegal here, there is still bingo being played 'at churches-n-stuff.' Well, not true. Bingo is no longer played or sponsored by the Catholic Church. The bingo games are sponsored and run by the Malesso Choir...I think...I hope...I pray (Malesso is a southern village). I am not even going to venture a guess as to whether they sing in a church or not - I have no idea. I don't own any of their CD's and I have yet to catch them in concert. Okay, on with the latest. In the last two weeks, I have experienced a couple of 'firsts' in my life. Last year, I wrote an article about the rosaries here - when a person passes away, a rosary service is held for nine consecutive days prior to the funeral mass and burial. There are also anniversary rosaries held, usually for the first and fifth anniversaries of a person's death. These rosaries are usually held at a church or at the home of the deceased or one of their relatives. Sometimes. there are refreshments, ranging from cookies and drinks (coffee, punch or soda as opposed to the drinks found at an Irish wake), to major buffet spreads. Unfortunately, I attended my first rosary two weeks ago (I went to four of the nine rosaries) for one of my students who died in a car accident. Although it was a sad and painful experience, as it is when any young person's life is cut short, I also found the whole (rosary) experience uplifting. There were well over a hundred people - probably closer to two hundred - on each of the nights I was there, and I think everyone brought food or drinks (except for me on my first night - Mr. Ignorant strikes again). Though I have drifted from the Catholic Church in the last few years, I felt much better knowing that all these people were coming together and praying for this student and his family. It was incredibly comforting for me (as a person who lost a friend) and I know that if, I were on the other end of a rosary as a parent or family member, it would provide immeasurable strength and hope in such a dark hour. Although I was kind of surprised by it all, I was also not surprised by it, too. You see, the reason Guam is such an awesome place to live or visit is not because of our beautiful weather, beaches, hotels, restaurants, or our K-Mart, but because of the extraordinary kindness and generosity of its people. And on a lighter note, another first for me occurred this past Monday (Oct. 19) when I went spear fishing at night. I had never been spear fishing in daylight, let alone no light. But I figured, 'Hey, I'm a pretty good swimmer. I scuba dive and snorkel. I can hold my breath for a minute and a half or so. How hard can it be?' It's hard. I went with one of my swimmers and his brother off of Hospital Point near the Guam Hilton. We hit the water right after the sun had set and had our spear guns and lights. Well, even though I love Stephen Spielberg for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, I hate him for making Jaws. Basically, I dove down about ten feet - or until it got really dark - and then I conveniently ran out of air and returned to the surface convinced I had seen something big down there. So, I just hovered around the surface for an hour while my cohorts searched - in vain I might add - for something to kill. I did not see anything real interesting - thank God - but Dan and Tom saw a rather large manta ray or sting ray...some big flat flapping thing that scared them to the surface real quick....cowards. Hafa Adai Copyright © 1999 |
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