We arrived on July 25th at 1:30AM, a full 24-hours from ourdeparture in Pasco, WA.  The flight took us through Seattle and Tokyo.  In the Tokyo airport we rented a mini-hotel room complete with mini-twin beds and a shower!  After the long flight across the Pacific it was time and money well spent.  But I digress.  Upon our arrival to the Saipan airport we were greeted by several of the teachers/staff from Saipan Community School.  They had a big welcome banner and presented us with a mwar-mwar a traditional island headdress.

We were then taken to our new apartment on the campus of SCS. The apartment was fully furnished and the staff had brought up the boxes of household supplies we had shipped in advance. The staff bid us another warm welcome and “good night”. We fussed with a few of the boxes, but gradually the desire for sleep trumped everything and we drifted off into a hard, deep sleep.

The next day Terry took us around the Island. We did some grocery shopping at Costco (yes, there’s a Costco here without the annual membership fee) and a few other places. She then drove us out to a few of the better known sights including The Last Command Post, Banzai Cliffs, Bird Island and the Grotto (a cave connected to the ocean by a series of tunnels and a very popular destination for scuba divers.) Our first observation was that the humidity and heat combined make the weather very intense sometimes, especially for us coming from cooler and dryer climates. Over time your body learns to adjust and just sweats all the time! It’s the most efficient and natural cooling process! Albeit a bit smelly at the end of the day.

On Sunday we attended church at Saipan Community Church which sits at the heart of the school campus. We received a very warm welcome from the pastors and the church members. We had lunch after church services at Wild Bills BBQ. Afterwards we joined some of our new friends at the Sugar Dock a popular place for boaters and swimmers.

We went out to dinner later – it was $1 taco night at this little restaurant right on the beach (can’t recall the name right now) but it gave us a beautiful view of the ocean and the setting sun. On the horizon merchant Marine vessels could be seen keeping the island secured and supplied with emergency rations should the need ever present itself. We finished the evening with cold drinks at the Pacific Island Club and watched the sun go down in spectacular fashion. What an amazing day!

Monday saw us finally unpacking all of our boxes. That night we had dinner with Jake, Jakie and Terry and watched “Cool Runnings” together! Tuesday we did some more shopping (thanks again Terry!), got our drivers licenses(!) and went to the airport to great Bobby and Debbie Winkfield who were just returning to the island after several weeks. The staff greeted them warmly and were very glad to have them home!

After dinner we tried out my grandparents four-wheeler and drove to Manns Creek Reservoiur to try my Uncle Glen and Jennifer’s kayaks.  It was Kristie and I’s first time – and we had a successful trial run!

Later on in the week, Grandma Dorothy came to visit.  We picked her up in Hermiston – my Uncle Ron and Aunt Suzy dropped her off on their way to Bend.  She spent a long weekend with us – and we had a great time.  The weather was very hot and kept Grandma inside the house – and kept our work sessions short in between multiple naps!

On the 4th of July, Kristie and I spent time with members of the church at Bernie Park and La Grande.  There was a great BBQ: burgers, dogs and desserts.  It was great meeting up with Levi Hug and his friend Charles.  Charles is an outstanding artist and a great Christian with a cool stories.  After a couple of hours in the park, we returned to Cove with fireworks we had purchased and set them off with grandma and mom and dad at sunset.  Here’s a vid:

Mark and Brittany Sawyer, friends currently stationed in Saipan, were the one’s who introduced us to the opportunity. They are finishing their first year as teachers at the school and will be returning this fall for their second year. (They’re taking the summer off to visit friends and family in Idaho!).

Kristie and I are still in the planning phases of our move: still figuring out what of our belongings to ship over, to store, to sell or to trash! No matter what we have agreed to arrive in Saipan by July 27th. The school provides apartments for teachers on campus – (did I mention that the school is right off the beach?) The school is run by a Christian church, which was a real plus for Kristie and I. We love the mission of the church, the beautiful pictures we have seen online and the ‘built-in’ network for friends that will be waiting for us on the island. All of these things have made this is an opportunity to good to pass up!

From now on, this blog will be dedicated to our move and life in Saipan! Many pictures and videos will be posted on this site, as well as Facebook.

Here are a few fun and important facts about Saipan.

1. Saipan is an island roughly halfway between Japan and Australia.
2. Saipan is a commonwealth in political union with the United States.
3. Saipan was the location of several significant battles during WWII.
4. There is not a single Starbucks in Saipan! Bummer

1.  Write a new book describing how organizations are like people-fractals.  People should not just reflect an organizations values – but rather the organization should reflect the values and the 5 physical senses of people.

2.  Finish my Peace Corps application.

3.  Actually perform stand-up comedy again at an actual open-mic event.

4.  Create a new business that fills a need.  That takes traditional objects and spins them around into something that is supported by new paradigms.

5. Sleep more.

These are just a few ideas.  It feels good to commit something to text.

A repairman came to shelter to replace the missing contact plate that is associated with the buildings alarm system.  I also replaced a broken toilet seat in the staff bathroom.  I made the decision today to convert our maintenance log forms to Google Docs, and connect it all to Google Sites.  What fantastic technology – for a much needed solution: real-time updates of maintenence needs (no more paper).

p.s.  Sorry for the random blog entry here.  I’m just trying to make a record of my lame activities.

Friday was a good long, day. I worked, Kristie volunteered. At the end of the day, she went over to Dana’s house and joined a few ladies from our small group for an overnight event. Just girls time. No dudes allowed. So that meant I had the whole evening to myself. I’ve always been a bit of a hermit crab (minus the pinchers!) so it was fun to just relax in solitary confinement!

Saturday morning I picked up Kristie from the overnighter and we drove to the TVCTV studios in Beaverton. This was the last in a series of public access television studio classes that I have been taking. Our final project, as previously mentioned, was a game show called “If You’re So Smart, Prove It”. Our practice run last week, made this week’s work a breeze. Our show had a host, Brian, and two guests, Lamont and Glenda. Brian asked random questions to the guests (this was changed from trivia questions to the origins of colloquialisms, not sure how this change came about! Probably an executive decision by someone.) I served as director of the production… our team did a great job. Taping went well, minus a few glitches in the audio equipment. The final taping will air soon on TVCTV. I was given the tape with the first two practice runs from last week…I’ll try to post my favorite from these two soon.

Afterward all the studio work, Kristie and I retreated to our apartment. We later met up with Kris Grapp, a long time family friend of Kristie’s for some pizza at Hot Lips and a baseball game at PGE park.  The Beavs played the Tacoma Rainier’s.. which was much of the motivation behind Kris’ visit and the fact he had not visited PGE Park.  The Rainiers stommped the Beaves 11-1.  (There was a Rainier grand slam in the first inning).  Kris was glowing.  My evening suprise was being charged $10.50 for two large paper cups filled to the brim with iced tap water.  “You’ve got to be joking,” I said.  And refused to pay.  I later bought a bottled water.

After the game, Kris, Kristie and I walked to Skinnidip, a yogurt place on Burnside.  Plain yogurt with raspberries and chocolate toppings was my choice.  Kris then drove home to Tacoma.  Kristie and I went home as well.

Sunday saw us back at city bible church and lounging around the apartment.  I can’t remember the rest!

At work, Mindy and I reorganized the admin office furniture.  We consolidated all of our old office equipment down to one table, and threw out an old credenza and a bunch of junk.  The office, which has traditionally been as wasteland of clutter, is now halfway “inviting”.    The rest of my day consisted of catching up on paperwork and corresponding with in-kind donors.  One donor wanted to contribute some new scrap booking materials and another wanted to give an old mattress.  I said yes to the scrapbook stuff and referred the mattress person to the Community Warehouse.

The drive home was uneventful.  The weather was sunny and cool.  Absolutely perfect.  I drove back to Kristie’s office and picked her up around 5:45 or so.  She was waiting in the office, and I was unable to contact her since the switchboard operator said the intercom was down.  A meaningless detail of this day, but one that was notable at the moment.

Dinner consisted of veggie lasagna (leftovers at this point), salad, cherry/pear cobbler, and pineapple bread (much sweeter than banana bread).  I’ve been operating with a substantial sleep deficit (must be this sorry blog keeping me up) and crashed out for about an hour. We watched the Olympics, and part of a concert on OPB with Rob Thomas and the members of Matchbox 20.

News:  Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, passed away from a brain hemorrhage. Obama has decided who his running mate will be, but will not say who it is, at this point.

My first task at work was to go to the Oregon Food Bank, followed by my typical transfer of the foodstuffs to the emergency shelter.  The rain had softened up the soil enough to allow me to pull weeds in the front and side of the main building. 

At 10:30AM, when I was working inside the front yard of shelter, a mostly drunk man saw me pulling weeds and stopped by outside the fence to say “hello”.  He was holding a coffee mug in one hand and a beer in the other.  He said he had just had pancakes, and I suggested that such foods might sober one up a little by absorbing the alcohol.  I asked him if he was taking the day off work.  He said he didn’t really have a job, but worked recently to help a friend install french drains on his house.  He then asked if in doing my work, I was “volunteering”.  The question put me in a moral dillemma.  If I had said that I was in fact working, he would have likely asked about the shelter, which is confidential information.  So, I took one for the team and said “Yes, I’m kinda volunteering.”  He laughed assuming, I suppose, that I was joking.  Which was incorrect, since I was lying.  He eventually left me to my work, and I silently repented for lying given the bizarre circumstances. 

I returned to the main office and finished final preparations to the Holiday Program donor letter.  Melanie was swamped with work today, so she and I kept each other’s morale up as we trudged through our work.  I spoke with Mindy today about creating a public access TV show, she was quite amused by this and would like to help out.  I sent her a link to a video of my favorite public access TV show.

I drove home after 5pm.  Kristie was at home, and quite tired from the day.  We had veggie lasagna and salad for dinner.  Kristie had prepared the lasagna over the weekend and kept in ready in the freezer.  I love that girl.  She’s always planning ahead.  We watched the Olympics like we always do, Usain Bolt broke the men’s 200m world record, setting the new mark at 19.30 (besting Michael Johnsons old mark at 19.32); a truly amazing feat.

The olympics motivated me and I ran 5 laps around the apartments.  I then took a shower and drove the Albertsons at 11pm to purchase peanut and chocolate M&M’s and brought them home to Kristie.  Later we ate M&M’s, sipped wine and watched the Olympics!  Oh yeah, the Obama headquarters in Beaverton called me today wanting me to consider volunteering.  I may take them up on this.