November 7, 2010-Hunting for Treasures!!

     My boyfriend and I wanted to do something extra special to celebrate both my boys' birthdays today on Roi.  My oldest will be 9 a week from today, and my youngest just turned 7, but this is the only time we will all be together to have some family birthday time for them this year, so it was important that we make the most of the time we have.  On my birthday last year, my boyfriend and my boys created a special birthday Geo Cache for me, which is like a treasure hunt using a GPS as your map to guide you to the way points where they had presents hidden.  The boys absolutely loved this idea, and we knew they would like to do something similar for their birthdays. In order to put a little kid flair into it, we decided it should be more like a real treasure hunt with a map and everything.  I looked up a couple of ideas on the Internet detailing how to make a treasure map and pull off a successful treasure hunt and cut and paste the info into an e-mail to my honey, but I was absolutely amazed today at what he did with that information and how he put it into use.  I should have known it would be "grawesome" as my son would put it, because when my baby has a task set before him, he develops a vision and sets out to make the actual end product perfection, and he'll stay up all hours and work himself to exhaustion to complete it just the way he envisioned it. I know that about him, but he still never ceases to astound me with his dedication to a task and various abilities to create something so special every time.  Now, I'm sure your curiosity is up about our treasure hunt, so here's the story.
     While the boys and I were attempting to sell holiday wreaths for Boy Scouts in front of the chow hall, my sweetheart took the golf cart he'd rented for the day and hid the treasures.  When we returned to the room, he was still out and about, but we found a trail of dark chocolates wrapped in royal purple foil leading from one of the room doors to two locked closet doors in my room.  I wasn't sure whether or not they were supposed to see that yet, so I sent them to their room to wait for our treasure hunt leader to return.  I passed the time by blowing up some balloons I had brought for the occasion and writing notes on our cards for the boys, then I laid out the presents from the grandparents which they were going to open before the actual hunt.  Almost as soon as the front door to my room opened, and my favorite pirate burst in with a "Har, Har, Har," my youngest peeked in through the back door of the room and inquired, "Is he here?" Looking appropriately rogue with his black, plastic eye patch and red bandanna covering his lack of pirate locks, we were officially ready to begin the hunt!
     The boys followed the chocolate trail to the closets, asked for the key, and searched through the dresser drawers until they discovered the first part of the puzzle.  As they pulled out an old brown treasure map and clue scroll, a smoky smell emanated from the drawer.  "It smells burnt," my son commented. As we opened up the scroll and map, which had been sealed with burgundy colored wax and a special, yet not quite identifiable set of initials,  we figured out where the burnt smell was coming from. Both papers had been involved in a fire at one point or another in their time.  As we opened the map, it revealed a simple, yet very clear and exact outline of the islands of Roi-Namur complete with a pirate shipwreck off the north shore and a skull and crossbones in the "Doom Lagoon." There was also a set of numbers off to the side of the map, and a dotted line connecting a twisted palm tree leading to some sort of lake and finally ending between two trees near what appeared to be an airplane on land.  Thank goodness there were directions to go with the map or we would have been utterly lost on our hunt.
     Written in pirate English were three paragraphs of directions on how to find the keys to three locks and a puzzle to unlock the treasure at the end of the dotted line. I felt like "Dora the Explorer" as we cruised around the island searching for our three spots on our way to the treasure. Our clues included a stop to find a key at the  Twisted Tree, a key at the Skull and Crossbones Lake, and finally, after stopping to figure out the alphanumerical puzzle from the numbers on the map and the letters on the back of the scroll, we ended up at a Pirate Hospital (which is actually the real American underground hospital used during WWII on the atoll).   Although before heading to the hospital, we discovered one more clue to the treasure. This clue ended up being my youngest son's favorite part. Turning the map over as we rolled it back up, we discovered a large drawing of a pirate skull on the back of the map with a burned out eye and an "X marks the spot." There were also some words from the pirate, "I have me eye on U."  It took us a bit to figure out where the pirate's eye could be, but we finally discovered if you fold the map over itself, you find the pirate's eye right in the middle of the lake, and the "X" falls right on top of what looks like an airplane beside the two trees on the map. My boyfriend later told me that the underground hospital is in the shape on an airplane if you are looking from up high, so this was an extra special clue, and now we were really excited to make it to our final stop. In Dora's words, we had already been to and found the "Twisted Tree" and the "Skull and Crossbones Lake," and now we just needed to find the "Pirate Hospital" in order to get to the treasure.  Inside the Pirate Hospital, we found a real wooden treasure box with a large chain and three locks, one of which was a number lock, not a key.  We then had to go back to the scroll and find the number combination from within the clues.  It was a very exciting afternoon overall, and I was just as stumped as the boys trying to figure out the clues. 
     The really spooky part came when we found an actual skull and crossbones flag sticking out of the coral in just the spot where the mapmaker had drawn a mast with such a flag sticking out of the water. The flag was not there when the treasure was planted earlier in the day and no one knew about the map but the mapmaker.  Maybe there really are pirates on Roi-Namur.  I hope we didn't upset them by finding the treasure and figuring out their map!

November 6, 2010-Half Days...

     Every year at school on Kwajalein, the students and teachers get at least two half days off due to parent teacher conferences. The teachers work one long day, usually until about 8 at night, then they are given the following afternoon off because of the extra hours the day before.  With my new position and work schedule, I no longer get this time off with my own children as I did last year, but I decided to use some of my saved up personal time to take the afternoon off anyway and spend it with my boys. In addition, the half day gave us a chance to make it up to Roi a little earlier for the weekend. This was important to me as it may be the last time on Roi all together for awhile as I will be moving into my house in less than 2 weeks now, which makes me both happy and a little sad all at the same time.  I will miss having so much time on Roi, and I believe the boys will too as they were so excited to be going today, and they talked about it all week long! It was a different kind of week for them because they had all day Friday off from school while the teachers held conferences, and then only had to attend from 8:30-11:30 on Saturday for the half day, so they really only went to school for three and a half days this week.  They don't realize how nice it is to be a kid! And I must admit, just taking that half day off with them was quite refreshing.
     I worked from 8:30-11:30 and because I knew my time was limited, I made the most of what I had at work and finished up any timely unfinished business in short order, then I headed off to lunch with my babies. Because we were not rushing to get back to work and school by exactly 12:30 as the boys will have to go to the office to get tardy slips if they are late, we were able to truly relax with our food and watch an entire movie together before getting ready to head to the terminal around 1:30. The time actually flew by as my oldest kept saying, "Oh, it's 1 already or it's 1:30 already."  Once on Roi, we simply relaxed some more until dinner time, but I highly recommend implementing these half days into all our personal and work lives.  Sometimes you just need a half day.  It gives you time to take care of the most important priorities of the day at work or home, but it also gives you time to settle personally, so you can start your weekend off right.  I guess that's why they still have "siesta" time in Spain and other European countries where their shops and places of business close for a couple of hours each afternoon because they recognize the importance of taking a long lunch or working hard for a while, the breaking hard for a while. At any rate, I like half days because I feel as if I've accomplished something both professionally and personally, and life is best when it is balanced in this way. Yea for half days!

November 5, 2010- Family Trees and Recipes

     My third grader has been assigned to complete a family tree and to share a family recipe with his class for their annual ITTP (International Thanksgiving Tasting Party), and it has got me thinking about my family, and some of my favorite dishes served and eaten over the years.  Unfortunately, I don’t know as much about my ancestry as I would like, and I don’t have a large collection of ethnic family recipes, but what I do have is a very normal Southern United States upbringing, and a few very simple, but delicious deep South dishes that have served me and those I have shared meals with over the years pretty well, so this is what we will share with my son’s class, his Southern heritage and a popular Southern dish, “Sweet Potato Pie.”  This pie, or some might call it a casserole, is actually made with yams, and it took me until just a couple of years ago to realize that.  I always thought this orange colored potato looking vegetable was a sweet potato, and so did the rest of my family, I guess, because my little cousin, who is no longer little, always looked forward to eating that dish at Thanksgiving in my grandmother’s house, and she called it “Orange Pie.”  Either way, it’s yummy!

     When helping my son complete the family tree, I had to look back in the “Grandmother and Grandfather Remembers” scrapbooks I was fortunate enough to have three out of my four grandparents completed for me before they passed away. I am so proud of these books. The family history I do have is recorded in those books, and the parts that are most special to me are the memories shared, the stories told, and the pictures inside. These books reiterate to me how important it is to establish and maintain those family traditions and memory building experiences with my own boys as I discussed in the blog last night.  Nothing means more at the end of our days on this earth than quality time with family and the love shared through our traditions and lives together.  It’s the perfect topic for this month because it’s a time to be truly thankful for what we have instead of what we don’t.  And right this very moment, I’m happy it’s Friday night, and that tomorrow I will be with those I love as much if not more than anyone in the world on a beautiful tropical atoll in the most amazing ocean in the world making memories to last a lifetime!

November 4, 2010- Waiting for the Weekend...

     Even though I am still enjoying my new job, and I am very happy to be employed doing something I love, there are some weeks I feel I am simply waiting for the weekend.  Ever since Tuesday (which is Monday the start of the work and school week for us), my son has been telling me he can’t wait for the weekend.  This is because we have big plans to celebrate both my youngest and oldest sons’ birthdays on Roi-Namur. Their birthdays are only two weeks apart, so it just made since because we don’t get to go to Roi very often anymore, and this way, we could all celebrate as a family together. Of course, the boys each have their own separate parties with their friends, but I try to make their time with us extra special around this very important occasion, and on all holidays, vacations, and weekends together to be honest. 

     In the past, we have set up Geo Caches for each other, where we hunt for our gifts using the GPS and a golf cart to cruise around the island, and the boys loved it! This time we are attempting to create a treasure map and bury their presents to find.  Hopefully, the rainy weather we’ve been having lately won’t get in the way. So far all I have is ideas gleaned from the internet on how to create a treasure map that looks 100 years old from everyday household materials as well as tips on how to conduct a treasure hunt for kids, and I don’t know if we’ll use any of that info or not, but the point for me is to create memories and traditions with my kids more than focusing on the actual “treasure” they receive on their birthdays.

     I don’t remember what I dressed up for on Halloween when I was a kid, and there are very few birthday or Christmas presents that stand out, but what I do remember are the ways we celebrated special occasions together as a family.  Already, my children look forward each year to making Jack-O-Lanterns and roasting the pumpkin seeds from inside, and they look forward to snorkeling and camping trips on Roi, and geo-caching wherever we can discover one.  They love to leave reindeer food out and cookies and milk for Santa at Christmas time, and they know that the littlest kids get to hand out the presents from the tree, and we open them youngest to oldest one at a time, so we can all enjoy what was given and received.  None of these things are about the material goods of the holidays, but about the fun things we do together, and the traditions we create and pass on to our families generation after generation.  Roasting marshmallows and telling stories by the “Friday Night Fire,” which is a tradition of my boyfriend’s family back in Oregon, are what it is all about to me, and I’m so lucky to have such wise children who already recognize the importance of these things and appreciate them too! This is why I can’t wait for the weekend because I get to spend it with the three most wonderful boys in the world!

   

November 3, 2010-Eight to Eight

    

     Today was my 8 to 8 day at work.  Our Youth Center Director left for vacation, so several of us are filling in his shifts at the center with the youth and still doing our own jobs on top of that.  It’s only once or twice a week though as we are dividing it between three people, so it’s manageable.  For our co-worker, it’s his first vacation off the atoll after more than a year of being here. I remember my first trip back to “civilization” well. I don’t think you really fully appreciate the advantages of living here until you’ve taken that first plane ride back to the states. Back home, there’s traffic, lines, money flying out of your pocket at every turn, and major consumerism.  If you go back any time other than summer, the days are shorter, the commutes or drives to do anything longer, and there’s barely enough time in the day to take care of business, much less have time for entertainment activities.  Of course, there’s also family, long time friends, fresh and varied produce, 45 different kinds of toothpaste, 24 hour stores where you can get whatever you need at the exact moment you need it, and general life experiences that are simply not available on the island.  Advantages and disadvantages...

     My oldest son was telling me last year that he was about ready to PCS (permanent change of station OR move, in other words) back to the states because he was getting bored. As he seems to really be enjoying school and his friends and activities lately, I asked him at lunch if he was still ready to move because he’s bored here. He said, “I think I was bored because I needed a vacation. Once I go on vacation and get tired of the states, then I’m ready to come back to Kwaj.”  That sentiment is exactly what every long term resident figures out within their first couple of years on island.  In a nutshell, there are advantages and disadvantages to every place, and the grass is not usually greener on the other side; it’s just a different kind of grass with its own unique challenges for living with it and taking care of it. So, I don’t mind a few 8 to 8 work days in order to provide someone else with their much needed break from atoll life because it gives us time to reflect upon what we do love about living here, and it motivates us to come back with renewed enthusiasm for work and life.   

November 2, 2010-What a Storm!

     Out here on the atoll, we don't experience much in the way of storms. We are too near the equator to get the massive hurricanes, tropical cyclones, and typhoon type weather that our not so close neighbors of Guam and Japan experience frequently, but we do get plenty of rain and wind.  Tonight was a doozie! I ended up staying at work a little later than expected, and when I got ready to head out to a friend's house for dinner, the drops were already coming down heavy and sideways because of the wind.  Luckily, I had a rain coat in my office. I think I finally have enough rain gear strategically kept at my office, my classroom (which I still used periodically), and my home to get me through any rainy season here, and it's only taken me 13+ years to make that happen. :)  Anyway, as I left, knowing I didn't have far to go, I zipped and cinched up my lightweight green jacket to keep my clothes and purse safe and sound from the rain. I put my dressy black flip flops in my bike burley with my empty coffee cup from home because it was okay if they got wet, but I didn't want any muddy puddles splashing on my shoes, and I took off.  As the diagonal rain and wind pushed me across the road, I held on tight to my handlebars and ducked my head against the pelting wetness.  I didn't have to really worry about traffic because no one else was silly enough to get on their bikes and go somewhere in this storm.  When I arrived at my friend's house, she couldn't believe I wasn't soaked, and she was glad I made it over okay. We enjoyed catching up on life, eating a delicious Greek salad and homemade salsa. (This is my friend who loves to cook and whose food I love to eat!) In between, I played with her kids, whom I've known all their lives, and in some ways, are like my own, and she put them to bed, and we chatted some more.  Before we knew it, time flew by, and it was after 10, and time to hit the sack. The only problem is that the rain and wind was still just as fierce as it was when I arrived 4 hours earlier! What a storm! "Well," I said, "I must go," so I donned my now very wet green raincoat and headed out again, this time to home and a nice, warm bed with a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate to send me off into dream land.  The rain may be an inconvenience at times, especially because we don't have cars and garages to stay dry from the elements, but as my mom tells me, when we are discussing the island's weather, "as least it's warm rain."  I have to agree that I'm pretty lucky to live on a tropical island without all the major life threatening storms.  If the diagonal rain and winds, which can push you across the road on your bike, is all I have to worry about, I don't mind. It's all part of life on an atoll.

November 1, 2010-Dinner and a Movie...

     I used to love to go out to dinner and a movie when I lived back in the states.  There's really not any place to go to dinner on the atoll, except the illustrious Snack Bar or the Chow Hall, and the movies are free, but they are in outdoor theaters where the speakers don't always work so hot, and the weather does not always cooperate, so over the years, I've come to enjoy dinner and a movie at home more than going out.  I was always a bit of a home body anyway, so it's okay.  At home, you can make whatever dinner you want, and you can eat it wherever you want, and you can have all the popcorn you want, and you can pause the movie whenever you need to take a potty break or get more popcorn.  And you can do all this for virtually nothing as far as cost. It's the perfect entertainment for a small town island girl who just wants to kick her feet up on the couch, wrap up in a blanket and veg out.  Tonight, my boyfriend and I watched a so-so movie with a delicious dinner of steamed King Crab Legs (frozen of course, but they were still very tasty), steak on the grill, a take out salad from the Chow Hall, and a glass of Merlot.  My boyfriend unfortunately had to work all day as he is on 6 day work weeks right now, so it was a quiet day for me, and the most notable thing to write about was our dinner and a movie. Of course, he and my children are the most notable things in my life every day, but having the evening with him the night before it is back to another grueling work week just makes me happy. A home cooked meal and spending time with my honey can cure my blues anytime.