Hafa Adai from Guam

Hafa Adai is the way we greet people in Guam. Guam is an American island in the Pacific. Our Guam friend, Cindy Hanson, has a radio show and she invited us to be on her program. It was exciting. She asked us what we liked about Guam. We told her that the weather and beaches are wonderful plus the Chamarro culture is fascinating. On our first trip Cindy showed us many historical and cultural places including where Magellan landed in the 1500s. Cindy asked if we had seen any latte stones. Latte stones are huge stones from prehistoric times. It is thought that they were the pillars upon which the Chamarro built their houses. We replied that we did not see any latte stones. Then a wonderful thing happened! Franklin Arturo called into the show and invited us to his country place to see the latte stones on his property. It was an incredible experience. His stones are some of the largest on the Island. Even more amazing was the story Mr. Arturo told us about George Tweed, the Robinson Crusoe of the US Navy. Tweed was the radioman who escaped capture by the Japanese during WW II by hiding for nearly three years in caves on Guam. He was the only American to survive the Japanese occupation of Guam. The Japanese searched for him every day while he was in hiding. During most of that time the Arturo family brought him supplies and kept the fact that they were hiding him a tight secret. When the Marines landed in Guam, Tweed signaled the American ships with flags he had made and a pocket mirror. He warned the military about the Japanese gun placements and asked to be rescued. Within five minutes of receiving his message rescue was on the way. He was rescued on July 10, 1944. While in hiding Tweed figured the government owed him $6000 in back pay. That was enough to buy a house in the 1940s. Tweed asked Mr. Arturo what he would if he had that much money. Arturo said he’d buy a four-door Chevy. Tweed returned to Guam in 1945, bringing a Chevrolet to Mr. Arturo as a gift from the president of General Motors. Franklin Arturo shared his Tweed scrapbook with us. Truly an amazing day. There are a lot of caves on Guam. When the American army won the island from the Japanese some Japanese soldiers refused to surrender and hid in the caves. Some hid for years. We had lunch with Cindy and her son, Ezequiel at Jeff’s Pirate Cove and learned another amazing story. The restaurant is located where the last WW II Japanese soldier on Guam, Shoichi Yokoi, surrendered in 1972. He had lived in a cave in a remote part of the island for 28 years. He said he knew the war was over because he heard American music but remained hiding because he was afraid the Americans would kill him. The story along with news articles are posted on the wall of the restaurant. Every place has amazing stories. We also visited the fourth grade in Tamuning Elementary School. It is the same school we visited two years ago. We showed them a power point about schools around the world. Because Guam is an American territory they follow the same curriculum as students in the rest of the United States. They drew pictures for us and gave us some local food. We love to visit schools. Some days we just enjoyed the pool and beach at the Hyatt Hotel.

Visiting Guam "Where America Meets the Day"

Guam is an island in the Pacific and it is a territory of the United States so the people like to say it is where "America greets the day." Look on the map and you will see that it is near the International Date Line. The International Date Line is an imaginary line where the date changes by 24 hours. If you were standing on the line and it was 10 in the morning on Monday, then stepped over the line to the west it would be 10 in the morning on Tuesday. However, the line goes through the water so that is doesn’t go through any land. Guam is the first American property to the west of the line so it where "America greets the day." Guam looks very American with malls and fast food places.

Our friend Ezequiel and his mother, Cindy, volunteered to take us on a morning tour of the island. Along with their friend, Jackie, we set out to explore the island.

Our first stop was Gef Pago Chamorro Cultural Village, a living museum of thatched huts featuring activities associated with the daily lives of the Chamorro, the native people of the Mariana archipelago. There were demonstrations on cooking, rope making, and basket weaving. Tony, the guide, explained that the coconut tree is the "tree of life" and showed us how easy it is to open a coconut. Various parts of the coconut palm are used for clothing, food, shelter, beauty aids, and as fuel. He went on to explain, "Coconut milk is so pure that it was used to sterilize surgical instruments during WW II." We even got to ride a carabao, the native water buffalo.

Ferdinand Magellan was the leader of the first voyage that sailed around the world. His voyage stopped in Guam. When the voyage landed in Guam in the spring of 1521 they had not seen land for 100 day. The sailors were sick or dying and the food was gone or spoiled. The men helped themselves to food they had never seen before like coconuts, sweet potatoes and bananas (which they thought were some sort of fig). They later sailed on and reached the Philippines where Magellan was killed. Guam became part of the Spanish Empire, like the land in the Southern part of the United States from Florida to California. From the Spanish Fort, Nuestra senora de la Soledad, we had a panoramic view. Forts were always built so they could see if any enemy were coming.

Guam was became part of the United States in 1898. During WWII the Japanese occupied the country. When the war ended Guam was again part of United States. We stopped a WW II site where there is statue of several men from Guam who participated heroic acts during WW II. One of the men preserved in bronze is Jackie’s father, who after killing an enemy soldier, and donning his uniform, was able to gain entry to the enemy camp and blow it up.

One morning we visited Ezequiel’s school, Tamuning Elementary School, do a program on schools around the world. It was multi-cultural week at his school. We did a power point program on the many schools we have visited around the world. The schools buildings may be different and the students may speak different languages, but they all learn to read and write. And, they all like to play with their friends after school and enjoy holidays. After our presentations we were invited to the auditorium to see a nature presentation by Miss Cheryl from the Guam Department of Agriculture. The high point was seeing the flightless Ko’ Ko’ bird. There are only about 100 in captivity. She also showed us the brown tree snake. It is rather harmless to people but has killed nearly all of the native bird population on an island. The snake has no natural predators on the island. Before introduction of the brown tree snake, Guam had 12 species of native forest birds. We hope the students learned something from us because we learned a lot from our visit to Guam.