Month: August 2011

To hell with the bell!

/ edebock / 5 Comments

It’s that time of year again… the beginning of a new school year. Backpacks are packed, lunches made, and school buses ready to pick up excited children. Brand new pencils wait to be sharpened and notebooks with fresh clean pages beg to be filled. For the past few weeks teachers have been making plans and decorating classrooms getting ready for new faces to fill the desks in front of them.

At the same time, across the nation and around the world retired teachers are gathering for their annual “to hell with the bell” celebrations! Since I’m not aware of such an event locally, I won’t be attending one but I’ll be there in spirit.

Did I enjoy being a teacher? Yes, definitely. Do I wish I was back in a classroom? Absolutely not! I still love children and I had an absolute blast working with the kids of Living Hope Church of the Nazarene on the island of Saipan this summer but I wouldn’t trade retirement for the best teaching job on the planet!

No more homework; endless hours of marking and lesson planning. No more school dreams, crazy nightmares that used to plague me at this time of year! They’d start about mid August, dreams of classrooms with black walls and no windows, dreams of crowded rooms filled with students who wouldn’t stay in their desks and do what they were told. Don’t let anyone tell you that teaching isn’t a stressful job but it’s also an honourable profession and one that I’m proud to have made a career of.

So, as I’m out walking or playing golf and hear the school bell ring, I’ll think of my younger colleagues and wish them well. I’ll also smile and celebrate my freedom!

P.S.  To view my Living Hope Kids slideshow, click here.

Thrift store chic

/ edebock / 4 Comments

I love shopping thrift stores. It’s not usually about looking for things I need. After all, I really don’t need more stuff filling my closets and cluttering up my life! It’s more about finding something I really like and paying almost nothing for it. That definitely appeals to my frugal nature! Thrift stores are also a great place to find cute stuff for the grandchildren.

There are two great little second hand shops in our area, the Good As New here in town and Killam Twice Nice a few miles away. Melaina and I visited both of them on Friday and found some wonderful bargains. Between us, we spent $11.10 and came home with 8 tops (four for each of us); three necklaces; a pair of earrings; a belt; a hardcover book; two Tupperware canisters; two  t-shirts, a pair of jeggings and a cute little dress for Jami-Lee; and two shirts for Drew! Amazing!

Here we are modelling a few of our finds:

 

This one's my favourite - blue and brown are my colours.

What’s next?

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That’s the question we’ve been asked most often since arriving home on Monday evening. One friend and former colleague who’s known us for a long time added “One mission trip won’t be enough, will it?” No, Ian, it won’t! We have no idea what lies ahead but we do know that we’re willing to go wherever God sends us.

In the meantime, there’s lots of catching up to do here at home. Melaina, Aaron and the children are here for a few days so spending time with the grandchildren is our first priority. We appreciate the neighbour who mowed the lawn for us while we were away but the gardens clearly need some attention. I’m pretty sure there are flowers hiding amongst all those weeds! Of course, the golf course also beckons. In fact, Richard and Aaron are out there right now.

We’ll also have a crop to harvest soon. Yesterday, we went for a drive to look at the fields and the grain is beginning to ripen. It won’t be long before I’m out on the combine again.

I’d also like to find time to go camping before winter. After spending the past two months on the other side of the sea, I’m not thinking of a long trip but the trailer hasn’t been out of the driveway since last summer and I’m yearning for at least two or three nights in a campground; perhaps somewhere with a lake and a golf course.

So, in answer to everyone’s question, we don’t know what’s next in terms of missions but for now, I’m enjoying living in the moment and not concerning myself too much with what lies ahead.

Aftershocks

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We spent a wonderful week visiting friends in Japan on our way home from Saipan. While we were there, we only felt the earth shake once and though it wasn’t any stronger than many of the tremors we’ve experienced in the past, it did last longer.

The physical effects of the devastating March 11 earthquake that ravaged parts of northern Japan were fairly minor in the area where we were but it has clearly had a powerful effect on the psyche of the people. More than five months after the big one hit, it’s still at the forefront of their minds and it constantly comes up in conversation. When we arrived at Seiko’s home, she hastened to point out the cracks in the cement stairs at the side of the house and the new flat screen TV that replaced the one that fell and broke.

Stairs can be repaired and TVs replaced but what of people’s fear? What will its long term effects be? Seiko was relieved that her son, Ayumu, was napping when last week’s tremor came. At three years old, he’s already lived through the biggest earthquake in Japan’s history and its many, many aftershocks. Whenever he sees a weather report on the television he gets upset because the weather map looks like the one that appears when earthquakes are reported and he thinks that another one is coming.

Seiko’s husband, Atsuo, used to dream of owning a house close to the water but now he’s happy to live further inland. Areas of prime real estate built on reclaimed land around Tokyo Bay plummeted in value when the land proved to be unstable after the quake. We visited a Japanese garden in that area last week and found that sections of it were closed due to earthquake damage. The pond which would have once been clear and clean is murky and algae covered now because the water circulation system was damaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though they know that the water in their area has been declared safe to drink, our friends Smoky and Ikuko drink only bottled water now for fear of radiation poisoning. They have a larger yard than most Japanese families and food shortages following the big quake prompted them to turn part of it into a vegetable garden so that they won’t be left in want again. It now produces delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and kabocha. They also planted some small trees which will eventually provide them with fruit.

Like many Japanese, Smoky and Ikuko are also doing their part to conserve energy following the catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Though the Japanese summer is extremely hot and humid, they use their air conditioner very sparingly to help avoid more of the rolling power blackouts that they lived with in the weeks following the earthquake and tsunami. This community effort to conserve power is also very noticeable in public places such as shopping malls where many of the overhead lights are not turned on. With the air conditioners turned down or off, the terminals at the international airport are noticeably warmer than in the past and some of the elevators are not in use.

Though the earthquake has clearly affected the people and how they live, we were pleased to see that Seiko didn’t panic when we sat at her table last week and felt the house begin to shake. It’s definitely a bit disconcerting to watch the light fixture above your head sway back and forth but we weren’t really frightened either. We were happy to be back in Japan with the people we’ve come to love and more than willing to take our chances on being all shook up!

Mission to MARS!

/ edebock / 5 Comments

We’ve been on a Mission to MARS this week. I bet you didn’t know that Saipan had a space program, did you? Well, actually it doesn’t. Mission to MARS (Meet A Risen Saviour) is the theme of the Vacation Bible School that we’re directing here at Living Hope Church of the Nazarene.

At 9:30 every morning the big church van rumbles up the driveway and spills out its load of children. I’m not sure how many passengers the van is supposed to hold but it doesn’t seem to matter how many kids there are, there’s always room for at least one more!

We started Monday morning with 19 kids and the number has grown each day. We start the fast paced morning with prayer, action songs, and announcements at Mission Control. Next we follow the zany adventures of Zoom Aerospeed and his sister, Twila, on an interplanetary space adventure, via video, of course! After that, it’s time to split into groups and head off to the four centres: Story Station, Bible Memory, Cosmic Crafts and Galactic Games. We meet back at Mission Control to wrap up the morning and then it’s time for a snack.

Feeding the kids a hearty, healthy snack/lunch is an important part of what we do here. During the school year, they get breakfast and lunch at school but many come from very poor homes and though they aren’t starving, we know that some of them are pretty hungry. Like all kids, they’re also hungry for love and attention and what a joy it is to give them that as well!

      

Spam!

/ edebock / 5 Comments

Since the advent of the internet, Spam has taken on a whole new meaning. To most of us, Spam means electronic junk mail or any unsolicited commercial advertisement distributed online but here on Saipan, Spam is still canned luncheon meat!

There are all sorts of interesting foods available on the island. Chinese, Japanese and Thai are all popular but the local favourite seems to be Spam! We’ve been to a lot of potluck meals in our time but this summer was the first time I ever saw fried Spam at one of them! I’m not sure if the Sedgewick Coop even sells Spam but on Saipan, the grocery stores have shelves and shelves of it! I didn’t realize that Spam came in different varieties but now I know. In addition to Spam Classic, there’s Hot & Spicy, Hickory Smoked, Oven Roasted Turkey and even Spam Lite. There’s Spam with Bacon and Spam with Cheese as well as several other choices. Yesterday, I even saw Limited Edition Island Spam in one of the tourist shops!

This summer, grocery stores on the island are advertising a special Spam promotion. Sixteen labels will get you a Spam Island Saipan t-shirt! There are also ball caps and other memorabilia available. One of the stores is also advertising a Spam carving contest!

Did you know that there’s even a Spam website? Imagine the possibilities! You can play Spam games, order merchandise or buy your friend a Spam gift certificate! That should make birthday and Christmas shopping easier! You can also learn all about the history of Spam.

Perhaps history is the clue to Spam’s popularity on the island. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 100 million pounds of Spam Classic were shipped abroad to feed the Allied troops. That’s a lot of Spam! In 1944, those troops took the island of Saipan from the Japanese. They placed the native civilians in interment camps for their own protection and I suspect they fed them Spam.

What about you? Any Spam lovers out there? Wherever we travel, we like to sample the local foods but so far we’ve avoided this island favourite. After seeing some of the meat that’s sold in the grocery stores however, I’m beginning to see the appeal of something that comes in a clean, shiny can!

Bird Island hike

/ edebock / 8 Comments

With this morning’s hike to Bird Island, we crossed the last item off our Saipan Bucket List today! Yes, we actually did write one! I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

Bird Island from the viewpoint

According to the atlas, we’d drive to the end of Bird Island Lane and then hike down to the water’s edge. It didn’t look very far.

Isn’t this where you’d expect Bird Island Lane to begin? Me too. Pretty easy. No yellow shorts this time. The only problem was, there wasn’t a lane there. No road of any kind. There was the beginning of a trail though so we guessed we’d have to walk a little further than we’d anticipated and set off. It was an easy, well marked and mostly level path through the jungle. We knew we were going in the right direction because we could hear the ocean in the distance.

Suddenly, after walking for awhile, we came upon a road! Apparently, Bird Island Lane did exist, just not where the sign said it was! Weird! Sure enough, there was the actual trailhead too.  From that point on, it was a fairly steep descent but, like the trail to Old Man by the Sea, there were ropes to help us down the steep, slippery parts.

Soon, we emerged on the beach. The tide was high so we couldn’t get close to Bird Island itself but we walked the narrow sandy beach from one end to the other, explored a small cave at one end and climbed over rocks at the other. What a beautiful spot!

   

We’re close to the equator here and with the tropical sun beating down on us and it’s heat reflected back at us by the white coral sand, it was really hot on the beach! We cooled off with a dip in the Grotto on our way home. This time we had our masks and snorkels with us so we could actually see the fish and watch the scuba divers deep below. It amazes me that there are lots of people living on the island who have never swam in the Grotto and we’ve been there three times already!

Though this is a tiny island and we’ve explored it pretty extensively, I know that there are still more hikes that could be done and beaches that could be seen. With close to two weeks left, though, we’ve seen and done all the things we most wanted to do which is good because we’ll be busy with Vacation Bible School every day next week. Ministry is, after all, the main reason we’re here!