Saipan

Saipan: from tranquility to typhoon devastation

/ edebock / 2 Comments

This is the message that I’ve been receiving from WordPress for the past few days.

By far the most popular post, the one that has been drawing lots of readers to my blog, is this one that was published more 15 years ago. Entitled Where in the World is Saipan, it was written when hubby and I learned that we would be spending the summer of 2011 serving as short term missionaries on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan.

Saipan is the largest and the most densely populated of the 14 tiny islands that make up the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands which stretches 400 miles along the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. Just 15 degrees north of the equator, the island is only 12.5 miles (20 km) long & 5.5 miles (8 km) wide, but it has a population of almost 47 000 people.

A tropical island with a warm humid climate, Saipan holds the Guinness World Record for having the most consistent temperature in the world. The average temperature year-round is 27C (81 F) with very little fluctuation between day and night. It is, however, in a very high-risk area for tropical storms or typhoon with several passing near or directly over the island annually and I’m sure that this is what has drawn so many people to my blog post this week.

On Tuesday night and throughout the day on Wednesday, Super Typhoon Sinlaku hammered the island with sustained winds of up to 150 mph (240 km/h) flipping cars, uprooting trees, toppling utility poles, and ripping off tin roofs. The only hospital on the island sustained severe flooding as did many homes and other buildings. Power and water were out and many of the roads were left impassable. The images and videos that have been filling my Facebook feed are heartbreaking. Here are a several from the Marianas Press.

What a sharp and horrifying contrast from the tranquil beauty that I remember.

As gorgeous as Saipan was, however, and in spite of the fact that there were beautiful beach resorts along the west side of the island, we also knew that many of the people that we were ministering to lived in houses like these ones. I can only imagine what’s left of them after Sinlaku ravaged the island this week.

I’m not happy about the fact that there’s still snow in our forecast for the coming week, a time of year when we’re often on the golf course, but seeing what the people of Saipan have been dealing with certainly puts things into perspective in a hurry!

Digging deeper!

/ edebock / 2 Comments

LogoNow that winter has arrived, challenging myself to wear skirts and dresses to church every Sunday has resulted in me digging much deeper into my closet. Last Sunday morning, the temperature was -10ºC (14F), a strong wind was blowing, and it was snowing. Clearly, dressing warm was a priority. 

IMG_1855

I started with a camel coloured pencil skirt that I bought in early 2013, just before we left for a teaching term in China. Named for it’s long, slim shape, a pencil skirt is a timeless garment that never goes out of fashion. It’s a basic wardrobe piece that many different outfits can be built around. In addition to this one, I have navy and grey pencil skirts that both date back to my teaching days. 

I wore the same tall brown boots and patterned top that were part of last week’s outfit. Though only barely visible in the photo, I wore a pair of dark brown leggings under the skirt, partly for warmth, but also because the skirt wasn’t quite long enough to cover the top of my boots and I didn’t want a sliver of bare skin breaking up the look. Next, I added my cozy Checkmate Jacket from cabi’s Fall 2019 collection which you’ve seen on the blog a couple of times before. 

IMG_1858

Costume jewelry can be a fun and inexpensive way to finish off an outfit. The name dates back to the early 20th century and simply reflects the use of the word “costume” to refer to what we now call an “outfit”. To complete Sunday’s “costume”, I chose a pair of dangly earrings and a simple bead necklace. The beads are made from coconut shell. We spent the summer of 2011 as short term missionaries on the Pacific island of Saipan and it was there that I purchased the necklace from a Chamorro woman who made them to sell to tourists. The Chamorro are the indigenous people of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Now that winter has arrived, I’m not sure that I’ll continue wearing skirts and dresses to church every week, but it’s been fun digging deeper into my closet and coming up with new ways to style some of my older pieces.