NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

This November I am once again participating in ChaNoWriMo or as its known elsewhere as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month or Chamorro Novel Writing Month. This means that this blog sadly will not be receiving much attention. During this month, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your novel. For me, I am continuing my long-standing story titled "The Legend of the Chamurai." I first started it in 2011 and I've been writing parts of it every November since then. The story so far has spanned over 500 years and a host of characters. It has spanned from the world of the dead, to Okinawa and Taiwan, to the Caroline Islands and to the northern islands of the Marianas. At present, I am writing sections of a great challenge that involves a unique or mysterious task on each of the Marianas Islands. Three champions sailing up the island chain, fighting monsters or finding artifacts on each island. Very fun, getting to use different aspects of the islands to come up w

Mafå'tinas este na "manga" gi i un lugåt nai umasodda' i guinife-hu yan i chatguinife-hu siha. Magof hu na måtto tåtte i Berserk na manga. Puede ha' mohon ti pau dingu yu' ta'lo. 

Life has been keeping away from this blog for the past two weeks. It is upsetting because I haven't been able to finish up all the drafts I started for my "Quest for Decolonization" series. I am hoping to find time before the end of the month, but things are so up in the air right now. I'm teaching five hours everyday and then have film commitments, family commitments, writing commitments, activism commitments, government commitments and a host of other obligations. I have kept this blog going for more than 10 years now and so I promise that I will return to wrap things up. This year's Regional Seminar for the UN was different than any of the other experiences I've had with the United Nations and I want to be sure that I can articulate more of my thoughts. So keep coming back to this blog for the next few weeks, I have a few more things to share about my recent trip and Guam's continuing quest for decolonization.

The past week has been crazy and the lack of blog posts reflects that. Between parenting, teaching, writing, film-making, play-writing, endless meetings, interviews, and planning for a summer trip, things have been too exhausting and too hectic. I'm going to try and get back on track with my blog posts about my Nicaragua trip over the weekend. In the meantime I wanted to share this interview I did recently for an undergraduate student about the origins of the Chamorro Studies program at UOG, the program I was proud to help create and even more proud to be a part of today. **************** How did the Chamoru Studies program come about? The initial incarnation of the Chamorro Studies program was developed in the School of Education at UOG. The Government of Guam was mandating UOG to train people who were able to teach Chamorro language and culture in schools and the program was developed under Dr. Bernadita Dungca in order to accomplish that. The

I've been so busy this week with writing Chamorro language curriculum for the I Ma'adahen Fino' Chamorro that I haven't been able to post much or even complete my Guam Political Sign Awards. I wrote up most of the winners in my Marianas Variety column last week, but haven't been able to get the full text together and edit the images of the winning signs. I promise to get to this either over the weekend or next week. ChaNoWriMo hasn't been helping with this much either.

Another big project came my way and it is one of those rush jobs that consume much of my life for the next few days. It is an interesting job to say the least, translating materials dealing with fishing and local fishes. For someone who does not come from a familian peskadot by any means, I am learning quite a bit as I translate. As the Reel Big Fish song says " meggai guihan gi tasi," but unfortunately, ti hu gof tungo' i na'an-niha! At the end of this project I will know alot more about fishing regulations and the names of fish then I learned in the first 30 years of my life. So while much of my time for the next few days will be consumed with this project, the labor will be happy and useful in the end. Don't know if I'll be posting much until I hit my deadline this Friday. After posting pretty consistently in December and in January I've hit a lull this month, as so many deadlines loom around me. Once I finish this project however I'll work on be

Not sure when I'll be able to blog something, this week is crazy. I taught two winter intersession courses at UOG that finished last week, and now this week I start teaching six classes at UOG for the Spring 2012 semester. Six classes is quite a load, and they are four different classes, meaning that I have to prepare for four different lectures, discussions each week, and then without any TAs or any other support, have to grade the work of 150 students. I have so many thoughts swirling around my head, but just not enough time to type it into this blog. I hope that once things calm down this semester, maybe next week I'll be back.

Although our writing is meant to reflect our lives and meant to be an extension of our lives, life regularly has its own agenda and gets in the way of our writing. I still have plenty more to say about my trip to Okinawa last week to attend the 2011 Japan Peace Conference. I have plenty of notes and plenty of pictures. I've uploaded so far 8 sometimes long and sometimes short posts about the trip, but I have much more, I just can't get to finishing them up yet. The semester is winding down now and so the stacks of papers that have been piling up all semester, are close to overwhelming me, and so I might need to take a break from writing about my trip to focus on other things. But don't worry, Okinawa Dreams will be back hopefully next week.

Gof tinane' yu' gi este mamaila na simana. Guaha inaplikan grant ni' bai hu na'halom antes di Tuesday. Guaha meggai na bai hu na'listo para i singko na klas-hu siha. Guaha tinige'-hu review put i lepblon Vince Diaz ( Repositioning the Missionary) ni' bai hu tuge' antes di i finakpo' i mes. Guaha dos na kaduku na patgon-hu, ya kalang gof ga'tumane' i dos nu Guahu. And so since I won't be posting much for a few days because I have too many things to do, I've pasted below a picture of two dogs riding a karabao. Fa'na'an i duenon este na tres ga'ga' i bisinun Si tata-hu giya Piti. Lao yanggen sesso matto hao giya i kanton tasi Assan, sesso lokkue' sina un ripara este na tres manmamomokkat guihi. Adios, esta otro biahi!

Every once in a while I seem to disappear from the face of the island. People call my phone and I don't answer. Emails pile up and I don't respond to them. People don't see me in my usual places. My course work for classes is more abbreviated and rushed than usual. If you ever notice this happen to me then rest assured I am not addicted to any drugs, nor have I taken up some new misanthropic new hobby. What has probably happened is that I've taken on a new translation project (from English to Chamorro), and I'm probably bunkered up in my office at home or at UOG, typing in frustrated bursts into my computer, and occasionally coming up for air by digging for some archaic word in my Chamorro-English dictionary. I sometimes take on projects like this in order to make some extra money, and just because I also find it to be an interesting experience. So if it seems like I've been gone for a few days, I'm lost in translation yet again. I got a particularly l

I'm in Las Vegas this week celebrating the graduation of my brother Jack. I've been writing quite a bit, but haven't found time to post anything online. I've been in the states for almost two weeks, but in a few days I'll be back on Guam. I'll try to post something before I board my plane next week, just because I feel lazy for leaving my blog so dormant, even though so many things have been happening on Guam and in my life. I have been keeping up my posts at my Tumblr though ( I Pilan Yanggen Sumahi...), so you can check out there if by some weird chance you are starved of my content.

Despensa yu' na didide' ha' tininge'-hu gi este na ma'pos na simana. Para bai hu falak sanlagu ta'lo gi i otro'na na simana. Esta mas ki dos anos desde sumaga' yu' guihi. Magof hu sa' para bei in hami yan Si Sumahi, i hagga'-hu. Magof yu' na para u fanali'e' Si Sumahi yan i otro na familian-mami giya Kalifotna. I otro na simana i uttimo na simanan gi este na semester-hu, ya humuyongna bubula i che'cho'-hu. Pa'go (put fin) hu na'funhayan un cho'cho' nai hu transladayi GHURA dokumento siha put Fair Housing. Sen makkat este na cho'cho', sa' meggai na sinangan yan palabras gi ayu na papet siha ni' taya' nai hu hungok gi fino' Chamoru. Gi este mamaila na bakashon para bai hu fanaplika cho'cho' ta'lo giya UOG. Esta macho'cho' yu' guini para dos na sakkan, lao ti petmanente i puesto-ku. Este na cho'cho' ni' bai hu aplikayi "tenure track"

My apologies but for the next week or so I won't be posting much on this blog. A big side project has just fallen in my lap and so it'll be taking up all my free time for the next week and so I doubt I'll be able to find time to post here. Its actually very frustrating writing this sort of post/non-post, because for the next week I won't be writing about things going on, but that in no way means the world stops and waits for me to finish up. Things are happening right now, which I desperately wish I could write more about. There are plenty of updates about the struggle of the Gangjeong Villagers in Jeju which I haven't had time to write about. Guam will be getting the final version of the EIS for its military buildup in the next few weeks and from the previews that people have gotten so far, it doesn't look good. The military plans to move ahead with closing off the Pagat area for part of the year. So even though I won't be here, I might use the excuse o