NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Everytime I go to Mount Lamlam I get lost. Kada humanao yan humike yu' giya Sabanan Lamlam umabak yu'. Sometimes I want to get lost. Guaha nai hu hasngon muna'abak maisa yu'. Sometimes I don't want to get lost. Guaha nai lokkue' mungga yu' umabak. But I take comfort in the fact that whether I get lost or not, it's still what I wanted. Lao malulok yu' nu este sa' achokka' umabak pat ti umabak, ya-hu i dos sinembatgo.

For the past week I've been pasting pictures of my many hikes to the Pagat area of northern Guam. In a one year period I hiked down there 14 times, and in the process exploring so many different areas there and finding lots of cool things. I don't have thousands of pictures of my trip, since more than once I lost a camera down there. But I do have enough to show different aspects of the Pagat area, most of which people don't really know. Pagat proper is the trail that takes you to the freshwater cave and then through a trail of lusong, past a single latte house, to get to the natural arch and the cliffs. Pagat is so much more than this, and I've been blessed to be able to explore and see so much more. On the Pagat loop trail you can see the limestone wall there which no one seems to be able to explain how it was made (but there are many fun theories). At Pagat point you can see two massive limestone rocks known as Chelef's Hands, named after a 17th century C

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 took my UOG summer class students to Mount Lamlam for an extra credit hike over the weekend. For those of you who know me, you might already be making ominous sounds and widening your eyes preparing for an update about my struggle with that particular peak on Guam. For those of you who don't know me I won't bore you too much, but let me just say that me and Mount Lamlam have a history, a difficult, painful history of me getting lost on that hike. On a good day a hike up and down Mount Lamlam should take 2 - 3 hours depending on how fast you move. On a bad day it can take 4 - 6 hours. The extra times comes from the sword grass or bamboo being too dense that trails disappear and also can come from the fact that if your group is too large they get spread out and staggered along a winding, uneven and sometimes dangerous path slowing you down. The hike over the weekend was no different, as close to 50 of my students and their friends showed up and this led to a long day of hik

Today was another machalapon day. More wrong directions, running around lost and misinformation by DNC folks, Pepsi Center employees and other volunteers on where I need to go and where I can go. I eventually made it to the Bloggers' Tailgate '08 this afternoon but not after running around for a while, being misdirected to just about every section of the Pepsi Center. Fortunately, I had a partner in being lost and eventually finding the party. I met Sara, who is the state blogger from Kentucky and part of the blog Blue Grass Roots . I told her that she was the first blogger I'd ever met from Kentucky, and she said the same in terms of Guam. She asked if there was much blogging on Guam and if I had any competition in getting accepted into the State (and Territory) Blogger Corps. I said, sadly no, there is not much blogging on Guam, at least not blogged that's politically motivated or inspired. This wasn't the case with her, as her blog had beaten out a much larger