NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I have been working for about two years now on a social studies textbook for UOG Press. This is a part of a project that aims to create locally and regionally focused social studies textbooks for each elementary school grade. In the past there have been a few different social studies textbooks, but often times they were aimed at multiple grades or were focused more on Guam History as opposed to being solid social studies texts. This project is exciting and challenging on many levels.  The grade I am working on is fourth grade, which is fortunate for me, since it is the grade when students are supposed to get their first focused taste of Guam History. It is, gi minagahet, very exciting. I get to use everything from Guam History, to Chamoru language, to legends and local parables to get students connected to the world around them and understand how to be an effective, productive and critical part of your community.  In the first two units, one thing that I have tried to use alot of are l

O Tano' Gof triste hao pa'go Sa' i mas gefpago na diamante Esta gaige giya Guahu O Mapagahes, Triste hao, Sa' taya' mas "fluffy" Kinu i guinaiya-ku O Uchan, Un na'matmos i tano' Lao esta masmai i korason-hu ni guinaiya O Isa, Manayao hao kulot Ginen i mitkilot na guinaiya-ku O Atdao, Hosguan hao Nu i minaipen i guinaiya-ku O Pulan, Gof hosguan Nu i mina'lak i nobia-hu   Kao toninos hao? Sa' toninos yu' Kao toninos hit gi i tasin guinaiya?      

This was a picture from the trail at Pagat. There is no way I cannot feel philosophical about this sight. A hilitai, crushed and flattened into the earth. At a place no less which as been controversial for a variety of reasons the past few years. I find it particularly interesting since hilitai have a habit of following me when I hike. The first time I tried to catch a hilitai was at Hila'an. In the area that I call the lemmai grove, I saw one standing atop a lusong. I tiptoed as quietly as I could to try and reach it. Naturally I'm not much of a ninja and so the hilitai immediately heard me. Instead of running though, it just stared at me. Watching me get closer and closer to it. Once I was too close, it plodded off the lusong and started to crawl briskly into the jungle. I raced after it, but couldn't find it. When the rest of my friends arrived I told them about how I had almost caught a hilitai. As I spoke it started to rain. My friend b

Below are some random photos and slices of life from my recent trip to South Korea: As if a sign of fate, my hotel in Seoul was just a block away from the South Korean consulate from Swaziland. For those who don't know I spent almost two years living there as a child. At a conference celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the agreement made by both governments of North and South Korea to pursue a path towards their reunification, there were apparently some very famous people there. As you can see from the sea of cameramen on stage shooting a row of VIPs. Although I was sitting in the front row, only one guy took a picture of me. He might of thought I was a Korean soap star. A university student, stands alone amongst a flow of constant traffic. I was told that his sign is protesting the involvement of the South Korean military in the war in Afghanistan. This is an ad for a cemetary (Pine'lo-ku). Mampos ambivalent yu' nu este. I first took a picture of it because it l

I asked a few people before I left Guam what, if anything, they would want me to try and get for them while I was in South Korea. Most people, thankfully said nothing, since I knew I wouldn't have alot of time for commercial exploring or shopping on this trip. My brother Jeremy (Kuri), is helping my stubstitues with the AV equipment for my classes while I'm gone and so when he said that he didn't want anything from South Korea, I pushed him further to come up with something I could get for him, to pay him back for helping me out. Put i tiningo'-hu put i che'l-hu, ya hafa ya-na, siempre guaha minalago-na. Last year in one of my Guam History classes a friend of my brothers outed him as a closet K-Pop fan. Apparently a few weeks before, a K-Pop group had been on island for a vacation, and so when Kuri and his friends heard about this and found out what hotel they were staying at, they rushed down their to try and meet them. As they wandered around the hotel, like all