NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

So far this year Independent Guåhan has organized two Hale'-ta Hikes; the first to Laso' Fouha or Fouha Rock, and the second to Hila'an. Our third hike is set for later this month to Pågat. I have written in several articles recently about how important this type of outreach has been in terms of developing community resistance to US military plans in Guam. Taking people into the areas that may be affected, contaminated or closed off to the public, and allowing them to forge their own personal and eventually, hopefully, political connections was essential, especially in the case of Pågat. This is one reason why things have been different recently with regards to Litekyan. The fact that when you take people on hikes there, you are walking not through "public" or "local" lands, but instead federal property makes it difficult for people to imagine a strong connection to the lands and their meaning. Instead it feels like more of the stolen lands, stolen

Through my Facebook page and this blog,  I often share what I refer to as “Adventures in Chamorro.” Gof takhilo’ i lenguahi-ta gi lina’la’-hu . Much of my work is dedicated to the revitalization of the Chamorro language and for my two children, Sumåhi and Akli’e’, from the days they were born I have only spoken to them in Chamorro. As such, in both work and the home, my life is filed with lots of interesting and hysterical Chamorro language moments. These are what I refer to as our “Adventures in Chamorro,” named for the adventure we take every day trying to talk about the world around us in the Chamorro language. Every couple of months, I would also share some of them in my Guam Daily Post columns. Here are some that I shared in my column published on August 17, 2016. Adventures in Chamorro #266: The other day Isa (i nobia-hu), the kids and I were walking along the beach and looking up at the moon. It was a crescent moon, which many people translate to "sinahi&q;

I haven't been posting as much on my blog this month because so much of my writing energy has been going into NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I reached the halfpoint point of my novel of 50,000 words two days ago and so I feel glad to have made it that far, but bad that I haven't been giving much word love to my blog. This month, I am pushing a variation of NaNoWriMo called ChaNoWriMo, or Chamorro Novel Writing Month, I'll be writing more about it later, although I did mention it in my Marianas Variety column a few weeks back. For those who want to know more about NaNoWriMo or want to participate check out www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. Come and join the rest of us writers in Elsewhere: Micronesia if you are looking for a small but dedicated community to write with. As part of NaNoWriMo, each region gets a municipal liaison. It is her job to give people info, keep them motivated and organize write-ins. Below is a message about reaching the halfway point from

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

-->This semester I am teaching Chamorro Language at UOG for the first team ever. I've taught classes for years in the community, but these are my first official college level classes. I am having lots of fun, even though it is alot of work since I am starting from scratch in many ways. Each week I put together my own handouts with vocab lists and grammar lessons. This past week we went through opposites such as "dikike'" and "dangkolu" or "taianao" and "dangge" and also occupations such as the Chamorro words for judge, runner, lover, thief and soldier. Chamorro occupations is an interest mix because it breaks down to certain words that are borrowed from the Spanish, such as "hues" or "peskadot" that means "judge" and "hunter." There are also older Chamorro terms such as "fafalagu" and "a'afulo'" which means "runner" and "wrestler." Then there ar

I've been successful this summer in going on a hike at least every two weeks. I've been referring to these as my "Secret Hikes" Here are some pictures of the last four:

From We Are Guahan : This year was an eventful year for We Are Guahan. The organization helped organize over 11 hikes to historic sites on Guam, announced a high school scholarship program and enjoyed a historic legal victory against DOD in the lawsuit to save Pagat Village. We Are Guahan would like to extend a dangkulu na Si Yu’us Ma’ase for your continued support of our efforts. Special thanks to Dr. Miget Lujan Bevacqua for coordinating and assisting in the organizing of the Heritage Hikes, Alissa Eclavea for her efforts to raise funds for the GAPSS scholarship program, all of the artists who have volunteered their time and creativity for the Prutehi yan Difendi campaign and everyone else who supported us this year. We look forward to being involved in more things in the year to come. Below is a chronological summary of just some of the activities We Are Guahan was a part of in 2011: February 2011 •2/14: Sticker-up day to spread awareness about Pagat Lawsuit. •2/25: Relea

This article is from last week's Marianas Variety and so the dates are a bit off, as the hike to Ague Cove took place over the weekend. But for those of you still looking to go on some Heritage Hikes, there are two left. Hila'an is very common hike that people go on, as it is home to Shark's Pit and Lost Pond. What most people don't realize is that if you walk into the jungle just a little bit, you will not just be treated to few latte stones here and there, but you can actually find close to 100 latte . Some of them still standing, some of them still arranged as they might have been centuries ago. You can basically walk through the Ancient village of Hila'an. That hike will take place on October 30th, and start time will be at 3:30 pm at Tanguissan Beach Park. Our last hike will be to Pagat Point, which is much less known than both Hila'an and Pagat Cave. The hike for that will be on November 5th, and we'll be starting at 9 am, start point will be the Pag

Hafa adai, We Are Guåhan is pleased to announce its fourth series of Heritage Hikes: Nå’i Tåtte, Chule' Tåtte. The title translates to "Give Back, Take Back," as this series of hikes will deal with the Department of Defense's complex history of land taking and land returns on Guam. The title he upcoming Heritage Hikes will include 2 new sites, Ague Cove and Pågat Point, as well as a Sunday afternoon hike to Hila’an Village. The hike schedule is as follows: · Saturday, October 22, 2011 – Ague Cove (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 2.5 hours) Meet at Former FAA property (near NCS Dededo) · Sunday, October 30, 2011 – Hila'an Village (Difficulty: Very Easy. Duration: 2 – 2.5hours) Meet at Tanguisson Beach Park. · Saturday, November 5, 2011 – Pågat Point (Difficulty: Medium. Duration: 3 – 4 hours) Meet at Pågat trailhead along The Back Road. WHEN: The show-time for the Ague Cove and Pågat Point hikes is 8:45a.m. with a go-time 9:00 a.m. The show time for the

I am in this picture, I am the white-t-shirted blur to the left in the background. For me this captures very much my feeling of walking in a sort of dream two weeks ago. After months of trying, myself and 20 others were given access to the Fena area of Naval Magazine on Guam. For those who don't know, Naval Magazine is a site for storing all sorts of weapons and bombs, and so access to the base is very restricted. We went as part of the Heritage Hikes that I help organize for We Are Guahan. While Heritage Hikes are always open to the public, because of base security issues, for those on base, we are always limited in the amount of people who can join and each person has to submit their SS# and sign a waiver ahead of time. I grew up on Guam with very few people in my family who had base access. We rarely ever entered the base and being able to shop at the commissary wasn't something that we seemed to care about, or at least not openly. As such the bases on Guam are often total

It is time again for another round of Heritage Hikes courtesy of yours truly and We Are Guahan. This month we’ll be having three hikes to Hila’an (June 12 ), Haputo (June 18) and Pågat (June 25) and our theme is “I Kantan I Latte Siha” or “the song of the latte.” This is our third set of hikes, and our goal is to offer the community a chance to visit certain places of natural beauty on Guam, get some exercise and also learn about the cultural history of the site. So far we’ve had hundreds attend our hikes and even got an excellent article in the most recent issue of Uno . The first two sets of hikes “Tungo’ i Estoria-ta” and “Un Nuebu na Inatan” focused on exploring and learning about local places that have played a crucial and sometimes tragic role in Guam’s history of American militarization. We visited sites where people were displaced because of strategic military interests and also places where people protested in order to protect Guam’s natural beauty and resources. Despit

We Are Guåhan is pleased to announce its third series of "Heritage Hikes: I Kantan i Latte Siha." The previous 2 series of Heritage Hikes have been a major success with over 240 people showing up to see and learn about Guam’s history. The upcoming Heritage Hikes will include 2 new sites, Hila’an Village and Haputo, as well as a hike to Pågat Village. It also includes We Are Guåhan’s first hike scheduled on a Sunday. The hike schedule is as follows: •June 12, 2011 – Hila’an Village (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at Tanguisson Beach Park. •June 18, 2011 – Haputo (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at NCS Finegayan. •June 25, 2011 – Pågat Village (Difficulty: Medium. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at Pågat trailhead along The Back Road. The hike to Haputo is subject to the discretion of the Department of Defense. If you are interested in attending the hike, you will need to submit your Social Security Number to DoD and sign a waiver by June 10.

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"

(featured in picture: fearsome hikers Jon Glaser, Nate Denight and Ken Kuper, manabak siha gi i saddok Cetti) Earlier today we finished our last hike of We Are Guahan's second batch of Heritage Hikes. I lead and organized with Leevin Camacho our first round last November, which was a huge success with around 150 attending our three hikes. This time around we got 130 for hikes at Tumon Bay, Pagat and Cetti and Sella Bays. Gof yafai yu' pa'go. I hike-mami ginnen Cetti asta Sella gof makkat pa'go. Manmamokkat ham noskuantos na miyas gi un okso', un saddok yan i kanton tasi. Tinaka' sais oras gi todu. Daggau yu' didide', maka'guas yu' meggai gi i kannai-hu, yan machefchef i tomo' addeng-hu. Gigon na matto yu' gi i gima'-hu lumalango yu' gi i katre, ya mumaigo' yu' tres oras. Achokka' mamumuti yu' pa'go, gof magof hu put i chine'guen-mami gi este na hikes, ya esta listo yu' para bei in fanche'gue i