Coincidence?

A few days ago Wade's Introduction to the Island class (that's not really the name...but that's what it is) went on a field trip. They took a tour of the island, learning about all kinds of useful safety information, and local history. Hence the story about the Japanese zombies from the previous post.

One of the stories that he passed along to me was an interesting bit of history. If you don't know, Guam was originally conquered by the Spanish in 1565. They colonized the island, killing most of the original Chamorro people. In 1898, during the Spanish American War the American Navy sailed over to Guam, and landed safely on the shores to an open-armed Spanish Army. See, the Spanish had not caught word of the war that had been going on for many months, and were welcoming their would-be allies. The Americans smartly lead them to believe that nothing had changed, and landed...planted a flag, and said, "Get out." So, Guam was taken over the Americans with nearly no bloodshed. This fateful day happened to be July 21st, which if you remember from a post from a few weeks ago...is Liberation Day. A holiday celebrated by the locals in honor of the day that the Americans regained control from the Japanese in WWII. Coincidence??? You decide.

Poltergeist

My husband and I took a drive today...trying to kill some time before our orientation meeting at the Children's Development Center (they have drop-off rates of $3 hour!!)...and we passed a neighborhood in base housing that has an interesting background...
When the American forces took back Guam from Japanese control in WWII the Americans bombed the island in the process. After we took control there were thousands of dead Japanese soldiers scattered from the explosions. Clean up duty consisted of making use of all of the bomb induced craters and burying the soldiers in them. Years later, the Japanese asked for the bodies of these soldiers in order to lay them to rest properly back in Japan. Well, when the mass graves were dug up...only about 1/4 of the bodies were ever found. It is thought, that there is a great possibility that this particular neighborhood is built over some of the mass graves yet to be found. So, if I see any zombie Japanese soldiers that look a little lost this Halloween...I'll know where to send them.

Today was a wonderful day for the Gerloff family, as we are finally complete again!! We picked up our dog and cat, Sammy and Frank from the quarantine facilities today. They flew in last night, were checked out by the vet this afternoon, and were safely being snuggled in our arms and/or being chased around the room by Nicholas by this evening. It's wonderful to have them here with us, finally! It was the last big piece of the moving across the world puzzle.

Now, it's time for me to curl up with my book and my pup, and go to dream land....not a bad ending to a Friday 13th....unless some of those zombies show up in the middle of the night...

Interesting...

Some interesting things I have learned about this island...

The most frequent road kill I have seen here is hermit crabs and giant frogs. Quite a change from squirrels (which do not live on this island) and armadillos (nor do they).

Also, we have discovered that they do not sell fresh chicken here. I know....it's all frozen. Which is odd to me because I have never seen so many wild chickens roaming around in my life.

Our power went out mysteriously for about 7 hours the other night...which was fine because our house held the cool air in quite a bit longer than I expected. There are also some back up lights installed in the hallways for that very purpose.

In short, everyday is a new surprise. Good or bad, it's all part of the adventure :)