Inafa'maolek, or interdependence, is the key, or central value, in Chamorro
culture . Inafa'maolek depends on a spirit of cooperation. I'm feeling
very cooperative these days.
Liberation Day
Liberation day here is a serious undertaking. Parties, (people camp out
days before the actual parade in tents on the parade route with their entire
families, kids, dogs, caribou and grandmas in wheelchairs, barbequing their
hearts out drinking beer and all), festivals, live music, and banners from
individual families thanking the military for freeing their people. The
United States returned and fought the Battle of Guam on July 21, 1944, to
recapture the island from Japanese military occupation.
I have never seen anything like it... Perhaps this is because the 4th of
July in the continental United States was so long ago we as Americans don't
quite feel or remember its significance other than a day off of work, some
great fireworks, lots of barbeques and the official start of summer. The
people of Guam take July 21st very, very seriously.
In essence other than the above is that: during the occupation by Japanese
forces for 31 months, people of Guam were subjected to forced labor, family
separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps and prostitution.
1,000 people were killed. Doesn't sound like much but, as a percentage of
population that is roughly around 10% of the population at that point and
time.
Very intense when you think about it. I would be seriously pissed if they
came and forced me into prostitution and stuck the kids in concentration and
labor camps, ... Talk about one cranky Momma, let's just be honest, as we
all know, I wouldn't have lasted more than a few minutes before being
killed for general disobedience and NON conformity!
In the history annals it says that the Chamoro's in loin clothes ran down
the hills and fought along side of the U.S. led forces. The island people
as a whole are very passionate, extremely patriotic people. Almost all of
the families have one or more children that are in the military, either
active duty or reserve. I would really think twice if I were any
"unnamed" country thinking of perhaps pursuing an action against Guam and the U.S.
They have their own personal well trained forces ready at will. Note: they
only wear loin cloths for parades now days.
Of the 170k people on island about 90% showed up to the parade/party! I ran
into local coworkers, and random people (who even though I am a
"howlie"a.k.a white person of non Chamorro heritage, if you live here long enough
you become a Chammali) promptly invited me and the kids into their awesome
canopies (complete with island decorations, palm frawns, flowers, banana
leaves etc) with their entire families, cousins, in-laws, dogs etc and tried
to stuff our faces with a few metric tons of red rice, and any kind of food.
Note: I am pretty uncomfortable with being called a "howlie". It would be like me calling a Italian a "you know what" I can't even say it.
Maybe I am just being silly.
I think one of the most remarkable, moving and poignant examples of why I
strive for freedom was presented at the parade. Not by the locals but by a
full marching band of Chinese People from the "Falon Dafa a.k.a The Falon
Gong (More info at if you really want to know http://www.faluninfo.net )!
They were playing "America the Beautiful" and were smiling from ear
to ear. Afterwards they received a standing ovation from the crowd. Regardless of
if you follow their beliefs, practices or anything else, they on the island
of Guam have the right to practice at will. If they were in China they
would have been eventually "outed" and due to them practicing a tai
chi quasi Buddhist form of meditation etc.. tortured, shot, and/or jailed. I am
so lucky to be free, I wouldn't have lasted a nano second in a majority of
countries (I barely made it out of Indiana and that is the U.S.A!).
Quite the experience!
Christian is getting married!
Christian, has at the ripe old age of seven, promised to betroth his new
girlfriend, the Captain (or Julienne my partner in crime...she is the newest
member of the chaotic, funkolicicous delicious house of Hess and she rocks!)
He decided he wanted to marry her on Saturday. It was also decided on the
ride home in the back seat of the car after Vietnamese food (maybe he was
hallucinating from the spice) (from the "Liberation Day Coronation"
Ceremony for the Queen and her ladies in waiting) Sophia on the other hand would only
be allowed to obtain the rights to be a flower girl or brides maid if she
was indeed nice to Christian until he reaches the ripe old age of 18.
Julienne, told Christian that she would agree to marry him only if he would
go to college. So I guess that buys me time until he is around 20! LOL..
This was also after Helen the woman that owns the Vietnamese restaurant
begged to hang out with the kids (she needs grandkids desperately and her
son who works as a waiter was hitting hard on Julienne for a date! He is a
former MARINE of course!)
Christian had quite kindly pointed out (once again) the fact that I was
getting wrinkles earlier in the evening. He and Sophia even made the faces
that they believe causes the great distress in my epidermal layer!
Helen in quite a sly manor said Julienne and I could go on a weekend
excursion to Manila and get those wrinkles taken care of in no time! She on
the other hand would quite happily watch the kids! OMG! Do I have that
many wrinkles! I thought I was turning 25 next Saturday! I refuse to do
the math. However, now I know where people go and Manila is always an option
LOL. Once again we have been adopted and invited over for yet another
fiesta! I will have to have a gastric bypass along with wrinkle removal if I
continue to get invited to this many fiestas!
Sea Kayaking
Sea Kayaking with the Colonel and the Captain (the kids call him Colonel
Mustard, as in clue, with the candlestick in the library) was a blast. We
took a wonderful 2 hour journey into the Sumay Cove. Very peaceful until
they decided to swim all the way across the cove! Nothing to worry about,
they have both decided to become iron kids. It must be in the water :-)
Video to follow, I crashed my computer before the upload was finished!
I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer as much as I am mine.
Please write soon, I love email (obviously).
Until then, many hugs as always,
Susan, Sophia and Christian
"Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death". --Ayn Rand
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