Quirks

In Saipan, things having to do with official business happen as if on Narnia time. You might make great strides in a short time on a given project, or it might take weeks or even months to make any headway at all. You never really know how things will progress until you're there. A few examples for your reading pleasure:

The basketball court at the school belongs to the city. We use it on a sort of free lease. The paint is terrible looking, so I decided that it should be painted before the Vball home game next week. I went over to the mayors office across he street right next to the sleezy poker game room (zoning codes? nah.. haha). The lady at the desk said she didn't have the ability to give me permission, but she knew who to ask. She disappeared a few minutes later, and said they said to call the dept of parks and rec. She calls them. They said they couldn't give permission but they knew who to ask. She calls the sub-division of P&R that handles the basketball courts. They said they'd call back. So yea. Big day. Oh.. She DID inform me that we would have to provide the paint. haha

A few days ago, we had to go get sand to put under he swing set (it's all kicked away). Mr. Berglund (principal) got in touch with the proper authorities, who said to meet them at 2:00pm so they could let us in to the locked sand area. At 2:00, we showed up, and finding the gate unlocked, figured it was unlocked for us and since we had permission, we went in, got our truckloads of sand and left. At 2:35, we get a call from the sand people saying "We're here, where are you?". Turns out, behind the school, there were FOUR people in a nice new government pickup truck chilling, waiting. Now, I don't know how many people it takes to turn a key, but I feel like tax dollars could be better spent than on four people in a new truck to unlock one gate doing nothing for a half hour hahaha.

Saipan is a land of great contrast. There is no middle ground. There are restaurants that look on the outside like somewhere I would never enter in the states for fear of consuming something reproachable. Then you go inside and everything is sparkling clean and you get a huge plate of delicious food. Or, take for example how the industry and economy of the island has fallen through the floor, deserted buildings everywhere in San Antonio (our town), and yet there is almost no trash to be found on the ground. Just the other day I had to buy gym shorts. After the lady rang up my card the old-ghettofabulous-fashioned way with a piece of carbon paper and everything, she turned and typed something on her easily $1200 laptop. Go figure. Some days, I just have to shake my head. It's a different world here. :)

Still life

Ok so I have finally been able to get pictures up, I've been putting them on Facebook only because it takes a long time to upload them here. The link is:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?id=508348556&aid=192661

That should work for everybody, if you can't see them comment accordingly and I'll see what I can do. Enjoy!

And then some

I'm never really sure if people are most interested in hearing a rundown of literal events I have experienced or the way in which they have effected me in this blog. I lean towards the first, simply because I tend to internalize any lessons (if indeed I do learn anything haha) from a given event, and share only the hard concrete facts. I realize this is not always the case, it is just what I prefer to do lately. Meh. I suppose I'll list off things that have happened, then attempt to describe what they mean to me.

Had some bad days of teaching in which I had to make the kids suffer a little.
My truck died.
Went for a run, which I intend to make a habit of.
Had a big storm.
Had our first SM fight, and made up haha
I have been painting.
Went exploring.
Read a book.

HAD SOME BAD DAYS
Some days go really good. The kids listen, the exercises and sports go well, nobody ends up crying or bleeding, and it's great. Other days, not so much. We had rain here for a few days. And when I say rain, I mean RAIN. So Monday, when PE time for the upper graders came, it was only raining a little bit, so I took em out. This proved to be a bad idea. We did our warm up exercises in the rain, and when it started getting worse we went inside. Problem was, I didn't have much indoor PE things to do. So I had 30 5-10th graders who were hyper in a lunchroom next to two classrooms. Before the period was over, they were yelling, I was yelling, and then they had their heads down like little kids. All in all not the best outcome. But things like that keep me from getting smug about myself, because overall it's really awesome and things go smoothly. Today in fact went amazingly well, nd time went by so fast we were outside an extra 5 or 10 minutes before I realized the period was over! haha. The kids didn't mind :p

TRUCK DIED
Yep. My steed perished. Or in biblical terms, it is sleeping. lol. I went to pick up my laundry the other morning and after stopping at an ATM, it wouldn't start again. So I had to walk to get my laundry, and walk back home. Not FTW. However, this is what inspired me to start running in the mornings. I had thought about it before, but after actually traveling the distance out of necessity, it seemed like more of a realistic goal and so I just did it.

WENT FOR A RUN
The second day (today) was much worse than the first day hahaha There's something about that first time that gives you energy, the feeling of "Oh yea I'm running I'm awesome" then this morning the feeling was more like "I am much older and out of shape than I thought I was!". It's all good though, after I actually got up and did it the feeling of accomplishment came back and superceded the feeling of death and dying.

STORM
It rained for only a few hours and the water was almost a foot deep in places. Epic.

FIRST SM FIGHT
The inevitable finally occurred, as I'm sure it will again before we leave. But we all have a better understanding of each other now. It's good to be mad at people sometimes, because it gives you a chance to get out the things that we sometimes keep inside that really should be outside.

PAINTING
I should share that my job title has been added to apparently hahaha PE teacher AND general maintenance dooer XD... I seem to have become the go to guy for repairs on buildings, anything that needs painted, computer fixings (with Mr. Odyiar), etc etc. I'm glad to have had two men teach me to do a good job (Jack/ Mr. Collett). The guy before me apparently was a bad worker, because the other day I did a project in a few hours what I was told took him days haha. Mmm.

WENT EXPLORING
WE drove around the other day and found Wing Beach. The beaches here are all an adventure, because you can never really find good directions so you always have to kind of ...find them. Through the boonies. There are a few easy ones, but the other day we wound up in someones field. Sooo...

READ A BOOK
Island of the Blue Dolphins. It's a childrens book I know i know, but it was good. I enjoyed it. You should read it too.

All in all, I keep being reminded of how fortunate I am to be here. I feel alive, like I am doing something that is helping make the world a better place. I thank God for bringing me here, and even for removing the distractions that kept me away; hard as it was to let them go.

Gnimaolg

So the futures looking brighter already, and it wasn't even that bad to begin with! Today has been pretty swell. Went to the CDC this morning (first day of having a regular schedule since the CDC just opened today), the kids are so much fun! :) A hapless toad happened across the playground while we were out... He won't ever make that careless mistake again.. ROFL. Nothing quite like a herd of curious preschool boys bearing down on you with all manner of tools with which to poke you. After that, stopped at T-Bell on the way back to the school for the first time since being here (hard to believe huh), then taught my two PE classes. They went a lot better today, I introduced the kids to a little more authority today, a little more thunder and lightning. Sooo laps hahahaha! All in all though they were better behaved today than Thursday (the first and only PE class last week), I think they got the initial back to school jitters out already. We'll see. Furthermore, I bought a watch, so I feel a little more structured. Which is good.

BTW, anybody figure out what the name of the blog means yet?

Addy

Alright, the address here is..

David Butterfield
Saipan SDA School
P.O. Box 501063
Saipan, MP, 96950

I'll post my phone number here as soon as I get international calling in my apt. If you're inclined to send love, I'll keep track of things that would be useful and post it here :)

Pigment

I am going to be a brown person when I come back. Just saying. The sun here is on a different level completely than what I am used to stateside. It just does not relent haha.

Taught my first and second PE classes of my entire life ever today! It was funny, I can already tell who will be running the most laps this year ROFL.. It's such a new experience being the teacher. I was laughing with Tina (fellow SM) about how I referred to the kids in a conversation earlier as classmates then corrected myself.. They are my STUDENTS not CLASSMATES. It's surreal to be the one in charge. It's me. I have the responsibility. I give the grades. I hand out discipline and rewards. Crazy. And it's especially weird since there has been so much lead-up to this point. All the seminars, the planning (ok so I didn't plan much), the travel, etc etc, and now THIS is it. I like it. I feel challenged in a good way :)

Lifesavers

I am a certified cpr giver. My hair is a number 1. Gay guys give very attentive haircuts. Toorrow is our last day of not-school. Get ready.

On a side note (it is mandatory that I include some bit of humor in these things)...

I am quite sure that there is not one working smoke detector on the entire island of Saipan. And nobody cares but me. As I'm typing this, there is at least one I can hear cheeping. When we got to our apartments and walked in, there was like a chorus of cheeping detectors. I've fixed between 5 and 10 of them just since being here at the apartments and school. I feel like it is my secondary mission while on island. Change all the smoke detector batteries. FTW.

Homemade

Whew what a day. We started out in meetings all morning, going over how we would be running things etc. BY THE WAY, I guess I should let you know what I will be running, since I finally know for sure haha.. I am the P.E. teacher for all grades, part time chapel/ worship go-to guy, before and after school care runner, and in the hours I am not doing those duties I will be working at the CDC (the daycare or Child Development Center.. NOT center for disease control. Although with that age kids it is sometimes the latter..). Went out to lunch at Spicy Thai restaurant, had AMAZING food. More meetings. Then on the way back to our apartments, Silvia, Tina and I went to the beach :) It's so amazing. The water is as clear as what comes out of your faucet. And as warm as bathwater. I feel very fortunate to be right here, right now :) After our beach adventure we came home and I cleaned the gutters, and sowed a button back on my suit jacket. Then tonight we made an epic supper haha We had Italian FTW! We three made the food and it was just a ton of fun, and the puppy was there and the spaghetti was there and the saled was there and it was a great evening :p Also, I climbed a tree and harvested a coconut and attacked it with a machete until it surrendered its goods. What a man.

I was thinking today.

As the principal, Mike was going over procedures and things and giving good advice (no sarcasm, he really was haha) I was imagining scenarios. When someone asks me what I do now, my answer is that I am a teacher at the SDA school. It occurred to me that (and please understand what I am saying here) this is really a big deal to me in that its really he first time I've felt like my identity was related to being a part of something of great importance. I understand about doing everything to the best of your abilities and there being dignity in every task and all that. I have held several jobs, and am comfortable with my performance at each. But after seeing the way local people hold the school in such high regard and hearing praises from everyone and realizing what a huge difference it makes for the community, I feel extremely honored to be a part of working for its success.

Anyway. Off my soapbox :)

Forgot to mention that after supper we watched The Soloist, which was a very good movie. A whole other blog of material on its subject matter but you should just watch it yourself instead hah.

Bizay

So I hope my lack of posting on here tells as much as my posts have, in that it should tell you that we have been busy. Got moved into our apartments, and more or less situated. I am rather excited about the prospect of living on my own. Pics of my apartment have been taken and will be posted along with everything else as soon as I have access to good internet (at the school) for a while at a time.. I have probably gigs of pics to upload already haha. Anyway. We went grocery shopping, went to our new church, went on a tour of the island, and had supper at our big boss Mikes (the principal) house Friday night. His house overlooks the ocean and it was still a surreal feeling to look out from his porch and think that out past the lights we could see, that darkness was nothing but water. For thousands and thousands of miles, nothing but water. Whew.

Yea. Sorry if this is a bit disjointed and all stream of consciousnessy, I am sleepy and we have baan doing so much that trying to collect it all and put it into a cohesive thought or journal entry is really a taxing operation. Hah. I'll try in the future to update moe frequently so that it's not so much information all at once.

Today we went on our island tour which I will now talk about. We went to a grotto next to the ocean which is amazing, the water is SO b;ue in there.. It goes back in a ways and it looks amazing. Have pics. I can't wait to go swimming in there. Also we went on a geneal drive to some other areas arount the coast, saw the Bird Island sanctuary place thing.. Went to some Japanese WWII bunker areas, and also up to the top of Mt. Topachau which if you measure from its base to top it is much taler than Everast. Only trouble is, its base is the bottom of the Marianas trench so noones really going to do that.

I am completely not writing well due to being rather tired. I promise pics and videos are on the way.

Goodnight

Beggers and borrowers

Using someones laptop..

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I cannot help but fail in the most humorous ways imaginable.

This AM there was a bus going to Waikiki at 5. I planned to get up at 4:45 and go. I set the alarm on my new iPod (!). Then I plugged it into a friends computer to charge and went to bed. In the morning, the alarm went off, so i got up, dressed, brushed my teefs, and went out to the courtyard to meet the bus. I sat and waited, nothing. After several minutes i concluded that I must have a) missed the bus or b) they decided to not go after all and I went back to bed.

A while later I was awakened by people stirring. I asked what time it was and where they were going and they said the 5:30 bus to Diamondhead. Somewhat confused because I knew i had slept more than a half hour just then, I looked at the time on my iPod. 8:30.

Apparently when I plugged it in to my new friends (who was from Walla Walla) computer, it synced to his time zone. Needless to say, I had been wandering around he school compound at 2 in the AM.

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Today we had more instructions, and talks from Jose Rojas, who is a very good speaker. An has an epic 'stache. Tonight we went out to eat.

I need a shower.

Good eats

Forgot to mention yesterday that I ate some of a cactus fruit thing I found on our hike. It was ok though because someone said later that it was the ok kind. Today I started strong with four amazing mangoes off the tree at the school we're staying at (Hawaii Mission Academy). Big win. Last night after everyone else went to bed I ate a few mangoes also. Teehee

Aloha!

The adventures did not waste with time with the whole happening thing :)

Flight from Houston to Honolulu started it off. We were sitting at the gate for a good 20 minutes before the pilot (who turned out to be a very bad orator) came on the intercom and says something to the effect of "Yea folks.. umm.. those little underneath things above your head are the air conditioning... they're not working.. we're trying to figure out what's out.. in the mean time were gonna hafta get all of y'all off the plane 'cause it's gonna get over a hundred degrees in here". lol. Sat in the airport for an hour or so while they fixed that.

While in Houston, I left several messages with my travel coordinator to tell her my itinerary so as to be met at the HNL airport. However, her office was apparently closed, because when I got here there was nobody waiting or me. So my Pathfinders/ Navy SEAL training took over and I knew I had to act fast or be eaten by sharks. Probably. So I tried calling a friend back home to get the contact number of the person here, but PNC bank said to themselves "Hey! Someone stole this guys identity and is using his card in Hawaii to make calls! We better cancel the card!" So then I couldn't make calls to cell phones t get contact info. BTW.. Dear PNC. If someone were to steal my identity I'm not worried because they would probably return it before too long. Anyway. So I headed for the Yellow Pages with the thought of "Gotta find some Adventists". Problem was, by that time (Friday afternoon), all the church offices were closed. So I got a taxi and told him to go to Honolulu Central Adventist Church and showed him the address (their answering machine had said something about a Friday vespers). So he said he knew where it was and we went there. After he drops me off and I'm talking with a guy I meet there, it slowly becomes evident that this is not the right place. "Is this even an Adventist church? No this is Honolulu Central Union Church!" Oooooh. So he offered to take me to the right church. When we got there, some lady was in the sanctuary playing the piano and she made some calls and eventually I showed up at the school where I was headed and had to jump a fence cause it was way late. Story of my life is this: never a dull moment haha.

Today we went to the Kailua church, they had a great praise team and I did a little jamming with them after the service haha then we went for a hike and drive, tok a bunch of pictures which will be posted soom (when I do a post and have the dump cable handy haha probably when I get to Saipan on the 5th).

Then this evening, we went out to eat and people tried to sell us drugs and prostitutes, I had some mediocre Mahimahi, aaand ate a fantastic mango. Big day.

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Postscript..

I should explain what was the cause for the confusion in my traveling. Due to having purchased tickets oh, a day or so before leaving, I hadn't given my flight itinerary to the travel coordinator. When I left it was before their offices opened, so while in Houston, I made several attempts to contact her which obviously failed. Ergo, adventures ensued :p