Tinian 10/23/07 The Hill…again
Once again into the breach (a little WWI talk)…or, in other words, up the hill for me! And once again I failed to reach the top—but I did get to the next rise…only to see not one, but two more hills in front of me! Oh well, perhaps tomorrow.
I have to assume that once I get to the top of the hill I will be able to see the other side of the island, which, of course, gives me another goal in my walking: to eventually walk from one end of the island to the other. It is a dead-straight road from one shore to the other, and the back side is a much more gradual slope.
Tinian was just missed by another Typhoon, which went north of the island, but which brought a lot of wind and rain. The last two or three days has been very windy and rainy. At times it rained so hard you could hardly hear. But this morning the weather had cleared just enough to permit me to walk Terri to work, and then to attack the hill again.
As usual, the walk was worth the effort, as the view was spectacular! I could clearly see the entire south end of the island, the Dynasty Casino, the beach, the village, etc. I could even see the waves breaking on Goat Island that sits to the south of Tinian.
My stopping point was the next cross-road to intersect Broadway on the way to the airport. As I made my return trip, I was able to view the other side of the sign at what I once thought was the top of the hill, saying ‘Welcome to Tinian’. The sign got me to thinking…
As I looked down upon Tinian this morning, my mind went back to our visit to Saipan. We continue to be asked about how we are ‘managing’ on Tinian, everyone being very concerned with our welfare. They are very shocked and surprised that we actually love living here. For some reason that has totally escaped Terri and me, there is a definite bias against Tinian by many of the people living on Saipan. It has been clearly stated to us that they just could not live on Tinian! They even try to persuade us to move to Saipan.
As we ask questions to try to discover why people are so concerned about us living on Tinian, we find that many who have the strongest opinions about Tinian have never even been to the island! They have just ‘heard things’ about the people, about the politics, about the living conditions, etc.
Perhaps we are just naïve, but Terri and I think they are all nuts! Although we have not lived on Tinian long enough to discover all the ‘deep dark secrets’ that seem to be hiding somewhere on the island, we have experienced the Tinian lifestyle long enough to be able to disregard most of the negative things people have to say about Tinian. We honestly don’t know where it comes from or why it is perpetuated. Tinian has some problems, it is true, but we have found that the people of Tinian have a wonderful attitude and have responded very well to the challenges that face them.
I believe that those living on Saipan that perpetuate a negative view of Tinian are straining at a mote, when they have a beam in their own eye! Saipan has many more problems, and more serious ones, than anything Tinian is facing. For example: Saipan has serious crime, wild dogs roam the streets everywhere, the roads and beaches are littered with refuse, and the pollution generated around the island keeps the beaches closed on a regular basis. And then of course there are the power outages and the water problems (both with access to water and the quality of the water supply).
All of these are serious problems that Saipan faces every day (and fails to do anything about). Tinian has none of these problems. What few dogs we have seen on Tinian are well behaved and have collars on, or are chained up in a yard. We seldom run into a stray dog on our walks. Although I am sure that Tinian has some crime, we have neither seen nor heard of any serious crime on Tinian. We have felt very comfortable walking around the island any time day or night. There is some litter on Tinian’s streets and beaches (we can always do better!), but very little. And I have yet to hear of the beaches being closed on Tinian. We have yet to experience any serious power or water problems on Tinian. Given what we have seen of both islands, we would choose Tinian every time!
We have also been impressed with the efforts the people and government of Tinian have made to keep the island beautiful and inviting for visitors. Even now, though they are going through some tough financial times (as all of the CNMI are), they continue with various beautification projects. Everyone can debate about how to use the money allocated to the island government, but simply the fact that they have continued to choose to spend some of their money to enhance the appearance of the island is commendable.
So as I looked down upon Tinian from the hill above the village, I was very happy Terri and I had made the decision to move here. We are learning to love the people of Tinian—we already love the island and the lifestyle here—and hope we can return the favor by being good citizens and assets to the community.
I should close now…the rain has begun again, pounding the palm leaves like thousands of little drums. And the rain is coming in my window—sideways rain…who would have thought?
