Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Typhoon season

Tinian 10/24/07 Typhoon season

It is definitely typhoon season on Tinian! It has been raining on and off (mostly on) for several days, with no let-up in sight. It seems as though many of the typhoons in this area generate right over us (better than slamming into us I guess). It is hard to explain how hard it rains here…at times you literally cannot see across a one-lane street, you have to raise your voice to be heard by the person sitting next to you, and it rains in your window—now, understand me—I don’t mean a little rain is getting through the screen or something normal like that! I was sitting on the couch at least 3’ away from the window, and the book got wet I was reading, the rain was coming in the window so hard!



Sleeping reminds Terri and me of our ‘camping trip’ in Connecticut. For those who remember, when Terri and I moved to Connecticut with our five very young children (Liz was just out of diapers), we actually lived in a tent for a couple of months. All seven of us were living in a 10’x10’ tent in the middle of a forest. The first week it rained every day. Everything was wet, or damp, or moldy. As we climb into bed at night of late the dampness brings back those memories…

We received some more boxes today! It takes at least two months for boxes to arrive from the mainland using parcel post. We received a fan (this is great, as we were using our air-conditioner all the time, and we both hate air-conditioning). For Terri and I, just a fan blowing on us is enough to make us comfortable.

I received some pots and pans. I have been cooking using one old fry-pan for everything, so the addition of some pots will be a great help—although with our one-burner stove with its one setting of ‘high all the time’, I’m not sure how much it will improve my cooking! I can always tell when Terri doesn’t like the food I cooked (she is always very diplomatic about it…), as she compliments me on the salad! I am slowly learning a few dishes that work well, but it seems to take me more time than most to get the flavors right. I used to have a few good casserole dishes, but since we have no stove, it wiped out half my repertoire! Here are a few of the dishes we are surviving on:

- hot dogs and beans
- spaghetti with meat balls
- marinated fish with rice
- chicken and rice
- fried chicken and rice
- hamburger and rice
- peanut butter sandwiches
- tuna
- fresh produce from the Chinese lady



As noted before, Terri seems to like my salad a lot… There is a Chinese woman that has a garden (there are very few here that have gardens for some reason), and she comes by Terri’s office once a week with whatever is ready; mostly green beans, boc choi, and cucumbers (which I supplement with whatever I can find at the local grocery).
As you can tell, I make a lot of rice (it is the far east after all!); and I seem to make great rice: I put it in the microwave and push a button! However, now that I have some additional pots and pans, hopefully I can expand our eating habits. No wonder we are losing weight here! It’s the new Tinian diet: Kevan’s cooking! Our family is accustomed to great improvised cooking by Terri; we used to call it ‘Terri terrific’ meals. My improvised meals are called ‘Kevan catastrophes’! I always warn Terri ahead of time that I am trying out a new recipe…and then she smiles and compliments me on my salad…

We also received more books. Terri got more medical books—she has built quite a library at the hospital, not only for her own reference but for the use of anyone who wants to use them. And I received the rest of my reference and research books. It was a good day for us!

We also received a box of books we shipped from Kingsley that we are giving to the local library—just a reminder: if you have any books you aren’t using, send them to us for the local library!

Perhaps the most used item we had shipped to Tinian was our bead maker. It works very well and I end up making bread two to three times a week. It makes any kind of bread you can think of (just add the ingredients), but our favorites are the regular bread and the cinnamon and raison bread. I tried sourdough, but it didn’t taste very good (I am afraid I ‘soured’ it to the point of botulism…).

Terri is back on call every day and night for two weeks. I have yet to understand the system at the hospital for ‘on call’, but Terri doesn’t seem to mind, she is enjoying the work too much! It really is a perfect world for us right now. Terri is fulfilling a life-long dream and I finally have the time to do the research and writing that has been swirling around in my head. In fact, sometimes I feel guilty as I am reading the Mishna (a book about Jewish laws), while I look out the window at palm trees and tropical paradise…but I soon realize that this too shall pass, and I need to take advantage of the time we have here. So for all of you sitting cooped-up in some office or work-a-day job somewhere, I feel your pain…or then again, maybe not!

No comments: