Saturday, March 29, 2008

Snorkleing at Turtle Cove


















Terri and I decided to go snorkeling at Turtle Cove. We had tried to go there before, but could never find a way down. We had always gone to Spider beach (next to Turtle Cove), and swam around the corner. But with the waves and current, we never got too far.

While scuba diving in Turtle cove, at Two Corral, the boat driver pointed out how to get down from the road. Today we finally found the path, and climbed down to go snorkeling.

There wasn't much of a beach there, but the snorkeling was great! We saw some new coral formations and a mollusk, but no turtles! Oh well, it was a great day anyway.
We explored a little more on our bikes and discovered an old Japanese cannon inside a cave. I had seen a note about this on a map, but had never figured out where it was. The cannon was pointed directly at the Tinian port...

Hospital construction update








The hospital room we are refurbishing is almost done! They painted the doors and re-installed the air conditioner in a new location today. Now, I think, the only thing left is to install new faucet and drain in the sink, and simply cleaning.
We were also able to get a peice of equipment working that had remained idle since it was purchased: the hospital has a baby warmer that was purchased from India. The equipment had an electrical plug that did not fit any socket. I had been trying to find some kind of adapter, with no luck. Terri (brilliant as ever) discovered the the plug was removable, and that the part that attached to the equipment was the same as a computer! So, she found a computer plug, and it worked perfectly. They now have a working baby warmer that automatically moniters a baby's temperature, and uses a heat lamp to keep the baby warm.

We found some beautiful window covering for the windows inside the hospital (there are a lot of windows inside the building, most of which are covered by paper of some kind).

Hopefully next week the room will be back in use by the patients.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Doctrine and differences


Since having the opportunity to see a Catholic baptism last Sunday, I have been pondering the differences between how the Catholics practice their doctrine and how we Mormons practice. I really enjoyed Father Mercado's service. He was serious and tried his best to project the importance of this ordinance upon those in attendance. At one point in the service, the parents and God-parents are required to make a covenant with God in regard to the child being baptised. Those participating were rather shy in their response. The Father, in a humorous way, tried to help them understand they needed to be forceful in their response--at least respond as loudly as they are willing to sing their Karaoke at family gatherings! So he tried again, and the group was much louder in their response. The Father also explained the purpose of the God-parents and parents making this covenant for the child--because, of course, the child is too young to understand the covenant of baptism, so the adults are acting as 'proxy' for the child, and are under covenant to help the child live up to the baptismal covenant. Interesting...

In the Mormon church, we only baptise those who we believe are old enough to know right and wrong. This means parents wait until the child is at least eight years old to be baptised. Then, the child is baptised by immersion--actually taken completely under the water. This is to represent the death and eventual resurrection of the body from the earth. Little children do receive an ordinance--a name and a blessing. Much like the ancient Hebrews, who circumcised, named and blessed their children at eight days old, Mormons bring their new children to church to give them a name and a blessing (the circumcision for boys is optional, and done at a hospital).

In addition to the baptism, those of accountable age are given the Gift of the Holy Ghost after being baptised. Just as members anciently were baptised after the example of John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus, and then given the Holy Ghost, after the example of the gift given to the Apostles on the day of Pentacost, new members in the Mormon church are baptised, then in a separate ordinance, the Priesthood lays their hands on the head of the newly baptised and gives them the gift of the Holy Ghost. At that point, they officially become members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I have always been interested in religion, having studied all the major religions--I am currently reading the Koran for the second time--and have found almost all religions to have been based upon great and profound truths. If people would actually practice what they preach, regardless of the religion, the world would be a much better place!

Construction Update























On today's walk up to Marpo Heights to check on the construction projects going on, I ran into Edith Borja. I had often walked past her home and admired her 'greenhouse' of flowers, most of which are planted in the local 'tree stump' type of planting. Today I just happened to catch her working in the garden today. She explained that the flowers begin to die if the mulch beneath the flowers is not changed periodically. She uses cut-up coconut husks for the mulch under her flowers.

The first home I checked on, the shell of the home has been completed for some time, but the interior finish work is taking a long, long time! Most of the painting is done, and some of the cabinets have been installed, and now they are installing beautiful tile floors.

The second home, the shell has just been completed, and they are just now finishing the stucco work that covers the block and concrete. They will next begin to paint the home.

On the third home, they have just finished pouring the concrete roof.

There are two other homes that are just being started. After grading the site and placing a crushed limestone base to level the site and create a hard base for the concrete slab, footings are dug and formed for the first concrete slab.

They continue to work on the planters down Broadway, and are also working on filling potholes down the two main streets that run through town. They were supposed to redo these two roads last year (in fact, the money for these roads has been set-aside for several years, but for some reason, the work is just never done...), but for now, they just keep filling and re-filling the holes. I think there are more holes than road...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Open water diving






Terri and I finished a long weekend with our first open water scuba dive at a diving location in Turtle Cove called Two Coral. We had two dives (with our instructor, Robin). We were both very nervous in the morning as we prepared for this step in our scuba training, but we had been taught well, and it turned out to be very easy and a great day.

We got to the boat about 8am and met our boat captain, John--a local that is also an expert diver and knows the area well. We helped load the boat, checked all our equipment, and then set out for the dive site.

Once there, they tied off to a pre-secured buoy that has been placed at the location. Our first dive would be to about 60' for about 30 minutes. We suited-up, and then had to get into the water--hadn't practiced that yet! We had to 'leap' into the water with all our gear on... actually, not a big deal. We bobbed up and down in the water until we were sure everything was ready, then pushed the button to deflate our BCD vest, and down we went!

By adjusting our ears frequently as we went down, we had no problem dropping directly to the bottom...then we followed our guide around a very large coral formation, stopping frequently to look at different formations, fish, and odd aquatic life. The water was very clear, and surprisingly, was not cold, even at that depth. We spent about 2o minutes taking the tour of this marvelous coral creation, and finally started our slow climb back to the surface.

In scuba diving, you can drop down as fast as your ears will permit you to go, but returning to the surface has to be very slow, with a 'safety stop' of at least 3 minutes at about 15' depth. This slow ascent gives the body time to rid itself of the nitrogen that has accumulated from the pressure of the deep water. If people don't follow the rules, and stay down too long, or go too deep, or rise too fast, the nitrogen that is in the blood expands (rather than escapes) and can actually block arteries causing serious problems and even death.

But, novices that we were, we were in good hands with Robin, as he guided us back up the rope at the right speed, and made sure we made our safety stop, etc. We returned to the surface with no problems--a perfect dive!

After climbing back into the boat, we relaxed as the captain drove to the next dive site, a short ways away. Due to the same nitrogen problem talked about above, we were required to stay above water for at least an hour to permit the nitrogen to move out of our bloodstream (at least a lot of it). Then we were ready for another, more shallow dive--about 40' this time.

We again leaped into the water with our gear on, and dropped to the bottom. Then we began to swim to the first of several 'islands' of coral that made a ring around our boat location. Each 'island' was very different and had lots of fish moving in and out of the coral formations. We stayed down about 45 minutes this time (one uses more air the deeper one dives, besides not having the same time issues with the nitrogen). Once again, we followed Robin up to the safety stop, and made it back to the surface without incident.

We returned to the dock, helped unload the boat, and were done for the day--sort of.

We were then headed to Saipan on the ferry!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The baptism of Lerry Marquez son of Bong & Irma






Terri and I attended a baptism today--Easter Sunday--at the local Catholic Church. The child being baptised is the son of one of Terri's co-workers: Irma Marquez. I had never attended a baptism at a Catholic Church before (I have only seen it in the movies). However, while a missionary in Altoona, PA, I was privileged to attended the ordination of several priests at the Cathedral there--it was one of the most stirring and impressive events I have ever seen.

Today, Father Mercado placed the parents and all of the god-parents (there were a lot of them--22?) under covenant relating to the raising and caring of little Lerry. Each pair of Godparents were given a candle that is to be used for prayers: when they pray for their god-child, they can light this candle that has been dedicated to the child. The candle, and I suppose all candles that are used in the Catholic Church, represent the light of Christ.

After the baptism, pictures were taken, and then everyone traveled to Kerrida's to eat and celebrate. I noticed that there were a lot more people at the dinner than there were at the service...

In the afternoon we had our own sacrament meeting with our little congregation of three (Ramon is in the Philippines visiting his family).

It is just another beautiful day on Tinian. And tomorrow, we go diving--for real!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Learning to Scuba Dive






Terri and I decided it was crazy to live around one of the best diving sites in the world, and not learn how to scuba dive, and take in the underwater sights. We were finally convinced to go ahead with this adventure by Mike Tripp of Marianas Dive on Saipan, who visited Tinian during the Hot Pepper Festival.

We are taking lessons from Robin (his 'English' name) Shin of Tinian Fun Dive. He and his wife and two sons live on Tinian and Robin teaches diving and also acts as a dive guide.

It takes about three days to learn the basics, and the price was very reasonable, especially considering the amount of time and equipment involved.

The first day we leaned some basics, and then immediately went out into the water at Tachagna Beach. Working in shallow water, we learned how to breath, some weight and balance control, etc. And then went under water. They have a rope on the bottom of the ocean floor that goes from the beach out into the ocean. First we simply held the rope and walked out into deeper water. Then, as we got used to the feel of being under water, we put on our fins and began to swim a little. Eventually we left the rope and 'took off' into the emptiness of the ocean--very intimidating (even though in reality, we were not far away, and could always just go up a few feet to the surface).
We swam to a coral formation to see a bounty of fish. As we turned around to go back, there was a short sensation of fear...there was no way to know where we were or how to get back! Everything looked the same, no matter which direction you looked. However, we were with the guide, and, of course, we could have just gone to the surface and seen how close to land we really were! But under the water, is really is a different world.

That afternoon we had some class time, as we continued to learn about diving and the equipment, and the dangers, etc.

The next day (today) we went back to Tachogna Beach to continue our practice sessions. Last night Terri and I had been studying the scuba book to be ready for today's lesson. In the morning we practiced safety procedures and weight and floatation control--being able to be 'neutral' in the water so that you don't sink or rise, you just stay put, like a fish. This took more time than we thought it would. But eventually we go used to the feeling and the use of the equipment, and began to explore the shoreline comfortably. It was amazing how tired one became swimming around for even short periods. When we climbed out of the water with wet clothes and the tank on our back, it was very hard to get up onto the beach!

We had a wonderful lunch prepared by Robin's wife (she said she would teach me how to make the dish, if I would teach her how to make my spaghetti and meatballs).

After we rested, we headed out for another dive. This one was just more practice. We stayed out until our tanks were almost empty, and we were very tired. There was a good current coming from shore, and we were already tired, so it was tough swimming into shore.

We went home to shower and change, and then went back for another hour of lessons about planning your dives and keeping track of your time under water. Underwater diving is dangerous, due to the depth and pressure effects on one's body. If you don't fully understand these effects, it would be easy to be injured (i.e., if you stayed underwater too long, or went too deep, or took too many consecutive dives, etc.). They have great charts and logs to be able to calculate your dives, depths, and time spent under water. As long as you keep track, there should be no problem.

We are resting tomorrow (Easter), and then on Monday, we will be taking our first real boat dive. We will be doing two dives at two different locations, and at two different depths. It should be exciting. We will let you know how it goes!