Friday, August 29, 2008

Butterflies and bees

It must be wash day on Tinian...



The new house finally has a color!

After a thorough scientific investigation I have concluded that the black butterflies are male and the brown butterflies are female...because the black butterflies are always chasing the brown butterflies...


The baby goat that lives next to us is getting much bigger, and becoming a much better lawn mower!

Tinian Ice has a new gift stand: it looks very artistic! Just had to take a picture!

The new road is in fact going in. They are starting on the north road, at the Broadway end of the road. Not a big crew working, but at least they are working!

The next section of the Broadway improvement is almost done. The next section will be heading up the big hill.

A great fountain, but it had no water for a heat-stroke walker-- oh well


I haven't talked about the man-eating bees they have on Tinian! They are very large, and I understand had quite a lethal sting. I have been fortunate to escape them so far!





The casino is coming?

These are not sheds...they are the barracks that will someday house the workers that will build the new casino!


They have a gate and a small hole in the ground, and a few sheds... let's see, the groundbreaking was? 6 or 7 months ago?


Another look at the five-star housing being built for casino guests...



It does have a nice view of Goat Island to the south!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Village interests

I am always amazed at the small quaint homes people choose to live in...


People love the 'row homes' of Philadelphia... here are Tinian's row homes!

This is one of my favorite entrances, next to the local Baptist Church

Gone a whole month, and not much has been done at the local park?

I thought by now the concrete would have been poured, but I can't see much progress...

There continues to be a lot of construction going on, and perhaps a new road or two!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A new road begins?

There was a dump truck and two large road-building machines in the middle of the village today... does that mean that the new roads are finally going to be started? They are putting new roads from the ferry to Broadway--about a mile--and they are way overdue! But perhaps they are finally here to begin the work that they say will take about a year (a year for one mile?). Just in time for rainy season too!

There is a new restaraunt in town...maybe I have said this before, I don't remember. But it is nice to see that the economy isn't effecting everyone.

The water break that I saw yesterday, and that was making a river down the road, has now been patched.


Here is a view of the western side of the island


And here is Tinian's pride and joy--at least it is nowdays--the new power plant that was built to accomodate the casinos that would be built on Tinian. It produces 20 megawatts of power. Tinian uses about 5 megawatts right now. However, with three more casinos either started or in the planning, it will be put to good use. In the meantime, all we can say is: Saipan, eat your heart out!


Another new home has started down the road from the cemetary.

The military is again visiting the island with more frequency, preparing for who knows what?



Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Another article about Terri and the Clinic

Terri was asked to talk to a reporter from the Saipan Tribune about the work at the clinic. She was afraid she might say something wrong (one never knows...), but it turned out OK:

Saipan Tribune August 23, 2008

After losing doctor, Tinian health center holds firm

By Stefan SebastianBusiness Editor

TINIAN-After the resignation of the Tinian Health Center’s only doctor, its staff here have risen to the challenge of keeping the center in operation and are able to provide the treatment the island’s people need, a leading center official said in an interview Friday.

In July, Dr. Ronaldo Toledo resigned his post at the health center, the primary healthcare provider on Tinian, leaving it without a full-time doctor. The center is now searching for someone to replace him but Department of Public Health officials have said the loss of Toledo at the center will not diminish the level of its service.

Without a doctor, however, the burden of caring for Tinian’s sick has shifted onto the shoulders of its physician assistant, Terri Clawson, the center’s staff and its nurse practitioner.

"There’s an increased burden," said Clawson, after evaluating three patients in rapid succession. Yet the health center, she added, is still able to care for the public even after Toledo’s departure.

"It’s not a catastrophe. Our patients are being treated and treated appropriately.

"Physicians assistants, she noted, are trained in complex disciplines like surgery and internal medicine. Moreover, she said, a consultation with off-island doctors is a phone call away.

"We have every ability to call Saipan," said Clawson. "We’re fully functional. We’re seeing patients in the emergency room and we’re treating them."

Majority of the roughly 20 patients Clawson sees each day, including the seriously ill, she added, can receive the treatment they need on Tinian without any need to send them to Saipan. Yet some cases do require off-island attention, such as those requiring a ventilator-a tool the health center does not have-or certain bone fractures.

"It’s not an automatic decision that they go to Saipan," she said. "That decision is made based on what the resources are here to treat them.

"Transporting patients off Tinian requires either an airlift by helicopter or sending them on the inter-island ferry, she noted, a prospect that sometimes requires the center to keep a patient stable for long periods in order to get them aboard. And airlifts have become more complicated recently, she added, due to federal regulations that can restrict helicopter flights to Tinian at night. But in life-threatening emergencies, exceptions to those rules can be granted, she said.

Alexander Gorman, legal counsel for the Department of Public Health, said previously that doctors from Saipan would continue to go to Tinian Friday through Sunday until a replacement is found.

Butterfly captured



I finally got a picture of a butterfly! They just won't sit still for me (unlike my daughter Liz who seems to control all of nature when she is taking pictures!)

Walking to the west

I always enjoy walking by the local Catholic church with its old mission bell tower. It brings thoughts about the history of this island, and the many changes that have occurred here.


As always, standing in front, is the image of Christ... watching over the island and its people.


That history is always reflected in the terrible cost of the war that was brought to this island. Thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians leapt to their deaths out of fear--fear of what the Americans would do to them when they arrived. Nothing the American soldiers said could reverse the propaganda that had been drummed into them by their leaders. Their fear pushed away any real sense of judgment, and it lead to their deaths.

Of course, that fear and belief in the terrors awaiting them by the hands of the Americans was not without reason... not because the Americans did those things, but because the Japanese had watched how their own leaders treated the American prisoners and the Chinese, and others under their control-- beheading contests, raping and wholesale slaughter of civilians, and brutality almost unimaginable today. After watching their own leaders do these things to their enemies, and even to them, it was not hard for them to believe they would be treated the same way by the Americans.

Fear always destroys judgment, it clouds reason and blocks the mind from being able to see the truth clearly. It is why political parties always bring fear into their platforms--it motivates people to act, and blinds them in ways to prevent them from making clear judgments. ALL political parties use fear as a motivator: fear of our enemies in the war on terror, fear of getting ill without health care, fear of losing your job without a safety net, fear of losing one's business through taxation and bureaucracy, etc. The list is endless. And by focusing on the fear of loss, we often completely lose the solution to the problems we are facing.

Fear is one of Satan's greatest tools. In the premortal life he used fear to draw one-third of God's children to his side: telling them that if they sided with him he would guarantee that they all returned to heaven; while by following the Savior's plan, there was no guarantee! Many would be lost forever and never make it back to God's presence. Placed in that way, it seemed an easy choice: why not be guaranteed a place in heaven? But, of course, fear took away their reason, and they were no longer able to see that the Savior's plan was right, and Satan's plan was doomed to failure. Nothing much has changed...

The Fleming restaurant has built a new 'outdoor' section for people who like to smoke. Men were working on the 'island fringe' surrounding the addition, and making sure water would not pour on the heads of those eating breakfast...



The detail work of the island fringe is marvelous.

Even the backside looks good!

They have a new guest at the Fleming... although, as the sign warns, he isn't too friendly!

Ahhh... summer flowers!


It looks as though an old WWII Quonset hut has been turned into someones home


Just another laundry day on the island


This bird did not look too happy in its gilded cage...

One had to look closely to see this small goat hiding in a box.

We have endured many plagues since coming to Tinian: geckos, cockroaches, ants, flying termites, and now... moths? What next?