It was an imaginary trip to a garden nestled in a deep valley below Mt. Tagpochau. What\u2019s oddly unique with the visit was the sheer neatness of the place, as though one of my ancestors came by earlier to tidy it up.<\/p>\n
Under huge shady branches of monkeypod trees peep majestic sunrays radiating and descending into the verdant strand below. There were lush tall ferns that stood proudly under shades of huge branches. It seemed to have been planted and lined along a path to nearby fruit trees. Behind were fiery red flame tree flowers that must have been blazing through the night.<\/p>\n
The garden was neat and, equally fragile, I was resigned to walking about freely. I didn\u2019t want to break a branch or disturb anything in it. So I took a seat near the trunk of a tree enjoying the whip of the trade winds upstairs pulling the hair of every coconut branch nearby.<\/p>\n
Birds came by dancing in and out of branches. Each has music with different messages throughout the day. At a distance were white doves gliding out to sea while rainbows chase dark clouds gathering storm in the horizon. Then I heard the ghostly cry of a nocturnal deer nearby. It has superior sense of smell so it isn\u2019t coming anywhere near the garden. I wondered if there were wild boars in the vicinity. A big one would mean climbing a huge tree.<\/p>\n
My mind weaves in and out of our ancestral days when our old folks built thatch houses right in the garden. It usually faces the windward side of the island so the house is sufficiently ventilated throughout the day. The kitchen downstairs also serves as temporary corral for farm animals during inclement weather. The dual purpose made sense.<\/p>\n
A water well was dug nearby. It is so designed so you could hear steps descending or ascending. It makes for a healthy walk up and down the stairs. If mom wants more of it for her kitchen use, you must abide by her request. That you had to fetch from downstairs brings home sensible use of water!<\/p>\n
The trip to a simple setting gave a quick glimpse of changes in our lifestyle from traditional farming and fishing to jobs in both sectors. Life was simple and practical then. But someone started chasing the Jones\u2019 and we all fell into the rat race. Life was never the same since. In the back of my mind there was a yearning for the simpler days or idyllic rural life, though we can\u2019t turn back the hands of time. But we were happy campers then with what little we had a long time ago.<\/p>\n
Communing with nature was a planned break to reassess our journey filled with excitement and share of disappointments. But the excursion is one of \u201caesthetic\u201d experience to regroup and be whole once more. Leaving, I could see ants industriously moving food into their tunnel. It\u2019s back to square one!<\/p>\n
Learning E\u00f1glis<\/strong> In flag ceremonies, we\u2019d sing the Star Spangled Banner. The only thing clear was, \u201cO say can you see, by the dawn\u2019s early light, what so proudly we hailed\u2026\u201d After the word \u201chailed\u201d everything was mumbled and garbled. The Navy admiral thought we sang it in Chamorro. Sorry, admiral. That was our bilingual rendition!<\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n A former police officer laughs at the traffic citation he issued in the late \u201950s that was thrown out of court. He said he wrote down, \u201cDid not spot at the spot sing\u2019\u201d\u2014stop at the stop sign. He said the judge probably thought it was a spelling bee!<\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n A Navy inspector was doing homestead inspection during the Naval Administration. He saw a woman changing the baby\u2019s diaper. He said, \u201cNice baby!\u201d in polite gesture. My aunt thought he was referring to her anatomy downstairs, which sounds quite close to baby. Laughter.<\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n An uncle doesn\u2019t read English. At a grocery store he found a cart full of cat food on sale. He thought it was canned tuna. He bought it all. Later he blamed his wife for \u201cnot looking me.\u201d Dios mihu!<\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n A friend who never ate at a restaurant before decided it was better to follow whatever his friend orders. After his choice was taken the waiter asked, \u201cHow would you like your eggs, sir?\u201d Said he, \u201cI like it very much!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was an imaginary trip to a garden nestled in a deep valley below Mt….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[668,42,21,4673],"class_list":["post-202132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-baby","tag-food","tag-life","tag-star-spangled-banner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA long time ago we started learning English, broken as they were in our bouts with it. But we held on to the opportunity so we could sound like stateside Amerrrrcans. It was hip to speak English twisting your tongue into unusual slurs so you sound cool. More often than not, we end up with tons of mispronunciations. It was one rough journey.<\/p>\n