Hello everyone! I have told many people that I would give a “Loosle Guam update” once a month. I’ve decided to start trying to do this on the first Sunday of every month. If you don’t want to be included, please let me know (no one needs anymore email than they would like!!) This past six weeks have been very interesting and I could not have accomplished all I have done with out Heavenly Father and the church, so just a heads up, this may be “churchy”.
OK – On the way to Guam we stopped in Hawaii for about 24 hours. The kids were great on the flight to Hawaii, Brandon slept most of the way! We got a great deal on the hotel in Hawaii, it was walking distance to the beach. We also drove to see the Hawaii temple, the visitors center was being redone, but we walked around the temple grounds.
We arrived on Guam Saturday evening. My supervisor, recruiter, the superintendent and a few others met us at the airport (I didn’t expect anyone really!) They made sure we were all settled with the rental car and had a place to stay, then my supervisor helped us take all our bags to our hotel. Sunday we went to church in the Dededo branch, which is the branch of the man that Steve talked to about a job when we were in Salt Lake, at 9:00 AM. We went to Sacrament meeting and they told everyone to go home because we were at a COR (condition of readiness) 1. This means that a typhoon is less than 12 hours away from hitting the island. Steve had and “interview” for a job right after church, they talked for a few minutes then we went back to the hotel.
We were holed up in the hotel until Monday afternoon. We had gone shopping Saturday night for some essentials, so we had enough food, etc. for the time we had to stay in the hotel. It was fun looking out the window at the cars trying to get through the flooded streets. There were people wandering the streets even during the worst part of the storm. This was actually not a really bad typhoon as the eye did not hit the island directly. Sunday night some water leaked in around the door and onto the cabinets in the kitchen because of the wind and rain, but we mopped it up with towels and found out that we needed a very well built house (at least as well built as the hotel). Most of the buildings and homes in Guam are made of cement so they can withstand the strong winds and rains of a typhoon. Usually there is only one typhoon a year, but no one really ever knows.
By Monday afternoon we were all getting stir crazy, all the schools were closed, but the businesses (except for the government businesses) were starting to reopen. We tried to contact the Guam-Micronesia service center (where Steve had interviewed for the job), but they were still closed, so we went to the mall. So did everyone else! We hung out at the mall, Brandon was a hit, some Japanese ladies wanted to take pictures of him, but he wouldn’t let them J .
Tuesday pretty much everything was back to normal, so we went to the school to see about getting the kids enrolled. People were at the school, but the kids were not there yet, because some schools still did not have water back on from the storm. We met my aides and interpreters and my principal. We then went to the Service Center where Steve got offered a job. It was for much better pay than what we were expecting (that’s good because Guam is expensive!), so Steve accepted the position and started on Wednesday! So, I was left to get the kids registered for school, find a daycare for Brandon and start my own job on Friday. The aides in my class had been running my class for almost two weeks until I got there.
We found a great daycare for Brandon, he loves his school! Miriah, Jason, and Adam also like their teachers and the school, they are attending the same school I teach at. It is usually easy to pick out their blonde heads in the sea of brown! I’ll attach a link for some pictures for you to look at! The kids are making friends and liking being different (Miriah used to want colored contacts to make her eyes brown to be different in SL, but now she likes her blue eyes because they are different from everyone here!)
We found a 4 bedroom house, rent is a little bit more than we expected, but it has a great yard, is in a nice neighborhood and the landlord seems really good. The pictures will take you on a tour of the house too!
Steve loves his job. If he didn’t send you his travels around the other smaller islands email, let me know and I’ll forward it to you. When he’d been working less than a month his boss took him out to 3 small islands: Chuuk, Koserai, and Ponpei (sorry if those are misspelled!) He is technically the administrative assistant of the Guam Micronesia service center, which is basically the LDS church offices for this pacific island area. They are in charge of all the money, donations, and many other things related to the church here in the pacific islands. He is also the Human Resources manager and the IT person in their office.
My job is also great! I teach kindergarten - 2nd grade. I have 9 kids in my class, 2 interpreters, 3 one to one aides and 1 class aide. Each child has some degree of hearing loss, many of them have other “issues”. We had a “lice scare” last week! One child ended up having lice, but hopefully no one else will get it! We were all tested and for now, no one else has it! The school I work in is one of the best on Guam. We have great administration and great staff. I have included some pictures of my class, some were taken on a field trip we took to get everyone’s hearing tested (I know – fun, fun!!)
We have been so blessed with Steve finding a job, finding a house, a van, our branch is great, we’ve met some great people and been very accepted here. It’s fun being in a place that you actually get to see the missionaries and feed them dinner, you know they need it too, they don’t get dinner as often from members out here as in the states!
Not everything has been positive – we’ve had some issues signing up for our utilities, phone, getting a loan for the van and other stuff, but mostly it’s been positive.
Oh – church callings: Steven was called as the district (it’s like a stake) clerk and I’ve been called as the 2nd councilor in the primary.
I know this is really long, I could add so much more, but this is the basic synopsis of events since we left Salt Lake. Next month there will have been less going on, so hopefully I can go into a little more detail. Please keep in touch!
Here is the link for the photos. Let me know if it doesn't work.
http://photos.yahoo.com/steven69loosle
Lorell & family