Blow hole

What is a "blow hole"? It is a rare geological occurrence. According to geography-site.co.uk a blow hole is formed when a joint between a sea cave and the land surface above the cave become enlarged and water flows into the cave, air is expelled through the pipe like joint, sometimes producing an impressive blast of air or spray which appears to emanate from the ground.

While a blow hole is rare. Tinian has 2. I tried to research how many blow holes there are in the world, I could not get an exact number. Chris was told 8. But I could not verify that number.

Next to  the blow hole is a large area fenced off, which still contains active mines. We ran across a few areas like this on the island.

House of Taga

Latte  stones are not found anywhere else in the world, other than the CNMI. A latte stone is a vertical pillar and a hemispheric cap stone. There are 3 schools of thought concerning what the latte stones where used for, a dwelling  theory, a tomb theory and a garden theory. According to the information I read, most here believe the dwelling theory.

According to legend,  Taga was born to the Maga 'Lahl of Ritidian of Guam.  Taga was a giant. He got in a fight with his father and lost the fight, so he moved to Rota. He challenged the leaders there to a competition and won. He took a Chommorita as a wife and they had a daughter. At some point they moved to Tinian, and they had a son.

 

He started construction on his home, which consisted of 12 latte stones and a wooden house on top of the stones.

The legend continues that when the son of Taga turn 5 years old, Taga gave him a ayuyu (coconut crab) as a gift. Taga's son took the crab for a walk and it got away from him and hid under a tree. The son went to Taga and asked him to shake the tree so he could get his crab. Taga refused explaining that the coconuts were not yet ripe. Tags's son was angry and returned to the tree and shook it until it fell over. As he pulled the crab from the hole Taga's son found fresh water. He gave the well to his sister to bathe.

Realizing his son's strength and fearing he would rebel against him as he had his own father, Taga smothered his son as he slept. Taga's daughter saw this and ran and hid deep in the forest. By the time that girl returned to her mother, she was too weak and she died. This caused Taga's wife so much grief she too died. This caused much shame for Taga.

I will share more "historical facts" about Taga in a later post.

 

The Latte stone is a symbol used in many places here in the CNMI.

 

*History and legend I shared was from the information board at the site of "House of Taga".

First day in the CNMI

This the plane I took from Guam to Saipan. It had 48 seats. From Seattle to Tinian,  each time I got on a plane it was smaller than the last.

This Guam from the left side of the plane. Guam is South of Tinian. So, I flew over Tinian on the plane to Guam. 

Someone asked about the luggage.  I had 2 large bags that I checked. They could not be more than 50 lbs.  And the blue carry on could not weigh more than 30 lbs. And my personal item was that giant black bag. My black bag wasn't weighed until I got on the plane to Tinian.  It weighed 20 lbs. The luggage was a challenge, in many ways. First, packing.  How do you put all the clothing,  shoes, toiletries etc in 3 bags? Well you don't.  I will be ordering stuff. Many items I thought I could not live without, like several cardigans and jackets, I will not need here. It is too warm and muggy to get too many layers on. The weather is very consistent. Highs in the 80's and lows in the mid to high 70's, with very high humidity. The other challenge with the luggage was lugging it around each airport, retrieving it at baggage claim, going though immigration, checking it at each transfer. 

After Chris picked me up from the airport, he took me to The Marianas Resort. He had gotten one of these little bungalows for us to stay in. 

He encouraged me to try to stay awake until at least 5 pm to try and get adjusted to the time difference. We had breakfast and did a little driving around Saipan. 

Where in the world is Tinian?

When Chris was offered a job in Tinian, I had no idea where Tinian was. I had never heard of Tinian. Most everyone I know, had not heard of it either. Tinian is part of a group of Islands called the Northern Mariana Islands. It is a commonwealth of the US.  It is referred to as CNMI. The CNMI is located in the South Pacific. Guam is South of the CNMI, the Philippines are to the west. Japan is to the north.
There are a total of 17 Islands in the CNMI, the ones I will refer to the most are Tinian, Saipan and Rota.
It is actually surprising that we don't know where the CNMI is because it played a big part in our history during World War II. I will post more about that in future posts.
As I mentioned earlier, Chris was offered a job here, to help get a new hotel and casino built.  We feel like it is an opportunity of a life time. We never dreamed we would live on a tropical island,and get paid for it. We feel like it is a great blessing. Don't get me wrong I already miss my children and family a great deal. As far as timing though it couldn't have been better, the kids are grown and have their own lives. They all have jobs, cars and a place to live. We pray that we have taught them well and they will make good choices. We also hope this will be an opportunity for them to rely on each other, and grow closer to each other.
I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to serve others. There are many needs here in Tinian. I hope to be lead to where I can do the most good.

This map is from a brochure published by www.mymarianas.com The bottom picture is from the pamphlet in the seatback of the plane. It is harder to see but helps give an idea of where Tinian is in relation to other parts of the world we are more familiar with.

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A long road to Tinian

Welcome to my blog. I thought it would be fun to share my stories and experiences and pictures here. I hope you will enjoy them.  I will start with my crazy journey to Tinian.
My trip was booked to fly from Vegas to Seattle, Seattle to Soeul, Soeul to Siapan, Siapan to Tinian. Ok, complicated yes, but it got even more crazy once I got to Seattle. At check in at Asiana airlines, I was told that I would only be able to use one leg of the 2 legs booked with Asiana. This was due to a law (which apparently was ignored when Chris did this same route 10 days earlier). The Airline could not change the flight because the reservation was made through a travel agency in Hong Kong. They could not refund any part of the reservation for the same reason.  After nearly 3 hours of panic and several very costly phone calls to Chris, we decided that I would get on the flight to Soeul. This took a great deal of faith because I was scared of getting stranded in Korea. Chris would need to get a hold of the Travel Agent in Hong Kong to change the flight out of Soeul on a domestic flight.
The flight to Soeul was great...I was in Business Class...wow!  It was very comfortable, and luxurious. Business Class on Asiana was better by far than first class on United. The flight was not full so no one sat next to me. The seats lay almost all the way back, I had a personal monitor to watch movies, news, tv shows, or listen to music. The flight was 15 hours, they fed me 3 times. The food was delicious.
When I got to Soeul I got one text message from Chris. It said "you have a flight on United"  I had no idea where, but I got went to the ticket counter and waited about an hour for it to open. I would fly from Soeul to Guam, then Guam to Siapan.
Once I got to Siapan, Chris was there to pick me up. My total trip was about 36 hours. I am not exactly sure, because I lost an entire day.