Another Seeliger First From CNMI

Well what a great weekend for the Seeliger clan. It was a beautiful weekend with sunny skies and we took full advantage. Here are some photos of our days on the island. Matt and I completed our first SCUBA dive in Saipan with our friends Angie (who brought me to Saipan to work) and her husband Tyce. We dove from a beach called Obyon. We love this beach as it has great snorkeling and is the very best for finding amazing sea shells. SCUBA Diving is truly sublime and amazing. I tried to take some underwater photos but they do not do the experience justice. After the dive we grabbed some lunch at a great little coffee house and then headed to the beach for an afternoon of beach volleyball and soccer. We stayed long enough to watch the beginnings of a beautiful sunset and then went home for dinner and bedtime. Enjoy the photos.

The Dark Side : Food and Water

Food and water are both abundant and scarce. Because this is a tropical island with a year round growing season, there are amazing fruits available in mass quantity. For example we had 4 bunches of eating bananas and a bag of oranges on our door step this morning from our landlord because they would go bad if someone didn’t eat them. However, different things are ripe at different times so you eat bananas until you can’t look at another banana for a few months and then you can’t really get bananas after that. And the fruits that are not ripe or are not grown on the island are shipped here from the U.S. so that by the time they get here they are EXPENSIVE and not very tasty.

Cases in point: yesterday I bought a single apple for my daughter who was repeatedly begging for an apple in sign language as we strolled through the grocery store. The single apple cost $1.19 and was mealy and flavorless. Even the toddler who had longed for the apple in the first place did not really want to eat it after the first few bites. Also, you cannot buy a mango on the island right now. There are a lot of fruits that simply do not exist. However, in a few months when mangoes are in season you will be able to pick one as you walk down the street because the trees are so plentiful.

Another: we went to a Mexican restaurant attached to our hotel when we first arrived. It would not have been my first choice but it was ohhh so convenient and I do love guacamole. When we arrived we learned that there was no guacamole because there were no avocados on the island at the moment. I was appalled. This would have been entirely unacceptable at home. However, here…it happens. Often. I went to a restaurant that had the best raw fish ever on Friday night. I took my family back there the following Tuesday evening and tried to order the same thing so they could also experience how delicious it was only to be told that they were out of all of it.

Another: food safety is a concern. Organic is not a recognized label here. Or if it is, we haven’t seen it yet. We were very hopeful about the large farmers markets and local vegetable stands that are everywhere. Until, when asking around about possible community projects for Michael and Alice when they come to Saipan, we were told of a huge no questions asked pesticide drop that was apparently quite successful and resulted in several tons of pesticides (most of which was illegally smuggled from China or Japan and therefore likely out of compliance with any U.S. safety standards). Most of these were also probably used by small local farmers as there are requirements and testing for the larger farms that export off the island. That definitely made us re-think those farmer’s markets.

Another: water is plentiful on the island. It is an island after all, surrounded by water. However, none of the water is potable. You cannot drink directly from any tap unless you see the filter on it. You have to buy the water from dealers in 5 liter jugs and then you need to purchase a water dispenser. The water is very cheap ($1.00 per jug) but it is still inconvenient to have to call and order your water all the time. It does however, make you so much more conscious of how you use water and how much water you use in a week. There is very little wasting of water here, at least in our family.