The Darker Side of Island Life

Matt and Kierik are becoming master Spear Fisherman. Here is a photo of Matt with a Striped Goat Fish and a photo of the catch they had one night this week.

Well by now you have been reading and seeing images of this blissful life on Saipan. So in case any of you were getting too jealous, I thought I would add a little bit to each blog about the practical realities of up and moving your whole family to Who-ville (you know the tiny planet inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants featured in Horton Hears a Who). Although Saipan is a wonderful place full a wonderful people and we are having a grand time, there are definitely things that we miss about home. I will try to categorize them for you under he header of The Darker Side.

The Darker Side: Power

Electricity is very expensive on the island, about 20 times more than in the continental U.S. People are very conscious about conserving energy out of necessity and there are some a significant number of inhabitants who live without any power at all. Even I take my laptop to work to charge it and then use it on battery at home. Also, power outages are quite frequent on the island and to us, they seem completely impossible to predict. It is not based on stormy weather, time of day, or any other single indicator that we can wrap our minds around. The first couple of times they were very short and were during the day so we didn't really think much of them. Last night we experienced our first significant inconveniences caused by a power outage. It happened at 7:00 PM. For our family, this is the worst possible time. For one it is pitch black as there was very little moon last night and seeing as we are new to the island, we were completely unprepared. We had one headlamp, my otoscope (aka ear light), the kid's Nintendo DS and a diving flashlight (which is super bright but consumes 8 batteries in no time flat). Two, it is homework time, which the boys were finishing by the light of the headlamp and otoscope. Third, it is poppy's bedtime which means time to make and heat up a bottle. This proved to be an impossible task. I couldn't clean out the one pan we own to heat up the bottle because the well pump is run by electricity. Also the stove is run by electricity so I had no way of heating the bottle up even if I could. We let her stay up until around 8:30 but then had to go about putting her to bed sans bottle. This was not easy but not impossible as she did eventually fall asleep. This is good to know. Matt went out and bought candles, matches and extra batteries today so that we are better prepared next time the power goes out, which could be at any moment. You learn to take nothing for granted :)