First Week Back on the Island

Well, we left for Saipan on my 36th birthday. Traveling for 32 hours with a 2-year old is not my ideal way to spend my birthday! However, Sylvie did remarkably well. I couldn't help reflecting on how vastly different each of the three flights half-way around the world have been with this child. The first flight home from China with her was 30-some hours of pacing the tiny isles with her in a sling. She absolutely refused to allow us to sit down with her. She was terrified, devastated and grief stricken, poor girl. Three months later we were on a flight back over the ocean to Saipan and back again four months later. In those short months, she had already changed quite a bit and could be entertained by Matt and I. She would sit for short periods of time. She did sleep although only after she was exhausted from bawling her head off! This time however, we played the whole time. We did puzzles and water color paints and told stories and sang songs. She played pretend with her dolls and watched a movie. She settled quite easily for her nap and slept a good 2 hours. When she got restless we did the hokey pokey where the stewardesses heat up the food. She was really quite brilliant. OK, enough about getting here!

Now that we are here we have been getting life settled. It really is such a hassle. I wont go into boring details but lets just say that it has consumed the better part of my first week. We are now feeling quite settled in out apartment. I have posted the view from our third floor balcony.

We went to the Thursday night street market where there are dozens of local food stalls, local entertainment, music and most of all hundreds of people. I am glad we did it but I won't go again. Those kinds of crowds and a toddler in a stroller don't jive. We did however score some great local foods; some past favorites, some I had never tried before. As for old favorites, we had dim sum, noodles, fried chicken, rice and Lumpia all for $5. We also got to try coconut candy, fresh Lychee fruit, and a local side dish called coco (young papaya pickled and spicy), and my favorite tiny finger bananas (after you eat these you can never truly enjoy a US banana again).

I started work on Wednesday and was so glad to see all my old colleagues again. I met with the nurses and they gave me such a warm welcome. It feels good to be back. However there is really much more to be dine than I can possibly accomplish in the short time I have here.

The week ended on an exciting note as an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale devastated Japan and initiated a tsunami to add to the destruction. A tsunami warning was issued for the islands in the Pacific and all of Saipan headed for high ground. Luckily, Sylvie and I have friends in high places so we headed up to our friends house high on top of the cliffs above Lau Lau Bay and had a wonderful dinner, a couple of beers and some high spirited conversation as we simultaneously watched the ocean and the news reports. There was a decent surge and some crazy ocean currents, but no real impact was felt here.

Sylvie and I celebrated our first week on the island today by having a day all to ourselves. We went to the World Resort and swam all day long. It was mostly overcast. It even rained sporadically throughout the day. I was lathering 70spf sunscreen on all day and I am still fried! Sylvie had a long sleeve rash guard on thank goodness, but her little nose and cheeks are a bit rosy this evening. She is an absolute fish! I can not believe her today. She was jumping in the water, fully submerging her head and floating up to the surface without me hardly touching her over and over and over today. She had a life jacket but preferred to go without it because she wanted to swim all the way under the water. She is sooooooooooooo ready for swimming lessons when we get back. She has NO FEAR of the water. What a bog change from the little girl that wouldn't get in the bath with 2 inches in it when we first met her. Well, I need to get to bed. I have no clock in my apartment so I have been getting up with the sun each morning. As a mostly agnostic human, I have to admit that I feel remarkably close to God when I watch the sun rise over the ocean in the silence each morning.

I can not close without saying how much I miss my boys. I have intentionally avoided many of the places that were their favorites because I miss them so much. Yet I am surrounded by memories of our wonderful time together as a family on this island. Kierik, Kaden, and Matt, I am counting the days until we are all together as a family once more.