Guam Day 25 - Our Host Parents, and a New Friend





3/9/2022 - I spend quite a bit of time in the last post talking about where we live, here is a peek at our host  parents. Better photos will come in future posts, they are elusive with the camera. Today they (Vilma + Arsenio) were out in the backyard installing rain guards on their new Prius. Arsenio drives for Stroll as a side gig, the Guam ride-share service, with his new ride he gets 50 mpg on the road. (perfect for 6 dollar gas which we are now seeing). Also, rain guards, a small piece of plastic that fits above the window to prevent rain from coming in while venting the windows, is a very common thing in this part of the world. We get rain on Guam in short spits probable 5/7 days a week. Back to our host parents, Arsenio and Velma came to the island some 30 years ago from their home the Philippines. Arsenio had a new job working in construction that provided a better life for their family. Here in Dededo, this was and is a common thing for Filipino families. The kindness that these two have for Joan and I is really incredible, while we are renters, they give us fresh fruit from their backyard, sometime a Filipino meal to try as they have extra, they look over our place when we are not here, and if we need anything they are willing to spin on a dime to help. Per my previous post, truly the people are what make this place special, we have so much gratitude for Arsenio, Velma and the rest of their family. 

Ok, a new friend, lets call him, Winchester, yeah that will work. Wednesday night is our chance to go out to the local Caribou brewery and catch up with some of Joan's friends and co workers. This is partly why the names are so elusive. We were having too much fun, so my selfie is a bit blurry. With Winifred, our party was four today, we had fresh brews and two rounds of rueben fries (imagine the fries are the bread of the sandwich). Winchester will be part of future posts I am sure, he knows of a couple good golf spots on the island so I am looking forward to that. To top off the evening, there was a live band that played covers from the 90s and early 00s. We are all finally old enough to go to a restaurant were the oldies are the music that we know. This was a first for me. 

Cheers to great people and to great friends, both here on Guam, and far away.

Comments

  1. Dave S.March 11, 2022 at 5:44 AM

    What a blessing to have such a great 'host' family. God is so good. Am sure you both will be able to give back to them in the future in ways you never imagined.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michelle S.March 15, 2022 at 5:45 AM

    What a wonderful God-send to have a family in Guam watching over you! ❤️

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cars of Guam (COGs) - Ep 2 - New Vehicles

Image
  3/29/2022 - I know what you are thinking, if this ep is titled new vehicles, why of all the photos to choose from did you take a photo of a Prius? This one in fact as I stated from a previous post is our host families new car, and to drive for ride hail you need a fairly new car based on expectations of the stroll service.  The thing that has stood out to me here on Guam is most of the vehicles on the island are in US terms an import. Technically all things are imported on the island, as no vehicles are made here, but lets use the term "import" to mean external to the United States manufactures. This is a trend I see in both used and new vehicles, a large majority are from Japan. This has led me one to ask the question why is this the case, but also is there a way to get some data to back up what I am seeing? (what does a good engineer do to back up a claim, build a database) The next few images below are data tables, maybe less fun to read, but bear with me as I believe th...
Read more

GD 55 / Cars of Guam (COGS) ep 3 - Godzilla

Image
4/8/2022 - This car is so cool is gets both a COGs ep and a Guam Day (GD). If you haven't heard of the Skyline GTR before, let me tell you, you have missed out on a an amazing part of automotive history. This is an R32, built somewhere between 1989 and 1993. These vehicles were never designed to meet American road requirements, so these fall into that import law of the vehicle must be 25 years or older to register in the USA. One more sign of a cool Guam import culture from Japan, that's my learning of who live here on this vehicle.  The R32 Skyline GTR was made famous for its racing prowess right at the turn of the decade in touring car races.  It excelled so well, it received the moniker "Godzilla" as it beat any other manufacturer in its class during this time. The heart of this race car starts with its 2.5L inline 6, twin turbocharged engine, that produced a spec rating of 276 hp. Where this gets interesting is the Japanese automakers had an agreement that they wo...
Read more

Guam Day 48 - Return to Asan Beach

Image
  4/1/2022 - Can you believe its April? Where is the time going, Joan and I are just having too much fun on Guam I guess, the time is really going quick. I started out the morning getting a run in at Asan beach, still one of my favorite running spots on the Island. This time I read the history signage a little closer, Im not sure I have ever run anywhere where the signage literally says to keep an eye out for unexploded ordinance. No, this isn't an April fools joke. Luckily the main areas of the beach are well traveled and the national park service has done a great job over the last 70 years cleaning up and taking care of the preserve. If I see any white phosphorous I will be sure to leave it in the water. Eye opener though, even in a place where war has not been present for close to a century, this place continues to see the after effects of those events. We have more diving to come, but many of the sites will exhibit just this evidence as well, lots of discarding objects from WWI...
Read more