Bavi Cometh

 I'm not sure why my photos won't upload.  Eventually, I will go back and add them.  

It has rained off and on all day.  Occasionally the sun would come out. (It was in the moments, I thought to myself, "You know...you could go to the beach for a while."  My favorite moment today was in the NWS 3:30pm briefing, the governor attended and told all the surfers they had their fun, now go home. (The Marianas doesn't really get waves--except when storms come. So when the storms come, the surfers flock to the ocean!)

About 5:30 we started getting heavy rain.  Then thunder. Thunder is exciting because it doesn't happen out here.  When I saw that Saipan was losing power, I decided to do the things I needed to do. Like one more shower...just in case.  

At about 8:00pm, I was sitting in the living room when I heard a crash.  It really wasn't windy enough for major excitement.  I went outside and a shutter had fallen off.  I came back in. Another crash.  I go back outside, another shutter had fallen off.  Apparently the guys didn't pin two of the windows.  

It wasn't a job I could do by myself (mostly because I can't close the shutters blocking the doors), so I had to call reinforcements to help.  But with only 3 cars on the entire road system, he made it quickly.  

Shutters are now secured (ish).  

Time to get some sleep and see what morning holds.  It will be getting bad when I wake up. But it has turned a smidge north, so maybe not bad bad. 

The Supplies

 ~33 gallons of drinking water. Check

~50 gallons of flushing/cleaning water. Check.

~Cleaning supplies. Check. (Probably should have gotten more trash bags.  The church building should have...you know, if the roof doesn't blow away.)

~Power bank fully charged. Check. (Should get 2-3 charges to my phone.)

~4 Ryobi batteries fully charged. Check. (This can run a fan.  Remember...For probably 24 hours or so, I will be full enclosed in a house without air conditioning.  It will be hot. But I have ~70 hrs of fan time. So that's good.)

~USB fan fully charged. Check.

~Solar light and solar fan/light combo (today's score!!!) charged. Not check. I guess I wait until the sun returns.

~Radio.  I found one today! Put batteries in and it started playing country music.  Check.

~Candles, matches, lighters, oil lamp. Check

~ 2 random lights that can be charged and are fully charged. Check

~Pantry full of food. Check.  (I also have a gas stove, so that's good.)

~Laundry done. Check. 

~Full tank of gas and extra 5 gal gas. Check.

~Anything within 5 feet of a window packed up.  Almost. (The people that live here have a young child, and I think homeschool. There's plenty of books, crafts, games, toys in front of the windows. Whew.)

~Popcorn popped.  Happening next. :)

~Furniture moved away from doors and windows.  Will do when I get closer to time.

I can't remember if I already said, but I will not be alone in the storm.  There's "kid" that live so on the property that will join me when it gets crazy. There's also a neighbor who has indicated she may come over. There's three couches we can push far from windows, and be fine.  Also, the house is built with a hall way with no outside doors or windows if this became a worst case scenario.  I am in a safe place. :) I'm more worried about the clean-up. 

And More Preparation

<Note: I have photos to accompany this blog, but they aren't uploading.  My wifi has been packed up for the storm, so I am guessing I don't have enough "power" to upload from my hotspot.  I will go back and add them....some day.>

I have been in typhoons before.  Two.  (But they were Cat 1 & 2.)  I have been through numerous tropical storms.  The last one was also July 4^th weekend.  (Actually, that’s a lie.  I was in one last summer in the Philippines.)  In my previous storms, I was always living with the luxurious pull closed shutters.  However, this round was not so easy. Only one of the 4 buildings we had to secure had such awesomeness.  And water is notorious to come in under the shutters in the sanctuary, so we needed sandbags. Oh, and two of the buildings have tin roofs. They are so blowing off.  (But the windows are secure! LOL)

Thankfully, a few of my former youth came through to help batten down the hatches.  We laughed a lot, complained a little, and did the best we could.

**Imagine photo of us battening down the hatches**

Along the way, I decided the least I could do was go buy food. So, we had a Chinese feast in the middle of the “fun.”  Two more had shown up while I was buying food, so I was worried I didn’t have enough.  Thankfully, what I got fed us all (and me two more times)! 

**Imagine photo of us eating Chinese food.**

So, what do you do when you don’t have enough coverings for windows and doors?  You bust out the saw and cut up tables out of the church. Not even joking.

**Imagine photo of our redneck window coverings.**

Perry’s tired. I’m tired. But there’s no resting.  I have drawn up 30 gallons of drinking water.  (It is slow because it comes from a filtered system. Thankfully, I already had about 15 gal.)  Now I’m working on water for toilets and to wash up with.  I can deal with no power, but I sure hope the Lord spares our water! 

The first shower came at about 4:30pm on July 4^th.  It will be off on and for 12+ hours. Then it will get serious.

Preparation

Perry and I generally hit the island running with immediate obligations.  This year I did have three glorious days before I had to officially do something.  But during those days, I needed to prep for Saipan VBS.  Though I just did the VBS, I didn't teach the Bible stories and in Saipan it's sort of a mesh of music, videos, Bible stories, memory.  All that to say, I wasn't totally free to lollygag. 

Before I took off from Tulsa, I noticed a little weather looming over the Pacific. It wasn't even a tropical depression yet, much less a storm. So I didn't worry too much.  At some point over the Pacific, I received a message from the Saipan pastor sending me a graphic and wondering if I had a wiggle room to postpone VBS a week.  (Thanks Elon for messaging at 38,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean!) Though I can't see images when flying, I knew whatever was sent probably wasn't good. By the time I landed in Japan, VBS was postponed one week.  In theory, that gave me lollygagging time when I got to Guam.

But by the time I reached Guam, all the experts were calling for a typhoon (and most likely super typhoon) to fall between Guam and Pagan.  Guam is the southern most Mariana island and Pagan being the northern most of the Marianas.  There's not a lot a girl can do at 11pm after no sleep. But by the next day, craziness ensued.  

I had a couple of priorities (beach, phone, food) but then the serious stuff began.  And when you see sandbags at the hotel your swimming at, you know it's getting serious. 

I started doing the things...food, water, batteries, candles, lighters, matches....but I just wanted something solar.  I had the feeling this was going to be crazy.  I had to come home for a few minutes (mostly out of sheer exhaustion.  I was up 30 hours...slept 5...and now I'm preparing for doom.)  I did a search to see if Home Depot had a solar power supply in stock.  Website said they did.  But when I arrived at Home Depot, the parking lot said other wise.  Picture with me the most nightmarish black Friday scene you have ever witnessed.  Now multiply that times 100.  Bam...Home Depot Guam a couple of days before a storm.  The parking lot is bigger than my home town's lot.  Every spot was filled. There was a traffic jam getting in and a traffic jam leaving.  Inside, baskets were overflowing.  Needless to say, nothing solar. :(

Defeated, I returned home.  As I was getting out of my car someone drove up.  One of the church ladies.  Soon another one drove up.  I think they were worried I'd get on a plane and leave island. ha ha  (Trust me, I have considered it.)

On my second day of preparations, I again had priorities.  Beach.  Pool. Water

But then I decided to make a second trip to Kmart. Maybe there was a hidden item I missed the day before.  Hidden item!?  It's like they went to the dungeon and pulled out all things typhoon!  (I did learn tonight from a former youth who worked at Kmart that they indeed have a warehouse with all things typhoon stored. Except for the good stuff like a generator.) It was like Christmas.  A couple of battery lights here. Some batteries there.  And a solar light with a USB charger.  Woohoo!  (Kmart was also mass craziness. But I don't know if it was so much getting all the typhoon supplies or because Friday is $6 hot and ready large pizzas at Little Caesars. Seriously, the line goes to the back of the store. I waited in it once for youth pizzas years ago.  Never again.)

 

Perry and I celebrated my solar find with Spam Fried Rice!

Priorities!

Perry and I woke up on our first morning (not exactly refreshed.  Stupid chickens go off so stinkin' early.). I had a list of priorities for the day:

• Beach
• Island Food
• Phone
• Prepare for Doom (but you get that part in another post)

Since my pretty island days were numbered (more later), I saw sunshine, so a water source was a must.  A trip to Guam wouldn't be a trip without a walk at Nikko.  I stopped by the coffee shop and got a fresh mango smoothie (with a 20% discount--I figure they thought I was military as the hotel was crawling with them).  I knew Saipan had really taken a hit in April from the typhoon, but I wasn't expecting the rawness to be in Guam as well.  

If you look closely, the palm trees are either missing palms, or thew ones they do have are brown and dead.  There's also a lot of missing trees. This is from the super typhoon that hit Saipan (but Guam was still close enough for significant damage.)  

The troubles in this world slipped away as I had this view for my Bible study, sermon prep, and the occasional dip to cool off.  

So what's missing in these pictures.  FLOWERS!  This place is always a tropical paradise of rich color.  But since the storm, the color is gone.  The view below is usually just popping with whites, reds, pinks, yellow, etc. (But at least it is mostly green and not totally brown.)

I did find one flame tree busting with color.  (It is growing kind of inside the hotel, which is why it was probably saved.)

I said I had priorities and island food was one of them. There are so many to choose from.  I began with the very first island food I ate when landing on Saipan in 2003--Pancit!  Pancit is a Filipino dish that I absolutely love.

I was able to get a local sim for my phone.  It came with 7 days free unlimited talk and text (including the USA) and data, which you will learn later may be very important.

We're Back!

Perry and I are BACK!  Back in paradise and back to offer quality entertainment of adventures.  Sadly for you (and thankfully for me) our adventures TO the island were dull and uneventful.  

Sure I got to sit in the really great seats which gives out ice cream sundaes with dinner service and has fresh fruit and bread at the breakfast service.

And there's the added bonus of extra cubbies and especially the bed!

And I watched two really good movies on the way over.  I can't remember a single bad word or inappropriate scene in either movie!  I am so glad the two movies I was hoping to see were showing on the plane AND were good.  If you haven't seen Michael Jackson or Project Hail Mary, you should!

And we had more uneventful time in the Narita lounge.  Perry enjoyed sipping his green tea.

And after 24 hours of travel, we landed with a hard thud in paradise. 

Asia Pacific Regional Conference

I was able to end my summer with a week in the Philippines attending the Asia Pacific Regional Conference for the Church of the Nazarene.  This was five days packed full of Bible teaching and preaching, incredible music, and reunions with friends. 

There was also an incredible amount of food.  Not one...not two...but THREE buffet meals a day.  I guess it was probably a good thing I decided to have my annual island illness at this point in my journey.  I am pretty sure it was a sinus infection, but it could have been strep as by Saturday I wanted to cry every time I swallowed. (I went ahead and started antibiotics so I wouldn't infect everyone, especially if it was strep.)  By being sick, I went back to the room and slept through at least one meal a day.  Saved a few calories that way. Whew. (But I made up for it by eating an enormous amount of pineapple...at every single meal!)

The hotel where the conference was held was connected to a four story mall.  It was a small mall by Philippine standards. (Yes, malls are still thriving in Asia!)

But by being sick, I also didn't feel like shopping.  So calories and dollars (or pesos) saved! 

This was a very strange floating stocking hat in the mall....??? Obviously, I needed a picture.  (Sadly, Perry wasn't with me.)

Our room was on the 16th floor!  The views are terrible because it was always raining (flooding).  My roommate was my Filipino "cousin", Janary.

As I said, always flooding....

Janary took most of the pictures with friends, and I haven't gotten them yet as she is still traveling.  But you have to believe me when I say that I had the best of times reconnecting with friends: Cousin Jana; Brian & Julie (they lived in Guam when I lived in Saipan...then I moved into their place in Guam when they moved to the Philippines...and now they live in Japan); Cameron from Australia and Bakoh from Indonesia that I first met in December 2006 (We have been connecting with each other at conferences since then); plus so many of my Filipino friends.  The Nunez family, that I first meeting in Pohnpei, even drove over to my hotel to see me! 

The church services were so good! I should start my back-to-school with a week of church five times a day every year! :)

And the cultural presentations were incredible. 

I was sad to leave.  This was such an incredible event.  The Holy Spirit indeed made an appearance, and it was awesome.  Maybe next time, I won't feel so crummy.  

And just like that, summer 2025 is complete.