Man proposes-God disposes.
My stateroom is on the starboard side and when I awoke this morning at 6 (after 4 hours of sleep) to clear US customs, the sea looked relatively calm - waves but only small ones. We had been told it was an anchorage with tenders to the dock.
Conditions on the port side, however, were much stormier - near gale force (Beaufort 6+) winds and very choppy seas. The first tender which went ashore, carrying only a few crew members, took almost twice the expected time and was swamped when it landed. So, it was decided not to allow us to go ashore.
I was (briefly) bitterly disappointed. We could see Saipan very clearly - it was the only American stop until NYC in May on this round-the-world voyage and I was looking forward to it. Didn't know it was American - that we have colonies, uh, territories? Among them the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Marianna Islands and - ta-dah, drum roll,please - Washington, DC. The District of Columbia is a federal district with an elected mayor but Congress controls the money.
On the cosmic scale of things, it was only an irritant. So I got over it, enjoyed the revised schedule (dancing) and took a long nap. Have I mentioned (enough) that I love my king-sized bed?
My first major subject at university was anthropology and my interest has continued. I noticed that Jack, our guide, had 4 small, straight vertical lines tattooed above the bridge of his nose, as did several others encountered on our travels around the island. It seems to be related to language and there are many distinct languages as well as dialects on PNG.
More interesting were the red lips and teeth of many of the people of Rabaul. I knew immediately what it was: betel nuts. The nuts are chewed with lime (not the fruit, the alkalai used to dissolve bodies). There are signs warning about the increased risk of oral cancer, well, actually I saw only one sign but think there probably are more somewhere. Apparently the mixture is mildly stimulating and addictive so the chewers pay about as much attention to the warnings as I did when I smoked - namely, none.
And, despite my anthropological tolerance, men with red lips and teeth look .....unusual.
I almost went to Saipan myself - my dad was stationed on Guam, and I lived with him for 6 months there - great experience, except for the evil stepmother (not my current wonderful Merla), and the typhoon that forced all the kids stateside in '75, but I loved the whole area, and would love to go back and visit the Mariana Islands. - Cathy
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