War in Paradise

Wednesday February 25
Day at sea-very hot and muggy. Heading into the Coral Sea site of heavy WWII fighting and Rabaul New Guinea. Lectures and eating.
Thursday February 26
Another day at sea. Busy day- lectures and choir and eating!. Sue buys me the famous 10 dollar watch. She is tired of me bugging her about the time . The only reason I mention it is because it’s the source of some amusement on my part. We all of a sudden were being treated to an odd high pitched beep. Wifey turned our cabin inside out looking for the mysterious beep. Then called the maintenance man. He had no ideas. Finally found the culprit my new 10 dollar watch has a out of control alarm. Once that was fixed life returned to normal. Some body needs a job. Ha Ha
Friday February 27
Coming into the harbor of Rabaul treats us to a smoking volcano. My geology juices are really flowing. The day is cloudy and overcast. On the face of it I was thinking it would be a bad day for pictures but when I got the day’s camera work on the laptop I was surprised to find the landscape photos have a compelling black and white silhouette look to them. Quite interesting. Our trip to town was a little sobering. This island has seen its share of natural and manmade disasters. The island has 11 volcanoes, 3 of which are active. The last eruption was in 1995--the resulting ash fall pretty much destroyed the whole town. It’s been 14 years and not much has been done to reconstruct. It looks like it happened a few months ago. Families are living in shanties and huts made from whatever materials could be salvaged from the ruins of their homes. In 1937 an eruption took over 500 lives. As a result some very sophisticated equipment has been installed to give everyone advance warning in advance of a blow. In the 1995 disaster not one person was lost. We had a little tour of this facility. The next part of our drive around the area brought us close to the base of the volcano. Great photo stop--landscape dominated by dead trees and black volcanic ash that has the consistency of sand. The locals were there selling some of their handiworks. Then off to a shanty town where the folks are living under some pretty tough conditions. This was a very emotional place for Sue as well as the rest of us. They smiled and waved and didn’t beg. They were dealt a bad hand of cards but have retained their pride. This area was also central in WWII as one of the Japanese main command areas. The island was heavily fortified. An extensive system of tunnels into the volcanic hills still remains. Many young men lost their lives here on both sides. All in all a sobering view of natures nasty side and man’s inhumanity to man.
Saturday February 28
Day at sea. Still hot and humid. Listened to great piano concert put on by the ship’s band director, Manny Panta-one of the most musical human beings I have ever met.
Sunday March 1
We had a choir practice at noon and got ready for our two 40-minute performances tonight. This music is a nice change of pace from Finnish and church. We got nice comments after.
Monday March 2
Guam--Spent a lot of time onboard with American security and customs officials. People were grumbling but I guess it’s good. We are docked in Apra Harbour south of their capitol Hagatna. This island was also the scene of horrific fighting in WWII. It still has a large naval station and a large air force base. The word on the street is that 8000 marines plus dependants and associated support personal for a total of 20,000 will be moving to Guam in the next year or so. Apparently this will effectively close down Okinawa. According to our tour guide the island has done little to get prepared. Governmental gridlock--sounds familiar. Our shore excursion was basically a trip around the island. The native cultural base is Chamorro which has Asian roots. I saw a wild water buffalo standing in a piece of lowland just off the road. They are huge. The Japanese brought them over during the war and there are still a few around. Not quite as lush as some of the other Islands but quite nice. It is an American territory and you can really tell by the burger/fast food spots, large car lots, and K-mart. I rather enjoyed not seeing them. A Chamorro cultural center which depicted life a couple of hundred years ago and a variety of scenic view points rounded out the afternoon. The islanders have a strong Catholic heritage reflecting the 300 years of Spanish rule before the US got it in 1898. We were treated to a violin concert that evening by Vincenzo Gentile from Italy. He had me in tears and had to buy his CD. I am so sappy.
Tuesday March 3rd
Day at sea. Learning some new music in choir. Taking a run at ABBA again. Hard music to learn but fun. Weather starting to get a little cooler as we head north to Japan. Starting to get into some very deep water. The Marianas Trench is about 4 miles deep here. Walking on deck was a little dicey with the winds at 30 + MPH; spray was reaching us on 10 deck!
Wednesday March 4th