Where's the fish?

We've now been through one whole school year at PIBC. And I'd have to say that it has been a very positive year for us. The students are fun -- and endearing. And they don't mind speaking their minds at times -- a good thing. The one "complaint" that I've heard over and over again all year is that the school doesn't serve fish. They aren't whining -- that's not their nature. But it is the nature of college students to complain about dorm food.

Most of our students are from Micronesian islands where fish are still plentiful and so everyone pretty much has their fill day in and day out. It's no big deal. Fish are an entitlement from the ocean.

But the ocean around Guam has been either fished out or so polluted that the kinds of fish islanders eat just aren't out there anymore. The fish sold in the market are super expensive.

And that's a hard concept to grasp -- that it costs a lot more to eat fish than chicken or pork. Most students are used to fishing themselves. Their families fish. If they want a fish they just step out the front door to the ocean. They grab their net or spear and get one.

It's not that they don't understand that fish cost a lot on Guam. It's just emotionally hard to understand how that could be. But dealing with the way things are elsewhere in the world is a part of the education they receive here on this big island (220 square miles). Still, it's hard to not be constantly asking, "Where's the fish?'

In the picture Pastor Hiob, the PIBC dean of men, is getting ready to cook up some chicken during PIBC Days last month.