Island life and travel

NPR's All Things Considered carried a fun little interview with Joe Chargualaf down in the village of Inarajan. The story was about the Democratic caucus (The way things are working out Guam is actually on the radar at this point in the election process -- to the surprise of everyone on the island!) but Joe did more than talk politics -- he did a good job painting a picture of life in the more rural part of Guam. I think the story probably made the Guam Visitor's Bureau quite happy. ~ Link

BTW, if you're interested in traveling this way, I was checking airfares for someone this morning and you can do a round-trip from LAX to Guam for just under $1,000 -- if you're buying a ticket today. Last week one of our PIBC staff found a round trip from Guam to the States in the $800 range.

(I'm flying to Palau next week and the round trip ticket cost over $630. I'm flying to Chuuk the week after and that round-trip ticket cost over $525. If you calculate the cost per mile of flying it's definitely cheaper to fly to the States -- even if you get a $1,500 LAX to Guam round-trip.)

Most of the students at PIBC come from other islands in the Western Pacific. Guam is just a central hub for activity out here. And most of the islanders are culturally different (sometimes VERY different) than the Chamorro people who are indigenous to Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Part of the problem is that the islands, even though they're all facing similar economic, social, and cultural challenges, are all very distant from each other in miles. And this distance fosters an extreme form of parochialism. Happiness Lodge can fill you in on a few of the challenges of getting islanders to cooperate with each other.