All's Well Again

Sitting here in the warmth and peace of my very own living room it is hard now to connect with the events of the past several weeks. It is a typical pattern for me to shut the doors behind me as I make my way down the hallway of life. I suppose it is that way for us all, but I can't help but wonder if it is normal. Guam - and Hawaii, about which I have mentioned nothing yet - are already fading into dreams and unreality. All I really know for sure anymore is what I am feeling at this moment. Even yesterday, with all its Thanksgiving Day joys of family, food and friends, is already becoming a questionable memory. So I guess I have truly learned to "live in the moment". Either that or its early onset of Alheimer's. What was your name again?

The last thing I recall telling you about was the critters on the island of Guam (and even then I had to go check my last post to make sure). Before that I also told you a little about the proposal work I was doing and the companies I was working with. Here's a little more detail. To say now that it was an intense experience would be somewhat of an understatement. I haven't ever done anything quite like that before.

For three solid weeks in Guam and one in Honolulu I was cloistered in an office cubicle each day for a minimum of 10 hours, and usually more like 12, attempting to create on paper a supply chain for the delivery of construction materials from the U.S. and foreign origins to Guam and Hawaii. It was just me and 30 of my close friends. The goal was to write a concise proposal to the Navy on how we would go about constructing the wharfs, airstrips, housing, offices and other facilities needed to serve as a new home for 8,000 marines and their families who will be moving to Guam in 2015 or so. The military has been working on this plan for easily 5 years or more and the Territorial Government of Guam (aka GovGuam) has also begun work to improve their infrastructure in advance of the construction work. Around 7 large teams of prime contractors and their subcontractors are expected to turn in proposals just to win the right to compete with two other winners for future task orders. The RFP is worth $4 billion dollars and task orders - whichi will be doled out over 5 years or more - will average between $15 million and $300 million. My team mates estimated our joint venture team would spend a combined total of more than $500,000 just to create the proposal. Needless to say, it was a pretty big deal.

I worked every day from my arrival on October 17th until November 19th, when I was finally cut loose and allowed to leave for home. My client had extended my initial two week stay to a total of four weeks. By that time I had been sick twice, and been disrupted with two major crises at home (bedbugs in my daughter's apartment and the death of a sick friend). In the final days I put in as many as 16 hours of work a day and my eyesight had grown blurry. Everyone (in spite of otherwise remarkably good attitudes) had become deeply weary and were looking for the end to arrive. The rest of the team still had a week to go of final changes to the document when I left. It was a sweet day, nevertheless, to say my final goodbyes and point the car toward the airport. I heard only yesterday that they had successfully finished and turned in the proposal on November 25th.

After two exceptionally pleasant days spent recouperating on the Big Island, walking around the Volcano National Park and seeing my good friends David and Leilani Reyes and their keiki (kids) I made the long flight home to Alaska, arriving at 5 am Sunday morning. I had been looking forward to getting back to cold weather again (yes, I had!) and for that reason had planned ahead and packed my jacket in the bottom of my suitcase. Not a bad plan, assuming the suitcase would show up as expected. It didn't, so I had to make my way home via taxi in just my short-sleeve Aloha shirt. Still, it was cold weather at last. Ahhhhh!

However, that is, as I said earlier, all fading into the past. It is wonderful to be home again and that is all I have to say 'bout that.

Love,
Jed

Island Critters

If there is one thing I cannot stand it is snakes. Indiana Jones was never so relateable for me when he rolled over and said "snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes." Some people - whose name I will not mention (Susan) - are deathly afraid of little inconsequential creatures like our harmless Alaska gray spiders that might at worst - and this is making a big admission here - maybe, possibly, leave the tiniest of little red welts from whatever it is that they do when they happen to find actual skin to play around on. Alaskans are not often naked, I might point out, or even moderately uncovered. So the truth is those little kamikaze spiders that some people think are crawling around on the living room ceiling above our heads with evil intent to kill are more likely just dweeb spiders that stumble trying to make it over the top of a piece of ceiling popcorn, lose their grip and fall. I am sure that I have suffered more heart weakening events caused by Susan's penetrating scream of death coupled with the instant launch off the sofa than I was ever threatened by an actual spider bite.

But getting back to snakes, now that is a different matter. One fall day while out for a jog on a beautiful sun-slanted trail around Lake Sagatagan (St. John's, MN in case you have forgotten) I went to leap over some arbitrary thick green stick that was laying on the ground across the path. Just as I was soaring into the air the stick freaked out, violently spasmed and bolted off the path as fast as its little snakey legs could carry it. I, meanwhile, had gone from fun to fear in a split second and somehow managed to gain an additional six feet of altitude in spite of the fact that both my feet were already off the ground at that point and I was arcing toward the other side of the stick. When I finally came down about 20 feet later it took me several minutes to stop my heart from pounding as I realized just how close I had come to some serious garter-snake death. To this day I have not forgotten that encounter and that was, oh, about 30 years ago. So snakes are an issue with me.

But here I am in Guam, brown tree snake capital of micronesia, and I can't imagine whatever it was that possessed me to agree to come here in the first place.  The BTS, as the experts call them, are invaders on Guam, brought here most likely by cargo ships or planes in the early 1950's. They grow to an average length - I said average length - of 1 to 2 meters, and are very aggressive when confronted. They single handedly wiped out the native bird population of the island, not to mention everything else they could get their little fangs on, like shrews, rats and such. Maybe that is why I have not seen but one cockroach since I have been here. So it is not all bad. But I mean, how'd you like to be out for a walk in the woods on a warm and muggy evening and look up to see one of these guys looking down at you? Yes, that's right. You'd be crapping your pants and that's all there is to it. So now every time I go out walking, even if it is just from the car to the restaurant or whatever idiocy I happen to be doing, I can't help but check every bush or small tree for something that just doesn't look quite right and give the whole lot a wide berth. And you would too, Duan, so don't go getting all smug on me.

Time for bed.

Greetings from Guam

Hafa Dai to you all! In a rather strange and abrupt twist of direction I now find myself in an apartment three stories above the beach looking out on one of those tropical paradise scenes usually found in glossy photos. The sun has not quite yet risen so the air is still cool and a bit damp. Perfect for walking on the beach - especially for this Alaskan boy. It is Sunday and a few people are up and around but the tourists have not yet really come out to play. It is the locals getting ready for them.

Sunday two weeks ago my boss asked me to travel to Guam to participate in the creation of a proposal for a large multiple-award military construction contract. Our client needed someone with a logistics background who had the ability to write. My boss, being the ever-alert business development type that he is, volunteered me for the job. I was hired for an initial two-week period which is due to officially end in three days, but the chances are very strong that I will be asked to extend my stay for an additional period. I could be here as long as November 19, or longer if the submittal date is extended.

After an exhausting two-day journey I arrived and immediately went to work. The scale of this contract is quite large and deals with a form of logistics I have not had much experience with, so I spent the first week in an intensive learning mode gathering as much information as I could. I was not alone in this. The proposal team is made up of a Pacific-based construction company and a construction engineering company with global contracts. They have not worked together before so there has been a honeymoon period of a sort as they have gotten to know each other. Now, however, that time has passed and the real work has begun. We had been putting in 10+ hours a day but this next week will be even more intensive.

Consequently I have not had much time to sight-see and in fact today was the first day since I arrived that I have not gone into the office. I went for a walk on the beach and drove to the other side of the island to join our sister church there for a service. It has been a huge relief and I have enjoyed getting to know the island again.

Guam reminds me very much of Hawaii, only Hawaii as it was perhaps back in the 60's. There are about 170,000 guamanians and military on the island. The local native population is a mix of micronesian and spanish cultures going back to the 16th century. They speak a dialect called Chamorro and they call themselves by that name. They look like a darker version of Hawaiians and are very friendly. There are also two U.S. military bases on the island, the navy base at Apra Harbor down on the southwest side of the island and the very large air force base occupying the entire north end. Soon there will be a large marine base also up there. That is, in fact, the reason my client is here: to bid on the work associated with the construction of the base. The military is moving over 8,000 marines and their families here over the next 5 years which will swell the population by nearly 40,000.

Guam is an odd combination of Asia and the U.S. The lingua franca is nominally english and everybody speaks it to one degree or another, but japanese is also used. Guam is only 1550 air miles from Japan and nearly all the tourists are from there. It has been the "poor man's Hawaii" for the Japanese for several decades and a major destination for honeymooners. At the same time, Guam is situated close to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and southwest Asia, and many citizens of those countries have immigrated to Guam. The news and other television programs are mostly from the United States but they are customized for this part of the global community. Guam is an American territory but it very much "faces east".

I will try to post a few more updates as my assignment here continues, but I do not know how consistent I will be about it. Hopefully I can make good progress on my part of the proposal this week and have a bit more free time in the evenings. Meanwhile it is easier to post pictures. You can go to here to see them.

Jed