Hafa Adai!

Western side of the island.

Hafa adai (pronounced "half a day") from Guam!  It means "Hello!" in Chamorro, the native language of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

"I ♥ Guam" campaign has the slogan "Where America's Day Begins!"  Guam is 15 hours ahead of the Eastern Coast of the mainland of the United States, and 18 hours ahead of where I live in Gig Harbor, Washington, so when I call home, I rely on my phone app with the world clock to tell me Washington's time. 


Island time is slower. Not literally, but buses run every eight minutes, give or take five minutes. When you wait in line to be served, the lines are slow and conversations flow between customer and server. None of the hurried rush of an urban setting. 

Another surprise for me was the limited daylight. The sun rises in Guam at about 6:45 AM and it sets at 6:27 PM so less than 12 hours of sunlight. June has the longest duration of sunlight of 12 hours and 54 minutes. But you won't see the wide variation in sunlight like Seattle. Typically, Seattle has about 10 1/2 hours of sunlight in February, and almost 16 hours of sunlight in June. Of course, the intensity of the sun is greater in Guam due to its location near the equator. Quality vs. quantity. 

The people have been gracious and friendly, indulging my curiosity and asking their own questions in return. They are amazed that we have come from so far away to visit. Some of the Japanese tourists have been practicing their limited English with me. One man told us that he did better at English composition than speaking it. Since my Japanese is limited to counting to ten and five other random words, I have no room to judge. He spoke well, and we told him so. 

I hope to interview a few local people over the next couple of days and visit the local elementary school. 

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