My Guam Experience Part 3/3.

Another hut we have at Gef Pa’go is the salt making hut, 

or Salinas hut. Salt in the chamorro language is called asiga. 

To make salt, we have to collect salt water out by the reef, 

where we know it is pure saltwater. Once we have enough saltwater, 

we have to boil it over a very hot fire for several days, until the water has evaporated,    

leaving behind a brown salt. We then scoop out the salt and place it in 

cardboard boxes and lay it in the sun until the salt dries and turns a very clean white. 

Once it is white and dry, it packaged for sale.

My stay on Guam was sort of like going back in time. Wearing a mestiza        

 everyday, making salt, making coconut candy. It was rewarding to be able to 

experience when my ancestors did everyday. I will always love california, 

but Guam is so unique, and will always be my home.

My Guam Experience Part 2/3.

                   One of the huts was the Coconut Candy Hut. At this hut, we would show the how to husk the coconut, open the coconut, grate the coconut, make the coconut candy, and how to make coconut oil. There are two tools we use to do these things and they are called the kumzu and the hagow. The hagow is a three foot long hard piece of wood, carved into a two inch thick piece. We first have to husk the coconut, so we take the hagow and use that to pierce through the coconut husk and pry the husk from the shell. Once the shell is free of the husk, we use the hagow to break the coconut shell by holding the coconut in our palm and repeatedly hitting the shell with the hagow while turning the coconut between hits. Once we have broken the shell, we must either put the coconut milk in a container, or throw it away. Once we have the two halves of the coconut, we have to use the kumzu to grate it. The kumzu is a wooden stool with a sharp metal blade with spikes on the end of it. We use that by sitting on it and grinding the inside of the coconut shell with the meat on the blade with the spikes. When we are done, we have a plate of grated coconut. To make coconut candy, we must heat up a pan and pour a cup of sugar in. We continuously stir the sugar until it is a brown caramelized liquid. We then pour in two cups of grated coconut and stir it with the liquid until it is a sticky golden brown candy. To make the coconut oil, we have to have a plate of grated coconut, which we use our hands to squeeze until we have about a cup of   coconut milk. We boil the coconut milk until we see the oil and the water separate. We then scoop out the oil into another pot to boil. Once the oil and the water has separated again, we scoop out the finished product.

Last part coming soon!


Thanks for reading!


Sincerely, 
Me.
Simply, a seventeen year old.

My Guam Experience Part 1/3.

                             On February 8th, 2011, I flew out to the Island of Guam to spend some time learning about the island where I was born and the people who live there. Guam is located the Pacific Ocean, above Australia, and Southeast of China and Korea. It is a territory of the U.S. My mothers side of the family still lives there, so I stayed with my Grandmother for the three months I stayed there. About a week into my trip, I started volunteering full time at Gef Pa’go, a cultural park that my Grandmother, Judy Flores, has been involved with since it first opened. 

As a volunteer at Gef Pa’go, I was a tour guide. I worked every weekday, from 9-12, the normal hours of operation. I wore an outfit called a Mestiza, a long skirt and a poncho style shirt that the people of Guam, known as Chamorros, started wearing during the Spanish occupation, which began in the mid 1500’s. I took the tourists through the park and into the huts, explaining in detail about how the chamorros used to live, both in the Spanish occupation, and the Japanese occupation, which happened during World War II. Everyday, a Japanese tour from Lam Lam Tours would come, and that was about 10-40 people, depending on the day. I would follow their tour guide around while he did the tour in Japanese. I would follow and help when needed. Every once in a while, a walk-in tour would come. We would take those people around and show them Gef Pa’go. 

Next part coming soon! 

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Me.

Simply, a seventeen year old.