Four Weeks

Someone complained to me a few weeks ago that my blog is too political now, and there's nothing personal about it anymore. I don't see why or how that is a bad thing, its much better to be complaining about the fake vote we now get in Congress, or the dangers of patriotism in Guam than complaining about my "lack" of a social life or the former terrors of my dating hysteria.

But apparently the way I connect nearly everything I can get my hands on to sovereignty, decolonization and colonialism is too "political" for some people. So let me try and make one of those clean blog post today, which don't teach much or enlighten much, but are kind of cute, and become more about connecting people to myself, than connecting all of us to the world.

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For the past four weeks I've been travelling like crazy, four airplane flights in four weeks. Perhaps for people who travel regularly this isn't much, but for someone who gets carsick if he isn't driving, and often feels bulachu just sitting in a parked car, the past month has been draining and insane to say the least. I just thought I'd share with you a photo from each of my trips.

WEEK 1 - NEW YORK CITY

I presented a paper titled The Unexceptional Life and Death of a Chamorro Soldier: Tracing the Militarization of Desire in Guam, at the Association of Asian American Studies in New York. My paper was well received, and will be published soon in an anthology on gender and militarism across Asia and the Pacific. The highlight of the trip was going to the United Nations and buying flags from all the new nations in Micronesia and then getting mad because Guam doesn't even have a flag there. I nobia-hu Rashne was kind enough to show me around and put up with me being a very disgruntled tourist. Throughout the four day trip, my mantra when seeing the hi-tech, sprawling, bustling, cosmopolitanism of New York City was, "I miss Guam."

WEEK 2 - GUAM

The day after I arrived back in San Diego, I was on a plane again this time to Guam to try and catch the birth of my first baby. She was born on April 16th, 2007 and her name is Sumåhi Chan Bevacqua. I unfortunately had to leave 19 hours after she was born, but will see her again when her mother Jessica brings her out to the states in a few months. As I was leaving island and leaving i hagga'-hu I wrote a poem for her which you can read here.

WEEEK 3 - THE BAY AREA

The Second Famoksaiyan Conference took place in Berkely and Oakland. It was INCREDIBLE! I promise I will be posting about it soon, but in the meantime, hongge yu' fan, SEN INSPIRATIONAL! The title of this year's conference was Famoksaiyan "Our Time to Paddle Forward" Summit on Native Self-Determination and Decolonization, and we were able to capture that spirit through this conference. We are absolutely moving forward. The photo here is me cutting a red velvet cake which my friend Tiffany bought me in celebration of Sumåhi's birth.

WEEK 4 - OKLAHOMA

Indigenous Studies Conference in Oklahom at the University of Oklahoma. I will also be sharing more on this soon, but for now he's an image of me and my friend Madel, with our friend Angie's boy Leroy at the conference.