NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  2025 was the 10th year of existence for the Guam Bus , a creative company that my brother and I started to publish Chamoru language books, comics, flash cards and other products for learning the Chamoru language and telling Chamoru stories.    Our first book released in 2015, written by me and illustrated by Jack was "Sumåhi and the Karabao" featured my oldest Sumåhi hearing karabao stories everytime she rides Siñot Aguon's karabao at the Chamorro Village. Although it wasn't the plan to always have the children of the Guam Bus be the stars of the books, that is how things have evolved in the decade since.    "The Adventures of Akli'e'" followed in 2017, and featured my second oldest Akli'e' as the star of the book, learning about traditional Chamoru tools from his great-grandfather and Chamoru legends and history from his great-grandmother.    Sumåhi, Akli'e' and then my third oldest Lulai would be the main characters in "An Tå...

I remembering going out with someone, where just about everything I was attracted to about her, she was terrified and anxious about. It was a weird abrupt sort of relationship. One that I sometimes reflect back on and still feel puzzled about.  For example, I felt attracted to her because she liked to read. But after we began going out, I soon realized that for her, reading was something she did alone and didn't talk about it with others. None of her friends would read for fun and so she became incredibly anxious when I would want to talk to her about what she was reading and what I was reading.  She loved when I picked out books for her and gave them to her, thinking about what I felt she might enjoy reading, given the places she was at in her life. But she wouldn't talk to me about what she was reading and she would shut down if I tried to talk to her. For me, I love books and love reading, and I read things I never talk to anyone about and read things that I love to talk to...

As someone who also went to community college (3 semesters prior to transferring to UOG), I support President Obama's plan to make community college free, and also concur with the message of Tom Hanks in this column from the New York Times.  ********************** I owe it all to community college by Tom Hanks New York Times 1/15/15 IN 1974, I graduated from Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif., an underachieving student with lousy SAT scores. Allowed to send my results to three colleges, I chose M.I.T. and Villanova, knowing such fine schools would never accept a student like me but hoping they’d toss some car stickers my way for taking a shot. I couldn’t afford tuition for college anyway. I sent my final set of stats to Chabot , a community college in nearby Hayward, Calif., which, because it accepted everyone and was free, would be my alma mater. For thousands of commuting students, Chabot was our Columbia, Annapolis, even our Sorbonne, offeri...