Tuesday, March 12, 2019
The climate doesn’t change much from day to day at this time of year in Saipan. The daytime temperature is typically 29 C ( mid 80’s F) and it cools down to 25 C ( mid 70’s F ) during the night. We had rain during the night and it does rain occasionally but generally it hasn’t rained for long periods of time.
After breakfast, Duane, Phil, PR, Danny and Ed went to a new job site. Greg, Kendall, Anet, Dan and myself returned to Tina’s house to continue working on the roof.
At Tina’s house, we stripped the old corrugated metal roof on the side of the house, re-enforced the rafters and then installed the new sheets of aluminum.
The morning was cool compared to the daytime, but it didn’t take long for it to heat up and we were happy for any cloud cover that would block the sun.
Dan took our food orders by mid-morning, picked them up at noon and we ate our lunches in the shade of the house, which offered a little reprieve from the hot sun.
We took several breaks ,but by 2 pm we were all suffering from the heat, even though we hydrated often, so we decided to finish for the day and pack up the tools. We had completed 3 sides of the roof and we were ready to attach the aluminum sheeting but with the sun beating down on us, we felt that it would be good time to stop. We packed up the tools and we were headed back to the hotel by 2:30 pm.
When we got back to the hotel, Dan, Anet and Kendall went to swim snorkel at Pau Pau beach in the north end of the Island. Greg and I took a shower and relaxed until our meeting at 5:30 pm. I also went to the IT&E shop and picked up a sim card for my phone which costs $2.50 per day for 2 GB/day of data as well as unlimited talk and text in all of the US countries and in Saipan. My new phone number is 670-287-3874.
At the 5:30 meeting we reviewed the progress for the day. We had overcome obstacles at both job sites but we had made good progress on both of the houses. After the meeting we had devotions before we went to get something to eat.
For dinner we went to ” Thunder Chicken ” restaurant, which serves only whole chickens chopped into pieces and coated with various sauces. You can split a chicken, so Ed and I each had a half chicken. His half was spicy garlic and my half was sweet and spicy.
After dinner we returned to the hotel. At 9 pm it was 7 am EST so I called National Travel and arranged to pick up the vehicle that I had been approved to rent by FEMA.
Ralf Hamm 