Part I
Magof yu' na Chamoru yu', este i tano'-hu, este i Guahan, yan i gima'-hu: I am proud to be Chamoru, this is my country, this is Guahan, and my home. Before this writing comes to life in your beautiful minds, I kindly ask you to open your hearts with compassion and take the time to graciously thank God our father, Lord Jesus Christ, and our ancestors of old, for allowing this moment to share what I, as your Chamoru and Christian storyteller, am about to reveal. Truly, and in short, I have shared my past short stories of the captivating moments of playing in Mother Nature's playground of fun, riding my bike against the sultry salty air, climbing the mango trees, dangling down on a tree branch like a fanihi (fruit bat), and playing with my imaginative friends that miraculously just always appear when I am sad, hurt, or lonely. In the beginning, it was fun, and we laughed, ran around the open land, but it was getting late in the night this one day, and it was dark, when I met Guella yan Guello. Guella smiled, reached out to me, and offered friendship. “Mantiene y canaejo ya undalalag yo: Hold my hand, and follow me, she says.” Guello just stood there so tall, so proud of himself, and so stern. There was no way I was going to hold his hand and follow his path. As a child, I intuitively entrusted Guella as we walked through the jungle and passed the hidden creek of Tailisay, and suddenly I saw a gigantic deep hole, where Guello instructed me, “hånao papa' gi i gua'ot: Go down the ladder.” With hesitation, I listened and went down the ladder with them. Entering the dark, hidden underground, I turned to look as the darkness gave way to light, and I witnessed rows of fiery torches and other strange-looking, tall, and robust spirit entities surrounding my ever-being. Guella signaled for me to follow after, and at every step I walked past them, I would sense their energies, their pain, their anger, and their sadness. These entities were, however, so friendly, but deep down I knew they wanted to share a deep emotion, a deep lust to be heard, a deep need to be what they wanted to be, and a deep desire to go up with their God. I saw all shapes and forms of these entities: some in soldiers' uniforms, others in straw hats. Scars on their frightening visages began to scare me, but I was determined to find out why I had been chosen to be with them. (You have read Part I of this short story. Stay tuned next time for Part II.)