Saturday we headed out to Okinawa World with Shalynna and Daniel. After having to turn around a couple times due to missing the exit the first time, and having to subsequently pay twice as much for the toll as we should have, I finally got us to the park and began to get out of my foul mood caused by getting 'lost'. For those of you who don't know, I have always had a pretty good sense of direction and rarely get lost. But I get into a very poor mood when I miss where I should have gone or do indeed get lost. It's something that drives me crazy. But after a few exchanged words about navigation and making it to the park Garrett managed to help me get out of my aggravation and enjoy our time. Okinawa World is a park that has a great cavern to walk through, a Habu Snake Museum, and a bunch of traditional Okinawan craft experiences to see and learn about. After going through the cave we got to wind our way back to the Habu Museum for the 'show' where they had a girl telling us all these facts about Habu and demonstrating how dangerous they are. However, it was all in Japanese so we just kind of inferred most of it during the show and learned some after as we walked through the museum. They are a severely venomous snake local to here that are more dangerous than Cobras. They have four hollow fangs that inject venom when bit. They are lightning fast. She demonstrated by putting a blown up balloon into the cage and aggravating a snake. It looked like it wasn't going to do anything and then all of a sudden the balloon was popped and you'd barely seen the snake lash out. It was crazy! She then brought out a Cobra and was showing how the Cobra is only dangerous in it's front, because it can't see because of the 'collar'. She kept getting it to come up and then reaching over behind it and slapping it's head down. I was getting so nervous that it would lash out at her! After the snake museum we walked around the 'village' seeing the different crafts. My favorite is the hand blown glass. They sell Ryuku glass all over around the island and it's beautiful! brightly colored with all sorts of patterns. We saw just a bit of an Eisa Dance performance which if you saw the video I posted on Facebook of the drummers on the beach, that's what Eisa dancers are. It's pretty cool to watch and at night walking Koji we can hear some of them practicing.
Sunday Shalynna went to church with us and Garrett and I also received callings. We were called to work in the Nursery with the 18 month old - three year olds. We've been going in there often to help out or sub, so it wasn't much of a shock. We have a few of them that we just love playing with.
Monday was an interesting day. My work was closed all week because of July 4th, but I still went in for a few hours to do some cleaning and try to get a few more hours in before I leave for a month. After spending a few hours there, I left to run a few errands around town. I wanted to get some paint for the baby's dresser, and since I was already out that way, I decided to go to a larger 100 yen store than I usually go to. Turns out, I don't think I'll be going there again... After I tell you the next few things, you may understand why I feel like I should steer clear of this particular store. Monday, while I'm shopping around the store, Garrett calls me up (it's around 2 pm) and asks me where I am. I tell him, and he's like, 'Well, I may need you to come pick me up. But not where you might think I need picked up...' He doesn't give me much more details than that just tells me bye, and hangs up. He wouldn't answer my questions of 'why' and 'what's wrong'. I noted a tone of pain in his voice though, so I automatically am assuming he's like broken his ankle or some such thing. When I call him back a few minutes later to ask if I need to head back to base, he tells me that I probably should. So I take my purchases up to the front. As I'm getting to my car, he calls me back again to tell me that he's going to be at Foster. Now Foster is the Marine base that houses the hospital. I immediately ask him if he's going to the ER and he finally tells me yes, and that he tweaked his back a good one. By the time I get to the ER he's already being seen and his supervisor is just in the waiting room. When Garrett finally comes out he tells us that he's been given medicine and been put on light duty for two weeks with an actual appointment at the Kadena clinic the following day. Quite an afternoon I must say.
Now I'm going to back track two or so weeks and tell you the other reason that I'm not going to this 100 yen store again. One day I took my sister out exploring some local shopping. I wanted to take her to this larger store because really, you can get some great things for so cheap! We indeed made some great finds that day, hair accessories, cool drinking glasses for my kitchen, some Japanese snacks/candy, etc. Well, as we are leaving I get a call from my dear sweet husband. He sounds super upset and says the all dooming phrase, 'We need to talk later.' My mind instantly begins to freak out and imagine that it has something to do with us going back to the states or being sealed. Some complication that is going to break my heart. I ask him for some clue but he won't give me anything. I tell him that he's freaking me out, and he calms me down by telling me that I don't need to worry. He must've known exactly where my thoughts had gone. So of course, after we get off the phone, my thoughts immediately jump to 'He's getting deployed'. In my mind it was the only logical thing that he would be hesitant in telling me and would be cause for such a serious 'We need to talk' phone call. So Shalynna and I start our way back to base and he calls back saying he's ready to be picked up. When he gets in the car the first thing he hands me is a Hershey's chocolate bar... Never a good sign. He tells me not so ceremoniously to eat it before he can tell me anything more. I don't, it's kind of melty and that is not my favorite way to eat chocolate, let alone if there is bad news involved. But alas, he finally told me and Garrett is called to deployed to Qatar in January. You will be mighty proud, I didn't cry or get upset at the news, which is a pretty big deal especially when pregnant. We are very optimistic about it and know that we will be fine. We call it 'Diaper Money'. The location is considered a Combat Zone for pay, but it gets no combat. This is actually a pretty great deployment and is almost more of just a training base. He is supposed to leave at the end of January, but his highest ranking officers are still debating about him being on the task list. With having a newborn they are afraid that I will get severe postpartum depression and do something drastic while he's gone. Garrett is a little upset about this because he really wants the opportunity to go and doesn't want people thinking he's making excuses to get out of it. He has informed them that we have a great support system through the church that will be here to help me while he's away with whatever I need. And on top of that I have some good neighbors that would watch out for me also. I honestly view Garrett as the unlucky one and the one who will have more to cope with than I will. He will be the one leaving us, his wife and newborn, going to a new place with hardly anybody he knows, and having to adjust. I get to stay in my own house, in a place that is familiar, with people I know always around. We will keep you updated if this order changes and they decide to rescind the task.
Now you may understand why I'm a little hesitant to return to that 100 yen store next. What will my husband call to inform me about next time?
After we left the ER Monday, we went to get something to eat and Garrett was able to finally get in contact with his cousin Austin, who we've known was stationed here since December but had as yet been unable to get in regular contact and plan a time to get together. Luckily we found out it was his last week on island and he is getting out of the Marines and returning home. So we were able to arrange to go to dinner with him at a sushi bar and I got to meet him as well as a few of his buddies. It was a good time, and great to see family, even if Garrett hasn't been in close contact with him for a few years. I will just say, I could immediately see a Bowen resemblance on Austin as soon as I saw him. Maybe it was just his mustache, but he looked a LOT like Dad Bowen. (:
