Real Beauty

Last Friday Real Christian Theater had its first road tour and performed at five local schools: Hopwood Middle School, San Antonio Elementary, Dan Dan Elementary, Kagman Elementary, and San Vicente Elementary School.





This year Real Christian Theater's theme was "Real Beauty". All of the skits focused on what we believe Real Beauty is: forgiveness, honesty, patience, kindness,tolerance, trust, etc. One of the challenges of performing at public schools is that you cannot use the word "God" in any of the material. So we had to use skits that indirectly talked about God. As a team we are striving to share our love and passion for God. Real Christian Theater is the only drama team on island that travels and performs from school to school.







I must say that I have a new found respect for road shows after doing this tour. So much work goes into the show. It is a huge production and you have to be ready for anything that may go wrong. Forgetting a line is easy because you can try and cover it up. But if your sound system and speakers are down its more stressful. Most of our shows were outdoors so we had a couple of problems with the audience not being able to hear us. But everything eventually worked out.






Our first show of the day was at Hopwood Middle School. The first show we were still working out the kinks especially with the sound system. We did our best. The crowd was really supportive and cheered us on. As the day progressed our shows kept getting better and better. I have to admit that its a great feeling when you say your lines and the kids respond with a hearty laugh! Thats the best feeling to be able to make someone laugh and be happy.





I think its really sad that some people equate real beauty with just physical appearance. Some may judge others and totally miss out on getting to know a really great person.I'm so tired of the body image battle. The media plays a role in defining what is beautiful and I have experienced the pressure to be a certain way. I say screw the makeup, straight hair, and dieting. I think that its sad that women have to change who they are in order to be perceived as beautiful. When it comes down to it, knowing your worth and being happy with who you are is the epitome of what beautiful is.



I'm so proud of the kids because they gave their heart and soul into this school road tour. They did such a great job and they continue to inspire me in so many ways. Mostly they encourage me to lighten up and laugh at myself every now and then. Mai did a wonderful job being the MC and directing the show. Kudos to Sean for organizing the school tour. One of the highlights of the tour was the Kagman kids asking for our autographs! We felt like rockstars.




At the end of the show we played the song by Christina Aguilera "Beautiful". It really tied the skits together and I'm hoping the kids took something learned home with them. Whats next for Real Christian Theater? We will be performing for some of the other local Churches and at Street Market. Stay tuned ...

Sunrise Catchers & Dolphins

There are great rewards in being an early morning riser. One of them is catching a sunrise on Saipan. Funny how you'd think catching a sunrise is relaxing but sometimes racing down Middle Road at 5:30 am to make it in time is stressful! Sunrise usually is around 6 am. My favorite place to catch sunrise so far is Bonzai Cliff in the Northern part of the island. Its about a 15 minute drive from where I live.

It's true that no two sunrises are ever the same. Some of them are electrifying and some just peak through the clouds. Its rainy season and the clouds are out. If you're patient and willing to wait sometimes in the rain to see when the morning sun breaks through the clouds . . . it is a spectacular site. I don't know how anyone can live on this island and not experience a sunrise atleast once a week. If I could, I'd watch it everyday but I'm usually swimming or running that early.

Monday morning Greg and I spotted a pod of atleast 20 Spinner Dolphins making their way across bonzai and towards Bird Island!! How lucky were we. They looked really small but really playful. We were so excited since this was the first time we ever saw dolphins in Saipan! Sorry no pics of the dolphins. They were hard to capture since they blended in with the waves. We also saw two turtles below us just riding the waves.

There is this other spot near bonzai where the fishermen sit above the cliffs and fish. I really love this spot because it gives you a clear view of the sunrise, bonzai cliff, and suicide cliff. You also can dangle your feet while sitting on the cliff ledge which is about 100 ft from the waves crashing below. Such a sweet site.