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Orientation to Inarajan | |
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Inarajan is broken down in different sections Therese explains. Malojloj is a large portion of Inarajan. People ask, 'Is Malojloj a separate village?' Well, no, its getting sort of that way, but it started off as a very small farming community. And then a lot of people decided they wanted to build houses, and raise their families up there. So we have a lot of families living up there, setting up their foundation and just growing. And so Malojloj in itself is a growing, big part of Inarajan." I think of Inarajan as the entire district, says Bill. For me, it really bothers me when somebody says that Malojloj is a village. I remember I was invited to represent the mayor of the municipality and somebody stood up and said, 'This is the village of Malojloj' and I stood up and I made that correction. This is not a village. It is part of the municipality just like the area that Im staying at right now, which is called Belen."
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We have other sections within the village of Inarajan, Therese tells us. Theres Lada, Peca, and then Chagamin Lago is right across the bay. Belen and Tinaga are just various sections. Ive learned these names as I grew up from my grandparents and my mom and dad. So I know if you say a family is Crisostomo, someone will ask, Okay, which Crisostomo are you -- the Crisostomo from Lada, or the Crisostomo from Malojloj?, because there is a Crisostomo from Malojloj, and were related. Its just that we live different parts of the village. Meno there are Menos in Belen, and there are Menos in Malojloj. So often times you need to know the family name. My mothers father is known as Shorty, only because of his stature. So when people say, Are you the granddaughter of Shorty? I know exactly who theyre talking about. Often times its not just the area where you live but its also the family you come from.
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Lada is where I live and, the reason they call it Lada is because of the trees. In Hawaiian theyre called noni trees. Well, they are in abundance down in that area. A lot of people drink it for medicinal purposes. I guess when they found that noni was pretty popular, and that its similar to what we have here, they started boiling and drinking it, and one thing led to another and they found a use for the tree. My father has a tree behind his house, which is falling down with fruits. So thats why they call it Lada and its down near Bear Rock.
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Bear Rock is a natural formation of the rock, the wear and tear of the rock. Somebody said there was a story of a bear, but I think it was just a made-up story, I dont think it is a legend. Because its not part of our legend, its just a formation of a rock, a natural formation that happens through nature as the years and the wear and so on. "I think when you look at it in one direction it doesnt look like a bear then, you look at it in the other direction and it does look like a bear.
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"Gueha is a word in Chamorro where you take something and fan yourself, Bill explains. "And Guaifon is a beach area. My father owned a property there called Guaifon. I remember the sandy area there where we were, and it was always a very cool area. By 7:00 pm in that area, you need something to cover yourself. I imagine that was the reason why it was given that name Guaifon. "We used to also plant there with my parents, the sweet potatoes. My parents would plant acres of sweet potatoes, and during harvest time we would invite a lot of people over there just to harvest the sweet potatoes. We couldnt really sell them, who could we sell it to? So people would come during harvest time.
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"In my area, which is going up to the middle school, its called Sese, and when you really look at it, Sese is 'knife,' and the way the property of this is, theres an area there where theres a stream. In summer it gives that figure of a knife and thats why its called Sese. And so that area is called Sese. "Basically the reason for these names were because of a certain situation, not particularly a name of a person, but because of the way of the land is geographically, thats how it received its name.
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We will explore many more areas of Inarajan municipality later, when Rufo Lujan gives us a tour down the coast and orients us to different Areas in The Land chapter. But first, we need to get there.
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