Mañagaha

“Our jewel should shine” is printed on the side of the yellow trash bins. We encountered an island worth the visit, generally tidy and clean, as I brought three guests from China to swim at Mañagaha, the famed visitors’ destination of choice on Saipan. That some 300 other souls saw fit to sail to the island the same time we did was more an issue of elbow room than rowdy behavior as most merrily carried their mats, snorkels and floats, along with a kid or two in tow, and settled to bask in the sun or soak in the water.
OK. We will start with the obvious. Not all bikinis and their wearers are created equal! That the mamas wore their two-piece strings with nary a drop of self-conscious sweat was an act of liberation, even when the hubby and granny took care of the kids, and the crowd evidently left caution at the hotel to have a day full of sun and fun. 
Needless to claim, we kept our telephoto camera pointed elsewhere so as not to be intrusive, though the gawking Peeping Tom in us was wide awake and curiously alert.
The Sunday when we visited, the ferryboat was half its full capacity and I almost lost it when the passengers rushed to the top deck, alarmed that the boat would keel over. That’s when I discovered two hulls of a catamaran securing horizontal stability so I joined the top deck glory without worry!
(A note to Tasi Tours. The two Chinese personnel at the front desk of the port office were “rude,” though perhaps unintentionally so, knowing that customer service is still perceived in China as a servant role. Definitely, they could use a touch of “customer service.” Employees’ use of smartphones while on duty might be regulated so that personnel focus more on the customers rather than on their texting.)
Mañagaha facilities have vastly expanded since my last visit in ’86. One of my former students, a Micronesian married to a Japanese, is a tour guide. Leading a group mostly Nippon, he chuckled over his disjointed English, but reveled in his fluency in Nihonggo and efficiency in Hanggul and Zhonghua. He might not have intended it, but I got the sense that he did not do too badly in the languages he learned on his own, more than the English he got in my Social Studies’ class!

Many residents of Austro-Indo-Malayo-Sino descent work on island, from park rangers to food concessioners, and shore lifeguards. A Carolinian from one of the mid-islands between Chuuk and Yap where most of the CNMI’s Pacific Islanders came from was one of them. He liberally blew his whistle when someone strayed too far out of the safe areas and did not appear to be float/swim worthy. Not inappropriate. After all, the Carolinian Chief Aghurubw gave the sentinel island of Saipan its first shine. We would not want to tarnish that with a drowning!

With the number of Chinese tourists joining the tour groups on Saipan, it might be well to craft a Zhonghua version of the orientation spill on the use of life vests at the onset of the ferry ride, currently only in Hanggul and Nihonggo, to show our familiarity with the tongues of Sinosphere, and our diplomatic nod to them! Besides, it is a good customer service trait.

Food cost among the concessions was not exorbitant. The “jewel should shine” motif seemed internalized policy by the staff as well as the tour guides. Still, we might encourage tours to prepare a sheet handout with no more than 10 items to remind tourists of how they might comport themselves on the island.

Lead item can surely emphasize that the place is “sacred” particularly to the Carolinians, not in the magical sense but in its nature to be given due respe’tu. Tasi Tours allows 30 complimentary passes out of its 122 capacity boats for locals, a reminder that Aghurubw’s foot trails are foremost a place for CNMI residents in which any service extended is firstly for the local residents before it is for the tourist.

But this is not about me, or Tasi, as it is about Mañagaha. The snorkeling, scuba diving, parasailing, banana boat rides, and other commercial offerings make the day trip a popular choice sufficient to keep the waters and the island attractively in pristine condition. Snorkeling on the western side got me two plastic cups on the sand, so even with attractive trash bins, the pop and beer cans and wrappers were still casually cast about.

The rubber mats on the sand under the trees are a plus, and on my ocular survey, the Japanese and the Koreans attended to their rubbish. My Chinese colleagues were not that conscious of their environmental responsibility, a cultural habit where at home, in the parks and other public places, a “paid” personnel picks up after the visitor, a “servanthood” socially looked down upon.

A reminder of the sanctity of the island and proper trash disposal is definitely in order, focused on what people can do rather than what they are forbidden from doing. MVA can draft the text but individual tours can print it to fit their own one-page requirements but keeping the respe’tu the island deserves.