Online: Father Eric Forbes is photographed at his office at the St. Fidelis Friary with tools of his trade for his Pale Eric blog. / Masako Watanabe/ Pacific Sunday News/ mwatanabe@gu
Reference: One of Father Eric Forbes' tools of his blog trade is a Spanish-Chamorro dictionary. / Masako Watanabe/ Pacific Sunday News/ mwatanabe@gu
It might come as a surprise, but priests use technology, too.
Father Eric Forbes, in particular, dons a brown Capuchin Friars robe wherever he goes -- a look that screams tradition. But not all of his time is spent studying or praying; he sits down at his personal computer to surf the Internet and communicate through email just like everyone else.
But when he has time away from his roles as director of communications, development director and formation director at the St. Fidelis Friary, he logs on to his Blogspot account to update, that's right, his blog.
The Capuchin priest, who has strong passion for the Chamorro culture, has been sharing his knowledge through columns in newspapers for years. He's recently turned to the popular electronic journal website to publish his thoughts and findings.
Forbes is closing in on 28,000 hits on his blog site since he published his first entry a year ago. He also uses a simple Sony point-and-shoot camera to make short videos of events or on topics he wants to discuss.
"People are looking for more online resources," he says. "You can only do so much on the history of Guam class. A blog is something you can do constantly and it's totally under my control. I can manipulate, add videos, photos graphics and go back once I post it and modify it, add a picture."
Forbes says he covers everything and anything about the Chamorro culture, touching on topics like surnames, word origins and customs.
An entry via youtube video, for example, has the priest contrasting pronunciations of local names -- how he was taught to pronounce it versus a younger man's more common pronunciation.
"Now I'm hearing people say 'quin-ta-nilla' for Quintanilla, 'Ah-goon' for Aguon and 'qui-na-da' as in Quinata," he says. "It's concerning because it's becoming the predominant pronunciation now."
He's often playful with his entries too, highlighting many of the idiosyncrasies of the island's evolving native culture.
A more recent post titled, "You know you're Chamorro when ... " pokes fun at solid food versus non-solid food. A picture of a fiesta plate is labeled as solid food while pictures of corn soup and a tuna sandwich are described as non-solid food.
Forbes has traveled all over the globe, hitting countries including Italy, Spain, Germany and the Philippines, in search of often centuries-old historical documents to gain a glimpse into the island's past.
There's a more important source, however, he loves tapping into -- one closer to home.
"Since I was a kid I always wanted to know about the past," Forbes says. "I was raised by my grandmother and her sisters and I'd always ask them about their childhood and before the war on Guam. The 70-, 80-year-old people that I'm talking to -- it's them talking and that's a living resource that we have right now. This generation is dying out -- the pre-war generation."
While there's been a resurgence in the Chamorro cultural movement concentrating on ancient practices, Forbes says he sees lapses in the movement, particularly with the generation that he had grown up with.
Many of his entries contain video interviews with manamko' where he captures oral histories that might otherwise have been lost to the island's younger generation.
He also often records old Chamorro hymns and practices like rosaries, novenas and regional funeral practices.
His vocation offers him advantages in gaining information -- a sort of automatic connection with many people. As a priest he is able to ask around and reach out to different families who welcome his search for knowledge.
"They absolutely have no hesitation taking me in, because I'm a Catholic priest and they're a Catholic family," he says. "My ability to speak Chamorro opens another big door because as soon as you can speak Chamorro with a person who also speaks English but also speaks Chamorro, the whole dynamic changes. They have more trust in you, they feel like you're an equal to them and they're not going to be embarrassed to talk to you. They're going to be much more open and the information is much more forthcoming."
Knowing English and Chamorro is a strong advantage in his research, but understanding other languages helps fill in the gaps where a lot of historical information tends to get lost.
"One of the great weaknesses of Chamorro scholarship," Forbes says, is that "most Chamorros are unable to read Spanish. We're talking about 300 years worth of history that we cannot access unless you got the Spanish down. Then you hear people saying, 'oh did you see this Chamorro word?' And it's actually not -- it's a Spanish word."
The priest turns to an old reprinted Spanish-Chamorro dictionary to help him clarify certain local words -- looking for its true meaning.
The priest has banked over 150 extra entries in the event he gets too busy to write on current topics, but he also looks forward to teaching a class for rosary leaders known as techas to help perpetuate the old Chamorro custom.
"I don't even have an iPhone or that phone that begins with the 'A,'" Forbes says referring to the Android line of smartphones.
"I'm very low-tech and I had that camera for three years before I knew I could take video with it. I could really kick myself in the butt because I had some excellent opportunities for video taped. I really ought to take this camera everywhere I go because I could go the post office and see something and say 'darn it, if I only had my camera.'"
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120325/LIFESTYLE/203250309/Historical-musings-Pale-Eric-goes-digital-blog?odyssey=mod|newswell|img|Frontpage|p
Father Eric Forbes, in particular, dons a brown Capuchin Friars robe wherever he goes -- a look that screams tradition. But not all of his time is spent studying or praying; he sits down at his personal computer to surf the Internet and communicate through email just like everyone else.
But when he has time away from his roles as director of communications, development director and formation director at the St. Fidelis Friary, he logs on to his Blogspot account to update, that's right, his blog.
The Capuchin priest, who has strong passion for the Chamorro culture, has been sharing his knowledge through columns in newspapers for years. He's recently turned to the popular electronic journal website to publish his thoughts and findings.
Forbes is closing in on 28,000 hits on his blog site since he published his first entry a year ago. He also uses a simple Sony point-and-shoot camera to make short videos of events or on topics he wants to discuss.
"People are looking for more online resources," he says. "You can only do so much on the history of Guam class. A blog is something you can do constantly and it's totally under my control. I can manipulate, add videos, photos graphics and go back once I post it and modify it, add a picture."
Chamorro history
Although Forbes is a priest, this isn't a blog on the Catholic church. He often uses Catholic references since the church is a major source for documents and historical information on Guam, stretching back hundreds of years.Forbes says he covers everything and anything about the Chamorro culture, touching on topics like surnames, word origins and customs.
An entry via youtube video, for example, has the priest contrasting pronunciations of local names -- how he was taught to pronounce it versus a younger man's more common pronunciation.
"Now I'm hearing people say 'quin-ta-nilla' for Quintanilla, 'Ah-goon' for Aguon and 'qui-na-da' as in Quinata," he says. "It's concerning because it's becoming the predominant pronunciation now."
He's often playful with his entries too, highlighting many of the idiosyncrasies of the island's evolving native culture.
A more recent post titled, "You know you're Chamorro when ... " pokes fun at solid food versus non-solid food. A picture of a fiesta plate is labeled as solid food while pictures of corn soup and a tuna sandwich are described as non-solid food.
Research
Forbes has traveled all over the globe, hitting countries including Italy, Spain, Germany and the Philippines, in search of often centuries-old historical documents to gain a glimpse into the island's past.
There's a more important source, however, he loves tapping into -- one closer to home.
"Since I was a kid I always wanted to know about the past," Forbes says. "I was raised by my grandmother and her sisters and I'd always ask them about their childhood and before the war on Guam. The 70-, 80-year-old people that I'm talking to -- it's them talking and that's a living resource that we have right now. This generation is dying out -- the pre-war generation."
While there's been a resurgence in the Chamorro cultural movement concentrating on ancient practices, Forbes says he sees lapses in the movement, particularly with the generation that he had grown up with.
Many of his entries contain video interviews with manamko' where he captures oral histories that might otherwise have been lost to the island's younger generation.
He also often records old Chamorro hymns and practices like rosaries, novenas and regional funeral practices.
His vocation offers him advantages in gaining information -- a sort of automatic connection with many people. As a priest he is able to ask around and reach out to different families who welcome his search for knowledge.
"They absolutely have no hesitation taking me in, because I'm a Catholic priest and they're a Catholic family," he says. "My ability to speak Chamorro opens another big door because as soon as you can speak Chamorro with a person who also speaks English but also speaks Chamorro, the whole dynamic changes. They have more trust in you, they feel like you're an equal to them and they're not going to be embarrassed to talk to you. They're going to be much more open and the information is much more forthcoming."
Knowing English and Chamorro is a strong advantage in his research, but understanding other languages helps fill in the gaps where a lot of historical information tends to get lost.
"One of the great weaknesses of Chamorro scholarship," Forbes says, is that "most Chamorros are unable to read Spanish. We're talking about 300 years worth of history that we cannot access unless you got the Spanish down. Then you hear people saying, 'oh did you see this Chamorro word?' And it's actually not -- it's a Spanish word."
The priest turns to an old reprinted Spanish-Chamorro dictionary to help him clarify certain local words -- looking for its true meaning.
The priest has banked over 150 extra entries in the event he gets too busy to write on current topics, but he also looks forward to teaching a class for rosary leaders known as techas to help perpetuate the old Chamorro custom.
"I don't even have an iPhone or that phone that begins with the 'A,'" Forbes says referring to the Android line of smartphones.
"I'm very low-tech and I had that camera for three years before I knew I could take video with it. I could really kick myself in the butt because I had some excellent opportunities for video taped. I really ought to take this camera everywhere I go because I could go the post office and see something and say 'darn it, if I only had my camera.'"
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120325/LIFESTYLE/203250309/Historical-musings-Pale-Eric-goes-digital-blog?odyssey=mod|newswell|img|Frontpage|p
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