Now you may be asking, what is a chamaale? But to get to that I must first tell a story of an adventure gone wrong.
I believed at one time that I was military quality and that singing up for the navy was a great thing. After the first week I realized that I was in a lot deeper than I thought and soon was wishing for a relaxing session at the local beach diving or surfing. After a bunch of people shouting and trying to fill my head with ideals, I soon found myself on the way to an island deep in the pacific where warm water, sharp coral and a ruthless sun would soon be waiting.
Upon arriving I soon found myself in a dangerous military menage-a-trios. work-bar-home. I had to get out it but with dollar lap dances and more hands on than a masseuse would ever be it would be tough. luckily I found a buddy that like to freedive and after getting over the fact that he like to talk every second (even with a snorkel in his mouth) I soon began to enjoy his company.
We soon found out that in the clear water we were able to bomb 100ft plus and that the local names for the fish were a lot different that what we were used to. A parrot fish had three different names depending on the size, and that no matter how bad we tried we always pronounced the names wrong. After a year or so of murdering countless fish and there local names, we finally started to pronounce the names correctly.
As customary on this island you can sell your fish where ever you wanted. Our favorite spot was the gas stations for there were always hungry locals and freaked out white people. And since we were selling some of the fish for about 4 dollars a pound is was a steal.
Back to the beginning!! As we were showcasing the fish one day that the local autoport we asked some locals if they wanted some fish. They asked what kind and after spieling off a dozen differnt names for parrot, goats, tangs, soldiers, trevally, octopus, clams, grouper and an assortment of others, the locals had a look of amazement on their face! We asked what was up and they replied that we were chamaale's. We had never heard of that before and asked what that meant. We were ready to kick there ass for saying something dumb, but what they said shocked us! It meant that we were half white and half chamorro! We were a bit suprised, but after they bought 100 dollars in fish, we got some beer, breadcrumbs, and headed back to the house. when we got there we fried up a lagwa(parrot fish) and stared calling each other chaamale's and having a good time.
Needless to say diving with our group of chaamales from then on was cool, we had a new found title and with shitty accents that my ex wife kept saying that we sounded like Apu, from the simpsons, we tore the little island fishies apart.
So if you are ever on a little island where the directions to it are, as I quote from a local, "get drunk in hawaii and take a left," and find a white guy that spears, knows all the names for the local fish and sounds like a lost Hindu, take it from me, it only gets better. Just be careful, after a week, you might sound like a lost Indian in the pacific too.
Nick
I believed at one time that I was military quality and that singing up for the navy was a great thing. After the first week I realized that I was in a lot deeper than I thought and soon was wishing for a relaxing session at the local beach diving or surfing. After a bunch of people shouting and trying to fill my head with ideals, I soon found myself on the way to an island deep in the pacific where warm water, sharp coral and a ruthless sun would soon be waiting.
Upon arriving I soon found myself in a dangerous military menage-a-trios. work-bar-home. I had to get out it but with dollar lap dances and more hands on than a masseuse would ever be it would be tough. luckily I found a buddy that like to freedive and after getting over the fact that he like to talk every second (even with a snorkel in his mouth) I soon began to enjoy his company.
We soon found out that in the clear water we were able to bomb 100ft plus and that the local names for the fish were a lot different that what we were used to. A parrot fish had three different names depending on the size, and that no matter how bad we tried we always pronounced the names wrong. After a year or so of murdering countless fish and there local names, we finally started to pronounce the names correctly.
As customary on this island you can sell your fish where ever you wanted. Our favorite spot was the gas stations for there were always hungry locals and freaked out white people. And since we were selling some of the fish for about 4 dollars a pound is was a steal.
Back to the beginning!! As we were showcasing the fish one day that the local autoport we asked some locals if they wanted some fish. They asked what kind and after spieling off a dozen differnt names for parrot, goats, tangs, soldiers, trevally, octopus, clams, grouper and an assortment of others, the locals had a look of amazement on their face! We asked what was up and they replied that we were chamaale's. We had never heard of that before and asked what that meant. We were ready to kick there ass for saying something dumb, but what they said shocked us! It meant that we were half white and half chamorro! We were a bit suprised, but after they bought 100 dollars in fish, we got some beer, breadcrumbs, and headed back to the house. when we got there we fried up a lagwa(parrot fish) and stared calling each other chaamale's and having a good time.
Needless to say diving with our group of chaamales from then on was cool, we had a new found title and with shitty accents that my ex wife kept saying that we sounded like Apu, from the simpsons, we tore the little island fishies apart.
So if you are ever on a little island where the directions to it are, as I quote from a local, "get drunk in hawaii and take a left," and find a white guy that spears, knows all the names for the local fish and sounds like a lost Hindu, take it from me, it only gets better. Just be careful, after a week, you might sound like a lost Indian in the pacific too.
Nick
