Almost Done!

A few days after arriving on Pohnpei, I got a countdown app on my computer, telling me how many days were left until I went back home to America. I started out with a little over 300 days, and now I am down to a measly 21. 21! I can hardly believe it. These past 9 ½ months have passed me by in a blink of an eye.

I can’t say that the whole year has passed by quickly. There were days or weeks where I felt like there was no end in sight. But, other times I would find myself sitting in class on Friday in my red polo, wondering how it was already the end of the school week.  

A year and a half ago, if someone had told me that I was going to be a teacher in Micronesia for a year, I would have probably laughed at them. I decided to not be an elementary education major for a reason. I don’t like teaching! Also, Micronesia? I don’t like heat, much less 70%+ humidity every day for 10 months. And yet, here I am: Teaching Kindergarten and high school, and having one of the best years of my life. (I’m still not going to switch to elementary education though.)

Now with only 21 days left on this beautiful island, I have the most conflicted feelings. On one hand, I can’t wait to get back the good ‘ol USA, and on the hand, I can’t bear the thought of leaving this island. I only have 5 more days of Kindergarten before their graduation! I have been trying to savor every moment I have left with my little ones. Although sometimes they make it really hard for me to think about missing them when they run around the classroom screaming their heads off…

Then, there are my crazy high schoolers that seem to complain about most everything. One day there was a boy who was complaining about doing an assignment and says to me, “Awh Miiiissssss. Do we have to?” “Don’t you awh Miss me!” I reply back to him. “But Miss, we ARE going to miss you…” Nearly broke my heart! Each one of my students are different in their own special ways. I’m going to miss each and every one of them for many different reasons. No matter how foul of a mood I might be in, they always find some way to make me laugh!

Even though events don’t seem to go according to your plan, God knows what He’s doing. So don’t forget to trust Him! Don’t worry if things don’t go your way. God’s way is best! It’s hard for me to just give it all up to Him, but with His help, I can.

See you in 21 days America!

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

The Easter Story

Because of the upcoming Easter holiday, I decided that it would be fitting to tell the story of Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected for worship this week. As I was telling the story, my kids stared at me with wide eyes full of questions. I would get interrupted every 5-10 seconds with a:

“Ms! Why would they do something so mean?”

“Teacher? Why did Jesus have the holes in His hands and feet?”

“Why didn’t the Pharisees like Jesus?”

“I see crosses at my church all the time!”

As I described to my little Kindergartners the crown of thorns that Jesus wore, and the cross that He was nailed to, I could see the shock and sadness on their faces. I could also see the surprise and smiles when I told them how Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. A girl turned to the boy next to her and said, “See? I told you Jesus was alive!”

Now I’m pretty sure I reacted about the same way when I first heard that story. But after growing up hearing the same story time and time again, I seem to have forgotten what Jesus really did for us.

After Adam and Eve had sinned and had been taken out of the Garden of Eden, there was no hope for the human race. Jesus then stepped up and volunteered to die in our place. I have been reading a wonderful book called The Story of Redemption by Ellen G. White and it explains everything that was going on in Heaven at the time that Jesus volunteered to pay the ultimate price. Angels offered their lives so that Jesus would not have to bear the consequences. But the life of an angel could not pay the debt.

“Jesus told them that He would stand between the wrath of His Father and guilty man, that He would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few would receive Him as the Son of God. Nearly all would hate and reject Him. He would leave all His glory in heaven, appear upon earth as a man, humble himself as a man, become acquainted by His own experience with the various temptations with which man would be beset…”

-The Story of Redemption

I know Jesus died on the cross for us so we can be forgiven of our sins, but sometimes I seem to forget what a sacrifice it was. Jesus gave up all the glory and power He had in heaven, to come down to our sinful and sad little Earth. He became our mediator and took the punishment that was meant for us.

Jesus was also put to death the way criminals were at that time: He was nailed to two rough pieces of wood. He was mocked, accused, and scorned. Jesus could have backed out at any time. He had plenty of angels waiting to come and take Him away if need be. But, He went through it all. And because of His unbelievable sacrifice, I am able to have eternal life. What an amazing God we serve! I am not very good at expressing myself in words, but I hope you are able to get something out of this. J

Also, I would strongly recommend reading The Story of Redemption!

Becoming a Child

Children baffle me.

They always have! I have been an auntie since the 3^rd grade and watching my little nieces and nephew grow up has been a big help to me as a Kindergarten teacher. However, having a class of 13 little hooligans between the ages 4 and 6 is a totally different story. I have found that kids are very honest. For example:

Max: “Yuree that drawing looks terrible!”

Me: “Max! Is that a very nice thing to say? How would you like it if Yuree told you that YOUR drawing looks terrible?”

Max: “I wouldn’t like it…”

Silly little Filipinos :)

Me: “Alright well then you should apologize to Yuree. Do to others are you would have them do to you.”

I have also found that children are also very random.

For example, during math class, I am answering questions that the kids have on their math worksheet. Kody raises his hand for me to come help him and I go over to his desk.

“Yes Kody? What is your question?”

“I have a new puppy at home.”

“Kody, that’s not a question, and you should be doing your worksheet!”

He laughs and turns back to his paper.

Another thing that I have realized, is that my kids can get excited about anything, as long as I say it with a happy face and voice, and wave my hands up in the air.

“It’s time for math class! Yayy!”

“YAYY!!!”

It’s pretty amusing to see the looks on their faces when they realize what is actually happening.  J

One of my favorite things to do with my class, is tell them their worship story. Their eyes are full of wonder and questions as I tell the story of David facing the giant Goliath, Daniel getting thrown into the lion’s den for praying to God, the miracles of Jesus, and how Jesus died on the cross for us. I often times get interrupted by a question from one of them. “Why would they do that? Did he really have 12 baskets left over? How big were the baskets? How tall was Goliath?” I hope and pray that what I teach these kids will stick in their brains. I definitely know that the worship songs are. During recess on Thursday I watched all my kids join hands and attempt to run around in a circle singing “This little light of mine”. Going around in a circle didn’t really work, but I loved hearing them all sing. J

 

No matter how bad my day is, there is always a kid or two that knows how to make me laugh. Summer is always early for class, and on Friday, I saw her near my classroom and I quickly unlocked it and “held the door closed” so she couldn’t get in. She pushed the door open with little effort and gave me a smirk.

“Summer! You opened that door so quickly! You’re strong!”

“Yeah, that’s because I eat my vegetables! Maybe you should eat your vegetables Ms. C.”

Or my quiet, little EJ. He loves to try and sneak up on me randomly and mimic me in his little high pitched voice. If I say, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing??” He says the same thing right back to me in his little voice and attitude. I’ll pretend to make a grab at him and he runs away giggling and smiling. Reading through Matthew, I came upon these verses:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Matthew 18:1-4

Yuree's everyday grumpy face and sassy Starla. 

I think a trait that we have as children and tend to lose over time, is trust. People lie to us, relationships break apart, etc. Children however, have so much trust. They will love and trust someone so quickly, with no judgment. I often times need to remind myself to trust God with all my heart. It can be so hard to not take things into my own hands, but I am really working on letting God take my life, and lead me to where I am supposed to go. I need to learn to trust God as a child.

I am once again battling a sickness. I am on day 32 of my coughing fits. I am not really sure what is wrong with me anymore since I had a fever and headache last night. Please keep praying for all of the SM’s health and our work as we finish up our last two months here in Pohnpei. 

Swimming with Sharks, and the Wonder of Coconut

Dark clouds over Ahnt

 One of my favorite things to do here in Pohnpei, is go island camping. We had postponed our trip to the island of Ahnt for quite some time now and finally the weekend we had finally settled on was here! Our departure time from school was 1:30pm, so of course we didn’t leave until 2:30. The weather was an off and on sprinkle, and the clouds didn’t look too promising. But never the less, I was excited for the weekend. We took off to Kitti and met with the old couple that owned Black Coral, and the two boats took off for Ahnt. Because of the weather, the waves were bigger than usual and it was a rough ride. The rain thankfully held off until we were all settled into our big hut. Before going to bed, we were able to watch one of the most awesome lightning and thunderstorms happen. The flashes of light were absolutely brilliant! The storm lasted all night, but quieted down enough to let us sleep.

Friday Sunset, before the storm

What I love about island camping, is being able to just relax. No children running around screaming on campus, and no responsibilities. I woke up to the light pitter-patter of the rain on the roof of our hut. I was disappointed at the sound of rain, but was not surprised. After group worship, we each got our own breakfast and just relaxed in our hammocks, reading, or dozing off. For a while, the skies cleared, and some of us went out snorkeling. Despite the lack of large reefs, I was in awe of the beauty of the ocean. Every time I go out snorkeling, I see fish that I had never seen before! Some time after we had started off on our venture, I noticed that I kept getting water in the top of my snorkel. I popped my head out of the water to find that the wind had picked up and the waves were getting larger. So we all headed back to shore and spent pretty much the rest of our day napping and reading. We kept seeing these little reef sharks near the shore and since I had not seen them before, I wanted to get up close. So Brendan and I stood in the water waiting for them to come near. They were quite shy but I was able to get a pretty good shot of one because Pastor Tim decided to throw food in around Brendan and I to bring them closer. It was so cool to be so close to them though!

Here Sharky Sharky...

I have discovered something quite fantastic about coconut. It’s good in literally everything. We grated lots of fresh coconut while on Ahnt and put it in nearly everything we cooked. Saturday night, I was not very hungry, so I just took some rice and soy sauce. Franky said, “Hey Ms. C (not really sure why he never just calls me Clarissa when we are not in classes), put some coconut milk I just made in the rice too.” “Seriously Franky? Coconut milk with rice and soy sauce?” “Just do it. Trust me it’s good!” Deciding to trust him, I pour some in my rice and soy sauce bowl. And let me just tell you, it was DELICIOUS. I don’t even understand it! Coconut goes in curry, drinks, rice, chicken dishes, even in our potato and corn soup! I ate a lot of coconut this weekend. Plain, and in a lot of my food! Franky brought along this nifty coconut grater and Ellie had a splendid time grating lots and lots of coconut halves.

My future little doctors!

Sunday morning was quite promising. The sun was shining, and the ocean crystal clear and different hues of blue and green. I jumped out of my hammock, changed into swimming attire, and hopped into the ocean. Ellie, Jen, and I headed down to the end of the island to enjoy the sunshine and shallow water to lie down in.  Because the sand here in Pohnpei is a lot more course, you always find shells and little hermit crabs in each handful of sand you grab. The tiny pocket of my shorts was soon filled with cool little shells and we headed back to get our snorkeling gear to go out again.

At 12:30, Franky surprised us all by telling us to pack up our stuff and go. Because of the tide, we don’t usually leave from camping till around 2 or 3 o’clock. So at about 1, we all piled into our baggage boat and headed for the channel. We sat on a very tiny island waiting for Urchin, the man from Black Coral, to show up with his boat like he was supposed to. After quite a long time, he never showed, so Franky took the boat back to Ahnt, asked the owner of the island to come get us and take us back to Kitti. The ride back to Kitti was really rough. The waves were about 15ft-20ft tall and made us get some good air in the boat. I was quite enjoying the ride! I thought it was quite exciting, although some people didn’t really think so. J  Needless to say, most of us had sore bottoms and backs for the next couple of days! We even saw a dolphin jumping out of the water, which I somehow managed to capture on video.

Twinning it!

After a mix up of lost truck keys, flat tires, and what not, we got back to school at about 5:00pm. We were all tired, salty, itchy, and SUPER hungry when we got back, but it was still an amazing and relaxing weekend.

This week is Spirit Week! Because of our limited supplies and wardrobes, coming up with fun costumes can be difficult. Unless you’re Kim, because Kim is one of the most creative people I have ever met! Career day was on Monday and I was dressed as a college student, because hey, that’s what I am right now! Plus I really had no other good ideas. Tuesday, Ellie and I were twins. We got more creative with our costumes and had fun with it!

Here are some funny quotes from a few of my students:

Haylee was dressed as a cardiologist for career day and at recess I said this to her:

My little Summer Bear :)

“Hey Haylee, go help Yuree over there. I think she hurt herself. You’re a doctor so you can go take care of her.”

“I can’t go take care of her Ms. C! I’m not a big human yet.”

“My house is 50 years tall!”

-Max, trying to describe how big his house is.

I’m going to miss my little hooligans SO MUCH! Please pray for us over here. Sickness seems to be spreading among the SMs yet again.  

The Antics of 5 Year Olds

Heading to Kitti church!

 Each day I spend with my kids in the classroom makes me realize more and more how much I am going to miss them. Sometimes the chaos in the classroom is so tremendous, I want to just hide under my desk until they all calm down. Other days though, the kids are paying attention to almost everything I say, understand everything I teach, and participate in all the games we play. Lately, the chaotic days seem to appear less, which makes life a lot easier on me!

If I get frustrated with my kids because they will just NOT be quiet, I say, “Kindergarten! Zip-it!” while doing a zipping motion in front of my mouth. This seems to work pretty well most of the time. Last week, during reading circle time, I was waiting for all the kids to be quiet so I could start reading. Finally, Pria, who seemed to be frustrated with the rest of her classmates for not quieting down so she could listen to the story, yells: “Hey! Zip-it!” I couldn’t help but laugh at my sweet little Pria yelling at her friends! Now that the kids have seen me laugh at that though, the zip-it and be quiet thing isn’t as effective as it used to be.

Kody resting on my lap during recess

My children have become a lot more affectionate toward me lately. Especially this one boy named Kody. He’s got crazy hair that is dyed blonde at the ends and he is just always making me laugh with his ridiculous comments and/or actions. He likes to call me “The Boss” because he says that I’m the one in charge. So now once in a while my kids will call me Boss during class. Today at recess, everyone was just running around wild and as I was sitting on the bench watching the mass chaos, Kody came up to me, put his head on my lap, and just laid there for a while. It was such a sweet gesture and I thoroughly enjoyed those 5 minutes of peace before he jumped up and joined his classmates again. 

Because of parent-teacher conferences today, we had just a half-day of classes. From 10:20 until 12:00, when we got out of school, I had to go and teach my high school classes, leaving Mrs. Jano to sub for me. When school got out, I was locking up the gym when all of a sudden I heard, “MS. C!!!” and felt 3 sets of arms grab my legs and hang on. I look down to see Kody, Alain, and Yuree all staring up at me with big eyes and bright smiles. “Hey guys! How was class?” “Good! We missed you!” “Awh well I missed you guys too. Now I need to return this gym key to the office, so can you let go of me for a minute?” They all let go and start to follow me to the office. “Are you guys following me now?” “Yeah!” Kody says. “We want to be with you!” How on Earth am I going to leave these little munchkins? Can they all come to America with me?

Swingin' round and round the tire.

We had parent-teacher conferences from 1-4 and 5-7 today. I had four sets of parents come. Three Kindergarten, and one high school. Mr. Santos, Haylee’s dad always comes to the conferences. Today after we spoke about Haylee’s attitude and schoolwork, he told me that he really saw a lot of improvement in all her schoolwork and said that I was doing a great job as a teacher. He also said that he appreciated me doing the parent letters every week because they like to know what is going on in class. I was so grateful to hear all that. Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing that much for these kids. Although I have seen quite a bit of improvement in each and every one of my kids, I sometimes feel like I haven’t done enough. Hearing such encouragement from Mr. Santos really helped me feel better about my teaching. I just hope I am making a difference in my kids’ lives.

My first ever picture of EJ (left) smiling!!

Almost 3 weeks ago, I developed a deep chested cough. Each day consisted of many coughing fits, making it difficult to teach at times. I decided that this was nothing serious, since I have had bad coughs in the past. After a week though, my roommate Jen encouraged me to go to the doctor to check for bronchitis. (She was probably tired of constantly hearing me cough at night.) So I went to the doctor and was told that I have bronchitis. I got my antibiotics and the first couple of days of taking them helped. After that though, my cough got still worse. I went back to the doctor and he gave me stronger antibiotics and a cough syrup. I have gone 18 days with constant coughing, and needless to say, my lungs feel like they have been ripped to shreds.

Thank you for all your prayers and support! My time here is almost up and I am enjoying every last day I have left here!  

Is it Winter?

Back in Walla Walla, if it were 75 degrees out, I would be dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Here in Pohnpei, I’m in long pants and a sweatshirt! The weather has been very rainy and cold lately. Some days, it rains so hard our little creek on campus starts to almost come up over its banks. If it does, the eels in the creek come up on the sidewalks, terrorizing high schoolers, elementary students, and teachers alike.

Sweet Pria showing me her flower

My Kindergartners have finally almost got all their letter sounds down. I do flashcards with them nearly everyday and everyone has to be the first one to shout out the answer, whether or not the answer is actually correct.

“Okay guys, what letter is this?”

“Kite! Koala!” (It took me a while to explain what a koala was earlier this year.)

“No guys what LETTER is it?”

“K!”

“Okay, what sound does it make?”

“Kiiiitttttteeeee!”

Sweet mercy those kids….

The ruins

Earlier this month, my friend River, who is currently teaching in Kosrae, and his dad Weston came and visited Pohnpei. I took a day off school and the three of us, and a local named Nixon, went around the island. We went to a beautiful waterfall, and some really cool ruins. Apparently nobody knows anything about the ruins. How old they are, or how the rocks even got there. After that, we took a boat out to Black Coral, a small outer island, to go snorkeling. Despite the rain, the snorkeling was really good! The waves were pretty rough along the channel so it took me a while to get my flippers on because the waves kept knocking me off the rocks that I was sitting on. One wave caused me to scrape my knee up on some coral and now I have a wonderful infection going on. J

Some of my fierce warriors, JT and Max

Today was supposed to be the elementary school picnic but because it was raining so hard, our principal decided to call it off and call it a school day instead. But that was definitely not going to happen, because most of our kids were not even there and we also had nothing planned because we made no lesson plans for Friday. So our kids pretty much had recess all day today.

I have 89 days left here. I’m excited to go home, but not at the same time. I want to go home and see my family and friends, but I also love it here. I will not miss the heat, or the invading cockroaches that seem to be in every kitchen drawer, but I will miss my students a lot. I think one of the first things I am going to do when I get home, is lay on the wood floors of our house. I miss it a lot!!

Sorry for not updating for a while! Happy Sabbath!

My Crazy Children.

Starla!

Time has been flying by this month. At times, the days and weeks seem to drag on and on, yet at other times, the days seem to fly by. Nothing exciting has really been happening here, hence the reason for the lack of blog updates.

After the long break from school at Christmas time, my kids seem to have forgotten their manners. Everyone in the class seems to have turned into a bully of some sort whether it’s through actions or words. One of the fazes going through my class right now is giving a classmate a thumbs up. Sweet mercy if one kid gives another one a thumbs down, everything breaks loose. The tears, the angry and pouty faces, the accusing, pointing fingers, and whiny “Ms. Ceeeeee…..”  I am so grateful to have had the experience of being with my two nieces and nephew growing up so I know how to handle 4-6 year olds. Although I will never be able to understand what goes on through those little brains of theirs, I know how to handle their behavior at least.

I have all the respect for my mom who was a Kindergarten teacher in Romania, teaching over 40 kids by herself. I have a mere 13 kids in comparison and already have my hands full!

Kody with his always crazy hair.

The Junior class is putting on a Valentines banquet this weekend and all the students have been asking me: “Ms! Who are you going to banquet with??” “Just myself!” “Awh Miss why? Don’t be boring! One of the guy SMs can ask you.” It’s been fun to watch some boys ask girls to be their dates in various ways, through songs, signs, or other creative ways. Today we handed out midterm grades for the elementary and high school and a few of my high school kids asked me, “Ms, why couldn’t you have given us the midterm grades AFTER the banquet? Now a bunch of us probably can’t even go!” I had to laugh when I heard them say that. “Hey that’s your own fault sweetie! Study harder!”

Amazing how entertained kids can be with a couple
pieces of pipe cleaner!

Tonight we had mid term conferences and I had written a note home to all the parents encouraging them to come to the conferences and telling them that, “Knowing how your child is doing in class is something every parents should know.” I think this little side note guilted some of the parents because I had five sets of parents show up! The most ever! Two of the parents that came had never come before and they were the ones I really needed to talk to. Before the conferences started, Franky made us some of his famous lentils. No offense to my mom’s wonderful cooking, but Franky’s lentils are the best I’ve ever had. I ate so much I am still stuffed after several hours!

Hope you are all surviving the cold and snow over in the Northwest! I am definitely not appreciative of this ridiculously hot and humid weather over here.