Skeeters, Pumpkin Farmers, and Sleepless Nights

A weekend of island camping! A few days where we can catch up on sleep and relax! Goodness was I wrong. We packed up all of our stuff on Friday and left around 4 in the truck, with the boat being hauled behind us. We got to the water, unloaded the boat and we figured since there was so much stuff and so many people, we would make 2 trips. Nope. We somehow fit everything and everyone in the small boat! We got to the island in about twice the amount of time it really needed to take because we were super low in the water with all the weight. We got to the island, which was called Black Coral and unloaded everything. This little island was about the size of a football field and had some little huts all around the island. Everybody started to set up their hammocks in various trees. Now I was not well prepared coming to Pohnpei since I had so little time to prepare and bought a hammock that had no rope and totally forgot a tarp. So Pastor Tim helped me rope up my hammock and when it came time to go to sleep, it started to sprinkle. So I took my sheet and went and slept on the wood floor of a hut. Needless to say, I barely slept that night. But, it was cool to see the tide go in and out!

Before going to bed, I sat at the cement dock and watched the ocean. It was so beautiful! The waves, the moon trying to peek out from behind the clouds, the peacefulness. I could see God all around me and it was amazing! The next morning, we were all pretty tired since he hadn’t slept very well. We had breakfast, worship, and then the rest of the day to do as we like. We went snorkeling and saw some beautiful fish and sea cucumbers! I didn’t get to see any reef sharks sadly, but some people did! After snorkeling, Jen and I made some soup for lunch. It was pretty good! The Edwards came in the afternoon, and everyone just chilled and hung out in their hammocks. My hammock got moved by one of the boys under some trees that had more covering and it was about 6 ½ feet off the ground, above Riley’s hammock. Getting in was a challenge but it was nice being up so high. As I was talking with people and swaying gently in the hammock I suddenly see and hear one of the ropes holding up my hammock snap. I look down and Riley, say “Uh-oh.” And the next moment, the all the ropes snapped sending me straight to the ground. I was laughing so hard and so were the other people and as I get up, we found that I landed so hard on my butt, it left a print in the sand! I went to Pastor Tim and asked if he could tie up the hammock for me. He scolded me for not asking him to retie the ropes and added some extra rope so I wouldn’t be falling out again.

We had a sundown worship at the dock and then started to prepare dinner. The Edwards had brought a case of chicken and whoever wanted to eat some pitched in some money. Franky barbequed all of it and all the non vegetarians were very happy to get some! Jen and I, being vegetarian, made ourselves some biscuits and delicious baked potatoes over the fire. I did try some chicken though. It wasn’t really gross tasting, just kind of weird and definitely not good enough to convert me to omnivorism! We went to bed fairly early that night, around 9:30ish because we were all so tired from not sleeping the night before. Now I had gotten bit a whole bunch by mosquitos the night and day before. It was crazy! I had at least 20 bites on my arms, legs, and face. So Riley offered me his hammock which had a zipper with mesh to keep out the bugs. (I still got bit because there were bugs inside when I closed it.)  But around 2 am, after a couple hours of dozing in and out, I woke up to rain. Not just a drizzle, but an actual rain fall. I looked up and saw Riley look down at me. We both got down from our hammocks and sat next to Roy’s hammock under the tarp. We soon found that everyone was awake and we started talking. After a few minutes though, we also found that the people under the tarp were getting wet too. Tired and just really wanting some sleep, we all went to go find a hut to sleep in. We found one and all laid down on the floor. But still, after an hour, sleep alluded us. So we decided to go back to our hammocks since the rain had died down a bunch. Riley’s and I’s hammocks were soaked though, so everyone else got in their hammocks, and we laid down on the sand under the tarps by Roy’s hammock. We got no sleep. I don’t think anyone really did. Roy and Riley started a conversation about starting a pumpkin farm in Alaska after college since they grow really well there apparently. The farm would be called King and Drusky. Oh man we were so tired. Haha! Roy, Riley, and I got up and went to the dock to watch the sunrise. Despite all the clouds, it was really pretty. J

We were all exhausted that day and just really wanted to head back to Pohnpei to shower and do stuff, but, we had to wait for the tide to come back in. So until noon, I took a nap, packed up, and played some volleyball. I got to go on the first trip of people going back, along with Jen, Riley, Roy, Jonathan, Kaylie, Caleb, and Danny. We were excited to get back to school and get stuff done! On the way back, it started to rain pretty hard. As we were driving along, we heard a tire pop. Just great… We pulled over to see that the tire was definitely not flat and fantastically, we had no spare. So some people started walking toward the school so we could find someone to bring a spare. But they stopped at a Latter Day Saints church and they drove them over to the school since it was still a long ways off. While they were gone, some Kitti church members saw us on the road, pulled over, and asked if we needed help. They took Jonathan, Jen, Kaylie, and I back to the school while Riley and Roy stayed behind with the van. We were soaking wet when we got back but so happy to be back. Danny finally found someone to go help Riley and Roy and soon everyone, including the other group was back. Showering and getting all the salt water off of us was so amazing! I felt fantastic after that!

Monday was a pretty good day. My kids weren’t acting up a lot like usual and my high school classes were pretty chill. I made a delicious yellow cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting because well, I can! It was really good! Now I am working on stuff for classes. Another week is in progress! Have a good day everyone! J

GETTING AWAY!!!!

Parent Teacher Conference day! Our very first ones, which apparently happen every midterm as well as finals. I didn’t have to make any grade reports for Kindergarten, which was nice, so I just made the ones for my computer classes and I was done.  After school, we didn’t have tutoring sessions. So we all headed out to go shopping for food before our conferences at 5. I went with some people to the DMV to get my Pohnpei drivers license. I know Franky isn’t going to put me as one of the designated drivers, but I think it would be a good idea to have it just in case. I know how to drive manual and I think it’s good for at least one girl to have theirs. It only costs a

Birthday Party!

bout 5 dollars to get it anyway. We got back to school and I went to my classroom to clean up a few last minute things and sat behind my desk, put on classical music, started grading papers, and waited. And waited and waited and waited. Was anyone actually going to show up? Franky had told us about 30 parents actually show up to these things which is quite sad. But soon, a parent came in. His little girl, Haylee is one of my best students. I greeted him and we sat down in chairs and talked. He seemed appreciative of me being a good teacher. I was really happy to hear that! Another set of parents came in, another of one of my best kids. I was really hoping my trouble kids’ parents would come in. But I only had 2 parents come in. I had 3 high school parents come in though which was nice. I told one of them that I really appreciated him coming in and checking how their kid was doing because a lot of parents weren’t coming in. He looked surprised!

Fridays are so fantastic! Half days! And today is extra special because we are going camping! Island camping! I’m very excited to be going someplace with sand! The only sand here on Pohnpei is crushed coral. Not very soft… Apparently there is great snorkeling on this island! I can’t wait to go! J Later folks!

Sugar Highs and Headaches

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already! All day today I thought it was Tuesday for some odd reason or other. Monday was not a bad day at all for me. The kids were fairly well behaved although I did have to move Gianna’s desk to the front of the classroom since she was not behaving very well. On Monday I found out that my smartest and sweetest student, Alyanna, is moving to Guam next week! How sad is that?? Just when I grow attached to my students, one of them leaves! It made me very sad to hear the news. L But today I found out that she will probably be back after Christmas break! So that is a huge relief!

Tuesday was a CRAZY day! Both JT and Tiva had a birthday. JT turned 5, and Tiva turned 6! Apparently birthdays are a big thing for kids here so altogether, there was 3 full size cakes, miniature cakes, about 40 some cupcakes, 2 gallons of icecream, candy, and chocolate milk. My kids were on a HUGE sugar high!! Seriously, I could not even teach 2 class periods because it was just too crazy! So I just let them play around the room and in the loft until it was time to go home. Goodness I’m just glad I didn’t have to deal with them when they crashed! In my Computer classes, we had a mid term test. Everyone had to be able to get at least 10 words per minute to get an A, 9 to get a B, 8 to get a C, etc. All but one kid got an A. I was very happy! In PE, we did volleyball and as I was walking over to Roy to ask him something, Edison’s serve went in the opposite direction it should have and nailed me right in the side of the face. There was a giant gasp in the air and all the boys were like “Miss! Miss! Are you okay?? Edison what is wrong with you?!” I’ve been hit a lot harder in the face before so I was fine, just had a headache for the rest of the day.  But it was pretty funny that all the boys were asking how I was doing the rest of the class period. J I went and visited the boys’ apartment after our required hour in the classrooms after school to see how everyone was doing. I sat down on the couch, and after a few minutes, without even saying anything, Riley got up and got me a Coca-Cola. Just what I needed! I think everyone had had a crazy day. I got all my computer grades put in my computer finally because mid term grades are due on Thursday.

Wednesday was a typical day. I’ve been getting a lot more headaches lately and my eye twitching is starting to come back. Today, I had 3 kids missing (probably sick from all that cake yesterday!) so it was kind of nice to teach only 10 kids today. I am so ready for this weekend! We are going island camping! We finally get to get away from campus! Honestly, it is really annoying not being able to really get off campus when we want to. Not just because of transportation, but also because we really have no time. LaeAnnie, one of Franky’s kids, left to go to Walla Walla today! I’m so excited for her! Everyone was very sad that she left though. She is a very sweet girl and although I don’t know her very well, I know she will be missed! Karyn gave a great worship tonight for Wednesday night worship. She always has great thoughts to share. Hopefully tomorrow passes by quickly because I am definitely getting sick. Man these kids are ALWAYS sick and get me sick!! Have a fantastic day everyone! I know a lot of people are headed back to Walla Walla soon! Safe travels!

Cockroach Fiascos and Blessings

Once again, I’ve been slacking on my blog! Sorry folks!

Wednesday was Liberation Day! No school for the kiddos, but for us, teachers in-service at 8am. It was supposed to be only an hour and a half, but it turned into 2 and a half. After, most people went to the ruins and swimming. I had a lot of stuff to do, and knowing how long these little excursions take, I decided to stay behind and do a lot of stuff. I did lesson plans, entered in grades, and planned some extra activities for my class. After I was done, I sat with Danny, Roy, and Pastor Tim in the hut and talked. The group got back around 6 something and when they got back, Riley, Roy, Danny, Pastor Tim, and I went to the Rusty Anchor and ate some delicious food! The restaurant had a beautiful view and we all enjoyed a soda and burgers. (Well a good salad for me). It was so relaxing!

Thursday wasn’t too peachy for me. The first part of the morning went alright, but after PE, we went back to the classroom and I just felt AWFUL. I felt like I was going to faint, I was sweating excessively, and my stomach really hurt. I asked my assistant to teach the rest of the day because I just couldn’t. I went back to the apartment and just laid down for a while. I told Mrs. Edward I would be able to teach my 5^th-7^th periods for high school but when that time came around, I just couldn’t do it. So I went down to the office to ask if Mr. Edward could sub for me since he attends that class anyway. But he was no where to be found. So I went to the high school to ask Caleb to sub for me since he has a free period. He was at his apartment though so I ran over to the apartment and he was very sweet and said he would sub for me. So then I went back to my own apartment so I can lay down again. But…. I realized I had given my keys to Caleb and was locked out… So I had to run to Jen’s classroom to get the keys. It was pouring the rain the entire time and it was raining so hard, my skirt was totally soaked. There really wasn’t any dry part! I took a good nap after that and felt better in the late afternoon. I got up and decided to make cookies for my high school kids. Although I felt better, I just had this feeling inside of being drained. My cookies were Nutella and chocolate chips. I think they were quite delicious and they were pretty fun and easy to make! That night, I stayed up a little later because I was helping some people grade papers and enter in grades. When Jen and I got back to our apartment, everyone was asleep already. So I went to my bed and sat down and as I was sitting there for a second, I heard a rustling noise on the bed next to me. I got up really quickly, grabbed my Kindle, and shone it on my bed to discover that there was a giant flying cockroach on my bed. All of a sudden, it flew somewhere and couldn’t find it anywhere! I ran over to Jen and told her she had to help me find it. So she brought her flashlight and we finally found it, it had flown on my alarm clock. I was inching toward it, getting ready to kill it, when it suddenly flew at me and Jen! We hugged each other and screamed and it landed on the fan right near by us.

 “Kill it Jen! Quick!”

“Why me?? It’s YOUR room! You kill it!”

“Ahhh no I can’t!”

But I took my flip flop and wacked it. It wasn’t totally dead though because it was still wiggling around. So Jen, with a “ha!!!” stomped on it and killed it. I was quite paranoid going to sleep after that. I checked my bed very well before getting in!

Friday was a great day for me! My kids were better behaved than usual and high school classes went good! When I went back to my class, I found that one of the kid’s parents brought me a smoothie! It was so delicious and refreshing! I miss smoothies so much! After I brought my kids in from recess, it started to POUR outside! It was raining super hard and for a long time and I waited for a long time so I could leave with all my stuff without everything getting wet. No such luck. So I left anyway and got back to the apartment soaking wet. As soon as I walked it, Karyn yelled at me to put on different clothes, we were going to go run around in the rain. And that is exactly what we did! We ran around and splashed in HUGE puddles and played on the playground in the pouring rain. The kids thought we were pretty funny and we went on the merry-go-round with them. Friday night was a good vespers! They made a call to people who wanted to be baptized and quite a few people went up! Including Mrs. Jano, my teacher’s assistant’s mom who was very strong in her religion but decided to be baptized into the Adventist church! Mrs. Jano was very excited! J

On Sabbath, after church and a huge potluck, we went to the church for the baptisms. There were 16 people who gave their lived to Christ! It was a beautiful thing to see! Pastor Carlos, the evangelist who came was the one who baptized them. Before we headed to the church though, in the apartment, Karyn had changed into more comfortable clothes and her room door apparently likes to lock on its own. So she had her church clothes in there and we could not get into her room. There is no key and so we tried bobby pins, scissors, and even knives to try and get in. We tried for at least an hour to get in but couldn’t. So when Franky ran upstairs to see if we wanted to go to the baptism, and we told him we could not get into Karyn’s room, he immediately took a butter knife, and opened the door within a minute! So we all went to the baptisms. 16 people! 16 people giving their lives to Christ! Each of them had a unique story to tell and I am proud of each and everyone of them! That night, there was a music and testimonies vespers. Whoever wanted to come up and tell a testimony, or sing a song, could do so. Ellie, Karyn, Jen, Kim, and I decided we wanted to do something. Roy accompanied us on the guitar and we sang the song “Your Hands” by JJ Heller. Karyn did one harmony, Jen and I another, and Ellie and Kim the melody. We only had an hour to learn the song but I think we did a great job! We learned it pretty quickly! J The vespers lasted for 3 hours and by the end I was very, very hungry!  So some of us whipped up some Big Franks and mac and cheese. It was really good!

Sunday morning, I was suddenly awakened at about 6am with something hitting my neck. I looked around but couldn’t see anything, so I assumed it was just a dream. A few minutes later, as I was falling back asleep, I felt something crawling up my arm. I look down and there was of course, a huge flying cockroach. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my flip flop, and immediately killed it. Considering how scared I was, I was surprised I didn’t scream or hesitate in killing it! Haha! It was a rude awakening though and I could not sleep for the remaining hour I had to sleep in. At 7:30 I finally got up and got ready to go because Danny, Jen, and I had our work bee day today. The grass was super wet and muddy so mowing it was really hard and the lawn mowers are just awful. Mr. Johnson and Danny worked really hard on that and Jen and I raked up the wet cut grass. We were all tired and really sweaty by the end, but it looked pretty good! My arms will probably be sore tomorrow but hey it was a good workout! Other then that though, it’s been a chill Sunday. I love the lazy days!

Hope everything is going good back home! Miss everyone a bunch!

Ready for the Weekend...

I hope all of you had a good weekend! Mine was pretty chill. After sleeping in until about 8:00 am (AMAZING!) I worked on worksheets for reading and math class. The kids are finally understanding patterns a little better I think! After working on lesson plans and what not, Jen and I went to go watch some soccer. Our team was playing the championship game and they won 5-0! They got a big trophy although I’m not sure where they are going to put it! It was super hot outside and I felt sorry for all the soccer players playing in the sun. Tony and Riley don’t think they played very well at all, but hey, everyone has their off days! We had a meeting that night. It went quite a long time but Kaylie did a great testimony and Pastor Carlos did a good sermon. I went to bed kind of late so getting up the next morning to work out did not go very well. I hit the snooze button instead. J

Monday morning went better than usual I think. I always dread Mondays because it’s the start of a whole new week, but when the kids greet me with a smile coming into the classroom, it makes my day brighter! I’m really happy that my kids are starting to communicate more with me! Especially JT, EJ, and Starla. They tend to be more shy, but now JT is singing super loud in worship and raises his hand to pick songs and say what he’s thankful for. Since the gym is being used for the evangelistic series, it is full of benches and the stage. So I took the kids outside to the playground. The past couple of days has been super hot and by the last 15 minutes of recess all the kids were sitting inside the little hut with me to be shaded from the sun. Poor EJ hit his head really hard on a swing. He didn’t cry at all but he’s got a nice big bump on the side of his head!

The playground just got a new piece of equipment… A scary merry go round where kids fall off and get trampled! I know they don’t have them in Oregon anymore because so many people were getting hurt on them and I can already see disaster coming with this thing. The kids were really excited about it though and they all took turns on it.

I showed my Kindergartners some pictures of my family today on my computer and they LOVED it! They were all excited and kept yelling “Ms. C! That’s you Ms. C!” “Yes kids that is Ms. C and Mr. and Mrs. C and Mrs. Pierce.” The parents also said I had a beautiful family J I have to agree! One of my high school computer classes asked about my family and friends so I showed them some pictures as well. They loved all the pictures too! Since the gym is taken over with benches for the meetings, for boys PE we had to move a bunch aside so we could at least play half court basketball. The boys were SO happy to be playing basketball instead of volleyball! Apparently basketball is really big around here! At the grocery store, we found some amazing stuff.. FRESH FRUIT AND VEGGIES! Oh I got lettuce, tomatoes, onion, grapefruit, and made myself a fantastic dinner sandwich. Lettuce, tomato, mayo, Siracha sauce, and whole wheat bread. I was SO happy!! Oh and I definitely bought some rootbeer. I’m pretty sure I deserved it! Pastor Carlos did another great meeting that night and he told us that whoever wanted to come up front who is having hardships or difficult times in their lives to come up so he could pray for us. So Danny and I went up together and we all had a prayer. After the meeting, I went to the boys apartment and helped Danny grade. He had been sick for a few days so he was behind on grading. So we stayed up pretty late grading a whole bunch of papers. It’s actually pretty hard grading other teacher’s papers because you don’t know how they grade or what their system is. I started falling asleep around midnight so I went home to bed, but poor Danny was up for a quite a while after I left.

Tuesday morning came bright and early. Well more early than anything. There isn’t much sunlight coming in when I wake up because we are right by another building so it makes it all the harder to get out of bed because it is still darkish outside. I have found that although my kids can be oh so frustrating and inattentive, I am learning to love them more and more everyday! Their sweet smiles, laughter, and hugs just warm my heart. I know that sounds cheesy but it’s so true! But their attention  spans just drive me crazy!! I made a new system today for sitting on the floor in a circle for when we have worships and other things. I always have to separate kids and they just cannot keep in one place! I taped down 13 different colors of construction paper around the circle and every time it’s time to sit down in the circle, I give each child a random color square and they have to sit on the corresponding color in the circle. In is totally random and I tell them they have to have their butts on the color to be able to pick songs or do anything else. First time it seemed to work pretty well! I’m finally starting to get creative! My mom sent me some little fruit flavored marshmallows and I shared some with the kids at snack time. Oh the excitement! “Thank you Ms. C! These are so yummy!” Alyanna decided to save some of hers for her sisters so I gave everyone a little more so she could have some as well as take some for her sisters. During recess, 3 girls wanted to go get water so I took them all to the drinking fountain. Yuree, who seems to cry over most everything slipped and pretty much did the splits on the way back. I helped her back up and she was totally fine and walking normally. When we got back to the gym however, she decided to suddenly start dragging her leg like it was useless. I said: “Yuree, I’m pretty sure your leg is just fine.” She looked up at me with an Okay fine Ms. C look and ran off to play again. Oh silly Yuree. My mom also sent me some foam animal stickers and the kids were fascinated with them! One of the mothers said they had never seen those before and they didn’t have them on the island! I’m really glad my mom sent me so much stuff because the kids seem to love all of it. Especially the stickers! I put a lot of stickers on their homework. 

Boys PE and computers is always nice to teach because I get to interact with kids that actually understand me! They all seem to like me I think and I’ve even got a special handshake with Tristan who also goes my church in Kitti! J They’re all funny and still love to mess with me and Roy and try to mix up their names so we get them confused. It doesn’t work as well as it used though! In one my classes, I have an Elona, Keyonna, and Ivana! I got all those girls mixed up a lot at the beginning!  

I went to the children’s meeting to help out instead of going to the adult one. We sang a bunch of songs and then watched part of a Veggie Tales. I made friends with Haylee’s little sister,  CJ who is absolutely adorable!! The kids here are all so cute! Well have a goodnight everyone!
Please pray for Karen as she’s had a fever and something is really wrong with her throat!