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.