Stone Money and Other Adventures

This week has been the longest break we have had since coming, and it has been amazing!  We took a land tour, kayaked through mangroves, snorkeled several times, and went to the beach.  Though I miss all the students, it has been nice to have a little break.  I learned a lot about the stone money, I wish I could upload a picture! I will just have to stick with descriptions though.
A long long time ago, before any foreigners came to Yap, one of the Chiefs decided they needed a new form of money.  They wanted something big and visible that the villages could display.  They didn't have any stone big enough here to make it so they put together a group of men to go find some.  These men set off in canoes into the open ocean.  They sailed for several hundred miles before running in to Palau.  The Palauans had never seen these people before and they figured they could mean only harm so they killed all of them.  The Yapese were wondering why the men had been gone so long so they sent another group out to find them.  When this new group came to Palau they made known they came in peace and the Palauans let them live.  They had a lot of huge rocks on Palau so they said they could take what they wanted.  The Yapese men carved out huge pieces of money with holes in the middle so they could mount them on the boat.  They made the treacherous journey back to Yap, a few of the stones fell out into the ocean never to be seen again.  This started a new tradition.  It was very treacherous to get the stone money though, a lot of lives were lost with every journey.  One year a foreigner,one of the first to come, named O'Keefe came to Yap and offered to give them a small ship in exchange for several materials he wanted. With this ship they could easily make the journey to Palau to find the stone for their money.
The stone money comes in all different sizes, from a foot tall to 7 feet tall.  I assumed it was valued based on size, but it isn't.  It's value is based on what it went through to get here, it's location, and the lives lost in acquiring it.  It's not valued on it's size but on what it's been through.  The stones acquired before O'Keefe brought the ship are the most valuable because of how hard they were to get.  The one's that dropped to the bottom of the ocean are the most valuable of all.  Many of the stones you see around the island are newer and came on a ship, you can tell by their perfectly carved centers.  These are ranked by how many storms they went through to get here.  A small one that went through two typhoons is more valuable then a huge one that had a peaceful journey here.  The money is owned by different villages and chiefs.  The biggest collections, or banks, are usually displayed by a men's house in the village. 
I thought it was really interesting how they based the value of them.  Maybe a little cliche, but I think it is a good reminder to me.  I shouldn't value people based on outward appearance but on what they have been through; because that is what's really important.  It's the trials in life that God uses to mold us and change us.  I hope you have all enjoyed your vacation as much as we have.  2011 has been a great year and I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring.  HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

Maap

Christmas was pretty uneventful.  We started our day at the prison.  I don't know exactly what I was expecting.. but what we saw wasn't it.  I was surprised to find the only jail on the island was just a chain link fence with the men inside.  They had lockers and koyengs (structures made of coconut leaves for the roof and no walls) and a little grill.  Their were a couple guards in there with them.  We were a little nervous to go, mainly because we knew Justin, Kirsten's murderer, would be there.  It made me kind of uneasy to think about meeting him.  But it wasn't that bad.  We went and sang Christmas songs, prayed with them, and left them food for Christmas.  Justin had chains around his feet and he kept his head down mostly.  They said he comes to all the meetings the church puts on in the prison.  I hope we made their Christmas a little better. 
Skipping ahead a day, really nothing else happened on Christmas, we went to Maap!  Not all of us, just Sabrina and I with a few of the freshmen.  One of the freshmen is related to one of the great chiefs of Maap so she got permission for us to all go to the beach there.  The water was really choppy but we started the day with a swim.  Then they offered to take us through the village of Maap.  I learned so much! They showed us the branch we needed to carry with us.  You might remember a couple months ago when I talked about the peace branch.  Whenever you walk though a village you must hold a branch to show that you mean no harm.  I thought you could us just any branch but they showed us the specific plant we should take it from.  The people who belong to the village use a different kind of branch.  They also said girls always had to make sure their hair was up before they walked through a village.  Pony tail, bun, or braid; really anything as long as it wasn't loose on your shoulders.  I had never heard that one before! They showed us the grave yard and the women and mens houses, sort of town meeting places.  Men can go to a womens house but women cannot go to the mens house.  In fact we have to make sure we don't stop walking as we go by a mens house.  Some of the houses were so close to the water.  I didn't even realize they were houses, they were completely open.  Almost just a roof with no walls.  They told us more about the stone money too.  I will tell you more about the stone money another time.  They took us to small bridge we all jumped off, then they knocked down some coconuts and opened them on a rock for us to drink.  When we got back to the beach they wanted to play in the sand so we buried them!  The reef looked like it was really close!  So even though the water was choppy two of the students wanted to swim towards it so we went with them.  Turned out just to be a sand bar though, the reef was still a ways out.  It also turns out that the freshmen boy who wanted to go out there knew that the whole time, "Ms. I knew their was no coral, but you were so excited, I didn't want to say anything, and I really wanted to come out here".  I didn't get to play in the snow this Christmas or go for a walk with my scarf and hat but I did play on a white sand beach with coconut trees and clear 80 degree water.  Not my usual Christmas, but I really can't complain about Christmas in the tropics :). 

Merry Christmas!

I think it is safe to say this has been one of the busiest weeks for me thus far.  From catching up on grading, and baking everyday, to organizing and running the k-12 Christmas program.  This week has been amazing at some points and terrible at others.  We had to say goodbye to Natalie, putting us back to three in our apartment.  We took Natalie and Jesse to the airport Tuesday night, so we weren't back to the school until 2am.  Providing four hours of sleep before an all day Christmas party with the students.  No one wants to read a sob story though so I'll stick to the good parts of the week!
Everyday I was busy preparing something for the Charity Program and baking.  I sang with the Juniors and Seniors.  On Tuesday they all sat around the keyboard with me and begged to learn new Christmas songs.  Considering they didn't even know "The Christmas Song" it wasn't a hard task! The freshmen and sophomore girls helped me wrap gifts for the program.  I made Christmas cookies for all the high schoolers and I was shocked to find out they had never had them before! They said "Ms. we've only seen them in the movies!". I almost lost my voice on Tuesday trying to arrange all grades for the Nativity practiced.  The simplest thing I could think of to involve the whole school was a nativity.  A couple students from each grade were involved and the rest sang carols.  It was chaotic! But it paid off, the program went wonderfully! It had awkward pauses, off key singing, and microphones that wouldn't work right; but those aren't exactly the things that make a school program good.  I'd say from the beaming smiles from the kids and parents, it was a success :).  After the program my senior girls came running to me begging me to come to pizza with them and convince one of the girls moms to let her go.  Lots of these girls have made mistakes, who hasn't?  The thing is, in Yap, one slip up and they are locked down until they graduate.  This girl made a mistake two years ago, but they still don't trust anything she says and they won't let her go and do anything. "Ms. we just want a girls night with pizza can you please convince my mom?!"  So I did, her mom was quite intimidating, but after promising Sophie, Sabrina, and I would be there with them and we would give her a ride home, we headed to the Manta Ray with my senior girls.  It was a little weird at first, I don't think they knew what to think about their teachers outside of school.  It turned out to be really fun!  They found out teachers can just be normal people and we had lots of fun just talking with them.
I think the highlight of my week came from one of the junior girls. She has been talking to me a lot lately about all sorts of things.  She came in during the Christmas party on Wednesday as i was struggling to stay awake and exhausted from constantly turning down the music.  She said "Ms. are you OK?" and sat down and talked for the next 2 hours.  She told me about her life, it hasn't been an easy one.  I taught her a couple games and then school was out.  She is a great leader in her class and she loves music.  I spent a while working on the song "What Child is This" with her so she could sing the first verse as a solo at the program.  She was so excited and she just loved singing at the program.  I told her good job after the program and she ran up and gave me a big hug.  That hug easily was the best part of my week. :)
This Christmas isn't like any other I've experienced.  It's void of family, cold weather, and every tradition I'm used to. The post office closed early so I didn't get my boxes from home.  So it's also void of gifts and notes from close friends and family.  Their is no fireplace to read next to and it's generally too hot to drink hot chocolate.  All of these things made me a little depressed yesterday.  It just didn't seem like Christmas, my favorite holiday!  But now it's Christmas eve, I realized this morning I have a lot to be thankful for so I should stop moping.  We went caroling at the hospital after church today, now we are going to enjoy a group dinner, watch "It's a Wonderful Life", and exchange presents for each other.  First thing Christmas morning we will be singing at the prison.  It may not be my ideal Christmas with all my traditions and cold weather; but that doesn't mean it has to be a bad Christmas.  I hope you all have a blessed Christmas wherever you are.  Merry Christmas!

Busy Days

When you are preparing to go as a student missionary they tell you a lot of things.  They say you will not like it at first and it might take a while to adjust, you will have a hard time keeping order in the classroom, you won't be able to drink the water from the tap, and you will have to learn to cook rice.  The list goes on and on, some of them are true some not so much.  One thing I wasn't told was that I would be expected to do everything.  I had some returned SM's tell me they got bored after a few months.  I can't imagine how that could happen!  We have all been given a million job titles: teacher, maid, cook, vespers coordinators, sabbath school teachers, church pianist (4 weeks in a row), sabbath school superintenent, youth leader, class adviser, worship leader, and song leader just to name a few.  It can be really exhausting sometimes, and I am really looking forward to our short break coming up.  Even though some weeks can become really stressfull, I am thankful for all these jobs.  I hate boredom more then anything, and I know I will never have a problem with that here! It's good to know they have a need for us here! Anyhow, this was one of those weeks where we did everything.  I felt like I was in a race everyday to finish everything on my to do list.  It didn't all work out, after arranging everything for the class christmas party and sending home permission slips I was told I had to cancel it.  I was very discouraged, I worked a long time with the students and the office arranging it, it was frustrating to have to change everything after all that work.  But God is teaching me to be flexible this year!  That same day I had a students collapse in class and show signs of a seizure, it was really scary.  That night while I was trying to arrange things for the Christmas program, the power went out! It was out for so long we just gave up and played some card games with our flash lights for a while.  Which actually turned out to be a blessing, I think we all needed a break!  By the end of the week things were looking up a bit.  My plans for the Christmas program were approved and everything seems to be going well!  I practiced with my seniors on Friday.  The first song we chose wasn't going very well, but then I just sat down at the keyboard with 4 of my senior girls and started playing the songs they wanted to hear.  When we sang Silent Night they started trying some harmonies.  I helped them with it a bit and by the end of the hour we were singing "O Holy Night" and "Silent Night" in three part harmony! They sounded so great and I really enjoyed working on it with them! It made a great ending to the week, as well as a few of my students thoroughly cleaning my room for me without even asking :).  The highlight of my week was today.  After church we headed to the water for some baptisms.  These baptisms were particularly special to me, two of my seniors were among the group!  It was so exciting to see them give their lives to God.  I'm getting to know my students better every day and they are talking to me more and more.  I was so excited to see a couple of them make such a huge decision, I pray for wisdom as they continue to ask me for questions and advice.  I don't always know the right things to say!  I had a student talk to me this week about eating problems she was having, all I could think to do was pray as I was talking with her.  Sometimes I feel so inadaquate to help them, I just pray for the right words.  I am really excited for this week.  We have two days of school, a day for a class party, the Christmas program, and then break! Merry Christmas :).

Week of Prayer

Merry Christmas! I think I am finally starting to feel like it might really be Christmas time.  My seniors are decorating the classroom, I've made a few snow flakes with them.  I found snow spray for the windows, one of the girls proceeded to spray me with it claiming "Ms. you said you wanted it to snow!".  The stores in town are filled with lights, fake trees, and some of the strangest Christmas music I have ever heard.  Sometimes I see a random house with lights on, it seems so misfit with the coconut and banana trees everywhere... but they are trying!  Last Sabbath a group of us from the church gathered Sabbath evening and sang carols.  It was so nice, I think that is when I finally felt like it might just be Christmas time.  We were practicing for our caroling in a couple weeks.  We will be going to the hospital and a couple villages! 
This week has kept all of us very busy.  It was week of prayer, which meant two chapels a day and 20 to 35 minute classes as well as a 20 min lunch.  The whole week felt like we had no time to breathe!  It came with many problems too... the longer we are here and the more we settle in; the more we are beginning to have problems with some of the administration.  We come from different cultures, different ideals, and different backgrounds; it can make things really difficult sometimes! Sophie and I talked about it for a long time driving home from vespers.  We feel like we are learning way more then we are teaching, even though we are teachers.  Learning patience mostly, and learning how to let go of ourselves.  Some days, well most days actually, things don't go as planned.  They change something last minute, or get upset we forgot something we were never told.  It doesn't matter, God is changing us.  I pray that we would learn how to relate and how to resolve problems in a peaceful manner.  The week brought lots of stresses, looking back at my journal the days were kind of rough.  A funny thing happens though.  At the end of the week, when I look back thinking about what to share with you all, I don't remember those parts.  I don't remember why Monday was such a bad day, or what had me so frustrated on Thursday.  What I do remember is one of my students putting my string back on and fixing my guitar for me.  I remember a couple of my senior girls staying in at lunch just to talk with me and have me show them new Christmas songs.  I remember the day the seniors cleaned the classroom perfectly while I was gone without me even asking, and I remember my last class on Thursday when the sophomores asked me just about every question that came to their heads; quite scary really.  This week had lots of problems, but I don't remember them anymore.
This Sabbath we had church at the school and invited all the students as a close to week of prayer.  We weren't sure how many would come, but a lot did! Including five of my seniors! Several of them wanted further bible study, I pray for them everyday, I was so excited to see some of them come on their own.  They all stayed for a big potluck afterwords.  I think it was one of my favorite Sabbaths we have had here.  After the students left the four of us drove a couple minutes out to the canyon with our guitars.  We sat with out feet dangling over the edge playing, singing, and talking for about two hours.  Despite all the difficulties, trials, and hardships; we are extremely blessed.  Even though I applied sunscreen liberally, I am now noticing a sunburn develop as a type this.  I've never had a burn in December before! That is okay, it was worth it :). 
We had no school Friday, the government canceled it and declared it an island wide cleanup day to stop the spread of Dengue.  It is getting worse, Yap is officially in a state of emergency due to the fever.  Please keep this in your prayers! I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath and week.  We will be busy as usual here! I finished the senior parent meeting last week, but their is still lots to do before break! Here it goes! I pray we would learn how to get a long with our administration this week, I know we all have the same goal.

Tis the Season

I have been staring at this blank screen watching the little line blink for about 30 minutes.  Every time I type something I erase it a few seconds later.  Where do I begin?  It feels as if I have nothing to tell and yet so much at the same time.  Their was nothing this week that particularly stood out or was different from past weeks blogs, and yet this week was unlike any other.  I guess this is my way of saying, life here on Yap is beginning to seem normal.  I'm used to every day being a completely unique day with my students, I'm used to doing twice as much as seems possible to fit in a day, and I'm used to leading and planning just about anything at the spur of the moment.  Life here is anything but easy or boring, but it does have a routine that I think I've really settled in to. 
Last Sabbath evening we decided it was time to attempt to make it feel like Christmas in the tropics.  Not an easy task at all.  We turned on our christmas musc, pulled out all the decorations we were shipped, and decorated our apartment.  It felt weird to decorate our little fake tree in shorts and tank tops with coconut trees outside our window but we tried to ignore it.  We watched a christmas movie and cut out a whole bunch of snow flakes to adorn our windows and walls.  Despite all our efforts it just felt, weird.  I had a moment where all I wanted was to curl up in front of the fire at home, wear all my warm clothes, drink hot cocoa, cut down a tree, decorate with all our old decorations, and at least have hope of snow.  I was a little bummed thinking about it, but I had a realization this week.  As I was sitting in my classroom after school with students wandering in and out of my room asking for help with math, playing my guitar, or just talking to me about all sorts of random things I realized even if someone handed me an all expenses paid ticket home, I wouldn't take it.  I'm sorry Mom and Dad it's not that I don't miss you, I do a lot, but this is where I am supposed to be right now, this is the only place I want to be right now.  This may seem like a silly realization, but it really helped me with my attitude towards this whole Christmas season. Yes I miss home, yes Christmas will be hard away from home, cold weather, and all the traditions I know and love; but I don't want to leave.  I am content right where I am. 
This post is somehow becoming long.. I never know how that happens! So I will just tell you a few of the weeks highlights.  The seniors did wonderfully with the modernized Good Samaratin skit I wrote for them.  The chapel went wonderfully and everyone thought it was really funny.  I spent hours preparing a lecture on world war 2 for Micronesia History.  I just love history so much! I have been so excited to teach them about world war 2 because it is the only part of micronesia history I actually know really well.  I was amazed at how little they knew, especially since they live in the pacific.  They had never even heard about the battle on Peleliu, Palau just about 300 miles from them.  I wish I had more resources to pull from, but I can make do with what we have.  They were really interested, it is really fun to teach to kids something they WANT to learn as opposed to my math classes which they don't generally have quite as much interest in.  They asked so many questions and I was so excited to actually know the answer to most of them! I tried some new ways to make math class more fun, including math jeopardy and more activities with side walk chalk.  They loved math jeopardy! They all got into the game and when they missed one they were begging me to show them the right way to do it, yes! We started decorating the classroom for christmas, and they beat me in dutch blitz again. We had a spelling bee and skits for english week, and one of my guitar strings broke.  One of my students came in looking very pale and said "ummm ms.. I am SO sorry, but... we broke the guitar string on accident! We will pay for it!".  I thought they had broken the guitar in half or something the way they were acting, they were relieved to see I wasn't upset at all.  Guitar strings break all the time!  Sadly though the string they broke is the only string the island it out of, go figure.  So they have been leading worship with a five string guitar.  I have organized a parent meeting for graduation plans, I'm working on planning a class christmas party at the beach, working on a christmas performance for the seniors, and I am officially in charge of the entire k - 12 christmas program held in town.  Sometimes, at the end of the day, after teaching, planning, grading, excercising, cooking dinner, etc.. it just seems.. impossible! How can I do all of this?!
 I was reminded how while reading Matt. 14:22-33 this week.  The disciples were on a boat when they see Jesus walking toward them, on the water! They aren't really sure it is Him so Petere says "if it is you tell me to come".  Jesus tells Peter to come, and Peter walks on the water! I've always thought that was a HUGE step of faith, to just step out on the water.  Then, however, Peter loses focus and begins to fall so he calls out to Jesus.  Of course He reaches out for Peter and helps him up, then He says "Oh you of little faith".  What? Peter just stepped out into the open ocean and his faith is little! This made me realize, faith is more then the first couple of steps.  It is more then just getting on the plane to come to Yap and starting school, I need to trust and keep my eyes on Him the whole time.  "Why did you doubt?" Jesus asks Peter; and I have to ask myself the same thing.  God brought me here, gave me my class, and all these responsibilities; I need to keep relying on Him, not just for my first couple steps but the whole time. 
This has become very long, and I'm not really sure if it makes sense, I apologize.  This week one of my students told me "Ms. you are losing it! I think we are making you go crazy!" :).  Maybe that is why this post is long and possibly quite confusing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It doesn’t really feel like this week was Thanksgiving, or that November is almost over for that matter.  It feels like we are stuck in time, August maybe, and everyone else is moving on without us.  It’s HOT out, really hot, and the days aren’t getting any shorter.  We are in a tropical paradise, coconut and banana trees are right outside the window with a sliver of water just visible between the leaves.  It’s beautiful! But it isn’t how fall or winter should be.  Most of you reading this are probably sitting inside away from the bitter cold outside thinking; she’s crazy I’d love that weather right now!  Well enjoy the cold for me!  I guess we tend to appreciate something more when we don’t have it.  I’m getting more used to it though! We were able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving despite these seasonal setbacks.  It was weird not having the week off, spending time with family, and having our usual big family meal; but we had a wonderful meal with our Yap family.  After school I went to work cooking in preparation.  I made bread rolls! It took me two times to get it right, and it still didn’t taste quite like Mom’s, but I did it! I think I’ll be making homemade bread more often nowJ.  Thursday after school I made blueberry pie, pumpkin pie, gravy, stuffing, and I baked chicken!  I had fun doing a lot of cooking, I don’t usually cook too much at home for Thanksgiving, but I felt very accomplished cooking so much this year.  I even cooked meat! I have never done that before, and I was paranoid it wouldn’t come out done, but it did!  We had a potluck with most of the other teachers outside around 7:30.  We didn’t have turkey or sparkling cider; but it was a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so glad for the “family” I have hear on Yap. The kids don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving for the most part, but they were telling me “Happy Thanksgiving” all day.  My seniors even drew a turkey on the board for me to make up for the one I didn’t have.  My mom, with some help from some church family, put together an AMAZING box for Christmas.  It has everything from a tree, decorations, and nativity, to peppermint flavoring and Christmas movies!  We are decorating tonight.  Despite how weird it feels to play Christmas music in the tropics, we will make it feel like Christmas here! The rest of the week was pretty usual.  Every day had random problems, stressful times, and fun times with my kids.  I am working on a skit I wrote for them to use for chapel on Monday. It is quite funny and they are enjoying it a lot! I hope it goes well.  I have had SA meetings, class meetings, and council meetings just about every day; planning parent meetings for graduation, the Christmas program, and all sorts of other things that need to be finished before break.   It seems like there is so much to do in a short time! I love chaos though, it keeps me busy!  I know God will help me, and it will all happen.  I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving weeks and welcome to the Christmas season!

In Memory of Kirsten

Two years ago today a tragedy happened.  I remember hearing about it at home; "Adventist Student Missionary Murdered in Yap" the headlines read.  I was shocked.  At the time I had never heard of Yap, but the idea of a student missionary being murdered just seemed... impossible.  Student missionaries don't usually go to really dangerous places, they are supposed to come back safe and sound after a great year of service.  But that didn't happen for Kirsten.  Early in the morning of November 19 she decided to go for a run by herself.  At the same time a man high and drunk was walking back from a bar.  What happened could have happened anywhere, it happens at home in the states a lot more then it happens here; but this was different.  The locals were devistated and enraged, the school staff scared and heart broken, and her 2nd grade class was left confused and asking for their teacher to come back.  Two years ago when I heard about what happened, I never could have imagined that in a couple years I would be sitting in Yap writing to you, but here I am.  What I have found here isn't a dangerous island but local people ready to help anyway they can and kids of all ages just longing to be loved, taught, and noticed.  I had a lot of people tell me "Go anywhere but Yap" which made me wonder, what about the kids there?  If everyone goes "anywhere but Yap" who is going to teach them? I am so glad God lead me here. 
This week has been a bit different as we have been remembering Kirsten and her service here.  She was an amazing young woman and she left a huge impact. It seemed like so long ago the tragedy happend, but it is still fresh here.  This friday most of my seniors were gone taking a college entrance test, so the three left at school and one of the Junior girls helped me cut yellow ribbons for the school to hang along the road.  I guess yellow is the color for memorials here.  As we were cutting the ribbons the girls started telling me about that day, they were both in high school at the time.  "Ms. I remember all the teachers faces were pale and they just stopped teaching", "The 2nd graders didn't understand what happened and they kept calling out for her".  They told me how all the high school boys were sent to help search for her (they thought she was just injured) all of whom were friends of these girls. "Ms. when they came back,  after they found her, the boys were all crying and their faces were white and they were so angry".  I honestly didn't know what to say, I just let the girls tell me about what happened.  I can't imagine anything like what the students, staff, and Kirstens family has gone through.  What I do know is this, "1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; 3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; 7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; 8 A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.  I don't think we will ever be able to fully understand tragedies like this, they are just a part of life.  I really can't say it better then Kirsten did.  At the end of the book "Love, Kirsten" their is a journal entry she wrote about these verses, I want to share some of it with you. "Why should their be a time for death?  I wondered if it was to bring us closer to God.  But then I read the commentary and realized that it was to illustrate that nothing lasts forever.  There is a time for good and it may last awhile, but then it will always go away and bad will come.  Life is always changing so we shouldn't sit around being idle, waiting for the good stuff to happen.  We never know when our 'time' is, and so we should take every advantage of the good times we have and work hard to get through the bad times with the help of Jesus Christ because he wants to help us... Think about it: someone dies every second.  Do you think that many of them expected to die? I want my heart to be prepared for death.  I want my life to be lived so that there is something good to say about me when I'm gone, and hopefully my death can lead others to eternal life!".  As we sat in church today I looked out across the pews.  Almost the entire church was wearing yellow in her memory, many of the members talked about how her few monthes here still leave an impact on them today, and letters were read from her students who still remember her and want to see her in heaven.  I am inspired by Kirsten.  She lived her life fully, people do have good things to say about her, and people have been lead to Christ from her example.  I know this has turned out really long, and I thank you if you are still reading, this memorial for Kirsten has just left me with a lot to think about.  Life is so uncertain, I don't want to let any of it to be wasted.
Please keep Kirsten's family and friends in your prayers today, I know this must be a really hard time of year for them.  Please continue to pray for Yap SDA school as well.  I love the students here so much and it breaks my heart to hear them say "No one wants to come teach us anymore".  I pray more and more student missionaries would be drawn here in future years.  I can't imagine being anywhere else! 
Highlight of my week: Since I had such a small senior class Friday, I taught them Dutch Blitz! And they proceeded to beat me at it... haha!  It was really fun to play games and just talk with them.  The more I get to know them the more they open up and share things with me and seek advice from me; and that is one of my favorite parts about being a teacher. 

The Canoe Festival

Their are so many things I could share about this week but I am going to skip ahead to Friday.  We were blessed with another short week!  No school Friday due to veterans day and the 3rd annual Canoe Festival.  They have had a countdown for this festival posted since we arrived over three months ago! The weekend is filled with different canoe races, swimming contests, fishing contests, music, and even dances.  We were ready by 9 am but of course we didn't load the van and leave until well past 10.  Their weren't as many people as I was expecting there, I guess it was because it was only the first day of the festival.  We said hi to our students running a fundraising booth and supported them.  They had been trying to convince us all week that we weren't allowed to go unless we "went local" (as in local dress..).  Haha! They are so funny... Next we headed over to the shore and watched some of the canoes. This morning was the youth portion of the competition.  They had different ages and villages competing on different kinds of canoes.  Canoe is really a loose term though... they were using the traditional canoes for several of the competitions which didn't really resemble a canoe at all.  They are a bunch of small logs tied together, they use long sticks as paddles. They also had swimming competitions.  The best part though was the opening ceremony we walked to next.  It was in the big community center.  The governor of Yap gave a welcoming speech almost entirely in Yapese.  I've never heard any language like the one here! It is very unique.  At the end of the speech he was recognizing all the different visiters and at one point said "would all the white people stand".  Being politically correct is not a big deal here :).  About that time the fishermen returned. They had a fishing contest that started in the morning, not like fishing contest at home though.  They had to take the tradition carved sail boats (no fuel only man power) out to the open ocean.  Upon their return they weighed all their catches to see which boat cost the most.  It was a landslide as one of the boats caught a HUGE baracuda while the others only caught small fish.  The baracuda was almost taller then the man who brought it out of the boat! My favorite part came next; the traditional Yapese bamboo dance!  A group of dancers from one of the villages came in dressed in traditional attire.  They had the colorful grass skirts for woman and thus for men, they were all topless, covered in coconut oil, and had shells and grass leis all over.  The dance lasted a total of 30 minutes.  They had long sticks they hit against each other and on the floor along with a harsh chant and song.  I wondered if they were telling the story of a war, it was an intense dance!  It was amazing to watch, and so unique.  I have never seen or heard of anything like it.  Their really aren't words to describe it.  Hopefully I will be able to show the video we took of it to some of you when I return.  I can't wait to see more of their dances! Next I watched a couple of my students perform in bands and then we did some shopping! Their weren't many booths set up, but we were all able to buy the traditional lava lava skirt!  That is the hand woven wrap around skirt worn by majority of the Yapese women and all outer island women.  They taught us how to put them on too.  I don't understand how the women stop them from falling down, because ours won't stay up! We will definitely be wearing them with safetly pins.  Before heading back to the school we had the privalege of being video taped for a Japanese travel agency.  It was quite funny, I think they were really confused to find young American girls hanging out in Yap; not exactly your usual college student excursion.  We met a lot of people actually.  The weird part is, they already know who we are.  They will start with "hi, you are the SDA teachers right?".  Their are a good amount of tourists here for diving, but somehow they just know that we are the teachers.  Anyhow, it was so amazing to see deeper into the extremely unique Yapese culture today!  Reading over this blog I am struck by how bland my description seems, but words really can't describe the unique culture and life here on Yap.  I think it is so cool how careful they are to preserve their culture.  These islands are becoming more and more westernized every day, but Yap has taken special measures to make sure their heritage and culture is not lost. 

P.S.  Please keep praying for the dengue fever outbreak.  It is continuing to get worse.  The hospital is so overpacked they have beds all through the hallways and have litterally run out of places to put people, their isn't even space on the floor.  Another older outer islander died from it this week and a couple of our students have it now.  We are the only island in micronesia facing this outbreak right now and they are doing all they can to keep it from spreading.  We have been burning mosquito coils all week in class.  Please keep praying! I know God can protect us and this island. 

Unconditional Love

My students, and being a teacher, has brought a deeper understanding of what it means to love unconditionally.  I always had this picture in my head; the students showering me with gifts and love.  You always hear the stories of all the sweet things the island students do for their teachers.  It seems like it was guaranteed they love you; seems like a silly fantasy now looking back.  It's easy to love when you are being showered in love back; but what happens when you aren't? What if you can't tell if the students like you or not?  what if you can't seem to connect with lots of them and all your efforts of love seem to go unnoticed and they don't care?  I think I for some reason thought I would immediately see payment for all my work with the love they would show me back; but they aren't first graders who love you after you've met once and hug you every day.  They are self absorbed, restless high school student who don't want to be told what to do.  This sheds a whole new light on God's love for me.  Loving when it isn't easy.  How many times has God been pushed away, ignored, bad mouthed, hurt, and rejected by the one's he loves?  I'm sad to say I've done it to Him.  He gave me everything, even sacrificed His own life to save me, and some days I forget to talk to Him.  Wow.  Who am I to expect love back?  Love does not seek it's own.  I shouldn't expect a thing from my students, I should love them unconditionally without any thought or need of payment.  That's what God does.  I want to learn to be more like Him.  This week I only want to think about what I can do for them.  I want to show them a love that isn't looking for reward, but is simply love.  How?  I don't know, but I hope God can teach me.  I want to rid myself of my selfishness and really love unconditionally. 

I Get It!

"Ms. I get it!".  I live off those words.  I don't think I've ever had a sentence make me happier.  I'll be frustrated, running low on patience, and feel as if I'm must be failing as a teacher; when just one kids face will light up and exclaim, "I think I get it!" and it's all worth it.  Something amazing happened in Geometry this week.  I was so frustrated last weekend, it seemed the juniors kept getting more and more confused and I didn't know how to help them understand! So I sat in our apartment with a stack of 8 geometry books I dug out of storage trying to figure out how on earth to help them understand! I started over.  I went back to the beginning of the unit and did everything differently.  I wasn't sure if it was working, but wednesday I finally attempted proofs again, but this time it worked! It was only a small step really, and they have a long ways to go.. but they got it! They were so exctied and so was I! Every time I say I want to be at teacher I hear "Well you won't get paid very much".  That's a lie.  Teaching gets paid in ways I can't even describe.  It's not just a job, it's not finished in eight hours every day, and it's paid in ways that don't compare with money.  It's exhausting, trying, sometimes discouraging, and the most rewarding thing I've ever done.  I am so excited to spend the rest of my life teaching!
This week was busy as ususal.  Here is a short summary.   We had the last week of the evangelistic meetings.  I helped out most nights as the chorister and with special music.  So many of the students have been coming all three weeks, and this Sabbath 4 of them were baptized! One of my seniors boys and a freshmen girl among them! It was really exciting, we went with them to the water after potluck this Sabbath.  The pastor went in suit and all and they followed in their church clothes :).  We had Friday off for FSM Independence day, so we went snorkeling of course.  It was an adventure getting there though! We took a boat to go out to a different deeper snorkeling area. Now, the boats here aren't like boats at home... their aren't really seats in it, and we load way more people into them then we probably should! Anyhow, halfway out the little engine stopped.  Apparently the propeller broke and it took a lot of work for Thomas, our Yapese maintenance volunteer, to get it going again.  He took us back to his village to fix it.  We had to drive through this small channel in the jungle.  Bamboo and trees hung over to create a a sort of tunnel.  I was surprised to see we were surrounded by village kids! They were swimming all over, mind you the water was quite gross in this area.  They were in the trees swinging down from the branches, one girl was even swimming with a machete cutting some branches as she went, safe right? They waved and laughed as we drove by, it was so cute! He fixed the engine and we headed back out! After snorkeling we drove around the island a bit, however, they didn't realize we were low on gas... so we couldn't make it back to the car.  He took us to the nearest village, it happened to be an outer island.  Many of the outer islands are actually what to me seems the main island.  If they have a small channel or stream separating with a bridge they consider themselves an outer island.  I don't really know how many people actually consider themselves Yapese on this small island because the outer islanders do not consider themselves Yapese.  Anyhow, the principal was able to call for more gas and a car to come get us.  So a couple of us walked through the village to meet the car.  I had never really walked through the villages before.. it was not what I expected.  I don't really know what I expected to be honest.  With some of the things they have in the store and a few of the modern things it's easy to think life here isn't much different then at home, but it is.  The houses are spread along a pothole filled dirt road.  The houses look more like broken down warehouses then homes.  Some are rusted, they look like they are falling apart.  Kids run all over and woman were gardening in their lava lavas.  I found myself feeling sorry for them, and then I stopped. Why? They looked really happy, happier then lots of people I see driving through a suburban neighborhood with nice homes and perfect yards.  They may not have everything I've grown up with and always thought I needed, but they were happy.  I think I can learn a lot from them.  Of course it makes me realize how much I have to be thankful for, but more then that; it made me realize how consumed we are with "things" in America.  I base happiness on objects more then I realize.  If these villagers aren't living in my idea of a nice house on a nice street I immediatly assume they are unhappy, but they aren't, they are happy with what they have.  Maybe I should be too.  It's a whole new experience seeing life here, and I think their is a lot I can learn from it.

United Nations Day

After almost three months of no breaks, we finally have some mini vacations! Lots of them actually.  Last weekend was a four day weekend, and we have the next two fridays of for various FSM holidays.  It was so nice to finally have a break!  Sunday we went to help the seniors clean the trail again.  Their weren't very many of them there but we got a lot done anyways.  We ended up hiking the entire trail with our machetes clearing as we went.  That is a mile and a half walk barefoot.  The weather started really hot, about 89 degrees with 77% humidity, and then it started to pour on us! We have come to notice that whenever it gets really hot it is guaranteed to pour rain within the next hour and then clear off again.  By the time we were done we were soaked to the bone and covered in dirt.  But it was fun! I love doing stuff with the students outside of school.  Monday we went to the beach! It has been so long since we have had a break at the beach so we were all really excited.  We drove 15 minutes to John's beach and headed out with our snorkels.  The tide was out again so we were able to walk all the way to the coral.  I will never get used to how amazing the nature is out there.  I see something new everytime! This time a HUGE puffer fish surprised me.  It was a good foot and a half long and really big around.  I didn't know they could get that big! Despite my liberal and repeated use of sunscreen, I got burnt.  I guess that's not that bad considering in almost three months of living in the tropics I've only been burnt twice, I just have to use sunscreen like lotion every day!
Tuesday we started school again, and that came with some struggles. The kids weren't very focused after a nice break and honestly I wasn't either! It's weird how just a couple days extra away from something can make it so hard to get started again.  I've discovered I need help teaching geometry.  That is my biggest prayer request for school right now.  I know algebra really well.  It doesn't matter what question they ask I feel completely confident finding what they did wrong or explaining it from a different angle.  Geometry though.. I understand geometry, but I haven't taken as many classes of it so explaining it is a whole new problem.  Unlike algebra, I have a hard time figuring out new ways to teach it because I don't know it forward and backwards like the other math classes.  Anyways, that's what I'm working on this weekend.  The juniors are having a really hard time grasping how to make a proof, and I'm not sure how else to teach it.  But I'm not going to move on until they get it.  I'm going to find some new ways to go about teaching it before Monday.  If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am always open to hearing them!
The end of the school week was one of the best days since being here.  We had an all school United Nations Day celebration on Friday.  Each class chose a country to represent.  We had presentations for each class, costumes, food, and decorations in the classroom.  Their was a big parade of the countries, parents came, and every class presented on stage.  It was so much fun! The seniors chose Samoa!  We all dressed up, and they made leis in the morning.  It's so cool to watch them make leis.  It is really intricate.  They braid grass together arranging the flowers in the braid.  We had coconut limbs lining the walls, a huge constructions paper flag for Samoa, and lots of local food.  For presentation they did the Samoan fire dance! They did so well, I was amazed.  Five of them learned the hula dance that goes in the backround and perfomed it on stage, while two of the guys perfomed with the fire sticks.  They take really long sticks with fire on both ends and twirl them around realy fast, throw them in the air, under their legs, you get the idea.  I was a little nervous to let them use fire, but they did so well! All the classes did amazing.  The kindergarten was adorable dressed in traditional Yapese clothes.  Second grade did a cute Italian folk dance, third grade sang O Canada, fifth grade did a hawaiian dance, sixth grade danced the salsa!  I was amazed by how well they all did, especially at the salsa! Seventh grade represented America, one of the students dressed up as Obama and delivered his state of the union address, it was cute! Eight grade did a skit they created about Greek mythology, it was really funny.  Ninth grade did India and tenth grade Ireland; they didn't get quite as in to it, but I think they will next year seeing how much fun all the classes had.  I was amazed by the juniors!  They represented a small island I have never heard of.  They got the whole class, 19 of them, doing a traditional hula dance.  They were so good! The kids took my camera and I found all sorts of fun pictures on it at the end of the day.  Everyone really enjoyed the event.  I loved seeing all the students get excited and so involved with something.  On a side note, only in Yap would their be moms coming to watch topless and it's no big deal.  That is still kind of weird to get used to!
Despite all of these good things, we can still see the devil working hard to take us down.  Yap really needs your prayers right now.  We have lost Andrea for the next couple months.  She is recovering well in Guam, but they are sending her back to the states until January.  They said the danger is too high, she can't afford to be bit with a dengue carrying mosquito, so she can't come back until the rainy season is over.   We are praying that no one else will get sick.  We barely have enough staff to keep going.  If someone is sick, we literally have no one to sub classes.  The island is having an outbreak of dengue right now.  Their have been over 100 cases of it.  They have told us certain times to avoid being outside with the bugs.  We are wearing bug spray all the time, and they are making some sort of mosquito repelant by burning coconut husks; but it is really hard to avoid mosquitos.  We are praying for God's protection on this one. 
Mangil e Sabado! I'm not sure if I spelled that right... but that is Yapese for Happy Sabbath! :)

A Walk in the Rain

Sometimes I like to walk slowly in the pouring rain and let it completely soak me.  I don't know what is so therapeutic about it.  Maybe it's the feeling of doing the exact opposite of what's expected. Instead of running through and avoiding the water I'm standing directly under it and letting it drench me.  I don't shield myself with an umbrella or hide out until it's gone, I just walk straight through it.  I feel like this week we were all walking in the rain.  Problem after problem kept falling on us; but we didn't hide from them, or try to run through them, we just went along with it.  The first couple days of the week were the hardest.  Pam was packing and getting prepared to leave, we were all grading and trying to prepare to quarter grades, and no one was getting to sleep before midnight.  The evangelistic meetings had just started too, so every night at 7 we walked to the chapel to lead music, prayer, or simply welcome the villagers.  Tuesday night was hot and busy like the rest of the week but it had an even heavier cloud hanging over it.  At midnight we all loaded the van and took Andrea and Pamela to the airport.  Pamela was completely covered in leis.  Their were at least three on her head, five around her neck, and more she was given in her suit case.  We took pictures and put off leaving as long as possible.  We finally had to say good bye, it was really hard; but the good news is we found out their is a very good chance she will return early next year! Natalie from Walla Walla is coming to fill her spot for a couple months but then she has to go and if Pamela is recovered she will come back! That made goodbye a little easier.  We said goodbye to Andrea too but she will be back soon! She just needed to go to Guam to help her recover from dengue fever.  On our way back from the airport, we left around 1:30 am, we were exhausted.  Halfway back our car suddenly stopped.  We were stranded.  In the middle of a village, in the middle of the night, with no way to contact anyone.  It was really scary! But we prayed and within 20 minutes the other school van behind us drove by and saw us.  We were so relieved!  School the next day was long though.  I had 4 hours of sleep, a really sore throat, 5 classes of loud teenagers to teach.  It had a bleak start, but in the end I started to see the upside to walking in the rain.  You get to jump in the puddles! I know, a really weird comparison, but what I mean is no matter how hard things get their is always some point that you begin to see the blessing from it.  Wednesday I was blessed by my students efforts to help me out.  "Ms. voice hurts! Be quiet and listen to her!" "We can lead worship Ms, you can just sit" and "It's ok with us if you don't feel like talking about math today".  Ok, maybe the last one wasn't trying to help me out, but it did make me smile.  Thursday brought the biggest blessing of them all.  Just the thought of it still makes me smile.  If you rewind back to my birthday you might recall my class didn't really do anything special for me.  I was kind of bummed but I got over it.  Thursday, a month after my birthday, I was headed to close the room up for lunch when one of the senior girls asked "Ms. could you just stay down here for lunch?" I really wanted to eat but they begged me to go get Coby, the puppy, and come back.  When I came back they stopped me before the door, blind folded me, and lead me in to the classroom.  They walked me up to the desk and took off the blind fold.  In front of me was a bright yellow cake that read "Ms. Rychelle you are 10 stars in our hearts" :).  You see, I have a star system on the chalk board. When they do a good job cleaning, or they are exceptionally quiet during a lecture, or somehow behave well as a class, I give them a star.  10 stars =  me making them a treat and a movie or game day.  They handed me a belated birthday card they had all signed and a box of chocolates.  They weren't prepared for my birthday when it actually happened, and they wanted to do it right, so they just decided to do it later lol. "This way it was more of a surprise!" :).  It completely made my week.  I loved reading their notes they wrote to me and seeing how excited they were to surprise me.  I just love my seniors!
The rest of the week went quickly.  We finally finished report cards and had parent teacher conferences.  It went a lot better then I would have expected and it was nice to talk to their parents.  I'm really excited to be in a new quarter.  I learned SO  much from last quarter and I know I can do a much better job as a teacher this quarter. We are enjoying our first break from school now.  A four day weekend thanks to United Nations Day! It feels good to relax.  I was surprised to be the pianist again at church, that always has rough patches but I am learning.  We still have the meeting going too, and I am going to help the seniors clean the trail again Sunday.  Life is never boring here!

Daily things that make me smile:

1) It's 85 degrees out with 70% humidity and their are 6 kids in my class wearing sweatshirts and beanies.
2)  Kids wear socks with sandals all the time, apparently it's "cool" here. Haha...
3) I made the sophomores biscuits and gravy since we just finished studying the U.S.  They thought it was the weirdest meal they had ever seen.
4) It's not that weird for a kid to forget to put shoes on to come to school, or to accidentally leave their shoes at school.
5) The item I have to confiscate the most is a ukelele. 
6)  We don't have an actual bell. It's this giant metal thing that whoever is in the office has to hit really hard throughout the day.  So, our classes get out at random times because they tend to forget to ring it. 
7) I have to write a list of students missing from my class on the chalkboard so when we switch classes the other teachers know who should be there.  The kids keep writing in Coby, our puppy, as missing ever since I brought him to class.
8) The little first grader that insists on helping me carry my things even if it means he follows me carrying my water bottle.
9) The excuses I hear for why they don't have their homework or why they need to change seats. "Ms. I'm so hot, I really need to sit over their!" "You are sitting directly beneath the fan where you are right now...."
10) I honestly can't think of a 10th thing right now but I just couldn't leave it at 9.  Have a nice week!

Patience

I've never really thought of myself as particularly impatient, but it seems God decided I needed more patience.  Everything here is a test or lesson on patience.  I'm reminded of this as I try to type this blog.  I pulled up the internet and waited 5 minutes for it to load the page, it wouldn't load so I tried a different browser.  After refreshing the page 10 times I finally got to this page.  This isn't an unusual thing, anything on the internet, especially skype, takes lots of patience.  Going anywhere teaches patience too, due to island time.  If you don't know what island time is it goes like this.  If they honk the horn for us to get in the car for church at 8:30 we probably won't be leaving until at least 9.  If we are supposed to have a meeting at 9, it probably won't start until 10 or 10:30.  The only thing that opporates on "American Time" is school; the greatest test of patience of them all.  After explaining the same problem on the board thuroughly over half the class will individually ask me to explain it again.  Asking once for the freshmen to take a seat never works, and no matter how many reminders I give their is always someone who claims I never mentioned a test today. I speak and no one listens so I have to explain the same thing over and over again.  Those of you reading this who are parents or teachers are probably laughing at me thinking, "Get used to it".   These things have been building my patience for the last 10 weeks, but something new was added this week; patience with God.
Sometimes it seems perfectly clear what God wants for us.  It's like it's lined up and everything is falling into place perfectly.  Other times it seems impossible to figure out what He wants and where we are supposed to be.  Even more confusing though is when it seems like you are doing exactly what He wants but you get shot down.  That's what happened to Pam today.  Pam is like family now.  We have been living on Yap together for over 2 months.  We share a room so we end up talking way too long every school night. Pam has to go home.  She broke the news to us today and we all were crying within the next minute.  Just like the rest of us, Pam loves it here.  She loves the school, her 3rd grade kids, the church, and the island in general.  She can't recover properly though, she is getting worse and the doctors here aren't qualified to figure out why.  She leaves in two days and everyone is going to miss her.  We haven't stopped praying though.  The side of me that still needs more patience wants to know what's taking God so long.  Why not just heal her?  She is here where He sent her trying to do the job He sent her to do.  Why not just heal her and let her stay?  But, the other side that has been learning patience is beginning to see that things aren't always that easy.  Sometimes you have to wait.  More then anything we want Pam to stay.  We will keep praying for a miracle; but I think this is one of those times we have to trust God.  Even though it's not working out the way Pam hoped, He is in control and I know He has a plan; we just can't see it right now. 
Back tracking a bit, this week went pretty good.  I got up early Sunday to go barefoot through the jungle clearing a trail with machetes with my seniors.  It's a class funraiser for them and turned out to be lots of fun! Using a machete is much harder then it looks though, "Ms! Swing it as hard as you can!".  The school week was busy as it was the last week of the quarter.  We had to have finals at the end of the week.  Everyday their were numerous students making up tests, trying to make up work, and freaking out about the final.  We enjoyed a lovely Canadian Thanksgiving in honor of Pam and Sophie on Monday.  Come Tuesday Andrea was sick.  It seems like the flu at first, but now we know it is Dengue fever.  She really needs prayers for recovery! This meant we were short staffed again.  We were all switching tasks and covering classes throughout the week.  Everyone was relieved to make it to Friday.  I was completely shocked to recieve every single final project in the sophomore class.  I don't think I've ever gotten the same assignment from the whole class before! I had them create their own country for Geography, they did a really good job and I have a huge stack of new, funny, countries in my room.  The seniors turned in their music projects as well.  I put them in groups and had them put a song together and record it.  I wasn't expecting much but they spent their lunch times for two weeks putting it together, way more then I asked them to do. They sound amazing! One of the groups even wrote their own song! I love seeing them get excited about something, I really want to do more with the things that really interest them.
I realize I haven't said much about the church in a while.  The church keeps us just about as busy as the school.  We plan and run vespers every friday night as well as the juniors/youth sabbath school before church.  Sabbath school used to be really small, but today we had 16 kids! Eight of which where high schoolers who aren't members of the church.  It is so exciting to see them coming to church :).  We are involved in all sorts of other aspects of the church as well.  At home you are usually asked to do something for church.  Someone will call and request for you to do special music in three weeks or to lead worship, not here.  Here you just find your name in the bulletin, it's always a surprise!Children story, praise team, special music, prayer, scripture reading, chorister; you name it, we do it.  Not all of them every week though, they try to alternate.  Today I was the pianist again, always an intersting experience.  I think I'm finally figuring when I'm supposed to play everything!  The big event with the church starts tonight.  We will be having a 3 WEEK evangelistic meeting at both the church and the school.  We are helping with both locations so we have a schedule alternating our jobs.  I am not really sure how we are going to do the meetings, finish first quarter grades, plan and grade for school, and have a work bee for the school this Sunday... but I've seen God work out harder circumstances since we've been here so here it goes!
Prayer requests this week: Pam (of course), leaving is going to be one of the hardest things she's ever had to do.  We are praying for healing for her, she has been sick way too long.  For Andrea, Dengue fever can be really bad.  We are praying she will be able to recover and the mosquitos won't spread it to the rest of us. 

Shaken

Week 9 has been a very diverse week.  It started with the excitement of picking up Pam and Andrea from the aiport! We were so excited to see them again! We really missed them, the apartment seemed empty without Pam.  They brought us a bag of taco bell too! I have never in my life been so excited to eat a taco bell burrito. Sad news followed quickly though, Pam isn't actually recovered.  She is doing a little better but still has a long ways to go.  They ended up finding three infections! One from knicking other organs when they took out her appendix, and one from meds they gave her that should no longer be in use.  The third one was not their fault, but suffice to say we are all hoping to avoid a confrontation with Yap Memorial Hospital; or as google fondly names it "Yap Murder Hospital".  She seems to have improved a bit this week though.  Please keep her in your prayers!
Monday was Andreas birthday so we worked all day to give her a surprise party.  A rather difficult task considering she lives in the apartment right next to us, but we attempted anyways.  We had each apartment make a funny video for her and compiled them together.  It was a lot of fun! She really enjoyed it.  Everyone stayed in our apartment to watch Megamind. We used a school projector to watch it on our wall, not a bad substitute for a TV :). 
Though we haven't had as many challenges with students coming drunk this week, a new challenge came.  I had 4 girls completely skip the second half of the day.  It was the 4 students who really couldn't afford to miss any more then they already had.  It was so frustrating! I'm doing all I can to try and help these girls graduate, but it's like they aren't even trying.  They had to be suspended the next day making them miss even more school.  I was able to talk with each one the next day though, I hope it helped.  I really want them to understand how important it is to come and keep up with the class in order to graduate high school.   The day wasn't all bad though.  At one point I turned around in Micronesia History to see one of the boys wearing the girls uniform skirt! I couldn't help but laugh and ask, "What are you doing?!" he replied, "Oh! Sorry Ms.!" and proceded to tuck in his shirt as required for the boys uniform.  It doesn't matter how tired I am, or how low my patience is drained, they always do something that just makes me smile and forget the bad parts of the day.
Wednesday brought boxes! I have never been so excited to recieve a box before.  Every time is more exciting then christmas and your birthday put together. Each time we get something in a shipment you can hear all four of us scream and race towards the packages.  The highlights were the extra math curriculum my parents bought for me and the peanut butter M&M's; my all time favorite candy! I'm really excited for the math books, I got full solutions manuals and worksheet books for all my classes.  The extra resouces will be so helpful! It is really tiring to create math problems every night.
The most exciting day of the week came on Thursday; and it wasn't just because I got all the seniors singing "Let Us Come Together" with handmotions during devotions :).  At 5:37 pm Yap became the epicenter of a 5.8 earthquake! We had just gotten back from our town trip and we were unloading all our groceries.  All of a sudden everything began to shake, the deck from our apartment was swaying back and forth and those indoors watched many of our things falling off the shelves.  I've been in earthquakes before, bigger ones even, but the fact that we are on a 4 by 16 mile island make it a whole lot scarier.  It didn't last too long though, and it definitely added excitement to our day!  Four aftershocks followed it all the way through Friday morning.
Life continued despite the unsteady ground.  Friday morning wasn't a normal school day for me.  The seniors needed to take a college placement test at the College of Micronesia in the morning.  Not all of them could get rides back to the school after the test.  So I drove to the test to meet them there with Lorraine.  We got them into the right room and then left to run errands for the school while they were tested.  It's kind of fun driving in Yap, no matter where we are driving it feels like we are on backroads.  We got back in time to pick up three of the students who needed a ride.  They were quick to ask, "Ms. you have a license!?" and shout "We're gonna die!" as I drove away :).  It was really reassuring to hear them say "Ms. the math part was easy, it was mostly about quadratics like you just taught us".  I've been wondering recently if I'm actually helping them understand the things they need to know.  It was really reassuring to see that God is definitley guiding what I teach and helping me to teach them what they need to know. 
The grand finale to our week came in the package of a puppy we have named Coby.  One of the third graders brought him in to Sophie and said that if we didn't take him they would have to put him on the street like the rest of the litter.  He was tiny and adorable and so pathetic looking! So... we obviously adopted him! The campus already has a couple resident dogs so one more doesn't really make a difference.  It's just more work for us, especially right now.  He is so tiny, sick, and coated in fleas.  We have tried everything to clean him and get him nourished.  He already looks a little better.  I think he will make a wonderful addition to our apartment :).
Even with all the random things making each day unique here in Yap, I've started to notice my new habits.  I don't like habits.  Some habits are good, and make life easier.  But lots of habits just stop you from really thinking about what you are doing.  I don't want worship or devotional time to become habit.  I don't want teaching to become habit.  I want to really be thinking about them and completely involved in them every time; not just floating through it becomes I've done it so many times. That is my challenge for this next week, starting tomorrow.  We have this habit of sitting together in the same pew every Sabbath.  So tomorrow I think I'll try and sit somewhere else, next to some members or visitors and make myself try something new.  I was really excited to see some of my students at church last week, hopefully I will see them again!
(I apologize for the disorganized thoughts above.  I have so much to share and so little brain power left to share it!)

Still

This week was particularly exhausting. Maybe it's because we are nearing the end of the quarter, their is always so much to do!  It's hard to believe we have been here two months already! Despite the exhaustion, a lot of fun memories were formed this week and I saw a lot of blessings.  I was sure Monday was going to be a terrible day.  Sunday night we had a meeting with all the high school teachers and they announced we had to do a thorough check  for all prohibited substances on Monday.   Problems with drugs and drinking are much worse here then in the states.  Yes teens in the states have huge issues with those things but here, well, it's almost encouraged.  Drinking is a normal past times and it seems that lots of the parents just let their kids drink, even on school nights sometimes.  Drugs are pretty easy to come by, especially marijuana.  The biggest problem is beetle nut.  Beetle nut is grown here on the island, the nut itself really isn't that bad.  The problem is what they put in it.  I don't understand entirely what is in it but they mix it with some stimulants its seems, some tobacco, and they chew it, all the time.  Your cashier chews it, the bank teller, every person walking on the street, and the grade school kid sitting on the curb.  It's completely normal, they have baskets they carry around to hold it.  It turns their mouth and teeth a bright red, and most of the people have been chewing it since they were kids.  Anyhow, none of these are allowed at the school.  They said we had to do a complete check of all the bags and each individual in our first period.  They said the kids would try to be sneaky and get things past you.  I was so scared! I didn't know how I was going to do the check by myself in a room of 20 juniors, my first class on Monday.  I don't really know what lots of the stuff I'm looking for even looks like!  We all prayed together in the morning and as I was waiting in my room for my students one dropped off an anonymous note that read "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7.  The verse was perfect, it was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes.  I knew I could give up my fears and my nerves to God, He cares about these kids even more than I do.  During the bag check I saw that God really did have it under control.  They obeyed me and didn't cause problems during the check, they separated and cooperated, they even made me laugh; "Ms, are you going to take our chocolates?". I was so relieved not to find anything this time aside from a prescription that wasn't checked in at the office.  I know I will end up finding something sometime this year, but God was gracious enough to let that wait for another time! 
Looking back, their were a lot of highlights this week.  The seniors lead chapel on Monday and it went great! I played the keyboard with them and they did a skit.  Their own version of David and Goliath.  It was hilarious! On Tuesday two of my seniors stayed after school until 5 to work as TA's for me.  It was wonderful! They helped me catch up on a lot of grading and it was nice to get to just talk with them.  They would ask me the most random questions, "Ms. when do you want to get married?".  I started teaching the sophomores about the U.S. in geography and they had some of the funniest questions.  They wanted to know where Hollywood was, if Everest was in the U.S., did it snow in Miami, do we say "a" or is that in Canada, and have I ever talked to someone with a southern accent.  Those are just a few samples, they are so curious about the U.S; and everywhere else in the world for that matter! I guess I would be too if I had lived on a small island my whole life. 
Friday, today, was my favorite day.  We had lessons on leadership in the senior class for their pathfinder time.  I had them do the human knot and several other games to demonstrate how someone has to step up and lead in order for them to work as a team.  They had so much fun! We talked about leadership and some challenges leaders have.  Particularly we talked about how a good leader deals with people causing problems in a group.  I had them create skits to demonstrate how they would work with the person.  They were so funny! I should have recorded them! I didn't think they would be able to finish one because everyone was laughing so hard! Maybe I should work with them on their acting skills :).  We ended the day working with the 2nd and 3rd grade.  They came into the senior room and had music class lead by a few of the seniors.  My favorite part was when I came in and saw everyone singing Father Abraham.  Even my seniors were doing the hand motions, I can't think of a better ending to the week.
Their were a lot of rough patches too.  We had two students suspended for coming to school drunk.  It breaks my heart to see what these kids do to themselves.  It doesn't just affect a few of the students, but every single one of them.  All of them are in some way surrounded by drugs and alcohol.  Some of my students were asking me about it this week, "Ms. why don't you drink?".  I talked to them about it for a while, but I feel so helpless.  I have math class with them and Micronesia history, but how can I help them with the things that are really important?  Things like their spiritual lives and all the messed up situations this life throws them into.  I guess that stuff will come, but it's so hard to be patient.  I can see so many ways they are hurting or confused and I want to help them.
I've had one song going through my head most of this week. It's called "Still".  I had never heard the song until I came here.  The chorus goes like this, "When the ocean's rise and thunders roar, I will soar with you above the storm, you are king of all over the earth, I will be still and know you are God".  I love those words, they are so perfect for me right now.  Most days seem like a storm at some point, some more then others.  I love the picture of soaring above it with God.  No matter how messed up things may seem some days, I can be calm and be still just knowing that God has it all under control. 
-If you have been praying for Pamela, thank you! After two weeks in Guam she is returning tomorrow night, recovered and doing well! :)

A few facts about Yap....
1) Take off your shoes before entering any building; grocery store, house, church, pretty much everywhere.
2) In Yapese culture it is very offensive for woman to show their thighs, but the top.. the top doesn't matter, at all. 
3) Both men and woman carry baskets around.  If you enter a village and you aren't carrying a basket you must carry a branch to show that you come in peace.
4) A person should never be taller then a village chief, in some outer islands this means crawling into a room.
5) People spit all the time.  I have at least 2 kids in each class ask to go spit every period.
6) Most Yapese don't know how to use a tissue, so i also have several kids every class asking to go outside to blow their nose.  It's so gross...
7) Head leis are very intricate and worn most of the time.  Not just by girls either, the men almost wear them more and are just as proficient at making them. Flowers are for everyone in Yap. 
8) No one has seen a biscuit before, they didn't know how to eat them when I brought them to potluck.
9) It's really rare to find something at the grocery store that isn't already past it's expiration date.  Turns out you can eat pretty much anything months after that date has passed.
10) A machete is a completely normal thing to carry around, bring to school, or take in the car with you.  I mean, you never know when you will need to crack open a coconut.  

A Teachers Work is Never Done

Another busy week is over, they go by so fast! I can't believe we are already over half way through the first quarter.  The week started wonderfully, with my birthday! I was not really excited to have my birthday on a Monday initially.  I figured it would just kind of disappear into a long school day.  This misconception went away before school even started.  As soon as students began arriving I constantly heard "Happy Birthday Ms. Rychelle!" and one of my freshmen ran up to me and gave me an outer island head lei. Mondays always start with flag raising so k-12 grade line up in front of the flag poles.  The entire school sang happy birthday to me and then the kids started singing "How old are you now.." nice try! They still don't get to know that little fact.  Some of them were guessing 23 or 24... yes! I have fooled some of them! I received a few more head leis so I switched them out throughout the day.  Every class I went to I was immediately met by birthday greetings and new renditions of the happy birthday song, including a rap from one of my seniors.  As school ended I was handed a pile of birthday cards from the 2nd grade.  They were so cute! They said "Happy Birthday Teacher Rychelle" and had all sorts of interesting art.  Monday evening we went out to eat to celebrate.  We went to the Manta Ray Bay restaurant.  It is in a ship floating in the water, the restaurant is actually outside at the top. It was so nice to take a break from cooking and try out something new.  My 20th birthday will not be forgotten. :) 
The days of the week all seem to blend together.  I brought out the schools long lost collection of graphing calculators and spent a day teaching the seniors how to use them.  I had them race to make a smiley face.  I worked on graphs and number lines with the sophomores and freshmen outside with side walk chalk.  It worked really well! It is a bit of a struggle to keep all of them focused outside but they were all a lot more involved then in the classroom.  I had them draw a giant graph on the basketball quart, and they were all begging for me to call on them to stand at a point.  I tutored middle school math during my old PE time, it was fun to work one on one.  On Thursday I convinced my seniors for a short while I could speak Yapese! It was hilarious, one of my students said something and I thought I heard it in English so I responded, correctly! I guess it must have been the intonation she said it in or something, I had no idea she had said it in Yapese.  They all had the most shocked and confused looks on their faces, so funny.  Later that day they came running up to me excited.  I decorated the entire senior room black and yellow, it didn't take them long to figure out my favorite color.  They said "Ms! Guess what colors we chose for our graduation gowns! Black and yellow!" :).  Later that day we went to town and our van decided to act up.  It just wouldn't start after our second stop in town.  So all of us were out pushing it trying to get it going again, a funny sight I'm sure.  Whenever something like that happens their are always a lot of students who know about it the next day.  We kind of stand out, and everyone knows we are the teachers.  News just travels fast in a small island I guess! They finally got it started and said we couldn't shut it off or we might not be able to get back.  So, they had to fill it up with gas while it was running! It was pretty scary, I've always heard that is a terrible idea, so we stood as far away as we could!
Another crazy week draws to a close.  It dumped rain all day today, which always makes for an interesting school day.  My desk was completely soaked and everything on it.  My students helped me move it to the other side of the room.  They practiced their skit for chapel Monday.  They are doing their own version of David and Goliath, quite entertaining! They taught me a new song on the guitar and I made peanut butter cookies for them.  The cookies turned out to be a big hit! All 40 of them disappeared in less then 5 minutes! Sometimes throughout the day it just seems like chaos, but it always seems to come together.  This week I understand the saying, "A teachers work is never done".  It seems like no matter how much I do, their is more that needs to be done.  More I want to teach them, more to plan, more to grade.  It feels like their is always too much to cram in to such a small amount of time.  At the end of the day I just have to step back and take a breath and look at my day.  I can see the places God carried me through and the things that I need to work on.  I see all the work I have to do and things I want to teach my students.  Most importantly I see the moments that make everything else fade away.  The times my students thank God for sending their teachers in prayer and ask for our safety; the things they say and do that make teaching the best way I could imagine spending my time.  I don't think I'll ever really "finish" my work this year.  I will probably always feel like their is more to do, but that is okay.  I pray that God will help all of us as we influence and educate our students.  These kids deserve the best, and more then anything I want to help them.  I want to show them Christ's love and help them learn all they need to succeed at whatever it is they dream of doing.

Capsised

The weekends always seem to fly by!  I can't believe it is already Sunday evening.  I know the weekend is supposed to be our time to rest, but I think I am more exhausted then when it started! Saturday night we stayed up really really late.  Not to watch a movie or talk, but to go to the airport.  Sadly Pamela had to fly to Guam.  Her flight didn't leave until 4 am, so we decided to stay up and go with her to the airport.  Andrea went with her to Guam, hopefully she is recieving better treatment there.  On the bright side, they are bringing back a huge collection of taco bell for us to freeze upon their return :).  After sleeping in a bit, we headed to the beach this morning.  We went to a new beach, a "resort" actually.  It was so pretty! They had a little outdoor restaurant there, so we all enjoyed lunch first.  They sang happy birthday to me, an early celebration since my actual birthday is tomorrow, a school day.  Then we headed for the beach! Their was a rope swing hanging over the water.  Everyone at home is always warning to be careful not to stand under coconut trees, but the swing was hung from a coconut tree.  It really is quite impossible around here to avoid being directly underneath one.  After a while we headed out to snorkel! The swim was a little rougher then usual due to the rain that was pouring all morning, but we made it.  The fish were huge! Much bigger then the last snorkeling adventures.  They were still colorful, striped, and beautiful.  We saw a puffer fish peak out from one of the rocks.  I don't think I could ever grow tired of seeing all the beauty under the surface.  After a while some of the other missionaries brought a kayak out to where we were and said we could take it out to the breakers if we wanted to.  So, Sabrina and I loaded on and headed out further.  After a while we began to notice we were getting deeper and deeper in the water.. the kayak was sinking! Sabrina went off the side, we got her back up only to have the entire kayak flip a few minutes later! Our snorkeling gear went flying off! We were dieing laughing, until we realized we couldn't find our snorkels and masks! We retrieved our flippers and the paddle, but the snorkels had disappeared.  We tried to look around but it was really deep.  We finally got the kayak flipped but we couldn't get back on.  We saw Mr. Raian swimming towards us, he said their was a sting ray circling us! We became a little panicked... apparently it got really close to us, but we never saw it.  Back at shore we collected some shells and found tons of crabs.  By 5 it was time to head back, we have lots to prepare for school.  I'm so glad we had a chance to finally take a good break at the beach! It was quite the adventure we won't forget anytime soon :).

Water Balloons + 61 Highschoolers = 2 Very Wet Teachers

When you drop something it will fall, thanks to gravity.  If you leave food on the counter, bugs are guaranteed to infest it; and when you do something stupid their is always someone there watching.  These are a few of the every day rules of life.  Today, I learned a new one.  When you have an all school water fight teachers are the number one target.  Today was the freshmen welcoming party.  I've been working with the SA officers all week to prepare for it.  They had tons of snacks and fun activites all prepared after lunch.  They did a donut eating contest and raced with eggs on a spoon.  The grand event though was the water balloon fight! Every year they blind fold the freshmen and welcome them to high school with water balloons being thrown from every direction.  They also have a tradition that Sabrina got to experience.  Every year they dump a huge trash can full of water (or juice) on the freshmen teacher :).  She was soaked! Her pay back was to whisper to them "Go get Ms. Rychelle".  Which they did, many times! I had at least 10 water balloons burst all over my, several buckets of water dumped on me and numerous water bottles emtied :).  It was so fun! I loved interacting with the kids outside of the classroom and just having fun with them!
I have declared secondary education as my future for over a year now, but I was still really unsure if that was what I wanted to do.  I didn't know if I would be any good at it, or if I would be able to control the classroom at all.  This week, I no longer had any doubt.  I LOVE teaching.  I love waking up each day and being excited for my job.  I love getting to know the students and making a difference in their life.  I especially love laughing all through the day at the funny things they say and the inventive excuses they come up with.  Even on bad days when it seems no one will listen and I'm completely failing, I still like it.  I feel like it's a job worth fighting for.  I have purpose everyday and any amount of work is worth it.  This is my long way of saying I no longer have any doubts about becoming a teacher.  I know I can wake up every day for the next 40 or 50 years and be happy to go to work.
We finally have a full staff! Jesse flew in on Tuesday and took the 2nd grade.  Sophie is now teaching kindergarten and high school PE. Yes! I felt so out of place trying to teach that class, I am glad they can have a teacher who really knows what she is doing.  The only link we are missing is Pamela :(.  She is still recovering, and today she had to go back to the hospital... Please keep her in your prayers! We are preparing for vespers and heading out to visit her.  I hope and pray she will be able to recover soon!