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!)
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