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! :)
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