New Years 2010

New Years on the front lines. Majuro is the first place in the world to welcome in the New Year. My students told me awhile back that everyone does a bloc party for New Years at Rita. Some of the SMs went over to a church member's house and they had a BBQ. Some of the guys went out and watched the sunset. We came back to our apartment had a discussion about gods and how many there are. I got up and told them I didn't want to spend New Years arguing about religion, so we went for a walk down the main road. We saw one band playing and then it was pretty dead for awhile. Damien flagged down a truck and we road the rest of the way. When we got to Ugilia (not sure if that's spelled right) they had a road block and they didn't let cars past. We got out and walked down the street. This was the famous bloc party.

Lights hung from every business and house. People roamed up and down the street with glowing rods and necklaces lighting the street with blue, red, and green. At first everything was quiet, then a guy got on a microphone someplace and started jaboring in Marshallese and I heard him say "Happy New Years". These three guys started singing in Marshallese to a synth beat generated on a key board. A crowd gathered around, mostly kids. They went on pretty much all night, I don't know how they still had voices at the end of the night. A bit later a band started up on a trailer. They had small hand drums and a drumset. This is the first time I've seen a drumset on the island, they usually just use a keyboard with a "fake" beat. They played songs in Marshallese, but it had a Pink Floyd kinda feel to it with electric guitars. I really liked it. They too sang pretty much all night. By the band there was a cotton candy machine, the first anyone has seen on the island. A couple of the SMs got some but it was a disappointment because the humidity caused it to shrink almost at once. The wellness center had a booth with healthy food, I ate some of that. The Budlight booth had a TV playing boxing. Usually I will watch it, but I couldn't focus so I wondered back to the band. By this time they were taking a break and the Marshall Islands High School break dancing group came out. They have different names. I think they called themselves Shadows this time. The first routine was good, but it went downhill from there. They got into doing skits with people shooting each other all the time. I think it's ironic that they do this considering most likely none of them has ever seen a gun before. They are just imitating American Hip-Hop culture. I wondered up and down the street where Hoola dancers shook their hips, people sang Marshallese pop, Chinese sold light sticks (which I bought for 2 dollars), and chefs sold food. I wanted a t-shirt that said Majuro Bloc Party, I got one for really cheap and they said it was last years, but I realized after I bought it that it was for 2005. Last year my butt! I may scratch off the 05 and make it 10.

I was surprised that after a couple hours walking around I had only seen one of my students. Then I saw a group of guys. The friendly one was in high school, one of my current students was with them and a student that dropped out. I spoke with them for a minute, but my student acted really strange, I don't know if he was doing something he shouldn't or what. I heard one of my girls was looking for me. The teachers were all standing there waiting for the countdown and just then two of my girls found me at the same time. They converged on me and hugged me from both sides. I was so excited to see them. It made my new years. After that they started the countdown. It was very underwhelming. The Marshallese just stood there and we were the only ones counting. When we reached zero we all yelled and hugged each other, but the Marshallese just stood there with drinks in there hand. Then the "fireworks" went off. It was three flairs fired in succession. Evidently fireworks are very hard to get here.

After that we all went home and ate at a family's house that lives on campus. Actually everyone else ate. It was after 1 am by then and I knew I'd be going to bed soon so I didn't eat. The other guys went and played Counter Strike for the rest of the night, but I went to bed and slept really well.

The Mancation

We had been planning a trip to Kallalan ever since we went camping there on Thanksgiving weekend. When we found out how expensive a boat was, no one wanted to pay it. They wanted to charge us $200 one way. With only about 15 people going, it wasn't worth it. But fortunately you can walk between all the islands, it's just a long ways. Some of us were down with hiking out there though.

The girls went back and forth for awhile but finally backed out. A couple of the guys backed out too so it ended up being Ben, Damien, Rudy, Mitch, and me. We took a boat to Enemanit and started walking the rest of the way. We started around 3:45 in the afternoon. By sundown we were at one of the Three Bag Islands, but we still had a long way to go. We walked for awhile after dark and then camped on a small, deserted island. The wind was crazy, but I slept ok for the most part. Rudy didn't bring a hammock so he piled up palm branches and slept on them. He slept horrible and woke up the next morning saying he wanted to go back. We finished the hike to the island and got there mid-morning. The tide was coming up and you can only do it at low tide. Rudy waited for low tide and left at 4:15 the same day to go back. Mitch left with him. I have no idea why they left so soon except that neither brought much food.

Ben, Damien and I had a blast after that. We went snorkeling a bunch. Large schools of fish swam past us while Black Tip Reef Sharks cruised the shallows for unsuspecting prey. Fish of every color, blue, green, red, yellow flitted in every crack and crevice. When it was too hot to do anything we would sit in our hammocks or lay on the beach reading or talking. A light went always blew through keeping us cool. Each of us took our turn climbing the thin coconut trees to chop down our food and water with machetes. We became expert at opening coconuts. We couldn't carry enough water so we relied on coconut milk to sustain us. I stayed hydrated the whole time.

We made a fire every night and every morning to cook over. One fire stands out. We made it on the point and it was a huge blazing beast. We made clothes from leaves and vines and danced around the fire. Ben and Damien lit dry palm fronds and ran around the beach waving them while I got it all on video.

One afternoon we practiced knife throwing with our machetes. With a given distance we got pretty good, but if the distance varied it went out the window.

We called it The Mancation because it was a man's vacations. It was the ultimate bro session.

Merry Christmas

We had a nice Christmas even though we are 7000 miles away from home. Christmas Eve we all jumped in the truck and drove down to Long Island. We sang Christmas carols as we went. The Assembly of God church put on a Christmas program. We got there at 7:20 and it was supposed to have started at 6 or something. Anyway, it was in full swing and we looked really bad walking in late. It was ok though because the program lasted until 9:15. I don't see how we could have missed anything.

A bunch of different singing groups got up. They ranged from little kids to groups of islanders from different islands such as Fiji, Tavula, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands. Some of them sang really loud with a lot of energy. It was long for me though.

Christmas Day we had dinner at 3 pm. It was very good with lots of food. I played Chess with one of the other guys. Then Chad came up and played Rudy, who is much better than me. Chad beat him easily. He has been playing sense he was 10 years old and he says he thinks at least 10 moves in the future. I don't even know how that is possible. I have a hard enough time counting 4 moves in the future. I think he won some type of championship.

After the meal we went upstairs and opened gifts. Everyone brought a 5 dollar gag gift and we played the elephant game. If the truth be told, Ben and I forgot all about it until the last minute and just brought stuff we got in packages from home. Some people put some real thought into it. I really wish I had gone out and gotten something. The popular gifts were a machete, a box of teddy bears and chocolate, and a toy sword that glowed and made noises. There was a 3 trade limit. I almost got the machete because I heard someone say two trades and I thought I had the last trade, but I was wrong and it got taken. The funniest thing all day was that Rudy bought some really stupid gag gifts like a Hannah Montana ball with candy in it. He decided to go through some complicated thing so that he could get the box of chocolate and ended up opening a present. Somehow he didn't recognize that it was his own present and got the Hannah Montana thing. No one would take it from him because it was super lame and everyone laughed about it all night. They decided it served him right.

That was pretty much Christmas Day in Majuro. Tonight Nicole came back from her week long trip to Pohnepei. She says it's a beautiful island. I'm happy here so I don't really care if other islands are better. The group is awesome and I know we'll have many more good times in the coming weeks and months.

End of School

I haven't posted on here for awhile because everything has been pretty regular. This week was the last week of school and I'm pretty stoked to start my Christmas vacation. I love my kids though and I can see how everyone has come so far. The grades are a little rough though and I think some of them are going to be disappointed with their grade. English is always a rough one for them because we are dealing with a lot of grammar. They have no idea what sounds right because they all say it wrong. They don't like the subject so they don't put much effort into and it shows.

This week we had a ton of finals. Some went good, others not so much. It's been a crazy week of grading and making tests and I'm so glad it's over. I still have some work to do, but I have a while to do it.

Today is Friday and so we had a party day. Marshallese are notorious about being late everywhere. They are usually within 30 minutes of on time for school. Today most of them didn't show up until an hour after we were suppose to get started. We watched Spiderman and then someone brought in this giant boom box. I haven't seen one of those since the 90s. It was pretty sick. They turned on some cultural music and cranked the subwoofer up. It was pretty fun. I had to keep telling them to turn it down because I was afraid one of the higher administration would make us turn it off. Everyone was being chill and relaxed though since it was the last day.

We each drew someone's name the week before and everyone brought gifts for people. It was really exciting opening the gifts. Some people went all out for there friends and got shoes and shirts and stuff. The kid that drew my name got me a t-shirt that says Marshall Islands. It's really cool and I'll wear it here and in the states. The girl that I got a gift for is super new here and so I was looking forward to getting her something because I want her to feel welcome. Unfortunately she didn't show up. It all worked out though because one of the other girls in the class is really quiet and not good friends with a lot of people. She threw down and got a bunch of stuff for Meesun, another girl in the class. But I looked around and no one had gotten her anything. I don't know who drew her name. I felt really bad but I had the gift I had gotten for Maniana, so I gave it to her. Fortunately I hadn't put a name on it and I don't think she knew the difference. It was a beach towel with a huge eagle on it. A couple of the girls got me some cool stuff as well. One bought me a mug that says Majuro, Marshall Islands. The other one got me a cultural necklace with the hardwood things. It's very islandy.

After that we were leaving to go to chapel and I saw a big group of people. I found out they were watching Edward, one of my students who is bigger than most of the highschool kids, and this kid I'd seen floating around. Sancha was there too and she looked really upset and scared. Everyone was super serious. I started asking people what was going on and one of the girls told me that this guy was after Sancha and she didn't like him. I went up to Sancha and asked if she was ok and she nodded her head. I asked if he did anything and she shook her head. I could tell by the way people were acting that he kinda had though. Edward told me he had been drinking and pretty soon several people had confirmed that fact. I went and told the principal but the kid had disappeared. I was really angry because he had messed with one of my girls. Sancha is the probably the most conservative girl in the class and the last one I would suspect of leading a guy on in the wrong direction. Some of the girls in my class are flirty, but she seems more reserved.

We were hanging out after chapel and most everyone had gone home but my class. The girls were doing some Hoola dancing and messing around. I looked outside and saw the sketchy kid come back. I ran out and grabbed him and told him he was going to the principals office. He asked, "Why?" and I was like, "After all the crazy stuff you've pulled today do you really have to ask?" I grabbed his arm and got him started in the right direction. I told the principal that the kids said he had been drinking and that I thought he was inappropriate with one of my students. The principal pulled out his counselling stuff and started asking him a ton of questions. The guy admitted to having drank alcohol and come to school. He said he liked Sancha for a long time and he was just telling her he was interested. After 15 minutes of this back and forth I left and hung out with my students. One of the girls told me that he had hug her and she told him not too and she left and he ran after her. She said both her and Sancha were afraid of him. Sancha just said that he asked her out and he didn't do anything inappropriate. Some of these islanders are really shy about stuff and most wouldn't talk to me about stuff like that. They keep things secret, even really bad stuff that happens. I could see she was really upset and scared and so I think this kid definitely went over the line. Maybe she doesn't want to get him in trouble.

The principal talked to him and sent him home. He told him that there would be consequences after break. I'm really unhappy with the lack of severity toward being drunk at school and questionable actions with a girl. I was going to tell the kid to never go near her again and scare him as best I could. When I was there the principal seemed to treat the whole thing with way too much calm. I told the girls to tell me if he bothered her at all. Hopefully they will tell me if it happens.

That was an exciting ending to a very fulfilling semester. We'll be on break the next couple weeks and have tons of fun planned.

The Camping Trip, November 29

We just got back from a two night camping trip to an island in the chain of Majuro Islands. Half of it belongs to Dennis Yates, the head of the Wellness Center. We left Friday morning and drove 45 minutes to this industrial place. I'm not sure why we had to meet the boat there rather than the regular pier. Even though we were about 30 minutes late the boat was nowhere to be found. They made a phonecall and said it was at Laura Point heading this direction. While we were waiting we climbed all over some huge dump trucks and climbed up and down large piles of gravel. We found a piece of plywood and slid down on it. Since that was more or less Thanksgiving, we were excited to be playing in "snow" and it made us feel more at home.

Finally the boat arrived about 45 minutes later. Two of us held the boat so it wouldn't hit the rocks and we started loading it up. There was no real dock or pier. Everything I brought and most of Ben's stuff fit in my big backpack. The rest of the SMs don't know how to pack for a camping trip and we ended up with a ton of stuff. The boat was not very big and by the time we loaded it up with our stuff, it was riding low. Then we looked around for the boat driver and couldn't find him. This Marshallese guy, who was suppose to be our guide, showed up and told us there wasn't enough gas. We had brought 10 gallons. The boat driver said that it was only enough to get to the island and he would run out on the return trip. Ben's family owns a boat and he said that was BS. Furthermore, Dennis had already given the man 100 dollars for gas and it was nowhere to be found. We ended up waiting another 30 minutes for someone to arrive with more gas. When we arrived we had only used a little out of one tank and we had tons more.

The trip over was long because the waves in the middle of the lagoon were very large and the boat was so loaded down with people and stuff that we couldn't go fast. We bobbed around in the ocean for a really long time before we finally got to the other side. The island was so beautiful. Nice sandy beaches, coconut trees, blue, green water, etc. It was everything a paradise island would be. We spent the weekend snorkeling, walking on the beach, building all manner of rafts and huts, and laying in our hammocks. It was a great getaway. Saturday night we played Capture the Flag. It got boring really fast because each side had a very good defense. I was offense and I spent lots of time crawling on my belly. I got within 30 feet of the flag a bunch of times but they had so many defense people that none of us could get to it without getting tagged. Finally the other team got a point, but we were all very bored by that point. Furthermore, Zac was running down the beach being chased by Nikol when he failed to see a palm tree that was growing horizon at waist height. He hit it at full speed and did a flip. Today he can barely walk due to a bruised leg. In a couple days he'll be fine.

We had some nice worships and reflection times. It was a spiritual as well as fun weekend. It was very nice to have extra time to hang out with people. Rob went off by himself for a couple hours. Ben, Rudy and I went looking for him. We found him on the beach with his own fire. We sat and had a great spiritual conversation with him. A group of us guys sat around a fire on the beach one night and talked about right and wrong of stuff. We had some great conversations that we wouldn't have had here at Majuro due to distractions like movies, video games, books, vespers, etc that keep us busy in the evenings. It would get boring very fast if we were on that island all the time, but it was a nice getaway.

Kirsten

This morning I went to worship as usual. Some of the SMs got up early and went to breakfast at the wellness center. They came back looking depressed and said they had bad news. Jon said a Southern student on Yap was killed. I couldn't believe it and I was like, no. Then they said it was Kirsten Wolcott and gave me the printout of the news article. I was so shocked I was like, "You have to be kidding." It finally sank in and I was really depressed.

Let me go back to when I first met Kirsten. My brother and I went to a game night at Southern. Some people were hanging out at an apartment. Most of the people there were Outdoor Leadership majors. Wyntre, an OL major, brought her room mate Kirsten. We played Clue with several people and I was introduced to her. I remember thinking that she was really cute and seemed nice from the brief talking we did.

I didn't see her for a long while. Then I joined the Student Mission class right after Spring Break. I sat all over the room in that class because I always came in late and just grabbed whatever seat was empty. One day I was asking Lauren (who's in Majuro now) about something and Kirsten was sitting next to Lauren. So by accident I ended up sitting next to her. We remembered each other and both of us knew Wyntre. After that it wasn't an accident that I sat by her every class and I was better about being on time as well.

I thought she was really cute and I finally worked up the nerve to ask her out during finals week. To my surprise she said yes. We had a great time at IHOP and Rock City. The next day she left for summer vacation. We talked often on the phone after that and discovered we had a lot in common. We both liked the outdoors and loved God. Unfortunately, both of us were planning to go overseas to different places. Even so, she invited me to come see her in Virginia. I didn't need a second invitation and jumped on a plane.

That weekend was awesome. We went to Jamestown where there is a model early American settlement. They live a large river and we played in the water there. She baby-sat two kids who were about 6 years old. I remember being struck by how good she was with them. She was loving and gentle, but directed them away from all harm. I could tell that she loved kids. She was an Elementary Education major in college and I could tell her life passion was working with kids. When I complemented her on it she said simply, "It's what I do." Her family was really nice and very close. I enjoyed talking with her two older brothers, Dad, who is a dentist, and her mom, who is a school teacher. They all welcomed me and saw to it that I had the best time possible. When their boat died, they borrowed an aunt's boat and we went wakeboarding. It was a very fun afternoon on the water.

We both thought that we could have a future together, but didn't want to do anything before the year overseas. I was hoping that after the year there could be something.

The next time I saw her was in Hawaii. She was excited to be going to Yap. Unlike me, she had taken the time to plan everything she would need along the trip. She was so organized and had everything together. One morning a bunch of the SMs got up at 5 am and we walked up Diamonds Head. It is the tallest place in Hawaii. I walked with her all the way up and we enjoyed chatting about our summer and what we would do in the islands. We jogged for awhile, which is something she enjoyed doing every morning. We hung out on the beach and in the shops of Honolulu on the afternoon off. I had a great time just hanging out with her. She was such a fun, happy person. She was always positive about everything. Her Virginia accent cracked me up and I made a little fun of her sometimes.

We had an SM dedication service the night before we all left. I sat next to her and on the bus ride back. She was an early morning person and it was late so she was tired. After we got off the bus I said goodbye, because I knew she wouldn't be up as early as us the next morning. (My group had to leave at 4 am.) I remember being very sad and wanting to cry, but I just said a simple goodbye and we left. I think I'll always remember what she was wearing and the way she looked that night.

Even though I only knew her a short time, I knew that she was an amazing person. She was a spiritual, solid, good person. She was also lots of fun. It's hard to believe she's gone. I feel for the whole Wolcott family. They are all so close and I can't imagine what they are going through. While I was in Virginia they were very protective of their little girl. She would call them before she left places and when she got there so they wouldn't worry. I'm very thankful for the time I was able to spend with Kirsten and wouldn't change anything. When I left her house in Virgina she got up at 4:30 am to take me to the airport. On the ride I told her, "I've looked a long time and I know that a girl as good as you doesn't come along very often. You're a better person than me." She just gave a little laugh and said, "I don't know if that's true."

This weekend, Nov. 16th

This weekend was quite fun. Sabbath was pretty normal. Saturday night we walked down to Payless for icecream like we always do Saturday night. It's nice break from the campus and we all talk and have a great time walking over. When a couple of the guys were walking over, Dennis, the head guy at the Wellness Center, offered for us to come over to the center and eat. We were super stoked and headed over. There were three huge pots of food. He had them left over from Diabetes Awareness Day. We dug in and ate a lot. Afterward, some people stayed and watched a movie on his projector. I went back and played some video games with some of the rest of the guys.

All was well until 4:30 am when it hit everyone. Evidently some of the soup had been sitting for too long and pretty much everyone got diarrhea. It was all good because it only lasted a couple hours until it cleaned us out. We were taking turns sitting on the toilet in our apartment.

Sunday, five of us went to the dive place. This dive instructor does odd jobs and has been certifying some people here. He found this boat that had been lost 8 years ago. It was sunk on the bottom and no one could find it. He drug it up close and was floating it with air bags. It was still completely under water. We spent two hours scraping barnacles off the bottom. It was hard work, but a nice change. We all got free dives out of it, so that was sweet. We still haven't taken them, but he said we could come any time and he'd give us equipment to dive. Normally a dive costs $25. Two hours of work works out to be $12.50 an hour, which isn't bad. Plus I haven't dove in four years and it was great to get back in.

Three Stories

I have collected three stories that I want to share. The first two come from Jeh. Paul and Chad are out their living it big. I wouldn't want to be in their place. They eat breadfruit, coconut, rice, and fish all the time. Paul is good at spear fishing and catches quite a bit.

The first story he was out spear fishing. For those that don't know what it is, he snorkels around with a big spear gun. It shoots out long spears and then you pull it back in with a fish on the end. Jeh is a very pretty island with deep reefs, lots of big fish, and big sharks. So he was out looking for fish and he found this big one. He started closing in on it and was about to shoot when something large knocked him out of the way. A large shark pushed past him and ate the fish he was about to shoot. I think he about pooped in his pants. I don't know what kind it was, but probably a Tiger Shark. Damien said he saw a 12 foot one when he was out there.

So Paul was catching fish. They had a cat that they brought to Jeh to eat the rats that live there. They cooked up some fish and decided to share it with their pet cat. Before they ate any they threw some to the cat. It started eating it and then looked up really strange. It jumped around for a minute and then fell over. It looked dead, so they tried to do CPR on it. Finally, it woke back up, but didn't move for several days. The fish they had caught was a poisonous fish. One lady on the island had eat it years ago and was still paralyzed from the waist down. Even doctors in Hawaii couldn't cure her. If Paul or Chad had eaten it that would have been the end of their teaching career. God was really looking out for them.

The last story happened on Friday. Coach Zac, Jon, the seventh grade teacher, and I were sitting watching the kids play for PE. We were talking among ourselves and not paying to much attention. Some guys came running over and started yelling, "They're fighting, they're fighting!" I looked over and saw one kid (Mathus) leaning over another one(Ariel). Ariel was sitting on a bench. The Mathus was punching for all he was worth. I was the first one to make it over there and grabbed Mathus behind the arms and tore him off. I pushed him away and he turned as if to punch me. He saw it was me and stopped. When I turned around I thought Ariel was going to be bloody the way Mathus was laying into him. Fortunately, he must have been blocking pretty good with his hands because he only had a small black eye. Zac and Jon drug him off to the office and he got suspended for a week. It was a good thing that it wasn't one of my large eighth graders because I wouldn't have been able to budge them. There are even two seventh graders that outweigh me by a lot. If it was one of the bigger kids, it would have taken two of us to pull them apart.

Quick Week, 11/13

Well, Friday the 13th is suppose to be unlucky, but it went alright. All week we've been having Week of Prayer. Every morning we had songs and special music and then one of the SMs would share a message. At the end we would get in a circle and say a prayer with our class. The boys and girls wouldn't hold each other's hands, so the circle was usually broken in one or two places. Crazy kids. I got a blessing from the meetings. The SMs put some good thought into the messages and singing with the kids is fun because they get so into and sing really LOUD. I also liked it because I didn't have to teach for the first period. Can't argue with that. Next week I'm back to teach again. But I don't mind.

This week we were studying verbs in English class. I assigned some stuff out of the book about tenses of verbs. The kids did great on it. The next day I told them to write a fake diary or journal using the four tenses we studied. One kid completed the assignment correctly. They wrote stuff, but it only had two tenses. Marshallese is a very simple language and they only have three tenses. They don't change the verb in tenses either. They just put a word in front that means past, future or present. I went back the next day and told them all to do the assignment over and gave them some extra instruction. They complained a lot about it, but they really need this. When we started out with verbs I told them this was really important for them. They wanted to know why and I said, "I see your writing, you do this wrong all the time." They can pick it out of a book and tell you what the right tense is, but they can't use it correctly in a written sentence, or a spoken one for that matter. I've gotta figure out how to teach them this. Obviously the standard stuff hasn't worked. They can do the book work but it hasn't helped them write better.

I found out recently that a large percentage of the students in our school can't pay for school. This is a problem because the school is going deeper and deeper into debt to the whole island because the budget isn't balancing. Basically, if these kids had been paying the last several years, we wouldn't be so far into debt. Lots of things are really expensive out here, power being one of them. This doesn't make it easy to balance a budget. Some of the kid's parents can pay, but don't because they haven't been made to pay the last few years. The principal is going to get on their cases. On the other hand, their are some kids who want a Christian education and just can't afford it. I really believe the quality of education here is much better than the public schools. The kids in the public schools tend to be low class, troubled, and come from broken homes, or no homes at all. Even in my class so many of my kids live with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, or are just straight up adopted. Many kids are had out of wedlock here and the parents have no money to raise them because they are kids themselves. One of my students dropped out of school because she is pregnant. She's 14 years old in 8th grade.

We are all looking for financial support for worthy poor students who want a Christian education and take their classes seriously. We are carefully going over the students to find ones that people from the US could sponsor. If you are reading this and want to help sponsor someone, you can let me know at icemanvr6@gmail.com . I don't know the details yet, I don't even think the principal has fleshed everything out. I do know that tuition is $75 a month for elementary and $90 for high school. Any help is appreciated. On the outer islands we're having the same issue, but tuition is much cheaper. A year's tuition is $250 on Jeh or Woja. A donation goes a long ways out there. I'll post a blog sometime about how they are doing on Jeh and Woja. There are some really exciting stories coming to us from there, but I'm out of space so I'll save it for another blog.

Sabbath again

Well it's nice to have another Sabbath. I was looking back at this week and really saw how God was encouraging in the little things.

After our day from hell a lot of the SMs were really bummed. I wasn't depressed, but I woke up Thursday morning with a sore throat. I didn't want to talk all day with a sore throat so I sent Mitch in as a sub. He works in maintenance and helps out wherever he is needed. I slept most of the morning and took some medicine so I felt better at lunch time. I cooked for everyone in the apartment and then took over my class for the afternoon.

When I got there two different girls came up and told me they missed me and was glad I was back. It made me feel so special.

The next day I was eating lunch in the apartment next door. One of the guys look out the window and said someone was looking for me. I came out and a group of the girls in my class were at my apartment. I went over to see what was up. They handed me a tray of food and said they had it left over and wanted me to have it. What was even cooler is that usually it's just hot dogs and rice or chicken and rice. But recently the wellness center started making vegetarian stuff for ort cafeteria. The kids knew that I am a vegetarian and so they brought me this vegetarian meal. It was really good too.

Even though we've had a rough time with some disappointments God is looking out for us and encouraging us with little things. On Friday a group from Southern sent us a bunch of stuff. It was so exciting to get stuff from friends at school. The letters they sent to tell us what is going on was as exciting as the stuff they sent.

The Day From Hell

Today Murphy pretty much was crowned king. This was the craziest day we've ever had. It all started with PE. Wednesday morning my class goes straight from chapel to PE. I make it over there along with all the girls in my class and there is a distinct lack of males running around causing trouble. I went looking for them and found all the guys in my class plus some 7th graders sitting under a palm tree. Didn't really surprise me. I sent them to Coach and told him to punish them for hanging out. He threatens to send them to the office and several openly laugh at him. "Send us to the office," they said, "They don't do anything to us anyway." This highlights a huge lack of discipline coming from higher up. The principal is gone this week so it is their misfortune to deal with John-Dale, who had some backbone in this area. He put them to work for a couple hours.

They came back to my class and all was well for awhile. At lunch the guys who live next do come out ready to kill someone. All of their money from their wallets was stolen from the apartment. These guys had been working right next to the apartment and could see the door was open. All the guys in my class got shaken down but the two people who were most suspect were no where to be found. One of them showed back up, but no one would say a word. Finally, we got a kid who isn't in with the crowd to say that after we pressured them they came out and said to each other it was Johnny, the only kid not there. I find it unlikely he'll come back to school after that. The whole apartment is about ready to beat him up on sight.

The day only got worse. We went out surfing, hoping for a stress reliever. Some big sets were rolling in and I jumped on a couple double overhead waves. They were some steep, hard, drops with long sections ending in closeouts. Damien caught one and when it closed out I saw him swimming. This is not good because he should be paddling on his board. About half an hour later he comes back out and told me his leash broke. It happens, but not often. Zac was out on my big fish because he damaged his board a few days ago. I caught my wave of the day and it took me forever to get back out because of the huge sets rolling in. When I finally caught up with the rest of the crew Zac was not there. They said his (my) leash broke and he went in chasing my board. It ended up on the rocks beat to crap with a fin broken off. We'll see if it's fixable. That's two leashes snapping in one day. Then it got even worse. I was paddling around trying to catch 5 and 6 foot (Hawaiian, which means 10-12 foot faces) waves. I looked up and saw this giant braking outside of me. Later Cameron told me it was easily 8 foot Hawaiian (16 foot face) triple overhead. I duck dove as deep as possible but it sucked me up. Tony was inside of me and got worked really bad. I popped up after the wave went over and saw him holding half his board. I realized that this whitewater is scary enough with a good board under you and he's only got half a board. Plus he'll need help looking so I started paddling in. With a whole board under me I was able to make it in on a rough, rocky section of shore with crashing waves. He freaked out because he was being swept around the point. I stayed close and made sure he was ok. I directed him around some rocks and helped him out. Some locals had already found the other half of his board on shore. We probably won't be able to put it back together.

I've never seen so many people so depressed. Damien had been sucked over the falls on a big one he was trying to paddle into and hit his head on his board. We think he may have gotten a concussion because he saw stars for a few moments. Ben was pissed after snorkeling around and fighting the currents for a long time. Obviously Tony is depressed about his board. Everyone else in the apartment is upset about the stolen money. We'll bounce back, but it will be a rough week for sure. Today was just one of those days. Tomorrow has to be better.

Halloween Party

Sabbath was Halloween so we decided to have a Halloween/Birthday Party because Katrina was turning 20 years old. It was the most fun Saturday night we have had on this island.

Before hand I was sitting on the rocks talking to this local guy. He was really cool and it seems like it's the first time I've connected with a local who is my age since I've been here. Most of them have kids and a family (which don't always come together) and have to be so much older. This guy was probably 19 or 20, but he had graduated from high school. He told me all about his home island and how he grew up in Rita with gangs. One guy he knew got killed in a gang fight when someone knocked him down and then dropped a large rock on his head. Crazy stuff.

I was talking with this guy when Rob and Ben came out trying to figure something out for costumes for the party. Rob was wanting a grass skirt. The local guy said he knew how to make one. He tore a branch off a tree and wrapped it around and there there was the grass skirt. Ben grabbed one and Rob and Ben were primitive Marshallese in grass skirts.

Katrina came out wearing giant pink glasses and a transformers t-shirt, she was a nerd. Charity came out with face paint and a jersey as a football player. Mitch couldn't figure out what to do. I suggested him mess his hair up and carry a bottle in a bag as a wino. He came out with nothing and I ask him why. He said he didn't want to put out that image. Cameron came out in a giant afro wig. Shari was an angel with wings and pink and purple hair. Zac was a gangster rapper with a huge chain on his neck, grill made with tinfoil, jersey, and ipod speakers blairing rap music. Tony painted his face into a skull and wore a torn, black and white shirt. Finally, I borrowed a Moomoo from one of the girls, strapped a pillow to my butt, and stuffed clothes in my shirt for breasts.

With all these crazy characters we went wild. Ben and Rob danced around the fire yelling primitive grunts and noises. They played hot potato with a coal until in flew off into the rocks. Tony and Zac danced to Zac's ipod and I jumped in there and danced the girl parts with my huge pillow booty. They turned on Baby's Got Back and I was dancing while they smacked my butt and pointed. Right in the middle of that I looked up and the principal, Lenny, was there. He didn't seem to mind, but it was a crazy time for him to show up. Katrina loved grabbing my "boobs" and the girls couldn't stop laughing at my costume.

Then the girls got the cake and started singing Happy Birthday to Katrina. Someone grabbed some cake and started putting it on Katrina's face. She put cake on their face and it got wild again with everyone running around. We got out the pinyada and Katrina wacked at it with a blindfold until it burst and the candy came out. We told scary stories for awhile until everyone got throughly freaked out so we said a prayer and we felt better. Zac admitted to thinking about Halloween and demon possession right before leaving the AV Room one night. It was late and he was alone. He got outside and got scared so he ran all the way back to his apartment. It was kinda funny to think of him running across campus because he was scared.

After that we all jumped in the ocean. The tide was low and it was a moonlit night. We swam in the tidal pools for awhile and then took showers. After that some of us played games in the AV Room until late. It was the best Saturday night so far.

Parent Teacher Conferences

I haven't written in my blog for awhile because not a lot has happened. Thursday was report card day and parent teacher conferences. It went surprisingly well. We didn't expect many people to show up, but more than half the parents in most classes came.

We got off school at noon so we would have time to get ready. It was nice to have a half-day and the kids enjoyed it too. After school we had a few hours to relax and ready everything. At 4 pm the parents started showing up. Since Marshallese time is considerably laid back, I was surprised when two parents showed up 10-15 minutes after. It was really nice to spend some time talking with them. One of my kids is "special" and I found out it is because he had some high fevers when he was little and the doctors said it messed up a nerve in his brain or something. It was nice to spend some time talking with the parents. They spoke much better English than I thought they would.

The three hours actually went by a lot more quickly than I thought they would. It was partially due to the fact we were watching a movie when the parents weren't there. I had two students helping me out with checking off parents. The principal told us to do that, but next time I won't bother. It was just as easy for me to do it myself. All in all it went really well and I had 14 kids parents represented out of 21. One or two came for two kids, so it was 12 or 13 parents.

Stressful Week, Oct. 16th

Today is the last day of the first quarter. I can't believe I am 25% through the year. It has flown by. This week was very, very, busy due to a ton of tests. We are all trying to get the last stuff in before the deadline. Sunday and next week we'll have to grade everything and get the grades done. I'm a little nervous, but I think they students should do ok with their grade. I calculated Bible and only one guy is failing who has been here the whole time. It 100% his fault. On the bright side, he has started trying of late and got a couple Cs on tests, which is a huge improvement from the 20% stuff he used to come in with. I still have one guy that get's those grades. Today he got 3 out of 24 points on a test. The other problem is he has missed weeks of class. Honestly, he doesn't learn much more in class than if he sits at home. He just sits and stares into space or sleeps in my class. I try not to let him do that.

All week the surf has been really small and choppy. On top of that, the tides have been off for us to go out. Suddenly, on Thursday it was firing again. I looked out at 2:00, an hour before school is over, and one teacher and one sub/maintenance guy are already out there. I had to stay with my kids because that day Katrina didn't give art because she was busy covering for one of the guys out surfing. It was killing me until I could finally get out there.

I paddled out and got really lucky with a lull right when I went out. The sets were HUGE and barreling nicely. I have two pictures on Facebook that show how big the waves and tubes were that day. It was crazy. I only took off on one wave. I stayed too high because Dameon was right there and I didn't want to hit him. Later he said he was waiting to see what I would do and told me to come right for him next time. He's really good at duck diving. I didn't even think about who was there, I was just trying to survive. I made it a little ways and got pitched over the lip, went down almost to the reef, and tumbled in the "washing machine." Fortunately, it was really deep and I didn't hit the reef, but I got held down about 20 seconds. Despite all this, I the sickest surfing picture of my life. It's on Facebook. Right now it's my background for my computer. Everytime I look at it I have to stop and just shake my head. It's clear the wave is double over head, or about 12 feet tall, and I'm under the lip, but really high. So sick.

This morning I brought my computer to class and showed all my kids the pictures. They were super stoked about it. After the three tests today, we opened the letters from my mother's 6th grade class. They liked them a lot and wrote some letters back. That was really cool. It's so nice to have Friday and after that Sabbath.

It's a Miracle! Oct. 8th

Ben found my camera today! After a week bouncing around on the reef it was still there! Cameron, Ben and I prayed about it and I really believe it is a miracle we found it. On the downside, it doesn't seem to work to take pictures. The lens cover doesn't want to open. Still, all is not lost. First, we have a good battery and 8 gig micro SD card in it that are just fine. Plus, I've heard that the company will replace it if there is water damage. It's great we were able to find it.

Today was an epic surf day. The waves ranged from head and a half to a couple triple overhead sets. That's 15 foot faces. Dameon dropped in one one of those. I couldn't believe my eyes. Everyone was duck diving to try not to get sucked up and he's going the other way trying to catch it. Dameon got several epic rides. I posted a picture of him in a tube on facebook. It's amazing. I've pulled into those a bunch of times, but have only gotten to ride in it once. You have to be in the right place at the right time and be pretty good to stay in it. He's got his hand stuck in the wave to slow him down so he can stay in the tube and not ride out of it. That picture was from the day we lost the camera, a week ago.

Today I made some sweet drops and pulls into some really clean, overhead waves. It was really nice. I also went over the falls on one that was probably double overhead. I don't know how I didn't hit the reef because I was riding the lip down without my board. God protected me. When I popped up from that wave Dameon was trying to drop in on a wave. He was way late and got pitched from the lip. He almost landed on top of me. I duck dived deep. It was all I could do. I rarely get pitched because I err on the cautious side and pull out if I don't think I can make the drop. From a surfer point of view, I need to start trying those hard drops. On the other hand, Dameon and Cameron hit the reef all the time pulling into those late waves and I kinda like staying off it. Cameron broke the tip of his board today. It is still attached, but it's really flappy. It's going to be a hard repair. It's a mess. He got caught in white wash. That same thing happened to me today and I barely held onto my board. The nose of mine hit the reef but it only nicked it. I'll put some reson on that and it'll be fine.

Crazy day, Sept 7

Today was Wednesday so we went to chapel as usual. Right before chapel their were passing around schedules for the high school. The only time it effects me is PE. I was talking it over with the Sub for 7th grade and we realized we couldn't take PE at 10:30 like we usually do on Wednesday. They changed the schedule around and we'd go right after chapel. I was a little frustrated because they keep changing things around. I'd just gotten it worked out to look after 7th grade from 10:30 to 11 along with my kids so Jon and Cameron wouldn't have a gap and leave 7th grade without someone to look after them. That didn't appear to be a problem today. I guess the change in schedule worked that out.

We got to PE and Zac, the Coach, was out sick so we had Dameon. We start into stretches and everything is fine. Then he starts to have them play soccer. The girls instantly run over to me and start getting all excited. I realize they are used to having a free day on Wednesday because we usually don't have a teacher. Thursday is free day. They are used to having two free days per week. I tell them that Dameon is the coach and they have to do what he says. I figure it'll be good for them to play something other than volleyball and basketball for a bit. The boys play first and it goes ok. They play a little handball because everyone out here disregards the rules of a sport and just does what they want. One kid from 7th grade spent the whole time running around the gym because he stayed in trouble with Dameon. When it was the girls turn they get out there and immediately start playing volleyball on the soccer court when Dameon throws it up to start the game. This pisses him off so he yells a bit and starts making them run laps. They get mad and start making a huge amount of noise and doing as little running as possible. The next class comes in early when the whole place is pandemonium. Boys are playing basketball, girls are running in circles, and there is no order at all. Dameon lines the guys up and us teachers take them off. He keeps the girls another 10 minutes and runs them about 20 laps around the gym. At one point two girls threw a cone up into the basketball hoop and got it stuck there. Dameon handed out a bunch of punishments and let them go.

On the way back to my class they were really angry and didn't want to do anything I said. I realized the whole day would be hell if I didn't gain control, and fast. When I got everyone in, I got everyone quiet and started into my talk. I told them, "I'm really disappointed in the way you girls acted this morning. I expected you to be much more mature than that." I used a real subdued voice and conveyed disappointment rather than anger. I knew that Dameon had been yelling at them all morning and if I yelled it would just make my day that much harder. I finished off by telling them I had a movie to watch for Social Studies, but if they didn't change the way they had been acting that I was going to call that off. They shaped right up. I had no problems with them after that.

In the afternoon we did speeches. I'm trying to get them used to speaking English clearly so that people can understand. Some of them were very hard to understand, but they made a real effort and I think it was a success. The girls did their speeches on how to cook various stuff. Several of them brought food to demonstrate and we all ate cake and donuts. Not a healthy time, but we had fun. It took the edge off their dislike for getting up in front of people and giving speeches.

Even though this day started out with the most chaos I've seen since I've been here, it ended quite well. In music class we sang Making Melodies. I was going to sit and just watch, but my girls called me out. Even though they were kidding and didn't think I'd do it, I stood up and did the motions because they asked me to and they loved it.

My Students, Oct 6th, 2009

I just wanted to share a little story about my students. They made me so happy. On Friday we had chapel. Rudy and the 9th grade lead out in it. They had a skit in which these freshman act like teachers. The crowd has to guess which teacher it is. They did things like saying "This is awesome" and everyone knew that was Rob because he says that all the time. Nicole's was particularly embarrassing because this girl walks by and everyone whistles at her. Nicole is known as the "hot" teacher. Then this kid goes walking by with this slouchy walk with his head down. I had already been tipped off that they were making fun of me, so I figured it was me. A bunch of the kids go, "That's him!" and point at me because they don't know my name. None of the teachers know where they got that slouchy walk from, but somehow they think it is how I walk. I was a little puzzled, but it didn't bother me too much.

Today, Monday, I was talking to one of the other teachers. They said that after chapel some of the 8th grade girls were crying. They asked them, "Why are you crying?" and the 8th graders responded that they were crying because they felt bad for Mr. Brannaka because people were making fun of him. They said, "He should be allowed to go home." The teachers asked, "You mean the kids should be sent home for making fun of him?" "No," They responded, "He should be allowed to go home so he can be happy."It really touched me that my kids care about me that much. The other teachers were like, "I wish my kids would cry for me. They must really like you." My girls are really sweet and I've been able to connect with them. I'm so glad I got 8th grade. Even though some of them cause trouble sometimes and I have to stay on top of them about being quiet and being on time, I feel like I must be making a difference if I've been able to connect with them like that. It's very encouraging.

Friday, Oct. 2

I had a good week, but there were some complications. On one hand, I got to go surfing almost every day and got some sweet rides there. Today I did a floater and an off the lip turn. The waves were smaller, but big enough to get some good speed. Once in awhile a huge set would come in. I pulled into one of those big ones going left. I made a sweet drop grabbing rail, stood up a little and went down the line. Right before it closed out I went over the back, hitting the lip. I didn't have enough speed and the timing was off to get air, but it was a sweet ride anyway. When I started I'd say the wave was overhead. Most of the way it was at least shoulder high. I'm working on my backhand style and it's starting to get better. I can feel my skill both ways improving and that's a good feeling. The complications I talked about is that Ben was using my camera to take surfing pics in the ocean yesterday like he always does. He loves doing that and he's getting really good at taking sweet pics. When he decided to go in he stuffed the camera in his pocket and body surfed in. When he got there it was missing. We thought we could find it because the reef has so many pockets and holes we figured it was trapped someplace or the string caught on some coral. We've been out 3 times with no luck. We're starting to loose hope. He offered to pay for it if we can't find it. We're both sick about loosing it. I used it all the time. Last week we went to Laura and I got some nice pics of that. I'm going to miss it until we can replace it.

Tsunami Big Wave Wednesday, Sept. 30

Today started out pretty normal. My class had chapel. We got up and sang some songs. Then one of my girls played the Ucayali and sang. It was actually really good. The principal had a meeting with some of the teachers while I was having chapel. We had a tsunami watch. First we did a drill and got everyone in the court yard. He explained that at 9:45 am there could be a tsunami wave, but they didn't expect it to be big and the tide was out so that helped too. If it was going to be big, we were suppose to go upstairs. We watched the ocean a lot, but didn't see anything big. As the day went on I kept looking out and the waves kept getting bigger and bigger. The "break" right in front of my classroom is called Graveyards because if you surf there it'll be your graveyard. In seconds you can be in ankle deep water. The waves were so long and huge.

Of course after school I run out there and paddle out. Dameon, Zac and Tony beat me because I had to give a test to a student who had been sick. Cameron and I paddled out together. The waves were bigger than we had ever seen them out here. When I got there Zac was raving about a tsunami wave going down his throat and carrying him around the whole island. Dameon said it was a solid 8 foot Hawaiian, which means it had a 16 foot face. It broke way out from where they were surfing and took everyone away. We were to see more of those. Most of the waves were in the head and a half to double overhead range. Once in awhile a set would roll in that was a solid triple overhead and we'd paddle like crazy and duckdive. A couple times I didn't make it through and I got thrown into the washing machine. It's crazy in there. By the time you can paddle back out you are a good 300 yards away from where you started. It takes 15 minutes against the current to paddle back to where you were. 20 seconds in a couple triple overhead waves will do that.

I was able to catch about 4 waves. One I didn't set good and it was really choppy and I got thrown off the back when I was trying to drop in. Another wave just ended up being total junk. I jumped on one big, but choppy wave. It didn't have a sweet line, but it had a line. I was hauling butt down and I head Cameron yell, go faster. I looked back and saw him on the same wave, going the same direction behind me. It was pure hotness. Then I caught the wave of the day. I was in the perfect spot. I felt the board pull and stood up going left. That is back-hand for me meaning my back was to the wave. I'm not as good that way. A sweet line opened up and it was completely smooth. I made the drop and pulled into it. I was in the perfect spot. For the drop I was balled up grabbing rail. I came out of it a bit and stood up a little for the ride down. I came out the other end and yelled so loud everyone could hear me. Dameon said it was a really sweet ride. Unfortunately, Ben was not paying attention for that one and I've got no pics. But it was the ride of the week. It felt so good.

Teusday, September 29th

Sunday Ben and I went down to Laura, which is the other end of the island. The island is very narrow and a lot of the time you can see the ocean on both sides. But it is pretty long. It took us an hour to get down to Laura, and we aren't even on the other end of the island. We can go 20 minutes car ride the other direction. It makes a big half circle with some islands making up the other half of it. We spent some time with the couple from Laura. I don't think they hang out with Americans much and they seemed to enjoy Ben and I hanging out with them. We swam out past the reef, which took us 20 minutes. It was so far, even though it looked close. There were lots of fish and Ben saw a mantaray. At first I did a couple dives down to 30 or 35 feet. Then something moved in my head and I started getting sinus squeeze really bad and I couldn't even break 5 feet after that without my head feeling like it would explode.

Monday was a pretty typical day. We did our usual school work. For Music class we were suppose to come up with a cheer for our class. The kids wanted to make a dance, but they didn't come up with any ideas. I had some random ideas that I was trying to piece together. Today we had another chance to finish it. I talked to Zac before hand and got some ideas for a cheer and put them together with some of my ideas. We started off in a circle beating a rythm by clapping and stuff. We walked around in a circle singing "We will, We will, Rock you!" Then we stopped and I asked, "What time is it? GAME TIME" Everyone echoed. "Are my dogs in the house? ARF ARF" "Who are we? SHRENS" The Shrens is their basketball team. I have no idea what it means. Then we all put or hands together and yelled. Rudy took some video of it which he'll clip together. At some point it'll go on the internet. That was super fun. I have a lot of enthusiasm and I jumped around and acted stupid which hyped the kids and they yelled really loud and it turned out way better than I thought it would. 7th Grade still ended up beating us in the "competition" with a chant that rimed and some break dancing. You can't win everything.

Welcome Back Party Time, Sept. 25th

Praise the Lord this was a four day week. It's so nice to have one of those. Last night, (Thursday), we had a welcome back party for the high school. It took forever for people to start showing up. We started an hour late. We had games where the classes got to compete against each other. The Sophemores ended up winning. They had the best turnout I think. The Freshman did too. The Juniors barely had anyone there. Shari, the teacher who heads us SA, came up with all these crazy games. They had to sit on balloons and pop them and two people run with their legs tied to the other person's leg. They played musical chairs with the guy's knees as chairs. The most fun one was Dance Freeze. DJ Zac played music and when it stopped everyone had to stop dancing, if they didn't they got eliminated. I was a bit shy at first by I finally loosened up and started dancing too. Since it's an SDA school and the people over here are more careful about that stuff than we are in the states, the dancing was clean and everything. No one had seen my moves before and the other SMs thought it was insanely entertaining. I found it quite enjoyable. I love to dance. After the games, we had a small talent show. Some of the girls did Hawaiian dances and the the guys did the Soulja Boy Dance. A couple of them could actually break dance pretty ok. A lot of them were embarrassed about it I guess, so they wore masks and wouldn't tell anyone who was up there. Some of the teachers figured it out and talked to the kids, but they denied it was them. Maybe they just didn't want the teachers to know, idk.

This morning I got up early with Dameon and Tony to go surfing. After staying up late last night, I didn't want to, but Dameon harassed me until I came out. I'm glad I did. The waves were weird, but a lot bigger than they have been lately and pretty clean. I got some sweet rides in. I wish I had taken me short board. I took my fish because I thought the waves would be really small like they have been the last few days. I ended up having to try some crazy drop-ins on a shallow reef with a board way to thick and long for it. It was ok because I didn't get any new cuts on the reef, which actually surprised me a lot.

Internet!

Yay! We got high speed internet here at the school. Some of us thought that would never happen. We've been promised for a long time. The only downside is that we have to pay by the megabyte or minute. It works out to 10 cents a minute or $1 for 10 megs. As long as you don't download more than 10 megs in 10 minutes, paying per meg is the better deal. Still, it's expensive either way. I'll probably be going back to RMI, the resort that has internet. You can buy steamed rice for $1.25 and use the internet all afternoon. But it can be really slow. I haven't been able to get Skype to work more than three times, and even then, I couldn't here the other people a lot of the time. It'll be nice to make phone calls here. With phone cards being 49 cents a minute, even paying by time is cheaper than calling on a landline. From what I've heard, Skype VOIP doesn't use much bandwidth so if you pay by the meg you can talk for a long time. We'll see, I can't wait to make phone calls on Sunday.

Sickness, Tuesday, Sept. 15

I've had a hard three days. Sabbath morning I got up and went to Sabbath School. When I woke up I had a headache, but I didn't think much of it. The longer I stayed in SS the worse I felt. When that was over I went back to my apartment and slept until 1:30. After potluck, I slept and watched Planet Earth on Principal Grant's couch. His house it air conditioned so it's the hang out spot for Sabbath afternoons. In the evening I felt better so I didn't worry about it.

Sunday morning I woke up and went to the AV room to do some grading. I started feeling bad around the same time. I layed on the couch most of the day and did my lesson planning when I felt good for brief periods.

Monday I got up and felt good so I ate a nice breakfast. We took our classes over to the school next door because they had a Navy Brass Band there. The show was really good but part way through I started feeling bad again. I went back to my room and layed on my bed. I sweeted quite a bit the other days, but Monday was crazy. I was poring sweet and I wasn't hot. I took two showers in an hour and I just stayed wet. Finally it blew over and John-Dale took me to the hospital. They took blood and urine samples and said it would be ready the next day.

Tuesday felt better, but I was still tired. I taught until 1 pm and then went to the hospital. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to go through all the red tape, but finally they told me I had an infection someplace, likely sinus'. They gave me anti-biotics for $17 and let me go. I just took the first ones and I expect them to work quick. When I've had sinus infections in the past it has always cleared up quickly with medicine.

I'm feeling better and things are looking up. It's tough to be sick and have responsibilities. I hope I can get well and stay there for awhile.

Another day... Sept 9th

This is hump day and I'm so glad. The first half of the week was pretty stressful. Monday went ok, just a normal day. Tuesday three of my students got caught drinking alcohol on campus. I found out they had been drinking all morning in class. They found a drink that was clear like water and put it in a water bottle. I'm really surprised I didn't smell it. I usually pick up that kind of stuff. I guess they kept it closed all the time. I was trying really hard to hold back my joy when they got sent home. They are the trouble makers and my class ran so smooth the rest of the day without them. People were quiet and did their work. That was short lived because today the worst trouble maker shows up. The principal told him not to come back without his uncle or whover he's staying with. He pretty much just ignored that and showed up anyway. Even when he's not doing anything overtly bad, he's just really loud and disrupting. I'm not sure where it centers, but it's really hard to lecture because people talk really loud. I don't know if it is a cultural thing or what, but it's very hard for all of us SMs to get used to. It appears to us the kids have a total lack of manners. They can be really disrespectful at times. The high school teachers have the same problem. I think the younger grades are the worst though. This isn't whispering to your friends, this talking very loudly while someone is up front. It can be very disturbing especially in a block room that echoes really bad like my classroom. I don't know what to do about it. I don't think I should have to punish people for that because it's just basic manners, but I think I'll have to.

Anyway, enough complaining. Yesterday I went out surfing and that made the day so much better. The waves were a pretty good size, but choppy. Ben got some fanastic pics. Rudy came out for the first time with snorkel gear on. He was having a blast dodging waves and stuff. I came surfing in on one and they were hanging out right where I have to go so they could get some sweet pics. Rudy hesitated and didn't know which way to go and I almost took his head off. I was trying to go around him, but the wave was super choppy and I cleared this lip that came up out of nowhere. Fortunately he ducked down just before I took his head off. I have a great picture sequence of it that Ben took while the whole thing was going on. Crazy.

It's been rainy and windy lately. Can't really complain since at least it's not super hot out. I don't mind the weather at all.

One more thing that has been bugging me is cooking in our apartment. I end up cooking almost every meal. Ben cooks some, but no one wants to cook for five guys. There ends up being about four freeloaders. The new guy, John, cooks for himself every single meal. He's a good cook, but never wants to share with us. I just make basic stuff for the group. It's not that hard to put water on to boil. John has a free period right before lunch and I don't see why he can't start something cooking for the rest of us. Anyway, I've grumbled a little about it, but maybe I'll just have to sit down and have a talk with everyone. Ben sees it too. We may talk to everyone together.

Nice Three Day Weekend

For the US it was Labor Day. For the Marshall Islands the Friday before Labor Day is Girbal Day, or something like that. I think it is basically the same thing, but they celebrate it with fishing tournaments all weekend. More on that later.

Friday I got caught up on grading and slept all day. I was recuperating from a cold. I felt better in the afternoon so I went out with the guys surfing. The waves were coming in really big sets, but it was super windy out. Everything was so choppy it was hard to paddle and stand and everything. I got a handful of decent waves. Dameon came out and started pulling into big waves. He kept falling, but that didn't stop him from paddling into everything that looked halfway decent. I was more careful and only ate it bad once. I got worked really bad and I collided with my board as I got mixed up in the "washing machine." Fortunately, it was safe surfing because the waves were mushy and the water deep. I didn't really feel like I came close to the reef at all. We had some sets that looked at least 10 feet, though. It was a big day. The constant wind for two or three days kicked it up. Ben came out and we got some super sweet pics.

Sabbath was pretty much a repeat of the last Sabbaths. Church, potluck at Lenny's, sleep, read, hangout with friends. This time Rudy and I went down to the bay and took some time lapse video. Unfortunately nothing happened in the bay and so it was very boring footage. Right at the end a storm came up. We stuck it out for awhile and then walked back in the rain.

Sunday morning the surfers got up bright and early for dawn patrol. We got so excited about the big, and this time clean, waves that were out there we surfed way too long. Not because we had anything to do, but because the tide went out while we were out there. I quit paddling for stuff because I got scared. I think I only got one wave that day. I know what waves I can drop in on for sure and that day they were pitching pretty good. On a normal day I'm not scared of getting pitched, but when it's that shallow it's just really sketchy. When we first went out it was shallow so I was careful. It just went down hill from there. By the time we finally paddled/waded in, there were huge rocks sticking out everywhere and it was super sketchy. Dameon and Cameron stayed out longer than Tony and I. Dameon landed on a rock on his way in and cracked his board. He just got the stuff to fix it today. In addition to that, when he fell on a wave he got a small chunk taken out of his foot by some coral. This bled really bad until he could get it stopped. It didn't seem to bother him much though.

In the afternoon we went to Enemanat. We rode on a man's boat who is director for the Olympics for the islands. He is really nice. On the way back he took us by the weighing in for the fishing tournament I talked about earlier. They had a bunch of 60-80 lb fish and one 103 lb Marlin. It was amazing. There were teams representing all the islands and one for the US. The US did pretty good with three big fish and some smaller ones. Miss All Micronesia was there. Tony, Zac, and Cameron got pictures with her. She was there taking pictures with all the fishing teams.

Longest Four Day Week Ever

Well, maybe not the longest, but a lot longer than I had planned. I was excited at the beginning of the week because it would be short. Monday started me off bad. In the afternoon I started getting a sore throat. I took a bunch of medicine and went to bed early. I think it helped because I woke up the next morning with congestion, but I felt pretty good. I had a few problems with the kids that day, but I don't remember it being too bad. I do remember this one guy taking my bathroom pass and taking off and wouldn't come back until our spelling bee was over. He was scared I would make him get up front. I don't think it's possible to make anyone here get up. They would rather get a bad grade than speak in front of people.

Wednesday I was excited because the week was halfway over. I was to find out that my problems had just begun. The whole day I had behavior problems with about three of the guys. This one kid is not all there and I think he has ADD really bad. He takes off every few minutes and disappears with the bathroom pass. Then three people were leaving at one time with the pass and when two came back it was ripped in half. These guys wouldn't do their class work and wanted to talk and joke really loud while everyone else was. At lunchtime one of them, Johnny, disappeared for good and didn't come back. Art is the last class of the day and I take them to another teacher because most of us know nothing about art. On the way over two guys cut class and leave. I alerted the security guard and he was able to find them right outside the gate a few minutes later. They got sent to the principal and got suspended from school.

I knew that today I was going to have to deal with some issues. I woke up feeling worse but I knew I had to go. Johnny shows up with an ear ring in his ear and quite an attitude. He was more than willing to go to the principal. His uncle had given him a note that said he left at lunchtime because the security guard took his lunch and he had to go eat. When we finally got to speak to the principal, the note wasn't much good to him because he left at lunch time and never came back! If he was a little late it would be understandable, but since he never came back he didn't really have anything to say. We found out he lives with his Uncle who teaches Kindergarten at a public school. The Principal told him that he would have to bring his uncle back with him to come back to school. This was already his second time skipping class, so he'd already used his get-out-of-jail free card. I didn't have any trouble with him the rest of the day.

Unfortunately I lost my voice as the day went on. I assigned a bunch of work and made it through the day. I slept two and a half hours when I got off work. I feel better now. I'm super stoked I have a three day weekend to get well. I'm going to sleep a lot.

Enemanat

Saturday night Cameron went around finding people to go off Majuro to a small island with a beach called Enemanat. 15 people said they wanted to go so he charted a boat along with some military guys. We got ready to leave and they was only about 4 of us ready. Some people came in really late and we raced off 30 minutes after we were suppose to. There was only about 7 or 8 of us that ended up going. Cameron was kinda upset because he thought he would have to absorb the cost. They ended up working it out so he didn't, though.

We did miss the boat, but it came back for another trip. There was a bunch of people who wanted to go to the island from the community. We all jumped on the boat and took off across the bay. We didn't even have to go out of the middle of the island chain to get there. The water and sun was gorgeous. We saw one rain storm, but it went around us. When we landed we were stoked to find out there was a real beach with sand. It was the first we have seen since we've been here. We swam out to a floating dock. It had a diving board about 10 feet off the water. Cameron was doing all kinds of crazy flips and stuff. The girls who are in Gymmasters did a few things, but they were a little afraid. Dameon knows very little about things like that, but he has no fear. He tried a Gainer for the first time. He rotated into a dive, but couldn't complete the rotation. 10 feet is enough to really hurt and I wouldn't try it from that high. I did a front flip. I could do a backflip, but I really hate going over backwards. I've done it from twice that high before, but I've also over-rotated and know how much it hurts.

Next we went snorkelling. In the main swimming area there isn't much to see until you find the plane. It was about 15 feet underwater and super cool. The tail section was missing, but the rest was there. After I watched Cameron swim through it and then tested the distance, I did too. Going through the cockpit is really small and you have to be careful not to get cut on exposed, rusted metal. It probably wasn't a great idea, but I had plenty of breath hold for it and it was really fun.

We had a big potluck with the locals. Some of the SMs were stoked about the chicken and beef, which they said was really good. I found rice and pineapple to eat. When we were stuffed, we wandered down the beach and f0und this tree that overhung the water. Lauren hung her hammock up over the water. Cameron and I climbed in the tree, which was perfect because you could walked down the horizontal branches and just jump off into the water. Of course the water was less than waist deep, so I just plopped in, but it was still super cool.

When I put my mask on I found that the fish under the water were gorgeous. They were hiding among the coral and swimming everywhere. It's the best reef I have been to since I've been here. I saw a 3 foot eel that was striped brown and green. It was beautiful, but kind of freaky.

We ended off the day by throwing a frisbee and football around. There's a girl here that can throw a football like a dude. She always laughs at me because my throw is pathetic. (All I have to say is she was scared to death the one time she went surfing with us. The waves were pretty big that day. I think we had some 10 foot sets. She paddled past the waves and refused to come in because she was afraid of getting hit by one of those 10 foot sets. It took us awhile to talk her in.)

We left Enemanat just before sundown. The problem with this fact is that was much later than we had planned. We all had lesson plans to do. But it was fine. I got mine done anyway. And we caught the sunset while on the boat. I got some sick pictures.

Sunday, August 30th

It's so nice to have a weekend. Friday went well with school. We did a little work and then we watched half of Ten Commandments. It was the newer one that I haven't seen before. The kids were happy and having fun, so it made Friday go smoother.

Friday afternoon I went to the birthday party for one of my students. She turned 11 years old. That's about two years younger than most kids in 8th grade here. She's really smart, the top in my class. She is from the Philippines. They have lived here for 10 years but are moving back in December. I was super stoked that she invited me to her birthday party. She is such a little grown up. I gave her some stuff my mom sent in a care package for the kids.

After that I retreated into my "cave," the teachers lounge and read all afternoon and evening. It was nice to not have to do anything or go anywhere.

On Sabbath we went to church. My principal did the sermon. We had another potluck, which was really nice. Afterward we sat around and told crazy stories. In the evening we had the vespers program. They had a skit and some people shared testimonies. Since it worked out that I didn't have a job to do, I got to film the whole thing on Rudy's camera. We are just adding to our sick footage from this year. Rudy has a bunch of time lapse stuff. He'll set the camera pointed at the school yard and you can watch people come and go for 4 hours compressed down to 3 minutes. It's so awesome.

Saturday night we walked down to Payless and got some icecream then we started playing group games. It was really fun and crazy. Everyone is bonding nicely and getting along better and better.

Week Two

This is week two and it's almost over. I'm very glad because it has been another stressful, but fun one. Cameron and Dameon came back from Jeh on Monday. They said the beaches are gorgeous over there, but the waves aren't as good. I would rather waves than beach, personally. Of course there is no electricity over there. You can charge your camera with a solar panel. Two of our guys, Chad and Paul, went over there. They are either going to be best friends or worst enemies. I don't envy them. They are opposites in a lot of ways. Paul is very physical, he grew up on a farm. He is crazy and will try anything without regard for his own safety. Chad is not physical at all. He is a little over weight and avoids crazy stuff. Even so, he gets hurt all the time. He cut his foot open wading in one of the pools and it wouldn't stop bleeding. He is very accident proned. I wonder which will end up in the hospital first.

The later in the week it is, the more crazy the kids are. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. They have more and more trouble sitting still in class. I've got a couple with bad ADD or something. If you get on their case, as least they sit down and be quiet, if not listen and learn. I see that I need to get harder on these guys. They listen when I put my foot down, so I need to do it more.

Today I was doing an object lesson about faith. I was trying to get a kid to fall over backwards and I would catch her. It took me forever to get someone to volunteer. The only kid that would was too big, I thought I would be crushed if he fell into me. Finally this girl volunteered, but she wouldn't actually fall. So I had one of the bigger guys catch me. They had a lot of fun and we were making so much noise we were disturbing every other class in the building.

Day before yesterday we went out surfing and the waves were huge! Cameron said we've been getting some 10 foot sets. One day, they all run together, Cameron brought Nicole out to learn surfing. The 10 foot sets were rolling in and she got really scared. He shouldn't have brought her out on such a big day. When you see a head and a half or double overhead wave rolling in, you have respect at least. Dameon will pull into anything. He has no fear. He gets pitched sometimes because he pulls in so late.

Last night I went surfing for about 45 minutes or so. The tide barely got high enough before dark. The waves were small. I was the only one out there and it felt great. I knew it was the first time I would get to go in awhile. The sun was going down and I wanted a good wave really bad. So I prayed about it. Right after that a night size one came in. I pulled into it backhand. It kinda scared me because I'm bad at backhand and I didn't want to get slammed face first into the reef, which you can see all do clearly when your back is the wave. But I pulled through it and it felt great. A nice ending to a surf session.

I'm getting better about making lesson plans. At first I couldn't make them because I had no idea what to put down. Now I now how long it takes to do stuff and what I want to cover. I think my lecures are starting to go a little smoother. I can lecture fine, but it's getting the kids to listen. For some reason their little conversations are more important than what I'm saying.

It was obvious when I did my science test yesterday. The average grade without a curve was 64% or something. After the curve the average was 73% and the median was 64%. Half the people were less than that. One kid was 27%. How do you even do that? He didn't answer a lot of the questions. It was mostly multiple choice too. You can't loose by guessing on those. I had a big group who were over 100% after the curve and then a bunch of really low people. Not so much in between. We''ll see if I can get those to try a little.

We got care packages from home. I got some much appreciated food! Also some stuff for my class. Ben got a fan. It is heavenly! It makes our nights go so much smoother. You don't know how much a fan means until you have to sleep on the equator without it or a/c.

August 23rd

One week of school down! All in all I think the first week went really well. On Friday the kids were really excited that it was the last day of school. I gave them a couple quizzes and then didn't do much else. It's a short day and I let them chill a bit. I had trouble keeping them quiet because they were so ready to be done with school. I know how they felt because I felt the same way.

Friday afternoon I went out surfing again. That rounded off a full five days of surfing. Can't complain about that. Zac and Tony got out there with me. They were about to catch a couple waves and they were really stoked about that. They are new surfers and they haven't caught many waves yet. Ben was taking pictures and got some really good ones. My camera was set on high speed and he got this one sequence of me dropping in on a barrel. I'm dropping in at an angle as it breaks, digging the rail into the wave, riding it down the face. I was about to pull into the barrel, but he was right there in my line so I didn't pull into it. The other waves I caught weren't barreling. That's ok, but I'm anxious to get tubed again. I was reading in one of Dameon books about how to do that and other surfing tricks. They said that the tube is the safest part of a wave.

Friday afternoon and walked down to the EZ Price, which is a ways away. I picked up some Soy Milk, which was really cheap, only $1.29, so I got four. I already had some crazy cheap cereal from Payless so I'll be in milk and cereal for awhile. I'm learning to look for those deals. They had a deal on Oranges for 99 cents a pound. I've been trying to eat one a day to get me that Vitamin C and other stuff that fresh food has. Fresh stuff tends to be really expensive here, so you have to look for the deals.

Friday night we went to Vespers. This Filipino guy spoke and he was really good. He had Sabbath School as well. It was a nice change from the island speakers who don't speak good English. He was from California, so he spoke good English. The sermon was about 7 Habits of Highly Effective Prayer. He had some good stories about how God answered his prayers.

My housemate, Rudy, keeps a sheet of paper by his bed and he writes poems in his sleep. They are a complete mess, crisscrossing everywhere. But he sits down and spends time decoding them. Once he puts them in a coherent order, they actually make sense. Some of them are really funny. One was about him being a girl in his past life. The punch line is at the end when you find out he was a lesbian. It was pretty funny. He doesn't believe in reincarnation or anything, it was just something random in his sleep.

We had potluck after church with just the SMs. We all brought a dish to the principals house and the food was really good. I ate a lot. We celebrated the birthday of one of the SMs. Her birthday is really today, Sunday, but we celebrated it yesterday because everyone was there. After that we slept all afternoon. I've been going to bed at 11 pm or after and getting up at 6:30, so the sleep was needed. Satuday night was open gym night. I played volley ball a little, but there was too many people running around and it was a mess. My team always sucked. Party due to my lack of skill, but we just couldn't get a single good play going on. Afterthat we watched a couple movies that someone rented.

Today I've got to get a lot of lesson plans done. I've been planning one day ahead. Now I know about what we can get accomplished and I can start making plans. I've got a lot of papers to grade as well. I had them write a personal narrative. It is a first draft and I'm giving them full points for writing it. I assumed they could put together decent sentences. That proved to be a false assumption. It makes grading them really tough. I will do it differently next time. I'm having to correct everything and restructure a lot of sentences.

August 20th

Yay! Tomorrow is Friday of our first full week of school. I am so stoked I've almost made it through it. It's been a really long week to me, but I feel like I'm getting off to a good start with the 8th graders. They are starting to test me to see how far I will go. I told my friends last night that today I'd have to crack down. Before I could even set my plan in motion, a group of kids run off and disobey a direct order. I punished them by making them stay after school and write sentences. This is a soft punishment. I don't want to have to ramp it up, but I will if I have to. The kids are great kids, but they love to talk in class. I cracked down on that today, but there is still more than I want, but less than yesterday. Tomorrow I'm going to be even tougher. One thing that is hard to deal with is they are talking in another language and sometimes I have a really hard time knowing who is talking because it all sounds the same to me. I will start punishing the whole class if I have to though. If I do that, they will police themselves. They already are, which is a good deal. I have kids that get other kids to be quiet.

After a hard day at school, the best pastime I can think of is surfing, which is right at my front door. Can't complain about that. I email my family and some friends some surfing pictures. I've been surfing every day for the last four days. I'm super stoked! Unfortunately, next week the tide will be low in the afternoon and I'll have to take some time off surfing. Grrr! I guess I can snorkel in the pools, there is lots to see, but I've seen it all. I think I know the fish on a first name basis, if that's possible. It's great to be in the water though. Lately we've had really extreme tides. That's good because it makes it deep at high tide and the surfing is a lot safer that it was at the beginning of the week when I got barrelled. I haven't been able to get barrelled except for one time briefly. The waves just haven't been barrelling. They were really chopping and mushy today. Still great fun though and really big!

August 18th, A little on teaching

Since I spent so much time raving about the waves last time, I decided I would share a little about the teaching. Tomorrow will complete my first week teaching school. I'm really stoked about it. The kids are great. Even so, there are a lot of challenges. They are doing pretty good in Math. I've been reviewing so that I now they understand the foundation before we move on to new stuff. They seem to be picking it up nicely. At least the ones that talk in class do. I may have to do a quiz to see if all of them can really do the problems. Today for Social Studies I took them into the library and told them to find an article in National Geographic about people from another country. They were to list five ways that the other people's culture was different from their own. I've been teaching about culture and what it is. It seems to be a new concept to them. Overall, I think it went really well. We spent more time than I had anticipated because as I went to finish up I realized that about three students had no clue what I was asking them to do. So I went over an article with them and picked out differences for them. I think they learned something.

English is the hardest class here. They have difficulty putting a single sentence together that makes sense. Tenses and verb are all over the place. A lot of sentences are missing important prepositions and stuff. I feel really unqualified to get them up to speed in addition to realizing it is a colosal task. Everyone is high school is pretty much at the same level of English. In High School there are a lot of Chinese students. They don't know a lot of English words, but they are ahead of the Marshallese kids in putting together good sentences. One of our high school teachers is trying to teach an Accounting class to two Chinese kids who don't speak much English. He's sweeting it.

Rudy, an SM from La Sierra woke up Sunday morning with welts all over his body. I told him it looked like an alergic reaction to something. Since he had just been sleeping we hypothosized it was his bed. The first day he went and got some Benedryl. That didn't work. It got worse as the next day went on so someone took his classes and he went to the hospital. They kept him a day and night for observation. They said it was something he ate that he was alergive to. They said it's usually fish, but he didn't eat any within the last week. He took pictures of it as it got worse. His lips swelled up really huge. It was kinda funny. He's better now. He taught some classes today.

A girl got the flu today and was out. It's kinda crazy. Everyone is getting used to the bugs around here. I hope I stay healthy. I've been taking my vitamins! :D I bought a bunch of oranges last time I went to the store. They should help to.

My First Real Barrel, Monday, August 17th,

When I complete this blog I think you will understand why I call this my first real barrel. I've been barrelled on a surfboard a number of times. A few in Florida and once or twice here. It consists of dropping in on a closeout wave. Realizing this at the last minute, I complete a bottom turn and pull into the barrel just before it closes out. Sometimes this includes having my board sucked up into the wave and me crashing down on the bottom, a bad scenerio. Today was different. Today was epic.

I shall start in the beginning. All day long during class I would stare out my window which overlooks the ocean. I was watching these beautiful sets rolling in. Top to bottom, we call them. It's throwing the lip of the wave out making beautiful barrels and tubes. When the wave is almost done it even spits. These waves aren't as big as some that you see in magazines, but they are every bit as beautiful. The stiffling heat in the classroom just reminded me that there was no breeze which means clean surf.

As soon as class was out at 3 pm I ran outside and stood on the rocks that protect our school from the waves and wind. Looking out I see the rocks that give me an idea of how deep the water is. I know high tide past not too long ago, but the rocks are just barely at the surface, meaning there is just enough water out there. I grabbed my surfboard and ran out into the water. I began the long paddle out.

When I reached the white wash I realized quickly that the tide was out farther than I had previously estimated. In places it was less than waist deep on top of the reef. Even a deep duck dive could slam the surfboard into the coral, I didn't want to think about my body hitting it. As the next wave rolled in I could see the reef through the crystal clear water of the curl. I hesitated and thought about my options. Another beautiful wave rolled in and I decided to go out, but play it safe.

I paddled out past the break quickly, once I found a lull. Watching those sets I realizedthey are probably the biggest since I've been in the Marshall Islands. They are also the biggest waves I've ever surfed in my life. I paddled around behind the break for awhile surveying the waves, not wanting to paddle into the wrong one. Finally I picked one I knew I could ride out of. I paddled hard, dropped in and rode it down to where was shorter. I hit the lip a couple times and then went over the back before it closed out. At the point I started the wave was at least head high, but by the time it closed out it was only about waist to chest high, making for a simple and safe exit. Exactly what I was looking for. I paddled back out to try again.

I waited for a long time, not liking the truly massive sets that were rolling in. They scared me. A really huge set came in and I had to duck dive deep and push my board in front of me to keep from getting caught by it. I paddled out farther and waited.

That's when I saw it. It was big and fat in the middle with a nice curl to it already, but it sloped down and I thought it looked like one I could ride out. Right before it got to me it curled up nicely. I paddled hard and the lip of the wave threw me into it. As I stood I could already feel the power and speed. Instantly the top began curling over. I didn't hesitate at all, I completed the bottom turn and pulled up into it, looking for that sweet spot.

The next instant I was standing with the roof curling over me completeling the green house. The water was green around me, making a nearly perfect circle in from of me. This circle is where I trained my focus, instinctively knowing that to look down and focus at me feet would be the end of me. Dameon's voice rang in my head, "You've got to ride it out." I could hear the suck of the wave as it reverberated inside the "glass house". It was louder than I had imagined! The thought that ran through my head next was, It's so big! I had never been in a barrel this large before. In the next instant the tremendous power of the wave caught my board and threatened to suck it, and me, up and over the top. Judging by the lack of water under me, which this beautiful wave had graciously sucked from the reef and thrown over my head, I knew that to loose it now would be very painful indeed. Again, Dameon's voice rang in my head, "Put all your weight on the rail next to the wave, set your thrusters into the wave, put your weight as far forward as you can, and ride it out." In a flash I shifted my weight onto the inside rail as I felt my fins dig into the rushing face, keeping me from doing a flip inside the barrel.

I felt a huge rush of excitement thrill my body as I found the line in the wave. I had talked about it, asked experienced surfers about it, and thought about it. I knew I had to find that line and now I had. The tremendous power of the wave shot me down it with incredeble speed. How long was I in there? At once it felt like an eternity and an instant. I estimate 3-5 seconds inside the barrel, riding the line, which to me, is a long time. At first the circle of daylight in front of me widened and I almost rode out of it. For a brief instant I thought I would be clear, but then the roof over my head lengthed, the circled narrow and I felt it closing out. I knew that to dive off the board either way would be very painful, because I tried it both ways and hit the reef before. I stayed on the board until the roof closed in and I felt the water coming down on my head. Only then did I slip off to one side and spread my arms and legs wide, trying to catch as much water as possible so as not to hit the very close reef.

As I tumbled over and over and realized I had done it. One hand briefly touched rock, but I tumbled on the surface, just as Dameon and Cameron had taught me. I popped to the surface more elated than I had been in a long time. I didn't feel the need to keep surfing. I jumped on my board and caught the next white wash to shore. I was afraid that I would not be so lucky next time. There's always another day when the tide is up more. As I rode in I knew that this was one of the top 10 experiences of my entire life. When I got to shore I ran into the nearest apartment and told them the whole story. They were shocked and taken aback by my level of enthusiasm. "Only a surfer knows the feel." The question everyone wants to know is, how big? All I know is I was standing crouched a little, pulled up into the wave, with it barrelling over my head. My estimate is 8 foot face. Could be more, could be less. But in the end, it doesn't matter at all. All that matters is being in the shack. It's indescribable.