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.

August 16th

Yesterday was Sabbath. We went to church. It was very long and hot. The preacher didn't get up till 12:30. Most of us read our Bible during church because they talk in Marshallese most of the time. After church they had a big potluck for us to welcome us. The food was great. Everyone got their own cold coconut. We punched holes in them and used a straw to drink the coconut juice. There was a whole line for the vegetaries and it was really good food. I was full after just one plate, I couldn't believe it.

After that we did BandAid clinic. We all went our to town and gathered a bunch of the kids together. We sang songs with them for awhile. I told them a children's story. I don't think they understood a word I was saying. The younger ones don't speak or understand English well. None of the older kids with us would translate for me. Oh well. We got out the BandAids and the kids got really excited. They love getting BandAids. A lot of them have tinny scrapes or nothing at all, but they want the BandAids. There was one kid with sores up and down his legs really bad. I felt bad for him. He needed a lot more than just a couple BandAids. There are a lot of kids in the Marshall Islands. About 50% of the population is under 14 years old or so. They die early from lack of health care. Diabetes is rampant over here. 100% of the population is either in pre-diabetes or full fledged diabetes. They eat rice and chicken all the time that contains lots of fat and no fiber. They have almost no fiber in their diet. Last year the local hospital made 88 amputations due to diabetes.

After BandAid clinic we went island hopping. It was great. When the tide is low you can wade across from one small island to the next. I heard you can go a long ways. We only went a little ways because we came after low tide and it was coming back in. We saw a bunch of small marine animals in the shallows. We saw these little fish that can run on land for short distances. We chased them all over trying to catch them. Cameron fish slapped Chad and me and I got it on video. It was awesome. We found a puffer fish and small shark that were dead from being caught in the low tide. We played with them for a long time until we chucked them into the ocean. I have videos of that too.

When we got back a few of us climbed up on the roof to watch the sunset. It was amazing. We stayed out there until the stars came out and we got to see some shooting stars. After that we watched Night at the Museum 2. It was a bootleg DVD rental. That's all there is around here. It was really good quality though.

That was our Sabbath. It was really good.

August 14th, 2009

The first two days of school are done. [Wipes sweat from brow]. It’s a good feeling to have that behind me. Thursday was the first day, a half day. We were told just to get to know students and do some fun things. I didn’t bother assigning seating so the girls sat on one side of the room and the boys on the other. I introduced myself and showed a slideshow. It had a bunch of pics from my life. I showed them on the map where I’m from and where I went to school. They paid attention but were very quiet. Next I outlined some procedures and rules that I want them to follow. I tried to play some games with them. Again, they were very shy and didn’t want to get involved. I let them out for recess, which is halfway through the morning and knew I had nothing left to do when we got back. During recess I thought of Charades. With a little encouragement they got into it and we did that for 45 minutes or so. After that was kinda rough. We hung out and went outside for a little while. Finally, the day was over and I was beat.

I knew I couldn’t go through another of those days. I made up a Math test to see where they are at and started looking through my textbooks for ideas. Today, Friday, I was ready and had plenty for them to do. I assigned them to seats that were boy-girl-boy-girl. This helps them not be so segregated and they don’t talk during class because they refuse to talk to someone of the opposite sex. Makes Southern not seem so bad, lol. Their English is very poor. They have trouble putting sentences together that make sense. I don't really know how I'm going to teach them to make sentences. I'll have to seek some advice for that. They are rusty on Math and I'll have to do a lot of review. They are a great class, very well behaved and I'm really excited to be teaching 8th grade. I really can't complain.

The first week here in Majuro is over and I'm really enjoying it so far. Teaching can be stressful, but I'm good at taking things in stride and not worrying about the future. We are short on teachers so the highschool teachers are scrambling to keep up with all the extra work. We are suppose to get a Math teacher. That is imperative since no one seems to have even taken Calculus before. Ben Smith is starting to teach the class and he doesn't know how to work the problems.

Yesterday we went to the bridge. It is the tallest point on the island, about 30 feet. :) We jumped off the bridge into the channel below it. I just did a simply jump. Our vice principal is a skilled Gymnast and he did a Gainer, backflip, and handstand into a front and back flip. I got pics with my highspeed function on my camera and they were great.

Four of our SMs are bound for Jeh and Woja. These are small outer island schools. They leave on Monday. We will miss them, but they are going on to their calling, so that is good.

We are still working on lesson plans and trying to get ready. Some people asked when we start school. It is Thursday the 12th. For most of you it will be Wednesday though. I haven't been able to make many plans because we don't know where the kids are yet. They say they have no special ed grades so everyone is together. We may have kids with learning disabilities so we'll have to teach to all levels.

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I snorkelled out past the break. We wanted to see what fish and stuff are out there. He saw a Mantaray with a 10 foot wingspan. That was pretty cool. The first were bigger and there were more schools of them, but they were harder to take pictures of. They were super fast. Some of the surfers came out while I was snorkelling so I went in and got my surfboard and surfed. The past few days there hasn't been any wind. This makes it very hot on shore and hard to sleep in. But the waves are really clean. Wind makes it choppy. I've never seen 6-8 foot faces that are this clean. It's amazing. I'd fly all the way out here just to surf these waves. I didn't use my shortboard all summer because it wouldn't catch anything in Florida. Florida was horribly flat this summer, worse than most. I love it out here! It's so fast and maneuverable.
Yesterday afternoon a bunch of the guys were out spear fishing. As yet they hadn't been able to catch anything. One guy saw a sizable fish and alerted the other one. Unfortunately there was a puffer fish right next to it. The second guy only saw the puffer fish and speared it. It blew up really huge and he carried it on shore and we took pictures. It was sad to me because I think it was the same puffer fish I was playing with the first day I got here. You can't eat them so it was a total waste. They were really excited that they caught something, though.

Tomorrow is when school starts. We will have half a day to start out with. Pray for us. None of us really know what we are doing in a classroom. God will have to make up the difference.

8/10/09

The last couple of days have been a lot of work and a lot of fun. We have been cleaning the school top to bottom in preparation for the kids. Today I found a stack of papers and the principal told me to throw them away. No big deal, right? When I went to pick them up I found that termites had hollowed out the center and were living inside. There was a massive nest. There is so much outdated and unused material hanging around. The classrooms were very very dirty. I don't think the windows have been cleaned for years and years. With the leadership of our new principal we are knocking the school into shape. Yesterday we had a meeting about teaching. Th principal did not know that we were all non-education majors with no teaching experience. He set in to explain to us the realities of teaching. In these islands it is typical for kids to be unmotivated. They do not fail anyone so a lot of the kids just skim by learning almost nothing. After talking to the last 8th grade teacher and the principal I have been informed that 7th and 8th grade are the most challenging. I know it will be a collosal challenge but God is with me. Stressing stuff never helps so I'm just learning as much as I can and taking things as they happen.

A couple of our SMs desplayed a great deal of confidence when they first arrive on the island. I heard one say, "Lets face it, teaching isn't that hard a job." Since my mom is a teacher I knew otherwise, but I didn't say anything. After that meeting, this same guy told me, "I can't do this." I told me, "You can do it, you'll be fine. Just take things as they come." He was like, "No, stop telling me I can do it, I can't do it!" I was a little concerned. He left the meeting and said he really wanted to talk with his parents. Just then his parents called on the phone. He talked with them for awhile and they encouraged him to continue and offered some help. He is much more positive today. I praise God for that.

Last night was my first time surfing on the island. It was an awesome experience. My first run out I was so excited I forgot to put fins on my board. I had to paddle back, which is a long ways, and back out with my fins. I caught a couple waves before it got dark. I got up early this morning and several of us went out. We got to see the sunrise on the water. It was gorgeous. I got barrelled a couple times and really got worked by the waves. I'm fine though and learning. I'll get the hang of pulling out of these huge barrels over here.

We have just one more day to get ready for the kids. Pray for us all as we start the teaching process.

8/8/09

We experienced our first Sabbath on Majuro. Friday night we went to vespers. Ben lead out in the singing with his guitar. After that, a Philipino guy gave the sermon. He talked about different religions and the true church. He spoke in Marshallese and translated it into english.

Sabbath morning we got to church around 9:30 am. People trickled in and then we split into Sabbath Schools. A lot of us went to the early teen where they were having a bible study about the second coming. The kids were evidently shy around us and didn't say much. At church we sang a bunch of hymns. The piano either didn't work or they had no one to play it, so the hymns were accopella and drug by. They sang about three songs between every part of the service. The sermon was in Marshallese, but it was short. At the end he summarized it in English in about 2 minutes.

After church we got invited to a funeral. Evidently over here it is an honor to go to a funeral. A couple other SMs and I jumped into a van of one of the church members for the ride over. There is only one narrow road that runs the whole island. The driver drove crazy fast, passing a bunch of people. One pass we didn't think he was going to make, we almost died. We finally got there and everyone was just chilling out. I went down by the water and played with the kids. They are acrobats and love climbing trees and messing around. The funeral was kinda long and some of the people fell asleep. At the end everyone went by the body and left some money beside the casket. Afterward everyone sat down and had a big lunch. I didn't eat because I already had and I was afraid the food would get me sick. Other SMs ate and I don't think anyone got sick.

After the funeral we explored the other end of the island. We met a missionary family that has been here for 20 years. A bunch of us were riding in the back of a truck on the way home. It started raining and we all got soaked. I didn't get cold because the air is so warm here. It was a great adventure.

It's Sunday at lunch time right now. We all got up fairly early and started cleaning our classrooms. Mine wasn't too bad and I got it done quickly. Then I helped some of the girls who had bigger and dirtier classrooms. Some of them haven't been cleaned in years an there are layers of grime built up. We are quickly on our way to getting ready.

After some last minute changes, I am going to teach 8th Grade. I will be teaching all the subjects. Some people have told me that is one of the hardest grades. I'm praying that God will give me the strength.

August 6th, 2009

This morning we got up at 4 am to fly to Majuro. There was a whole busload going to the airport, but we scattered to the different islands. The first stop on the flight, thankfully, was Majuro. I took pictures and examined the small atoll from the air as we circled on approach. It was hard to fathom that I will be here for the next 9 months. From the air it is a tinny strip of land that snakes around in a huge semi circle. The plane skimmed low over the water before a small airstrip appeared and we touched down. We exited from the plane on two roller staircases like you see in movies but are never used in modern airports. As I stepped onto the tarmac the heat hit me in a wet, humid wave. Just like Florida, I thought. It took us awhile to get through customs. When we emerged, the bus that was suppose to take us hadn't shown up. A van showed up and half of us piled in. As we moved along the long, narrow island, we saw kids playing under palm trees and ladies holding infants. Teenagers and men lounged against trees in the shade. Rusted out cars sat on blocks in the drive ways. We rode for 20 minutes and could see ocean on the right and on the left. Finally the island expanded and more buildings appeared. The school building is a bright purple hue with two stories. As we toured the buildings we discovered a few of them had nice, cool air conditioning. Unfortunately, our apartments weren't one of those.

Once everyone arrived, Cameron, the vice principal, and Lenny, the principal, decided where everyone would go. Ben Smith and I founded a nice two bed bedroom in an apartment we share with three other guys. After we unpacked, we all rode down to the local food store. We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of familar food labels we saw. On the other hand, we suffered from sticker shock at the high prices.

Once the shopping was done, some of us decided to check out the beautiful, blue water. We got our snorkelling gear and dove in. The water was nice and clear. As the tide came in the protected inner waters becamed rougher. Fish hid among the rocks. We saw countless schools of trumpet fish, a scattering of angel fish among the rocks, and many others I couldn't name. Suddenly I spotted a pair of eyeballs from a crevice in the rocks. Looking closer I realized it was a buffer fish. I pointed it out to Lauren. We both wanted to see it blow up. First we tried waving our hands in front of it, but it ignored us. Lauren tried to throw coral at it, but it didn't care. Next we took turns poking it, but it was a passive fish and wouldn't blow up for us.

This evening I lay in my hammock looking over the ocean. When I first arrived I was shocked by the living conditions and strangeness of the island. After spending time in the ocean, I am convinced I will enjoy my stay greatly and may even call it paradise. As we rode to the internet hotel, we got to see a beautiful sunset over the harbor. Pink, purple, and red reflected off the glassy surface of the water. I know there will be hard times in the future, but the Pacific Ocean is a wonderland for me.

8/2/09

I flew into LA late Saturday night. It was only 10:30 to 11:00 local time but for me it was 2 am. I waited for 40 minutes for the shuttle to the Ramada Inn. When I finally found it, it was the wrong shuttle. They took me to a different Ramada at LAX from the one that I made a reservation at. To make matters worse, they refused to take me the few miles to the correct one so I had to get a cab. My surfboards barely fit; I had to hold them on my lap and hang them out the window. I finally arrived dead tired and went to bed. The next morning their shuttle came to take me to the airport. It was a large 15 passenger van. Since my surfboards would not fit in the back where they kept luggage, they left me on the curb to get a taxi, again. It was a huge van and there was only one other guy there, so I found it quite frustrating.
The flight was almost 6 hours long and the TVs quit working about two and a half hours in to the flight. This was providential because I got to talk to an English lady next to me on the plain. We talked about religion and politics and jobs and everything. She was curious about my church and what we believed. When I told her about the Sabbath she already knew that Christians worship on Sunday because of tradition from the Catholic church. She was seemed quite informed about history for the average person. I hope I was able to make a positive impact on her life.
I arrived in Hawaii at 1:30 pm Hawaii time. We met up with most of the other SMs at the airport. There was lots of excited greetings and new introductions. Once we got back to the academy and unloaded the huge amount of luggage, we checked in. I met Cameron, the vice principal at Majuro and Damion, an Australian guy who will be a maintenance person at Majuro. Both are very good surfers and live the whole lifestyle. We jumped in Cameron’s rental car and took our boards down to the beach. The break is a reef break a ways out. I was tired by the time I paddled out there, but quickly recovered. The waves didn’t look scary big, but they were sizable. I paddled into the first good one and dropped in. I quickly realized these waves have so much more power than the ones in Florida. I was moving so fast in the short distance before it closed out that I was instantly stoked about surfing in Hawaii. The break became very crowded, but I was still able to catch a few good ones. I know now that I’m hooked on Pacific Ocean surfing. The water was a very pleasant temperature as well. There was quite a wind and the sun went behind some clouds, so I got a little cold while waiting for waves, but it was completely tolerable. I couldn’t ask for a better ocean temp. Cameron says it’ll be a little warmer in Majuro. But we’ll have the break all to ourselves because there are only a handful of surfers on the island.
This has been an incredibly long day! It’s 9:30 local time, I don’t even want to calculate EST. I’m very happy to be here and really feel that God is with us.