Time flying

I haven't written a blog in quite a while, but things have been happening so fast. The last time I wrote I mentioned about volleyball. That has ended, but it was an exciting ending. The game after I wrote about we played a school from the other side of the island. I think it is a little like an outer island because they are so far from everything. The farther people are out, the better they are at sports. I think they do less classwork and more volleyball and basketball. (True story: Arno, an outer island that can be seen from here, went to Hawaii and beat the best Hawaiian team in a volleyball match.) We had a fighting chance with this team though, but our girls were playing horrible the first game and lost. We lost so many points to serves that were out and lazy bumping. The next game they came back from an impossible trailing position. When things get intense, they start playing really well. I think the score was 15 to 22 with us down and we won. The last game they played strong, but were trailing by a bit the whole way. We got down to game point and neither team could get more than a two point lead. We were leading by one point most of the time. Everyone was going crazy and I was yelling. I took a video, but it is horrible because I was so excited I was shaking the camera like a person with Parkinsons. The point is we held them off for 4 and 1/2 minutes until they got ahead by two points. The final score was 19 to 21 in a 15 point game. Our girls were so upset. I tried to encourage them because it was a great game and we went down fighting. Plus we were still in the tournament. You have to loose two games to get kicked out of it. Even so Nujin sat down and started crying. I want to put my arm around her, but I knew I would start crying because when I look at a person cry I get that way so and I waited and tried to encourage her later. I didn't want my kids to see me get emotional. She is a very emotional person and she told me she cried at her birthday because she was happy. All the girls were mad and beat themselves up a lot.

The next Monday the girls kept saying we had a game and it was anounced on the radio. Jon said it wasn't on the schedule and that we weren't suppose to have a game. Right after school he went down to the ECC and they said we didn't have a game. At 10 minutes till five Rubina knocked on the door of the AV room and said we were suppose to be there at 4:30. Her dad was down there talking to the Baptist school who was waiting on us. We gathered 7 of the 12 girls up in a hurry and took them to the gym. The other coach was a super cool guy and didn't mind waiting or having a rematch. Islander's laid back attitude cuts both ways and so despite them not telling you that you have a match, they are pretty chill about you showing up late. The ref made us play anyway because they had annouced it on the radio and I guess we are suppose to listen to it.

The game started and our girls were playing awful again. That school wasn't very organized, but they beat us anyway. We won the second game; I don't remember the score. The tie breaker we lost 8 to 15. Our girls can play much better than them, but it can be very hit and miss. The good news was that the two teams we lost too were the only ones left in the tournament, so we came in third. I told the girls that was really good, but they wanted the championship so bad. They all stormed out and sat and pouted by payless. There is another tournament in April. I really hope we win, because these girls are good enough to beat both of the teams that went to championship, but they've gotta play good every game and quite being careless in the first game.

I went to a high school basketball game this Thursday and it was a lot like our games. The team we were playing wasn't that good and five minutes in the score was 8 to 4 and we were down. Everyone was playing so lazy. We were down a bit at halftime and suddenly they started playing. It was a completely different team. Coach yelled at them the whole first half and encouraged them when they did sometime good, but I don't know if they respond. I don't why they just turn on and start playing all of a sudden. We won 33 to 38 or something. One more game and we'll be in the championship.

I've been here 8 months and I'm finally learning how to talk to island people. Last meeting I had with the parents I stood up and lead it like a normal American meeting. In America people argue back and forth until a topic is decided. The islanders are very nonconfrontational and they are very laid back about how they answer. I started 30 minutes late, went 30 minutes and closed. I asked if anyone had anything so say and they didn't say anything so I had prayer and closed the meeting. The next day my kids told me the meeting was just starting when I left. I do remember that some people were just getting there when I left. An hour late seems crazy to me and I figured the other parents would fill them in.

This meeting I approached completely differently. I sat down and told the parents what we were talking about and let them lead the conversation. It went very well and we got some stuff accomplished. It went a little longer, 8:15, but I felt like everyone was on board. Rubino, Rubina's dad, led a lot of it and spoke in Marshallese. This included many of the people who don't speak good English. There were a lot less parents because I called the meeting at the last minute. Maybe some people were so late we didn't see them at all. I felt like it was a success and people were more on board this time. My kids didn't complain, so that was good.