Hey everyone!
Well I had half of a nice long email written about a week ago, but I just took my computer to Telecom to be fixed (AGAIN) today and they wiped out the whole system so it's gone. So I'm starting over... I guess I'll just back up and start with spring break to catch you up on what's been happening.
Two weeks ago from Tuesday noon through the rest of the week we finally had our spring break here. Yeah, I thought it'd never get here. Not sure why it was so late, but oh well I guess. Well I unknowingly started a chain of RAINY events starting Tuesday afternoon that continued through my spring break. We dropped a few of the SM's off at the airport who were going to Guam for the break after school Tuesday, and instead of waiting around for an hour or so, Lesia and I caught a ride with some people who dropped us off just before Palm Terrace (grocery about 15 min. walk or so from the school). Well, it was raining, so we got nice and wet on our walk home, and this was after several stops made by our ride in which we'd already gotten a little wet. Rainy experience #1 (I've had plenty here, but over this break it just got old). And when we finally walked up the steps of our apartment, slightly soggy, the bus pulled in behind us with everyone. HURRAH. Wednesday we worked a bit in the morning on our classrooms--painting and cleaning, getting ready for the evaluation team, and then I went out to Nan Madol and Kepirohi Falls with April, her parents, and a couple other people. That turned into a funny trip as we almost ran out of gas and had to stop at a very small "gas station" where we pumped our gas into a bucket and then poured it into the truck via a funnel! We were all laughing at that. Only in Pohnpei. Kepirohi Falls was absolutely beautiful--best falls I've seen here, it's the one they put on post cards usually. Nan Madol was nice as well and it was beautiful and sunny until we headed home. Then about halfway back (it's about an hour and a half drive both ways) it started getting dark, and then it poured down rain. And I was riding in the back of the truck. Rainy expierience #2. So about 45 minutes later we pulled into the school and I took my freezing cold, wet self up to a very rare hot shower. We had a b-day party that night, lots of good food, and then everyone headed to bed early because we were supposed to get up and head to the outer islands of Pakine to camp the next day and night. Supposed to....
Well we got up Thursday morning, not knowing whether we we actually going or not because apparently the boat we were going to take (besides Mr. B's--we needed a bigger and faster boat to take us all and our stuff) hadn't come back from there. So we were going to go to Ant, and then I guess Mr. B got a hold of a government boat and we were told to load up and we were still going. Brad and Melissa headed to the causeway with Justin and one boat, and then an hour later, tired of waiting, I went with Megan and the other boat to wait for ANOTHER hour before everyone finally got there with all the stuff. Eight o'clock leaving time turned into noon. Island time for ya. The government boat showed up with a nice 200 horsepower engine (versus Mr. B's 40's) and we loaded up. I rode on the gov. boat with most everyone else while Mr. B took one boat with a couple people and Justin drove the other with a couple people. The adventure began... We lost the smaller boats just before heading outside the reef and made mistake number one of not going back to check on them. We got 3/4 the way to Pakine when the rainstorms hit us. Rainy experience #3. The rain beat down, the wind blew, and we had to stop because we could no longer see Pohnpei behind us or Pakine in front of us. It finally let up a little and we headed for the reef circling the islands, then found out we couldn't get over because it wasn't high tide. So it was still raining, and by that time Megan, Albert, and I (who had been riding in the front) were huddled down as tight as possible in the bow of the boat, desperately trying to get some body heat from one another as hypothermia set in and my teeth started chattering, my hands went numb, and my body wouldn't stop shaking. Go figure--a tropical island, and I was freezing. The driver finally headed over the reef, which was scary it was so shallow, and we made it to the main Atoll of Pakine and got off--to a whole lot of cold wind. I tried to warm up in the ocean since it felt like a bathtub, but as soon as I got out I was even more cold. An older lady who lived there took pity on us all and brought us under a hut out of the rain, then had some guys cut us all a coconut to drink. Mmmmm. I was feeling a bit better after that. Justin's boat finally showed up about that time and had their own story to tell of getting lost and driving around for about an hour without knowing where Pakine was because of the rain. We'd all been praying they would get there safely. Well from there we learned that Mr. B had turned around and headed back because his motor wasn't working right, and that he was probably not going to make it out that night as late as it was already. That's when most of us realized that all our food and clothes were on his boat. I was not really excited about camping at that point in time. The people on the island were really nice though and let us set up camp in the little 4-room school there, so we got out of the wind and the rain, spread some tarps out on the floor, and tried to dry off. A couple of people had their bags so we passed out dry clothes and had quite the fashion show going on. Megan opened her bag and I rejoiced when I remembered that I'd put a bathing suit and a pair of shorts in there just before leaving! So I borrowed a t-shirt and wore that for the remainder of our stay. Mr. B's cooler was on Justin's boat, so we did have some food--we split 4 bowls of ramen, some apples and oranges, and donuts between most all of us (those without their own food) for supper and our meals the next day. There was some rice and tuna as well, and then the people from the island also brought us some rice. So we didn't starve. I did have an interesting breakfast of rice and peanut butter though! It's not half bad! Sounded pretty good at the time when I was hungry anyway. Well we played silly mind games and such to pass the time, then attempted to sleep... That was worthless. Hard concrete ground with a tarp over top isn't exactly the most comfortable place I've slept, so I didn't really sleep much at all. David shared his blanket with me, so I had that, but I gave up early in the morning and just got up to stretch my stiff back and sore muscles, figuring I really wasn't going to get any more sleep than I'd managed by then. It was kind of funny, about every five minutes you could hear someone turn over as the tarp stuck to them and they tried to get comfortable. I did rotations all night long between my back, left side, stomach, right side, back.... Yeah it didn't really work. Well we found out the next morning that Mr. B was finally coming, he'd gotten a different motor from the government. He made it out, took some people diving and snorkeling as planned (I stayed on shore with a couple of the girls--I'd had enough water and really didn't want to get wet and cold again until absolutely necessary) and then we finally packed up and headed out early afternoon. I walked around the island while I was there--it was really pretty. Too bad I didn't have my camera! Well the boat ride back wasn't as bad. It rained for the first couple of minutes as we left, but that passed, and the rest of the time was ok. I started out in the front, but it hurt my butt and back so much--banging over all the waves, that I finally stood up along the side and just held onto the top of the boat, kind of like windsurfing and let my knees absorb all the wave impacts. The closer we got the faster that driver went and I swear it felt like we were going like 60 miles an hour as we came inside the reef of Pohnpei!! It was pretty fun though and I enjoyed it.
Well the rest of our break wasn't all that exciting. I can't even really remember what else we did... Just relaxed, watched some movies, and caught up on sleep lost Thursday night I guess. Last week was spent getting ready for the evaluation/accreditation team that just left today after being here most of this week. Things went really well with that and we got an extension of four years on the school's evaluation! One and two are really poor, three is good, four is excellent, and there are FEW schools that ever get five. They can be listed on one hand. So we're all happy and glad that the school did so well. They made some really good recommendations for the next four years that they came up with after listening to some of our comments and just seeing for themselves what could be improved. I think they're very good recommendations. One was to have a specified guidance counselor/chaplain set up as a position, and I think that was one of the best ideas. Another was to have a vice principal. Another really good idea as Mr. B has entirely too much to handle on his own here, as wonderful a job as he's doing. And really, this school wouldn't be running if it weren't for him. He works so hard.
I had a fun weekend this last weekend. One of my students, Christy, invited me to come spend the night Sat. night. So I took Melissa with me (as we're not allowed to go alone) and met her at SouthPark to watch the hula dancing and just hang out for a while. Then we rented a couple of movies and her grandma took us to her house where we holed up in her room and spent the night out on her balcony watching a movie, eating popcorn and fruit, and then falling asleep to a cool breeze, palm trees, and stars overhead. I stood looking out off Christy's balcony that night after she and Melissa had fallen asleep, just thinking about all the unique and wondrful things I'm going to miss here, and realizing how much I love and am going to miss my students. It was a peaceful night, and a good escape from this little campus. The next morning her grandma took us out to eat brunch at The Village. The food was delicious, but somewhere between our late night snack the night before and the coffee I got with my brunch, I didn't feel all that well... Us girls had a soccer game against the local girls' team at 2 though, so I layed down for a bit and then got ready to play and spent the next hour or so running around in the pouring down rain. I actually scored a goal this game! That was pretty exciting. We ended up winning 3-2. I came back and took a shower and barely made it to the evaluation report meeting as my stomach was in utter turmoil. The rest of the night I just layed on my bed, did some grading, and took it easy, while everyone else had a dinner get together. Thankfully this morning I felt better, but I've just been exhausted. School is almost over!! This week is a full week, next week is only three days, then the school fair and a holiday, and the week after that isn't quite full, and that's it!! Time is flying and all I can think about when I go to sleep now is what it'll be like going home... I have to quit that though, I'm not getting any sleep! :O)
Well I've made this email into a small book here, so I'll end now! Please keep us all in your prayers as we wrap up this school year and prepare to go home. I'll try to get atleast one more email out before we head back, and then... I'll see most of you very soon! And yes, I've got lots of pictures and stories to share. :O) Take care and God bless.
love,
Lindsey
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