Diesel Trucks, soft serve and answered prayer

Let's see...my last post was pretty much a week ago and I am so overwhelmed with everything that has happened I am tempted just to copy and past from Brittany's very detailed and up to date blog to fill in the details of this week.
So our days are filled with unpredictable adventures but the most epic one we had this week involved the yellow truck. We've already had a truck break down on the way to church and had to wait for a relief ride, leaving it on the side of the road. Now we were down to one truck for the SM's to use for town runs which is really small for all of us to fit in in one run but we attempted it anyways. we all piled into the truck and crossed our fingers that everyone would fit, groceries, school supplies and all would fit into this truck.



We stopped at the post office day before but missed the package pick up by 8 minutes! I was disappointed since I'm waiting for a few packages including peanut butter!!! I didn't think other packages would be arriving for a while since i thought it takes a few weeks to get here. Whenever we drive around the island we are quite the sight to see for the locals. They stare at the excited white people in the SDA school truck and we just smile and wave:) Right before we left Brittany yelled at me across the campus and said i had a package!! I got so excited and ran to see what I had gotten so quickly. I actually had 2 packages!!! One was a pair of shoes my aunt had sent me and the other was my answer to prayer!!!!! I emailed Coach Schwartz and Dr. Garver at Southern about a week ago petitioning them for some sports equipment. I was expecting a box with a basketball and volleyball and maybe a few hot spots but boy was I wrong!!!!! I got an email back saying they had sent FIVE boxes of equipment for me to use. I don't think I could describe to you the emotions that flooded over me when I read that. I felt so blessed to have such amazing support from such amazing staff. I could talk about Southern ALL day long! This just proved the awesomeness that Southern has and how their staff REALLy do care about each and every student, even when they are half way around the world! I couldn't thank them enough for that amazing generosity! Now that I actually had this large box in front of me I was overwhelmed. I only got one of the 5 but the bigger fact of this was the miracle it brought with it. They sent 5 packages (which I still hope are on their way lol) but this one just happened to arrive first. But I do not believe it was just a coincidence! I prayed that morning that God would provide a way for me to be able to fitness test my PE class but I didn't have the resources or equipment to do so. This package had 5 (the exact amount i needed) of jump ropes for me to do all the tests I needed to that next day! God is good, all the time! And I have Coach and Garver to thank for this amazing blessing in Pohnpei:) I know my girls were shocked to see BRAND new equipment (basketballs, volleyball, jump ropes, pylons) and that was only the first package!!! I'm excited to receive the rest and show them. So here we are, packed full in the truck with our water containers ready to buy the town out. It had been a while since our last grocery store visit to palm terrace and a bunch of us needed to go to ACE for school supplies and teaching materials. We managed to drop our water containers off to be filled which helped with the space issue. Next stop was palm terrace for groceries. Since we went had so much stuff and eggs and milk that needed to be refrigerated we took a run back to the school and were going to go out again to ace. on the way back we needed to stop for gas so we stopped at a self serve and they asked them for "regular." Apparently regular on this island means just regular diesel. Well we found that out quickly we were stuck. Luckily for us it was at one of the best gas stations we could have stopped at with slushies and SOFT SERVE ice cream!! The island doesn't have much ice cream or american necessities (desserts) since everything they do have is melted and soft. so many times we jump on opportunities to enjoy the treats here:) I had a raspberry slushy! really good. We were stuck at the gas station for about an hour until one of the teachers came to pick us up in the dump truck. quite the ride back lol!! So after a very long afternoon we missed ACE closing and return the next day.



That was only one day this week! we also had an entire week (first week) teaching our classes! I was standing at the front of one of my health classes on thursday and thats when it really hit me. I am a high school teacher! The students were handing in their papers and I was writing homework on the board.......this is really happening....i am a student missionary in Pohnpei! God works in surprising ways and i'm excited to be in his hands through it all.


GIrls SM's with the flower from our "apple" tree on campus


we have REALLy bad luck with trucks. This is us trying to push the truck out when we got stuck at Mrs. Cool's house:)

Sunday morning rain is falling...

Today is the first day I feel as if I need to put lotion on! We went swimming in the Pacific Ocean yesterday and I can definitely feel the after effects of the massive amount of salt. We took a day trip out to a SMALL “resort” island to go snorkeling and have a bit of a day to relax away from the school. We’ve only been here about a week and a half and we are already taking trips out and exploring the island, I love it. This was a cute little island called Nahalp and there were a few other Pohnpei groups that were camping on the island. We took an hour drive in the back of our trucks to get there. I am really starting to get use to our transportation methods, which consists of piling as many of us into the back to two small trucks as we can, some standing at the back window and everyone else sitting against the sides. We have already had the privilege of being pulled over once for incorrect placement of our people in the back of the standing truck lol. Marcus was outside the bar and standing on the back tail end when we saw a small white car pull up pretty close behind us. We didn’t think anything of it at first until this little tiny blue light on the top began to light up and inform us we were currently being pulled over. They didn’t give us a ticket but a very abrupt verbal warning was not lacking. We had a good laugh about it after and Marcus hasn’t really heard the end of it since. When we got to the small inlet where we would be getting on a boat to head to the island the driveway into the inlet was quite the challenge. It was scary to be standing in the truck looking down at this very steep and rocky road that we were about to attempt at going down. I yelled back to everyone else to be ready to “jump ship”. But we made it down without any problems and we waited in a small overhang until the boat arrived to ferry us to the island. Nothing seems to really surprise me anymore. I am ready for anything after being here for only a week and I’m learning to expect the unexpected. Of course I was expecting a big boat to come around the corner to ferry us to the island however that was not quite the case. It was basically an oversized fishing boat with 8-10 rows of benches and an unplugged hole in the back that let in water every time someone shifted to the wrong side. We left at about 10:30am and apparently this is the time of low tide and with our luck we got stuck. All the guys had to get out and start pushing our little blue boat through the low, muddy water. Eventually a few of us girls hopped out and began to help with the grunt work too. I cut up my foot nicely on something in the mud but didn’t notice it till after I got back in the boat. Its so much fun to have such an unpredictable life. I was just talking with Brittany the other day about how different the way of life is here compared to the States. The pace is relaxed, the culture is focused on such different aspects of life and the “cushions” of society have all been removed. We find ourselves enjoying the little things in life so much more here. We find entertainment in racing GIANT frogs around the parking lot, in riding in the back of the truck while it rains, sitting in our living room just hanging out, making a good meal, eating bananas and swimming in the creek, drinking from a coconut, sitting in front of a fan, listening to Carl play his accordion, or just getting a scoop of ice-cream on a hot day. I guess you can say that the “little” things amuse us and we find enjoyment in random parts of our days here. I have already heard a few people talking about the culture shock they know they are going to experience going back home after our 10 months here.
When we finally reached the island, which wasn’t too far away but took us quite a while to get there we all started to explore. Brittany and I walked around the path for a while and then noticed that everyone had gone out to this long pier and had started snorkeling in the water around the dock. There was an awesome slide into the water and a overhang on the pier with a LARGE tube ring about 20 feet from the pier where you could sit and hang out in the water while people swam. I didn’t have snorkel gear so I watched for a few minutes but then decided to go and walk to the other side of the island to look for this cute chapel that Tia Tanya had told us about. One the way over we stopped to get some fresh mangos from Tanya’s box and enjoyed eating those while we walked.

Back to the Books

Remember your first day of high school? I sure do. And I was able to relive it all over again on Friday morning as I watched all the freshman and sophomores come into the work room to register for their classes. They would get their schedules made up with Mr. Edward and them come around to all us SM teachers and give us their papers. If our class was circled on their papers we would write them in on our rosters. It was awesome to be able to see our students and get to know them by name and meet some of their parents. There was such a vast difference between the demenior of the freshman and the seniors. Most of the freshman had their moms over their shoulders the whole time not wanting to try and let their little babies go:)

So I feel like there is so much we've done so far I can't even keep track of it all. But its not so much in the huge events but rather in the mundane daily adventures we have here that really stick. The other night we started a tradition of "Brinner". We adopted it from southern with waffle night at the CK. We had all the SM's over to our apartment and we made waffles in effect having Breakfast for dinner and have now named it Wednesday night brinner.

Last night Carly and Michael had a theatrical session for about an hour. We just watched as they entertained us with their humor and witty lines to each other. I have not laughed that hard .....EVER! Our apartment seems to be the hang out place for most of the SM's, although I am starting to think that its just cause we feed people and so they just keep coming back lol.

So i'm ready and waiting for another adventure. It's probably just around the corner.

Dog!

Here in pohnpei we consider the to be like squirrels. Stray dogs are EVEYRWHERE! If you've seen the movie UP you know that the line "squirrels" can bring about much laughter. Well here we are always yelling "DOG!". They seem to think that they rule the road and they don't have to move for oncoming cars. We have 2 or 3 dogs that hang around the school campus and I've already named them. Stinky, Spots and prego.

Heaven on Earth

We were given three points in Student Missions class to always remember as we travel around and live in our respective ares of the world. Where you are going is NOT heaven, it's NOT hell, Its not a haven and its not home. However I beg to differ. As I spend more and more time here I am finding pieces of heaven on earth. This place is nothing like home but it is showing me a lot about myself and what I held as my preconceived ideas. Sitting in the Youth Sabbath school I was met with a little heaven on earth listening to those young people sing. They are incredible and they way they can harmonize gives me chills. I use to think that I was coming here to be a blessing BUT I am being shown every day that this place and the people are blessing me. WE drive through the jungle and on every side I see poverty and despair. The living conditions that people have here can be appalling yet they have such great faith. such a joy that they have shared with each and every SM here. So can heaven come down to earth? Yes it can. To me it comes in the voices of the people here in Pohnpei. It comes in their smiles, in their hugs, in their waves. Its a piece of heaven on earth.

Week One

Kaselehlie from the island of Pohnpei!

Day one: the adventure actually begins two days before this on a Friday afternoon as I zip up my big red suitcase for the last time in Canada, hug my parents goodbye and stand in an immigration line for an hour with my super heavy guitar and three pieces of luggage. The nerves began to set in as I clung to my passport and realized that this was all really happening. Arriving in Dulles international airport in Washington I look around for my pick up and he is nowhere to be seen. Spending three days Washington just to jump back on a plane but this time I was not alone but with my best friend by my side (kind of…she was a few rows ahead of me but on the same flight). We met up with the other Southern student missionaries in San Fran and had a few minutes to chill before boarding our VERY full airbus! It was huge I was in the very back sitting with a guy from New Zealand and very talkative 11 year old flying to Hawaii for a family vacation. I can feel my excitement as we step off the plan in Honolulu and I can see the picture in my mind; 5 young college students, wide-eyed and dragging countless bags of luggage around to the pick up place for us. We were all talking about how disappointed we were that no one was waiting for us at the gate with lais and welcome. We definitely spoke prematurely and I am even ashamed to say I doubted our amazing SM department at southern. As soon as we got our luggage off the belt, Gail, our coordinator was there with lais, smiles and big hugs for all of us. I look around at our group and all I could do was smile cause this was it, here we were. All our planning, all our fundraising, all our worrying, all our tears, all our classes, all our prayers, all our emails had come down to this moment. This moment when we went from being students and want-to-be missionaries to employed teachers of the Guam Mission and Student Missionaries. The next three days were jam packed with meetings and seminars on teaching and how to be a missionary. I found myself falling asleep in every meeting and would wake up to other SM’s laughing at my nodding head and twitching body. The jet lag had hit me and hit me hard and we weren’t even in Pohnpei yet! Those three days are a relative blur. They packed the days with activities and both mornings Britt and I got up at 5:30 to explore Hawaii. The principal from Saipan took groups to Diamondhead one morning and the ocean/beach the other. It was hard to wake up that early but I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I might as well take advantage of it while we were there.


In Pohnpei: I’m really starting to get use to this whole “flying” thing lol. I’ve taken so many flights up to this point that three more flights seems like nothing to me. I can sleep for an entire 5-hour flight and not even notice the time pass. We took group pictures with all the countries and schools and I realized there are quite a few of us going to Pohnpei. 18 in total and we all seem to really be hitting it off. This is an awesome group to be in and I can tell the next 10 months are going to be a blast. With an EARLY rise and sine of 3am, all the western island SM’s pile onto the bus to head to the airport for our 6am flight. We stopped in Majuro, another Marshall island and then final destination Pohnpei☺.


The flights went quickly but our stop in Majuro we had a bit of time to get off the plane and be outside for a while as they cleaned the plane. It was really weird to think that this was where my roommate, Nicole Ley was an SM last year. I felt like a zoo animal seeing all the locals lined up at the airport gate starting at us like we were some kind of foreign aliens that had just landed and taken over their airstrip. The island only seemed wide enough for our plane to barely land. I felt like I could stretch my arms out wide and put my finger in the ocean on both sides of the island! I think I would go crazy on such a SMALL island!! We waved goodbye to the SM’s that were staying in Majuro and boarded back onto our plane for our final flight to Pohnpei. Landing we were greeted with what we were told would be our faithful companion for the next 10 months; RAIN. We were handed umbrellas and probably looked like silly tourists having to protect ourselves from the rain when this was just a commonality to the locals here. We were greeted by the locals who gave us flower headdresses and lais☺. I could see the tinge of fear in the eyes of the other SM’s as the uncertainty of this new place was just starting to sink it. The drive to our school was filled with camera flashes, pointing fingers, and wide eyes. We noticed two main things right off the bat; they don’t throw out their trash in a central location but rather just on the side of the road and the humidity here would be the death of all of us who love cold weather. I must admit however the heat is not quite as bad as I pictured it. It gets to about 85 but with a humid-x of 120%. SO STICKY all the time and I can never find relief from the heat. We explored the school a bit but were pretty exhausted and just wanted to unpack and get settled into our apartments. After a few hours we went on our first outing!

visiting Palm terrace (grocery store) for the first time:)

Our principal took us to the local grocery store “Palm Terrace” and we found out first hand just how insanely expensive the food is here. Box of cereal = $8 or canned beans = $6 or ice cream = $10/tub, no peanut butter or chocolate. But it was such a new experience to have to plan out what to buy, when to eat it, how to bargain shop. Definitely nothing I’ve ever had to do for myself before. We bought all our cleaning supplies, paper towels, TP, staple foods and basics bringing our apartment bill to about $202.02. We are for sure going very BASIC and only staple food while here, not many frills. However that hasn’t really stopped us from having some pretty awesome home cooked meals! Last night we had baked potatoes and curry. Rice has been a huge staple for us already and our rice cooker has been on more than it has been off in the last few days. I am actually currently eating a banana and coconut smoothie Britt and I made from a few of the banana and coconut trees behind the gymnasium.
Today was a VERY slow day! We didn’t have any meetings or orientation so we’ve pretty much just been in our apartment all day, cooking, making our syllabi for our classes and just hanging out. There are so many daily adventures here. For example this mornings adventure was figuring out how to make waffles☺. That was hilarious. Then it poured rain all morning so we just had mini adventures in our apartment of singing really loud to songs, some SM’s watched a movie, did handstands, did the dishes, cooked noodles, ate frozen banana, tried to make fried banana, found a HUGE eel in the drain system, killed three cockroaches, and writing in this blog. I will make sure not to fall so far behind in my blogging from now on and then I can give more details☺ But for now I better get back to my lesson plans since school starts this coming Tuesday and registration for High school starts tomorrow!!