A Bit of Diving, A Trip to an Island, Board Games and Boxes

12-31-08 All right. For Christmas Day, we had a potluck dinner and just hung out with each other. We would have traveled from place to place, watching the various dances that the Marshallese do to celebrate Christmas, but it was pouring down rain and was windy. But it ended up being fine, anyway. We played board games and talked. I had a good time.

On the 28th, six of us (Megan, Landen, Jordan, Ryan, Jhan Dale, and me) went diving. Ryan took us to see an airplane--well, it was a propeller and part of a wing of an airplane, but it was still very cool. It also was a hundred feet down. So, yeah, that was cool as well. Although I'm still breaking in my mask, and therefore, it still fogs a good deal, the underwater part of the dive went really well. However, my BCD (or Buoyancy Control Device; the vest a diver wears that the tank is connected to) decided to keep re-inflating after I had put some air in it so I could float better at the surface (you're supposed to do that), which, besides being possibly dangerous (if it had happened underwater) and being uncomfortable, was very annoying. The problem really was with the hose that connects the BCD to the air supply within the tank; for some reason, it wasn't shutting off. So, Ryan disconnected it and we went on the dive. It was the first dive where I went really close to the red section of the air gauge, even though I was breathing like I was supposed to. Jhan Dale thinks it was because of the BCD's constant reinflation that I was down on air. So, we finished up the dive and Ryan had me surface. When a diver surfaces, they're supposed to re-inflate their BCD so they can rest comfortably on the surface. I know how to do that, both with the hose connected and without, but I couldn't float well enough to be able to fill it without the hose. I tried to find the hose, to re-connect it to my BCD, but couldn't find it. So, there I was, treading water with all my equipment on, trying to find the hose, and I just have this abstract thought go through my mind: "So, I can totally see why the book says that the most injuries happen at the surface when a diver panics. 'Cause if I was panicking right now, that would be bad. Good thing I'm not panicking." At this point, Ryan had now surfaced and he swam over and was like, "Re-connect your hose." I replied, "That's what I've been trying to do." So, Ryan says, "Put your snorkel on," and so I did, and so he found my hose, re-connected it, my BCD reinflated, and then he disconnected it again. Then we all floated and kicked our ways back to shore. It was a fun dive.

On the 29th, we took the church's boat out to an island that's past the channel. (The channel is a gap between islands in the atoll where there isn't a reef for the waves to break on.) This particular island is mainly uninhabited. I say mainly because only one family lives on it, and it's a very long island, longer than Ebeye, I do believe. Also, Ryan told us that the family that lives there sometimes lives in Ebeye, and with it being the holidays, that's where they probably were. We got a late start, again (but not due to us), but soon enough, we were speeding along the islands. We passed Shell, Googeegoo, and Nge Nge (the island that Emily calls "the Island of Evil," for that's where she hurt her foot), and then we were in the channel. It was both exciting and scary. The people in the back of the boat got soaked, and those of us in the front got bumped around, especially when we would go down a wave and hit hard. It was like a roller coaster, without safety restraints and without going upside down. I just laughed the whole time--because I thought it was fun and because I didn't want to yell every time we hit hard. So I picked to laugh instead. Right after we got through the channel, the engine just stopped. It was because it had run out of gas, but that was why we had brought some, so they re-filled it and we sped on again.

The island we went to is called Bigitch, I do believe. I mean, I don't know how it's spelled, but everyone says, "Big Itch," and so yeah. Anyway, this island is the type that people actually imagine an island in the middle of the Pacific to be like. Tons of palm trees (and coconut), sandy beaches, and clear water. There was some very nice snorkeling--I saw lots of fish and some VERY cool-looking coral. One downside was that the water would suddenly change from warm to cool, and I would suddenly start getting cold (there may be more downsides to the temp changes, but I won't share that at the moment. I'm waiting on something, first.). First, we all ate. Then we all went off and did various things--Jordan and I went snorkeling, Megan and Landen went for a walk, Emily went looking for shells on the oceanside, etc., When Jordan and I came back, we waited until everyone else was ready, and then we all went snorkeling again. There were some Kwaj boats anchored offshore (it seemed that Kwaj people didn't want to anchor and come to shore, like we had done), and so there were some other snorkelers. When we had finished that, we decided that we had a half hour yet, since the tide was coming in, and we didn't want a very rough channel crossing on the way back. So I ended up walking on the beach, talking with Jordan, and looking for shells. I didn't find any, but Jordan did. We also got to talk to a guy from Kwaj who had been spear-fishing on the oceanside and was now heading back to his boat. That was fun. Then we headed back, and the ride through the channel was a lot calmer than when we were coming through the other way. The ride back was uneventful--no scary engine stops or anything.

On Tuesday, we had more of a down day, sort of. I woke up early (for 6:50 AM during break is early), because Emily, Ryan, Kiba, and I went to Beach Park to jog/walk. For me, it ended up being mostly walking, but that's okay, I completed two entire laps during the time we jogged, and for me, that's a good thing. After that, we went to the school, for the Internet had finally been fixed, and checked our email and such, then went to the post office. I got some cards in the mail, and I really appreciated the one from Mrs. Schulz. She's been following my posts and sending me encouragement through the mail. I just love her cards! (And by the way, Mrs. Schulz, I can read your handwriting perfectly fine. I have never had a problem reading it.) There were also a lot of packages, two of which for me!! One of those packages I had been waiting for since OCTOBER, and so I was very glad to finally get it. It turns out that it went to Guam first, then made its way from island to island to get here. Thank you, Jessica and Larry and Cindy and everybody else who stuck things in there! There were two big bottles of A-1, a bottle of 1000 Island, Sweetarts and books (of which I was very thankful to get), but what I was the most excited about was all the notes and letters from my friends at school--even though they're two months old, they still made me smile! I especially appreciated the Dutch Blitz game that Ashley Seymour sent me--we almost immediately opened it up and played for like two hours. I just love that game! Although it was a bit slow, considering that none of us had played in a while, and that we were only playing with one deck (because I learned how to play while using two decks of cards; now that is a fast game!), but we sped up as time went on and when we got a fourth player. Instead of keeping points, we were just playing to count how many times one of us Blitzed out--I got at least two Blitzes, and that was good for me. We also played a couple games of Scrabble.

The second box I got was from school. It was my Christmas box, and I knew it was coming. It was sent in enough time to reach me by Christmas, but what happens is that boxes for Ebeye don't get as high a priority as boxes for Kwaj do, at least around Christmas time. But let me tell you, yesterday felt more like Christmas! I opened the box from school, and was very excited to find the note that told me who had filled the box. It was three of my friends from Southern who also work at Timber Ridge Camp--Ryan, Baylie, and Danny. I was so excited. (Actually, I found the music CDs with Baylie's handwriting on it, and I thought to myself, "Oh, cool, they asked my friends to help out!" But it's actually much cooler than that. In the note, Ryan told me that the three of them had decided to "adopt" an SM, and that they had decided to adopt ME! It was very awesome. I am currently listening to the music you sent me as I write this. Thank you, you three!

After I had opened my boxes, that was when we decided to play Dutch Blitz, because I had found out in August or September that Ryan and Jhan Dale and Emily all know how to play, and that's the perfect number to play. When some students showed up to hang out with Jhan Dale, Emily and I decided to go back to the post office, because as we were leaving, another shipment had been coming in, and we had seen at least one box that belonged to people here in the apartments. So we put skirts on over our shorts and went forth. We came back with five more boxes--one of which was for me! It was the last box that I know of that I had floating around the US Postal System. This box was from my mom, part of the bunch of boxes she had sent a while back--and I had gotten all the rest of those boxes. So I gleefully opened my last box, knowing that I had my film camera inside, along with various other things. My mom has been asking me if I had gotten a certain sweet surprise, and I hadn't, but this is the box that had that surprise inside. All over the place. Somehow, the marshmallow cream that Mom had sent had oozed out a little and gotten onto some of the things, but nothing was ruined and everything was easily cleaned (except the book and the comics, because paper doesn't do too well under water). But most of it was still inside, under the seal, so I really don't know how it came out. Oh, well. Emily reminded me that it was much better than her package that had come dripping with a nasty-smelling liquid. I agreed. So, thank you Mom!! I really enjoyed getting the comics and my AFM. It was a very good read, by the way. :)

That brings us to today. It's New Year's Eve, and we are, of course, planning to stay up until the year 2009 arrives. Of course, you all won't think it's 2009 until it's 2009 where you are, but that's life in a different time zone. I'll tell you how it went in another blog. More later.

Pictures!

Me in November

Kiba the puppy when he was small and cute

Shoes are how we tell who's home


The Ocean on a Windy Day


Our Apartments' Balcony

I'll post more soon, but I need to go. More later.

News Update--From Final Exams until Christmas

12-25-08 Merry Christmas! Final exam week went by fairly quickly. I even got my grades turned in by last Friday (but that may be due partially to the fact that I had six tests right in a row, and no tests on Thursday morning. However, I had everything graded by the end of Wednesday, and quite happily logged into Skype on Thursday morning to be surprised by my friend Desi also being online! One reason that this was so exciting is that Desi is a fellow student missionary--but in Africa. There's still a fair bit of time difference (she was headed to bed, I had just started my day), but it was good to have a conversation with her. It was definitely a boost!

Last Thursday was our Christmas program. It went really well, compared with other programs we've had this year. After starting a half-hour or so late, the groups flowed smoothly and the kids sang and everything was good. Well, not entirely. My sophomores had refused to practice, like I said two posts ago. We had gotten to the Wednesday before final exams, and they still wouldn't practice. They would just sit there and stare at the blackboard blankly. Frankly, it drove me up the wall. Blessedly, I stayed calm in front of the class (though I really wanted to explode, and, for those of you who know me rather well, you know that would not have been a good thing) and it was only through God that I stayed calm in front of the class. I ended up venting to the coordinator for the program, and when he had the sophomores during the next period, he asked them if they would practice. He got no answer, and so he said that they didn't need to be in the program. Instead, our principal had them clean the rooms where we had the performances (before and after) and they were still required to come. I don't know how many of them actually showed up, but a few of the ones who usually behave did. Figures. On Friday, one of my sophomores' moms told me that they had all known the song. *sigh*

You know, I remember my sophomore year of high school. It wasn't that long ago, you know. I remember how most of us thought that a lot of stuff we had to do was "stupid." So, in a way, I can identify with the class I sponsor. But here the apathy is much deeper. In my class, we would still get things done, whether we thought it dumb or not. We still participated. I've talked with our principal about my class--and part of the problem is that no one in the class wants to be a leader. At least, no one wants to be a leader in the sense of getting up front and getting things done. They would all rather have someone else do it. Then there's me, the sponsor. It's my job to help them lead, not to lead. And it isn't for lack of potential, either. There are lots of leaders in my class--they all just want to do different things, none of which are what they're supposed to be doing. They have the potential; they lack the motivation. Last Monday (12-15, I think), we were supposed to plan for our class party on the 19th. Okay, that's not difficult, we've planned class potlucks before. So, I write the list of foodstuffs needed on my blackboard and ask, "Okay, who's bringing what?" Crickets. (Well, if there were crickets on Ebeye, which I think there aren't.) I finally got most of the food volunteered for, and asked if they wanted to do anything else, like play games or something. No answer. So I sent them on to geometry class. Friday came, and I had six kids show up on time to eat (a seventh had to join another class because she came late). Six kids is one-third of my class--and most of that one-third did not even bring what they were supposed to. The kid who lives across the street from the school didn't even show. *sigh* I ended up combining my party with the party of Emily and the juniors. It ended up being a fine little party, but I still was disappointed. Despite thoughts that they wouldn't show, I was hoping that they would.

Enough of my angsty venting. Here's something funny that happened during the last performance (which was the Kindergarten/Preschool). Little kids began running out of the room and scrambling to the street. Why, you ask? Oh, because the Christmas parade one of the churches was holding was throwing candy to the kids. It was also blaring a siren that was completely annoying. Our little kids on stage kept singing, though I'm sure that they wanted to be running to get candy as well. I actually have video of their performance, and every so often, there's this blur that runs past. It would be another small child, dashing towards the door. We staff were just silently laughing and trying to pay attention to the kids on stage. They did a really good job of singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Sunday, December 21st, was a day that I spent mostly in bed. Somehow, I got laid out by some sort of illness. It wasn't bad enough for them to call up a taxi and take me to the hospital, but I did stay in bed most of the day and try to sleep. I had about two good hours of sleep once I moved to our principal's couch (because their house was dark and quiet, unlike my bedroom, which gets direct exposure to sun almost all day long). I slept all night, and am now (as of Thursday) feeling much better. I don't know why I got it, but I'm really glad it's gone.

We've had no Internet for about four days, and I haven't felt the need to pay money for the Internet at NTA (I am cheap like that). This post may be a reason to go to NTA, but I'd rather have the school have Internet, because it's cheaper to me. (No, it's not free. Ten dollars of my stipend goes to using the school's Internet. Not a hardship, considering that then I have reliable (well, most of the time) access to the Internet. Plus, the Internet being off is due to NTA, not to the school. And so here I am, using the Internet at NTA, to check my email and post this.

Tonight we're going to have a Christmas dinner and just hang out with each other. Last night we had a Christmas Eve party--we exchanged gifts, using the Steal game method, and then played chess and Uno and had conversations and such. I actually won a round of Uno! Yay!

Oh, I almost forgot. I have broken the two hundred pound barrier. That's right. For the first time in a long time, I weigh less than 200 pounds. I came in at 197.5 pounds, and so I went out and got celebration pickles and Pringles. They were expensive, let me tell you. The jar of pickles (it was a big one, because I wanted to economize and because I wanted to share) cost me $6.15. Oh, but they were good! And very much worth it. More later.

Packages from Overseas and Perils in the Seas

12-14-08 Last Friday, I had a wealth of things arrive in the mail. First, part of my snorkeling gear arrived--part of the batch that Hidao sent us from Hawaii. The only thing of mine that didn't show were my boots--and so I can't quite use my fins yet. Those of us who had gotten their fins and boots proclaim them difficult to use when snorkeling, so I'm hoping to order a pair of snorkeling fins. Otherwise I'll just keep borrowing fins from Ryan and Jhan Dale.

I also got two of the boxes that my mom had sent from home. One had my Christmas present in it--a camcorder and an underwater case for it! I was so excited--especially when I plugged it in the computer and it registered it as having videos on it. So I watched them--and they almost made me cry, seeing messages from my family. However, most made me laugh--especially my mom prompting my eighteen-year-old brother to say, "Mom is making me do this." It was very funny. I also really enjoyed the DVD that I got in one of the boxes--and on it was a message from my church family. It was quite awesome to watch--even those people who really don't know me because my church has grown since I've come to Ebeye. So, thank you all!

Today (Sunday) we planned to go snorkeling (because the church's boat has finally gotten fixed). After a late start, we got into the boat and made our way to where Ryan said would be some good sightseeing. We jumped into the water (I sort of did that fall-off-the-boat routine) and we began paddling around. I even got to take some video, which looks very good, by the way. Then we noticed the jellyfish.

Yes, I just wrote jellyfish. They were very little, but they packed a large punch. I heard Ryan shout, "Ouch" and then go, "Jellyfish!" I had just turned off my camera and I swung my arm back--and yelled, "Ouch!" and my arm began to hurt. I had been stung by the tiny little jellyfish. We all clambered back onto the boat and went to another place and then we swam around and I took some more video. When we got back to the apartments, we took our showers and ate food and I got my arm taken care of. Now it just itches. But it's okay, really it is. (As of Tuesday, it wasn't even really itchy, either. Yay!)

This week is final exams for the second quarter. At the end of this week, it will be Christmas Break--and everyone has needed it. I'm looking forward to it. More later.

Tidbits of News

12/9/08 Oh, I have really come to appreciate days off of school A student thinks that they enjoy a day off here and there, but a teacher really enjoys a day off. At least, I think so. Last Friday was Gospel Day, a Marshallese holiday. To my understanding, Gospel Day is held in celebration of the original Protestant missionaries that came to Ebeye years ago and began the work here. In fact, the biggest party was held Sunday night at the big blue and white church that I and the other teachers pass on our way to our school. (The party was on Sunday because it rained on Friday night, and all day Sabbath.) My Gospel Day was spent sleeping in--I actually made it to 9:17 AM, which is a record for myself here. Then I finished up my grading and relaxed. It was a very good day.

Sabbath was very good as well. Our speaker was one of the pastors who in for supplies from one of the outer islands. He's only been out there for six months--but he can already pretty much speak fluent Marshallese and so he spoke in both English and Marshallese. Our AY program was run by Jordan and I. After song service, we broke everybody up in their groups and had a situation where they could only bring ten items with them. Then we cut it down to five items--and then I wrapped it up with a little worship thought. I think it was the shortest AY we've had, but everybody enjoyed it immensely. (I think it was a nice break from all of the Bible games we've been playing.)

There was actually an announcement regarding a future power outage! Of course, it was in Marshallese, and so our kids were the ones who told us, but we had prior warning of Monday's power outage. It was nice to be able to plan ahead for once!

The weather's definitely starting to switch over to dry season. Yesterday is what (I've been told) a perfect example of it. The sea was flat, there were no clouds, and there was no breeze whatsoever. I've been so accustomed to having to weight everything on my desk down that I was constantly surprised yesterday by my lack of having to do so. I also discovered that my classroom is an oven. I am so not looking forward to February when I learn things like that (February's the height of dry season, I think).

Talking about the natural world, the waves we've been getting on the ocean side of the island have been HUGE! They have been six to eight feet tall (I think it's eight to ten, but whatever). When they crash on the reef, it makes it all foamy and swirly and such. Matt, the teacher from WorldTeach who I met at Litaki, was out yesterday during his lunch break trying to catch the waves. It was fun to watch from the third floor of the school and hope that he made it and hope that he didn't get bounced off the reef (which would be very painful).

For all of those who know me (which would be pretty much everyone who receives an update email), you know that I'm not the--well, I'm not the smallest person on the planet. However, as you probably know from other blogs of mine, I have been getting smaller. I am quite pleased and happy to announce that, as of the last time I weighed myself, I was close to thirty pounds lighter than I was in August! Yay for me! The only downside is that my clothes don't shrink along with me.

It's really weird to sing Christmas songs when it's about eighty-six degrees and humid outside, with the sun beating down and baking everything it can. You may be wondering why. Well, it's because I've grown up in a place where it's cold when we sing Christmas songs. Sure, I sang Christmas hymns and such in India when I was there two years ago (was it really that long ago?) but it seems weirder here. And I have to take pictures of the random Christmas lights that have sprung up all over the place. One of them is this huge red shooting star that sticks up above the landscape (well, everything sticks up above the landscape; the island's flat; the school's one of the tallest places in Ebeye). The profile of said star is visible from Emily's and my window. It looks like a bright red stick at night. But at least it's far enough away that it doesn't interfere with sleep. Usually.

We're getting ready for quarter exams (they're next week), and we're also getting ready for our Christmas Program. My class is singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and they tricked me into singing it solo Monday morning during English class because they supposedly don't know the song. I'm not sure if they do or not--because some sang along. *sigh* Sophomores.

Oh, I almost forgot. Sunday marked the four month anniversary of my stay here on Ebeye. Ladedah, I have six months left. Actually, Gayle, if you're reading this (and I know you do), I'll have you know that I am finally moving out of second stage and into the third stage of culture shock. For which I'm glad, because the second stage is completely Annoying with a capital A. However, that also means that I'm starting to realize how much I'll miss once I leave. Funny, because a few months ago, I didn't think I'd miss anything whatsoever (except maybe my fellow missionaries). Now it feels like time is running out instead of dragging on.

More later.

A Few Busy Days' Worth of News

12/1/08 I am officially an open water diver, as of last Wednesday night. I did relatively well on my last paper test. Thursday afternoon I went and ordered my fins, boots, mask and snorkel (it cost me $140 total for the gear, but it's worth it) and Friday we had School Picnic.

Thursday, as you know, was Thanksgiving. We had a half day of school (we finished at 11:30) and then went home. We began cooking food for our Thanksgiving potluck (I had been assigned the green bean casserole). During a lull in the cooking (and grading, of which I did most of mine), four of us walked down to Hidao's and ordered our gear. My total expenditures on scuba diving so far have been two hundred dollars for the class, and one forty for gear. But I know it's been well worth it so far. Back at home, we feasted on various Thanksgiving dishes (I even got two pieces of pumpkin pie!) and watched a movie. We had invited the three American missionary teachers from a tiny school at the end of the island, near the causeway, and one came. Her name was Amy, and she's from Kentucky. I think she was sort of nervous, coming into our "family," but it was fun having her there.

Friday was our School Picnic. The third through twelfth graders (as well as the teachers) had been split up into four teams--and I was on the gray team. We mustered our troops some time after 8:00 (they were supposed to already be there at 8:00) and began our events after a short prayer. We had relay races, strange food eating contests, and some track and field events. Yours truly was the only female staff member on the gray team who was participating. Therefore, yours truly had to run both the 50m and 100m races (against the other participating female staff, my housemates). Hey, in the bargain, I got to wear my shorts without having a skirt on top. It was worth the aching quad muscles to wear shorts out in the open. I got second place in the first race, and third in the second race. However, Megan fell during the first race (and scraped up her leg pretty good) and Lorraine stopped, and that's why I won (having been focused on the end of the race, and not on my fellow racers [read: I didn't even see that Megan had fallen until I crossed the line]). In the second race, there were only three runners (because Megan was tending to her wounded leg). So, on the whole, I'm just not fit for running, especially after almost four months of absolutely no running whatsoever. It was the first time I'd put my tennis shoes on since getting them in the mail! We had a potluck lunch with our sponsored classes, and Emily and I ended up combining ours because her class didn't have a tent of sorts to make shade at Beach Park.

Sabbath morning I ended up (quite unexpectedly) teaching youth Sabbath School. I wasn't supposed to teach, but there we go, flexibility in action. Also, prayer in action, too, for you can bet that I was sending up little prayers the ENTIRE time (because I haven't taught a Sabbath School class since the spring of 2006). I suppose that's what the "official" role of "assistant youth leader" means, anyway. It went pretty smoothly, and some of the students even offered their own ideas as answers to questions--and that was truly exciting. I also was the Scripture/prayer person at church (which is the first time I've been up front during a church service).

Sunday I went snorkeling with Emily and Ryan near Beach Park--and saw lots of fish: clownfish, little shiny blue fish that swarmed, black fish, orange fish, fish that looked like Gil off of "Finding Nemo", little saltwater snakes, purple coral, blue water, etc., It was truly awesome and I really wanted to stay longer than the time it took for Ryan to take some sweet photos of the reef inhabitants. I am totally going to take some of those pictures before I leave.

Today was Monday, and the island had the kickoff for Disability Awareness Week. The kickoff was a parade of schoolchildren going around the island, followed by the official ceremony, wherein a bunch of people spoke in Marshallese and some kids danced and they gave food to the students. The parade consisted of the various schools on the island--including ours. We had the 8th-12th graders in the parade. Happily, it started promptly at 9:00 this morning. We looped around the entire island and the kids kept trying to escape down alleys and side streets. Two of our kids even tried to bribe me with a portion of five dollars (the rest of which they wanted to use to buy water with), and of course I had to say No (even though I thought it very funny). After the ceremony, Emily, Ryan and I went to the post office to see if there were any packages--there were ten boxes, none of which were mine. However, three of them were Landen's, and since one of the boxes of mine that haven't arrived yet left shortly after Landen's, it should be arriving any week now.

That brings me to the evening. Seeing as there was no class this morning (due to the parade), I have nothing to grade and I have already updated my grades. I may just go to bed early. More later.