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.