iN POHNPEi
Thursday August 3, 2006
Today we arrived in Pohnpei. We left Honolulu around 6:55 AM. The line was extremely long and I wasn’t sure if we were going to make our flight because about 50+ student missionaries (not including the Principals of the schools) were trying to check in to our flight. Yet, luckily we all boarded safely. We stopped about three times. Our first stop was in Majuro and our side of the plane had to get off for a TSA check so we got to partially see Majuro. It was a quite interesting landing because the run was on a small island surrounded by water. I know scary huh?!?! So we stopped there and about 25+ people got off since they were teaching at Majuro. After our next stop was Kwajalan (not spelled right but spelled according to sound). We weren’t allowed to get off so we stayed on the plane. The third stop was Kosare. It was a beautiful island. Many people came back with green tangerines!!! Finally we were on our way to POHNPEI!!! We arrived on pohnpei around 2:30pm on Thursday. Although we kind of had a bit of a rough landing, the plane ride was good. When we got of the plane the humidity hit quickly! Yet it was BEAUTIFUL! We went to get our baggage and as soon as we got out of the airport our church family was there to greet us! They were all so welcoming! We loaded our stuff onto trucks and we headed out to the school. When we arrived we settled into our apartments. Four girls from La Sierra (including me) roomed together in one apartment. It was nice having roommates that I have known for awhile. After settling in we all jumped on the trucks and headed to Palm Terrace where we did a bit of grocery shopping. Although it was a bit outrageous with the prices, it was good to get some food to store in our fridge. When we arrived back in the apartment the first thing I saw when I opened the fridge was a HUGE ROACH! Yeah our worst nightmare! Although we didn’t kill it, we were able to get it out of the fridge. For dinner we headed to our principals apartment, Mr. Benjamin. He gave us pizza to remind us of home. It was a nice gesture, but I preferred the island food! It was a great first afternoon in Pohnpei and I’m looking forward to the remaining days.
Friday August 4, 2006
Today we had a staff meeting at 9:00AM. It wasn’t hard to adjust to time so there was no sense of jet lag. We talked a bit about what we were going to do with our classes and stuff before school started. The elementary teachers went to see their classrooms and the high school teachers went to go see some text books. At around 1:00PM we headed to Telecom to set up our phone lines. After we stopped by the store again to get some little stuff. When we got back to the school we all jumped in the trucks to head to a river to go swimming. It was getting late so we weren’t able to visit the waterfall. When we got to the river it started to rain a bit but it felt good. The river was amazing. It was nice a cool and refreshing. The boys found this cable bridge and they walked on it and jumped into the river. It was scary but they knew what they were doing. After swimming in the river while it was pouring rain, we headed back to the apartments to shower and get ready for vespers at the church. We arrived at the church, it was a beautiful little church. Due to the culture, everyone left their slippers outside of the church. It felt like home. Coming from a Filipino background, being in Pohnpei reminds me of home. We settled in and sang some songs. One of the SM’s named Raz was asked to speak last minute, but he did a wonderful job. After we were asked to mingle with the locals and get to know them. I have to say that I love these little Pohnpein children. It was a wonderful experience getting to know the locals better.
Saturday August 5, 2006
We all woke up today and met around 9:00AM to head over to church. We rode the big bus so that was fun. We arrived at church for Sabbath school and my friend Kim was singing and I was accompanying here (I know weird huh)…but it was my first time every accompanying her, I just played chords but it was pretty good. I messed up a bit but it wasn’t that bad…after we had Sabbath school and they lady told us to sign our names and if we wanted to be teachers, well I guess I was the only who signed up so yah I’m the new Sabbath school teacher (ehhck). I’m scared because I’ve never really taught Sabbath school and this means I have to be prepared every Sabbath so that will be interesting. After Sabbath school we had service and that was good. We all came back to our apartments after church and my roommates and I slept for almost 3 hours. When we woke up we heard everyone was going back to the river we went to on Friday and this time we were going to a waterfall. So we changed and headed out. It started to rain a bit again, but this time the river was so muddy we ended up going out to the sea. We didn’t go way out, but we came upon this dock like area and we just jumped in…that was so much fun. The jumping part was fun, but the warm water was kind of gross. So we headed back home after awhile. We showered changed and cooked dinner for us and our neighbors. A bunch of girls ended up coming over to our apartment to watch She’s the Man. After the movie we headed to the gym because I heard they were playing basketball. So I changed and went there hoping to play. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to play, but this one guy said I was. The only problem was that the locals are scared to ‘hurt’ the girls, but since I’ve been playing basketball most of my life, I was use to it. So I ended up playing and doing pretty well too. I played one game and headed back to the apartment to sleep.
Sunday August 6, 2006
We had another staff meeting at 9:00AM today. We split up into high school and elementary groups. We headed to the teachers work room to get our books and finalize our classes. I ended have 3 high school bible classes, 2 chemistry classes, and 1 girls P.E. class. The only problem I really have is that my 3 bible classes don’t have text books, so that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. After we got our books and finalized our classes, one of my roommates, Kim, and I went to visit our other two roommates to see their elementary classrooms. The elementary teachers have a lot to do, because they have to clean and setup their rooms, unlike the high school teachers, we only have to get our class schedules together. So we visited then came back to cook lunch for them. After lunch, the school decided to take the SM’s out to the ocean to go surfing and snorkeling. Now I know you may think that we just go out to the beach and swim and surf and snorkel…NOPE. To go surfing you have to go ALL the way out to the ocean because that is where the waves break. The waves break by the reef (where you can go snorkeling and diving), so in order to go surf we had to take boats all the way out to the sea. It was a good 15 minute boat ride from the shore out to where we were going to be. The current was rough, I snorkeled a bit, but it was so hard to get back to the boat, I believe I spent most of my time trying to swim back to the boat. No lie, it took almost 45 minutes to swim back to the boat, when it only took about 10 minutes to get where I was at. But I finally made it, although I was really scared. So we chilled in the boat and everyone eventually came back and we headed back home. When we got to the apartments we showered and got ready for the welcoming party that the church was throwing for us. At around 6:30PM we headed to the gym and there was a LONG set of tables filled with FOOD!!! We sat in the middle of the gym and they introduced us to our host families and had us introduce ourselves to the locals. It was fun. We had good food, and good times to bond with our fellow SM’s and the locals. As the night ended I went to the apartment to change so I could play basketball. I played with the locals that night, and we played against the other SM’s. We won our first game and I did pretty well. After we played one more game (and I was tired) and we lost. But all in all we all played a good game, and now I think they know I can play and can hang with them so that was fun. I came back to the apartment and rested.
Monday August 7, 2006
We woke up again at 9:00AM to have a meeting. The high school and elementary broke up again and we did lesson planning, yearly planning, talked about grading and our syllabi for our classes. We haven’t done much else so I’ll write more later.
Today we arrived in Pohnpei. We left Honolulu around 6:55 AM. The line was extremely long and I wasn’t sure if we were going to make our flight because about 50+ student missionaries (not including the Principals of the schools) were trying to check in to our flight. Yet, luckily we all boarded safely. We stopped about three times. Our first stop was in Majuro and our side of the plane had to get off for a TSA check so we got to partially see Majuro. It was a quite interesting landing because the run was on a small island surrounded by water. I know scary huh?!?! So we stopped there and about 25+ people got off since they were teaching at Majuro. After our next stop was Kwajalan (not spelled right but spelled according to sound). We weren’t allowed to get off so we stayed on the plane. The third stop was Kosare. It was a beautiful island. Many people came back with green tangerines!!! Finally we were on our way to POHNPEI!!! We arrived on pohnpei around 2:30pm on Thursday. Although we kind of had a bit of a rough landing, the plane ride was good. When we got of the plane the humidity hit quickly! Yet it was BEAUTIFUL! We went to get our baggage and as soon as we got out of the airport our church family was there to greet us! They were all so welcoming! We loaded our stuff onto trucks and we headed out to the school. When we arrived we settled into our apartments. Four girls from La Sierra (including me) roomed together in one apartment. It was nice having roommates that I have known for awhile. After settling in we all jumped on the trucks and headed to Palm Terrace where we did a bit of grocery shopping. Although it was a bit outrageous with the prices, it was good to get some food to store in our fridge. When we arrived back in the apartment the first thing I saw when I opened the fridge was a HUGE ROACH! Yeah our worst nightmare! Although we didn’t kill it, we were able to get it out of the fridge. For dinner we headed to our principals apartment, Mr. Benjamin. He gave us pizza to remind us of home. It was a nice gesture, but I preferred the island food! It was a great first afternoon in Pohnpei and I’m looking forward to the remaining days.
Friday August 4, 2006
Today we had a staff meeting at 9:00AM. It wasn’t hard to adjust to time so there was no sense of jet lag. We talked a bit about what we were going to do with our classes and stuff before school started. The elementary teachers went to see their classrooms and the high school teachers went to go see some text books. At around 1:00PM we headed to Telecom to set up our phone lines. After we stopped by the store again to get some little stuff. When we got back to the school we all jumped in the trucks to head to a river to go swimming. It was getting late so we weren’t able to visit the waterfall. When we got to the river it started to rain a bit but it felt good. The river was amazing. It was nice a cool and refreshing. The boys found this cable bridge and they walked on it and jumped into the river. It was scary but they knew what they were doing. After swimming in the river while it was pouring rain, we headed back to the apartments to shower and get ready for vespers at the church. We arrived at the church, it was a beautiful little church. Due to the culture, everyone left their slippers outside of the church. It felt like home. Coming from a Filipino background, being in Pohnpei reminds me of home. We settled in and sang some songs. One of the SM’s named Raz was asked to speak last minute, but he did a wonderful job. After we were asked to mingle with the locals and get to know them. I have to say that I love these little Pohnpein children. It was a wonderful experience getting to know the locals better.
Saturday August 5, 2006
We all woke up today and met around 9:00AM to head over to church. We rode the big bus so that was fun. We arrived at church for Sabbath school and my friend Kim was singing and I was accompanying here (I know weird huh)…but it was my first time every accompanying her, I just played chords but it was pretty good. I messed up a bit but it wasn’t that bad…after we had Sabbath school and they lady told us to sign our names and if we wanted to be teachers, well I guess I was the only who signed up so yah I’m the new Sabbath school teacher (ehhck). I’m scared because I’ve never really taught Sabbath school and this means I have to be prepared every Sabbath so that will be interesting. After Sabbath school we had service and that was good. We all came back to our apartments after church and my roommates and I slept for almost 3 hours. When we woke up we heard everyone was going back to the river we went to on Friday and this time we were going to a waterfall. So we changed and headed out. It started to rain a bit again, but this time the river was so muddy we ended up going out to the sea. We didn’t go way out, but we came upon this dock like area and we just jumped in…that was so much fun. The jumping part was fun, but the warm water was kind of gross. So we headed back home after awhile. We showered changed and cooked dinner for us and our neighbors. A bunch of girls ended up coming over to our apartment to watch She’s the Man. After the movie we headed to the gym because I heard they were playing basketball. So I changed and went there hoping to play. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to play, but this one guy said I was. The only problem was that the locals are scared to ‘hurt’ the girls, but since I’ve been playing basketball most of my life, I was use to it. So I ended up playing and doing pretty well too. I played one game and headed back to the apartment to sleep.
Sunday August 6, 2006
We had another staff meeting at 9:00AM today. We split up into high school and elementary groups. We headed to the teachers work room to get our books and finalize our classes. I ended have 3 high school bible classes, 2 chemistry classes, and 1 girls P.E. class. The only problem I really have is that my 3 bible classes don’t have text books, so that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. After we got our books and finalized our classes, one of my roommates, Kim, and I went to visit our other two roommates to see their elementary classrooms. The elementary teachers have a lot to do, because they have to clean and setup their rooms, unlike the high school teachers, we only have to get our class schedules together. So we visited then came back to cook lunch for them. After lunch, the school decided to take the SM’s out to the ocean to go surfing and snorkeling. Now I know you may think that we just go out to the beach and swim and surf and snorkel…NOPE. To go surfing you have to go ALL the way out to the ocean because that is where the waves break. The waves break by the reef (where you can go snorkeling and diving), so in order to go surf we had to take boats all the way out to the sea. It was a good 15 minute boat ride from the shore out to where we were going to be. The current was rough, I snorkeled a bit, but it was so hard to get back to the boat, I believe I spent most of my time trying to swim back to the boat. No lie, it took almost 45 minutes to swim back to the boat, when it only took about 10 minutes to get where I was at. But I finally made it, although I was really scared. So we chilled in the boat and everyone eventually came back and we headed back home. When we got to the apartments we showered and got ready for the welcoming party that the church was throwing for us. At around 6:30PM we headed to the gym and there was a LONG set of tables filled with FOOD!!! We sat in the middle of the gym and they introduced us to our host families and had us introduce ourselves to the locals. It was fun. We had good food, and good times to bond with our fellow SM’s and the locals. As the night ended I went to the apartment to change so I could play basketball. I played with the locals that night, and we played against the other SM’s. We won our first game and I did pretty well. After we played one more game (and I was tired) and we lost. But all in all we all played a good game, and now I think they know I can play and can hang with them so that was fun. I came back to the apartment and rested.
Monday August 7, 2006
We woke up again at 9:00AM to have a meeting. The high school and elementary broke up again and we did lesson planning, yearly planning, talked about grading and our syllabi for our classes. We haven’t done much else so I’ll write more later.