after the race!

                                                   This is a picture of the bomb they found!

                                                        This is the 11th grade science fair project

                                            Part of the 11th grade and their awesome sponsor!

                                                  My bike i pieced together... she's a beauty eh?

Over Time Things Get Better!

It has been awhile and I apologize. It has been pretty busy around here the past couple of weeks. Last post I left you with that I needed patience in the classroom. Well, I am proud to announce that I have finally found it! Or maybe I just have learned how to work with the kids. Whichever one it is, it is working. I am now starting to enjoy working with the kids. Yes, sometimes it is still hard and I really just don’t want to be there at that moment, but I am really starting to connect with them.

                I have found the problem; when I first came over here I was expecting it to be like the U.S culture and learning styles. Well, that is where I went wrong. They have their own learning style over here and I just needed to adapt to it. I expected different things out of the kids. So when I got here I just let myself down and it started to get to me. I was starting to think that I have failed in starting out the semester right. I have learned that I have to just take one day at a time. I was trying to teach the kids too much in one day. I don’t know, maybe I was still in college mode or something, by trying to give them too much to learn. I have finally accepted that if I teach them one thing a day then I have accomplished something!

                So, now onto some activities that has been happening outside of the classroom. Last Friday     (2-10-2012), I participated in the annual Kwajelan liberation day here in Ebeye. The day is filled with a parade and games. It started out with the parade. Ok, side note first. One of the things that you have to get used to over here is the time schedule. They said that the parade was supposed to start at 10 am. It didn’t actually start until around 1pm. There was no reason that it should have started that late. All of the trucks were lined up for hours. So everyone was there, there was just no communication. Anyways, the parade was pretty awesome to experience. Now, onto the games; they consisted of the 100m dash, musical chairs, and a 5.3 mile run from gucegu. The long run was the one that I participated in. They load the 40 participants into a school bus and transport you out to the last island. You then proceed to run back towards the great island Ebeye. It is a very exhausting run. It is just really hot and the wind is blowing on you from the ocean. I finished 7^th out of the 40 people.

                Now, back in the states you get days called “snow days!” Well, not here. Here we get bomb days. Last week there was a bomb that was found just a couple buildings away from us. This was a bomb from WWII era. There was some construction going on and they were digging into the ground to put some stairs in when they hit this with one of the shovels. The immediately stopped and called the bomb squad from Kwajelan. As a I had mentioned before that Kwajelan is a US army base, so that was usefull! I guess this has happened a few times in the past. So while they were there getting the bomb school was cancelled! That was very refreshing to get.

                This week is Education Week here on Ebeye. It consists of school activities throughout the week. Our first one, on Monday, was a big assembly with all of the schools. This was program for all of the schools to get together and here some speeches. Monday night was the science fair for the Ebeye SDA school. It was fun to see all of the projects that the kids and sponsors had worked on. I am sponsoring the 11^th grade and we did a lemon battery. We powered a calculator from just one lemon. We got second place. Tuesday and Wednesday are normal school days.  Tonight (Wednesday) is the valentines banquet. I know it’s late, but the kids really enjoy this activity.  Tomorrow will be a holiday for Ebeye, so no school. Friday will be the spelling B for our school. It should be interesting to watch the kids.  So all in all this week is nice and relaxing!

                Until next time!!

                

Patience

Patience….Patience….Patience….Patience

Maybe if I say patience enough it will fill my mind! These past two weeks have been pretty rough in the class room. The kids are starting to get more comfortable as me being their teacher, so they try and push my limits. I have kids running, jumping on tables, doing handstands, chasing each other with brooms, and lying down in the room. I will go tell one of them to stop and finally get them calmed down and then turn to someone else. As soon as I get to the other one, the first one is right back at jumping from table to table. It’s a mess!! Then when I finally get them all calmed down and ready to learn I start to talk and then it starts all over again. So out of a 45 minute class period I will end up teaching about 15 of that. I’ve tried many disciplinary actions and none of them seem to be working.

                 Not every day is chaotic. Some days I can actually get a lot taught to the kids and they are actually listening to me, at least I think so. Yesterday we had a review for our 3^rd quarter mid-terms and they all were being really attentive and a lot of them knew that answers. I was really confused in my head, because when I was teaching them that information they were not listening at all, at least I thought so. It was actually really refreshing to hear all of them participating in the review and knowing the answers.

                So right now I am going though this phase of recognizing the easiness of the U.S. Everything come to us very easily back in the states. We get used to this style of life and it spoils us! I mean if I wanted to use the internet back home then I could just get on my computer and its right there. Here, I have to wait 2 minutes just for Google home page to load. Back home I was getting used to this thing called an Iphone. If I wanted to search something I could just pull it out of my pocket and search; I don’t get those luxuries over here. You just learn to not need as much stuff. I am now starting to realize that every single one of those easy things was interfering with my relationship with God; hindering what I need to learn about Him and what He has given us to study daily, the Word. It is starting to hit me that this is one of my reasons for coming here to Ebeye.  It may be hard and not enjoyable at times, but God is right here directing my steps.

                All bad things eventually stop! I got to take a field trip the great Island of kwaj, which is about a 25 minute boat ride. This is not just an island, this is America! This island is a United States Army island and it shows that it is run by the U.S. Nice paved road, nice clean bathrooms with hot water and not salty, green stuff they call grass, and Subway and Burger king. Yes, I said Subway and Burger king. Of course I was not going to miss out on this opportunity to spoil myself. This is how it went down. Kwaj has softball fields and sporting equipment. So every so often we bring a team from Ebeye to go play on the fields. Well, I was one of their sponsors last night so I got to go. After we were done playing softball, we all went to the food court; MMM, delicious! I even bought enough so I could bring some back and have some for lunch today.

                Well even though these past couple weeks have been rough, I have been making memories that I will never forget. I know times will be rough and I won’t want to be here, But I can do anything with God on my side. I know I have to just keep pressing on and that is what I am going to do!

Until next time!!