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!!