Time has flown here in Pohnpei.

Well, I’ve been here for about a month and a half. Some of you may be interested in what I’ve been experiencing since I got here. Let me catch you up. 

We landed on the Island of Pohnpei Thursday August 6.  After we got our bags and, after walking through customs, we were greeted by several of the school and church board members. They gave us lay's and we loaded the school trucks and bus with all our bags and they took us to the school. We picked our apartments and started to move in.

The first week and a half was just for us to get adjusted and start to figure out lesson plans and clean our classrooms. We also had some time to do fun stuff like going to some waterfalls that we could jump off of and a wharf called Nett Point which is now one of my favorite swimming holes. 

I’m teaching 8th grade with Alex Eller so we decided to split our classes in half so I took math, english, and literature and he took bible, social studies, and science. It has worked out pretty good for us so far and it cuts down on lesson planning. When I look back at my elementary school years I can’t even imagine how my teacher, Mrs. Veverka, was able to teach all 8 grades. 

Between Alex and I we have a total of 36 8th graders. Teaching can be so much fun one minute then so frustrating the next. One of my first really low moments here was when I was grading the first math test and I realized how many of my students hadn’t understood what we had been going over the last couple weeks. I hate giving kids bad grades. I enjoy worship in the morning with the kids. They really are good singers. I have a hard time getting the girls to sing sometimes so some of the boys take the girls parts to help them out. It sounds surprisingly good. These kids have so much energy and it’s hard to keep them on task. They love to talk so it makes for really good class discussion. 

I’ve had to be my own cook here so I haven’t been having the most extravagant meals. I’m cheep too so rice and beens have been keeping me happy. I’ve gotten a bunch of vege-meat in the mail too so I haven’t gotten hungry since I got here. 

Here are a few really fun things that I’ve done since I’ve gotten here: 

Spearfishing in the middle of the night- We went out with one of the SM’s island dads (we all have island parents) and we partnered up with flashlights and spears and caught a couple fish. The local guys caught a bunch and we all ate raw fish in the boat afterwards. We got back to our apartments around 2:30 in the morning.  

Surfing- The waves haven’t been really big but that’s ok since I just started learning here. We went out the first few times with the Pohnpei Surf Club and now we take one of  Mr. B’s boats whenever we go out. I’ve improved so much since I got here. 

Trips to waterfalls- We’ve gone to three waterfalls so far and I’m planning on going to a bunch more. 

A weekend trip to Ant- Ant is an atoll of islands and we camped there a few weekends ago. We got to do a bunch of snorkeling and we slept in hammocks over the water. I saw two sharks, a dolphin, a sea turtle, a stingray and countless fish all in the same day.

Day trip to Nahlap- Nahlap is an island here that you can catch a boat out to for 5 bucks. We went there one Sunday and helped kids learn how to surf and we got to do a little ourselves. 

There are a bunch more fun things to do here and I’m sure that this isn’t going to be a boring year. Pray for me because there are tough times. I hope to keep this blog updated so keep on checking it out.