My cute and creepy friends...

Someone once told me a story about a student missionary who woke up sleeping in her hammock because her leg had gone numb. She pulled her cover away from her leg and a snake had swallowed her leg up to her thigh. So, she cut it off (the snake, not her leg)  and went back to sleep. If that happened to me I would NEVER sleep again. Luckily,  The creatures I live do not have the ability of swallowing me.

The first creatures I live with, who is actually not creepy at all, is Guapa. Guapa is our puppy here in the compound. Sara, one other Philippino SMs took him from a student here at school. He's absolutely adorable and loves to play, bite, and play tug-a-war with anything including the skirt you are wearing. The name Guapa means "beautiful" in Tagalog.

Every where you look, whether you are at church, school, bathroom, room, kitchen, town, ANYWHERE you will see geckos. I happen to like them and think they are cute. Apparently there are HUGE lizards in Chuuk that they leash up, I have never seen one and hope to as long as it is ACTUALLY leashed up. There are also large frogs everywhere at night.

We have a rat problem in our apartment here in Chuuk. We have traps set up in each apartment and we caught one rat in the pastor's apartment. I like to secretly believe that it is the rat that occasionally wakes us up in our room at night. After catching the rat, and Guapa playing with it, they drowned it and then took it out and swung it around by its tail. I come from a family that catches mice, feeds them, hair dries them if needed, and takes them out to the country to let them free. Needless to say, it was a little scarring.

The next critter I live with is one of the most common and awful things to see. The Cockroaches here are HUGE. I wish this picture somehow showed how big it is. The biggest part of him is probably the size of a quarter. Cockroaches can live for a week, I think it is, without their heads, and can fly. The fact that they can fly terrifies me the worst. At first, when I got here, just seeing them ruined my appetite, they are SO gross. The other day I got done exercising and wanted to shower but there were two cockroaches in the shower. No one was home but me, so I valiantly got something to smash them with. However, I have a great fear of smashing bugs that make a crunching sound when you smash them. I CAN'T do it. So, I didn't shower.

The next critter I am about to mention is the most terrifying of all. I have dealt with my fair share of spiders in my day, but the one I saw here tops them all. This is a picture from google because I was too frightened to take a picture. I think however, if I remember correctly, that the spider was bigger, hairier, and I remember fangs, but I'm not 100% on that. It showed up in the bathroom the first time I saw it. I only used the bathroom when absolutley necessary! I learned soon, however, that all of a sudden not being able to see it and know where it is, is just as scary. Luckily, I haven't seen this spider again. Stephen however found it on his bed when he woke up, I told him to never tell me stories like that again, even if they are true. Although I haven't seen this guy in awhile, he visits me in my dreams often, or should I say nightmares?

I have a favorite time of day here in Chuuk. My favorite time of day is when the air conditioning comes on in the morning and I can once again pull my sheet over myself and feel cool and dry. LOVE IT. On Wednesday morning, however, I felt something running up my leg. This is normal for me to feel because there are ants and little spiders everywhere. So I reached down to brush it off only to feel it run up me leg faster! It then hit me that this guy had way to many legs to be an ant. I quickly sat up, promptly screamed, and moved back. The bug, which turned out to be a cockroach, then scurried down behind my bed.  Later that morning as I was getting ready in my room the cockroach reappeared on our room wall. This was the moment, I was going to do it, I was going to kill my first cockroach. I picked up the nearest Webster's Dictionary and stood there. Once again my fear of exoskeletons over took me. 

Luckily, my roommate Denden, grew up with cockroaches and played with them as a kid. So I went out to the kitchen, dictionary in hand, and asked her if she could come annihilate the cockroach. She, being the kind person she is, agreed and promptly came in to kill it. The cockroach rushed quickly behind our window frame and hasn't been seen since. 

I began thinking about the events of that morning and how I wasn't able to kill the cockroach myself, but had a friend who was more than willing to do it for me, to help me out. I think this compares to our lives spiritually. We all have "cockroaches" in our lives that we struggle with, whether it be sinful temptations, addictions, or other things that are hard to deal with. We often try to deal with them on our own, thinking that someday we will have the guts to crush them (even if they will make a crunching sound). When the time comes though we can't do it, and the "cockroach" lives on. Luckily we have a Father in heaven who is more than willing to pick up a Webster's dictionary and get the job done. God doesn't ask us to become perfect sinless people on out own, but with His and His strength only. Jesus Christ is my "cockroach" killer.

That's Miss O'Hare to you!

I am officially on my fourth week of teaching. It is an experience I will never forget I’m sure. Looking back, I can laugh at the fears I had on my first day.

Fear #1: These kids are going to have zero respect for me

Fear #2: Somehow they will figure out I’m barely older than them

Fear #3: Physical fights breaking out in the class room

Fear #4: Having students who are smarter than me 

Fear #5: Absolutely despising teaching these kids

First, let me walk you through the average day. I wake up at about 6am, when the power comes on. At 8 am we have staff worship and school starts at 8:30. I am the senior class adviser this year so I start off having a 15 minute worship with them every morning. Around 8:45, when I am supposed to go to my next class is when the students usually arrive. So after a very short worship and prayer I run off to teach Sophomore English. After our 45 minute periods I go off to teach Freshmen English. There is then a short 15 minute break and I then teach Senior English, followed by Junior Bible. We have a thirty minute lunch break which is followed by Junior US History, Senior US Government, and Junior English. School then ends at 3pm, in which the power goes off for three hours. So for the next three hours you find any possible way not to melt. The rest of the night is spent lesson planning, playing Uno, or ping pong. The power turns off at 10pm, in which almost everyone then goes to bed. 

Needless to say, when school starts there are no breaks to prepare for the next class, so you have to be prepared. There are chalk boards in every class room, I burn through about 6 or 7 sticks of chalk a day. To save on Toner we are asked to write all assignments on the board, not to mention there are not books, for any of the subjects I teach, that the students can use. There are 2 student books for both Us History and Government however. With this being said, the lectures I give are the only source of information these kids get for tests and quizzes. 

Each high school grade is completely different from the other. The seniors are SUPER chatty, amazing to have conversation with, but also very hard to lecture. They like to read out loud and for some reason they like government class. They are constantly moving their desks or moving to other desks, one of them always brings his guitar, and they are constantly doing their make up in class. I have the biggest problem with cell phone usage in this class, something I didn't think I would have to deal with when I came to Chuuk. 

The juniors are SUPER hard to have discussion with. There are only about three students who will speak up if I really push for it. I have a girl from Korea who cannot understand or speak English but she can read it. I also have a 28 year old who can't read, understand, or speak English. 

The sophomore class is a good class. They listen well and are very attentive. They will talk when I ask them too and are pretty good about telling me when they don't understand something. However, there are two girls in the class who understand and read English very poorly.

The freshmen class is a difficult one. There are different behavioral problems, but also their learning levels are ALL over the place. There are 4 girls and 2 boys who are exceptional students and what I am teaching them is way too easy. The other students have poor English skills and don't catch on very fast. What i am teaching them is much too hard. 

The biggest challenge I face is not wondering if the students respect me, getting them to listen, or worrying if they are smarter than me. The hardest thing is teaching in a way that ALL of the students can learn. It is a constant battle of whether to teach at grade level and let the slower students fail, but help the faster ones to succeed to their fullest potential, or teach a little lower so the slower students have a chance to catch on but halt new learning for the faster students. Neither seem fair to me. 

As far as my fears go, respect hasn't been a problem. The seniors guessed my age dead on, but I started wearing mascara again and now I’m officially two years older than I was before. Physical fights isn't a problem, however inappropriate girl and guy interaction has been. There are students who catch my mistakes but so far the material I am teaching is easy enough that I know it….. so far. Plus, I like these kids. Some days I can’t say I’m crazy about them, but I like them. As for teaching, I’m not sold on it, but I still have 9 more months to decide on that one.

Proverbs 3:26 says, “The Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught” Proverbs 3:26. This is the verse I claimed and still often do when I feel inadequate. More than that Philippians 4:13 has been my go to verse. There are days I wake up and I have no idea how I will teach what a pronoun is or how in the world to make US Government interesting. So every morning I pray and make sure God knows I can’t do any of this, but I know that He can through me. Somehow he even manages to make US History interesting….

Why Chuuk is the way it is...

If you were to walk down the roads of Chuuk you wouldn’t be overcome by beauty. Everything is very green, but it is also muddy and dirty. Trash is everywhere on the ground, and the streets are full of potholes big enough for a person could bathe in. However, if you were to walk down the street of Yap or Pahnpei you would have a very different experience. Their roads are paved and clean, their runways are longer and nicer, and the overall living conditions of the people are more advanced and at a higher level. The reasons why Chuuk is behind in all the improvements that their fellow Federated states of Micronesia have taken is an interesting story.

                At one point, in the history of Chuuk, before World War II, Chuuk was very advanced. The Japanese came in and all of a sudden running water, electricity, roads, hospitals, and restaurants popped up. There is even evidence of a rail road system that went throughout the island. It had baseball fields, five theaters, and even a “little Tokyo”, with strip malls full of restaurants and other stores. In 1920 however, Chuuk was overtaken as a military base and it was this island that the majority of the planes that attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor flew out from.  As a result, of this attack, the Americans sent nine planes over the island of Chuuk and desolated it. Chuuk, luckily, was forewarned of the incoming planes and got many of its ships and other machinery off the island. If they had not been forewarned there would be MANY more sunken ships around these islands. In result of this bombing about 3,000 Japanese died and 300 Chuukese died.

            After the treaty was signed to end the war America came in to Chuuk and took over the process of “advancing” them. At this time, because of the bombing, the island was ruined. Roads were torn up, restaurants demolished, and to this day there are still many gutted and torn apart building all over Chuuk . So, America came in and tried to help the people in hopes that if another war were to happen that their island would not be used as a force against them. One thing America did for Chuuk is they gave out free food to the people. The Chuukese no longer had to work to feed themselves or their families and the people became lazy. This is apparent not only in the older generation on the island but even our students.

                The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), came soon after. Chuuk was the state that pushed for it and still holds many of the representative positions in the government. Each of the islands in this federation are different from each other and hold many different cultures. For this reason it is a challenge to keep all the states within the federation. Chuuk, as the main leader in the nation, in attempts to hold the states together has given the majority of money given to them, to improve Chuuk, to other islands. At one point 26 million dollars was given to Chuuk, but Chuuk took it and put it into improving the run way in Pahnepei. Because Chuuk has chosen to put all other states first, it has formed a federation that is much more stable. It is only recent that improvements have been made here in Chuuk. At this moment America is pumping 26 million dollars into improving Chuuk’s roads, which is a long ongoing process.

                Although the bombing on Chuuk ruined the advanced way of living that the Chuukese experienced, it also one of the main ways Chuuk produces income. The now sunken ships that surround Chuuk entice scuba divers from all over the world to what is known as the best World War II diving in the world. It is this industry that supplies jobs and money for the state. Famous people such as John McCain and the producer of “Terminator” are common visitors. Part of the Titanic was also filmed on the island.

                The sad thing is that a lot of the jobs that open up around Chuuk are not filled by Chuukese. Rather, men and women come from the Philippines or Japan and take these jobs. This is because the people in Chuuk do not care to get a job, don’t do the job properly, or are not qualified. What’s even sadder is students are paid to attend the college here on this island. They are PAID, but they get tired of studying and don’t care to continue. FSM is also the only country in the world that can travel back and forth to America without a visa, and at one point a passport wasn’t even necessary. The people here are used to a relaxed non-hard working life. Life in America is fast paced and stressful. What is super boring here for me is normal and relaxing to them. It is one of the biggest cultural differences I think that separate my culture from theirs.

                The man that was telling us SMs the history of Chuuk made one point that really stuck with me. He said that the biggest downfall for Chuuk that caused this “laziness” was when America started handing out food. In our culture, soup kitchens and giving out free things is the “missionary” and “caring” thing to do. To them it was an excuse not to work. If food is handed to you than why bother working. I know that I am just another biased American who thinks everyone should work hard, and there are Chuukese who are hard workers and have big dreams. However, when I look at and talk to my students in school who blow me away with how brilliant they are, it breaks my heart to hear that they have no dreams. They have no goals or dreams for themselves after highschool, they will hopefully get married and that’s it. They have the chance to go to college, to become doctors, to travel the world, but no one has those dreams here. It’s just too much work.