A busy Ending

As the school year comes to a close things have gotten busier than usual. The last two weeks have been filled with track & field, field trips, science fairs, spirit week, and more. This next week is finals and I will officially be done with my first year of teaching. It is exciting, bittersweet, and sometimes overwhelming to know that it is coming to an end. However, I still have final testing, grades, and a senior graduation to pull off, so I won't have too much time to think about it.

Chuuk State Debate, SDA Team

Track & Field

The first event I want to share with you is the Chuuk State Debate. Each year the FSM holds a debate. Each state (or island) holds one and the winners from each one of those meet on a chosen island and compete against each other. SDA School has never competed in this and the principal expressed that he really wanted our school to be a part of it. So, I put together a team of two from my senior class. Unfortunately, things got busy with mid-Quarter testing and volleyball games so we didn't actually start researching until a week before! Despite that, we had really good research and good arguments.
So the morning of the debate comes and I am in the car on the way to the Supreme court when one of my girls, Jayma, informs me she hasn't written her speeches out yet. This is a problem. So we quickly write out everything we can once we get there. We soon find out that there are 4 teams competing and each team would draw a number to see who would go first. 1 & 2 would go first and 3 & 4 would wait in a separate room until their turn (so they don't hear the other team's arguments). We start praying REALLY hard that we get either 3 or 4. Sure enough I drew a four. Once in the back room the girls are doing last minute preparations on their speeches. As our time comes to a close Jayma tells me that she didn't write her notes out for the affirmative argument. This is also a problem. So we prayed again, this time that God would help us get the negative side to argue. Sure enough, he answered another one of our prayers.

Xzavier High School

       The debate went well. My girls did amazing, especially in the light that it was their first public speech. The Chuukese culture is rather shy up front and very quiet! The other team beat us, but not by much!. Either way was a great experience for them and they learned a lot (and I got out of a day of teaching). On the way back in our van there was a drunk man on the side of the road throwing rocks (because that is what they do). He had put down his rock and was walking away so I told our driver to gun it. The drunk man quickly found a rock and chucked it at our van, fortunately it hit the ground first before it reached out car. Overall, I really felt like God had his protective and caring hand over us that day.
      Our next event was track and field. This is an event where all the schools in Chuuk meet at Anderson field and compete against each other in track & field events. This included a marathon, sprinting, long jump, coconut husking and basket weaving (of course), and other events. Our school joined with the Pentecostal school because we are so small. Our students did well, but the competition was TOUGH, some of the students who participated have represented the FSM in different Olympic events.There was a teachers' relay, where all the teachers from each school compete against each other and we got 3rd place.. No big deal. I also managed to get a sun burn during this event even tho I wore a hat, had an umbrella, and stayed under the tent for the majority of it. And no, it didn't turn into a tan......

At the Weather Station

In a Traditional Hut @ Xzavier

Xzavier Library

On the roof of Xzavier looking at the view!

Bible Character Day

The next week my senior class and the Freshmen class went on a field trip together. There aren't a lot of places to go to on this island but our students REALLY wanted to do something. So, our first stop was the weather station where they let a weather balloon go and have cool gadgets and weather contraptions. Our second stop was Xzavier high school. This is the most prestigious and rich high school on the islands of Chuuk. It is a Catholic school and is on the complete opposite side of the island. It use to be a fort for the Japanese during WWII, but they converted it into a school. So we took a tour,

Abigail, Esther, & Jezebel

The 8th Grade Boys, So proud..

hung out in their library, and took in their beautiful view. We then drove down to Lei Side, which is a restaurant and had pizza.

Magifer, one of our Kindergartner Boys

Twin Day!

This last week was a super fun week. It was spirit week and the kids got really into it. We had Bible Character day, Twin day, Opposite day, and Crazy day. Each morning we had a program showcasing all the participants from K - 12. Two winners were picked from each class and they received a free lunch for the day. Opposite day was probably the kids favorite day, although, the teachers found it rather disturbing. One of the 8th grade boys dressed up as the principal's wife and it was hilarious. At the very end of the spirit week the principal gave out a special award to him, (referring to him as his wife) and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It was hilarious!! My favorite day was crazy day, mainly because I had a Mohawk  and I felt super cool, it completely went to my head. Unfortunately I had to get rid of all of it at lunch time because I had a parent meeting after school.

Opposite day, the beard was SUPER warm!

Overall,
 it has been a crazy few weeks and they have gone by really fast! It is crazy to think that I only have 21 days until I head home! But there are many more exciting times to have before I leave, and I am looking forward to every one of them.