The big TWO ZERO!

Birthdays are a very looked forward to event here at Chuuk SDA School. Mostly because of the amazing food we eat, and the HUGE cake we get, but also because we love to celebrate and be together.  This last Sabbath I turned twenty years old! It is for sure a birthday I will never forget!

                The tradition here at Chuuk SDA school is to first, wake the birthday person up in the morning by singing to them. I remember the first time they did this for the birthday person. All I remember thinking was it was way too early, people don’t even sound good this early, and why would the birthday girl/guy want to be woken up! However, it was the best way to wake up on my birthday. They all piled into our apartment and started singing. I then came outside and joined them and we had a worship, they sang happy birthday, and they all went around saying happy birthday wishes to me.    

Auntie Judy, the principal's wife and the sweetest woman in the world, always makes a special "birthday breakfast". She is an amazing cook so this tray is coveted by all (and yes that is nutella). 

   At church that day they made sure everyone knew it was my birthday, projecting it on the screen and singing to me at the very end. I am now, officially, the head of the primary Sabbath school class, so today I went and saw how it is usually done. Luckily, I just bought ukulele (my birthday gift to myself)  and it has come in handy in SO many ways. I was able to play for primary and do a special music for them, plus the high school students love it and are constantly stealing it from me so they can play. We, also, have a brand new American SM here in Chuuk! His name is Aaron and he is the 5^th grade teacher. So, at the beginning of Sabbath school I interviewed him in front of the church, we are super excited to have him here!!

                

The next big birthday tradition is a HUGE potluck the night of the birthday. So after sun down worship the power comes on at 6 and everyone starts cooking. We usually aim for about 7:30 for the potluck, which basically means between 8 or 8:30. The other teachers made me a special card with notes from everyone.

Auntie Judy, also, always gets a HUGE chocolate cake. The night continued with overeating, frosting fights, pictures, a movie at pastor’s, and card games. I opted for a card game and we busted out Dutch Blitse and Stephen taught us a new game. Just before the power went out that night I excitedly killed my first cockroach, it may or may not have just been a baby cockroach, but it was a HUGE victory for me, hello 20.

              

My birthday was fantastic. But more than that I have realized how blessed I am to be here with people I have grown to love and to be doing a job that I don’t always like, but wouldn't trade it for anything. Although I am far from home and far from the many people that I love and miss, God has definitely supplied me with new people to love and is teaching me to be thankful for all things. So, thank you all for your birthday wishes and for an amazing day!

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.

My first Few Days

Sabbaths here are similar to America. The church is small, smaller than I was expecting. Maybe about 20 other members besides the SMs. Most of that number are little kids too. Eynee, one of the Filippino SMs informed me that many of the members are part of other Sunday churches and will go to church on both sabbath and Sunday. There is no one to play music so they have computerized tracks of hymns on the piano that we sing to. Many songs during church were sang in their language. 

After church and lunch we had a plan to go to Savior High school. This high school is considered our rival and after seeing how nice it is I don't blame parents for taking their students out of our high school and putting them in the nicer one. The high school is on the completely other end of the island and because of the roads it took us probably an hour or more to get there. Every time I drive through the island and the "market" I am always amazed with how cluttered it is. Chuuk is a beautiful green island but many parts of the island I would never use the word beautiful to describe. Houses are made of metal sheets, paint jobs are always scratched up, there is trash everywhere, it is the rainy season so many homes are flooded aong with the roads, and there is graffiti EVERYWHERE. It is on the homes, cars, and anything that could possibly have space. There are junk cars everywhere too. There are many stray dogs and cats too. The cat below is one that hangs around our school and tries to steal food from our dog, Guapa (means beautiful in Philippino). Once again I always notice how everyone is outside just sitting, laying, or standing there. There is nothing to do and it is hot inside if you do not have air conditioning so I guess it makes sense.

This is the view from on top of the Savior high school roof. The school gounds are clean and are laid out along a large amount of land, not squished together like our school. The building was built by the Japanese during WWII and is bomb proof. The building was later redone and turned into a high school. Apparently during WWII an American bomber bombed the very roof I was standing on. Recently he came back to see the building he bombed and was shocked to see that it was not destroyed like he had thought. Instead it is a beautiful building. We had worship on top of the roof before we left, and once again I was asked to do a special music on the spot.  Regardless, it was very nice.

This is me and two other Philippino SMs. I am the tallest person/teacher there. Along with the whitest :D.

 I got to try snorkeling for the first time today. We cannot just go to the ocean and swim because many parts of it are too dirty. Instead there is a resort very close to our school where we can go. The resort is where all the white visitors come and stay. The building are very nice and all air conditioned. I wish the whole island could be as clean, uncluttered, and beautiful as this place was.

When snorkeling I got to see Nemo and Dorie! Otherwise it had rained recently so the water was not as clear as it normally would be. I really had to dive down deep to get a good look at things. Either way it was beautiful and sometime I really hope to see more sea animals ( the safe ones).

The first impression

As the island hopper took us from Hawaii to Majuro, Majuro to Ebeye, Ebeye to Pohnpei, Pohnpei to Chuuk I may or may not have started freaking out. Pohnpei was absolutely beautiful and as half the plane unloaded (Pohnpei gets the most SMs) I realized that I am now officially on my own. So I did the only thing a person can do, I journaled. Fortunately it worked and I decided that I have the choice to make this experience what I want it to be. This is what I wrote, 
               "This experience will be challenging but I will only grow stronger through it, it will be lonely but I will use the lonely times to grow closer to God, it will be exhausting but I will never use that as an excuse to stop being a witness, and it will be fun so I plan to live it up and learn as much as I can."
With that decided I got the first glimpses of the island I would spend the next ten months of my life and it is beautiful.

As we successfully made it through security and stepped foot outside the airport my first impression was simply that there were a lot of people everywhere who were doing nothing. The second was that I wasn't really being stared at. When I was in South Africa  in 2009 that's what I remember, being stared at for being the only white and blonde person there. Men would make kissing faces at me, tell me I was beautiful, and inform me that I could take them back to America if I married them. Their wooing was in vain, and I am glad that I will not have to deal with this same thing. 
    The trip to the school should have taken us 10 minutes top but the roads are terrible. I have never seen pot holes this size. On the way there what I saw was worn down medal homes, small hut shops, wild dogs running everywhere, broken down rusted cars overtaken by weeds (these were everywhere), and more people standing around doing absolutely nothing. About 3/4 the way there Pastor John abruptly turns into a drive way entrance upon seeing a man with what looks like a rock up ahead. Drinking is a big problem in Chuuk and it is apparently common for drunk men to throw rocks at you or your car. There are cars scattered around the island with spider wed window shields. Turns out the man did not have a rock, but the fact that Pastor John reacted so seriously made me realize how real this problem is. 

The school is cute. It doesn't have much open space because many classrooms are huddled on a small amount of property. What you see in the picture above is 1st and 2nd grade classrooms along with the office. Below is the high school classes where I will be teaching. The men in the picture are constructing two new classrooms that will be done in December. When we first arrived at the school, people took me into a room and promptly places a crown of flowers and a lai. They then had some younger kids perform a native dance for us. They gave us hugs as if they had known us forever and then took us up to Pastor John's apartment and fed us a HUGE meal. There are about 5 other Philippine female teachers and 2 male teachers here right now. We are expecting 3 more Friday. O and I tried fish for the first time, not sold on it yet.

After a long night of very needed sleep we made our way to the market the next day. Despite the huts that sell random goods on the side of the road there are a few impressive "grocery stores" here (some even have air conditioning). What makes grocery shopping here tricky is that although we have refrigerators in our apartment the power shuts off from 3 - 6 and then 10pm - 6am. So you want to get food that won't parish easily. Most things are very expensive and peanut butter is going to have to be a luxury. A loaf of Whole wheat bread runs around 7 dollars too. Once again I was impressed at how people didn't stare, although one drunk man informed me he would like to make me some whiskey sometime, I failed to inform him that I am not yet 21 :D. I was amazed to find out that none of the other SMs with me were interested in buying bananas, but they were kind enough to make a special stop for me to get some. I love bananas! I paid a dollar for 17 of them. This is one thing I can definitely get use to!

Once we got back from our trip to town it was time for the power to go off. So what do you do for three hours? Well I don't really know yet but I did have a great conversation with the other Philippine SMs. They are always asking me questions about the USA and many of them have the dream of working there someday. Somehow we got on the topic of state capitols in which they know much better than I do. The night ended with vespers in the church in which I was asked last minute to play guitar. There are so many things I'm going to have to work on to get use to!

Honolulu SM orientation

Honolulu is beautiful! However, I didn't get to see a whole lot of it. SM orientation for the islands is intense. We are literally in meeting from morning to night. All the information we have been given us has been super useful and interesting and I won't lie I am a bit overwhelmed. From what fish not to touch, clothes you can and cannot wear, to random unacceptable things such as pointing at rainbows (which I know I'm going to do. WHO DOESN'T POINT AT A RAINBOW!). Anyways, there are about 50 SMs going out to the islands this year. The popular islands are Majuro and Pohnpei, one of which has about 20 SMs going to it. My island has two including myself. There will be more SMs coming from the Philippines, however. 

Despite being in a classroom all day I did get to see a few amazing places on Hawaii. The first two mornings here they gave us the option to get up at 5:30 and either go to the beach or hike up Diamond Head (a nonactive volcano). The first morning I went to the beach. 
There were several surfers out already and the water was really warm. Although it took awhile to convince Kyle to get in the water for fear of sharks.......

 The next morning a group went to Diamond Head. This is a Volcano whose head actually blew off of it so its rather flat on the top. It was a beautiful hike where you could look out over the ocean, it was also a lot of stairs for 6 AM. Our SM coordinator who is like a thousand years old, however, jogged up the whole thing just for fun that morning.

We also visited the punchbowl Memorial and another beautiful lookout during lunch the last day.

One things that I really like that they have been saying to us here is that "God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called" I like that because I definitely do not feel qualified! They have also been talking about the first chapter in John when it says that " There was a man sent from God whose name was John. " They point out that it does not say he was sent by God but from God, and that's what we are as SMs.. sent FROM God. 

Over and over after they give us "talks" they will ask us, all the SMs, if they feel ready? or can you do this? Many people raise their hands and nod, but I can honestly say that I don't feel ready and I don't feel like I can do this. But I do know that i can do this with God's help and His help only.This of course goes back to my theme, "I CAN do all things through Christ who gives me strength." 

Random things I have learned at orientation.

1. It is a sign of honor when a girl gives her first born to her mother to no longer be her own child but the mothers.

2. Making the OK sign with your hand does not mean the same thing here as it does on the islands.

3. Also, neither does calling someone over by signaling them with your finger.

4. Clicking your tongue at the back of your mouth is like swearing in Chuuk.

5. The word for pants here also means prostitute.. ( I will be wearing skirts).

6. If you are seen walking alone or in a room alone with the opposite sex, you are assumed to be having sexual relations.

7. Canadians say the letter "Z" as "Zed" 

8. And yes, for some reason pointing at rainbows is a bad idea ( has something to do with with craft).