The Adventures of Yapman: Countdown to Opening Day!

After 5-6 weeks of various, ferocious preparations, we are finally just days away from Opening Day for the new Yap Catholic High School campus. Over my time on this wonderful little island I have learned a great deal about the Yapese culture, my relationships, and most importantly myself. In such a short time, our house has been transformed into a home – it took many, many hours and a few improvisations in order to fix, repair, re-upholster, paint, build, and about 11 things that we do not have words for in the English language – but our volunteer dwelling has transformed into a beautiful, comfortable island home.

At the new campus, I have helped with an assortment of jobs that have included machete-ing, moving rocks, digging, shoveling coral/stone, raking stone, filling pot holes, picking up trash, lifting obnoxiously heavy barrels of tar with an MacGuyver-esque pulley and chain system over a tree branch, and enjoyed all of this time in the company of my fellow YCHS volunteers (we are currently in the process of choosing an official name – suggestions greatly welcomed) and the huge number of volunteers from the community. I have had the pleasure of eating barbeque fish and chicken cooked over an open fire as well as a wide variety of local foods ranging from breadfruit, to tapioca, to taro, to soursop. Eating on the ground with filthy hands, no plates or utensils, and ignoring the flies and ants swarming the food has become as natural as brushing my teeth. The other day, I was asked to drive a pick-up truck to transport some garbage and other materials to the dump. Now, I have observed this truck in action – it lacks some crucial mirrors, has broken down due to battery issues at least twice, and of course – it is a standard stick-shift vehicle. I hopped right on in assuming that I could remember how to drive stick – after only having learned to drive stick on Wanda the tractor at Camp Minsi. I made it fairly safely to the dump and back after only stalling out 3 times and never once endangering anyone’s life. My time at the ground clearings for the campus have helped me to interact with the locals and to gain such a better insight into their culture – needless to say – I have had a blast doing this and will be sad to see these days end next week.

I have also been preparing for my classes and other activities I will help run at the school. I will be teaching Freshmen Religion, Sophomore Geometry, and Junior Chemistry. I am ecstatic for all three because they all present such different challenges. I have so much flexibility with my religion class, so that should be an adventure for all of us since I myself am still at such a preliminary point in my spiritual life. Geometry will present its own obstacles due to the poor background in mathematics – which I have experienced already through some summer school tutoring. Finally, Chemistry will probably be the most interesting course to teach as I will be attempting to perform experiments over camp fires and teaching laboratory safety in a culture where shoes and long pants are essentially never worn. On top of my educational duties, I will also be working on our Campus Ministry Team and coaching the Volleyball and Robotics Teams. Those are in quite the preliminary stages still, but already we are discussing doing a Junior retreat, and we plan to have 2 robotics teams that will compete in the state contest, and we are discussing volleyball teams with the 2 other high schools on Yap. I am anxious to get into the classroom and truly start to connect with the students.

Opening Day will be on Sunday, August 19 where we will have an outdoor mass at the new campus as well as a huge picnic and open house. I don’t even know how many people we are expecting – but I do know it is going to be huge! Lots of nu-nus! Our first day of school will be on Tuesday, August 21. The new campus is almost ready to open – but we still have a lot to do before Sunday. We still need to move a few desks and chairs out to the campus as well as set-up and put together the classrooms! Oh yeah – we also need to organize all of the books before we start on Tuesday.

I have definitely felt busy and at the same time feel like I have all the free time in the world. Life is so much simpler – so much calmer here. Fewer distractions. A more pure way of living. I have treasured the patience that I have been granted in this first month as things just move much more slowly on the Island of Stone Money- and usually they just don’t seem to make logical sense. I am grateful for my time spent adjusting to my life on this tiny island, but I think it is safe to say that I am just as excited to start school here as I have been to go back to Scranton, or to return to Camp Minsi – I think that is a sign that I am where I am supposed to be.