ANNOUNCEMENT: In an effort to reduce my usage of facebook, I will periodically post some "Stealth Posts" (Grogan, 2012) in which you will just have to occasionally check up on the blog to catch. These will come every so often and will usually include some of the fun little story updates on my life on Yap. Kamagar.
As my first quarter of teaching comes to a close, I am shocked by just how much work there has been to do. Between creating final tests, grading said tests, closing out old lesson plans, creating new lesson plans, continuing to teach the new material, and calculating quarter grades as well as making personal comments for each student... it can be easy to forget to take some time to just relax. To top it all off - my computer decided to take a little break from that whole operating thing I expect it to do... luckily - my friend, Doug, worked his magic and I am almost back to normal - and soon it will be better than ever - but still, worst timing ever.
Rather than slow me down, my lack of computer actually made me at least three times more productive because I felt I needed to make up for lost time. The result was being completely finished with my quarter grades and comments two days early and being way ahead in terms of lessons.
I also found the time to make it to my first volleyball game up north in Gagil at the Yap Sports Complex. I play for the village of Maap on the "Little Boys" team which is anyone under the age of 25. We lost our first match to Gagil, but our "Older Boys" team won their first match. It was a whirlwind of high fives, random Yapese screaming sprinkled with English volleyball terms, and overall an amazing amount of fun. Once again I am overwhelmed by the freely given generosity of the people of Yap - first, some of my students made sure to get me on the correct bus (the public busing system consists of a few school buses that follow a VERY loose schedule, and if you miss your bus, you're out of luck) and about 5 other people chatted me up as I waited for the bus and my local friend, Martin, and I had a great conversation on the 25 minute ride through the bumpy, dusty dirt roads. To top it all off, one man on my team, Marbey, happens to live near my village and always offers me a ride home - our talks on the rides to and from volleyball are always very insightful and deep and full of laughter.
Currently, I am cooking some homemade veggie burgers for World Food Day to represent America. Martin asked me a few weeks ago and I was flattered, so now I sit here concocting whatever I can to make a delicious dish for the celebration. Mom - you'd be so surprised and/or shocked.
Finally, amidst all of this excitement, schoolwork, and business - I reached a point at school that I could just not pick up the red pen for one more minute. Luckily, Mickey (our principal) decided he didn't feel like doing paperwork either during the last period of the day, so we both headed to the lakeside to burn all of the wood, cancun, vines, and debris that we had collected during our last work day. We had a huge bonfire going with huge amounts of smoke that still has that incomparable campfire smell stuck in my pores. Sometimes the best thing to do is just forget about all of the stress in our lives, and set a big pile of whatever on fire.
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| Manuella and Dolorlyn showing off their handstands (Just a fun picture of an average lunch period) |
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| Mickey feeding the fire |
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| Some of the freshmen joining us in fire building after school |
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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