This week was really awesome. We were challenged at the start of the week to look for the small things and see how they touched us. Well this week I did see the small things. Monday was really cool. When was the last time you got in front of 60 yelling 1-2nd graders and telling a kids story. If that doesn't start your engine, you need a replacement. There is nothing you can say that would be wrong. I was being cheered for every word I said, which at the start seemed really frustrating, but if I could get my High schoolers to have even half that much energy when I taught about anything I'm supposed to teach them about it would be amazing.
I got this from my coligue's blog, Emily who is in Ebeye.
1. Power is a privilege, NOT a right.
2. Fresh water (and drinking water) is a luxury.
3. You can kill big roaches with flip-flops.
4. When it rains it pours, literally.
5. Little geckos on the wall are “cute”.
6. Pizza, or what they call pizza and what we think pizza is are totally different.
7. Teachers talk about their students with other teachers. (Who knew?)
8. It’s hard to teach students who don’t really care if they pass high school, much less go to college.
9. Fresh fruits and vegetables are like gold!
10. Food costs twice as much here.
11. Rain can come through the ceiling during a rainstorm, even if there is a floor above you.
12. Rain makes everyone antsy.
13. “I want to go back to Union again…” (I miss it SOOO much!)
14. Most students at the school can sing and harmonize very well—they sound amazing!!
15. Sending emails and MySpace messages between people just isn’t the same as seeing them. L
16. Air Conditioning is a HUGE blessing, but so is a good ocean breeze on a really hot day.
17. To have a textbook for a class: good. To have a teacher’s manual: great. To have enough textbooks for students: amazing. To have a teacher’s manual and enough books for students: priceless. (Appreciate what you have!)
18. The taxis (small trucks) that drive around and are sometimes safe, sometimes not.
19. Kids that live a few blocks away from school will take a taxi to school. (Now that’s lazy.)
20. Cold showers are somewhat refreshing.
21. I REALLY miss my family and friends at home.
I changed it slightly for how it is in Majuro not ebeye, but the jist is still the same. For all of you who I'm sure want to send me an actual letter or note, you don't have a clue as to how to do that, but you won't have that excuse for long.
My address is:
Stephen baker
P.O. Box I SDA Mission
Majuro, Marshall Islands 96960
Well, I should probably get offline, its nearly sabbath. So with that, I wish all of you guys back stateside a happy sabbath and a good weekend.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The end of week two
Hi all,
I've come to the conclusion that I'm only going to be updating this about every week. I can only sporadically get onto this site. Its kind of frustrating, but alas what can be done.
My week went fairly well, I have no big complaints except for the fact that my family is all heading up to Yellowstone for our annual family reunion. I don't get to go this year, just like I haven't gotten to go for the past 3 years, its kind of frustrating, but oh well, thats ok. I don't know what the plans for tomorrow are yet, SS, church, and lunch are always good guesses though. Other than that though.........its up to what is going on tomorrow.
Today the High Schoolers picked faculty sponsors, I was told by 2 of my senior classes that they were going to vote for me. I told them I would do it if they wanted me to, but it seems like just one more thing that I have on my plate. I'm already teaching and preparing for 5 classes that have students of varying levels of English able to be spoken. Any teacher that thinks they are really good at teaching should come to a place where they don't know the native language and see how they do. Its not that I have just one foreign language either. I have like 7 in any class period. I have a rule in class that says that they can't speak in any other language than english, but its really hard to enforce, seeings as though some are translating for me.
I hope that the weeks continue to go the way they have been. If they do, I'll continue to love teaching. I know I'll have ups and downs throughout this year, but I also know that with God's help I'll make it through them unscathed for the most part. So far I am, and I have no scars from swimming either. Our vice-principle on the other hand got bounced off the very sharp reef yesterday while surfing, I'm glad I had better fortune than he did. I nearly did get bounced off the reef. I was snorkeling and I looked up into the face of a 8 foot wave about 10 feet off of me, about to break, I dove as fast as I could and missed it, when I came up for air, there was another 8 foot wave about 5 feet away from me, I nearly didn't get to breathe, but I made it through that too.
Well, I'm coming to the end of my time on the computer. Its almost the Sabbath here, so I hope I have a great sabbath, and I hope you all do as well. I miss all of you guys.
SB
I've come to the conclusion that I'm only going to be updating this about every week. I can only sporadically get onto this site. Its kind of frustrating, but alas what can be done.
My week went fairly well, I have no big complaints except for the fact that my family is all heading up to Yellowstone for our annual family reunion. I don't get to go this year, just like I haven't gotten to go for the past 3 years, its kind of frustrating, but oh well, thats ok. I don't know what the plans for tomorrow are yet, SS, church, and lunch are always good guesses though. Other than that though.........its up to what is going on tomorrow.
Today the High Schoolers picked faculty sponsors, I was told by 2 of my senior classes that they were going to vote for me. I told them I would do it if they wanted me to, but it seems like just one more thing that I have on my plate. I'm already teaching and preparing for 5 classes that have students of varying levels of English able to be spoken. Any teacher that thinks they are really good at teaching should come to a place where they don't know the native language and see how they do. Its not that I have just one foreign language either. I have like 7 in any class period. I have a rule in class that says that they can't speak in any other language than english, but its really hard to enforce, seeings as though some are translating for me.
I hope that the weeks continue to go the way they have been. If they do, I'll continue to love teaching. I know I'll have ups and downs throughout this year, but I also know that with God's help I'll make it through them unscathed for the most part. So far I am, and I have no scars from swimming either. Our vice-principle on the other hand got bounced off the very sharp reef yesterday while surfing, I'm glad I had better fortune than he did. I nearly did get bounced off the reef. I was snorkeling and I looked up into the face of a 8 foot wave about 10 feet off of me, about to break, I dove as fast as I could and missed it, when I came up for air, there was another 8 foot wave about 5 feet away from me, I nearly didn't get to breathe, but I made it through that too.
Well, I'm coming to the end of my time on the computer. Its almost the Sabbath here, so I hope I have a great sabbath, and I hope you all do as well. I miss all of you guys.
SB
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Its been a while
Ok, so it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog, sorry about that. While I was in Hawaii, they had this site blocked, so I couldn’t update it. The last few weeks have been very hard and very frustrating. I haven’t started classes yet, but I’m getting there, we start classes in 2 days. I’ve gotten part of my lesson plans done, and it wasn’t to hard to do, the harder part will be doing the weekly lesson plans.
When we touched down on Majuro, we were accosted by 90% humidity. The thing that made it worse was that there was no wind. The nice thing about where the school is located is there is always a breeze. It’s getting to the point that we as a group don’t even notice the humidity any more. The 12 hour days are really nice too, it allows for more sleep at night. So far for the time I’ve been here I’ve gotten no less than 9.5 hours of sleep every night. I doubt that I’ll get that much sleep while school is going, but its been nice so far.
So far the communications on this atoll are not so great, but I’m working on getting them up better. Right now I only have occasional internet and I get to use the Satellite Phone sometimes. The last few days we have been sitting through 5-7 hours of meetings everyday. It’s been kind of frustrating, for those of us that don’t do well not moving for hours upon end…….its all good I guess though, we all need to know this in the end.
Well, I should probably get back to listening to the lecture that I’m supposed to be listening to. I’ll try to keep this blog updated as much as I can.
SB
When we touched down on Majuro, we were accosted by 90% humidity. The thing that made it worse was that there was no wind. The nice thing about where the school is located is there is always a breeze. It’s getting to the point that we as a group don’t even notice the humidity any more. The 12 hour days are really nice too, it allows for more sleep at night. So far for the time I’ve been here I’ve gotten no less than 9.5 hours of sleep every night. I doubt that I’ll get that much sleep while school is going, but its been nice so far.
So far the communications on this atoll are not so great, but I’m working on getting them up better. Right now I only have occasional internet and I get to use the Satellite Phone sometimes. The last few days we have been sitting through 5-7 hours of meetings everyday. It’s been kind of frustrating, for those of us that don’t do well not moving for hours upon end…….its all good I guess though, we all need to know this in the end.
Well, I should probably get back to listening to the lecture that I’m supposed to be listening to. I’ll try to keep this blog updated as much as I can.
SB
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