The blog with the funny stories, a slice of life,and ...pictures :)

I’m alive,well, and writing one of my last few blogs.  And seeing my blog track record, it may possibly be my second to last. I have 33 days left here in Ebeye. It has definitely been a refiners fire for me, and will continue to be.  Each day brings it’s blessings and it’s challenges, and I’m certain that each challenge I have faced and am facing is a blessing in disguise, they just aren’t the easiest sometimes, but that’s why they are called challenges, I guess. I have learned a lot about myself, about my imperfections, and about God’s grace. 

This past week was the week coming back from Spring break and that was just tough. No one would listen, they would be standing on their desks and then I’d give them “the look”, so they’d sit down and then a moment later they would forget and be up on their desk again… no one did their homework, nor their class work. One of my girls was sitting on a table outside the classroom and just started throwing up. She was sobbing and when I tried to help her move to go to the balcony, she wouldn’t budge and instead threw up all over my arms, and just curled over drooling. I felt so bad for her, and at the same time I wanted to throw up myself, but I am the teacher now, and they look up to me. I have to be strong. For some reason, she decided that she must go into the classroom, and if you’ve just thrown up on me, there’s really no way I’m going to jump in front of you one more time. I tried to grab her arm, but it was too late, she had already started throwing up on the desks, then when she got tired she sat down and threw up on the floor. Kids from all different grades came into my room, and were just surrounding her, staring like she was rubelle and telling me, “Miss. Em, Jayana’s *insert puke sound.” Yes, I know, thanks kiddos. I went around looking for something to clean all of it up with, but the resources here are pretty limited. So I used toilet paper and hand sanitizer, everyone watched, and enjoyed it. (I was just interrupted by Karissa informing me that there was a mouse in my package in our room, and while typing this we just saw another in our stove. That rude mouse in our room ate my tropical starburst jellybeans that my parents sent me….a ton of them! Fat.  Mice are everywhere, which leads me to my next subject…mice. Haha)

Mice are invading Karissa and my room. It’s difficult to sleep sometimes because they are so loud, playing all over our dressers and leaving little poops for us to look at in the morning. “Thanks guys….” I actually like catching them so it is not that bad, but Karissa hates them. We also have geckos in our room! They are pretty sweet. I get super excited each time one comes near me, but last time I touched one it’s tail projected off and bled all over me and it’s tail fell in my hand. It wasn’t what I had hoped it would be like. I felt really bad, but apparently they do that, when they are protecting themselves from their enemies (oops, I just ate one of the jelly beans…oh well) They are probably one of my favorite things here in Ebeye. Last but not least we have in our room on occasion are cockroaches. As summer is coming nearer so are the roaches. There seems to be an abundance of them lately. Sometimes we will open up our door in the morning and a cockroach will just run in, as if it’s been waiting there to see us all night. “No way, Jose”. There’s really no good place to sleep. Karissa is on the floor where the mice run around and I’m on the top bunk, where the roaches and bugs are. It will be nice when I get back to not have little bugs crawling on me all the time, like small fleas or lice. I’m excited, and very thankful that I have that option, when those here do not.

I wonder what it’s going to be like to wear pants, or shorts outside. The other day one of the Marshallese ladies who helps assist/translate with the kids, saw one of the sm girls wearing a dress that was a little above her knees, and told me on how bad that was. I self consciously pulled my skirt down, and just listened. We wear skirts for everything…everything. It’s so normal now. Am I not going to wear one every day this summer? Once a week? Modesty here is such a big deal, but when they’re drunk all that goes out the window. Or when they’re breastfeeding and just sitting in the middle of the alley with all their neighbors, family, chickens, pigs, just hanging out. The other day I stopped to talk to one of our Marshallese neighbors and she spent at least 30 minutes telling me about her childbirth for her first son and how painful it was, and how they believe in doing it the all natural way. It was very, educational. 

Whoa, before we get off the subject of “little creatures” I feel it is only necessary to tell this story. During one of our last few nights of Spring break I got up to head off to bed. Then I decided to ask Karissa if she would like to check my head for ticks or lice. Lately, there has been many many large and small ticks out and there are little bugs constantly crawling on us. I knew that I would be clean, but I just wanted the comfort of knowing that there weren’t any animals in my head making a nesting area. So I sat down and almost immediately after Karissa pulled my hair back, we found a small bug. Lonnie, Karissa and I decided that it was an ant. They’re all over, it probably just crawled onto my head. We kept searching and continued to find more and more “ants”, hey guess what….not ants. Lice. Yes, the day had come and I finally had my own set of head lice. I thought back to camp this summer when one of the girls counselors cabins, had a girl who came with head lice, and how much I had freaked out, and now here I am, sitting on the floor of the kitchen, laughing at the irony of it all, and that I actually had head lice. I sat on a pillow while Karissa searched me head for them. Not to gross you out, but also to gross you out because it really doesn’t bother me, but I had a lot of them. We made a game out of it. Lonnie was sewing a stuffed monster, while Karissa would hunt them down, grab them, hand them to me, I would look at it, kill it and then place it on toilet paper, in order of size. We had quite the collection. It was one of the most memorable nights I’ve had here in Ebeye. It was super fun. Now, it doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. I’m not saying that I’m going to head back to America with a head filled with them all jubilant and happy, but at camp this summer, I will definitely be more willing and empathetic to help out with those cabins who may have a lice scare. It’s not the end of the world. Not at all. They died the very next day. I slept with tea tree oil in my hair, went in the ocean the next day(salt), and then used lice shampoo, and after showering and using a special comb, not one trace of them (Oh my word, large mouse!!!!Anyways…).

This last week and continuing on for the next two weeks, we have been having evangelistic series. I’m speaking for one tomorrow (your today if you’re reading this when I post it), and I am pretty nervous. My topic is The Sabbath. I am comfortable being upfront singing, playing guitar, and even talking, but preaching scares me very much. It is mandatory for all the high schoolers to attend so there’s going to be a crowd, a not so enthusiastic one. Please pray for everyone speaking. I have been very anxious for this to pass, but I also acknowledge that I need this to make me more rounded, and willing, and I truly believe Sabbath is what ties us to the Lord as His chosen people. It’s a very important topic, and I pray that it’s God they hear and see and not me. May he increase and I decrease. I’m very glad that the Holy Spirit is the same now as it was back then.

It is so hot here and as summers drawing nearer it’s getting even hotter. My arm hair is bleached, and could not get any lighter than it is. I do not feel particularly healthy, every time I want to work out I get sick, so I can’t, and the only thing to eat is junk food. I’m looking forward to running each morning on the boardwalk around camp, and man, I have never missed soccer so much. I miss soccer to the point where I will kick anything that rolls towards me. Not kids though, my self control is pretty good. I am very much looking forward to going back to the U.S. and playing. I think I have made a decision that I do want to play next year at Andrews, I wasn’t planning on it before I left, but now, I realize it’s just something that’s a part of my life. Summer in that aspect can’t come soon enough. 

The other morning I got up early and went for a walk around the island with “puppy” our island pup. We made our way over to beach park and a man came up to us before we got a chance to sit down. He was very hard to understand but, what I did get out of it, was that he was willing to cut puppy’s tail off for free to make her tougher. Great deal, huh? He had his knife there and everything. What a good guy.

My students are getting very lazy in class. You know how that goes when summer is coming, and you can’t focus on anything else. I have to push them so so much to do their class work. “Missah, my pencil is not sharpened” (they’ll stop me in the middle of teaching and come up to me and yell this, which it’s already hard enough to get their attention). “Well, you should go sharpen it then, right?” “Missah!” “What? Lol I’m teaching, you know how to sharpen your pencil.” They leave bitterly…”Missah”. I have to laugh at their whines. They are hilarious. The other day I decided that I would be a fun teacher during writing and we would just draw a picture of our families. So I drew a picture of mine, and showed them. “Alright guys, look up here. We’re going to draw pictures of our family;our mama,baba, brothers and sisters. So use colors! This is my family.” I proceeded to tell them about my family, and then I let them get to their work. Turns out that over half the class drew my family and claimed it to be theirs! Yeah okay….white skin and all… “Bed, this is very interesting. You have blonde hair in here, and your dad has green eyes….” Long drawn out-“Missah….” Hahaha. I’d look at another one, “Sara, Dina, Linta, Hojn (supposed to be John)” Interesting, very interesting. So half the class drew my family if they were part Marshallese, and the other half were lazy and drew their families all green and all blue. “Junior, I didn’t know your mom was green. That’s pretty cool. Why aren’t you green?” “missah” *big smile* then grabs his paper defensively and changes her to blue. Some drew pictures of basketballs and their family was little sticks standing on top. The way they draw hair is so funny. It looks like someone put a 2 by 4 on their head because every girl they draw has pig tails sticking out at 180 degree angle. 

I have really connected with my students, but like I mentioned before there is a certain student who always follows me around. His name is Barnabas. Every single day since I’ve been here, he hides in the classroom after class and follows me everywhere. Within the last few months 2 more have started to follow regularly. Junior and Riki. We have formed a little team where they just sit by me and are super interested in everything I do. We hang out laugh, talk. They are always, always there. Barnabas came to me a few days ago, “You, me, Riki and Junior, are best friends.” “We sure are..” The funny thing is, is that Barnabas is such a handful in class. So so very stubborn, doesn’t listen to anyone and he can be very obnoxious. He’s one that likes to mimic. I often wonder, why he got so attached to me? Why me? The other day during recess, I was standing in the school ground and the 3 musketeers were near me. To what extent would they go to, to be by me? So randomly, I ran out of the gate,  and down the street next to the school,to see if they would follow me, and immediately they picked up the pace and ran behind. “Missah!!!Miss Em! Miss Em!Where you going?” I turned around and looked at their panicked faces. Juniors mouth was open and his eyes were squinted, Barnabas was so confused and nervous and Riki’s mouth was shut and his eyes were bulging out. I just about fell over laughing. I went back to them and just gave them a giant hug. Upset Junior looked me straight in the eye and pushed me away, “Missah”. “I was just kidding! Juniora” I just laughed and laughed, then I smiled at him. He hesitated for a few moments, so I kept smiling, “Juniora”, He came running to my hip and wouldn’t let go. Those boys are going to make great men one day, and I’m going to see to it.

Sometimes I wonder, is what I’m doing really making a difference in their life. They are so young. I sing songs with them, tell them about Jesus, teach them about kindness, pray with them, encourage them and remind them they are loved, like every Christian teacher should do, but all of that seems to go out the window and immediately they are punching,hitting, and swearing at each other. And even worse than that, mentioning their “mama’s”. Last Sabbath in Sabbath school, we discussed how there are those who plant seeds for the harvest and those who reap them later. It hit me. I am planting seeds right now. I am not meant to reap the harvest, I was not brought here to do that. That is someone else's job, later on in the future. But each job is equally important. Without the seed planter, there wouldn’t be a harvest to reap. I don’t know the path they will choose, but I do know that what I say and do now, is very important in their decision.

Walking around always makes me laugh. There are so many naked little kids, at such an old age, just running around like it’s a perfectly normal thing to do. This afternoon I was walking home from lunch and looked up and down the block I saw a boy in his underwear walking towards me. He was jumping over the cracks in the sidewalk, and clearly wasn’t paying any attention. He was a ways away so I decided I would just keep looking down and we would walk past each other. Before we knew it, we were face to face. I look up to see my student, J.J., who hasn’t been attending school for the past week and a half, in his Spiderman underwear just playfully jumping over the cracks. I gave him a confused look, and a laugh. Caught off guard(as if he wasn’t prepared to run into his teacher, right next to the school on an island that’s a mile long) he looks up with the most guilty look. “Hey, J.J, How’re you doing? haha Are you going to school today?” JJ smiles the biggest smile, with his 8 silver teeth, and just continues jumping over the cracks in his little red underwear, with no reply, he skips right past me. Hahah. Sweet. You never really know here. 

I have been learning a bit more of Marshallese as the time passes. The words hot and gum are so similar! “Puil,” and “puil”…yeah, exactly. So the other day walking down the street, I was talking to this woman in Marhsallese. “Hi, how are you doing today?” “Good, how are you? “I’m good,” She seemed pretty impressed with my white Marshallese, so I decided to kick it up a notch…I used my hands and fanned my face as I said, ”It’s very gum out here.” Not realizing what I said I continued to smile and then I saw her expression change into a confusion, then she understood….she gave me a little sympathetic smile and nod before leaving and then went back into her home. “It’s really gum out here?”What? What did I just say? Haha. Careful when you come to Ebeye folks, it’s pretty “gum” out here. Signing out for now. Will write soon.

God bless.

1 Peter 4:12-13