A full weekend

I’m really starting to fall in love with this island. I have a feeling that these next seven months are going to fly by. It is so beautiful here, and there is so much to experience. I am so glad that I am here, and feel so blessed that God picked me. Grades and school can definitely get stressful and some days I don’t know how I’ll make it to the end of the day. This past week or so I have felt like Satan has been really trying to bring me down. At first I felt so small and frustrated and even hurt, but now I’m realizing that that is the opposite of how I should be feeling.  Instead of becoming discouraged and upset I should be excited. I should be excited because that means that I’m doing something right. That means that something amazing is happening through me and the devil desperately wants it to stop. So I am trying to persevere through the days and hours exhaustion has its grip on me, and an invisible weight clouds my mind and heart. I’ve realized that I need to look to God for restoration and hope instead of myself, a movie, or even a friend. This weekend I was reminded of how great God truly is, and how unfathomable His greatness is, even in comparison to the devil and his attempts to distract me, to hurt me, and to bring down my spirits. For God takes distraction and turns it into incredible focus, He takes hurt and turns it into joy, into hope, into love. And takes broken spirits and builds them up with amazing faith and perseverance.

This island is beyond beautiful, and to think that this is just a fraction of the vast world He has created (that I had never seen before just three months ago) is crazy. Sabbath afternoon we climbed the one rock on the island. It is the highest point, and I had SO much fun climbing it. At first it was more of a steep hike, and then you get to a part where you have to climb up holding onto a rope otherwise you’d fall. The last part is literally straight up and you aren’t attached to anything, just free climbing. Needless to say I was loving life, and scambered up as quickly as I possibly could. Once at the top, I sat on the rock looking out across the island and at the vast sea. In that moment the realization of how small I am, and how big God is captivated my heart and thoughts. It is something that I cannot come close to completely understanding. I hope that through my life’s experiences I will continue to grasp a greater understanding of that concept.

As far as the rest of my weekend has gone, it has been quite full. Friday as soon as I was out of class I ran back to my apartment and changed as quickly as I could. Two of the other girls and I went out with our scuba instructor for our first dive. We actually did three. Haha one more day out and I’m certified! It is so easy to get certified here J I’m not going to lie though, it was a little bit more scary than I thought it would be. I just feel like I didn’t have very much control which I think is the scary thing. Haha I just felt so awkward, I was like I want to move this way, but I’m floating this way or turning in the complete wrong direction. I went down to thirty feet though! And next dive is sixty feet! So that will be crazy. I’m excited slash nervous. Our instructor is good though, he was my buddy J I definitely would not want to go without him!

Then Friday night we came back to the school for a bonfire vespers. We taught the kids how to make smores and they were really excited J one of the girls had me help her make like five. I was like ahh a little girl after my own heart. J Then after the climb on Sabbath all of the SM’s went to this restaurant where there was a hula show outside. A few of the students were in it, and it was so cute! Us sm girls have decided that we want to take hula lessons J it was really cool! Then we walked to another place and had dinner which was very fun. After that all the Sm’s decided we wanted to play tag outside haha which turned into darebase (greatest game of all time) this was followed by rain which led to a HEATED game of mofia (oh dear. Oh dear. I won’t get into that one). Finally a group of us played games at our apartment (its like one in the morning by now) followed by football in my apartment (surprised we didn’t break anything) and then a movie (which I did NOT make it through haha). Then this morning shaun came over to our apartment to see if we wanted to go to lunch and Amy and I were asleep, we were like huh? You mean breakfast? And then we realized it was past noon. I haven’t even slept like past nine since I’ve been here! so that was nice J as for now, I probably should stop blogging since I need to enter in all of my grade reports. UGH. Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you guys! 

Sabbath and Wallets..

How do people survive without Sabbath? I truly and honestly do not understand. It is so amazing, and one of the greatest and thoughtful gifts that Jesus gave us. Friday night we went to kitchi (the church on the other side of he island) for vespers and it was so fun! J we played this bible acting game and I was loving life if you can imagine. J we played the party game, and I had to act like I was the second coming haha so I was marching around trumpeting and singing GLORY at everything and being raised from the dead and running and jumping. It was fun and the kids were laughing so hard, it was great. Then today we went to church which was actually really nice today and had a WONDERFUL meal at Mrs. V’s house. She cooked all night last night and this morning for us. It was delicious! I have decided that phillipino food is amazing. AND she made pumpkin pie!! I about exploded with excitement. J I decided that it was an answer to prayer considering that I have desperately been missing the seasons so much haha. After that, one of the locals, Joy came over and the girls next door and we “danced like david” before the Lord. Haha it was soo fun! We were blaring gospel music, and doing the electric slide haha and making up dance moves. It was great J after that we went to sakus ridge to watch the sun go down. That was CRAZY. Ok, so we climbed this ridge about a month ago, I think I blogged about it. anyway, it is ridiculously steep, like we’re talking amazing glutes workout to the max haha. Anyway, there were about 16 of us in the back of Jon’s Ford truck and he was like, “you guys don’t have to climb, we’ll just drive up” I was thinking there is NO way that a vehical of any sorts can make it up this rocky steep trail. Especially with 16 people sitting in the back just like on the edges. I’m a Chevy girl, but I must say that that Ford did America proud today. It was soo crazy! I felt like I was on a Disney land ride especially when we drove down it at night time. It was like the Indiana jones ride but real life haha. The craziest thing was when we were driving up and going pretty fast and one of the tires like went of the edge of the trail for a second cuz its really steep and narrow. Anyway we were all like OH MY GOODNESS haha cuz if one of us fell or the truck slipped we would have all pretty much plummeted to our deaths.. anyway needless to say it was quite fun and a beautiful sunset.

            When we got back to the school everyone wanted to go get ice cream but I had already had my share of pumpkin pie for the day so I decided to stay back. I ended up going over to Mrs. V’s house next door where she lives with her daughter and son in law and their ADORABLE little one and a half year old hailey and hang out. J we watched wolverine and chatted and I ate left overs J it was really nice. It was cool having like “family” time. I really enjoyed it. then after that I wandered down to the gym cuz I saw a lot of people. I guess it was an open gym night for the church or something, it was SO fun! I attempted to play volley ball with the locals (I really need to learn how to play haha) and then started playing basketball. THAT was fun J I was playing with these like eight grade and freshman boys and it was soo fun! Haha they were like “Miss! Miss!” whenever I made a shot, and I mean “Miss” as in Miss Breann, not as in ball don’t go into the basket. J it was great, UNTIL I sprained my ankle. Apparently playing basketball in crocs and no ankle brace on your bad ankle isn’t the greatest idea. Haha it isn’t too bad, I walked it off and am icing it now. It is rather swollen though. Oh well, I’m thinking it should be fine in a few days. Hopefully cuz it looks like I’m starting my exercise class this Wednesday! I’m really excited about that! I’ll have to let everyone know how that goes. I’m going to teach yoga and pilates two Wednesdays out of the month and Joy (Mrs. V’s daughter who lives next door and has the adorable little girl haily) is going to teach hip-hop and belly dancing the other two. Haha I guess she used to be an instructor in the phillipines J its going to be really fun.

            On a creepier thought, I was freaking out tonight. So last week when my roommate Natalia was in her bedroom with the door shut and the rest of our apartment left to watch a basketball game some man broke into our apartment and took joy’s (different Joy) wallet. Natalia had no idea he was in our apartment, and when we came back one of the administers daughters told us they saw a guy come out of our apartment. Anyway, Joy called and cancelled her credit card the next day, and found out that right after she had cancelled it someone had tried to use it three times. THEN tonight (like three days after this all happened) I was going through my duffle bag under my bed that is full of all my medicine to get something, when what is at the bottom of my bed? Joy’s wallet. I was like no way. AND her card is in it. so we don’t know if some weirdo broke back into our apartment to return the wallet and then decided to hide it in my random bag under my bed, or what. Maybe he just took the card info and then hid it under my bed? I don’t know the whole thing is weird cuz her wallet was in her bag out in our living room so why would he then put it at the bottom of my medicine bag in my bedroom? Its just all weird.

            Anyway, I think I’m going to get some sleep! J haha and try my best not to think about creepy guys watching me sleep or breaking into our apartment. Anyway, the main point of this blog is that Jesus rocks, and I love Sabbath J hope everyone is doing amazing back home. Much love. 

Positivity?

Some nights I dread going to sleep because I know what awaits me in the morning. That sounds so terrible but its true. This is one of those moments. Wednesday is approaching much too quickly. And unfortunately Wednesday feels like it should most definitely be Friday. I got sick last Friday and haven’t completely recovered so teaching yesterday and today have been two extraordinarily long days. When you’re tired, teaching is just NOT fun. It takes so much energy to be a good teacher, and I have felt like a terrible teacher the last two days..I’m trying not to get discouraged and to remember that I haven’t been feeling 100% and that this most likely is the entire reason while I’m depressed about my teaching abilities this week haha. I think the whole sick thing has just thrown me off to be perfectly honest. I have been feeling pretty homesick too. I am just finding myself really missing my life at home, and college. Particularly the whole college scene. Walla Walla just started and everyone is starting to put up pics and I’m like, oh dear. This sucks. Haha that’s what I get for leaving to be an SM while I was LOVING college. A lot of people leave because they want a “break” from school. Not I. I left at the highlight of my college experience. Also, today I found myself missing class. I was like someone slap me in the face, what is wrong with me?! But its true…I kind of enjoy class haha like I kind of miss going to class and having my brain stimulated (wow I sound like such a nerd). Even dare I say writing papers?! I know, I know, this pohnpeian heat has to be seriously getting to me. Maybe it’s the sickness?? Anyway, if I cold have one comforting thing sent to me in a package right now it would most definitely be the seasons. Its only October and I’m missing them so much (what sucks, is I know its only going to get worse). At least I have made a life decision. It’s official, I’m living somewhere with seasons. I love them so much, I’d do anything for Autumn leaves right now, a cool and crisp day (yet still sunny), and the smell of pumpkin spice…A trip to starbucks to get their pumpkin spice latte with Emily on a girl date/study break sounds like simple perfection. Sigh…I probably sound pathetic. I keep telling myself I need to toughen up and then I get mad at myself. I don’t want to be here missing home, I want to be here living up every second I can, because when I leave I’ll probably be missing it here! anyway…I guess this is me openly admitting that this week has been well…hard, I have felt a little a lone and dare I say it again..homesick??? (ugh, what a terrible word!) The sickness that I got here was super weird. Amy got it to, but a little different. Kat assured us that most SM’s get it when they first come here, and one of the parents said it was like an island thing. Its like pretty much just exhaustion. I can’t really explain it except that you have NO energy. Like it takes almost all your strength to lift your arm. Plus I had a terrible sore throat (why does that accompany EVERY sickness I ever acquire?? And me off all people…) and my throat and like glands got super swollen, and I was pretty achey all over. But mainly just the exhaustion thing. I slept like all weekend. I just feel like there is so much that I want to do here, and I’m just too tired at the end of the day to do anything but recharge for the next day. It’s like this vicious cycle. I want to spend time with the people here, play basketball with the local boys, start an exercise program for the high school girls, cook meals at our house for the other SM’s, have a weekly bible study, etc. And I feel like I’m slacking. Like there is so much I want to do that I’m NOT doing. Well…I’ve complained long enough J The more trials I encounter the more I should be rejoicing in the opportunity to overcome them, and grow. I have been told that being positive is a quality that I posses, and I wish I could agree with those people more right now. I really do want to have a positive attitude and appreciate the incredible opportunity I have here. Even if I don’t have the energy or opportunity to do all the things I want to, at least I have the opportunity to teach 22 children every day about Jesus. He has chosen to love these kids through me this year. That is a privilege beyond words, a privilege that I don’t deserve. That should be enough for me..

Puke and Particularly Creepy Creepos

So it has officially been way too long since I’ve blogged. And I apologize. There have been quite a few um…lets say interesting events, I can fill you in on. J haha lets see here, oh about three weekends ago we went to sda church that is on the other side of the island (its like a half an hour drive). They invited all of the sm’s for vespers. When we got there we sang songs, played a game, and THEN they announced that we were having a sing off! Lol I was like what?? So they divided the pews into two groups and explained to us that each group had to have one solo. One duet, one trio song, and a quartet song. And we had five minutes to prepare this. Haha so me and one of the other sm’s brice decided that we were all over the duet. We grabbed a hymnal and picked out “Tis so sweet” after five minutes we had our own little gospel version to perform haha it was really fun J when we sang it the kids at the church went Crazy, it was so fun J they had like a judge panel and everything, and needless to say we dominated the other groups duet ;) haha so that was really fun! It’s nice having a few guy sm’s here that can sing and are willing to! Ok, so now to the more interesting stories..

I woke up wed not feeling up to the tasks of teaching an entire class of fourth graders all day long. Regardless I got up and went to class. Second period I was up front teaching a long when I hear all of my kids start to yell “Miss! Ayaka Vomited! Ayaka Vomited!” I turn around to see one of my girls bent over her chair with vomit everywhere. She had puked ALL over. Like we’re talking ALL over the floor, on her backpack, on herself, in her hair, dripping from her hands (…ok I think you get the picture J) In this moment I was like, oh dear. I have to act like this isn’t gross. Oh my word. Haha so I was like, “ok everyone sit down please”  and all the kids are yelling out what they think she ate for breakfast. I walk over trying to mask the terror and disgust on my face and place my hand on Ayaka’s back asking if she felt better. She decided to take this opportunity to randomly wip her hair back onto her oh so loving teacher, splattering her upchucked breakfast all over me. I ended up taking her outside and washing off her backpack, her, me, etc. and then sent her to the office. I went to the office to get some cleaning supplies and I was reassured that someone would come clean it up for me. I was like great! So I took my class out to the field and improv a new outdoor spelling game of red light green light with spelling words haha. Half an hour later when it was almost time to go back in the classroom I looked inside and saw that indeed no one had cleaned it up. It had just been sitting there..I guess the person they asked to clean it up replied saying, “if it was my vomit I’d clean it up, but not someone elses.”  Haha so Cindy (our awesome secretary) and I charged the crime scene, destroying all evidence of the mornings events with a good amount of bleach! I’m not going to lie, I  think I was in a slight state of shock haha I was like I can’t BELIEVE this just happened. Especially because I am quite the germ freak for those of you that know me. J anyway, so it was definitely a um…growing experience I guess one might say. Ok on to interesting story number two! Which unfortunately might be more interesting than this one..

Ok before I begin this story I first need to explain the set up of our apartment. Our windows do not have glass or any covering like that. It is too hott and we do not have air conditioning. So we have this criss cross like black wire with a screen behind it so air can come in. also our bedroom has two big windows in it right next to each other, and my bed is up against them. Like we are talking RIGHT up against them. Just for a visual, if I am laying in bed the screen would be like one inch from my face. Ok, moving on. Behind our apartment (the windows face the back) there is apparantly a ledge (we are on the second story). We did not know about this ledge until about a week and a half ago when one of the girls in the apartment right next to us had an interesting experience. She woke up at six in the morning to see a man just standing watching her sleep. So she screamed at him to go away and he just stood there. Then she got out of bed and ran out to get her roommates, by then he had left. All right, so now you know the background. Well after hearing this, Amy was like Courtney we should move your bed. And I was like eh, its fine lets just put these little cloth curtains up so no one can see in. possibly not my greatest idea ever and I’ll tell you why. But before I do! I have a quick side story about the ledge. So I was deep in slumber one night when I was suddenly awaked by two cats fighting (SO loud) an inch away from my face on this ledge. Lets just say it was one of those moments you would do anything to have on camera. I literally jumped like a foot in the air flailing and flew off my bed onto the floor knocking over our fan onto the ground with a huge thud. It was really funny but scared amy and I half to death lol oh man.. ok so back to the story at hand..So last night I was EXHAUSTED and about to climb into bed. You see I woke up Friday with a terrible sore throat and could only teach my class until noon. Oh no I’m getting side tracked again haha. Ok funny quick side story!

So here I wake up with a sore throat and its terrible. Basically I can not talk. But I didn’t really feel sick besides that so I was like meh I’ll just teach today. And my kids were actually really sweet about it. I had to have one of them read for me outloud haha and I would just like write everything on the board. Then I started to feel worse right before lunch, like exhausted, achey, hot flashes and whatever, so I put my head on my desk will my kids were finishing working on an assignment. Then all of a sudden I hear all my kids going “SHHHH! SHHHH!!! Be Quiet! Miss is sleeping! Miss is sleeping!” haha it was so cute. I was like, so THAT’S what I have to do to get them quiet! J

Ok I’m back, SO its Friday night and I am not feeling well. My roommates are in our kitchen and familyroom talking or whatever and I am walking around our room getting ready for bed like half awake. I strip to my underwear and my sportsbra (yes necessary information for the story) turn off all the lights, and the walk over and climb onto my bed. As I’m climbing into my bed I realize that our curtain is like open a little bit in the middle, so I’m like huh the wind or our fan must have blown it, so I reach to fix our curtain when I suddenly realize that less than an inch from my face and hand is NOT what it is supposed to be on the other side of our window. I was like oh my gosh. There is a man standing by my bed staring at me. So I quietly just turned around and stepped into our family room saying “um girls, I may be over reacting, but um…I’m pretty sure there is a man standing outside our window.” I thought maybe I was crazy, cuz it was really dark, and I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t’ know. So we walk into our room and we are all talking outloud like saying “is there really someone there? I don’t know, but why would they just be standing there while we were talking about him? Maybe its something else..” because you see now our curtains had closed so we could only see outside of them when our fan or the wind blew them open a little bit. Then the curtain moves and my roommate joy who had taken a step forward goes, “oh my gosh it’s a man. She grabs her toothbrush (who knows why lol) and yells, GO AWAY! NOW! GO AWAY!”  I take this opportunity to take cover behind the door to our little cubard of a closet because I realize that I am half naked, trying to put clothes on. We turn off the light in our room, so he can’t see us as easily. Then we are like, no it can’t be because whatever it is, is STILL there and hasn’t made ONE sound. Like at all. So then Amy took a step forward to look and she confirmed it for the last time. She raced to take cover with me and said “it’s a man. Oh my gosh he’s just standing there, I saw his hands the were moving. It’s a freakin man.” (I’d like you to keep in mind that this creepo can hear EVERYTHING we’re saying” so then Amy grabs this little stuffed animal that she has and chucks it at the window and this guy is STILL standing there! So we all leave the room and I grab our broom and am like, this is ending now. This creepo is not doing this. So I turned on our porch lights and went out of our apartment with my broom stick yelling “You creepo! Freakin leave! I have a broom stick!” lol and then I yell really loud so he can here to the girls in the apartment next to us, “I just thought you guys might like to know that there is a creepo staring at us through our window who won’t leave!” then Charlotte (one of the girls from the other apartment) ran outside yelling “yes! I wanna mace him! I wanna mace him!” So she runs out with her spray haha. Then Jon, (Kat, the sm coordinator’s husband) came outside because he heard us yelling and came up the stairs to the apartment. We explained the story (I’m still yelling loudly so this jerk can hear me) and Jon climbed behind our apartment, just in time to see the guy running away. Talk about a way to get your adrenaline going! Who needs medicine when you’re feeling exhausted and sick? All you need is some creepy stalker that watches you sleep! J anyway, I guess this is pretty normal here. like these men know that the sm girls live in these apartments and a lot of times especially when they’re drunk they’ll come and try to watch them. We were like, this is NORMAL?? Jon told us that sometimes girls have looked up while they were showering and there would be someone just watching them from a little window in the bathroom. We also have a little window in our bathroom, needless to say, we are covering that up FAST. Lol and Jon told us that he doesn’t think the people here know what mace or pepper spray are and that perhaps this would be a good time for them to be introduced. I’m SO on it. I’m already sending a package request to daddy to send me some J haha so ya. That’s interesting story number two. It was pretty exhilarating. I was ready to bust out some serious moves with my broom stick. Haha who needs pepper spray. I just want a medal bat! J  no but seriously, since we’ve told the boys, everyone wants to make a trap haha. Anyone that climbs up to ledge by our window is from this tree. So I think they’re going to saw it like almost all the way trough but not, so whoever tries to climb it will just fall. And then also, we’re talking about putting like sharp pieces of glass or something on the ledge so if anyone tries to grab it to pull themselves up it will just cut them. Haha and amy wants to put salt there too to make the cuts sting. Oh man…I’ll have to keep everyone updated on that idea.